[IDEA/WIP] Chain Vulcan/Chain Weaponry Ideas

[mr_easy_money]

so, after using the Chain Laser+ from the Kestrel Type R in the RAD Fleet, I had an idea to make a pack which adds different types of chain weaponry, messing with the boost tag. also the one-use weapons from arsenal+ and another such weapon in arsenal+ that has similar behavior to the overcharged vulcan below.

some weapons are good, some are bad, some are outright stupid, some are insane, and some are rather meh. so anyways this is what I have so far:
(not final names, this is a work-in-progress after all. in format: title -- short description)

Originally my ideas
One-Fifth Vulcan (9.1 cap) -- Basically an extremely damaged chain vulcan or a better basic laser. like the title hints at, it cools down by one-fifth capacity of the chain vulcan. in other words, it goes down by 2 seconds from the base cooldown after the first shot. whether or not this base cooldown is to be 11.1 like the vanilla chain vulcan is yet to be decided.

Two-Fifths Vulcan (7.1 cap) -- A rather damaged chain vulcan or an improved basic laser. like the previous one, except one more stage better, with a charge cap at 4 seconds better (two stages).

Three-Fifths Vulcan (5.1 cap) -- A damaged chain vulcan or an upgraded/advanced basic laser. like the previous one, except one more stage, with a charge cap at 6 seconds better (three stages).

Four-Fifths Vulcan (3.1 cap) -- A malfunctioning chain vulcan or an auto basic laser. like before, except one more stage, with a charge cap at 8 seconds better (four stages)

Five-Fifths Vulcan (1.1 cap) -- Just joking. this already exists as the vanilla chain vulcan.

Overcharged Chain Vulcan -- Something to do with being struck by plasma, after firing 12 shots, decreasing by 1 second after each shot, it ceases to function. After making somewhat custom art, I'll probably change this...

Insane Chain Vulcan -- Decreases in cooldown by 1 second every time until the charge cap --> 0.1 seconds. though it takes longer to warm up, it can end up at a faster fire rate than the vanilla chain vulcan. I figure I should probably up the starting cooldown by 0.5 or so, so that it doesn't become devastating.

Sorta Insane Chain Vulcan -- Decreases in cooldown by 0.5 seconds each time it fires until the same charge cap as above, so it takes twice as long to warm up.

Is This Insane Chain Vulcan -- Decreases in cooldown by 0.33 seconds each time it fires until the same charge cap as the Insane Chain Vulcan, so it takes three time as long to warm up.

Not Sure Insane Chain Vulcan -- Decreases in cooldown by 0.25 seconds each time it fires until the same charge cap as the Insane Chain Vulcan, so it takes four times as long as that and twice as long as the Sorta Insane Chain Vulcan.

Discontinued. as was pointed out, depowering the weapon and repowering it brings it back to speed. maybe it could work but would be rather micro-intensive to get right.
Confused Vulcan Mark I -- "This idiotic chain vulcan has no idea what's going on. Each time it fires it increases the cooldown, eventually being able to look like a fool in front of the enemy."

I'm not entirely sure if a negative cooldown is possible, but it might be. base cooldown 0.111 seconds, goes up to 11.111 seconds. basically a reverse chain vulcan. glow image also is reversed.

Confused Vulcan Mark II -- "The older brother of the idiot that is the Mark I. Each time it fires it increases the cooldown, eventually being able to look like a fool in front of the enemy."

same thing, except it takes twice as long to warm u--- I mean cool down?? who knows... not as big of a fool as the Mark I, but a fool nonetheless.

New Ideas
Piercing Vulcan-- cousin of the Damage Vulcan. like the vanilla chain vulcan except more like the Four-Fifths Vulcan, where it stops at a cooldown slower than 1.1, but makes up for it in that it can pierce one shield. will be deadly against ships whose shield is down to 1, but so is the regular vulcan like that. a variant that can pierce 2 shields would probably be too devastating in that case

Damage Vulcan -- cousin of the Piercing Vulcan. Each time it fires it increases damage instead of cooldown. maybe the cooldown gets set higher. this is like an artillery laser from CE that takes time to get the right damage. (heat up its projectile generator?)

