Firepower Update: Weapon Expansion (An update of a previous Suggestion)

Leonhardt shared this feedback 3 years ago
Submitted

Previously I had suggested that this be a PAID DLC, but have rethought the idea in that it would need to be a content update rather than a pay-to-win DLC. Unable to edit that post, I am making a new one, here.

As Space Engineers continues development, we continue to see new features and mechanics implemented to expand our gameplay experience, but have received very little in regards to Ship-to-ship combat, the main selling point of the game. This suggestion is to outline several proposed additions to our arsenal of mounted guns and turrets, allowing for much greater flexibility and customization when it comes to designing warships, and more fun and exciting combat in single player and PvP.

I'll make this super easy and break down my ideas by ship class.

Small Ship

Light Machine Gun *NEW!*

>A basic weapon for light security drones, the 1x1x1 LMG is essentially an Assault Rifle or Interior Turret mounted to fire in a single direction. Effectively a smaller, weaker version of the Gatling Gun, it can replace the larger weapon on compact designs that need a weapon for defense, but are not directly designed for combat.

Shotgun

>Close range scattershot weapon, fires a spread of bullets in each shot. Deals heavy damage to light armor at close range. For hit and run attacks against light armor, and anti-engineer combat. Would have a 4x1x1 Footprint.

Autocannon

>Hard hitting, rapid fire weapon. Lower rate of fire than the Gatling Gun, but deals greater damage, and its rounds explode on impact. A heavier sidegrade for anti-large ship combat. Would have a 4x2x1 Footprint.

Heavy Cannon

>Long range high power cannon. Fires a powerful, high velocity round, but has a low rate of fire and high recoil, making it difficult to use on lighter craft and ineffective in close combat. A bulky 6x2x2 footprint.

Flak Cannon

>Old school anti-air artillery brought into space. Fires a shell that explodes into a temporary "Flak" particle effect that damages any grid that flies into it. Shells explode after a short distance, but are great at area denial.

Scatter Rocket Launcher

>Wide range rocket launcher for small ships, rapidly fires small, low power rockets for bombarding a wide area. Has a 4x1x1 Footprint. Scatter rockets do low damage, and have a small blast radius, but make up for it with the sheer number of rockets.

Homing Missile Launcher

>Fires small homing missiles that track targets. Lower rate of fire than standard rocket launcher, and must be reloaded manually, but its tracking ability makes it a powerful weapon against almost any target. Would have a UI effect for indicating a lock on. Can be shot down by point defense. Has a 5x1x1 footprint.

Bomb Launcher

>Drops a powerful Bomb that is affected by Gravity (But not Artificial Gravity). Has a wide blast radius and is strong against heavy armor, but can be shot down by point defense. Most effective on planets. Has a 3x3x2 footprint.

Torpedo Launcher

>Single shot heavy missile launcher, fires a slow, powerful rocket that is affected by Gravity (But not Artificial Gravity) Torpedos take longer to shoot down by point defense, but are easily evaded by more mobile craft.

Interior Turret

>It is time. Please allow us to install Interior Turrets on Small Ships, connecting them to Small Conveyors.

Laser Vulcan *NEW!*

>A directed energy weapon that rapidly fires small bolts of energy. Does not use ammunition, but requires ample power, making it taxing on generators and batteries. Can overheat with sustained fire. Overheating applies damage to the weapon, and can make it malfunction and stop firing if it sustains enough damage. Would have a UI effect to indicate heat buildup (A small red circle around the crosshair that fills up as heat increases) Would have a 3x1x1 Footprint.

Laser Cannon *NEW!*

>A directed energy weapon that fires a long beam of energy. Semi-automatic, can be charged by holding down the fire button to increase damage, but charging causes it to overheat, dealing damage to the weapon. Has the same heat UI effect as the Vulcan. does not use ammo, but drains power from batteries/reactors extremely quickly. Would have a 5x1x1 Footprint.

Laser Cutter *NEW!*

>Emits a short "blade" of energy for cutting through armor. Does not shoot a projectile, but extends a blade from the barrel of the weapon to attack as a “melee” weapon. Effectively a weaponized Grinder that doesn't gather resources, requires much more energy, and does much greater damage. Can only fire for about a second before overheating. Would have a 4x1x1 footprint.

Stun Gun *NEW!*

>Non-lethal, close range energy weapon that fires a jolt of electricity to temporarily stun Engineers or disable ship equipment. Deals no damage, but prevents Engineers from using their jetpacks, and shuts down the single targeted Small Block for a few seconds. Would have a 2x1x1 Footprint. Doesn't overheat, but has a short recharge time between uses.

Laser weapons do not apply impulse to targets, and do not have recoil. The overheat mechanic applies to every Laser weapon, to balance them not requiring ammunition. A Laser damaged through overheating must be repaired normally with a Welder. Laser Turrets would have auto-regulators in place to prevent them from overheating, but would be hazardous to use en masse due to their much greater energy usage outside of control of the player.


Large Ships

Autocannon

>Large version of the small ship Autocannon, with 4 barrels for double the rate of fire. Has a 3x1x1 footprint on the large grid. Effectively becomes the Gatling Gun of the Large Grid.

Autocannon Turret

>Turret version of the Small Ship Autocannon. A reliable primary weapon effective against a wide range of targets.

Heavy Cannon

>Powerful "Forward Gun" for Large Ships. Abysmal rate of fire, but incredible destructive power. Has a 6x1x1 footprint on the Large Grid.

Heavy Cannon Turret

>Turreted version of the Heavy Cannon. Has a larger footprint than standard Large Grid Turrets. The "main cannons" for your capital ships.

Flak Turret

>Turreted version of the Flak Cannon. Effective against small fighters and at point defense. Greater rate of fire using 4 individual Flak Cannons on the single turret.

Scatter Rocket Turret

>Turreted version of the Scatter Rocket Launcher. Has two missile pods that fire in a wider spread.

Homing Missile Turret

>Turreted version of the Homing Missile Launcher. Takes longer to lock on than the Small Grid variant, but fires automatically.

Multi-Missile Launcher *NEW!*

>Mounted version of the homing missile launcher, designed to fire missiles directly, or have them arc towards the target. Has a 1x2x1 Footprint, the missiles firing from the long side. Locks on where the user's camera is looking, rather than based on where a turret aims. Can attain lock on through Camera views as well, for immersion purposes.

