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Random thoughts on Phasers and Torps...
ledgend1221
Member Posts: 54 Arc User
So over the past few days I've started thinking about what I'd like to see happen in the future and help to distinguish ship types more.
So here's number 1...
Beam banks and beam arrays: I thought this could be an interesting weapon idea for cruisers. Basically, all beam weapons in the game get designated as beam banks. They still perform exactly the same. However, a new weapon type is added. Beam arrays.
Beam arrays differ from banks in a number of ways
1. Larger damage per shot, a much more meaty punch from each it, but not as powerful as a dual beam.
2. Longer fire time, still fires 4 shots in a cycle, but the time it takes to fire a cycle is increased.
3. This effect and sound when firing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d734afLFPds#t=215
4. Only able to be mounted on cruisers.
5. Only able to be mounted in fore weapon slots.
6. Same 270 degree arc.
And here's number 2...
Dedicated projectile weapon slots. Alot of people from what I hear (me included) don't use torps simply because they're not worth the effort unless you're dedicated to them. It feels wrong to me however. Torps are iconic. So what I propose is a dedicated slot for them.
These slots are added on to the existing slots, meaning you still have 8 energy weapon slots as well as the torp slots. These slots would also apply to mines.
It'd break down like this:
Cruisers: 2 fore slots, 2 aft slots
Escorts: 2 fore slots
Science vessels: 1 fore, 2 aft
So, thoughts on why this would doom the game? On how it would break the perfect balance?
On why it'd be fun?
I wanna hear 'em.
So here's number 1...
Beam banks and beam arrays: I thought this could be an interesting weapon idea for cruisers. Basically, all beam weapons in the game get designated as beam banks. They still perform exactly the same. However, a new weapon type is added. Beam arrays.
Beam arrays differ from banks in a number of ways
1. Larger damage per shot, a much more meaty punch from each it, but not as powerful as a dual beam.
2. Longer fire time, still fires 4 shots in a cycle, but the time it takes to fire a cycle is increased.
3. This effect and sound when firing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d734afLFPds#t=215
4. Only able to be mounted on cruisers.
5. Only able to be mounted in fore weapon slots.
6. Same 270 degree arc.
And here's number 2...
Dedicated projectile weapon slots. Alot of people from what I hear (me included) don't use torps simply because they're not worth the effort unless you're dedicated to them. It feels wrong to me however. Torps are iconic. So what I propose is a dedicated slot for them.
These slots are added on to the existing slots, meaning you still have 8 energy weapon slots as well as the torp slots. These slots would also apply to mines.
It'd break down like this:
Cruisers: 2 fore slots, 2 aft slots
Escorts: 2 fore slots
Science vessels: 1 fore, 2 aft
So, thoughts on why this would doom the game? On how it would break the perfect balance?
On why it'd be fun?
I wanna hear 'em.
Post edited by ledgend1221 on
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Comments
The big issue with beam arrays is the whole lengthy firing cycle, which in turns eats up almost all of your WP when used with other such heavy draining weapons.
For the chunk of WP drain it doesn't provide a great damage amount, until you can overcome the WP drain mechanics than they can be pretty lethal.
Unfortunately the vast majority of player's cannot properly mitigate their drain for long, which is why WP overcapping is essential, and than there is the doff when used with DEM that has a huge impact on WP drain, but not everyone can get or even afford one so easily.
Other than that the 2pc. borg omega set (omega plasma torpedo/assimilated module/kinetic cutting beam) has a small chance to proc some WP drain mitigation itself, and is much easier to obtain.
IMO they should cut beam arrays down to a 2 shot cycle similar to DBB's, and DHC's so they can become better efficient, and not force player's to have to try and worry so heavily on WP overcapping and drain mitigation.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
1:10.
I also support dropping it down to two meatier hits per firing cycle... And the idea of a dedicated torpedo slot... But I'm not picky, I've learned to work around the way the system is now.
So those banks or arrays you put in your weapons slots are supposed to represent about 4-5 arrays firing at once.
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But did we ever see all 15-16 arrays fire at once? (I know they had FX budgets on the shows so that made an impact.) Do we know if the ships could power all 15-16 or was it more that they'd direct energy to the most convenient array to shoot from?
You should realize that in the show, the numbers mean nothing. We only saw the Enterprise, Voyager or watever firing 3 torpedos at the same time. Always, not more. And just 1 or 2 phaser arrays in consecutive patterns. Thats all. Having thousands of torpedo launghers doesnt mean they are going to be fired at once.
In this case, we have inifinte ammunitions in the game. What i would love to see is the classic phaser effect around the saucer. That is the only thing its missing.
The biggest thing people need remember is the amount of weapons a ship has in show/movie, doesn't necessarily mean how many it can fire all at once, or even at a single enemy.
What it mainly refers to is how tactically well the ship is, meaning how well it can cover attacks from any angle, and how many weapons can cover those angles.
I mean if the Scimitar with some 60+ disruptors, and like some 13 torpedo bays could fire every single weapon at once against a single enemy, you would be toast.
