Ideas? Rarely. Whether or not they could be considered good is up to debate. Which is where the fun starts!

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So as far as new ideas go there are a lot of them. In part 1 we see that:

1. Pilots have personality. Current strike craft are an easily replaced statistic. Realistically speaking every strike craft has a highly trained pilot that is hard to replace. Instead of being an ever replenishing resource you should have to be smart about where you send your squadron or face losing them.
2. Squadrons are led by an experienced wing leader. As long as this leader stays alive the squadron will be more effective in combat. And if he is lost he must be replaced by an experienced successor.
3. Strike fighters carry a broad and modular weapon selection.
4. There are now more than just 2 types of strike craft. Instead of fighter strike craft to counter bombers and bomber strike craft to counter everything else. We now have the choice of strike craft with defined, but not set roles.
5. Unique weapon and other technologies. TEC lasers are not like Advent lasers. And how the heck do wedge cannons work?
   
6. Formation fighting. The position of each strike craft in a squadron has an effect on thier performance.
7. Increased durability of strike craft. All of them now have shields and all pilots actively dodge.
8. Widespread point defence. Instead of being concentrated on specialized frigates, every ship of frigate class and above has some form of point defence that can neutralize strike craft and missiles.
9. Bomber drones now have tailguns. Thought you haven't seen them in action yet TEC bombers have them as well.
10. The first appearance of destroyers is in this chapter. The TEC fleet has changed a lot since the events of Entrenchment. Most of this change has been the slow evolution to a more adaptable and modular standard of ship building.
11. Named squadrons. So far we have met the Blazing Angels, Birds of Prey and the Hammerheads. Having a random name generator for squadrons would be a neat little addition.

Expanding on those concepts:

1&2: Wing Commander

Thought individual pilot callsigns might be a bit much, having squadrons level up in experience and pass that knowledge on would be an interesting addition

The system will work much the same way as the command crews I described earlier. The bigger your empire is and the more hangar space you deploy, the more pilots will be trained to fill all the available positions. Trainee pilots start thier careers at planets and bases far from the front line. In the beginning of the game you will not have starbases or orbital hangars. The experience level of trainee pilots will automatically rise until it hits level 2. (higher as you tech up). Once you start building hangar space in orbit this level cap will rise to 3.

As positions open up closer to the front pilots will migrate forwards. Pilots sent into live combat will quickly level up to 4 and above. Once any one member of a squadron becomes level 4 it becomes a "named" squadron and that member is promoted to squadron leader. The level of a squadron is determined by adding together the experience points of all members. This level is "recorded" by the squadron leader. A level 6 squadron that loses all members except its level 7 squadron leader will remain level 6, even though the replacement pilots are all level 3.

The squadron leader has an experience bonus in combat and will slowly train all other pilots until they equal his level of experience. This caps out at level 8, even if the squadron leader is level 10 the other members of the squadron will have to earn the last 2 levels on thier own. As squadrons level up they gain new abilities and access to more advanced equipment and strike craft.

When a squadron takes losses the most experienced member will always be the last to fall. If a squadron escapes it will automatically pick up replacement members. These will trickle in very slowly if the fleet is in enemy territory. The next time squadrons reach friendly territory all missing members are replaced at once, provided replacements are available.

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Now here is where it gets complicated. Instead of sending in novice level 2 and 3 squadrons into combat for a baptism by fire, you have the option of tithing experienced pilots to command and train new squadrons. If all members of a squadron are level 4 and above the squadron will automatically donate one of its members to other squadrons who have not yet reached "named" status. These experienced members propagate backwards from the front line. As time passes all the squadrons in your empire will eventually reach a minimum level of 4.

This minimum level can be increased. If the average level of pilots over level 4 is something like 7. You can increase the maximum level of tithed pilots. Instead of seconding level 4 pilots to other squadrons you could tithe level 6 pilots instead and the minimum level of all squadrons in your empire would eventually even out at level 6.

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These changes to strike craft have a huge effect on how we would view them as a fighting force. In order to get experienced pilots you MUST send them into combat. But at the same time strike pilots are a finite and valuable resource.

I really like how you spice things up for SC.