Bomb Bay

>Large version of the Bomb Launcher. Drops bombs at a much higher rate than the Small Grid variant. Has a 1x1x1 block footprint.

Torpedo Launcher

>Large version of the Torpedo Launcher, can be reloaded via conveyors, but still has a low rate of fire.

Laser Vulcan Turret *NEW!*

>Turret version of the small ship Laser Vulcan. Double the rate of fire, but automatically regulates heat, so it shuts down regularly to dissipate heat, leading to a predictable "burst" style firing pattern.

Laser Cannon Turret *NEW!*

>Turret version of the Small Ship Laser Cannon. Fires a single laser, but doesn't charge up, and automatically regulates heat, giving it a low fire rate. Requires a large amount of power, making mounting multiple turrets dangerous.

Heavy Laser Cannon Turret *NEW!*

>More powerful Laser Cannon Turret that fires a charged up beam. Even lower rate of fire, but greater destructive power. Uses massive amounts of power per shot.


Engineer Weapons

Pistol

>A simple, easy to produce means of self defense, replaces the Assault Rifle as the default weapon. Semi-automatic. Would have Automatic, Silenced (Muffled sound), and Elite (Higher rate of fire and damage) variants.

Shotgun

>A powerful close range pump-action shotgun for repelling boarding parties and hunting Spiders. Has Sawn Off (Shorter barrel, wide spread), Hunting (Long barrel, narrow spread), and Slug (Fires single, big shot) variants.

Sniper Rifle

>A long range bolt-action sniping weapon with a built in scope for picking off drones and ship pilots at long distance. Comes in Semi-Automatic (Faster rate of fire, less accuracy) Bipod (Greater accuracy while crouched) and .50cal (Single shot, deals heavy damage to Light Armor) variants.

Rocket Launcher

>A portable Anti-vehicle rocket launcher. Fires a single standard rocket and takes while to reload. Only has a Homing (Can lock onto and homes in on targets, but missile flies slower) variant.

Crowbar *NEW!*

>A handy engineer's tool repurposed as an emergency melee weapon. Has a quick swing speed, but light damage.

Pipe Wrench *NEW!*

>A handy tool repurposed as an emergency melee weapon. Slow to swing, but heavy damage.

Armored Spacesuit *NEW!*

>A reinforced space suit designed for combat. Offers greater defense and health to the wearer, but has less inventory space, and lower jetpack acceleration makes it trickier to maneuver with.

Medkit *NEW!*

>Portable medical equipment for restoring health to a fellow astronaut. Takes 3 seconds to apply, requiring both medic and target to stand still. Target astronaut regains a 15% of their health immediately, and then recovers more health over time for a short while afterwards, regaining a total of 50% of their health.

Suit Battery *NEW!*

>Portable Suit Battery to recharge energy to a fellow astronaut. Portable battery can recharge 50% of an Astronaut's suit. Recharging takes 3 seconds, turning the Battery into an Empty Battery. Empty Batteries can be recharged when sitting in a cockpit or Passenger seat, or when put into the inventory of a ship.


I understand this is quite a demanding list, but I feel any number of these would make a great addition to the ever expanding game of Space Engineers. Whaddyathink?

Best Answer
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Overall, just way too many weapons. Seriously, we don't need an extra sidegrade in a game more focused around building, and definitely not a massive clutterfunk of lasers.

Small Ship

Light Machine Gun *NEW!*

>A basic weapon for light security drones, the 1x1x1 LMG is essentially an Assault Rifle or Interior Turret mounted to fire in a single direction. Effectively a smaller, weaker version of the Gatling Gun, it can replace the larger weapon on compact designs that need a weapon for defense, but are not directly designed for combat.

Too small, too spammable (imagine three on a boarding minidrone), and doesn't really have a useful niche. It shouldn't be possible to just stick a gun on your miner and have easy self-defense. Either you actually invest in guns on your ship, or go without.

Shotgun

>Close range scattershot weapon, fires a spread of bullets in each shot. Deals heavy damage to light armor at close range. For hit and run attacks against light armor, and anti-engineer combat. Would have a 4x1x1 Footprint.

Probably the most useless thing here. Small ship vs. suit is dominated by turrets, as it's almost impossible to hit a suit by aiming the whole ship. If you're close enough for the shotgun to be effective, you aren't hitting anything because they're spinning around your ship with a grinder.

Autocannon

>Hard hitting, rapid fire weapon. Lower rate of fire than the Gatling Gun, but deals greater damage, and its rounds explode on impact. A heavier sidegrade for anti-large ship combat. Would have a 4x2x1 Footprint.

Would be an ok idea, but adds item/block clutter. There's already anti-large weapons, this isn't really needed.

Heavy Cannon

>Long range high power cannon. Fires a powerful, high velocity round, but has a low rate of fire and high recoil, making it difficult to use on lighter craft and ineffective in close combat. A bulky 6x2x2 footprint.

We already have rockets. It would have to be pretty extreme to actually be different from that (railgun is my preferred idea), but it would be pretty necessary if it manages to work like that.

Flak Cannon

>Old school anti-air artillery brought into space. Fires a shell that explodes into a temporary "Flak" particle effect that damages any grid that flies into it. Shells explode after a short distance, but are great at area denial.

What's the role of this? Flak takes out projectiles and suits, but neither are too much of a threat to small ships. Additionally, you aren't going to be aiming directly at either of these. OK as a turret, to mirror a larger version, but bad otherwise.

Scatter Rocket Launcher

>Wide range rocket launcher for small ships, rapidly fires small, low power rockets for bombarding a wide area. Has a 4x1x1 Footprint. Scatter rockets do low damage, and have a small blast radius, but make up for it with the sheer number of rockets.

There are four types of explosives. This is by far the most pointless. Weapon/ammo clutter, no good role (When would you ever want to just touch all the enemy armor? When are you going to get close enough that it's anywhere near as efficient as the others?), and rocket shotguns aren't half as cool as they sound anyways.

Homing Missile Launcher

>Fires small homing missiles that track targets. Lower rate of fire than standard rocket launcher, and must be reloaded manually, but its tracking ability makes it a powerful weapon against almost any target. Would have a UI effect for indicating a lock on. Can be shot down by point defense. Has a 5x1x1 footprint.

