Oriza - a boomerang weapon concept

[Wundsalz]

I like weapons which have interesting, unique mechanics and require some skill/experience and coordination between gunner and captain to be shot efficiently.
Here's a concept for such a short-mid range weapon I've had in mind for quite a while already:

Oriza
A Boomerang like weapon, which fires disks on elliptic trajectories. If the disks don't collide with an enemy/structure, they return to the weapon.
the further the gunner points the weapon to the sides or up/downwards,the more bulged the ellipse-trajectory. At a 45° angle a perfect circle is shot, at smaller angles the ellipse is stretched along the other axis.

Max range: roughly 1000m
Damage-Type: Impact (with projectile elimination) and/or piercing (with actual piercing behavior, allowing multiple hits).
Projectile speed: medium
Rate of fire: slow

Turret horizontal arc: 170° with a dead center of 30-60° to prevent straight shots
Turret vertical arc: 60-120° with a dead center of 10-30°. granting the weapon a similar wide arc as in the horizontal direction would cause balance issues (e.g. it'd ruin dead spot approaches on galleon-broadsides from a very high/low altitudes)
Gun tracking speed: fast.
Clipsize: 1-4
Reload speed: depending on clip size
Spread of projectiles: pin point accurate
Projectile drop: none

on a side node: this guns needs a cool, steampunkish pseudo-ballistic visor - something similar to the lumberjacks visor, just with elliptic rings which indicate how far the projectile will travel for specific angles.

I think this concept would be most interesting for a new medium weapon. Due to it's unique projectile behavior and arcs it'd probably allow a couple of interesting build types. E.g. a Oriza goldfish with a flak/mortar side with a flight style that's rather strafing like a junker than the classical "point the front end to the enemy" style. It might also allow interesting brawl galleon builds - E.g. a Oriza/Hwacha/Artemis left side would allow enemies to approach enemies with an uncommonly steep angle (while fireing Arte and Oriza).

[Milevan Faent]

This is a very interesting concept. Not sure it's doable, but it's very interesting.

[Mod Josie]

It has a lot of very cool attributes but I'm unsure how it would work in practice.
If the ship yaws or pitches while the projectile is in flight, does it still return to the gun? If so, what provides it the extraneous force to let it follow the new course of the ship - magic?
A weapon with strange frisbee-like arcs is certainly a very clever idea though, good for shooting round corners in tight maps

[Milevan Faent]

what provides it the extraneous force to let it follow the new course of the ship - magic?

Magnets!

[Mod Josie]

what provides it the extraneous force to let it follow the new course of the ship - magic?

Magnets!

Oh of course - how silly of me

While we're on the subject, what about a gun that fires rounds that can bounce off the terrain? or perhaps sticky bombs?

[Milevan Faent]

what provides it the extraneous force to let it follow the new course of the ship - magic?

Magnets!

Oh of course - how silly of me

While we're on the subject, what about a gun that fires rounds that can bounce off the terrain? or perhaps sticky bombs?

All good ideas imo.

[Wundsalz]

Rise again!

This gun concept just popped into my head again and I thought It might be a good idea to have it as a light gun with a lot of flechette damage. We currently lack a light-gun mid-long range balloon popper.

[SirNotlag]

How would you determine which way the shots arced?

[Wundsalz]

How would you determine which way the shots arced?

The trajectory is governed by an equation describing ellipsoids. The initial values for this equation are set by the gunners input (aka fireing the weapon). The Trajectory start point is the muzzle-end of the weapon. The initial direction the projectile heads to is equal to the direction the weapon is pointed to. The initial speed is fixed.

Optional: the Ships Trajectory could be added to the ellipsoid trajectory to ensure the projectile travels back to the weapon.

[SirNotlag]

How would you determine which way the shots arced?

The trajectory is governed by an equation describing ellipsoids. The initial values for this equation are set by the gunners input (aka fireing the weapon). The Trajectory start point is the muzzle-end of the weapon. The initial direction the projectile heads to is equal to the direction the weapon is pointed to. The initial speed is fixed.

Optional: the Ships Trajectory could be added to the ellipsoid trajectory to ensure the projectile travels back to the weapon.

That's nice and all but how the fuck is the gunner supposed to keep track of all that shit?

[Wundsalz]

Probably like any other weapon - don't worry about the math and try to get an intuitive feeling for it. On longer ranges it should be possible to pick up the weapons behavior fairly quickly - just aim a bit more to the left/right than with a weapon that shoots conventional projectiles to compensate for the projectiles arc. The closer the enemy gets the harder aiming will be with the weapon as the trajectories get more and more bulged while the projectile travel time increases the closer the target gets.
Overall the correct estimation of the distance to the target is more important  than with conventional weapons. At the same time it's more forgiving when it comes to getting the targets positioning along the other axes right.

[SirNotlag]

OK! let me rephrase the question! HOW DOES THE PROJECTILE MOVE THROUGH SPACE?? It has boomerang in the title so does it act like a boomerang and arc left or right eventually looping back, would it be fired like some sci-fi diskus that shoots out straight but eventually doubles back on its movement and returns to the launcher as if pulled by magnets, does it launch some projectile that alters its course so it travels 90 degrees from its first track and goes screaming off left or right till it hits its target or reaches max range, or does it auto calculate everything and tries to have the projectile pass through where the gunner is aiming before doubling back.

NEXT QUESTION! how would you implement any form of control over the course of the projectiles travel depending on how it would work. the diskus and auto calculating would be easy with no real difference from firing other guns, BUT control of the boomerang arc or change of course examples would require something more as now you have to be able to have some form of control of whether its arcing left or right at the very least. Would rather than turning the weapon youd be adjusting its arcs instead? Or maybe simply based on the last direction you turned the gun determines its arc left or right?

You must be some kind of mathematician cause your practically speaking another language and I have no idea how to put what your saying into any practical purpose.

[Milevan Faent]

OK! let me rephrase the question! HOW DOES THE PROJECTILE MOVE THROUGH SPACE?? It has boomerang in the title so does it act like a boomerang and arc left or right eventually looping back, would it be fired like some sci-fi diskus that shoots out straight but eventually doubles back on its movement and returns to the launcher as if pulled by magnets, does it launch some projectile that alters its course so it travels 90 degrees from its first track and goes screaming off left or right till it hits its target or reaches max range, or does it auto calculate everything and tries to have the projectile pass through where the gunner is aiming before doubling back.

NEXT QUESTION! how would you implement any form of control over the course of the projectiles travel depending on how it would work. the diskus and auto calculating would be easy with no real difference from firing other guns, BUT control of the boomerang arc or change of course examples would require something more as now you have to be able to have some form of control of whether its arcing left or right at the very least. Would rather than turning the weapon youd be adjusting its arcs instead? Or maybe simply based on the last direction you turned the gun determines its arc left or right?

You must be some kind of mathematician cause your practically speaking another language and I have no idea how to put what your saying into any practical purpose.

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure the ANGLE the gun is pointed at determines how the projectile flies. Pointing the gun to the left will make the boomerang arc to the right, while the reverse is true for the other side. It also seems like you CAN'T fire it straight forward. It literally has to be fired at an angle, which would thus determine which direction the arc flies.

[Wundsalz]

I still want this!

[DJ Logicalia]

First time reading this.

Do want