I''m making a space combat sim and I''ve thought of about 29 weapons but I''d like more. They aren''t all offensive weapons so really just anything that would be useful to put on an object in space. As and if you''re thinking about this, don''t forget all the anime you''ve watched in your life and all the video games, since a few of those 29 are borrowed, naturally.

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What are you trying to say?

[edited by - Prod on August 4, 2002 2:28:48 AM]

for some sweet gun ideas, check out Battlezone and Battlezone II for the PC. I loved those games! Awesome gameplay, and GUNS!! But the guns were different for each ship, so i dont know if you want guns for a person or a ship. Try using a fissure gun. What it does is send a shockwave out and makes this ripple in solid ground. It''s really neat. I''m sure you already have a grenade launcher, too. One last thing. I think the perfect video game is Perfect Dark for the N64. Although it takes place on Earth, you should get some inspiration from this game. Their website has specs on all the guns in the game, check it out at www.perfectdark.com. see ya!

I would like to second that perfect dark for the N64 was by far the greatest game that have ever existed. Anyway, as far as guns are conserned have you raped the mechwarrior series of their arsenal yet? small/medium/large lasers in both the standard and ER (extended range) designs, PPCs (Particle Projection Cannon), LRMs (long range missile), SRMs, flammers, narc beacons (little missile magnets), Autocannons 2/5/10/20 in standard ultra and LB ScatterShot designs. Gauss Rifles (just a gun that shoots a huge shell by propelling it with magnets so as to create very little heat). Hmm... what else am I forgetting...? I think thats more or less the jist of it although there are pleanty of variations on the weapons I named such as pulse lasers bombast lasers CSTRK missile, Long Tom missiles, and Thunderbolt missles. Theres also your standard machine gun but bah.. thats for weenies!

By the way, if I were in a giant space ship, I think the weapon I would liken would be a missile that shot out to explode creating a small ultra magnet or black hole of some sort. With the idea being to pull other pilots around and in the case of many ships flying close, to pull them both together and make them collide. Not too tough of a job for the physics engine either!

~Vendayan

You could try to use chaff of some sort. Release a large cloud of debris or gas that disrupts sensors and visual locks.

A weapon I always like was the "Little Doctor" From Ender''s Game. If you haven''t read the books, it is a weapon that, when it hits a target, destroys it. It then releases a shockwave that does the same to all other matter in a certain radius. The larger the object destroyed, the larger the shockwave. This allows for some big chain reactions.

You should also consider a large-arc energy cannon of some sort, that would fire a wide fan of energy. Useful for destroying large chunks of debris, or small ships.

Also, depending on the sorts of thigns that are fighting in space, you could consider stealing some things from Gundam wing, where flying mechs duked it out with stuff like electro-whips and scythes. But these are really only suitable for mounting on some sort of mecha.

You could also consider some sort of gravitically attuned weapon. This would be drawn to a target by the law of gravitation, but with a much higher constant, making it drawn noticeably even to small things like ships, but this would be dodged by flying near a planet. The attuning would, of course, kick in a few seconds after launch, preventing it from being sucked right back into the launch tube...

That''s all the ideas I''ve got (and have thought to steal).

Ciao,
Eyrian

hey I''m also making a space combat simulator right now. I''d be happy to talk to you about that in private. Email me: fig_tatam@hotmail.com

And don''t forget an EMP, or Electromagnetic Pulse. This could disable all other ships in the blast radius, allowing you to safely board and take all their stuff/blow ''em up/run away. It depends on your game. If it''s 3D, a good way to show this would be to have the wave be ring shaped, transparent but wavy, and constantly extend farther into the galaxy until it disappears completely (shown by the noise of it fading out).

Also, check out Star Trek or Star Wars for some inspirations. You''ve got your normal lasers, then you''ve got some kind of energy torpedo or missile, a docking clamp, mines, homing missiles, nuclear missiles, a laser machine gun... use your imagination. Just remember to think bright.