Having additional SC types might be a bad idea though, imho. Having too many SC types will mean that players will need to make even more carriers to get sufficient numbers of each SC type.

Experience should not be divided. If a single 40 XP worth unit is detroyed, ALL cap ships and all SC should get 40 XP. 

 

I think that only squad leaders shoould be relatively hard to replace though. Having all squad members hard to replace would defeat the purpose of SC.

If SC get 2 weapon types, then I think that frigates and Cruisers should too.

3-5: Manufactural Selection

The basic idea behind varied strike craft is to add a bit of tactical depth. Current strike craft are undeniably useful but extremely bland. One squadron of strike craft is a nuisance. 20 of them will destroy whole enemy fleets one ship at a time even as thier carriers run circle away from the enemy fleet. I could talk more about them but meh, moving on.

When I was writing the story I ended up doing a lot of thinking on TEC warfare doctrine. From what I can tell it seems the TEC are varied and adaptable. Its this philosophy I had in mind when designing thier strike craft. The current selection is as follows:

Space Superiority:

The role of a space superiority fighter is to occupy and defend an area of space. No matter what enemy enters this region of defended space, it can rest assured that it WILL take a beating. As well as being heavily armoured space fighters have the most powerful shields of all the TEC strike craft. Thier primary weapons are all energy based and this allows them to operate for long periods of time, only withdrawing due to damage or low fuel. These traits combine to make space fighters the best choice for extended fighting. When you first start the game space fighters will be the only type available to you. Most early deployment will be defensive. The area a space fighter can cover is only limited by its fuel, the longer they stay out in combat the smaller this area gets.

As your tech levels up the role of a space fighter does not change, they simply become stronger and more adaptable at what they do. As well as more and stronger energy weapons higher tier revisions will allow them to carry a small secondary payload. This payload is completetly modular and you can add whatever you see fit. An extra bank of laser cannons will make for a deadly dogfighter. Missile or autocannon packages will give fighters more offensive punch against larger targets. Alternately you can use the weight allowance to mount extra armour or shielding. The space fighter squadron described in the story was mounted with anti-capship torpedoes. This is in keeping with the "moderately anti-everything" design philosophy.

Later in the game you will run into situations that require more specialized strike craft. But because space fighters are so adaptable they remain useful over the entire length of a game.

I still have to explain the details and reasoning behind the other types of strike craft but there is an overall system of balance in place. You will want at least some of every type of fighter by endgame but it is not a "gotta have em all" situation. Space fighters will be the most common type in your fleet and because you can adapt them to certain situations they can be used to counter mass spam of something or other.

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Will be continued.

I might as well make a small detour and explain some other mechanics that regulate the use of strike craft. Thought most of them were not expressly mentioned in the story, they were still there in the background and I did have them in mind while I was writing.

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The first mechanic is fuel consumption. When strike fighters are first launched they enter an operational envelope. The boundary of this envelope is the distance a fighter can fly while still being able to return to its point of origin. For freshly launched fighters this envelope is far bigger than most planet gravity wells. When the operation envelope becomes smaller than the outer boundary of a gravity well the squadron icon will be flagged for your attention. The frequency of return fuel trips can be customized. Fighters will automatically head home before they reach the point of no return.

You will almost never have to deal with fuel except in battles around stars or battles that last for a very long period of time. The point if this system is to stop strike craft from being too powerful while far away from thier attending carriers. A squadron too far away from its home will not be able to fight as long and rearming will be much less efficient.

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The second mechanic is munitions. Strike craft that rely on expendably munitions must rearm on a regular basis. This entails returning to a hangar bay with a properly equipped flight crew. A carrier geared up to resupply space fighters will not have the right supplies for assault fighters and vice versa. Reloading and refueling takes place at once, the smaller and more experienced a squadron is the less time it will take for them to get back in the action.

Carriers and other structures will eventually run out of supplies. But the stockpile they carry is quite large. Running out of expendables will only become a problem if you spend a very long time deep in enemy territory. Supply regeneration rates are calculated based on how far you are from friendly territory. They can drop to zero if there are too many enemy planets between you and home. Restocking rates max out at planets with existing hangar space, this could be from orbital hangar bays, star bases or space stations.