Good idea. It creates a more interesting small-to-small dynamic, and serves as an effective alternative to a normal RL.

Bomb Launcher

>Drops a powerful Bomb that is affected by Gravity (But not Artificial Gravity). Has a wide blast radius and is strong against heavy armor, but can be shot down by point defense. Most effective on planets. Has a 3x3x2 footprint.

Grid torpedoes. Kinda pointless.

Torpedo Launcher

>Single shot heavy missile launcher, fires a slow, powerful rocket that is affected by Gravity (But not Artificial Gravity) Torpedos take longer to shoot down by point defense, but are easily evaded by more mobile craft.

See above.

Interior Turret

>It is time. Please allow us to install Interior Turrets on Small Ships, connecting them to Small Conveyors.

Yes.

Laser Vulcan *NEW!*

>A directed energy weapon that rapidly fires small bolts of energy. Does not use ammunition, but requires ample power, making it taxing on generators and batteries. Can overheat with sustained fire. Overheating applies damage to the weapon, and can make it malfunction and stop firing if it sustains enough damage. Would have a UI effect to indicate heat buildup (A small red circle around the crosshair that fills up as heat increases) Would have a 3x1x1 Footprint.

Apart from being just a gatling with batteries instead of storage/conveyors, and essentially being a flickering laser, it's also an extra laser weapon.

Laser Cannon *NEW!*

>A directed energy weapon that fires a long beam of energy. Semi-automatic, can be charged by holding down the fire button to increase damage, but charging causes it to overheat, dealing damage to the weapon. Has the same heat UI effect as the Vulcan. does not use ammo, but drains power from batteries/reactors extremely quickly. Would have a 5x1x1 Footprint.

This concept gets stuck between the gatty and larger cannon. Also, that's not how lasers work. Just have it do hitscan damage and constantly fire while being used with high power draw. Better that a gatty in a dogfight, but more expensive and much harder to spam because of power requirements.

Laser Cutter *NEW!*

>Emits a short "blade" of energy for cutting through armor. Does not shoot a projectile, but extends a blade from the barrel of the weapon to attack as a “melee” weapon. Effectively a weaponized Grinder that doesn't gather resources, requires much more energy, and does much greater damage. Can only fire for about a second before overheating. Would have a 4x1x1 footprint.

I actually agree with this. A smaller grinder-type block for effective boarding drones would be great.

Stun Gun *NEW!*

>Non-lethal, close range energy weapon that fires a jolt of electricity to temporarily stun Engineers or disable ship equipment. Deals no damage, but prevents Engineers from using their jetpacks, and shuts down the single targeted Small Block for a few seconds. Would have a 2x1x1 Footprint. Doesn't overheat, but has a short recharge time between uses.

Pointless. Why have this when you could have a gatty?

Laser weapons do not apply impulse to targets, and do not have recoil. [Good, makes a great distinction] The overheat mechanic applies to every Laser weapon, to balance them not requiring ammunition. A Laser damaged through overheating must be repaired normally with a Welder. [noob tears, noob tears everywhere!] Laser Turrets would have auto-regulators in place to prevent them from overheating, but would be hazardous to use en masse due to their much greater energy usage outside of control of the player.


Large Ships

Autocannon

>Large version of the small ship Autocannon, with 4 barrels for double the rate of fire. Has a 3x1x1 footprint on the large grid. Effectively becomes the Gatling Gun of the Large Grid.

Same as small Autocannon. Unnecessary sidegrade.

Autocannon Turret

>Turret version of the Small Ship Autocannon. A reliable primary weapon effective against a wide range of targets.

See above.

Heavy Cannon

>Powerful "Forward Gun" for Large Ships. Abysmal rate of fire, but incredible destructive power. Has a 6x1x1 footprint on the Large Grid.

Again, I like the term "Railgun" to make it more distinct and sci-fi. But good idea.

Heavy Cannon Turret

>Turreted version of the Heavy Cannon. Has a larger footprint than standard Large Grid Turrets. The "main cannons" for your capital ships.

See above.

Flak Turret

>Turreted version of the Flak Cannon. Effective against small fighters and at point defense. Greater rate of fire using 4 individual Flak Cannons on the single turret.

YES. A counter for suits and missiles.

Scatter Rocket Turret

>Turreted version of the Scatter Rocket Launcher. Has two missile pods that fire in a wider spread.

See small rocket shotgun, but even worse because you almost never close with a large ship.

Homing Missile Turret

>Turreted version of the Homing Missile Launcher. Takes longer to lock on than the Small Grid variant, but fires automatically.

See small ship entry. Good idea for making small ship combat interesting.

Multi-Missile Launcher *NEW!*

>Mounted version of the homing missile launcher, designed to fire missiles directly, or have them arc towards the target. Has a 1x2x1 Footprint, the missiles firing from the long side. Locks on where the user's camera is looking, rather than based on where a turret aims. Can attain lock on through Camera views as well, for immersion purposes.

Nope. Grid missiles are better for this, and you'd have to turn the whole ship for it to be useful.

Bomb Bay

>Large version of the Bomb Launcher. Drops bombs at a much higher rate than the Small Grid variant. Has a 1x1x1 block footprint.

Grid missiles.

Torpedo Launcher

>Large version of the Torpedo Launcher, can be reloaded via conveyors, but still has a low rate of fire.

Grid missiles.

Laser Vulcan Turret *NEW!*

>Turret version of the small ship Laser Vulcan. Double the rate of fire, but automatically regulates heat, so it shuts down regularly to dissipate heat, leading to a predictable "burst" style firing pattern.

Same with the small vulcan. Just halfway between a laser turret and a gatty, so it's kind of pointless.

Laser Cannon Turret *NEW!*

>Turret version of the Small Ship Laser Cannon. Fires a single laser, but doesn't charge up, and automatically regulates heat, giving it a low fire rate. Requires a large amount of power, making mounting multiple turrets dangerous.

Maybe? It's like the small ship laser cannon, but it makes small ships obsolete because of how much power generation you can pack into a large ship.

Heavy Laser Cannon Turret *NEW!*

>More powerful Laser Cannon Turret that fires a charged up beam. Even lower rate of fire, but greater destructive power. Uses massive amounts of power per shot.

Pointless sidegrade.

