Approaching Infinity: Ship Weapons 2023+

Details about sweeping changes to space combat in version 1.8 and beyond. Weapons, armor, shields, point defense, critical hits, and more.

Overview

After years of developing the “away team” side of the game, changes are finally coming to space combat in 2023!

There are now 29 new ship weapons among 3 broad categories: cannons, beams, and missiles. Cannons are short-range shield-skipping weapons. Beams are medium-range weapons with a wide variety of special effects, but often do less damage against shields. Missiles are long-range high damage strategic weapons that are defeated by ‘point defense’ (as long as it lasts…).

Critical hits have been introduced. Some just cause double damage, but others will knock out specific ship systems or even kill your crew! (critical hits that hit systems do *half* their normal hull damage)
Each weapon has a crit chance, from 0-100%, and some weapons guarantee a certain kind of crit. Important note: most weapons need to hit the hull to inflict critical hits… so keep those shields up!

“Point defense” is a new passive stat to keep you safe from missiles. It’s based on your installed weapons, and some is used up every time they intercept an attack. And it’s not perfect either: some of the damage still gets through. So when you’re getting pelted by missiles from beyond visual range, at least you have some time to figure out what to do about it.

NO MORE WEAPON SIZE!

Small, medium, and large weapons are a thing of the past. You can put any weapon in any slot, as long as your reactor can handle it (the number of weapons you can mount is still controlled by your reactor).

If you want your only weapon to be a massive railgun that can only fire once every 25 turns, you can do that. Or you can mount 3 rapid fire laser turrets an a huge ship. It’s up to you.

You can even change your installed components (including weapons!) during combat, as long as the item you’re trying to replace isn’t cooling down.

Read on for more details.

Cannons

Cannons are the shortest-ranged weapons, and they often ignore the target’s shields, but evasion will reduce their damage. When a cannon scores a critical hit to a sub-system, the damage is *not* cut in half.

Damage numbers are shown as percentages for comparison, with 100% being the average.

Toxic Penetrator
Launches a toxin-laden shell that skips shields and armor, killing crew and potentially damaging other internal systems. No contribution to point defense.
Damage: 30% | Range:3 | Cooldown:4 | Point Defense:0 | Crit Chance:5 | Sector Available:15

Spinal Driver
A heavy railgun accelerator mounted along a ship’s central axis. Slow firing, shield-piercing, and very likely to cause critical hits. *Can’t hit targets at point blank range!*
Damage: 250% | Range:5 | Cooldown:6 | Point Defense:0 | Crit Chance:50 | Sector Available:20

Nano-Cannon
Fires a shell containing hungry nano-bots which weaken a ship’s armor, increasing the chance of critical hits by 50% for 10 turns (“Weakness to Crit”). Completely neutralized by shields, minimal PD.
Damage: 150% | Range:3 | Cooldown:3 | Point Defense:1 | Crit Chance:20 | Sector Available:15

Beams

The “beams” category encompasses all energy weapons, whatever the actual form of the attack. They are accurate to medium range, and their damage is *not* reduced by the target’s evasion. They are often ineffective against shields, but some have very interesting abilities…

Grappler Beam
Weaponized gravity manipulation to pull targets closer to you. Best coupled with short-range shield-penetrating weapons. Not recommended for point defense.
Damage: 20% | Range:5 | Cooldown:2 | Point Defense:0 | Crit Chance:5 | Sector Available:9

E-Warfare Pod
Broadcasts a mix of jamming signals and invasive programs to disrupt internal systems, inflicting critical damage. Completely ineffective against shielded targets, but great at knocking out missiles.
Damage: 15% | Range:5 | Cooldown:1 | Point Defense:7 | Crit Chance:50 | Sector Available:9

Subspace Inverter
Long-range beam weapon that interacts with higher dimensions and gains force as it propagates. *Can’t be used at range less than 3*. No PD application.
Damage: 280% | Range:7 | Cooldown:4 | Point Defense:0 | Crit Chance:15 | Sector Available:20

Antimatter Blaster
Fires a stream of anti-protons that violently reacts with matter (aka ‘everything’). Provides minimal PD. Equally effective on shields and hull.
Damage: 140% | Range:5 | Cooldown:2 | Point Defense:2 | Crit Chance:20 | Sector Available:9

Missiles

Missiles are devastating long-range weapons that often have high rates of fire… that’s why point defense is so crucial! Missiles can be shot down automatically before impact, reducing their damage by over 80%, and the target’s evasion also reduces their damage. Their are some close-range defensive multi-missile systems available too.

Point Defense

Point defense beats missiles… for a while.

(I just got hit by a few “sapper missiles”.)

Point defense reduces incoming missile damage by over 80%. It’s listed with your shields in the format (current / total). Missiles have a “hardness” stat, and your “PD” is reduced by that amount when it intercepts a missile.

PD is calculated from all your installed weapons (and one device), and you don’t need to worry about those weapons being on cooldown, or actively targeting missiles: it’s all done automatically.

If you don’t use PD for 5 turns, it will start to recharge by 20% per turn, back up to its maximum.

Beware: the warp missile ignores point defense!

Critical Hits

Most spaceship weapons can now cause critical hits. “Crits” usually only happen when a weapon strikes the hull (but that’s not true for the ion cannon). Often crits cause double damage, but sometimes they disable internal systems, kill crew, or add cooldown to weapons.

A critical hit that does something other than extra damage will actually cause only half damage, unless the striking weapon is of the “cannon” type.

