Flak Cannons

Azelous

Veteran endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
100
#1
So! I am primarily making this thread in part as a suggested solution to the problem raised by this thread, however I am willing to bet it has other applications.

My idea is that a flak cannon be added as mounted weaponry. A flak cannon is a weapon that fires shells that explode nearby their target to inflict shrapnel damage to the target. Historically, flak cannons have been used against flying targets which are harder to hit, however are fragile due to being made of light components and as such are still susceptible to this type of weaponry. In Starbase this weapon type would be most effective at two jobs:
  • Firing on small fighters
  • Taking out sensitive equipment
In terms of shooting small fighters, adding this weapon would be historically accurate and help ensure those with lesser aim are still able to stay relevant in terms of applying damage to small nimble craft capable of evading most firepower through quick maneuvering and a slender silhouette. Even if the damage is minimal, near-guaranteed damage is better than missing and dealing no damage.

Now, in more direct response to the thread I linked, I would heavily presume that this sort of weaponry would highly counter players who build heavily fortified ships with the cockpit in the center and use cameras to maneuver and fire upon enemies. Cameras ought to be a more delicate component, and as such would be very vulnerable to repeated aoe attacks. This would also apply to any other components on the exterior of a ship, be it guns, communication, or ship sensing equipment. This gun type would not be used to destroy a ship, but to render it unable to fire and/or immobile.

In terms of design of use, I would imagine the gun using a timed delay or proximity delay able to be adjusted using YOLOL. Timed delay would be especially interesting, requiring the user to use YOLOL with a distance measure to calculate and automate the delay or length of the fuse on fired shells.
 
Joined
Oct 3, 2019
Messages
9
#2
Space flak... I like it, but would it be manual detonation? Proximity based? Distance? For example there are remote release flak cannons in Elite Dangerous, a weapon which is remotely triggered to explode when the user releases the fire key. I'd assume perhaps proximity would be the best in this situation since how the game is designed?
 

Azelous

Veteran endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
100
#3
Space flak... I like it, but would it be manual detonation? Proximity based? Distance? For example there are remote release flak cannons in Elite Dangerous, a weapon which is remotely triggered to explode when the user releases the fire key. I'd assume perhaps proximity would be the best in this situation since how the game is designed?
I would say timed or manual detonation. Manual detonation would be the hardest but have the best feedback for those firing. Timed would be very interesting to setup through YOLOL. If you set up the script correctly you could likely hit every shot, perhaps even hitting shots on the side or backside of ships.
 
Joined
Oct 3, 2019
Messages
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#4
I would say timed or manual detonation. Manual detonation would be the hardest but have the best feedback for those firing. Timed would be very interesting to setup through YOLOL. If you set up the script correctly you could likely hit every shot, perhaps even hitting shots on the side or backside of ships.
If there is a way to determine the distance between you and your target, you could accurately time when the shots explode, which would make the weapon extremely effective for disabling medium or large ships.. in the case of YOLOL, if you can determine such distance during live combat, you might be able to have an automatically correcting self detonating flak cannon that adjusts its explosion time based on distance to target, though. Unless such means of distance scanning exists in game, you may have to manually determine how far apart each other are.
 

Azelous

Veteran endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
100
#5
If there is a way to determine the distance between you and your target, you could accurately time when the shots explode, which would make the weapon extremely effective for disabling medium or large ships.. in the case of YOLOL, if you can determine such distance during live combat, you might be able to have an automatically correcting self detonating flak cannon that adjusts its explosion time based on distance to target, though. Unless such means of distance scanning exists in game, you may have to manually determine how far apart each other are.
Range finder.

Also, here's a video where a dev uses a range finder to pin point where the robotic arm is to apply a bolt.
 
Joined
Oct 3, 2019
Messages
9
#6
Range finder.

Also, here's a video where a dev uses a range finder to pin point where the robotic arm is to apply a bolt.
I see, okay, but how far do these range finders extend? It seems pretty far, from some of the videos I've seen. Is it more of a large max distance? Or does power draw increase for the longer the distance the range finders are?
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Messages
110
#8
Really like the idea of Yolol timed fuses.
Allready thinking about making a flak cannon shot a lot of bullets which all explode at the same time xD
 
Joined
Oct 3, 2019
Messages
9
#9
Really like the idea of Yolol timed fuses.
Allready thinking about making a flak cannon shot a lot of bullets which all explode at the same time xD
Alright alright, lets throw the whole 'bullet' part of the flak cannon out of the picture. You know what would be more effective? A flak cannon.. that fires warheads. That'll get em
 

Verbatos

Veteran endo
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Aug 9, 2019
Messages
220
#11
I think flak cannons would be a good idea, but I'm thinking the detonation would be on a set timer that is determined before the projectile(s) would be fired, then detonation would occur after a set time.
You could have a lever near your chair hooked up to the cannons that determines the detonation time or something similar.
 

Burnside

Master endo
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
308
#12
IIRC the light weapon mount has a flak partset, just no stats on the wiki, how it works, Iunno.
 
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