Weapons
From Beyond Protocol
Weapons are the bread and butter of any empire… whether for defense or for assaults, you have to have weapons. While your best deal assortments will be found with the scavengers, remember quantities are a problem for this type of trader. However, in combination with a crafter, you may end up with a dream deal. The techie will excel at high powered and high cost weapons, whereas the wholesaler will build mass assortments of weapons that may not deliver a head shot blow, but will at least deter an invasion force. Weapon shopping is very tedious if you’re trying to get the most for your money. There are so many types focusing on ones that fit both your budget and your level of need. For example: Solid Beam will never come cheap. However, their fear inducing properties can make them worth it.
Weapons combine everything talked about so far. You will see as large variety of weapons as you see in engines. You will be looking for the difficulty of a Shield, the variables of Armor, and the price fluctuation of Radar. If you are looking for machine gun like projectiles, you will probably find these to be the cheapest. However, be weary of the tiny catches that may be thrown in such as power consumption or hull size. These types of weapons should not be huge for any reason. When looking for missiles, you must be wary about detonation times and longevity.
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Damage
Projectile Weapons
Projectiles have smaller power requirements and are cheaper than comparable Beam and Pulse weapons and also do not rely on Special research for their damage output. The only unlockable abilities for projectile weaponry are different damage types, larger Explosion Radius, and longer Range. Projectiles have seven fields you can manipulate and five material slots. You are also able to change the color of the projectiles to red, yellow, gray, white, or orange.
The Cartridge Size is used to determine the damage of your gun. Increasing the Cartridge Size will affect the overall stats of the gun. The bigger the gun gets, the more hull, power, complexity, and cost it will take to make one. There are certain break points in designing projectiles that cause the numbers to jump up between one number and the next and we will discuss those later on. The third field that can be manipulated is the Pierce Ratio which determines the shape of your projectile and splits the damage between Impact and Pierce. The higher the Pierce Ratio, the more pointed the projectile, which gives it more Piercing damage and less Impact damage. When making an all-purpose projectile, try to keep this at fifty to split the overall damage between the two damage types. An armor that has a high resistance to one may have little or no resistance to the other.
The fourth field is the Rate of Fire, which determines how often the gun will shoot. Right from the start the highest rate of fire for a projectile is one second. Having the lowest Rate of Fire on a weapon means you will do almost continuous damage and have more chances to score critical hits. The lowest rate of fire possible, which is one thousand and ninety-two seconds, means you can do more damage because the weapons production numbers are derived from damage per second. The fifth field is the maximum Range and starting off you will have a maximum of fifty. Range does not change too much on your weapon and it is always nice to have a longer range weapon.
The next two fields work hand in hand, the Payload and Explosion Radius. Projectile weapons can end up with three different damage types on one weapon which makes them really good to have against opponents with resistance armor. The first and only payload type you have in the beginning is the explosive payload which adds flame damage to the gun. Once you have a payload type selected you can change the Explosion Radius field which determines the area of effect and can drastically change the size of your weapon. The Explosion Radius field is grayed out if if no Payload is selected.
There are many different ways to make a projectile and we will go into the basic concepts right now. The first type of projectile is the rapid fire kind. These will usually have the one second Rate of Fire on them so that they will fire as fast as possible. These can be very effective against shielded enemies that have a small recharge interval. Also these guns give you more chances to score critical hits which can be very useful for fighters that are trying to target components.
To give you a basic gun that is fairly small you will pick a projection type and then use six Cartridge Size, fifty Pierce Ratio, one second for Rate of Fire, fifty Range, and an Explosive Payload with zero Explosion Radius. This allows us to split half the damage into flame and a quarter of the remaining damage goes to each Pierce and Impact, giving three damage types. You should end up with a gun that does zero to three flame damage and zero to two for pierce and impact. Another type of projectile is one that has a large explosive radius. These are good for hitting enemies that group up together, but be careful because you will hit your own ships and allies if they are too close to the enemy. These guns are nice to have against fighters since they tend to group up fairly close due to their small hull sizes. Projectiles that have a large Explosion Radius will find it hard to achieve high damage but if you should ever get a gun that has both you will devastate your enemies. First pick your projection type then put in a Cartridge Size of ten, Pierce Ratio of fifty, Rate of Fire of one, Range of fifty, and an Explosive Payload with five Explosion Radius. You should end up with a gun that does ten damage every second to its target as well as anything within the Explosion Radius.
