There's been some whining in General about how largely uncorrectable game issues hurt stacking, which is currently a necessary skill given shield magnitude/recharge values. However, I don't see why stacking should be required.

Presently, Avalon launchers can deploy their 4 torpedo payload in a theoretical 6 seconds; to fire that fast, the platform must have at least 240 energy (plus whatever energy is expended on engine use during the 6 second firing sequence). This is not a particularly optimal bombing weapon.

I suggest that a craftable variant, the Avalon Rack, be made available through missions at nation barracks stations: for each Avalon launcher plus some other random goodies (and let's not go overboard there, Devs...3 Advanced Targeting Systems and 3 External Equipment Mounts should do it) delivered, a military pilot with high Admired standing can craft one of these:

Avalon Rack: An Avalon torpedo launcher configured for bombing runs. All stats remain the same, except that all four torpedos will launch from the rack simultaneously after a 6 second delay between trigger pull and firing. Triggering the 6 second firing sequence will instantly drain 240 energy.

This sounds way too complicated. Less complicated (I would think) would be to make sure our speeds always decelerated to the max ship speed after letting off turbo. How/why do you know this issue is largely uncorrectable?

How complicated is having a variant that fires all ammo at once after a delay?

+0

New weapons are awesome, but I'm not familiar with the issues that brought about this suggestion.

Why does max ship speed even matter? :)

+1

I see no reason why not, would still be hard to hit a light fighter with a salvo.

[edit]

TerranAmbassador, if you are not familiar with the suggestion then why comment? You do know there's no post count here so post whoring is just silly.

That was "post whoring"?

+1

+1

Making them easier to stack is one thing, but it doesnt solve the problem of avalons being fairly unimpressive except against npcs or as a niki suicide bomber platform.

That's a damage stat issue. Personally, I think they should be 50k a torpedo.

I think they should receive a direct hit bonus. This way they are effective when they directly hit a capital ship or in the most unlikely circumstance they directly hit a small ship, but otherwise they are their normal selves vis-a-vis damage.

+1

If, and only if, the manufacturing mission requires an Avalon launcher (loaded) as a prerequisite part. In other words, the manufacturing mission only serves to convert a single Avalon launcher to a single Avalon rack.

edit: and, the resulting avalon rack has more mass than an avalon launcher.

+1

+1 to op

+1 to tinbot

ultimately I give this a +1 because it would be a nice option but IMO this is less important than the homing issue.

Agreed that it should require a fully loaded launcher; disagree it requires more mass. Yes, you're theoretically adding additional pylons and targeting units, but you're also theoretically gutting the original launcher.

I like the idea of a serious damage bonus for direct rather than prox detonation, but 15k is stupidly low for what they are even as a 'base' damage stat. 30k base/50k direct hit?

+1....good idea....

aye I'll +1 this