However there are instances where they do fire multiple weapons at a single opponent, but with what little information we truly have we can only assume, that the reason they don't do it all the time is like you said it might put a heavy strain on their power reserves, and of course yes there is the GFX buget to consider.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Think we came close in Best of Both Worlds.
Managed to find a video about the Galaxy class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d734afLFPds
The clips showing the scene I mentioned are around 1:11
We saw the Ent E fire from multiple different arrays in its battle with the Scimitar so it can power various different arrays at the same time as well as its torpedo launchers.
The Ent D also seemed to have little problem firing from multiple arrays at once, even the powerful saucer arrays.
Difference between the two is this; Dominion War, each shot had a target. Nemesis, each shot was trying to find a target.
Now, in regards to the OP, we already have beam arrays and beam banks. We can't slot as many as what the originals had for numerous, most popular is game mechanics and balance.
Also, the reason for so many on the originals was for 360 degree coverage, and not every array was considered a primary array. In the game, so long as the target is within the firing arc, it doesn't matter.
As for Torps, no.
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1. Firing multiple beams at once needs to go. I can't recall a single instance in any trek series where a ship was firing 8 beams at 1 target, or even multiple targets, at the same time. It just didn't happen. Even against the Borg cube, the enterprise D was firing 1 array rapidly on a modulating frequency. This change would mean that, instead of activating beam fire at will and seeing 8 beams lance out at random targets, we'd have 1 rapidly switching between them, similar to what you see from the point defense turret. This also means that 1 beam would have the overall power of however many fore/aft beams you have equipped (3 fore beams equipped that each do 300 damage would mean the ingle beam graphic does 900).
2. Beam overload, instead of being 1 big burst, becomes a steady beam for a duration, which does damage over the duration. The higher the skill (BO1, 2, 3) the longer the beam lasts.
3. Include the power up sequence graphic for arrays (the awesome look of energy surging from both ends of the array to meet and explode out).
I know this might be confusing, and I can try to explain better, but I think we'd see not only a more star trek look and feel, but reduced lag from game graphics.
...no. Sorry, but no. Beam spam is awesome. Besides, it was mentioned earlier: BoBW did it.
Although...it might be nice to be able to do that in certain situations. Not in high-profile combat, but if just destroying a disabled ship or something. Like Farek's ship in Operation Gamma. It feels like overkill to fire a torpedo and twenty phaser beams. There's a certain feel to just using one torpedo or whatever.
Torp slots? Absolutely. We need dedicated torp slots. Not only would it help a lot with gameplay, but it makes no sense to be able to switch out a torpedo launcher for a beam array. They're completely different types of constructs.
So yeah. We need dedicated launcher slots, with torpedoes that work like consumable devices. The launchers aren't modifiable, and the quality of the weapon is dependent on the torpedo, rather than the launcher. So basically, the Romulan reputation torpedo project would give you a certain number of torps. A few hundred, or a thousand, maybe. Or fewer, but make the project much less demanding. I dunno.
If Cryptic was to use the movies / TV series as cannon, then technically...
1. Constitution class star ships (well at least the Enterprise) does not have any aft torpedoes / phasers. The saucer section has a total of 6 phaser banks. There are 3 banks on the dorsal side of the saucer and 3 banks on the ventral side. They are paired up as 2 banks fore, stern and starboard.
2. Based on observations it seems that in the TOS series and the movies, the phaser banks only fires straight. From what I recall of the movies, the actual phaser "emitter" is actually recessed in the saucer section. That means the phaser banks are fixed in place and you would need to actually move the ship itself to adjust the aim.
3. And yes, under combat situations the Enterprise-D was only able to fire a single phaser beam in rapid succession. I don't recall if the Enterprise-E had the same limitation.
1. Wrong. "In a Mirror, Darkly" shows that Constitution-class ships have at least one rear phaser bank. And "Arena" makes mention of rear weapons, although what type isn't specified.
2. The phaser banks have a certain degree of freedom, although probably not as much as an array. Contrast the angle at which the beams fire when attacking the Planet Killer in "The Doomsday Machine" with the angle when destroying the D7 in "Day of the Dove". Also, the recessed phaser banks are in the Constitution-class refit, which is completely different from the original configuration -- in the refit, the phasers are halfway up the bottom side of the saucer, while in the standard layout, they and the torpedoes are in the TRIBBLE-like structure at the bottom.
3. No, they spam a ton of beams at once in "The Best of Both Worlds".
It has become especially bad now with certain maps being so spam heavy that the game literally stops displaying ships firing etc.
Reducing the fire rate and upping the damage should work. Not to mention reducing the unneeded weapon spam.
I.E Cannon Rapid fire shooting straight at the target instead of carpet bombing space
Additionally, even if someone has 8 arrays. limiting the amount of shots to a specific target would help as well.
Biggest example would be Sacrifice of Angels with the two Galaxy Class ships firing long sustained beams
Thus the game will fire one beam visually but it will be a cumulative effect of all the beam weapons on the ship. Can do this with cannons as well so that they fire heavier bolts.