The mechanics for fuel and munitions are both are needed to prevent the new strike craft from being too powerful. Currently you can jump in 20 carriers to an enemy gravity well and have them run circles. The big cloud of strike craft will maul the enemy and the carriers will take damage very slowly, if at all. Under the new system the more you force your strike craft to run after thier carriers the less effective they will be overall.

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The third mechanics are flight crews. Every hangar has a flight crew who service and rearm the fighters. You will never have to worry about training sufficient flight crews to service all the hangars in your fleet. Instead every carrier starts with a full complement. A hangar has 1 crew for every two strike craft the hangar can support. The longer a flight crew works on a single type of strike craft the more practiced they will be at thier job and the faster things will go.

Flight crews do not gain as many levels as strike pilots. Instead they start at Novice level and work thier way through Experienced and Expert. Flight crews learn very fast under combat conditions and it does not take long to reach Expert. Some special abilities that high level squadrons can earn require higher level flight crews. You don't want just anyone manhandling an FAE torpedo around your hangar deck.

When the host of a hangar bay takes hull damage the flight crews may be injured or killed. If killed they will eventually be replaced, missing members of a flight crew will lower the overall experience level by a set %. Larger structures such as starbases have replacements that can step in immediatly. If only wounded they will eventually come back with all of thier experience intact. Expert flight crews will never drop past Experienced in level as long as some members of the original crew survive.

The purpose of this mechanic is to stop players from switching between types of strike craft whilly nilly. The emphasis of the new strike craft is towards smaller and more personable squadrons. Experienced squadrons and thier attendant flight crews are a valuable asset that can not be easily replaced.

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The last mechanic is hangar space. Ships and structures capable of hosting strike craft have a certain number of hangar bays. The size of these bays determines how many strike craft can be hosted in a single bay. Squadrons of TEC strike craft vary in size from 2-8. You can support up to 4 types of strike craft per hangar bay. But having more than 2 types it will make it harder for the flight crews to service them all. This results in a pernalty to rearming and reloading speed until later in the game when tech improvements are available.

Hangar infrastructure can be upgraded through tech advances. There is a mechanic in place called "service ratio". A service ratio of 6-6 means that you have enough support in place to service 6 strike craft at once. In the beginning of the game your service ratio will be 2-4. As you tech up it will eventually reach at 8-8. As a result even if you could immediatly start using squadrons 8 craft strong, your infrastructure and pilot supply will not be able to keep up.

Later in the game it is possible to reach a service ratio of 16-8. This means that while the first squadron is out fighting a second squadron (of the same type) can land and be serviced in that same hangar bay. This is especially useful in structure based hangar bays because they tend to be very large.

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Next up, assault strike craft.

EDIT: Oops! I forgot to edit this into my previous post with copy and paste. Just pretend the two are continuous.

I'm not sure how the current system works but what I had in mind was that squadrons would only gain large amounts of experience in combat. Thier experience would be gained from attacking other ships, dodging shots and even stuff like getting shot at (including while they are parked in a hangar). This experience would be completetly separate from the experience gained by ships, but it would be shared between multiple squadrons acting in unison. In other words, no free lunch.

Squadron experience is equally divided between members. The member who actually makes a kill will recieve a bonus on top of the shared pool. Once the first member becomes level 4 he is promoted to squadron leader. Leaders recieve extra experience whenever anyone in the squadron earns experience. This means that leader will level up faster the more members there are in a squadron and the more action they see. While at the same time providing the rest of the members with a constant stream of experience. The higher level the leader the more experience he gives over time to his wingmates.

This mechanic is designed to model the "baptism by fire" that novice squadrons must go through. Once they are over the hump they level up exponentially faster, even if successive levels require more and more experience.

Make sense?

But then easily replenishable strike craft would become expendable. That would defeat the purpose of making experienced pilots more valuable. It sounds like shortages would become a problem but consider a few things. The better your tech level becomes the faster new pilots will be trained. The bigger your empire becomes and the more hangar space you deploy in orbit, the more pilots will be trained at once "on the job" instead at landbound academies.

