Energy Weapon & Armory Overhaul

[Teasq]

A revision of the lasersec document to bring it up to date with Funky's new design philosophies. Specializes each tool in security's arsenal to promote team play, and specifically gears security to be capable of dealing with crowds through defensive armaments.

[pirakaplant]

I'm not going to nitpick every detail given this is a draft, but I already have a few criticisms of the doc so far.

Also, I generally still do not see the point of arming Security with more lasers. There are several things that inherently feel more visceral about ballistics that lasers can't really replicate without being internally inconsistent and not feeling like lasers anymore (e.g. the relative "realism" of the scenario, blood loss, etc.). And if we're making Security less visceral in how they enforce the status quo, that goes against our themes. On top of that, there are balance concerns in reducing Security's damage output to a few specific types rather than a choice of brute or heat damage.

I don't think there are no place for lasers in the game, but it should be balanced out with ballistics in my opinion.

[pirakaplant]

Is this really a good thing? How does the game benefit from removing this ambiguity?

[Teasq]

Is this really a good thing? How does the game benefit from removing this ambiguity?

I think it gives each side more identity and shows their priotities. The syndicate doesn't care about station destruction, but obviously NanoTrasen does (this can be misconstrued as caring for the safety of crew).

I like the additional layer of evidence it provides as well. I think using bullet casings for evidence is very authentic, but not entirely possible when everyone and their mother has a gun that leaves casings behind.

Additionally, there's also an additional gameplay layer with security being more defensive and the syndicate being more aggressive. I wanted security to have more crowd control options as well, to move security's arsenal away from just "sec vs syndi". This dichotomy is not a major selling point of the document, but rather a neat consequence of it that I think makes the game's world more rich.

[pirakaplant]

I think the energy swords would work better as just a Commandant/Lieutenant exclusive. The shock stick earlier already fills the "better melee" niche for Security I feel and making swords an option for everyone down the line cheapens the status that those swords would be associated with.

[Teasq]

Sure, I can agree with that. I'll revise that part to only include the two leader figures.

[pirakaplant]

We might have to call phoron something else if we're renaming what we're currently calling plasma.

[Teasq]

This isn't a huge concern of mine to be honest. I think I saw someone recommend "Fusion" weaponry, but if people have suggestions they are free to give them.

[pirakaplant]

Shit, I mean to just comment. I do not approve of this doc yet.

[Teasq]

Also, I generally still do not see the point of arming Security with more lasers. There are several things that inherently feel more visceral about ballistics that lasers can't really replicate without being internally inconsistent and not feeling like lasers anymore (e.g. the relative "realism" of the scenario, blood loss, etc.). And if we're making Security less visceral in how they enforce the status quo, that goes against our themes.

I think the feeling of lasers not being very visceral largely boils down to poor visual and sound design and not necessarily the energy weapons themselves. The goal of this rework would also be to bring the visuals and (hopefully) sounds of the entire arsenal up to par. I've seen people use this argument against a laser arsenal before, and quite frankly I don't get it. Getting shot and bleeding out isn't nearly as visceral as a group of rioters suffering severe third degree chemical or heat burns. Chemical burns in particular are really fucking bad. Unfortunately our medical system isn't quite there to express this, but I think from a pure roleplaying perspective this for some reason isn't being considered. (perhaps again due to the poor visual and sound design)
As for the realism, I don't really care about realism sorry. We're playing a retrofuturistic space game, and I think within the context of the universe energy weaponry is the more authentic choice for on-station security to be using. It's cheaper and less prone to freak accidents.
Additionally, I don't think you want potential prisoners to be bleeding out in maintenance somewhere when they get away. It's overall just a very anticlimactic/non-dramatic end to a scenario and doesn't really feed into the prison labour system we want to explore. (assuming death actually meant something)

On top of that, there are balance concerns in reducing Security's damage output to a few specific types rather than a choice of brute or heat damage.

Under this document security has access to: blunt, piercing, slash, heat, shock, caustic and radiation (considering cold for the Xray).

