Weapon Design

[Liareth]

Weapons for skill need to be designed and balanced - we can tweak AB and damage skill / primary / secondary multipliers, graze and crit range, base weapon damage (combo of any damage type + dice/sides) and APR per weapon type.

[Kenji3108]

Damage Types for Reference

Kinetic (Physical)
Psi (Mind, Psionics)
Thermal (Endothermic, Exothermic)
Electrical (Shock, Electrocute)
Sonic (Sound, Concussive)
Chemical (Acidic, Basic)
Radiation (Energy)

Suggestions on the weapon types and their association to damage types:

Primitive Bows: Kinetic Advanced Bows: Kinetic & Variety (Candidate for Alien) Primitive Melee: Kinetic Advanced Melee: Kinetic & Variety (Candidate for Alien) Ballistic Firearms: Kinetic and Armor Piercing (bypass DR) Plasma Firearms: Kinetic, Thermal, and Radiation (Candidate for Alien) Energy Firearms: Thermal and/or Radiation (Candidate for Alien) Heavy Ordinance (Explosives): Variety (Candidate for Alien)

[Kenji3108]

Ranged, throwing excluded

Types of Firearms:

• Light Pistols: Can be dual-wielded or wielded with a shield 2 APR base, +1 APR w/ DW and Rapid Fire. (Up to 4 APR achievable) Pierces No Armor

• Heavy Pistols (Bolter): Can only single wield or wield with a shield 2 APR base, 1 APR w/ Medium/Heavy Shield, +1 APR w/ Rapid Fire Pierces Light Armor

• Automatic Rifle: 2 APR Base, +1 APR w/ Rapid Fire Pierces Light Armor

• Sniper Rifle: 1 APR Base, very high damage Pierces Medium Armor Note: Plasma variant not available

• Rocket Launcher: Bypasses All Armor 1 APR Base, only Explosives available, expensive consumables with Weight

Note: Anything with Rapid Fire mode will be heavily penalized to the point where players will have to decide whether using that mode is a better choice or not. So it is not an always-on passive option.

[Kenji3108]

Melee

Melee Styles: Unarmed: 5 APR 1H w/ Shield: 2 APR 1H Duelist: 3 APR Dual-Wield: 4 APR Two-Handed: 2 APR

Melee Variety

• Unarmed: Pierces no Armor, Light Armor for Advanced Combat Gauntlets: Sonic, Electrical, and/or Psi (Psi dmg is for Psionics only)
• Blades: Pierces Light Armor for Primitive, Medium Armor for Advanced Energy Blades: Thermal, Chemical, and Electrical
• Blunt: Bypasses Medium Armor for Primitive, Heavy Armor for Advanced Power Hammers: Sonic, Electrical, and extra Kinetic

Note: Instead of having a variety of weapons ranging from a dagger, short sword, long sword, b. sword, and whatnot like in NWN, I suggest streamlining a lot of them and just categorize them by "1H Blade (sword, rapier), 1H Blunt (hammer, mace, etc.)" but allow customization on however they want.

[Kenji3108]

Variety and Ammunition

• Arrows can be specialized with:

  1. Explosive tips: Does Kinetic, Thermal, and Sonic
  2. Shocking tips: Does DoT Electric and frontload Kinetic
  3. Chemical tips: Does DoT Chemical and Kinetic

• Kinetic Ammo:

  1. Hollow-Point: Deals more damage, but decreases armor piercing ability Ex. A sniper rifle can pierce medium armor, but with HP rounds, it can only pierce light armor
  2. Full Metal Jacket: Regular Rounds

3. Armor Piercing: Deals less damage, but allows to pierce one armor grade higher Ex. A light pistol can pierce no armor, with AP rounds, it can now pierce light armor

4. Sniper Rifle - Railgun Variant Pierces Heavy Armor at full damage, though requires end game research and crafting.

   • Energy Cartridge:

5. Laser: Thermal

6. Gamma: Radiation

   • Plasma Variants: Bypasses up to Medium Armor and cannot be modified with anything else. It is available to Heavy Pistols and Automatic Rifles only.

[Kenji3108]

Explosives

Commercial Grade: Kinetic (Shrapnel), Thermal (Combustion), and Sonic (Blastwave)

• Description: Commercialized explosives are most often used for mining or research purposes. Sometimes it is also utilized to demolish civilian buildings, as well as removal of unwanted obstacles and/or personnel - removal of the latter is not mentioned in the user manuals, proceed with caution.

Military Grade: Kinetic (Shrapnel), Thermal (Combustion), and Sonic (Blastwave)

• Description: Military grade explosives allows larger radius of explosion with more powerful blasts.

Incendiary: Thermal vs Organic/Biological (both on-hit and DoT, also applying debuff)

• Description: Sets organic materials aflame, but not as useful against robotic or mechanical elements.

EMP: Electrical vs Robotics/Mechanical/Heavy Armor (both on-hit and DoT, also applying debuff)

• Description: Electromagnetic pulse is often used to damage or disable systems within anything with an existing electric circuitry. Useful against robotic or mechanical elements, but not as much against organic materials.

Nuclear - Fission (DM event only): Sonic, Thermal, Radiation, and Electrical

• Description: By shooting a neutron, usually provided by “Heavy Water” - molecule with an extra neutron, thus heavier than the usual water - into an isotope of Uranium, specifically Uranium-235, the lighter isotope compared to Uranium-238, it will cause the Uranium isotope to be highly unstable and break down into Krypton and Barium, releasing a massive amount of energy in the forms of electromagnetic pulse as well as radiation on top of a destructive burst of heat and blastwave. After finding the application of such knowledge, the scientist, whose name is lost in the canals of history, said poetically: “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Nuclear - Fusion (DM event only): (Candidate for Alien) Sonic, Thermal, and Radiation (More energy released compared to Fission reaction)

• Description: Fusion reaction is a nuclear reaction that happens in nature. The stars, for one, are giant balls of fusion reaction. With enough pressure and heat, elements are fused together to form heavier elements and release energy in the meanwhile. The most abundant source of fusion reactions, thanks to the Stars, are hydrogens fusing into heliums. But it is not the only case where fusion reactions occur. Specifically, only elements lighter than iron may be the fuel for fusion reactions. Anything heavier are in the domains of fission reaction.