Nebula Tools (Nebulas & Storms Preview)

[lapis elk]

Storm Thrower: There's been a lot of discussion (and many mods) about incendiary weapons like flamethrowers, obviously doesn't quite work with fire in space and getting the fire into the ship, but I think we can use the new ion storm damage to get a similar damage-over-time sprayer to soften up enemy armor. Especially useful since Cosmoteer doesn't use ion as a shorthand for stun like a lot of sci-fi, opening it up as a new lingering damage type. Could even be made as an energy-weapon counterpart to the chaingun, drawing from modular tanks to extend its firing time.

Smoke Screen: This one I'm hesitant about simply due to scales. The triangle grid of the current preview nebulas is absurdly big compared to ships (#1240477727597920357 message), presumably without much flexibility in size, and letting even a big flagship fart out a whole triangle is a little extreme. That said, it's more than enough to cover a combat area like I had worried about before, and works fantastic for stealth mechanics. I want to deploy a gas cloud so badly and ambush a blinded ship inside. Could also be tied into cloaking plans and just put your ship under the stealth effects of a gaseous nebula without actually producing it.

Electron Fields: Currently, energy weapons are in need of a buff (#ask-walt message), and I’m very excited for what electron clouds are going to do for that. Letting the player harness that semi-consistently would be huge for their balance, especially giving the small laser more uses in the later game. I see this working in one of two ways:
The sensible way, making it a small part similar to the MRT fuel pod that gives energy weapons a ‘boost’ state like the boost thruster, drawing on electron clouds buffing their damage and blocking power regen. OR
The cool way, making it a wide flat part placed and stacked in front of a small laser to increase its projectile damage and range, turning it into an energy counterpart to the railgun. Especially useful with plans to limit weapon firing range to keep it shooting straight, though even without that it could still permanently target at a field like ion prisms do, and could leverage the laser’s existing aim to be a more flexible alternative at the cost of less power or allow for longer-ranged diagonal builds.