Engineer Weapons

Pistol

>A simple, easy to produce means of self defense, replaces the Assault Rifle as the default weapon. Semi-automatic. Would have Automatic, Silenced (Muffled sound), and Elite (Higher rate of fire and damage) variants.

Ok, and only ok. Basic weapon is kinda good, but weapon clutter is kinda bad.

Shotgun

>A powerful close range pump-action shotgun for repelling boarding parties and hunting Spiders. Has Sawn Off (Shorter barrel, wide spread), Hunting (Long barrel, narrow spread), and Slug (Fires single, big shot) variants.

Sniper Rifle

>A long range bolt-action sniping weapon with a built in scope for picking off drones and ship pilots at long distance. Comes in Semi-Automatic (Faster rate of fire, less accuracy) Bipod (Greater accuracy while crouched) and .50cal (Single shot, deals heavy damage to Light Armor) variants.

[Shotgun + Sniper]

We have the AR for primary suit-to-suit combat. Both of these are primarily useful in suit-to-suit. SE is about building things. So these weapons are just clutter.

Rocket Launcher

>A portable Anti-vehicle rocket launcher. Fires a single standard rocket and takes while to reload. Only has a Homing (Can lock onto and homes in on targets, but missile flies slower) variant.

Yes. Suit-to-ship needs this.

Crowbar *NEW!*

>A handy engineer's tool repurposed as an emergency melee weapon. Has a quick swing speed, but light damage.

Pipe Wrench *NEW!*

>A handy tool repurposed as an emergency melee weapon. Slow to swing, but heavy damage.

[Crowbar + Pipe Wrench]

Same as [Shotgun + Sniper], but with the Grinder instead.

Armored Spacesuit *NEW!*

>A reinforced space suit designed for combat. Offers greater defense and health to the wearer, but has less inventory space, and lower jetpack acceleration makes it trickier to maneuver with.

It's probably better to have this as part of a full suit overhaul instead of a jury-rigged one-off.

Medkit *NEW!*

>Portable medical equipment for restoring health to a fellow astronaut. Takes 3 seconds to apply, requiring both medic and target to stand still. Target astronaut regains a 15% of their health immediately, and then recovers more health over time for a short while afterwards, regaining a total of 50% of their health.

Suit Battery *NEW!*

>Portable Suit Battery to recharge energy to a fellow astronaut. Portable battery can recharge 50% of an Astronaut's suit. Recharging takes 3 seconds, turning the Battery into an Empty Battery. Empty Batteries can be recharged when sitting in a cockpit or Passenger seat, or when put into the inventory of a ship.

[Medkit + Suit Battery]

Don't we already have these? Both are good ideas, but I think they already exist.


Overall, this is a mixed bag. Just try to remember that combat isn't the focus of SE, so maximizing variety with minimal cost is the one thing that's most required.

Replies (7)

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i really like the idea

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Also guided missiles, new warheads, cannons/mortars ie 120mm smoothboor

Tank tracks

Helicopter parts

The ability to make large grid and small grid connect

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Some examples are the leopard 2a7, abrams or the eurofighter or f35 aswell for helicopters eurocopter tiger or apache

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Overall, just way too many weapons. Seriously, we don't need an extra sidegrade in a game more focused around building, and definitely not a massive clutterfunk of lasers.

Small Ship

Light Machine Gun *NEW!*

>A basic weapon for light security drones, the 1x1x1 LMG is essentially an Assault Rifle or Interior Turret mounted to fire in a single direction. Effectively a smaller, weaker version of the Gatling Gun, it can replace the larger weapon on compact designs that need a weapon for defense, but are not directly designed for combat.

Too small, too spammable (imagine three on a boarding minidrone), and doesn't really have a useful niche. It shouldn't be possible to just stick a gun on your miner and have easy self-defense. Either you actually invest in guns on your ship, or go without.

Shotgun

>Close range scattershot weapon, fires a spread of bullets in each shot. Deals heavy damage to light armor at close range. For hit and run attacks against light armor, and anti-engineer combat. Would have a 4x1x1 Footprint.

Probably the most useless thing here. Small ship vs. suit is dominated by turrets, as it's almost impossible to hit a suit by aiming the whole ship. If you're close enough for the shotgun to be effective, you aren't hitting anything because they're spinning around your ship with a grinder.

Autocannon

>Hard hitting, rapid fire weapon. Lower rate of fire than the Gatling Gun, but deals greater damage, and its rounds explode on impact. A heavier sidegrade for anti-large ship combat. Would have a 4x2x1 Footprint.

Would be an ok idea, but adds item/block clutter. There's already anti-large weapons, this isn't really needed.

Heavy Cannon

>Long range high power cannon. Fires a powerful, high velocity round, but has a low rate of fire and high recoil, making it difficult to use on lighter craft and ineffective in close combat. A bulky 6x2x2 footprint.

We already have rockets. It would have to be pretty extreme to actually be different from that (railgun is my preferred idea), but it would be pretty necessary if it manages to work like that.

Flak Cannon

>Old school anti-air artillery brought into space. Fires a shell that explodes into a temporary "Flak" particle effect that damages any grid that flies into it. Shells explode after a short distance, but are great at area denial.

What's the role of this? Flak takes out projectiles and suits, but neither are too much of a threat to small ships. Additionally, you aren't going to be aiming directly at either of these. OK as a turret, to mirror a larger version, but bad otherwise.

Scatter Rocket Launcher

>Wide range rocket launcher for small ships, rapidly fires small, low power rockets for bombarding a wide area. Has a 4x1x1 Footprint. Scatter rockets do low damage, and have a small blast radius, but make up for it with the sheer number of rockets.

There are four types of explosives. This is by far the most pointless. Weapon/ammo clutter, no good role (When would you ever want to just touch all the enemy armor? When are you going to get close enough that it's anywhere near as efficient as the others?), and rocket shotguns aren't half as cool as they sound anyways.

Homing Missile Launcher

>Fires small homing missiles that track targets. Lower rate of fire than standard rocket launcher, and must be reloaded manually, but its tracking ability makes it a powerful weapon against almost any target. Would have a UI effect for indicating a lock on. Can be shot down by point defense. Has a 5x1x1 footprint.

Good idea. It creates a more interesting small-to-small dynamic, and serves as an effective alternative to a normal RL.