In other words there is only so much swimming theory you can learn before you have to go jump in the ocean.

That is the idea yes, but this will be detailed more later. The current nebulous outline I have in my head for chapter 2 is showing a fleet battle from the perspective of one of the larger ships as opposed to the perspective of a strike pilot.

Edit: Got my ass kicked by the nightmare Demigod AI, its rigged! Rigged I tell you!   Anyway came back to do some spellchecking.

Sorry for the lack of updates but I just got my hands on Demigod and it is every bit as awesome as I hoped it would be. The multiplayer is still iffy but at this point watching it get fixed is like watching the paint dry on a masterpiece. It is happening, it will be finished eventually, and in the mean time the painting already looks fantastic!

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Continuing on. Mechanically speaking assault fighters are very similar to space superiority fighters. They have a little less armour and shielding and carry weapon payloads based on a mix of solid projectile weapons and various missiles. Thier fuel capacity is much smaller but since they tend to return constantly to rearm this is less of an issue.

The main target of assault fighters are main line ships of cruiser class and below. Assault craft will form the majority of your offensive strike power against enemy fleets, complementing space fighters who have a defensive slant. The secondary target of assault fighters is other strike craft. They can dogfight reasonably well but become sitting ducks if the fight goes on for too long and they run out of ammo.

Thier exact role depends on what you arm them with. In the beginning of the game they will have rapid fire autocannons as well as dumbfire rockets. The balance between the two types of ordnance can be controlled in increments of 10% between 20-80 and 50-50. More cannon ammo means less room for rockets and vice versa. In general you would want to keep them balanced but there are circumstances when one of the two would be more useful.

Cannons are used to dogfight with other craft as well as damaging the weaker places on a target's hull such as the engines and weapon ports. The tech tree for cannons is fairly straight with few branches. The starting autocannons become progressively more powerful and can be loaded will special ammunition. Higher up the tree you will find more exotic weapons generally specialized to target either ships or strike craft. These include the spike cannons I mentioned earlier as well a smaller version of the gauss cannons mounted on interceptors.

The missile payload for assault fighters is divided into two categories which both come in large and small sizes. Rockets are dumbfire missiles that lack guidance systems. This allows them to carry more fuel and a bigger payload. Missiles are the opposite, they have advanced guidance packages that can track targets as well as dodge point defence fire. The tradeoff is a shorter range compared to rockets and a smaller payload to make room for the extra hardware.

Small rockets can be rapid fired to supplement cannon fire in dogfights. Large rockets are handy for attacking big targets such as destroyers, but more nimble foes can dodge them with ease. Small missiles are launched singly and in pairs, they are handy for dogfighting as well as hitting precise points on an enemy hull. Larger missiles play a similar role to large rockets only they are better at taking on more smaller targets such as corvettes.

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Assault fighters will form the core of your offensive strike power. You will want to have about as many as you have space fighters. The nature of the weapons they carry makes them extremely versatile against a broad variety of targets. Thier weakness is that they lack the firepower to take on large ships such as destroyers and the staying power to take on waves of small targets. Thought both space and assault fighters can eventually turn any destroyer into a blind, disarmed and crippled wreck they tend to lack the firepower to destroy them outright. For that you must call in the bomber squadrons. But that is a story for another day.

Next up, Interceptors.

Very interesting. I would like to see the ability that if your carrier is destroyed, but its strikecraft are not, then you can dock those strikecraft somewhere else.

 

 

Very interesting. I would like to see the ability that if your carrier is destroyed, but its strikecraft are not, then you can dock those strikecraft somewhere else.

 

 

oops, double post.

Edit button is your friend

Also that is a good idea. Every aircraft carrier worthy of the name has craft packed ass to elbow in some space or other. Usually this means lining them up somewhere on deck that does not block the launch ramp. There is no reason we couldn't do this with Sins carriers as well.

Strike craft from another carrier could land in a hangar bay to be rescued. The worst possible scenario is that there is no room to store the fighter, but then the extra fighter can be dumped overboard. The fact that you don't have room to put it means your hold is full of spares anyway.

