Idea for new Weapon - Active Module - Sonic Wave

Suggestions Balance
1

Had an idea for a new Active Module.

A form of defensive weapon.

 

A Sonic Wave.

 

Once activated, the ship is surrounded with a sonic wave sphere that pulses for a bit and slowly expands outwards generating a wavefront with each pulse, but the farther each wave moves away from origin the weaker the damage would get.   My idea vision even sees those wave-spheres as a deep purple in color much like the black hole that a destroyer can  produce.   The purple then fades to black and into nothing as it dissipates.

 

The destructive power it generates acts ONLY against Ship HULLS.  It has no effect on any type of Shield or negates any other active device in use — Damage is done to any ship that is unlucky enough to be in the path of the expanding sound wave, friend or foe alike.  This helps to curb its use too much since in doing so, you can damage your allies also, unintentionally.

 

The waves are not focusable or directional.   They just start at the position the module is activated and move outwards from there.   If a ship then moves, the wave does not, but keeps expanding outwards from where it was first generated, so it would be possible to even move into your own generated wave and effect your hull.   Only safe place would be the point of origin so that sonic waves do not strike the hull.

 

It could even be a type of device that is dropped, similar to the Tactical Nuke and then generates its waveforms from that device for a length of time or until the device is targeted and destroyed early.  If a dropped device, bumping or pushing the device could adjust the point of origin since it generates from the device’s current location.

 

The idea is based on a physical sound wave.  They expand and even weaken the further away from the generating source.  Sound Waves can also be damaging to solid objects, causing vibrations and disrupting things at the atomic levels to the point of instability and breakdown  

 

A physical sound wave would move right through any form of shielding such as electronic or energy type, but it would resonate against a solid object such as a ship hull.   With each wave generated (along the lines of a Guard’s Pulser) Sound Waves would be released and begin moving outwards in the spherical way, away the generation point and as it travels farther and farther away, it then decreases in strength as travels and it’s sphere expands and gradually fades away.

 

Each wave striking a hull would weaken hulls to the point of nothing, in a sense, shattering it.   Think of the Walls of Jericho shattered by the sound waves of the horns being blasted repeatedly for 7 days in the biblical story of Jericho’s fall by that type of attack.

 

As a Jericho Merc… of course the concept and technical plans come from that Faction.  After all who better to come up with a sonic type module then the Families of Jericho.

 

Hull Points effected and length of time the device is active would have to be up to the Developers to establish, so as to keep the game balanced with its usage.   

 

Upgrades could be to the amount of power striking a Hull effectiveness or to distance traveled outward, or even both.  I favor the idea of both with the upgrades being first to wave power, second to wave range, third to power again, forth to range again, and final upgrade (orange) to both one last time for the full effectiveness of the Module.  This balances the upgrades since there are 5 of them but that fifth one does both since the value is odd in number and would produce an uneven upgrade path.  So by using 2 to power and 2 to range and a final to both keeps the upgrades in line.

 

Now with that idea in mind, think of its use on the battle field.   Is that one’s shields too strong?   Sonic Wave that hull to the point of being weaken and then ram it.   pfffft… shields.

 

***

Side note ---- If anyone posts that sound cant travel in the vacuum of space… dude, neither can we at this point as is portrayed here so when we get to that point in life, we can overcome THAT reality of sound-physics at that time also.   But that’s not going to happen until Aliens come for our planet, so lets not go down that conversation thread with this.  Let’s just live in the Virtual with this, not the Reality.

 

-Vu-

2

Interesting. Very interesting.

3

Meh, more shield bypassing? The gravity xxxx is bad enough

4

To fit that into the game needs to have a low range and a high recharge time or otherwise would be a nightmare negating beacons.

 

Not that I’m against it, and all ideas can make something good.

5

Well the best part about suggestions is that the numbers and final functionality are completely up to the devs.

6

if the numbers stayed on players, then this game would be a chaos. Especially from your side fox. 