Beam Weapons
There are two types of Beam Weapons. The first type is the Pierce Beam. This variety is thin and fires like a sword being unsheathed by a samurai, quick and effortlessly. The Pierce Beam was designed to gash armor and allow for other weapons eat at the structure. While not as capable as other weapons to destroy a ship’s hull it can still get the job done.
The second type is the Thermal Beam. This version is about ten times as thick as a pierce laser. Also when fired you will notice it stays active about ten times longer as well. Unlike the Pierce Beam, the Thermal Beam was designed to rip any hull within its reach to pieces. Entire battalions of tanks have been reported destroyed by a single Thermal Beam. While not adept at removing armor, it will break it down. If nothing else this Beam's looks make it a good intimidation weapon.
Let us switch gears and discuss what goes into making a Beam Weapon. We'll talk about the calibration of the Beam first and then the component breakdown last. When designing a Beam, its destructive capabilities are determined by how much Input Energy you set for it. This will determine how much destruction you can cause with a single shot. Next you must determine how far you want to be able to shoot this weapon. Keep in mind that the longer the range, the larger the hull size required. This is due to the amount of power needed to focus and maintain the stream. The Rate of Fire can also go hand in hand with the range. Finally, your Accuracy: without this you might as well be throwing rocks at your enemies. This should be adjusted to the highest possible setting if at all possible in order to avoid missing.
Next, let's discuss the elements that go into the components required. First, the Coil. This part of the Beam is where the energy is stored until it is released. It is important to keep in mind that materials with a high Superconductive point and Magnetic Reactance are needed. Also the material used must have a low Magnetic Production. For example, Iron would be a horrible choice due to its magnetic tendencies. It was found through various experiments that if any magnetized elements were present the energy in the Beam would not properly discharge, which has led to disaster on more than one occasion.
The Coupler is where the power is transferred from a generator of some sort to the Coil. It is important to note that the material used must not be Temperature Sensitive and must allow for a lot of Thermal Expansion. Beams generate a lot of heat and in most cases the reason a Beam fails is because of a bad Coupler design. Remember no power means no Beam, which is good news for your targets but a nightmare for you.
A Beam’s Casing is probably one of the more important but non-technical items. The Casing protects the operators from harm and ensures that any heat overflow is not transferred to the rest of the ship. With this in mind, a material with a low Temperature Sensitivity would be best. Also it would be good to have a material that is not Malleable so that warping does not occur.
The Focuser of the Beam is basically a prism or mirror type component within the weapon. This is where the light is bent and sent to the Medium for the actual firing. This piece is also where the alignment takes place. A poorly aligned Focuser can spell disaster for a unit in trouble. It should be noted that you will be looking for the same Temperature Sensitivity and Thermal Expansion as you would for the Coupler.
However, unlike the Coupler you want to refract instead of reflect the beam. Keep this in mind when choosing materials for construction. Finally, the Medium of the Beam. This is the component where the Beam actually exits the weapon. It used to be this material that gave the Beams their color. However, with modern technology you are now be able to select whatever color you prefer. To create a good Medium, you will need to use a material with a high Boiling Point and Low Refraction and Reflection. The Boiling Point is to prevent evaporation under stress and allow the material to be reused more often. Or, if the case may be, allow more energy to be put through it than would normally be possible. The Refraction and Reflection properties should be kept low to allow the light to pass through with no interruptions or dissipation.
Pulse Weapons
Pulse weapons are effectively a burst of plasma from a focused power source. These weapons come in a variety of sizes and strengths. Essentially Pulse weapons were developed to fill a role that a Beam weapon could not. As you know, solid Beams take tremendous amounts of energy not only to power them but also to cool them.