Some weapons are guaranteed to inflict a certain kind of crit (the toxic penetrator kills crew, the inertia projector knocks out engines, etc.). These weapons can actually cause 2 crits from the same hit… look out!

The nano-cannon is an especially insidious weapon that can weaken the hull of its target and inflict
+50% chance of critical hits for 10 turns!

Shields

Shields have been reworked to be on par with your armor, and they no longer provide any protection against most “cannon” weapons. But possibly the biggest change is this:

Shields now consume supplies while recharging.

All shields now have a “SUP” stat that indicates the supply cost per turn of recharge. The slower they recharge, the lower the supply cost, and vice versa.

Wait, that’s not the biggest change…

SHIELDS CAN HAVE POWERS!

Ok, that’s a big one. So far there are only a few, but they work. Shields can also modify the amount of damage you take from different classes of weapons. For example, “kinetic shields” reduce incoming cannon damage by 30%.

Some shields very rare, or aren’t available until sector 20, 50, or 100. When crafting, (for now,) you can only build “normal” shields. Here’s more info:

Shield
Standard energy shields, providing a first line of defense against most kinds of damage. Begins to recharge after a cooldown period.

Advanced Shield
An upgrade from standard shields that gives more defense for slightly more supply usage.

Superior Shield
The pinnacle of normal shielding, providing excellent regenerative protection for a modest supply cost.

Efficient Shield
Designed to minimize supply consumption, these shields still provide adequate protection from most types of weapons.

Kinetic Shield
Exotic energy field manipulation allows these shields to absorb some of the energy from cannon strikes, reducing their damage by 30%.

EM Shield
These shields provide less overall protection, but are designed to deflect incoming beams and other energy weapons, reducing their damage by 30%.

Plasma Shield
These shields reduce the damage from missile weapons by 30%.

Regenerative Shield
These shields are always on! Slowly but steadily, they are constantly recharging.

Black Shield
Gravitic manipulation bends space around your ship. This reduces all incoming weapon damage by 10% and gives a +1 stealth effect.

Capacitor Shield
As soon as the cooldown period is over, these shields are back to full strength (if you can sustain their supply usage).

Slow-shell
After their long cooldown and recharge periods, these shields provide unrivaled protection.

Ramming Shield
These shields can be focused into a small area and used as an offensive weapon, allowing your ship an extra attack by moving into enemies.

Quantum Shield
A cutting-edge shield that borrows barely-understood principles from Firax tech and reduces damage from cannon and missile strikes by 15%.

Armor

Armor is the last line of defense between you and the cold black death of space. Armor points are directly related to your ship’s base hull, so a cruiser will always get twice as much protection than a trader does from the same armor.

Armor can also grant you powers or damage resistances, but the shots have to actually hit it to be affected.

Just like with shields, some of these are very rare, and only a few are found in the early game. When crafting, (for now,) you can only build “normal” armor.

Armor
Standard exterior starship hull reinforcement, equally resistant against all types of damage.

Plasteel Armor
Cheap light-weight starship armor. It even costs less to repair, but it’s vulnerable to beam weapons, taking 10% more damage.

Webbed Armor
This multi-layered impact-dispersing armor reduces the damage from cannon strikes by 50%.

Mirror Armor
This armor is designed to deflect a broad range of the energetic spectrum, reducing damage from beam weapon strikes by 50%.

Standoff Armor
Built-in anti-missile systems reduce damage from missile strikes by 50%.

Ablative Armor
This thick reactive armor vaporizes upon impact, deflecting, dispersing, or otherwise interfering with whatever strikes it. It can’t be repaired, only replaced.

Regenerative Armor
Using a combination of memory-materials, organics, and nano-tech, this armor is capable of rebuilding itself over time.

Leaden Armor
Infused with heavy metals, this armor protects against radiation belts. The increased mass will reduce your speed by 20, and offer a 10% damage reduction against cannon strikes.

Blackbody Armor
Abosrbs visible light and sensor frequencies, reducing detection of your ship by 1 tile. Also soaks up the energy of beam weapon strikes, increasing damage from beam weapons by 25%.

Gravitic Armor
This high-tech armor hugs the contours of space itself, increasing ship speed by +25 and allowing your ship to navigate safely near black holes. It is expensive and rare.

Exotic Armor
Constructed of nearly unobtainable materials, this armor is extremely resilient, reducing damage from all weapon strikes by 25%. It is exceptionally rare.

Advanced Armor
Upgraded materials and construction result in more durable armor with equal protection against all weapon types.

Mono-Molecular Armor
Enormous sheets of graphene and other endlessly-chaining materials form tough armor that relies on molecular bonds for protection. Reduces the chance of receiving critical hits by 30%.

Alien Ship Changes

Alien ships now have separate hull and shields stats, instead of just “HP”, and they follow the same rules that you do: enemy shields will cut your pulse laser damage in half, but will be useless against your railgun.

Aliens also have access to exactly the same weapons as you, and will mount 1-3 of them based on their size and how far into the game you are. Tentaculons favor beam weapons, the Syndicate and Eaters like missiles, while Gruff and Sigorn prefer cannons.

Be especially mindful of the fact that *aliens can attack you from outside your sensor range*. This was not previously true. If you come under fire from an unknown source, you’ll have to decide whether to take cover, call for help, or charge your assailant!

Summing it up

Version 1.8 is bringing massive changes to space combat. Help me test it! Let me know what you think, either here on Steam or on our Discord[discord.gg].

By IBOL17