A design updateI admit it openly - FS2 purists will not enjoy my mod. The reason is that virtually nothing weapon wise plays like the original game. My original design aspiration in this mod was the redemption of the cruiser. More recent mods have reduced cruisers to something of a big target for fighters, which could be eliminated by a handful of Hercs with Hornets. In both Ephesus and Shetland, this is no longer the case. I could make a lengthy reasoned argument as to why it was ridiculous to have cruisers as big targets (risking 800+ crew for something more effectively done by 4 people in cheaper Hercs) but that's already been done to death.
Everything about capital ships has been upgraded to be more lethal. Their primary weapons are lethal and harder to disable without specialized equipment. Their secondary weapons are more lethal and designed specifically so even a partially disarmed cruiser, corvette or cap ship can pose a threat. Their anti-fighter armanent is specialised towards killing fighters and shooting down bombs. I made a post about this a while ago, but I wanted to discuss it again I wrote a post a while ago discussing from an in-universe, historal perspective, what the various weapons would look like. I have followed that to the letter. Heres how the universe looks right now.
Terran Vasudan WarPrior to the Great War, Terran and Vasudan weaponry was largely missile based, with shorter range high output plasma weaponry for knife fight engagements. Very, very old Terran weaponry was torpedo based and designed on spamming dumbfire missiles - this was a unsuccessful strategy.
The T-V War had devolved to a chess match. Terrans specialized in standoff engagements with fusion mortars (fusion warhead payloads launched from a rack with a limited duration booster) supported by fast moving attack cruisers armed with lethal anti-fighter missiles and high power short range plasma cannons. Vasudans had superior ship to ship weapons as well as superior heavy bombers. In fleet engagements, Terran destroyers screened by cruisers could volley fusion mortars from long range into anything that was larger than a fighter. Vasudans, on the other hand, overwhelmed a Terran line with missile volleys unless the Terran line held firm. As a result, Terrans rarely took an engagement where they were not defensively sound and Vasudans were reluctant to engage into entrenched positions due to the efficiency of Terran combined arms theory. In the late T-V war, plasma artillery was introduced aboard Orion class destroyers and replaced fusion mortars entirely.
The T-V war left a lot of old ship graveyards. Most private Fenris space frames and Aten class warships were either sold off as unservicable or have been recovered from semi-forgotten ship graveyards in the aftermath of the Great War with private sub military grade repairs.
What kind of weapons are around?
- Howitzter Fusion Mortar: Like a railgun, except slower, with an obvious missile. Slow refire rate. Big explosion.
- Hammershot: Anti-fighter weapon system. Less effective against shielded ships. If you lose your shields, these are lethal.
- Khopesh ACGM: Corkscrewing anti-ship missile system. Even modern warships have 4 or more of these as they are spectacular for tying up CIWS elements.
- Deluge Heavy Plasma Artillery: Terran Turret 2 made good, with XCOM plasma weapon sound effects and huge plasma explosions. These hurt now and exclusively target warships.
- Firefly Plasma Turret: Close range (1.2km) broadside turret designed to kill warships. Originally a Vasudan design, so rapid fire.
Reconstruction EraA few things changed due to the arrival of the Shivans. Both the Terrans and Vasudans fast tracked a joint program of close in weapon systems for defending against shielded ships based upon the Vasudan philosophy of close range plasma burst turrets and these are still in use today. The Hammershot system was retired. The fusion mortar system was redeveloped into the modern day flak cannon in the aftermath, designed primarily for establishing perimeters and detonating micromunitions.
The main things to take into account about weapon design at this point are the following.
- Flak cannons: Have a longer range, do shockwave damage to weapons but have a minimum range of around 800m. They will start firing BEFORE you are in range and screen against projectiles. They are no longer fired at other warships.
- CIWS Plasma Cannons: Primarily target missiles and ships that are inside the flak perimeter. These replace the old blob turrets and serve the same role, but are a bit more deadly.
- AAA Beams: serve to kill ships and are lethal for it.
- Hellfire ACGM: Paramilitary version of the Khopesh.
Capital ships have the usual stuff, but remnants of the earlier war eras are in play. Expect to see Vasudans using missiles, Terrans relying on plasma artillery and both species using their own 'unique' version of the others weapons.
Fighter WeaponryEphesus is set in the early to mid era of the NTF rebellion. The result is that a lot of the really advanced weapons you see in FS2 aren't in play. TAG missiles were tested in the campaign. I have Trebuchets as being an expensive counter to long range, powerful Shivan strike bombers. The result is a more limited weapon set. This is an example of the kind of thing I've been doing.
- Subach HL-7: Completely ineffective against anything larger than a freighter or a fighter. Excellent all round weapon otherwise.
- Prometheus R: Repurposed as a heavy cannon ala. the Maxim. Does excellent anti-subsystem damage, punches through warship armour much better than the Subach. Ineffective against shields.
- Akheton SDG: Now does bonus damage to shields. Couple it with the Prometheus R if you're going heavy assault.
- Hornet: No longer an effective way of killing cruisers. Given a bit of a longer range for mass volleys against fighters.
- Stiletto: Lethal to subsystems, hard as hell to kill and does anti-shield damage now as well. Compensated by a smaller loadout.
- Anlace: Rapid fire short range Stiletto system. Designed primarily for multi role engagements so they come in large numbers, have little health, do good subsystem damage and hurt shields. Very little hull damage.
- Torpedoes: Replacing the Hornet comes the Bullhorn and Avalanche torpedo systems. They are designed to give a scaled threat to cruiser ships as well as allow heavy assault fighters a bit of multi-role capability. More importantly, both can be shot down and they act like mini bombs. I am still working on the design for these, but I like the concept so I am running with it.
- NTF Weapons: The NTF have started to develop their own weapons programs! This is NOT an empty bit of design on my part. There's a damn good reason why
- Bombers: Heavy bombers operate like mini capital ships and are being designed with that in mind. They are not hard to kill, but have their own defensive turrets, secondary turrets for destroying capital ships and so on. Strike bombers are designed to get in, fire and get out.
Shetland EraPost the Second Great War, civilian manufacturers got a hold of older blueprints as the GTVA began to fall apart. The GTVA kept very, very tight control on the dissemination of beam weapon technology so barring small scale self contained units (such as the LTerSlash), ex GTVA/NTF ships and systems salvaged from wrecks, civilians weren't allowed to have them.
The result is a huge diversification based on pre-Great War technology. Railgun fusion mortar delivery systems, missile batteries, improved missile CIWS, old pre-Great War designs as police vehicles, nuclear mining munitions deployed as mines and so on. Military level technology is rare as hell in the Red Zones (where Shetland is set) and is one of the main advantages of the Shetland herself.
The GTVA's technology has advanced a lot as well. I've already talked about the various branches of GTVA design, but I will leave expanding on this until I start to move towards releasing Shetland