There is also the possibility of having hangar space just for landings. The Battlestars from the newer tv series launch fighters out of tubes but the fighters land in a conventional hangar. It would be near to have something like that on a Sova carrier. Getting to watch the fighters launch and return through the actual hangar bays would add a lot to the immersion. Imagine the screenshots, heh.

The service ratios I mentioned earlier would work well with this system. A ratio of 12-6 means that you have room to service and fuel up 6 strike craft and have the resources to supply 12. If the carrier also had the capacity to store another 6 fighters using internal holds there is no reason why you couldn't base two squadrons off the same carrier.

I like alot of your ideas, but it seems like this would be an overkill in micro-managing, by the time you were done upgrading all your strike craft there could be a giant fleet up your ass. also this is somethin like 4000 years in the future i'm pretty sure there wouldn't be any dumbfired rockets and most of the refit operations would likely be automated, the tech also uses lasers on some of there ships so you could replace the cannons on some of the strike craft with those so ammuniton wouldn't be a problem, and some of the things you're proposing I'm not sure can be done in sins, like the flight crew ranking up, and some of the squadron features. 

I'm not trying to be Mr. negative here so don't get the wrong idea about what i'm saying I'm just      

Also after i read your last chapter of the story, (the fighter one) i tried to add a an ability like the fuel air bomb to the bomber squadron, (I thought that was a really good idea by the way) but it caused a mini-dump so i'm not sure how you would go about doing that.

With the current control scheme I agree, there would be a lot of little ways to automate the system that should reduce micromanaging. Unfortunatly all I can say at this point is that I wouldn't stop improving it till it worked. But small changes would help a lot, even with vanilla Sins. Currently you can only pick squadrons for capships and cruisers after they have been built. Since squadrons are currently free there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to pick them while the ship is in construction or even before.

As for the dumbfire rockets, there is a concept that military forces around the world know and love. Its called KISS, Keep It Simple and Stupid. The less complex something is the better chance it has of working properly. And when that "something" is capable of blowing up in your face that becomes very important.

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The pros and cons of both dumbfire rockets and guided missiles are pretty clear. I won't bother listing the cons because you can just compare with the other list.

Rockets pros:

• Large payload: Any rocket will usually pack a lot more punch than a missile of the same size.
  
• Higher speed: More space for fuel and no delicate electronics to worry about allows them to travel at a higher speed.
  
• Cheap: Pretty self explanatory.

Missile pros:

• Guidance: Less likely to miss a moving target, can dodge point defense fire.
• Retargetting: If it misses the target and has enough fuel it may be possible to curve around for another go.
• Independant: You don't have to face the target you are attacking directly.

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As for automated support I agree that they would have a lot of it. But I don't see independant robots being in use on the actual flight deck. A "smart" dolley that can do something like swap cannon magazines with the push of a button would be fine. Behind the scene other things would be be fully automated. The freight elevator I mentioned earlier could fetch and deliver the right munitions automatically.

I don't see flight crews performing repairs on the spot. Any damage a strike craft takes will likely be severe and crippling. If an interceptor loses a wing but still managed to make an emergency landing on deck. likely what would happen is the pilot hops out and his damaged fighter is replaced. He flies off and meanwhile robots do all they can to get the craft into working order. Replacing a missing wing is a job for a factory and not something that you would do in a crowded hangar.

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Being negative is fine, thats how I spot the parts that wouldn't work.

A lot of these changes wouldn't be possible with the current game. There is architecture missing which we could probably fudge but things wouldn't fully work without it. That is why this idea is meant to be a separate expansion, not just a list of changes that could be modded in.

I saw a mod a while back that made it so can build fighters individualy instead of squadrons, kind of like the way you build frigates already.

So different abilitys could be applied to different strike craft, you could also take that a step further and make them into "capital ships" so they could take advantage of the "level up" feature and give each class of strike craft up to 4 different abilitys to choose from. As each the fighter ranked up it gains access to more abilitys. Here are some ideas for the "abilitys" you could add to the strke craft:

Fuel Air Bomb, Missle Burst, Explosive/Incindiary Shells, EMP, Kamikazi (Advent), Cluster Bombs.    

