Unit idea - perhaps for Cpt Kwok or other AI modder could look at and comment |
I have an idea for units which I know how to do from the components etc side of things, but have no idea what affect/how to change the AI to handle it.
Brief:
The idea is that all 'small' weapons are specialised, that is,
*some weapons will damage planets (and only planets - they are useless damaging other units - an example of now times would be a 500 pound smart bomb, useful against land targets, but useless against aircraft).
*some weapons will damage ships and bases (but wont do a thing against fighters - example would be a harpoon missile - useful against shipping, useless against air targets).
*the remaining weapons will damage units only (but wont do a thing against ships, bases or planets - an example would be any anti air missile, useful against air targets, useless against most other things)a better example is to image a naval ship's 4.5" gun versus a fighter 20mm cannon, they work on the same principal, but the 20mm cannon ain't designer to seriously hurt the naval ship (EG, Anti-Proton Beam vs Small Anti-Proton Beam).
Description:
*Following 'small' weapons would damage anything:
-Small Shield Depleter.
-Small Acid Globule.
*Following 'small' weapons would damage units only:
-Small Depleted Uranium Cannon.
-Small Anti-Proton Beam.
-Small Meson Blaster.
-Small Phased-Polaron Beam.
-Small Incinerator Beam.
-Small Electric Discharge.
-Small Shard Cannon.
*Following 'small' weapons would damage planets only:
-Small Cluster Bomb
*Following 'small' weapons would damage ships/bases only:
-Small Rocket Pods.
-Small Anti-Matter Torpedo.
-Small Graviton Beam.
Additional - to make it even harder:
Most ship (full sized) weapons could be made to be useless against units (due to the targetting system of a large weapon being designed to target larger targets).
Foreseeable mod issues:
AI would need to be made to understand the difference between the weapons.
Re: Unit idea - perhaps for Cpt Kwok or other AI modder could lo
The general idea is sound and parallels some thinking I've been doing, but there are some implementation issues to consider. You've already mentioned having to teach the AI how to use them properly, which unless you're shooting for a purely PvP mod is a concern.
One of the tricky issues would be Weapons Platforms; they're technically units, but they are on a planet, and they use ship components. They can fire into space during ship combat, and they're present as installations during ground combat. In some mods, they're even capable of defending themselves in ground combat if equipped with point-defense weapons (an idea I think should make its way back into stock).
You also have to take into consideration that utility is a spectrum. Back to the modern analogies: a 20mm chaingun or vulcan wouldn't be your first choice to damage a building, but give it all day and plenty of ammo and it can chew things up pretty badly. Cluster bombs will probably never sink a serious combat vessel, but can make a real hash out of the antennas, helicopter recovery gear, and other exposed components, resulting in dramatically reduced effectiveness or even a mission kill. One interesting approach that I'm not sure is technically doable in SEV would be to have Small weapons only able to damage components in Armor and Outer Hull, but not Inner Hull areas.
There's also multiple ammo loads to consider for physical weapons, or multiple beam modes for energy weapons. You'd think that main warship guns wouldn't be useful against fighters, but consider that the largest fielded modern naval cannon, the Japanese "40 cm/45 Type 94" (46 cm, 18.1") guns found on the Yamato class, were equipped among other ammo with the San Shiki beehive anti-aircraft round, basically a 3,000 pound shotgun shell containing 600 flechettes and 900 incendiary charges.
Targeting is also one way to handle it; currently fighters have very high evasion, and the only ship weapons with significant bonuses to hit are the point-defense weapons, which mostly works. Anti-building / Anti-planet weapons could be given a significant penalty to hit, such that if they ever connect with a mobile target it would still be devastating, but your odds of hitting anything capable of maneuvering would be low.