Corvus Prime has taken the basic concept behind a railgun and turned it in to something... more pirate-oriented. More cannon than sniper-rifle, the mass driver lobs a 100mm slug of depleted uranium over weapons-grade xithricite to deal massive damage on impact. Smaller capacitors and shorter rails than a standard railgun make for a much lighter weapon, but the velocity is a rather slow 190m/s. The weapon charges its capacitors from grid power, so it's practical to use while boosting, but the drain makes mounting any other weapons impossible. UIT weapons analysts have noted that the mass driver can deal enough damage to destroy a Behemoth, even if one of the pirate's shots misses.

-- Corvus Mass Driver --
Small Port
Damage 4000
Speed 190
Energy 0
Delay 0.5s
Mass 500
Targeting none
Ammo 6
Splash 5m
Detonation Contact
Grid 18

Corvus this, pirate that.

Pirates have access to pretty decent items. Most of them manage to catch their prey.

What's really needed are measures for traders to protect themselves. Then we can start talking about pirate-specific equipment again.

/rant

The most effective measure traders can use to protect themselves is a Viper escort. I wouldn't mind running in to a pirate armed with one of these while escorting a trader.

Mines are also quite effective. That said, I did just come up with an interesting idea for traders, which I will post soon.

tosh, they run away 99% of the time. Very good protection.

I probably wouldn't use this 18 grid for 6 shots isn't worth it, it will work on npc voys but on player ships probably not.

Maybe it needs to be a bit stronger or higher-capacity, but not much. This is intended to destroy a single Behemoth, or convince the pilot to stop and pay. It's not for killing capships, or even to be effective against a heavy ship that's set up for combat.

Seven shots would let you miss twice - I think that might be fair. After the trader sees your third miss, he knows he's got it made.

Exactly, Lecter. They run away by infiniboosting, making pirating (and defense from pirating) look like a silly game of tag.

I propose that traders have no turbo anymore, but high coasting speeds (around 100 m/s). Coupled with turreted weaponry which actually scores hits, as well as capital ships usable for trade, this would make for very interesting piracy/escort scenarios.

Also, apologies for the rant.

toshiro, very interesting suggestion (might want to make a thread on that).
the only problem: where does one draw the line between transport and non-transport? say... a taur; does a taur get turbo? Also, if there is only coasting speed, you really need to increase the engine thrust on the ships, because I use turbo a LOT just to get up to decent speeds in a trade ship.

It is pretty silly that large trade ships hauling bulkloads get infini-boost. honestly I wish infini-boost were more rare on large ships (though I think the moth could use it... since on a good load it takes it FOREVER to get up to speed anyways).

Bigger ships, bigger and more efficient engines but not as fast and generally poor acceleration; like semi-trucks which can travel pretty fast but take a long time to get up to speed.

FYI: There are only two light ship classes with infinite turbo - the EC-line and the Marauder - all the others are medium and heavy. Only a few ships with infinite turbo can travel faster than 200 m/s: Warthog MkII, Hornet MkII, OHCG, TPG Atlas Type X, and the EC-107.

By comparison, ships that don't have infinite turbo all turbo at speeds in excess of 210 m/s (with the exception of a few Prom variants and the Centaur Aggresso) and generally have very high acceleration and thrust-to-mass ratios.

All things considered, I think there's a pretty good balance between ships which accelerate slowly but can travel long distances and those which get up to speed quickly but have a more limited range.

I'm unsure if my idea warrants a whole new thread yet, have to mull it over a bit.

Large cargo ships with low top speeds, but high thrust, that sounds interesting. Perhaps auxiliary boost power for a certain velocity range (e.g.: top speed is 120 m/s, boost locks controls until 110, turns off after that and returns control to the pilot). That creates stretches of time where the convoy is more vulnerable than when at full speed and traveling (then, they can change formation).

I like fleet tactics.

What I find intriguing about this weapon is that it is a tool; its purpose is clear, and it must be used delicately to achieve that. We need more weapons like this, even if they are not "Corvus Mass Drivers".

On a related note, why don't missiles feel this way?