Weapon types?

[cgutzmer]

I am trying to decide what kinds of weapons to have in game

I know I want to have energy weapons (lasers, blasters etc) and impact/physical weapons (missiles, rail guns, standard firearms etc) but I am unsure how complex to make the system

I want laser type systems to be strong against shields but weaker against armor and impact weapons to be strong against armor but weaker against shields. Will this make game balance overly difficult? I think it will make strategies a bit more important

Thoughts and additions appreciated

[Blackronin]

Originally Posted by cgutzmer

I want laser type systems to be strong against shields but weaker against armor and impact weapons to be strong against armor but weaker against shields. Will this make game balance overly difficult? I think it will make strategies a bit more important

I think it's the other way around. Shields are strong against energy weapons and weak against mass drive weapons. The momentum of the mass driver weapons would pierce the shield while the coherent energy would dissipate in the shield and melt the armor, but... in sci-fi you can choose it to be different

It's not hard to make a rule like that, but to do so we must know first what kind of rules engine you want to use.

First: What kind of mechanical aleatory computer do you want to use?
Second: How many variables do you want to use to achieve a kill?
Third: How important will be maneovering and concealment? And ECM?

Knowing that, a shield-armor type of weapon differenciation will be easy to make.

[cgutzmer]

Thanks for the correction

First: What kind of mechanical aleatory computer do you want to use?
I have no idea what this means at all.....


Second: How many variables do you want to use to achieve a kill?
variables? what kinds of variables? I just figured once armor and shields were nullified it would go against core damage, when zero - dead or destroyed. We could go with penetration on parts of ship needed to be done but that would be more complex that I would like.


Third: How important will be maneovering and concealment? And ECM?
What is ECM? No idea. Ground phase the manuevering and concealment will be very important as there will be structures involved. Elsewhere probably not a lot.

[Blackronin]

Sorry. It was a joke. Stupid me.

Mechanical aleatory computer = Die. D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20, D100. I personally would go for the old D6. Everybody has common dice at home and are the easiest to find.

Variables:
Complex - To hit. Achieve damage. What kind of damage.
Standard - To hit. To kill.
Easy - To kill.


ECM - Electronic Counter Measures.

Speed is important in all the aspects of the game.
Concealment in space might be asteroids, pulsar energy fields, explosions, electronic ink ejection, etc.

[cgutzmer]

HAH! funny stuff now that I get it I have no problem using standard DND style dice for different things as needed - we can include card models for the common types of dice

I would definitely want to use complex in the scenario you have listed above as I want it to be a bit realistic anyhow. Damage counters would be used on the cards is my initial thought. How many are acquired would be determined by dice rolls (as would hits etc) to hit and such would be able to be easily determined by comparing cards. Somehow anyway....

[Blackronin]

Okay. A free sheet with all the dice that players can download and use will do wonders to my creativity!

Now we must choose the engine. Example:
To hit: Pilot or gunner Gunnery die + weapon modifier vs. piloting die + vehicle agility + speed(+ or - modifier) + concealment. Equal or more hits.
Damage. Weapon damage die + or - ECM, armor, shields
Crytical hits table or kaboum when it reaches a threshold?

[cgutzmer]

Those sound fair enough to me. I always like critical hits as they add an extra element to the game

Not positive on damage... ECM should affect to hit, not damage. I think for this level of complexity we will need to come up with a counter system for shields, armor and core damage. maybe for ease we should say shields are full power unless a hit gets through the shields and armor completely then there is % to hit shield gens?

I figure this will be the most complex part of the game
Chris

[Blackronin]

In all the games I developed or helped developing the most hard part (for me at least) was the point value and point system.
Having read the sentence above, it seems that I have done a lot in the field of game design. Not so true. I helped design two games in Portugal. I testplayed several games and gave rules imput. I am designing my third game. I didn't publish nothing yet. Soon I guess. And I played and read hundreds of games.

[cgutzmer]

I for one am very appreciative of your experience - I have played lots of games but never developed one. I now have about 5 days experience
Chris

[Blackronin]

Weapon types (for the basic game):

Mass Driver Cannons/Guns/Machine Guns/Pistols - hurl physical things at a high speed. Good against shields, poor against good armor.

Laser Cannons/Guns/Laser Pistols an Laser Rifles - Coherent light condensers basically. Good against armor or unarmored targets, dissipates easy against shields. Also. Turbo lasers, pulse lasers, wave lasers, etc.

Plasma Cannons/Guns/Plasma Pistols an Plasma Rifles - Particle charged gel. Explodes on impact. Heavy damage.

Missiles. Naval, fighter/tank and infantry carried. Long range explosive warhead.