7

Immediately after reading the first 3 lines of the post, I started writing a very angry scientific post about sound waves, but then I finished reading the side note. 

 

Anyway, I like the idea, but what class is this module for? 

8

Anyway, I like the idea, but what class is this module for? 

Gunship PP + this salsa combo

dunno, just my imagination running wild

9

Immediately after reading the first 3 lines of the post, I started writing a very angry scientific post about sound waves, but then I finished reading the side note. 

 

Anyway, I like the idea, but what class is this module for? 

 

I thought about that also, what class of ship would use such a device?  

I favor the dropped device over a ship attachment, but not dropped from the missile slot like the Tactical Nuke.    

Dropped from one of the Active Module Slots along the lines that the Sentry and Heavy Guard Drones do

 

A Tackler or Interceptor class would be best in my opinion for a dropped device.  

If its an on-ship device, then I would favor a Frigate sitting in the center of the generated waveforms since the pulser is a similar type device but uses energy, not sound.

 

As a dropped device, again, think of that Tactical Nuke, its dropped and the ship high-tails it out of there as quickly as possible or be caught up in the resulting explosion.    

A Tackler also can be fast enough to high-tail it out of the effective range.    It could fly in, drop it, activate cloaking and scram before the device starts pulsing waves.

 

I also think Afterburners would be a “must-use” for a dropped device.   Here;s why:  Sound travels at certain speed.   We refer to that as MACH-1, 2, 3 ect…multiples of that speed.  So in order to outrun the waveforms, one would be required to use a ships afterburners and outrun the waves or be caught up in a wave strike.   So Interceptor or Tackler class seems to be the best ships to deliver a dropped device, then fire up those afterburners and run.

 

On the receiving end, some ship drops a Sonic Wave Generator and you see it, you;d best be able to out run the wave forms also with your afterburners.   Small class ships could do it, but larger ones like Frigates or Destroyers would move more slowly, even with Afterburners active, thereby, being caught up in one or two waveforms striking the hull even when running.  They could survive, but now they are weaker then before and your buddies come in and start at their shields.  It could be a counter-measure to everyone building Destroyers and forgetting that it takes all types of ships and all types of modules to win, not just Destroyers because they are the newest class.  I’ve been in PvE’s already and Im the only Tackler with 3 Destroyers and we loose.  They cry “unbalanced game” when infact they themselves unbalanced the battlefield by bringing in too many of the same type ship when the game is clearly designed for wings of all types, each doing a tactical part or function to win.

 

A Sonic Wave could also be a very useful tactic for the battle field.   Your in a Tackler, You have a Sonic Wave Generator, you see a Long Range Sniper picking off your buddies but you know you can’t take him on in a dogfight as is.    So you activate Cloaking, zip in to his location, drop the Sonic Wave Generator, your cloak deactivates in the process and he now sees you too …running… his focus will be to turn and try and snipe you, giving the needed time for the generator to activate and begin pulsing.    He then hears the first wave (I envision a low boom sound aka Subwoofer bass rumbling) and now its too late for him to fully outrun the resulting waves but hes forced to move his snipe position and also forced to use afterburners in the process to protect his Hull integrity from the repeating waveforms.     Given the right combo of tactics and modules, one of those suppression modules that prevent Afterburner usage could also come into play around that time, forcing down the afterburn and for  that Sniper to take the full on force of each waveform against his Hull since he’s suppressed and can not activate afterburners to out run them.

 

I read a lot of posts here about unbalanced game and things are too hard.   I don’t see it that way.   I know those posts come from Game Console Users that want the game to be a shoot em up type game where they memorize repeated moves over and over to win a battle.   They don’t use tactics.   A new module like this brings tactical usage to the game.   It can harm yo0r buddies if not used tactfully or misused by even yourself.   Battles are not won by shoot em up and regen a new life and keep going because the pattern will always be the same — battles are won by planning and tactics and thinking outside the box of your enemy.   The Greeks with 300 men held off tens of thousands of at one small mountain pass with Tactics more then Might, and they won, well they all died eventually, but they won in the sense that time was given to the other Greeks to muster up and rally and march and confront a bewildered army still reeling from only 300 against them and now before them were thousands more hyped up and ready for war and in the end the Persians backed off and returned home.    So the Greeks won with tactics.   Tactical thinking men men, the right tactical place, the right tactical weapon (the phallix at the time).

