Old Weapon Systems

Weapon Systems in StarMade are used to deal damage to entities, be they players, ships, stations or other. Successful combat depends upon both correct design and utilization of weapon systems.

Construction

Each weapon system consists of a computer linked linked to at least 1 module of the same type (Cannon Computer with Cannon Barrel, etc.). Weapon modules in a physically-contiguous grouping are considered one group, and will output 1 projectile (unless modified otherwise). Larger groups have a directly proportionate increase in damage output and power cost per firing of the weapon. Although several groups can be linked to one computer, the total power cost is increased by 10% for every subsequent group. In each group, one block is defined as the "output": the location from which the projectile(s) is emitted. The output of a group can be changed by aiming at the desired block and pressing R. The text which appears while aiming at a block will read "[R]: Make Output (CURRENT)" if that block is the current output for its group, and "[R]: Make Output" otherwise.

Weapon Types

Each weapon has the following general behavior when used as a primary weapon: These are largely self-explanatory.

System	Effect
Damage Beam	A linear beam which travels instantly, dealing damage at regular intervals over a short burst.
Cannon	Fires relatively fast projectiles with reasonable penetration.
Missile	Fires relatively slow projectiles which deal damage in an area. All upgrades provide homing capabilities of some sort.
Damage Pulse	Deals damage in a relatively large sphere directly in front of the output. Low power consumption due to difficulty of use.

See the Tables section for full numerical information on the attributes of each weapon system.

Linked Systems

The statistics of a weapon system can be modified by linking to other weapon systems or effects. Each weapon may only support 1 secondary and 1 tertiary system at a time.

In linked weapon setups, the primary system is commonly referred to as the "master", with secondary and tertiary systems being termed "slaves". Only weapon systems can be used as secondary systems, not support tool systems. Secondary systems provide the bulk of statistic alterations, affecting at least 2 of the following values: damage, power consumption, range, projectile speed, and projectile quantity. Secondary (and tertiary) systems are a trade-off: For example, a beam system slaved to a cannon quadruples the damage of the cannon, and doubles its projectile speed, but also quadruples both reload time and power consumption.

Slaved systems lend their block-count to the primary system for purposes of damage and power calculations (which are linearly calculated per block), but do not act independently when slaved (they do not emit projectiles, and only the primary system is added to the hotbar and fired).

The effectiveness of secondary and tertiary systems is derived from their size proportional to the primary weapon system: if the total block count of a slaved system is equal to that of the primary system, its modifications will be applied at 100% effectiveness. If the slave's block count is only 50% of the primary, all changes applied will be 50% as strong as normal. A slaved system cannot be more than 100% effective: block-counts greater than those of the primary system are redundant.

Weapon systems can also have effects linked to them as tertiary systems, providing further modifications to weapon stats. These usually change what the weapon does with its damage output: for example, draining enemy power or shields, in exchange for dealing less block damage.

Secondary Systems

A secondary system is a weapon system which is slaved to another weapon system or support tool system, modifying its statistics based on the combination and the proportions thereof.

Each weapon system has the following general effects when slaved to another weapon:

System	Effect
Damage Beam	Improves range, speed and damage. Increases power consumption and reload time.
Cannon	Decreases reload time and power consumption, but also damage per shot.
Missile	Increases the number of projectiles. Slightly increases damage, reload time, and power consumption.
Damage Pulse	Increases damage, reload time and power consumption significantly.

See the Tables section for detailed numerical information on how support systems affect linked weapons.

Tertiary Systems

A tertiary system is an effect computer slaved to a weapon system.

Each effect system has the following general effect when slaved a weapon system:

Effect Computer	Description
EMP Effect Computer	Converts weapon damage to reduce the power of the entity hit.
Explosive Effect Computer	For beam and cannon, spreads damage over the area immediately around the point of impact. Increases the radius of missile and pulse.
Ion Effect Computer	Increased damage to shields, but reduced damage to blocks.
Overdrive Effect Computer	Increases overall weapon damage at the expense of dramatically higher energy usage.
Piercing Effect Computer	Does damage to blocks behind the point of impact, but decreases shield damage and direct damage to the targeted block. Slight increase to missile and pulse radius
Punch-Through Effect Computer	If the attack destroys a block, remaining damage is applied to consecutive blocks until all the damage is used up. Does not work on missiles.
Push Effect Computer	Converts damage to a pulling effect on the target.
Pull Effect Computer	Converts damage to a pulling effect on the target.
Stop Effect Computer	Converts damage to a braking effect, reducing the target's velocity.

See the Tables section for detailed numerical information on how effect systems affect linked weapons.

Coloring

The projectile or effect color of any weapon can be altered by linking the weapon computer to any light emitting block.

