Heavy Beam Cannon MKIV

[Alex Heartnet]

Remember when the MKIV Beam Turret used to be special?



It was the only MKIV research, everything else involved an MKIV factory.  It was also the only research that had a ship cap of 1.  But now there are MKIV versions of most turrets, and the Heavy Beam Cannon doesn't feel so special anymore.

Perhaps it should be reinvented as the Core Beam Cannon, with no prior research required.  The MKIV version will just be a continuation of the MKI-MKIII line.

[Kahuna]

Yes we need a new unique turret.
Imo Space Sharks with automatic laser cannons tied on their backs would be awesome.
No but seriously. There could be a Mark V HBC. It would obviously be VERY powerful so it should be expensive to compensate. It would have a ship cap of 1. If it was 3 times more powerfull than Mark IV it could cost 3 times as much Knowledge. Or 2 or 2.5 times but it would use a lot of energy and would have an upkeep cost like Matter Converters.
Turrets with galactic ship cap should be more powerful than those with per planet caps imo. Not having as many turrets available would be the trade off so they would be better for small empires and low AIP games. If you have a huge empire you obviously have more planets to defend and beachhead. So that's when per planet turrets really kick in.

[Kahuna]

Turrets with galactic ship caps are for chokepoints / whipping boys / brick wall type of defenses.

And another trade off would be not having (galactic ship cap) turrets for beachheading. Sure you could scrap and replace/rebuild but that would leave the other place vunerable and it would cost time and resources.

[Alex Heartnet]

Yes we need a new unique turret.

Perhaps something along the lines of the kind of nastiness that some Core Guard Posts have?  Something that doesn't do just one thing, but two or three different types of Fun all in one package.

[Aklyon]

Yes we need a new unique turret.

Perhaps something along the lines of the kind of nastiness that some Core Guard Posts have?  Something that doesn't do just one thing, but two or three different types of Fun all in one package.

A Mk.V heavy beam that acts like a wrath lance would be ridiculous, and probably really energy-intensive. And yet it sounds interesting anyway.

[Kahuna]

I wouldn't like a Wrath Lance kind of Turret because I want to be able to control my Turrets. Like when I use the Mark IV HBC I always manually control it. I manually order it to fire at the biggest/most dangerouse AI blob. It's very effective against Starships too.

[ZaneWolfe]

Honestly I feel that the  Mark IV HBC, even with its cap of one, is borderline on the OP scale personally. Just as I feel that HBCs should remain galaxy capped, least they have to get hit with a really big nerf hammer, I can't see a Core Heavy Beam Cannon that isn't anything less than a Wraith Lance. A single focused beam that simply evaporates entire waves. You point it at a wormhole and nothing below MK III-IV Starships survives. And as much pure awesome as that sounds, it's in no way, shape, or form balanced. The Mark IV already hits really close to this, and is nearly too much.

PS: Keith, nerf my HBCs, ANY OF THEM, and there will be a mess.

[Kahuna]

Mark IV HBC already costs 9000 Knowledge and all HBCs have galaxy wide cap unlike other turrets. Aka they don't need a nerf.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Remember when the MKIV Beam Turret used to be special?

It still is.

It is hilariously powerful, and its outrageously high damageoutput/knowledge_cost, damageoutput/energy_cost, and damageoutput/building_cost ratios compared to everything else is only justified by how fun it is and by it requiring the player to invest in HBCI-III first (each of which already have very good ratios of their own and are well worth the investment)..... But mostly justified by how fun it is. As an option for strategic consideration, it is not well balanced against the other defensive options.

[KDR_11k]

A Core HBC would shoot at a wormhole and blow up the planet on the other end...

[Toranth]

A Core HBC would shoot at a wormhole and blow up the planet on the other end...

I'm not sure I'm seeing the problem with this.

[keith.lamothe]

A Core HBC would shoot at a wormhole and blow up the planet on the other end...

I'm not sure I'm seeing the problem with this.

Nor I.  Particularly given the IV's description, iirc.

[Aklyon]

A Core HBC would shoot at a wormhole and blow up the planet on the other end...

Or maybe it would shoot at a wormhole and blow up the incoming wave before it got here.

[motai]

that would be the trick for the level 5 hbc designate a wormhole and the beam orginiates from the other side killing incoming waves as they approach. >D

[Jannik2099]

what about making the core beam cannon like a spire lance?
It charges up (with a gorgeous sound) and then fires a single beam which melts through enemies. the lance would also wipe over small ships so it can actually kill a fleet and not a single starship.
Just imagine that awesomeness
Alternatively, give us a H/K mk.V spawner turret and i'll be fine