 

As I play I use tactics more then anything else.   That’s what made me think up a new tactical weapon and its use and I’ve tried to address all its many facets up front in order to speed up its development and possible in-game inclusion.

 

Loved the “Angry Post” comment.  LOL when I read it…see?   I was thinking ahead even then.   There’s a new type of Anger Management Class out there, its called “Go Kill Some Biomorphs”

 

-Vu-

10

The idea is nice, but if you write more than 3 lines i think 90% of the people will not read everything.  :005j:

11

The idea is nice, but if you write more than 3 lines i think 90% of the people will not read everything.  :005j:

 

 

Hmmm, Have you ever tried to design software concepts in 3 lines or less and without technical blueprints or drawings for Developers to examine?.   

Its Twitter with the 128 character limitations, not here.  You’re probably not gonna like this explanation then either.   

 

How to build such a Device.  Sonic Wave Generator.

 

The post of ShonFrost got me thinking some more.   Far be from me to contribute to someones anger issues or warp the concepts of world physics …so here goes.

 

I understand a lot more of Physics and Science then I let on at times.   I like to know who the stupid people are by doing so, so I can avoid them in life.  I let them “explain” their views and make that judgement call then. I’m not pointing fingers, Its just a tactic I use in life.   So, now the concept and Building of a Sonic Wave Generator, in the vacuum of Space. 

 

First its a device to be BUILT, not Bought.   That means the Workshop.  That means we will need materials.   Possibly even new ones to the game after you read the Building Concept in full below.

 

So, on the Galaxy Map we have a Sector named Gas Harvest Station, yes?   Well other then being a sector to find loot next to rocks floating around in that sector and avoiding/killing the Predators and Hunters there, we could now have a purpose for that Sector.  Gas and the harvesting of it.    We will need it to build a Sonic Wave Generator.   Possibly lots of it based on the way we need Physics to be incorporated in the way that sound needs air in order to move physically, right Shon?

 

So, now we have new missions too.  Trips to Gas Harvest to obtain and return with cylinders of Gases.   These then are used to mix a special brew that is part of the make up of the Sonic Wave Generator.  We will need gases to be released into space  (think of a hissing sound after dropping the device before wave generation can fully deploy)… The released gases act as the carrier for the Sound Waves to travel upon once the generator begins pulsing them out.   

 

The Device would need some metal plates, ummm, lets say 6 or more (sides of a box and a few internals) and a CPU and maybe even some other types of Components that make up the overall generator.  Shards and such for timing crystals.  Stuff like that. .

 

So now we have other tasks in Open Space also, tasks to gather Components and maybe even a Blueprint to actually manufacture the Generator.  In doing all this, we now have a Device that can not just be bought and dropped willy-nilly by Nobbs in the game.    Using Gas Harvest and multiple trips to gather enough gasses for the device moves it into the middle and upper Tiers of use, where Pilots are more stable players and Nobbs can not access because of the Gate Levels requirements.

 

Now, get this, as I think more and more about its usage as a Dropped Device, I came up with the idea of not using a Active Slot or missile bay slot at all.    Once all the Components are assembled, the Device is then placed into a CARGO SLOT of the launched ships.   Think of the “Daisy Cutter” Bomb that NATO drops from the cargo bays on the sleds.  (Sled even as a workshop component to make)    Using the cargo slot concept would also limit is use… one can only carry as many Generators as one has free Cargo Slots.    Drop it and now the slot is open for loot pickups.    Its a one time deploy-and-use device and it eliminates some of the headaches the Developers would encounter in recharge times and such.  

