Suggested change/rework to Devastator beam

As per the title this topic will primarily be running through a potential change/rework that could be made to Devastator beam to make the module more competitive/effective and furthermore make it more desirable to use and justify the crafting and research costs the module currently has attached to it.

 

So what does the module do right now?

Currently upon activation the Devastator beam mimics the pyro emitter and emits a beam dealing light EM damage to targets in its way and heavy damage to _ objects _. Once the beam has finished a cloud generates in the position of any enemies that were in the way of the beam and does EM damage that ramps up over the period of 8 seconds.

 

This has so far proved to be a vastly ineffective module in a large amount of scenarioes due to multiple reasons.

I. The initial beam does damage low enough to not even warrant a threat to low rank interceptors
II. The cloud generated does such low damage at initial generation that even frigates affected can safely move out of the way before the cloud even gets a chance to ramp up
III. The cloud is far too small. Even enemy destroyers targeted by the beam can safely move out of the cloud before receiving substantial damage.

 

With this out of the way I’d like to begin with suggested changes with explanations and potential values included.

 

Idea 1: retaining the original design/mechanics but improving overall effectiveness

For this idea the aim is to allow the Devastator beam to retain it’s original identity but allowing it to be more competitive, as per the associated costs with obtaining the module it is currently a better decision overall to pursue a ‘Pyro emitter’ over this module as they both do similar tasks.

 

Changes to the inital beam:

Change damage to scale with ship size - increase base damage to smaller targets.

Potential values could be ~2200-4500 EM damage per second

 

Why?
Currently the initial beam does such a low amount of damage it can be safely ignored by every ship in the game. It should at the bare minimum deal a moderate amount of damage as a telegraph and furthermore warrant some threat to faster targets.

Change increased damage to _objects _to mimic Brokk’s Gremlin Drones and isntantly destroy affected objects.

 

Why?

There are very few deployable objects in the game currently that could even survive the initial beam prior, making the beam take a slightly extended period of time to destroy them is unecessary given the only objects able to move have insignifant health pools anyway.

 

Allow the initial beam to close black holes generated by the ‘Gravitational lens’ module.

 

Why?

Currently there are no modules in the game that completely counter a ‘Gravitational lens’ with the closest being system hack which despite mitigating the DoT effect still leaves the allied team vulnerable to the pull effect. Allowing for Devastator to close the black hole completely would allow for a module to completely deny the effect and furthermore be a solution able to be installed on the majority of Destroyers as Devastator is available from ranks 10-17.

 

Changes to the generated cloud

Increase the size of the cloud from 200m to 500m

 

Why?

Currently the size of the generated cloud is so small that even slow moving Destroyers are able to escape the cloud moments after it is generated. As per the current size if a Destroyer is moving 100m/s and the cloud is generated on top of it the Destroyer can escape the cloud in a second due to the cloud generating with the target in the center. With the proposed change it would allow for targets within the cloud to take at the very least a minor amount of damage before leaving the field.

 

Remove damage ramp up whilst lowering the DPS to a reasonable amount

Potential values could be ~5500 DPS down from 7405 DPS at max ramp up value

 

Why?

With the current damage ramp up mechanic the damage at the beginning of the cloud’s duration is so low that enemies that actually have a cloud generate on them (as the cloud only generates on enemies who the beam is in contact with at the end of the beam cycle) are able to escape with little to no damage or simply escape unscathed at all due to regenerative effects. Removing the damage ramp up would make remaining in the cloud further punishing and when combined with the slightly larger cloud size give it potential to be a threat to enemies rather than a nuisance.

 

And that marks the end of this suggestion. Feedback and the whatnot would be appreciated as this is only an idea of what could be changed to make this module more viable and worth of it’s cost since as it stands currently ‘Pyro emitter’ does everything Devastator does but better and for cheaper.

My suggestion: for first 2 seconds 5-10x (5k-10k) more dmg to ships and 2-3x more to objects (instead of 10x) and for clouds 500m should be ok with dmg from 5k to 15-20k over 5s

MIRV FIRST !

Imho if it’s meant to destroy objects instead of ships, it should be more useful in that way.

I mean it should have a MUCH shorter cooldown, maybe a little less range, and be able to destroy things like mines as well as drones etc.

I don’t really think it’s supposed to do a lot of damage to players. It’s just kind of a cool looking self-defense module.