A rocket module that instead of firing single large rockets, fires a volley of ~5 smaller rockets. But more than that, instead of just dividing the blast damage among a larger number of projectiles, the MLR does less blast DPS overall but the rockets have a chance to start fires. Think of it as instead of HE it was decided that an incendiary warhead was a better match for the smaller rockets.
So it provides the option to cause fires from a greater distance than flamethrowers, but is cumbersome and much more ammo hungry as well.
Not sure if the incendiary effect is currently possible to do with the modding system.
If I were to design it I would probably start with the rocket module, have it fire a volley (say, 200ms between shots) of 5 rockets doing 1/5 the blast damage, but then make the reload time longer for lower DPS and the ammo consumption greater in exchange for the possibility of starting fires.
EDIT: I don't see any special flags in the flamethrower data, so maybe blast damage is just inherently fire causing?
Okay then, so simply breaking up the damage into smaller chunks inherently makes the weapon more flamethrower like :D
Another idea I had was instead of lowering the DPS as a trade-off, a possible version would keep the Rocket module's high blast DPS, but instead have greater ammo consumption.
Is the ammo consumption of a weapon an adjustable parameter? I don't see an entry for it so I guess it's a secondary calculated characteristic of a weapon?
Yes, indeed, the more individual hits, the greater the chance one of them causes a fire.
Ammo consumption is determined by the "clip" value, so how many shots you get for one ammo resource. And yes, it's definitely something that can be used for balance trade-offs design-wise. :)
Commander
Here's an idea.
A rocket module that instead of firing single large rockets, fires a volley of ~5 smaller rockets. But more than that, instead of just dividing the blast damage among a larger number of projectiles, the MLR does less blast DPS overall but the rockets have a chance to start fires. Think of it as instead of HE it was decided that an incendiary warhead was a better match for the smaller rockets.
So it provides the option to cause fires from a greater distance than flamethrowers, but is cumbersome and much more ammo hungry as well.
Not sure if the incendiary effect is currently possible to do with the modding system.
If I were to design it I would probably start with the rocket module, have it fire a volley (say, 200ms between shots) of 5 rockets doing 1/5 the blast damage, but then make the reload time longer for lower DPS and the ammo consumption greater in exchange for the possibility of starting fires.
EDIT: I don't see any special flags in the flamethrower data, so maybe blast damage is just inherently fire causing?
Aerial Emperor
Yep, blast damage has a higher chance of causing fire.
Commander
Okay then, so simply breaking up the damage into smaller chunks inherently makes the weapon more flamethrower like :D
Another idea I had was instead of lowering the DPS as a trade-off, a possible version would keep the Rocket module's high blast DPS, but instead have greater ammo consumption.
Is the ammo consumption of a weapon an adjustable parameter? I don't see an entry for it so I guess it's a secondary calculated characteristic of a weapon?
Aerial Emperor
Yes, indeed, the more individual hits, the greater the chance one of them causes a fire.
Ammo consumption is determined by the "clip" value, so how many shots you get for one ammo resource. And yes, it's definitely something that can be used for balance trade-offs design-wise. :)