You could also use the "create fleet" option to make seperate fighters into squadrons.

A big focus of Escalation is changing the combat system to better support smaller fleets. The total number of ships in combat wouldn't be much less. But the ships under your control will be organized into groups that you have more control over. Each fleet can be linked to others to form a chain of command.

Strike craft are meant to be deployed in squadrons. The max number of craft per squadron is 8 for TEC and the max number of squadrons per hangar varies but is usually 1. In the early game you would not be able to deploy 8 craft in a signle squadron. What you can do is combine multiple squadrons together, in which case they move and act as a larger squadron. This also works with mixed craft types. So for example if you grouped space fighters with a squadron of bombers the fighters would escort them around and protect them from other strike craft.

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EDIT: I'm laying off demigod for a while until they fix the bug that wipes your singleplayer achievements whenever you play multi. In the meantime, Interceptors.

Now the balance between Space/Assault strike craft and other ships is fairly clear cut. Space fighters have staying power, toughness and the ability to give anything they meet a black eye. (at the very least). Assault fighters trade some of that toughness and most of the staying power for lots of damage. This allows them to take on larger ships and neutralize them at a higher speed. Thier limit is that the weapons they carry are only good against small to medium targets. Interceptors fill the next niche on the list. Interception of craft and projectiles. One thing neither space or assault fighters are god at is any combat that takes place too far from thier point of origin. The farther they are from home the longer it takes them to rearm and refuel.

Interceptors do not have this problem. Thier design incorporates powerful engines as well as a large fuel supply. This lets them engage targets at ranges other craft could not match. Since Interceptors stick to hit and run attacks they are not in the line of fire for very long. But this means that the enemy will try even harder to shoot them down during this time. Accordingly they do not have much armour. Thier shielding is geared towards taking a few strong hits instead of large amounts of constant damage.

Interceptors are the only strike craft in the TEC fleet to mount spinal weaponry. These are very long weapons that occupy space stretching to both ends of the hull. There are a few choices of weaponry to mount in this slot. In the beginning you will start off with recoiless autocannons, later on moving to beam weaponry and from there to miniature versions of the gauss cannons normally mounted on TEC capital ships. Each weapon has its own pros and cons. The autocannon is adaptable in configuration and ammo, the beam doesn't require ammo at all and the gauss cannon has raw power and range.

As well all interceptors carry special extended range missiles. These are similar to the large missiles used by TEC assault craft only they carry more fuel and have a MUCH more powerful engine and maneuvering package. They are very precise and can hit targets at extreme distances. They also move so fast that even enemy strike craft will have difficulty dodging them. These are just as adaptable as the other missile types and can carry a wide variety of payloads.

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The primary role of interceptors is to counter enemy bomber type strike craft. These pose a huge danger to large ships but must get relatively close to do any damage. The secondary targets for them are other strike craft (enemy interceptor equivalents in particular) as well as enemy capital ships. The amount of damage they can do to larger ships is fairly low, but thier massive firepower allows them to crack the shell of any nut. (so to speak)

I see...  

I also really hope ironclad will put some of ideas into the game cuz it would giv the game a crap load more depth and make it so larger fleet doesn't "always" win, though i've beaten fleets more than twice the size of mine but it takes a lot of tactial strategy and micro-managing. One good thing about sins is that if you use the "pause/break" button to plan all your moves by using shift to que up move and attack orders while the game is paused.

I don't know if got the gist of my last reply, what i was mainly trying to say was that until the devs add these ideas or if they don't at all you could try and make as many of them in a mod like as i said use the create fleet button to make squadrons like mixing interceptors wit bombers or something like that.

(it would be cool if you could tell units to "guard" other units from the fleet menu)

Yeah I hope so too. The current game is great fun but there are so many ways it could be expanded upon to make it even better.

Modding sounds like fun but I really don't have the time to get into the nitty gritty details of programming. I know for a fact that much hair loss would result if I had to fix a minidump issue.

well as soon as the devs come out with a new sins developer for entrenchment, (the 1.1 version doesn't work) i will probably start trying to implement as many of your ideas into a mod as i can.