 

Using the Cargo Slots would regulate those that elect to build many of the generators in the Workshop.   If used on Tacklers or Interceptors, they have 3 to 5 slots normally without that extra module for more slots, so that then limits the battlefield use also regardless of how many they own in the Warehouse.  Using charge-up-regeneration brings the device to be used repeatedly over and over, something that too many devices already do.  All the logic is there to drop items from the Cargo Slots already so there’s not too much in the way of newly written code to write.    

 

The device is dropped, it starts to hiss and deploy gasses for the waves to then travel upon in the vacuum (happy now  ShonFrost?) (with that I now envision seeing the cloud-like animations the Slow field missiles do right at that point) and after a time for gas expansion the generator starts pulsing out sound waves.  As both the gas atoms are ripped apart by the pull of the vacuum and the expanding sound declining, the range is dealt with and controlled.    Its a one-time-use device since the forces of physics and the vacuum of space and all the compressed gases expanding pull the devices apart eventually and destroy it after awhile of producing the destructive waveforms, since they also breakdown and shatter the housing the device is made up of, over time. 

 

So now one concept device has generated possibility some new tasks in a sector.   Gather Gases…Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon, Hydrogen, Helium any gases sound waves travel on…maybe even some made up “Alien Gas” not known to us.     Add in something with  “dirty atoms” such that the atoms vibrate and allow the  waves to fluctuate, vibrate  and travel upon (physics there) and also some known Components like plates, minerals and shards from other sectors, for control units and battery sources …a 2-stage deploy method, stage one being routing power from the capacitor to the batteries to charge up and stage 2 the drop…then run in full afterburners… so as to be ahead of the first generated waves.

 

I can just see some little Interceptor at the right time up against a Destroyer, using this, the Destroyer’s Hull is reduced to almost null from the repeated wave pounding and that interceptor spins back around from its outward run dodging fire and weaving all around to come back and rams that hull in a final kill of the Destroyer.    Oh Yeah… I want to see that.   Give those big boys something to fear from the little guys.  Then LOL as I read all the post about “unbalanced game” by a Destroyer Owner that was killed by a tiny ship and a boombox hissing air that was dropped in space.  

 

-Vu-

12

…

Actually, to me at least, reading your writings is pretty entertaining 

 

And now I like the idea a lot more. I’ve always thought about gas harvesting in Star Conflict. Anyway, the only little issue I find with the concept is that dropping it from the cargo bay would limit its use to Open Space only. I suggest to make it a missile-slot device with long cooldown (like a Tactical Nuke), that only Interceptors and Fighters can use. 

13

I understand the cargo bay vs Missile bay usage because of PvP and PvM sessions, but Im more for a one-time-drop to deploy and not a recharge type device.  

That would limit it to a single drop and an empty missile bay from then on.   Poor use of ship resources as I see it.    

 

A rechargeable device, even if a long recharge time, would put it into an ongoing battle, to often.  I’m thinking more of a battlefield endgame tactic in its useage, not as an everyday off-the-shelf weapon.   Make it hard to even obtain and build so it becomes a coveted device and used sparingly.

 

Think “Daisy Cutter” again… I seriously do not think NATO reuses spent parts from that weapon (if any exist after it denotes) to release the next time and the decision to Daisy Cut is not one they just toss out on the table.   Its a weapon chosen to use sparingly and only as a last resort, since it is the largest conventual non nuclear bomb ever made.   Only thing with more power then those are actual nukes…  Same types of thinkings would apply with a Sonic Wave Generator.   Hard to obtain the parts and build, and its use is for only one time, but that one time would carry so much power to shatter hulls on some ships that it can totally change out a winning side (in PvP for example) into a loss for them.   Everyone would start to change positions in afterburners if theirs a hiss of air heard nearby.   If not, well, lets hope the Hull holds up to the pounding.  Personally, Id run, based on how envision the device and its use.