Bomb Launcher

>Drops a powerful Bomb that is affected by Gravity (But not Artificial Gravity). Has a wide blast radius and is strong against heavy armor, but can be shot down by point defense. Most effective on planets. Has a 3x3x2 footprint.

Grid torpedoes. Kinda pointless.

Torpedo Launcher

>Single shot heavy missile launcher, fires a slow, powerful rocket that is affected by Gravity (But not Artificial Gravity) Torpedos take longer to shoot down by point defense, but are easily evaded by more mobile craft.

See above.

Interior Turret

>It is time. Please allow us to install Interior Turrets on Small Ships, connecting them to Small Conveyors.

Yes.

Laser Vulcan *NEW!*

>A directed energy weapon that rapidly fires small bolts of energy. Does not use ammunition, but requires ample power, making it taxing on generators and batteries. Can overheat with sustained fire. Overheating applies damage to the weapon, and can make it malfunction and stop firing if it sustains enough damage. Would have a UI effect to indicate heat buildup (A small red circle around the crosshair that fills up as heat increases) Would have a 3x1x1 Footprint.

Apart from being just a gatling with batteries instead of storage/conveyors, and essentially being a flickering laser, it's also an extra laser weapon.

Laser Cannon *NEW!*

>A directed energy weapon that fires a long beam of energy. Semi-automatic, can be charged by holding down the fire button to increase damage, but charging causes it to overheat, dealing damage to the weapon. Has the same heat UI effect as the Vulcan. does not use ammo, but drains power from batteries/reactors extremely quickly. Would have a 5x1x1 Footprint.

This concept gets stuck between the gatty and larger cannon. Also, that's not how lasers work. Just have it do hitscan damage and constantly fire while being used with high power draw. Better that a gatty in a dogfight, but more expensive and much harder to spam because of power requirements.

Laser Cutter *NEW!*

>Emits a short "blade" of energy for cutting through armor. Does not shoot a projectile, but extends a blade from the barrel of the weapon to attack as a “melee” weapon. Effectively a weaponized Grinder that doesn't gather resources, requires much more energy, and does much greater damage. Can only fire for about a second before overheating. Would have a 4x1x1 footprint.

I actually agree with this. A smaller grinder-type block for effective boarding drones would be great.

Stun Gun *NEW!*

>Non-lethal, close range energy weapon that fires a jolt of electricity to temporarily stun Engineers or disable ship equipment. Deals no damage, but prevents Engineers from using their jetpacks, and shuts down the single targeted Small Block for a few seconds. Would have a 2x1x1 Footprint. Doesn't overheat, but has a short recharge time between uses.

Pointless. Why have this when you could have a gatty?

Laser weapons do not apply impulse to targets, and do not have recoil. [Good, makes a great distinction] The overheat mechanic applies to every Laser weapon, to balance them not requiring ammunition. A Laser damaged through overheating must be repaired normally with a Welder. [noob tears, noob tears everywhere!] Laser Turrets would have auto-regulators in place to prevent them from overheating, but would be hazardous to use en masse due to their much greater energy usage outside of control of the player.


Large Ships

Autocannon

>Large version of the small ship Autocannon, with 4 barrels for double the rate of fire. Has a 3x1x1 footprint on the large grid. Effectively becomes the Gatling Gun of the Large Grid.

Same as small Autocannon. Unnecessary sidegrade.

Autocannon Turret

>Turret version of the Small Ship Autocannon. A reliable primary weapon effective against a wide range of targets.

See above.

Heavy Cannon

>Powerful "Forward Gun" for Large Ships. Abysmal rate of fire, but incredible destructive power. Has a 6x1x1 footprint on the Large Grid.

Again, I like the term "Railgun" to make it more distinct and sci-fi. But good idea.

Heavy Cannon Turret

>Turreted version of the Heavy Cannon. Has a larger footprint than standard Large Grid Turrets. The "main cannons" for your capital ships.

See above.

Flak Turret

>Turreted version of the Flak Cannon. Effective against small fighters and at point defense. Greater rate of fire using 4 individual Flak Cannons on the single turret.

YES. A counter for suits and missiles.

Scatter Rocket Turret

>Turreted version of the Scatter Rocket Launcher. Has two missile pods that fire in a wider spread.

See small rocket shotgun, but even worse because you almost never close with a large ship.

Homing Missile Turret

>Turreted version of the Homing Missile Launcher. Takes longer to lock on than the Small Grid variant, but fires automatically.

See small ship entry. Good idea for making small ship combat interesting.

Multi-Missile Launcher *NEW!*

>Mounted version of the homing missile launcher, designed to fire missiles directly, or have them arc towards the target. Has a 1x2x1 Footprint, the missiles firing from the long side. Locks on where the user's camera is looking, rather than based on where a turret aims. Can attain lock on through Camera views as well, for immersion purposes.

Nope. Grid missiles are better for this, and you'd have to turn the whole ship for it to be useful.

Bomb Bay

>Large version of the Bomb Launcher. Drops bombs at a much higher rate than the Small Grid variant. Has a 1x1x1 block footprint.

Grid missiles.

Torpedo Launcher

>Large version of the Torpedo Launcher, can be reloaded via conveyors, but still has a low rate of fire.

Grid missiles.

Laser Vulcan Turret *NEW!*

>Turret version of the small ship Laser Vulcan. Double the rate of fire, but automatically regulates heat, so it shuts down regularly to dissipate heat, leading to a predictable "burst" style firing pattern.

Same with the small vulcan. Just halfway between a laser turret and a gatty, so it's kind of pointless.

Laser Cannon Turret *NEW!*

>Turret version of the Small Ship Laser Cannon. Fires a single laser, but doesn't charge up, and automatically regulates heat, giving it a low fire rate. Requires a large amount of power, making mounting multiple turrets dangerous.

Maybe? It's like the small ship laser cannon, but it makes small ships obsolete because of how much power generation you can pack into a large ship.

Heavy Laser Cannon Turret *NEW!*

>More powerful Laser Cannon Turret that fires a charged up beam. Even lower rate of fire, but greater destructive power. Uses massive amounts of power per shot.

Pointless sidegrade.

Engineer Weapons

Pistol

>A simple, easy to produce means of self defense, replaces the Assault Rifle as the default weapon. Semi-automatic. Would have Automatic, Silenced (Muffled sound), and Elite (Higher rate of fire and damage) variants.

