NUKE weapons need to be revamped

[Dadds]

Hi Sir Emi,

The way nuclear weapons are right now make it a very poor weapon of choice and unrealistic.

A nuke should be AOE (Area of Effect), which means it will strike all opponents in the field of battle.

Already the weapon is nerfed in that it can only shoot once, which is fair enough, but now it can only strike at 1 target, once. And to make things worse, its easy to build a 100% defence against nuke technology, rendering this weapon worthless other than to give a pick up ship more power to get better comms missions. No other module builds allow you to protect against them at 100%. This needs looking at or fixing (balancing) If i can build total invulnerability from nuke, then why not from laser or railgun?

I propose to keep the nuke a 1 shot weapon, but make it persistent across the entire combat platform. Otherwise, why have it at all.

Thoughts welcome.

Dadds

[sargas]

Nuclear weapons should have 2 (two) attributes.

1. Explosive Blast (affects armor and hull)
2. Radiation (disrupts shields and reduces LQ and/or MAU)

A nuke should be AOE (Area of Effect), which means it will strike all opponents in the field of battle.

the radiation effect yes, the blast effect no...



(edit because of the usual reason - spelling)

[JamJulLison]

AoE, with the way ship combats are done that wouldn't make a lot of sense.  The way it is now it is like 2 ships are coming at each other firing off stuff at once.  Even battles with multiple ships seem to be like this. With this sort of battle AoE damage doesn't seem to make much sense. 

As to damage to shields and armor.  Maybe. Though there is all kinds of solar radiation in space as it is. So since ships are built to protect against that, I don't see the radiation itself being a problem. It is more the shockwave from the blast that is likely to do the damage. Though if the person has perfect nuke defenses I am not sure this will even matter.  I think most likely the shields would at least block the blast until the point where their are out of power and collapse. After that  hitting the armor just like it is now.  Nukes are already really powerful as is. Though not cheap to build and best used as acts of revenge rather then on COM missions. Especially considering many of us have marines that hit harder then nukes.  Some work does need done on Nukes. Either that or come up with some new kinds of weapons. I personally would love more kinds of weapons.

[Dadds]

i do like the hold fire option of a nuke though while keeping your power level up. Its like some famous clint eastward quotes, "I know what you are thinking, did he shoot 5 shots or 6, you just gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky? Well do you, punk?" or "Pull that trigger. Go ahead, make my day" sorta stand offs hehe. Having all those nukes on board, is your opponent willing to use them? Makes for some interesting defence standoffs.

Dadds

[JamJulLison]

I made a guy who isn't really too active jump earlier when I was waiting for a COM mission timer to finish. Didn't destroy any of his stuff.  Just looted.  He had nukes. Was fun to watch them hit my ship but not really do anything to hurt it. lol

[SirEmi]

Well there are plans to re-balance the nukes, now we could go either way like this:

1. Make it so you can use a nuke multiple times in the same battle and use it up only after battle, making it effective against multiple opponents.
2. Lower the power rating a nuke generates, 50k for 50k power now could be converted to 50k attack for 25k power.
3. Make a new module or two that boosts nukes, like this:
    -> one that lowers the Nuke Defense System percents, like Nuke Inertia Stabilizer (-4% NDS chance to hit the nuke at MK I)
    -> one that boosts nuke attack, Nuke Overload (+5% nuke attack power at MK I)

Both 1&3 or 2&3 could be implemented, and then you could make a specialized nuke ship... Assault Bomber MK X, a few Nukes and Nuke Overloads and Nuke Inertia Stabilizers... fire and go back to mothership to install new nukes... would make for a nasty surprise lol

[JamJulLison]

2 and 3 would be best. Btw sry for this being short. I am on my dsi lol

[Dadds]

i personally like 1 & 3. I was about to post about developing a module such as an ESM (electronic Scrambler module) to mess with the NDS module and i see that is suggested with the inertia stabilizer. (though that term usually makes me think of engine refinements, rather than weaponry effects) The module could be maybe found as another illegal out in the nests of pirates?
Keep thinking that way guys, and @ Sir Emi, yeah i have already worked the math on the assault bomber profile. I am a great fan of the "shock and awe" tactic ;)

Keep up the good work and great ideas!

[JamJulLison]

The reason I don't like number 1 is that nukes shouldn't be able to be fired multiple times. Especially now with how weapons are now. Other weapons are already limited to once per battle. Nukes should be as well.

[Dadds]

nukes ARE limited to one per battle. Unlike all other weapons, you have to replace them every time you fire. Not all weapons are limited to 1 fire. Marines act as a weapon and can be used multiple times in a battle. (not complaining here with this one even though most ships now look like personnel carriers, but in reality? a boarding ship dropping its load and boarding an enemy vessel AND securing that vessel only to be able to rejoin its assigned vessel and then be ready to do it all again, and again, and again, in a blink of a laser fire? hmmmm now that is some super-dooper hyped up marine! Not your regular combat troop i have met on the field of battle before, thankfully! lol)
Maybe we need something like an energy cell module developed which can dictate how many times a laser can fire before depleting, or an ammo rack which decides how many times a rail can shoot its BB-style gun before being empty, or all we really have is a bunch of heavily shielded/armored marine carriers to do the dirty work with.
Lets face it, Jamjul boasts that multiple nukes bounce off his shields, as does railgun and one shot lasers. Marines get around all that armor and shielding  and never miss, just like nukes. i am betting (and its a sure bet) that at least the top 3 corps have marine tech up so high that a fully loaded Marine module makes a MK I nuke look like the marines tooth pick after a meal!
Maybe marines (Aysle and others will yell at me for this i am sure for suggesting it....) need to be limited to only being allowed to board when shielding and armor are penetrated. I mean, if a projectile hurled at almost light-speed at a hull cant make a dent in a ship, how so does a marine do it? knock politely on the hatch and ask to speak to the captain? haha

Ok so maybe i am bringing a bit too much reality into a really good fantasy game, though the game does say "a realistic space combat game" (ok oxymoron i know. we dont actually have space combat so in effect its not real) But now i ramble...must be late(early) in the morning again.
I guess we need to fix combat a bit so that things are a bit more balanced for all styles of weaponry loadouts. At the moment all we are really doing is comparing how big our marine mods are and will our shields hold out