Though there will only be 3 types of fighters cuz i can't model so i'll just reuse 1 of each of the races old fighters and bombers. But I don't hav any idea which 3 classes i should use.

(Any thoughts/ideas?)

I would start with Space fighters and see how many of the changes you can implement. Things like strike craft shields, levelups and varied equipment. The things I describe are the ideal version of a concept, but it takes smaller steps to actually get there.

EDIT:

The last thing to talk about before the start of chapter 2 is #5 weapon variety.

Currently Sins weapons are not very complicated. They never miss and the damage they do is set. Instead it would be more fun and interesting to make each weapon work in a unique fashion. Give them some character in other words.

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Laser weapons form a major part of the TEC arsenal. If we wanted to get scientific about this we would need to change the beams from little bolts to solid beams. As well lasers in space aren't actually visible. But that wouldn't be as cool.

TEC lasers have some defining characteristics, the pros and cons:

• Pinpoint accurate.
• Beams travel near instantly to the target.
• Requires no ammunition other than abundant energy.
• No extra space needed for ammunition.
• Cheap and reliable.
  

• Lasers require a lot of cooling equipment.
• As a laser cannon heats up it will actually get less accurate.
• Muzzle flashes can be blinding to the gunner.
• Relatively short ranged compared to other weapons.
  
• Less effective against energy shields.

TEC lasers come in two flavours. Pulse lasers fire green bolts. Normal laser cannons fire solid red beams. When a laser weapon is fired there is a small delay in the cycle that results from capacitors charging with energy. Laser cannons will build up a full charge and release it all at once. Pulse lasers use energy in smaller increments which allows them to fire at constant pace until the capacitor overheats.

Space fighters use dual banks of pulse lasers to great effect. The amount of cannons mounted varies from 4-12 depending on the tech level. TEC bombers also mount a single cluster of pulse lasers. But these "burst cannons" are far more powerful and fire fewer bolts. This allows them to strafe heavier targets during bombing runs. Interceptors are the only TEC strike craft capable of mounting full sized laser cannons.

Corvettes come in the same types as strike craft and carry similar weapon loadouts. However since they have room to diversify all corvettes types mount at least a few laser weapons. Some more, some less. All designs carry at least a pair of pulse laser turrets and a single laser cannon mounted coaxial to the bow.

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The higher up you go in the TEC fleet tree the bigger and bigger laser weapons will get, but the role remains the same. Pulse lasers are used to engage fast moving targets and are usually mounted in turrets. Large pulse lasers pack steady firepower and smaller agile pulse lasers are used for point defence.

Laser cannons are mounted in fixed positions, more flexible bank mounts (45-90 degree traverse) or turrets depending on how much hull space the host ship has available. Fixed mounts are common for Cruisers who rarely have bank mounts. Destroyers tend to have a mix of both. The larger capital ships such as carriers and battlecruisers rarely have fixed laser mounts with the exception of spinal weaponry. Battleships in particular tend to be armed with many turrets.

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Cosmetically not much would change except for the muzzle flashes. Currently lasers weapons seem to spit "sparks", this effect is quite hard to see. So instead we could replace that with a bigger cone shaped muzzle flash. Scientifically that doesn't make much sense but it is important to be able to see weapons being fired. Also, pew pew laserguns!

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The nitty gritty details of lasers and other weapons will be explained in more detail later. For now its imporant to just flesh out each type, make them a bit unique. As you see them used in the story you can then beging to appreciate the differences which make different weapons useful in certain ways.

I have a rough outline for chapter 2 in my head but I need a large chunk of time to hammer it out. And I don't have a title as of yet.

Stay tuned.

wow.. Dude tell me you are looking to publish that in a book.... YOu have an intresting skill for writing.....Maybe you have and i have not seen it.....

Funny you should say that. I actually flunked highschool english class on two occaisions.

2 occasions? That practically makes you a saint in comparison to others, everyone does that (and way more often)

 

Anyway, on topic: awesome stories and many interesting ideas regarding the gameplay, I definitely hope that you'll catch IC's attention just like mine!

Next up, Autocannons.