Ok, and only ok. Basic weapon is kinda good, but weapon clutter is kinda bad.

Shotgun

>A powerful close range pump-action shotgun for repelling boarding parties and hunting Spiders. Has Sawn Off (Shorter barrel, wide spread), Hunting (Long barrel, narrow spread), and Slug (Fires single, big shot) variants.

Sniper Rifle

>A long range bolt-action sniping weapon with a built in scope for picking off drones and ship pilots at long distance. Comes in Semi-Automatic (Faster rate of fire, less accuracy) Bipod (Greater accuracy while crouched) and .50cal (Single shot, deals heavy damage to Light Armor) variants.

[Shotgun + Sniper]

We have the AR for primary suit-to-suit combat. Both of these are primarily useful in suit-to-suit. SE is about building things. So these weapons are just clutter.

Rocket Launcher

>A portable Anti-vehicle rocket launcher. Fires a single standard rocket and takes while to reload. Only has a Homing (Can lock onto and homes in on targets, but missile flies slower) variant.

Yes. Suit-to-ship needs this.

Crowbar *NEW!*

>A handy engineer's tool repurposed as an emergency melee weapon. Has a quick swing speed, but light damage.

Pipe Wrench *NEW!*

>A handy tool repurposed as an emergency melee weapon. Slow to swing, but heavy damage.

[Crowbar + Pipe Wrench]

Same as [Shotgun + Sniper], but with the Grinder instead.

Armored Spacesuit *NEW!*

>A reinforced space suit designed for combat. Offers greater defense and health to the wearer, but has less inventory space, and lower jetpack acceleration makes it trickier to maneuver with.

It's probably better to have this as part of a full suit overhaul instead of a jury-rigged one-off.

Medkit *NEW!*

>Portable medical equipment for restoring health to a fellow astronaut. Takes 3 seconds to apply, requiring both medic and target to stand still. Target astronaut regains a 15% of their health immediately, and then recovers more health over time for a short while afterwards, regaining a total of 50% of their health.

Suit Battery *NEW!*

>Portable Suit Battery to recharge energy to a fellow astronaut. Portable battery can recharge 50% of an Astronaut's suit. Recharging takes 3 seconds, turning the Battery into an Empty Battery. Empty Batteries can be recharged when sitting in a cockpit or Passenger seat, or when put into the inventory of a ship.

[Medkit + Suit Battery]

Don't we already have these? Both are good ideas, but I think they already exist.


Overall, this is a mixed bag. Just try to remember that combat isn't the focus of SE, so maximizing variety with minimal cost is the one thing that's most required.

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I really appreciate the time you took to write all of this out. More weapons, and a broader variety of weapons, will always be better than being stuck with two. So miss me with the "Why do we need this? we already have rockets!" nonsense. Also, the "We don't need this because clutter" makes 0 sense when our build menu has sorting and search options. With those two major issues out of the way, I'll approach your arguments from the top:


>Too small, too spammable (imagine three on a boarding minidrone), and doesn't really have a useful niche.

You just proved the initial argument wrong in the same sentence. Use it for a boarding minidrone. Use it for a lightly armed security drone. Use it for basic defense on mining craft. 100% has a purpose and a niche. You could do the same thing with Interior Turrets as well, but having a turret doesn't invalidate a fixed version of the weapon.

>Probably the most useless thing here. Small ship vs. suit is dominated by turrets, as it's almost impossible to hit a suit by aiming the whole ship.

You clearly never put more than one gyro on your craft, huh? It also has applications in vs light armor/drone combat. Absolutely not useless.

>Would be an ok idea, but adds item/block clutter.

See the above dismissal of "clutter" argument. We have search and sort functions already.

>We already have rockets.

See the above dismissal of "we already have rockets".

>What's the role of this?

Read the description of the weapon (Flak Gun). This would create temporary particle effects that damage suits, projectiles, and small grids that fly through them. The fixed version of the weapons would be great for custom built turrets, as well as heavy anti-fighter craft and bombers.

>There are four types of explosives. This is by far the most pointless. Weapon/ammo clutter, no good role (When would you ever want to just touch all the enemy armor? When are you going to get close enough that it's anywhere near as efficient as the others?)

When the enemy has a lot of equipment on the surface of their ship/base and you want to damage it all at once. Its an area of effect/saturation weapon.

>Grid torpedoes. Kinda pointless.

Not in the slightest. Grid torpedoes cannot be reloaded via conveyors or armed via repairing the hardpoint with a welder. Might as well call the gatling pointless because we have rockets.

>Also, that's not how lasers work.

I guess calling them "plasma" would have been better. Forgot that people get picky about naming things. The Plasma Vulcan would fire small bolts of energy (Lower ROF, Higher spread, but greater damage than gatty, no impulse or recoil) While the Plasma Cannon would fire a powerful, high velocity bolt that can be charged up to be more destructive. The charge function is only present on the small ship mounted versions.

Now that you mention it, an actual Laser turret would be great for shooting down missiles and meteors, but would be completely OP against suits and possibly small ships.

>Pointless. Why have this when you could have a gatty?

Gattys aren't non-lethal.

>Same as small Autocannon. Unnecessary sidegrade.

Not so. Large Grids currently do not have a forward facing, rapid fire weapon.

>Again, I like the term "Railgun" to make it more distinct and sci-fi. But good idea.

Railguns would be their own weapon. Shell firing cannons are plenty sci-fi. Haven't you ever watched Battlestar Galactica? A Railgun would be overkill for most applications, since it would over-penetrate Light Armor, making it more useful against Large Grid Heavy Armor.

>See small rocket shotgun, but even worse because you almost never close with a large ship.

That's more your personal play style, my friend. And again, its more for area of effect. The turret version would also do well in defending the ship against fighters.

>Nope. Grid missiles are better for this, and you'd have to turn the whole ship for it to be useful.

So making something several times the size, at several times the cost is better??? I don't think you understood the description of the weapon. Missiles from the MML can fire straight, or vertically (Or sideways, depending on where you put it) and then turn towards the locked on target.

>Grid missiles.

Again, not an argument.

>It's like the small ship laser cannon, but it makes small ships obsolete because of how much power generation you can pack into a large ship.

