This topic was directly inspired by @Lingontuva's shower thoughts post and the proceeding conversation. Go take a look there first to get a little more context.
Background
I'm sure all of you who have spent enough time with Starbase understand that there is a strange disconnect between the vision of the game when it comes to mulit-crew ships and the actuality of the matter. Most of us would like to see massive ships with at least handfuls of players manning turrets and managing systems while being able to repair holes to keep the ship in the fight. I think its safe to say that we also want to see fighters dodging shots and skillfully destroying other fighters and slowly picking away at large ships' vital systems.
Currently, It is always more viable to have neither of these. Small fighters do have a bit of a place if either attacking un/lightly-armed enemies or if in the hands of a very skilled pilot. Otherwise, massive "fighters" with tons of guns and armor are more often the preferred choice for more competitive play.
This topic doesn't aim to solve all the issues to find that balance and to encourage and allow many playstyles, but it does attempt to add two more tools that could be used to that aim: large guns and weapon recoil.
Large Weapons
We are currently given the selection of weapons in approximately three categories: Standard (Autocannon, Laser Cannon, Plasma Thrower, [and Flak if it were to come out]), Self-propelled (Rockets, Torpedos), and Medium (Rail Cannon). I suggest adding another class that while possible to use on single pilot ships, works far better if a second person is there to help.
The class of large weapons would have two major characteristics, very low ammo count, and easy reloadability. Additionally, they would be physically large and consume much power and create much heat. Let me provide two examples of a potential large weapons so we have some reference point to discuss.
Buster
This large cannon is based off of a shotgun. As such, it can be loaded with either shot (many small pellets that spread out and are good for hitting small targets) or slugs (solid shots that do significant damage to anything they hit, maybe even have an explosive filler). The cannon can be mounted in three ways to a ship: A large weapon mount version of the ball turret that has a reloading station protruding below it, a broadside turret (new turret type similar to the ball turret in how it works but less exposed), or a fixed large weapon mount.
The cannon has at the back (or bottom in the case of the ball turret) a place to put ammo clip with somewhere in the range of 5-10 shots. Once depleted, the clip is spent and another can be inserted without removing the previous (this is a clip not a magazine). In this way, a loader can make sure all the guns are topped up and change ammo type on the fly. If a large enemy ship comes into range, time to load slugs. If suddenly swarmed by fighters, hope that your normal guns can hold them off long enough until your loader can switch your busters to shot.
Any size ship could potentially have these cannons mounted but with such a small number of shots, they would either have to carry many of them, only use it sparingly alongside other weapons, or be reloaded mid-fight by either the pilot or a second crew member.
The massive amount of damage this weapon can cause will make many want to use it but it will be most effective when multiple players are in the ship that is armed with them.
Core Melter
For those not interested in combat, here is an idea for a large "weapon" that could necessitate, or at least incentivize, multi-crew mining operations. The Core melter is a short range, wide-beamed laser that can melt through asteroids in seconds. However, this comes at the cost of requiring special fuel cells to function (or coolant cells) that need to be replaced very frequently.
These could be mounted in all the same ways as the "buster" above but would be most effective when in one of the turret type mounts since the ease of aiming would be best for getting through an asteroid without missing spots. In any mounting configuration, the cells would need to be replaced after a time in the range of 3-5 seconds of use. If a miner is alone, he or she would have to constantly be getting up to swap the cells, but if multiple crew were on board, an asteroid could be mined in just seconds without anyone having to leave their posts.
Side Note: Ammo Count
One aspect that allows fighters of any size to remain in the fight is how much ammo they have. A possible way to limit the effectiveness of fighters against large ships could be to reduce the amount of ammo in the magazines significantly. If a fighter can only fight one or two fighters without running out of ammo, then large carrier / resupply ships might be required for single-crew ships to work at peak performance. Multi-crew ships would not be as burdened since guns could be reloaded. I suggest removing the large ammo boxes that were added in one of the later patches after launch as a start.
Weapon Recoil
The concept behind adding recoil to weapons is to try to diversify the ship designs by making many efficiency peaks based on the number and type of weapons used. For those unfamiliar, "recoil" is the force felt by a gun pushing back upon the shooter as a reaction to the bullet leaving the gun with some amount of energy. Bigger/faster bullets produce more recoil.
This concept of adding recoil would work nicely with the above large weapons to help solidify them as tools for large ships. They could be mounted to small ships, but if not properly balanced, they could spin the ship completely around if mounted far enough away from the center of gravity. Large ships, due to there huge inertia, would not be as effected by the recoil and thus able to mount many guns.
This idea of recoil could help to prevent small ships with massive walls of guns. If you want to do that, then the ship had better be able to take it. The hope is that players will be able to find a nice balance between the size of their ship and the number of guns attached to it. In the trailer, the Kingdom and Empire fighters have only 1-2 weapons on them each. That is essentially unheard of now. But if having many guns on a small ship made it un-controllable when shooting, then we might be able to see a return to the number of weapons matching the size of the ship better.
Recoil is not an addition that could be added to the game easily in that it might break balance, but it could also provide a useful tool to the developers in finding a way forward that allows players to effectively use ships of all sizes and designs.
Final Remarks
I hope I have been able to convince you that large weapons would make a significant difference in allowing multi-crew ships to be competitive with single pilot ships. I envision a time in Starbase where we can have battles like the one in Revenge of The Sith, massive ships with many crew manning many guns. Recoil is probably more controversial since it doesn't add incentives so much as it penalizes. In any case, I look forward to hearing what you all have to say about these ideas!