Drunk Vulcan -- the Piercing Vulcan's cousin's brother's uncle twice removed. Fires rapidly, faster than the vanilla chain vulcan, and maybe it takes less time to warm up, but rarely ever hits the target through the use of a radius. a variant that shoots even faster but has an even bigger radius.

so... if you guys have any ideas feel free to pop them down below in the comments. Might become an actual thing soon. who knows, maybe one of these will make an appearance in a mod soon

[stylesrj]

These sound like great ideas, except for maybe the Confused Vulcans.
If the cooldown increases with each shot, you power down the weapon and power it up again so the cooldown is restored. Might require more micro but it's better than looking like a fool in front of the enemy, right?

Maybe there could be a Piercing Vulcan and its cousin, the Damage Vulcan which increases the hull damage each time it fires (of course you can't do both cooldown and damage but hey why not have a really confused Vulcan).
Then you have its cousin's brother's uncle twice removed, the Drunk Vulcan which fires rapidly but rarely ever hits the target.

[mr_easy_money]

These sound like great ideas, except for maybe the Confused Vulcans.
If the cooldown increases with each shot, you power down the weapon and power it up again so the cooldown is restored.

that slipped my mind, so yeah those should be changed.

Maybe there could be a Piercing Vulcan and its cousin, the Damage Vulcan which increases the hull damage each time it fires (of course you can't do both cooldown and damage but hey why not have a really confused Vulcan).
Then you have its cousin's brother's uncle twice removed, the Drunk Vulcan which fires rapidly but rarely ever hits the target.

good ideas. I figure for the drunk vulcan if a large radius is set then it'll have trouble hitting anything, especially on smaller ships. maybe two variants there, one is fast but the radius is big, and the other is even faster but the radius is even bigger. that'll need loads of testing.

[stylesrj]

If you want an example of an extremely drunk Vulcan, there's always the Cassowary that I made:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=28845

On the bright side, if it does hit, the enemy ship will be destroyed instantly.
Bad news is that you can't aim the gun manually as it's artillery. Even more fun!

[mr_easy_money]

If you want an example of an extremely drunk Vulcan, there's always the Cassowary that I made

I'll have to try that out again. I was thinking about some more ideas, and apparently the boost tag with respect to damage was originally intended for ion, but then that also means that you can increase both ion damage and other types of damage at the same time.

y'know, I wonder what one could do with this, as if you had an Anti-Bio chain weapon that increases in crew damage each time it fires or what about a weapon that does only hull damage in the same way, only system damage, system and crew, crew and ion, ion and system (probably devastating this one). so many possibilities it seems have been forgotten. then like with the cassowary/drunk vulcan, increase the radius too.

[mr_easy_money]

Overcharged Chain Vulcan -- Something to do with being struck by plasma, after firing 12 shots, decreasing by 1 second after each shot, it ceases to function. After making somewhat custom art, I'll probably change this...

I just realized, as styles pointed out about the confused vulcan, you can just reset it, so hmm, actually, I was thinking about removing this but then actually that might not be a bad thing after all, and rather actually an interesting gimmick.

so I guess the general idea is that it fires and gets quicker and quicker, but then after firing a certain number of shots, it has to reset because it has overheated, so then you have to depower and repower to have it fire again, but then it starts at the initial slow cooldown.

thoughts?

to be honest I'm always confused when it comes to how much power a new weapon should have when it differs in such a way that it's noticeably different from the base weapon.

[Ferociousfeind]

How about an ion vulcan? Is essentially the vulcan, but does ion damage instead of regular damage.

Bio vulcan, does no system or hull damage, but does 30 personnel damage (1/2 of the bio beam)

vulcan drone, 6 power, costs 195 scrap, shoots lasers, and is 3 times faster than the anti-ship II drone.

[stylesrj]

There is a Bio Vulcan of sorts in Captain's Edition. It's an AP Vulcan that goes through 2 layers of shields and can cause hull breaches along with crew damage... and it spins up and gets faster.