A world destroyed, a myth rebord. Check out NightRise today, coming eventually from DanAvision Software Entertainment.

http://www.danavisiongames.com

Well, I''m a stickler for realism so I prefer guns that make sense, plus I''m on the practical side so I believe in just a few kinds of weapons...but perhaps seperated by caliber, accuracy, etc.

Alot of this depends on how far in the future you want this....and how realistic you want it. Also, how advanced is the defensive technology? At the rate modern science is advancing, material science can''t keep pace with destructive technology. Are you going to have shields of some sort?

You can get some neat ideas from the Star Fleet Battles world. I think that a sand chaff dispenser/shield would be very useful. You could throw out metallic chaff, and suspend it by a magnetic shield, essentially creating "shields". Enough chaff will disperse quite abit of engery weapons, though it''d barely slow down kinetic weapons.

I think my favorite weapon in a space ship battle game would be....mecha. You would launch mecha like today''s aircraft carriers do. They would be very small and hard to hit except for dedicated AA guns on the space ship. If just one Mecha manages to land on the enemy vessel, it''s basically game over for the enemy vessel. The mecha would be able to tear into the ship''s hull (eventually), and once inside, any guns the marines on board would have would be too dangerous to use...because if it could penetrate the mecha''s armor, it would penetrate the ship''s hull too.

In my personal opinion, this is the only valid use for having giant sized (30''+ tall) mecha. In terms of anti-ship capabilities, it can''t be matched. A mecha would be more verstaile than some kind of "super duper nova blasting, reduce your ship into slag" gun because mecha could disable an enemy vessel rather than outright destroy it. The only defense against mecha would be other mecha , and very good AA capabilities.

but think of the gameplay. If the most powerful weapon is a ''mecha'' and the only powerful defense is also a ''mecha''.. then where''s the fun in space combat? both sides would just release mecha''s then sit and wait what happens, not particularly exciting

quote: Original post by Dauntless
Well, I''m a stickler for realism so I prefer guns that make sense, plus I''m on the practical side so I believe in just a few kinds of weapons...but perhaps seperated by caliber, accuracy, etc.

Alot of this depends on how far in the future you want this....and how realistic you want it. Also, how advanced is the defensive technology? At the rate modern science is advancing, material science can''t keep pace with destructive technology. Are you going to have shields of some sort?

You can get some neat ideas from the Star Fleet Battles world. I think that a sand chaff dispenser/shield would be very useful. You could throw out metallic chaff, and suspend it by a magnetic shield, essentially creating "shields". Enough chaff will disperse quite abit of engery weapons, though it''d barely slow down kinetic weapons.

I think my favorite weapon in a space ship battle game would be....mecha. You would launch mecha like today''s aircraft carriers do. They would be very small and hard to hit except for dedicated AA guns on the space ship. If just one Mecha manages to land on the enemy vessel, it''s basically game over for the enemy vessel. The mecha would be able to tear into the ship''s hull (eventually), and once inside, any guns the marines on board would have would be too dangerous to use...because if it could penetrate the mecha''s armor, it would penetrate the ship''s hull too.

In my personal opinion, this is the only valid use for having giant sized (30''+ tall) mecha. In terms of anti-ship capabilities, it can''t be matched. A mecha would be more verstaile than some kind of "super duper nova blasting, reduce your ship into slag" gun because mecha could disable an enemy vessel rather than outright destroy it. The only defense against mecha would be other mecha , and very good AA capabilities.

I think it wouldn''t be too hard to shoot down the mecha. They couldn''t be moving too fast, as they have to survive the impact of landing on the ship, and given the large distances involved in space battles, the ship would have a long time to target and shoot down the mecha.

If you launched 10s of thousands of decoys along with a few dozen mecha, odds are you''d get a few through. The mecha wouldn''t be able to manouvore without giving themselves away, so they would drift with the decoys till they got close to the capital ship and then fire up their boosters and hope they''re one of the few that make it.