What weapons could be used in a freespace universe context and could be implemented into the game? Here are the ones I've got so far.
Plasma Cannon - Creates a sphere of charged, ultra hot matter that is heated to the point that it becomes plasma and is controlled by a magnetic field which fires at the target. Both the heat and the force with which it hits can do an awful lot of damage.
In fs2 this is what terran turrets are, Plasma cannon=blob turret. A thick, short laser bolt in-game.
Railgun - Accelerates a large piece of heavy metal along a pair of electrified rails forcing the metal along at extremely high speeds. When it hits the kinetic force devastates armour easily causing hull breaches.
This could be a laser which it usually is (INFA, Blue planet) or perhaps a small missile with a long trail could provide a huge shockwave to suit it's impact force.
Laser Gun - Fires a beam of photons at the enemy which can quickly slice through armour.
Er, laser.
Rocket Launcher - Fires warheads at the enemy which explode on contact. In space they would have much dampened effect.
A swarm of small rockets.
Beam cannon - Whatever Freespace's one is.
Torpedo Launcher - Fires huge bombs at enemy warships which when and if they reach the enemy create a huge explosion with a greater payload than conventional bombs held by bombers. Fire from a long distance so have a large chance of being shot down.
Missiles with bomb flag, can only be held by large warships, have a long range and a massive payload.
Mines - Dropped by a freighter or even a bomber, these small objects are stationary and will cause an enormous shockwave and explosion when they are destroyed, they need to be difficult to see so that ships ram them.
A bomb without speed and last for a long time or a ship with very few hitpoints and a massive explosion.
- another idea would be a stationary inferno or piranha which could be set off as a drop bomb as a pilot tries to escape from a wing of hostiles of hit tail.
-sushi for the second bit
Ship to ship missiles - A swarm of bombs fired from multiple turrets that unleash many bombs that are similar to bomber warheads but cheaper, quicker, and less powrfull. A similar shockwave to current bombs. Moderately sized trails. As fast, at least, as a fighter without afterburners. Very numerous.
- Mikes
CAPTOR mines - A cargo container that fires one or two bombs such as cyclops or trebuchets before either blowing up or staying still as a physical blocade. Create weapon and a cargo container.
- General Battuta
Sentry guns - not an actual weapon but a cruiser, corvette or freighter drops these which have a range to cause pause when a ship tries to fly past. A missile sentry gun would be great. A stationary ship with turrets
- Trashman
Coilgun - Magnetic coils hurl a fairly large bomb at a good speed. Gameplaywise it would basically be a high-velocity fusion mortar or possibly a giant flak gun.
- Oent, That's the sort of thing I want, good-on-ya!
Kamikaze ships - A fighter, possibly drone, that holds (a) large explosive(s) which detonate as the fighter crashes into or reaches proximity to it's target. Though some may simply be normal fighters that use their own payload and kinetic energy rather than containing explosives. Obviously they are better en-masse, with faster engines, larger explosives and much less effective if they simply bounce of the hull like normal fighters would rather than exploding. They are like huge bombs that: take many, many times more firepower to take out, do (most likely) more damage, are (probably) faster, are maneuvarable, are harder to hit, will swerve to another target if the initial is destroyed, and are reusable if they fail to hit their target and aren't destroyed. Negatives are that they are more expensive, larger (harder to store and larger targets), and require a better AI or even a human pilot. To make them is very simple, get a fighter, modify it if you want to, tick "kamikaze" flag and give it a damage power, and send them to crash into a target.
- Snail
