Modular RnD Weaponry - {Lasers}

Small, medium, and large. Small would have 1 modifier, 1 capacitor, and 1 focusing lens. Medium would have 2 modifiers, 1 capacitor, and 1 focusing lens. Large would have 3 modifiers, 1 capacitor, and 1 focusing lens. Small chassi are functionally like pistol stocks, and can be hung on belts, put into holsters, and bags. They cannot be worn on the back. Medium chassi are functionally like rifle stocks, and can be be worn on the back and on the belt. Large chassi are for specialist weaponry, and can only be worn on the back. They can only be fired when wielded, and carrying them induces a speed penalty.

Focusing lens provides the accuracy of the laser weapon. It directly affects dispersion and accuracy mods. Bad or tarnished focusing lenses will give you bad accuracy, bad dispersion, and may possibly even split the beam in unpredictable ways. To that extent, focusing lenses also control the type of weapon. "Shotgun" lasers would have a diffuse focusing lens, whereas precision lasers would have a precise focusing lens.

Capacitors provide the actual power and potency of the laser. They take the form of batteries. A more advanced capacitor (Aka a power powerful battery) provides greater charge, and as a result greater power. More shots for more damage, what's there not to like? Well, maybe the fact that more potent capacitors are more likely to make your laser blow up in your face, but who cares about that?

Any further suggestions for modifiers are welcome.

A weapon cannot fire without its focusing lens, as there is nothing to focus the energy emitted by the capacitor. Likewise, a weapon cannot fire without its capacitor, or with an empty capacitor, because there is no energy being outputted.

A weapon can fire without any mods, and adding mods actually increases the durability cost of firing the weapon (Unless stated otherwise by the mod itself)

Actual construction of the weapon requires a chassis, a capacitor, a focusing lens, and any mods desired. The production of chassis is outlined below. A capacitor is any functional battery, and a focusing lens can be improvised, purchased, found, or created via RnD. Modifiers can only be found or created via RnD.

The chassis must be readied before any parts can be added onto it. Once it is readied, the capacitor must be added, and then the focusing lens. Any modifications come after the focusing lens and capacitor are installed. Once the weapon is complete, it must be finalized.

Each weapon has a durability modifer. Everytime the weapon is fired or recharged via a charger, its durability is decreased. When its chassis durability reaches zero, the weapon is destroyed, along with all of its components. Durability will rarely actually reach zero, however, because as durability decreases it becomes more likely for the capacitor to go critical, and as a result it is more likely for the laser to explode than it is to simply fall apart. Each chassis archetype has generally different durabilities. Small chassi are the most durable, as they have the least amount of moving parts. Contrary, large chassi are the least durable, due to their high amount of moving parts.

Each individual component may also break before the chassis itself breaks. If the focusing lens breaks, the weapon cannot fire. If the capacitor breaks it may go critical or simply die. If a modifier breaks its bonus will be removed from the weapon.

More explicitly, durability is the result of the chassis durability combined with the durability of its capacitor against the durability malus of its modifiers and its focusing lens. As a weapon fires, its durability of its chassis and capacitor will decrease by the combined durability malus of its modifiers and focusing lens, and then the malus of its modifiers will increase. This means that the odds of the weapon breaking or going critical increase exponentially as you fire it, instead of linearly. This also means that you can't remove all of the weapons components and then reconstruct it to cheese durability.

Chassi, depending on their production type (Detailed below), may have innate modifiers of their own. These modifiers can take numerous forms, and can even replicate the modifers detailed above, although not as well. The advantage of chassi modifiers however is that they do not affect the durability cost of firing the weapon. The disadvantage of chassi modifiers however is that they are randomized, and can be other negative or positive.

Factory standard chassi of small or medium size can be ordered from cargo via crates. Medium chassi can be improvised from station materials. Experimental chassi of any size can be produced from RnD once the requisite research has been pursued.

Factory standard chassi have standard durabilities, and no chassi mods.

Improvised chassi have randomized durabilities respectful of their type, however their durabilities will typically be lower than factory standard. Improvised chassi will typically also have negative chassi modifiers.

Experimental chassi have randomized durabilities respectful of their type. They can be more durable than the factory standard, but also less durable. Experimental chassi can have modifiers of any type - negative or positive.

As outlined above, cargo has the capability of ordering factory standard parts crate. Each crate comes equipped with a small and medium standard chassis, one standard capacitor, and one standard focusing lens.

As a weapon becomes more damaged, the more critical it becomes to repair it. Before repairing a weapon, it must be deconstructed. Deconstructing a weapon is the reverse process of constructing it.

Repairing the chassis is a simple affair - welding the cracks will return its durability, but may give the chassis a negative modifier if it does not already have one. This eliminates any positive modifier it may have had. Conversely, this means repairing a chassis with a negative modifier via a welder can be done free of risk. Repairing a chassis with nanopaste eliminates this risk altogether.

A capacitor can only be repaired with nanopaste.

A focusing lens cannot be repaired.

Each modifier can be repaired via a complex process probably involving cables and multitools.

As mentioned above, laser weapons can be constructed from improvised parts. A chassis can be constructed from improvised stocks. A capacitor is just a battery. Focusing lens can be improvised from eyeglasses or glass shards. Improvised focusing lens will typical be poor in quality, and improvised laser weapons will typically go critical before they can fuel your murderbone rampage to any extent.