I think this is more than enough variety to balance around. The only circumstance where this is "worse" is in the case that people have access to tons of topicals and general cure medication that can deal with the caustic. We can always make this ratio less forgiving.

I don't think there are no place for lasers in the game, but it should be balanced out with ballistics in my opinion.

I think we have found the place for energy weapons in the game.

This is part 1 of a 3 part document where I propose overarching designs for the three major "factions" in the game: security, the crew at large, and the syndicate. I expect that the crew at large, in particular their improvised stuff, will feature quite a bit of ballistics and the syndicate will be focused almost entirely ballistics save for a few specialist options.

[Teasq]

Shit, I mean to just comment. I do not approve of this doc yet.

Too late buster. I only needed 1 approval to merge this. 😈

[Teasq]

P.S. Radiation makes people vomit now, which I think adds to the visceral feedback of getting shot by one.

[UnicornOnLSD]

Excluding windows, this argument applies to non ballistic weaponry too. Phoron and laser weapons can hit station equipment and friendly fire. Phoron rifles even more than others considering their wide arc (basing on funky's current phoron rifles). The ones that would be really harmless would be the X-ray cannon and other exotic weaponry that is research locked anyways.

As for windows phoron also damages windows. Only real lasers go through.

[Teasq]

There will be changes to the Phoron weapons, but you make a good point with it still damaging windows.
I think with it being the "aggressive" option that security has I'll leave it as-is, but the logic still applies to the majority of their arsenal. As for friendly fire, idc that can happen. The concern here is keeping space out and air in. As for the station equipment, while they can damage equipment it's much less likely to break stuff due to the low firerate design of the weapons (again, with the exception of phoron).

I'll add that distinction in the document.

[UnicornOnLSD]

Thank you very much.

[Radio-Delta]

Advise being extremely careful with what kind of ammo you give to the Kammerer and how you implement beanbags for it.
If it becomes more viable for general combat than energy weapons, you'll see at least half of the officers with ballistics again rather the lasers they're meant to be using for thematic reasons.
Also, try not to re-add stunmeta by making beanbags rapidly stun people, be careful with those.

[Teasq]

If it becomes more viable for general combat than energy weapons, you'll see at least half of the officers with ballistics again

I don't plan on making it incredibly accessible. The armory numbers aren't set in stone just yet, but expect more specialized weapons like the kammerer to come in pairs and no more than that.

[Radio-Delta]

Giving sec the cancer gun roundstart seems very odd.
Quickly, balance: 24 damage per shot, 10 shots, and a scope is even stronger than the current x-ray while also being roundstart now. Radiation damage is also obviously much harder to heal, needing specific chems not included in combat meds (outside of omnizine) and is rarely shielded by combat armor. (nukies get 50% rad resist i think, so all this damage type does for them specifically is slow down their healing, since they almost always have omni.) If anything, this weapon is better suited for killing seccies in attrition warfare.
Consider it thematically. Why would a station security force have a skin-boiling radiation gun? That feels like a black market gun or legal grey-area weapon used by mad scientists, terrorists, or special operatives (a HECU-type of thing). What does a security force gain from irradiating dissidents and criminals, rather than shooting them with a bullet or normal laser? I don't think it makes much sense to have this be roundstart.
Advise making this a normal laser sniper instead.

[Wlaskow]

Security having a more diverse damage profile is good in my opinion and since this is supposed to be their sniper making it "more" deadly is fine.

Med usually has radiation meds at the ready because of engineering anyway, caustic is way more annoying to deal with,

[Radio-Delta]

my primary issues with the gun are thematic, especially since most of this document's reason for existing is thematic reasons. regardless, a diverse damage profile can still be accomplished by maybe making the gun deal blunt damage on top of its heat damage. real life pulse lasers still do kinetic damage, so it makes a lot of sense for this to be the case. could even let other hitscan lasers deal blunt if you wanted to.
(note, balance isnt my main concern because that's way easier to adjust. therefore: the main issue is that there needs to be a good reason for such a gun to exist and be given to security in-universe.)

[pirakaplant]

Yeah why not.