 

So the Developers tweak some logic here and there to allow the Cargo Bays to carry one-time-deployment weapons, what would it hurt?   It only opens the doors for more of the same type of 1-time deploys to be later incorporated over the life cycle of the game.  Each update could bring a new 1-Deploy device into play.   As a developer I know already that the logic would be easier to incorporate these types of new things into the game then to review ship slots and recharge times and make sure mods to the ship slots dont mess up existing working logic of other modules.   Sure, an upfront mod would be needed to activate Cargo Slots a bit more to function as being discussed, but that would be one time only.  After that, just new devices carried and dropped, where all the new logic then is in the new device object, not the ships and slots.  Its done already with Weapons and new ones just slide right in once developed, so the concepts are already in place and in use.   

 

Go into a PvP then, when you know the other side has a frigate coming into battle, and you have no idea any more of what 1-time Deploys that user has elected to carry in, and you can not anticipate his weapons and armor any more, sure, the frigate still carries the usual complements that can be predicted, but now there’s 6 more “unknowns” he could be also packing into battle for a one time use, what are they?  Only that pilot would know.  That then becomes his battle advantage over you. 

 

I say lets put the cargo bays to use in PvP and PvM’s and not just for a Sonic Wave Generator.   Expand their usage.    Bring in some 1-Time-Packages.    Cargo doesn’t have to be inbound only.   Thats poor Logistics.   Product both outbound and inbound is better Logistics.   We don’t have “simple cargo tasks” even.   They are always leave the bases empty and return full.   Even a task of simple delivery of cargo from one base to another could be done.   It would be a long trip for some ships but there are fuel stops along the way, safe areas to rest and regen at the Launcher Pad Bases, if one was attacked along the way.   A very simple Covert Ops Open Space task could be designed to deliver a top secret cargo from one Station to the other two and return.   The point being NOT to engage and die and expose that top secret cargo into space, thereby instead of dogfighting and looking for fights… it would be to use a Covert Ops or Tackler ship and its abilities to get the Package delivered to the other Factions, avoiding contacts.   That would totally blow out the minds of some players that want to just jump headfirst into battles.  Its a similar PvP mission where one has to deliver the Bomb to the others Navi Station, but larger in concept for Open Space.  Deliver Top Secret Cargo from one Station to the other two and return.  Best call upon your Corporation Buddies to run recon ahead or plow a path for you… you have a Top Secret package to deliver and the aliens just cant get their hands on it.  Its even rigged to self detonate if ejected into space…its that important, so don’t loose the package along the way. 

 

No wonder we can’t win this war against the Aliens.   Where’s the Logistics Office on this Station?  I think I need to have a sit-down with those people.

14

Hmmm, Have you ever tried to design software concepts in 3 lines or less and without technical blueprints or drawings for Developers to examine?.   

Its Twitter with the 128 character limitations, not here.  You’re probably not gonna like this explanation then either.   

 

 

 

I see you can’t read one line. I told you the idea is nice. And the emoticon is not there only for decoration.

 

About your idea, the one use only is perfect to me. I don’t know others, but i haven’t a fast way to eject cargo: It is required.

 

I see a problem in the resources. Some PVP players doesn’t like grinding OS too much. I think is better if resources can be obteined from PVP battles.

15

Wall of text

Devs should learn A LOT from you! 

16

 

I don’t know others, but i haven’t a fast way to eject cargo: It is required.

 

I see a problem in the resources. Some PVP players doesn’t like grinding OS too much. I think is better if resources can be obteined from PVP battles.

 

 

 

Cargo can be ejected quickly.   It’s a KEYBIND.

The TOGGLE MOUSE CURSOR keybind.

 

I have that mapped to my F9 key.   Anytime I want to eject cargo, I press and hold F9 and point to the Cargo Slot holding the item to eject.

Click left mouse button and the cargo ejects into space.   It can even be done while flying.