Autocannon is the name Sins has given to the weapon but it would be more accurate to call them mass drivers. A mass driver is simply a device that moves mass, in this case deadly projectiles. An autocannon specifically is one that uses chemical propellants to launch its payload.

I might seem odd that the TEC use both mass drivers and lasers but mass drivers share some distinct and valuable features. The pros and cons:

• Varied payload: Mass drivers basically throw "boxes" inside which you can place pretty much anything.
• Solid projectiles: A laser striking a weak armour plate will "only" vapourize and melt a portion of it. A solid metal slug will pierce through it and continue on to deal damage behind the armour.
• Shield Piercing: Energy shields are far less effective against solid projectiles.
• Superior range: Solid projectiles do not dissipate over distance as energy weapons do. They will continue on forever until they hit something.
• Low profile: It is much harder to see a bullet coming than it is to see a ball of plasma.
• Modular: Mass drivers and thier ammunition are composed of many parts, all of which can be swapped and upgraded seperately.

• Expendable: Without resupply it is very easy to run out of ammunition.
• Logistics: Even if the materials used to make projectiles are dirt cheap. It still requires many man-hours of labour to make them and transport them into a position where they can be used.
• Innacurate: Unlike lasers the projectile may not land exactly where the barrel is pointed.
• Recoil: A bigger problem in space, but generally only an issue with the largest of autocannons.
• Slow projectiles: Bullets travel very slowly compared to lasers making them easier to dodge.

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As with laser weapons autocannons come in multiple flavours. However what makes each cannon unique is simply a change of parts. To simplify things, Autocannons are composed of 5 parts:  Barrels, Loaders, Payloads, Propellants and Fuses. A barrel is the tube used to launch the projectile. Loaders are the mechanism used to place ammo over the firing pin. Payloads are the projectile being loaded into the cannon. Propellants are the method of launch. Fuses are what control how a projectile behaves on impact.

You can't actually mix and match which components go into any given weapon. Instead researching certain tiers of each path will unlock new types of weapon which then benefit from futher "base" upgrades. The barrel tree for instance unlocks large bore barrels which give you launcher type autocannons. The payload tree unlocks submunitions and then flechettes. If you combine the two you get spike cannons.

Detailing every single combination would take too long but I can give you an example of a typical design track. In the beginning barrels will be thick and heavy. Better materials allow you to craft them lighter and thinner. Upgraded loading mechanisms increase the rate of fire and allow you to mount more barrels. Explosive payloads up the firepower. Better propellants increase projectile speed and impact. And finally proximity fuses allow you to blanket an area with flak.

All of this makes for a very deadly point defense turret.

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Cosmetically autocannons would be the most diverse of all the TEC weapons. When playing a computer game the vast majority of feedback is visual. You know weapons are being fired because you see the lazer guns go pew pew pew, or whatever. Such cues give us information which we then factor into our descisions. This is even more important with autocannons because outwardly they all tend to look the same.

However there are little details you can spot. Point defence guns have small muzzle flashes that "flicker" from side to side. This is because the flash jumps between multiple barrels which are all firing at once. An extended range autocannon looks like just a regular one, except for the addition of a muzzle brake. And so on.

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As always, you will see autocannons in action and in higher detail later.

Chapter 2 now has a title. I'm hoping to start writing tuesday at the latest.

Stay tuned

I've always considered the auto cannons a type of heavy machine gun. (flak frigate & kol)

the kol's gauss rail gun is more like a mass driver.

You are mixing names there. Gauss guns use magnets to accelerate objects down a tube. Railguns use a current that jumps between two rails to create opposing magnetic fields that propel objects along a firing track. I think its called "Lorentz force" but my spelling might be off on that.

Literally speaking a "mass driver" is any device that drives mass. Even my foot would qualify. But in Sci-fi it generally refers to one of the above.

i agree with your first point, but in game the Kol's ability is actually called a Gauss Rail Gun, and it irritates me no end!

guess in games the rule is if it sounds good, its better than being true... =P

ive also wondered how a one man fighter with, at most, 50mm weapons (lets say 100mm, though thats VERY outside) can damage a LRF or Seige Frigate with more effeciency than a bomber that carries missiles specially designed for taking out larger ships...