Overview
Corvettes would be a size between Fighters and Frigates, but their flight operation would be closer to that of a Destroyer. Weapon coverage would be equally balanced, with 3 cannons available for all directions. Secondary weaponry would be of light missile batteries and deployable inhibitors. The primary module would be automated turrets which can switch between 3 modes for each damage class, but the projectile being different for each mode.
These ships would lack long range heavy-hitting firepower, and instead focus on repelling swarmers, orbiters, and lone solo ambushes on a valued ally (Such as an Engineer, Destroyer, or Captain)
Example Primary Weapons
EM - Fires a slow moving sphere of energy that discharges up to 3 times on a nearby target, once every second, before depleting.
Kinetic - Flak cannon, fires a wide burst of several projectiles in rapid succession which can be manually detonated when surrounding the desired targets.
Thermal - Sequentially fires beams that linger and cause AoE damage for several ticks (Much like a mini pyro emitter)
Example Active Modules
Shield Linkage - Makes a temporary connection to an ally, directing 50% of all damage towards yourself. Cancels after several seconds, or when your shields fail. Damage surpassing your shields is not redirected.
Weapon Barrier - Deploys a small directional shield onto the enemy target for a short time, blocking all missiles and gunfire shot in that direction, but not most abilities. Direction is fixed and does not follow ship rotation. Initial direction is determined by the angle between you and the enemy target. This forces direct “yolo” attackers to approach and fire from a different angle.
Servo Disruptor - Greatly increases the weapon spread of the targeted enemy for several seconds, making it difficult to hit smaller targets such as interceptors and fighters.
Special Module
The Escort role special module is an automated turret system, geared towards attrition damage on medium to short range attackers, comparable to a pulsar of lesser magnitude but greater persistence. The module helps make up for the lack of heavy-hitting manual gunnery, and would be an invaluable source of damage output in chaotic situations.
This module can be cycled through 3 modes:
EM - Fires bolts of plasma at medium range. High damage but easy to avoid. Turret tracking rate is greatly reduced as power is shunted towards heavier firepower.
Kinetic - Fires wide blasts of shrapnel at moderate velocity. Can damage at moderate ranges, but only potent at close range. Moderate tracking speed.
Thermal - Rapid fire pulses of thermal energy, short range and very high velocity, but damage isn’t heavy. Turrets track extremely quickly, able to strike agile targets at close range.