Lacking the resources, any improvised focusing lens can be equipped to a factory standard or experimental chassis. Conversely, a factory standard or experimental focusing lens can be equipped to an improvised chassis. Improvised chassis, however, cannot have any modifiers, and can only be medium in size.

There would be absolutely no point to a modular weapon system if there was no personal customisation. Any custombuilt weapon can be given a custom name, which will proudly be displayed in air-quotes whenever the weapon is used for valids. The description of a weapon can similarly be customised.

That said, the description of a weapon will always detail:

• 
  
• What mods a weapon has.
• What chassis type it is.
  
• What its capacitor size is.
  
• What focusing lens it is equipped with.

The beam a weapon fires cannot be colourized, as it is is indicative of its power and modulation.

Please post any comments, questions, suggestions, or concerns.

I love it, these ideas are awesome and will fit science very well

After a cursory reading, i have at least one concern:

Small chassi are the most durable, as they have the least amount of moving parts. Contrary, large chassi are the least durable, due to their high amount of moving parts.

Small weapons are already more popular for various reasons, including flexibility, minimal storage usage and concealability. Large weapons are comparitively uncommon.

It's also a constant in science, that smaller is better (but also harder to do/more advanced) And smaller items are more likely to have inadequate ventilation for cooling parts, or to use experimental small parts instead of older, larger, proven parts. That's some lore justification if you need it.

But my concern really is that from a gameplay perspective, making large weapons dangerous will just make them less used- an occasional novelty, while people will rush for the handguns and miniature things they can stick in a pocket. So please, flip that around.

Make small things more prone to failure, and large ones more reliable

The issue with that is the small chassi can only fit one modifier, which makes them relatively single purpose. Larger weapon designs can fit more modifiers, which makes them exponentially more powerful and versatile, and allows for some unique weapon designs.

Also, small chassi cannot be fit in the pocket.

For purpose of comparison, compare the two hypothetical weapons:

The trusty and reliable handpistol with a surge protector to ensure it lasts just as long as is needed.

The massive specialist gun with a thermal scope, capacitor overcharger, and rotary lens, to provide destruction and chaos wherever its owner chooses.

Which would you like to see granted more longevity and less risk of operation?

Floral somatoray gatling laser when.

hello good sir, i would like one gataling floral mutation inducing device, biggest capacitor you have... give it xray too, those large potatoes wont grow on their own

This has all my support, i actually had this idea for a while, and not just weapons, but this is more thought out and fowl is actually working on!

oh one tiny thing

Make it only possible to inspect the mods/properties/components of a weapon if you're very close to it, or you're holding it

from 2+ tiles away have a message like "You need to get closer to inspect the gun"

If I may suggest, could we make it possible to make really shitty, semi-homemade lasers? Like a frame made of platesteel that can only hold enough parts to make it work, lenses with glass and steel, and powered by a battery? Like, only able to shoot one shot before it breaks/explodes. or discharges the battery in one shot so it need to be replaced instead of charged in a charger. I think a really shit, laser musket esque looking thing would be cool.

If I may suggest, could we make it possible to make really shitty, semi-homemade lasers? Like a frame made of platesteel that can only hold enough parts to make it work, lenses with glass and steel, and powered by a battery? Like, only able to shoot one shot before it breaks/explodes. or discharges the battery in one shot so it need to be replaced instead of charged in a charger. I think a really shit, laser musket esque looking thing would be cool.

I think a laser zipgun would be a bit too silly. Especially considering how lasers are not easy things to construct from scratch to start with, even in the ultra-modern era. Parts for a conventional laser gun would be by no means easy to come by as a scavenger without completely salvaging an existing one.

Real life homemade firearms are nothing to huff about, you could be the biggest hardliner of firearms safety in the world and you most likely would not be able to prevent the inevitable malfunction or accident that comes with trying to use a jury-rigged pipe gun.

Parts for a conventional laser gun would be by no means easy to come by as a scavenger without completely salvaging an existing one.

You can literally make a laser gun right now in 2016 by salvaging CD drives.

Powerful enough to sear retinas if aimed at the eyes

There are plenty of machines on the station that use lasers as parts, like fabricators

-Improvisation:

As mentioned above, laser weapons can be constructed from improvised parts. A chassis can be constructed from improvised stocks. A capacitor is just a battery. Focusing lens can be improvised from eyeglasses or glass shards. Improvised focusing lens will typical be poor in quality, and improvised laser weapons will typically go critical before they can fuel your murderbone rampage to any extent.

Lacking the resources, any improvised focusing lens can be equipped to a factory standard or experimental chassis. Conversely, a factory standard or experimental focusing lens can be equipped to an improvised chassis. Improvised chassis, however, cannot have any modifiers, and can only be medium in size.

Improvisation is not the focus of this project, however it will be looked into. The construction of an improvised chassis would likely parallel the construction of an improvised stock, however it would require the installation of some additional bits, such as something to project light. The advantage of these improvised chassis is debatable.

This is a great idea, but I still support making large ones more reliable for the reasons above, and also that module damage per shot stacking + decreased reliability in general = about the same reliability as a makeshift shotgun.