As with the Beam weapons, we'll break down the Pulse weapons in the same manner and discuss what goes into them first and end with what properties will be required to get the most out of them. As always, Special research will unlock and further your capabilities of each. Input Energy is the amount of energy you would like to store in the weapon before it is fired. Compression Factor is how concentrated you want the plasma to be when it is fired. Obviously, the higher the concentration, the more powerful the pulse. The Optimum Range is how far the weapon can fire accurately. The Rate of Fire for which the weapon was designed, is how fast the weapon can be successfully fired without overheating or breaking down entirely. Finally, the Scatter Radius: this is unique to pulse weapons. When a normal pulse weapon is fired it hits the target and the energy is absorbed into the target. However, when a scatter effect is added, the energy is discharged to the surrounding area instead of being absorbed. This in turn causes surrounding units and structures to receive damage.
The Coil material functions the same as it would in a Beam weapon. This is the part of the weapon where the energy is stored until released. Materials for this component should be low in Magnetic Production as well Magnetic Reactance to help maximize energy transfer once it is released. The Accelerator acts like a Beam's Coupler. However, unlike the Coupler it is designed to speed up the releasing energy, not just transfer it. In turn you will want materials to be low in Magnetic Production but high in Magnetic Reactance. The reason for this is that although the Accelerator should not produce a magnetic charge; it does use the natural formation of one to help increase the transfer speed of the energy to the Focuser. The Focuser acts much in the same way as it does in a Beam weapon.
Instead of passing the energy in a stream, it will be focused into more of compressed bullet-type format. Overall the same style materials should be used that would be used in a solid Beam. Low Temperature Sensitivity and Thermal Expansion work best due to heat related reasons. The Casing is obviously where the weapon is housed. While the Casing in design does not have to be as drastic due to the way a pulse weapon is fired, it is still recommended that you find materials that are low in Temperature Sensitivity and Malleable to help deal with the heat buildup.
Finally, the Chamber material. This is where the weapon is actually fired, just like the Medium on a Beam weapon. However, since Pulse Weapons fire in pulses (as the name implies), the way in which this part is used is different. The Chamber is where the energy is stored right before the weapon is fired. Once the weapon has been fired, more energy is allowed into the Chamber. Since the weapon will most likely be fired frequently and have little time to cool down, the Chamber is put under tremendous stress. Furthermore, the energy being passed through it has a suction like effect as it leaves. This is why you see comet-like tails form as the pulse leaves the weapon. Since this occurs so often, it is highly recommended and at times deemed necessary to have materials that cannot be Compressed and have almost no Malleability.
Missiles
When compared to the other weapons in Beyond Protocol, Missiles can seem almost like micro-ships than a weapon. Thus, this guide will take a unique approach and describe them as if you were building a ship.
The Maximum Damage for the missile is how much damage the warhead will do upon impact. The Missile Size is like the hull size on a ship. In this case the more damage you attempt to add the bigger the “hull” needs to be. Agility is the speed and maneuverability of the missile. This part of the weapon is like an engine on a standard ship. Next the Range, which is how far the missile will go once fired.
The Rate of Fire is how quickly the pod will reload upon firing the first volley. The minimum Rate of Fire for a missile is 30 seconds. It was determined after many launcher jams, premature detonations, and loss of crew, that this was most efficient minimum time in between volleys.
Guidance is how accurate the missile will be. If you just want area of effect rockets then set the Guidance to zero. If you want a classic dogfight type missile then set the Guidance as high as you can, up to the maximum, which is 255. The Explosion Radius is how large of an area of effect you want. The maximum Range of exposure for this weapon is 255.
Finally, the Structural Hit Points. This part of the weapon is unique to missiles and acts like structural hit points for a ship. The most hit points you can allocate to a missile is 30. The reason it is important to pay attention to this number when designing a missile is that it can be shot down with point defense weapons. With this in mind, it is essential that you plan ahead. Just because you can design a one shot kill all missile, does not mean it will happen if your opponent has designed adequate defenses.
