Ion Cannons

[Lavo]

Something I thought up today, that perhaps SoGE could use ion cannons. Not just abilities, but actual hardpoint/weapon ion cannons. i do realize that, in terms of pure weapons, that ships only have three slots. However, seeing as only cruisers and capitals would really have this type of weapon, they could easily take the place of the ANTIVERYLIGHT (aka. fighters) or ANTILIGHT (if need be) weapons on these craft. The lack of an anti-fighter weapon is covered by an anti-fighter ability, like flak or fast tracking turrets, which many of these craft have or can have.

 

Onto the weapons themselves, you are probably wondering how such a weapon is even possible in SoGE, yes? Well, I won't lie, actual ship paralysis/disabling is impossible (like in EaW, barring special modded weapons), however I believe shield-only damage is possible. This is due to the DamageAffectType tag, which should support AFFECTS_SHIELDS as an acceptable tag (I'll test this out soon). In terms of weapon type, leaving it as a LASER linked weapon could work, provided a different projectile model/colour is used, which also means it would benefit from research (unlike the Vong's AutoCannons). Or, the currently unused PLASMA, BEAM, or FLASHBEAM could be used as well.

[Evaders99]

Ooo sounds fun. Would love to see whether this would work

[Lavo]

Ooo sounds fun. Would love to see whether this would work

Seems using that tag acceptable for certain attack types, however, when the projectiles hit the target they do no damage at all (to shields, hull, or antimatter), which is really weird. The Sins wiki says that the tag I'm talking about can be changed to only hit shields... How exactly, I have no idea. Going to keep searching though. Do you perchance know if there's a file for DamageAffectType(s)?

[Lavo]

Cracked the puzzle! The correct, and working, tag is "AFFECTS_ONLY_SHIELDS". Figured this out when looking at the Grav Wells buff (curious to see it's range), which had a "AFFECTS_ONLY_HULL" for DamageAffectType. Tested this theory by using a trio of Venator cruisers modified to only have "ion" cannons as their primary weapon, they were able to successfully knock out the shields of a vessel, but did 0 hull damage.

[Evaders99]

Nice, when you get these changes done and tested - send a patch to me here or through Mantis

[Lavo]

Nice, when you get these changes done and tested - send a patch to me here or through Mantis

Which changes do you mean/want?