[Suggestion] Mass Driver

[GoodRevrnd]

Thought struck me after reading the Ion Beam suggestion.

Moderate - Long recharge time.
Fires like a beam, short length
Pierces shields
Moderate breach chance
Uses SCRAP for ammo

Other possibilities include:
Making the firing line extra short so it can hit at most two rooms
Normal beam length and charging scrap per room hit
Shield piercing but damage is halved if it does have to pierce shields

I think I would design it like so:
Beam targeting, standard length
17s recharge
3 power
2 damage per room hit (1 if passing through shields)
Consumes 2 scrap per room hit

[Nox]

what a strange coincidence.

in other news, I think this is a great idea.

Where did you come up with the term 'Mass Driver' ?


https://getsatisfaction.com/ftlgame/top ... er_weapons

Trompe L'œil 4 days ago
Mass driver weapons

Mass drivers are simply accelerators which launch projectiles of matter at the enemy. It's a crude and largely outmoded system but modern defenses aren't accustomed to it.

concept :

Weapon which launches physical objects, uses scrap for ammo.

Features :
Penetrates shields
low energy requirements
evadable. suffers double evasion penalty against enemy ships
imprecise. some % of shots hit a random ship area.
breach chance
shots can be intercepted by defense drones

whatever their base damage was, they would do -1 damage to systems. so a 1 damage mass driver would do 0 to systems in the room that it hit.

not sure on balance metrics, just throwing this out there.

[GoodRevrnd]

Hey I searched this forum for "Mass Driver," I'm not going to search google before I make posts too! "Mass Driver" has been used in like every space sci fi game ever almost. Plus, we all had our fleets of 5000 mass driver wielding tiny ships to down the guardian in Master of Orion 1 way before we should.

I had considered the random scatter mechanic as a possibility too. I think maybe the version you linked would be good for Mass Driver and my version for Improved Mass Driver (with tweaks to both). I think 0 system damage is not a good idea though because spending scrap just to do hull damage is pretty useless imo.

[Nox]

No, not google. There's a little forum software place that the FTL devs use to take and keep track of suggestions.

[VladePsyker]

2 scrap per room

try 20 and maybe it would be balanced since it rips through shields and hull

[GoodRevrnd]

2 or 3.

A breach missile theoretically costs you 6 scrap, although I bet most people fire salvaged missiles 85% of the time. I don't see the problem. The weapon has a potential damage output of 6 and it costs you scrap to fire. That's no more damage output than a halberd beam. The upside is that you have potential damage output of 3 through shields and it has lower power reqs. That is why it costs you scrap. Next time try thinking before you spout hyperbole.

[VladePsyker]

2 or 3.

A breach missile theoretically costs you 6 scrap, although I bet most people fire salvaged missiles 85% of the time. I don't see the problem. The weapon has a potential damage output of 6 and it costs you scrap to fire. That's no more damage output than a halberd beam. The upside is that you have potential damage output of 3 through shields and it has lower power reqs. That is why it costs you scrap. Next time try thinking before you spout hyperbole.

except I can hit 4 even 5 rooms depending on the ship with a std beam length. making the minimum dmg output 4-5 or 8-10 with shields up.

Meaning this does same dmg as a breech missle though shields and does more against no shields