Background
I'm sure all of you who have spent enough time with Starbase understand that there is a strange disconnect between the vision of the game when it comes to mulit-crew ships and the actuality of the matter. Most of us would like to see massive ships with at least handfuls of players manning turrets and managing systems while being able to repair holes to keep the ship in the fight. I think its safe to say that we also want to see fighters dodging shots and skillfully destroying other fighters and slowly picking away at large ships' vital systems.
Currently, It is always more viable to have neither of these. Small fighters do have a bit of a place if either attacking un/lightly-armed enemies or if in the hands of a very skilled pilot. Otherwise, massive "fighters" with tons of guns and armor are more often the preferred choice for more competitive play.
This topic doesn't aim to solve all the issues to find that balance and to encourage and allow many playstyles, but it does attempt to add two more tools that could be used to that aim: large guns and weapon recoil.
Large Weapons
We are currently given the selection of weapons in approximately three categories: Standard (Autocannon, Laser Cannon, Plasma Thrower, [and Flak if it were to come out]), Self-propelled (Rockets, Torpedos), and Medium (Rail Cannon). I suggest adding another class that while possible to use on single pilot ships, works far better if a second person is there to help.
The class of large weapons would have two major characteristics, very low ammo count, and easy reloadability. Additionally, they would be physically large and consume much power and create much heat. Let me provide two examples of a potential large weapons so we have some reference point to discuss.
Buster
This large cannon is based off of a shotgun. As such, it can be loaded with either shot (many small pellets that spread out and are good for hitting small targets) or slugs (solid shots that do significant damage to anything they hit, maybe even have an explosive filler). The cannon can be mounted in three ways to a ship: A large weapon mount version of the ball turret that has a reloading station protruding below it, a broadside turret (new turret type similar to the ball turret in how it works but less exposed), or a fixed large weapon mount.
The cannon has at the back (or bottom in the case of the ball turret) a place to put ammo clip with somewhere in the range of 5-10 shots. Once depleted, the clip is spent and another can be inserted without removing the previous (this is a clip not a magazine). In this way, a loader can make sure all the guns are topped up and change ammo type on the fly. If a large enemy ship comes into range, time to load slugs. If suddenly swarmed by fighters, hope that your normal guns can hold them off long enough until your loader can switch your busters to shot.
Any size ship could potentially have these cannons mounted but with such a small number of shots, they would either have to carry many of them, only use it sparingly alongside other weapons, or be reloaded mid-fight by either the pilot or a second crew member.
The massive amount of damage this weapon can cause will make many want to use it but it will be most effective when multiple players are in the ship that is armed with them.
Core Melter
For those not interested in combat, here is an idea for a large "weapon" that could necessitate, or at least incentivize, multi-crew mining operations. The Core melter is a short range, wide-beamed laser that can melt through asteroids in seconds. However, this comes at the cost of requiring special fuel cells to function (or coolant cells) that need to be replaced very frequently.
These could be mounted in all the same ways as the "buster" above but would be most effective when in one of the turret type mounts since the ease of aiming would be best for getting through an asteroid without missing spots. In any mounting configuration, the cells would need to be replaced after a time in the range of 3-5 seconds of use. If a miner is alone, he or she would have to constantly be getting up to swap the cells, but if multiple crew were on board, an asteroid could be mined in just seconds without anyone having to leave their posts.
Side Note: Ammo Count
One aspect that allows fighters of any size to remain in the fight is how much ammo they have. A possible way to limit the effectiveness of fighters against large ships could be to reduce the amount of ammo in the magazines significantly. If a fighter can only fight one or two fighters without running out of ammo, then large carrier / resupply ships might be required for single-crew ships to work at peak performance. Multi-crew ships would not be as burdened since guns could be reloaded. I suggest removing the large ammo boxes that were added in one of the later patches after launch as a start.
Weapon Recoil
The concept behind adding recoil to weapons is to try to diversify the ship designs by making many efficiency peaks based on the number and type of weapons used. For those unfamiliar, "recoil" is the force felt by a gun pushing back upon the shooter as a reaction to the bullet leaving the gun with some amount of energy. Bigger/faster bullets produce more recoil.
This concept of adding recoil would work nicely with the above large weapons to help solidify them as tools for large ships. They could be mounted to small ships, but if not properly balanced, they could spin the ship completely around if mounted far enough away from the center of gravity. Large ships, due to there huge inertia, would not be as effected by the recoil and thus able to mount many guns.
This idea of recoil could help to prevent small ships with massive walls of guns. If you want to do that, then the ship had better be able to take it. The hope is that players will be able to find a nice balance between the size of their ship and the number of guns attached to it. In the trailer, the Kingdom and Empire fighters have only 1-2 weapons on them each. That is essentially unheard of now. But if having many guns on a small ship made it un-controllable when shooting, then we might be able to see a return to the number of weapons matching the size of the ship better.
Recoil is not an addition that could be added to the game easily in that it might break balance, but it could also provide a useful tool to the developers in finding a way forward that allows players to effectively use ships of all sizes and designs.
Final Remarks
I hope I have been able to convince you that large weapons would make a significant difference in allowing multi-crew ships to be competitive with single pilot ships. I envision a time in Starbase where we can have battles like the one in Revenge of The Sith, massive ships with many crew manning many guns. Recoil is probably more controversial since it doesn't add incentives so much as it penalizes. In any case, I look forward to hearing what you all have to say about these ideas!
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