Tables

This wiki uses tables to show the stats of the different systems. Example of a table:

Stats for this system			Values for this system's slaves
Name (unit)	Per module	Values	Cannon	Missile	Damage beam	Damage pulse
Value 1 (x/y)	yes	40.0	-	-	120.0	240.0
Value 2 (a/b)	no	2.0	1.0	-	-	12.0

The first large section of the table, "Stats for this system", shows all the stats for the master system. The first column shows the name of the stat and the unit it is in. An example of a unit would be e/s (energy per second). The second column shows whether the values are per module or not. If something isn't per module, that value will be set and the amount of modules has no influence on it. If it is per module, the value that belongs to that stat needs to be multiplied by the total amount of modules in that system, including the slave systems. If an effect system is added, that value also needs to be multiplied for the amount of modules in the effect system that wouldn't let the ratio go over 100%. Only then is the effect applied over that total value. The column "Values" shows the value that goes with that stat.

Next, the second section, "Values for this system's slaves", shows all the values for the possible slave systems. As mentioned earlier, only the weapon systems can be used as slave system. This means that any system that can have slave systems will shows the exact column headers shown above. If a value there is different to the value listed for the master system, it means it has changed, and that the value listed there will be the one that gets used in any calculation. The values listed by the slave systems are those for a 100% ratio. If a system has less than a 100% ratio, those values won't apply to it. Furthermore, if there is a " - ", that value will be the same as the value for the master system. The grey zeros are there to make it easier to see which value is high and which is low.

The following table describes the effects of weapons systems as supports for other weapon systems. See the Support Tool Systems section for descriptions of the effects on those systems.

Cannon
Stats for this system			Values for this system's slaves
Name (unit)	Per module	Values	Cannon	Missile	Damage beam	Damage pulse
Damage (per activation)	yes	10.0	1	20	40.0	160.0
Reload (seconds)	no	1.0	0.1	2.0	4.0	16.0
Range (sectors)	no	1.0	1.0	1.0	3.0	1.0
Speed (times normal ship)	no	10.0	10.0	10.0	20.0	10.0
Power (per activation)	yes	100.0	10.0	200.0	400.0	1600.0
Special				Shotgun

Missile
Stats for this system			Values for this system's slaves
Name (unit)	Per module	Values	Cannon	Missile	Damage beam	Damage pulse
Damage (per activation)	yes	300.0	20	300	900.0	1800.0
Reload (seconds)	no	15.0	3	15	45.0	90.0
Range (sectors)	no	1.6	1.6	1.6	4.8	1.6
Speed (times normal ship)	no	2.48	7.44	1.24	4.96	0.827
Power (energy/activation)	yes	1500	100	1500	4500	9000
Missiles	no	1	1	10	1	1
Blast Radius (blocks max)	no	12	6	4	12	48
Special		Dumb-fire	Dumb-fire	Heat-seeker	Smart	Smart

Damage Beam
Stats for this system			Values for this system's slaves
Name (unit)	Per module	Values	Cannon	Missile	Damage beam	Damage pulse
Damage (damage/hit)	yes	10	2	10	30	110
Reload (secs/activation)	no	5	1	5	15	55
Power (energy/activation)	yes	500	20	500	1500	5500
Hit Rate (hit/sec)	no	5	5	5	5	5
Range (sectors)	no	0.5	0.5	0.5	1.5	0.5
Beam Time (secs/activation)	no	1	1	1	1	1
Special				Split-beam

Damage Pulse
Stats for this system			Values for this system's slaves
Name (unit)	Per module	Values	Cannon	Missile	Damage beam	Damage pulse
Damage (per activation)	yes	100	20	20	300	600
Reload (seconds)	no	10	2	2	30	60
Power (energy/activation)	yes	500	100	100	1500	6000
Radius (blocks)	no	10	10	10	25	40

Slave	Master
	Beam	Cannon	Missile	Pulse
Beam	+Range	+Range, +Projectile speed	+Range, Lock-on homing	+Damage radius
Cannon	+Hit rate, -Damage per hit	-Reload time, -Damage, -Power cost	-Reload time, -Damage, -Blast radius, -Power cost	-Reload time, -Damage, -Power cost
Missile	-Power, +Beams	-Damage, +Projectiles	+Missiles, heat-seeking (indiscriminate)	-Reload time, -Damage, -Power
Pulse	-Hit Rate, +Damage per hit	+Damage, +Reload time, +Power cost	+Damage, +Reload time, -Missile speed, +Blast radius	+Damage, +Reload time

Trivia

• A 5th Weapon system, Called the "Mine Layer", was originally part of the Weapon Overhaul (Alpha Version 0.15) but for unknown reasons, Schema halted work on it. It is still planned to be released but no date has been set.
  • It would lay free floating mines that explode after an entity (ship,player, etc.) collides with it or a certain amount of time has passed.
  • It's Slaved property would be "Delayed Action" and would give its master system unique timed/charging functions. For example, the Damage Beam+ Mine Layer combination would allow the player to hold down the Left Mouse Button to charge up the beam in order to fire a more powerful version of it.