Following this will be my current weapon ideas for Discovery. I will make the .ini's, Infocards, and even the models when I have the time. If someone wants to volunteer, go ahead. If not, you all remain patient.
Cruiser/Destroyer Railgun (Or Mass Driver) System (Co-axial Forward Gun)
Hull Damage: 480,000
Shield Damage: 58,000
Projectile Speed: 2,400 m/s
Range: 4,500m
Refire: .05 (20 second recharge)
Energy Drain: 1,200,000
Ammo Dependant
Cost per rail: 100,000
Total ammo cost: 7,000,000
This has been receiving good marks from a lot of people, so I thought I would share it. For such a fast and long range weapon, you may think it has waaaay too much power. But double check the shield damage. It is infact worthless against shields. The recharge also makes it so that, if you miss, you are going to be waiting a long time to fire it again. It uses both energy AND ammo, which is very expensive. Ontop of that, it is mounted like a forwardgun on the Siege Cruiser.
As for the damage: The Hull DPS is roughly 30% less than that of a Light Mortar. This Railgun is about 24,000 Damage Per Second, the Light Mortar coming out at 37,500 Damage Per Second. Less efficient, but it has it's own purpose.
It serves as the perfect Finisher against other capital ships. It also allows for retaliation at long range. However, the projectile is relatively narrow, and has 30-50% less area to "hit" you with as compared to the Light Mortar. Missing is costly, as it would drain an entire cruiser core. As an example, the Siege Cruiser has something around 1,400,000 max power.
Vertically Launched, similar to a Cruise Missile from modern day warships. This is a perfect way to show how much of an Artillery platform that cruisers and destroyers really are. Long range, quick refire, and quick enough to chase down other Cruisers, these pack a whallop against your hull, but are ineffective against shielding, giving you some leeway between missile barrages. At a .45 turning radius, it would be difficult to track even the slightly cautious gunboat pilot, and nigh impossible to hit bombers and fighters. When fighting with others, the explosion radius simply brings out the fact that war is deadly. If your enemies are stacking their ships around their capital ship- Let loose! These will scatter them quickly, and destroy those who are not weary. But be careful, these are also capable of taking out friendly bombers or fighters that may be engaged around your enemies ship.
I wanted something that went boom. Something that wasn't obscenely deadly, but it wasn't entirely weak and useless. That's how I feel about the current missile launcher for Cruisers. Yes, it's highly effective against Gunboats, and sometimes even bombers. But beyond that, the singular missile when avoided costs you a lot of energy. It also doesn't have the long range feel of this system, which will quickly show your ordinance superiority. Part of the explosive lover in me wanted to bump up the damage and radius, but I felt that in the name of balance, it was already large enough. Being nearly triple that of a Nova, you risk destroying your own allies if your attacks are not co-ordinated and precise.
Ship Equipment: Cloaking Array
Now, I know this has been a controversial topic. It can be abused in PvP, and in some other cases. So I've thought up a few ways to fix it.
Cloaking Device
Replaces Armor slot, but provides 2x armor anyway.
Your ship becomes invisible to both scanners and sight.
However, just because you're invisible, it doesn't mean you can't be hit.
Shielding is cut to 1/4 while the cloaking array is active. Hull damage taken is doubled (If that can be done.)
Weaponry is disabled while attempting to engage cloak, during cloak, and for a certain amount of time afterwards
Cloak time for fighters: 10 seconds before engagement
Cloak time for gunboats: 20 seconds before engagement
Cloak time for cruisers: 35 seconds before engagement
Cloak time for battleships: 55 seconds before engagement
During the charge time, and for the same amount of time after decloaking (Basically, 10 seconds before cloaking for a fighter, and 10 seconds after decloaking) your weapons are disabled.
Cruise time is tripled while cloaked. Basically, if it takes 5 seconds for a fighter to cruise without being cloaked, it would take 15 for it to while cloaked.