 

I also have F10 mapped to SHOW HIDE CARGO… so the two keys are right next to each other, but I usually fly with Cargo showing all the time anyways.

That way I just press and hold my F9 to allow the mouse to point instead of steer the ship and point to the cargo bay I want.

So in PvP or PvM, the function is already there in the logic.   Its in KEYBINDS.

When in flight, the ship just flies in a straight line while the key is held down.

 

***

I know that many players don’t like to grind.  

Even if the basic resources were to be loot in PvP or PvE, it wouldn’t matter.

It would take longer to obtain that way, but still viable.

Using the Gas Harvest and a frigate, one could get 6x Gas Canisters in a single trip in Open Space and as already stated, there would be the need for a lot of gases.

The canisters would be using the gas mixtures in the compressed state so something like 50x or more per gas, and x-number of gases.  So it would result in multiple trips in Open Space to harvest the needed gas and X-number of trips for each gas type.   Still a grind, but that’s the point.   Its not to be an easy prize and to be coveted and used only rarely, one time.   So if took a month to obtain and build, would you want to drop and use it in the very next battle?  Probably not.  You’d save it for when its function would be better used.

 

The most one could get in PvP or PvM wins would be 4x, and that would be if assuming 1x canister per loot find and all the loot on that search was the same gas type.

But those searches are more random and the odds are that other items would be presented also.   That would slow down the obtaining of the needed Resources to build.

Its one reason I use Open Space for Resources more then PvM or PvP.   I use those for Ship synergy more then for obtaining resources.   A PvP or PvM win could result in N-number of containers per loot search to reduce that somewhat.   Maybe the N value could be equal to half of a Pilot Level, so that a L-10 PvP win and a Loot Search that results Gas Containers would be 5x Gas of one type needed for the Mixture.   

 

A ship can die with zero Hull and full shields, and were talking about a weapon that goes directly at hulls.  So its not something that should be easy to get, should be hard to build, and deployed one time.  A battle tide changer, not an everyday weapon.   Rare.  Like Really Rare.    So rare that it cant even be bought on the black market with GS.  One has to MAKE it and even then, hard to make.

17

Will see about this idea. But, guys, those walls of text are almost impossible to read. I’ll appreciate short and complex information in the future.

18

Will see about this idea. But, guys, those walls of text are almost impossible to read. I’ll appreciate short and complex information in the future.

Mh, I always thought you liked in-dept suggestions… 

19

Cargo can be ejected quickly.   It’s a KEYBIND.

The TOGGLE MOUSE CURSOR keybind.

 

I have that mapped to my F9 key.   Anytime I want to eject cargo, I press and hold F9 and point to the Cargo Slot holding the item to eject.

Click left mouse button and the cargo ejects into space.   It can even be done while flying.

 

I also have F10 mapped to SHOW HIDE CARGO… so the two keys are right next to each other, but I usually fly with Cargo showing all the time anyways.

That way I just press and hold my F9 to allow the mouse to point instead of steer the ship and point to the cargo bay I want.

So in PvP or PvM, the function is already there in the logic.   Its in KEYBINDS.

When in flight, the ship just flies in a straight line while the key is held down.

I have a similar key configuration then we are talking about the same, but with different perspective. Nothing it can’t be worked out somehow.

 

Do you think something like this won’t be used as much as possible in tournaments? Could be bad if every ship carries this weapon.

 

If it’s hard to get to prevent spamming in every battle i think it could be a good addition to the game. Giving a you never know what’s going to find in the next battle. 

20

That was the idea in the BUILD… a very hard build…but a battlefield changer if used.

So the odds of having one or even two come into battle would be high.

 

However, for tournaments, it might just be the type of device one would stock up on and bring in.

Assuming the 1-time-drop from Cargo type.  Even then, only x-number brought in based on cargo slots.

In a Tournament, I foresee it being the type of device that would be it brought in.  Made and saved up for, even.   

Team is loosing and it could turn the tide at the last moments of a battle.