Then Small Ships are already obsolete because of how many gatling turrets you can put on them. And see the Plasma clarification above.

>but weapon clutter is kinda bad.

Clutter is a non-argument since we have search and sort already in our menus. The Shotgun and DMR/Sniper would both fill their standard video game roles and give a better variety to person to person combat.


Of course I'm not holding my breath for ALL of these weapons, and I'd be more than happy with just a few being added, but I believe any one of these would have a place in our arsenal and make the game more fun. Variety is the spice of life and more ways to blow things up are important for a game about building things to blow up.


P.S. I really should have included a Railgun. No idea why I forgot. I'll add it here, since I can't edit my main post.

Large Ship

Railgun *NEW*

>A powerful ballistic weapon that uses energy to fire a solid alloy slug at great speeds, granting immense penetrative and destructive power against heavily armored ships. Over-penetrates light armor, making it less efficient against light armor and small craft. Would have a large 7x2x1 footprint, and use massive amounts of power.

Railgun Turret *NEW*

>Turreted version of the Railgun. Has a limited vertical angle, requiring you to angle the ship properly, and making it ineffective versus more mobile craft. Has a large 7x7x4 footprint.

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The problem is that more weapons cause worse performance and make it harder for new people to get into the game, as well as taking up the devs' time. Adding multiple slight variants of a similar idea just takes up resources which could be used for other things. Additionally, more weapons without major differences between them create balance issues. We already have ridiculously OP small gatty walls o' doom. Without tons of effort, a complex weapon system simply degenerates into a small selection of weapons which are simply the best in their role, with other, weaker options that are useless for PvP.

Essentially, more weapons by themselves are mildly negative, and need to be pretty distinct to be worth adding.

> You just proved the initial argument wrong in the same sentence. Use it for a boarding minidrone. Use it for a lightly armed security drone. Use it for basic defense on mining craft. 100% has a purpose and a niche. You could do the same thing with Interior Turrets as well, but having a turret doesn't invalidate a fixed version of the weapon.

No worthwhile niche. If you just stick one on your ship for self-defense, it gets massively outclassed by more than one gatling gun on an actual attack ship. Barring a miracle, it's almost entirely useless in that role. If you spam them on a small drone, they're basically a direct upgrade to the gatling gun because of space constraints.

> You clearly never put more than one gyro on your craft, huh? It also has applications in vs light armor/drone combat. Absolutely not useless.

If you're outside melee range, a gatling gun is almost always better. If you're in melee range, you need truly ridiculous tracking and timing to land a hit. The suit's jetpack has extreme acceleration, and more gyros make it only technically possible to keep up.

> See the above dismissal of "clutter" argument. We have search and sort functions already.

If you want anti-large, you mount a rocket launcher. If you want anti-small, you mount a gatty. Generalists almost always end up OP or useless because it's too easy to simply use a specialized tool for any given job. And search and sort isn't the issue.

> See the above dismissal of "we already have rockets".

Above response. Having two very similar options isn't worth the effort. Which is why it needs to be extremified to the normal railgun concept.

> Read the description of the weapon (Flak Gun). This would create temporary particle effects that damage suits, projectiles, and small grids that fly through them. The fixed version of the weapons would be great for custom built turrets, as well as heavy anti-fighter craft and bombers.

I didn't think of custom turrets. That definitely pushes them over into "worth implementing" territory. I still think that this weapon would be superseded by gatties in almost all standard applications, assuming a minimum level of aim.

> When the enemy has a lot of equipment on the surface of their ship/base and you want to damage it all at once. Its an area of effect/saturation weapon.

In that role, it would be against tons of unarmored blocks. Essentially a newbie raiding tool. Which isn't great for balance, and implies that it would often be phased out in favor of more anti-armor weapons in actual combat. Given the limited roles and hit to sim speed when used, I still think it isn't good enough to implement.

> Not in the slightest. Grid torpedoes cannot be reloaded via conveyors or armed via repairing the hardpoint with a welder. Might as well call the gatling pointless because we have rockets.

They're printable and very effective, if you put some effort into their design. And have a very similar role to your torpedoes.

> I guess calling them "plasma" would have been better. Forgot that people get picky about naming things. The Plasma Vulcan would fire small bolts of energy (Lower ROF, Higher spread, but greater damage than gatty, no impulse or recoil) While the Plasma Cannon would fire a powerful, high velocity bolt that can be charged up to be more destructive. The charge function is only present on the small ship mounted versions.

So the Plasma Vulcan is a restat around the gatty and autocannon, with power instead of ammo. Still not worth the effort to make unless there's something radically different. And the Plasma Cannon is a corresponding variant of the heavy cannon. Also not very unique, especially given that we have rockets.

> Now that you mention it, an actual Laser turret would be great for shooting down missiles and meteors, but would be completely OP against suits and possibly small ships.

Which is why I love the idea as long as we keep it to fixed variants.

> Gattys aren't non-lethal.

And there's no reason to even have non-lethal weapons, given that at best you can make some sort of player trap which is about as fun as permastun mechanics in other games.

> Not so. Large Grids currently do not have a forward facing, rapid fire weapon.

Do they even need fixed, rapid fire weapons? If so, a large fixed gatty variant would be more different to the rocket launcher, and take less effort to implement.

> Railguns would be their own weapon. Shell firing cannons are plenty sci-fi. Haven't you ever watched Battlestar Galactica? A Railgun would be overkill for most applications, since it would over-penetrate Light Armor, making it more useful against Large Grid Heavy Armor.

The main issue that I have with it is that they're just too similar in many applications. While the BSG final battle was far too cool for the actual ending, heavy cannons are sandwiched between railguns and rockets, so they can't be a priority. Also, have you ever seen a PvP ship? Railguns being overkill against light armor just means that they're adequate against a player's main fighting ship.

> That's more your personal play style, my friend. And again, its more for area of effect. The turret version would also do well in defending the ship against fighters.

Large ships don't have the acceleration to close before the enemy can get away. Against fighters, it's horrifically inefficient and has to compete with gatties and flaks for the role. And, as before, newbie raiding isn't exactly a good thing to specialize in.

> So making something several times the size, at several times the cost is better??? I don't think you understood the description of the weapon. Missiles from the MML can fire straight, or vertically (Or sideways, depending on where you put it) and then turn towards the locked on target.

