TL;DR: An air torpedo. Long range, high damage area denial weapon with a very slow projectile speed but minimal vertical drift. Visible arming time and the slow speed, as well as the spread of the rockets make them very easy to dodge, but they do force a meneuver on enemies due to the very high damage when armed.
Atropos Thermobaric Rocket Artillery
Design would be similar to the Katyusha rocket system of WWII, with a much, much smaller available magazine:
https://defencyclopedia.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/katyushas.pngHeavy weapon
75 Fire Direct
150 Impact AoE (Must be armed)
Burst Radius: 80 Meters
Arming Range: 500 Meters
Effective Vs: Balloon, Hull
Reload time 12 seconds
Magazine size: 3 (All rockets are launched when fired, meaning 3 projectiles per shot)
Projectile speed: 130 M/s
Projectile spread speed: 10 M/s
Shell drop: 0 M/s
Jitter: 0 deg
Spread at max range: 150 meters
30% chance for 10 Fire stack on hit.
Horizontal Arc: 20 degree Left, 20 degree Right
Vertical Arc: 5 degree Up, 5 degree Down
Horizontal turn: 15 deg/s
Vertical turn: 15 deg/s
In a majority of games, torpedoes are designed to be a long range, highly damaging weapon that travels slowly and is easily avoided, so the inspiration for the Atropos was rather simple. Basing it off of that principle, the Atropos is built for long range area denial and high-risk/high-reward gameplay, similar to a long range mine launcher.
The extremely flat trajectory makes any kind of change in the weapon’s elevation vary the shot in an extreme manner. This can make it very difficult to properly get the rockets on target, but it will also offer a kind of soft-force to their maneuvers. Evading the rockets is extremely easy due to their slow speed and completely flat trajectory, but it would force enemies into maneuvers they may not have wanted to take, or else into maneuvers that would leave them vulnerable to your allies.
Apart from the slow movement of the rockets as a balancing measure, the rockets from the Atropos have another, more important balancing measure: Visible arming time. Once the rockets are fired, their trail will be a simple, plain white, as with all projectiles. But, once the projectiles are armed, that trail changes to a thick, black trail, as though the rocket were spewing a non-damaging, thin Tar, as well as having a rocket emission much brighter than the Hwatcha rockets. This makes the projectiles extremely easy to see and avoid as they move in.
Another part of the balance to the rockets is, obviously, their spread. At long to extreme range, the Atropos rockets will begin to spread apart, making it difficult to land all three rockets on the same target. Thin profile ships such as the Squid, Goldfish, and Spire have an advantage against a ship equipped with the Atropos, as their profile makes it extremely easy to slip in between the rockets, which, while being a risky maneuver, would offer a tad more control over maneuvers than being forced into a vertical dodge.
I did entertain the idea for friendly damage with the Atropos, but I’m not sure whether or not it would needlessly increase the skill ceiling, as well as encourage trolling too much. Not sure whether or not it’s a good idea, so if you would, feedback on it is rather necessary.
And so there you go, my thoughts on a torpedo system for Guns. Long range area denial with a good risk/reward possibility, encouraging higher level play in attempting to land all three rockets on a single target, while giving lower level players a very easy to aim, highly damaging weapon. More so, it’s designed to just give some more variety to the medium weapons and offer the torpedo that people have been begging for. Let me know what you think!