Honestly, that whole description is pretty confusing. I interpreted it as a missile launcher that tracks towards the pilot's crosshairs. From what you're saying here, it acts halfway between a rocket launcher and a grid missile with a basic AI. I suppose it could be kind of useful, but I'm not sure why it's different enough from a front-facing rocket launcher to be worth implementing.

> Again, not an argument.

Multiple, very similar weapons, aren't worth the effort to implement. Especially when there's a solution that requires actual engineering skill to be much more effective in doing. Why put effort into designing a self-rewelding warhead bomb when you can just spam a bunch of bomb bays on the bottom of your ship and call it a day? It's like introducing a cheap aimbot upgrade in a FPS.

> Then Small Ships are already obsolete because of how many gatling turrets you can put on them. And see the Plasma clarification above.

With that clarification, it ends up just competing for a place with the other generalist turrets. Minor stat and resource differences, but ultimately one's going to be meta while the others are unused.

> Clutter is a non-argument since we have search and sort already in our menus. The Shotgun and DMR/Sniper would both fill their standard video game roles and give a better variety to person to person combat.

I didn't really explain clutter clearly, but it's basically putting effort into things which don't have a defined enough role to avoid creating a meta. Like how the various higher-RoF turrets have some stat and resource differences, but not enough to have specific jobs. On the other hand, the Flak Turret and Railgun are different enough from the Gatty and RL, respectively, to be much more effective in some scenarios while much weaker in others.

Also, this game isn't about suit-to-suit. Spending much time on suit-to-suit combat isn't going to enhance gameplay by much unless there's something really unique about it. If people want gunplay, they'll go to CS:GO.

Large Ship


Railgun *NEW*

>A powerful ballistic weapon that uses energy to fire a solid alloy slug at great speeds, granting immense penetrative and destructive power against heavily armored ships. Over-penetrates light armor, making it less efficient against light armor and small craft. Would have a large 7x2x1 footprint, and use massive amounts of power.

Railgun Turret *NEW*

>Turreted version of the Railgun. Has a limited vertical angle, requiring you to angle the ship properly, and making it ineffective versus more mobile craft. Has a large 7x7x4 footprint.

Oh, it's beautiful.

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Years into development. Several DLC's. "1.0 Release". Not one hint of ever adding anything more than the 3 weapons already in game. Dozens of previous posts about updating/expanding the weapon library, never so much as a wink and a nod from the devs.

At this point, does anyone really believe they are going to add more weapons?

Next you should ask for compound blocks and liquid water!

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They added hinge rotors in the most recent update after years of them being requested. I get that you're tying to be smug but it isn't really an argument.

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Smug or no... do you honestly believe they will be instituting more weapons after this long, after all the posts requesting it?

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I didn't think they were going to add hinges. And then they did. There's no way of knowing what they will or will not add.

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Fair enough.

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We don't want to turn this game into some focued PVP game.. some of us like a balance between PVP and PVE with using basic weapons that don't just over-kill and make the game that much more frustrating. The more added, the more folks can explote and hack the game and make weapons do 10 times the amount of damage or tweak things beyond their intended design.

Some folk just play all day and get so good at weaponry they just such the game fun out of the casual players. I like the standard issue gun... Maybe adding a rocket launcher with ability to carry some ammo for it for larger ships or something, but nothing off-the-wall entrenched.

We don't need another Fortnite or World Of Warcraft or Call of Duty with tons-'n-tons of weapons to add to the confusion & more things to possibly break during updates.The game is meant to unleash your creativity to make things, not have PVP fights that wreck everything with a couple shoots.If you want a PVP focused with lots of weapons, those games above are perfect for ya.

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To counter your argument some people like the pvp aspect and also some people who want to play PVE want better defense for their bases

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You're entirely forgetting about things like enemy drones and spiders, as well as custom missions with their own drones and enemy ships. Space Engineers already has PVP aspects, and they can be expanded upon to offer more content and get more people playing.

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At present, you can do that right now. And there's less overhead to worry about with the current setup. less ammo to get mixed up with what works with what. The current weapon does pretty good damage in the grand scheme of things to ships.

And like mentioned , there are games that focus on PVP.

not every game has to be so involved with pvping that there wasn't much room for PVE.

I like the option of having 1 maybe 2 weapons of guns to shoot an enemy. Less clutter on the base / platforms.

Then you need one of each weapon to deal damage to a particular set of armor or particular set of ships and if you're missing me weapon, then they find a loophole to kill you.

when you have just a couple of weapons, you can build a ship that at least holds better in a fight.

If you are the attacker ship, then you have five different weapon shooting at you, the performance of the game and your possible ability to see anything as things are blowing up and flying off your ship can be blinding not allowing you to fight back.

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I really do not understand why people think "clutter" or "getting mixed up" is an issue at all. You have a search bar for both your inventory and the build menu. 0 reason to think "muh clutter" is any sort of argument. The "Please no more PvP ever" people are in the small, but apparently loud minority. Not everyone is content with playing Space Engineers as a lifeless ship building simulator with extremely shallow and barebones combat. What is the point of building a warship if you're not going to actually use it?

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Also for xbox frostbite is coming out soon and some new guns may be in that for xbox

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They aren't going to break platform mirroring. That would be suicidal, and not even Keen's more questionable decisions are quite that bad.

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You never know

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If/when the combat update drops, it'll be the biggest event for the playerbase since planets. You'd have to go lobotomize the whole company for them to even dream of bundling it in with an old update and releasing it only on a secondary platform. "You never know" is about as inapplicable here as it gets with Keen.

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It's applicable in some contexts. For example, no one suspected they would add weather or Hinges despite them being requested for years. I remember when they first started they were originally "We will NEVER add planets" and now we have planets. It's impossible to tell what decisions they will make, what they will or will not add to which version of the game.

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As an artillery guy one thing I must add to this is an artillery piece, I'd say in terms of SE the most fitting and useful would be something akin to a heavy vehicle mortar akin to the ones found on the AMOS and NEMO. Slow projectiles 200-300ms with the explosive yield of lets say the small warhead and a total travel range in the region of 10km to account for their use as indirect fire weapons.

There could even be a large ship version with similar properties but the yield of a large warhead and even grater range for orbital bombardment. For ship to ship use the balancing factor would the the relatively slow projectile speed making them relatively easy to dodge

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