Lava launcher#1000

This would be a new weapon, but instead of being a shooty-shooty one, I thought of it as an area-control weapon.
Unlocked at T2, it would shoot heavy projectiles that, upon colliding with something, explode and cover the surface with molten metal, dealing great damage to anything that happens to be inside of it. This would make an area where COGs (and players) can’t walk through for some time, but it would also be an effective weapon against the modules of a drillship.
As mentioned, the ammo is quite heavy, meaning this weapon is not a mortar. At most, you could shoot the projectiles about 10~20 meters forward.

The ammo used would be canisters filled with molten metal, which means there would be 6 different ammo types : Molten copper, iron, titanium and the alloys. Each have their own stats, and the alloys could have special effects as well. Here’s what I thought of :

• Copper : Large area, light damage, medium duration
• Iron : Medium area, moderate damage, long duration
• Titanium : Small area, high damage, short duration
• Alloy T1 (copper+iron) : Large area, medium damage, very long duration
• Alloy T2 (iron+titanium) : Medium area, high damage, medium duration, emits a lot of steam which makes it hard to see through the area
• Alloy T3 (all metals) : Large area, medium-high damage, medium duration, deals extra damage to modules and devices, and slows down enemies or players walking in it

Now remember, even when I say “light damage”, it is still quite considerable. I mean, it’s molten metal we’re talking about.
For the area size, I imagine large-medium-small goes something like 20-15-10 meters diameter.
When it comes to duration, I think long-medium-short would be around 45-30-15 seconds.

Of course, each weapon we get, the COGs get, and there is also a turret version of it. I imagine the ammo could be the same for weapon and turret, or you’d have to craft a bigger canister and fill it using more ingots. (There should be a whitelist feature on the turret to tell it what ammo to take if you’re making multiple. There should also be a priority mode, so that it could either grab any from the selected list, or prioritize one that you specify but still be able to take others if you run out of one type.)

And since the ammo isn’t really conventional, I think the crafting process should be a bit different than the bullets ammo : first, you have to craft a canister in the ammo tab of a production workstation, which I guess would cost iron and crystals. But then, you have to go to a refinery workstation, go to a new tab called “ammo” (so they would have two tabs instead of just the current “ingot” one), and then craft the filled canisters with the metal of your choice. (Makes sense, since you’re melting the metal, a refinery seems more appropriate for this than a production module.) Each recipe costs one canister and 5 or 10 ingots of the metal you want to fill it with. You could stack them up to 2.

Now, there’s also another possibility : you could use the ammo by itself, if you’re not willing to fill an inventory slot with yet another weapon. You could carry the canisters by hand (there’s handles or something idk), and launch them without the lava launcher, however, considering how heavy they are, you couldn’t launch them farther away than 5 meters. You’d have to run away after throwing one, or your move risks to backfire on you. And the process of equipping and launching the canister would take a lot more time than when you’re using the lava launcher, so that using the weapon is still relevant.

hmm, sounds like and interesting weapon indeed, I esp. see it could get some use in PvP. However the balancing would need to be very delicate, since I’m afraid in COG’s hands this could be very OP

Actually one of the few good ideas I’ve seen in a while

@Martin good point. Perhaps the only COGs who could use this weapon would be a bit different, so that you could know when one of them is coming.

^ This one talks about basically the same concept : using molten metal as a weapon, but the mechanic described is different, as they talk more about a stream rather than a canister.

Maybe both could work, who knows ? Having this “stream” mechanic as a mode on the weapon, so that there is even more incentive to use it over just throwing the canister by hand.

I can see where you are getting at, throwing the canister may be more effective at incapacitating a larger group of enemies, but the effects of the metal explosion could also harm yourself and limit movement (if too close), so what the molten metal launcher seeks to do is grant more accuracy and lessen self harm by a lot.

And i do think that they can work together, the canister could be used to incapacity (and destroy) a large group of enemies faster, but at the cost of self harm and movement limitations (if standing too close), while the molten metal launcher is more precise and much less self harming at the cost of area of effect.

They both have their upsides and downsides

It is one point of the suggestion that this weapon is very destructive and powerful, but could also harm you if used incorrectly or too close.

Having both modes on a single weapon sounds pretty cool, honestly. It would be the ultimate crowd control weapon ! It would have to be quite late-game, and very pricy, but its powerfulness justifies it along with the amount of inventory space you need for the ammo.
And the “stream” mode would also save on the canisters, compared to the “bomb” mode…

So 2 weapons into one? Sounds great! It’s gonna be complicated to implement into pvp on the other hand, but they would probably just make the ammo very scarce.

And being able to switch between “bomb” mode and “stream” mode would grant both precision and devastation, both with different set backs, bomb mode uses up the whole canister while stream mode allows you to slowly burn through ammo.

And i definitely agree with it being an end game item, considering it’s devastating crowd control ability and it’s area of effect, and it must be very costy like you said.

But in the hands of cogs they could to massive damage, so I’d rather make the cogs with this weapon kinda like a mini boss, or else it’s gonna be quite a problem dealing with them.

It would be an interesting weapon that’s for sure

if the ammo is a canister (let’s say 3~5 iron ingots and 5 crystals) + 10 ingots of whatever it is you’re filling it with, then yeah, the ammo would be pricy enough I feel like. I don’t see any issues with PvP implementation.

But you’re right, I can see issues with COGs, like if every one of them starts bringing one of these everywhere… As mentioned in the first replies, the COGs carrying this weapon would have to be different. Perhaps not mini-bosses, but at least maybe a bit slower, with a bigger armor, and they would spawn a lot less often.
Another solution could be to never send those on Drillship attacks (unless you retreat from a battle and one follows you to your ship), but keep them only on village defense/ship defense/laser defense. That way it’s not too infiurating because they never attack you, but they add a big challenge to raiding !

It would definitely make you think twice before engaging a group of COGs in hard mode that’s for sure.

Oh and i have an idea about those big enemies, how about them having a big tank full of molten metal on their back? kinda like a weak spot, but the tank won’t be too big so it’s easy to hit, but uf you manage to get behind them shoot on the tank, because after a few shots it’ll go boom.

That’s an interesting idea ! Giving them a bigger “packpack” with containers of molten metal would be a good indicator (although it would still have to be different since COGs already have those lava batteries or whatever they are), and giving COGs weak spots is something I’m entirely for

I think that the COG carrying this weapon should be a little bigger then the normal ones to identify it a little easier, just a little, and also, when you blow up the back pack it’ll die but the metal will shoot out everywhere making a big spot of molten metal (bigger then the canister’s explosion) stunning nearby enemies, and dealing tic damage, but that does not exclude you.

oh and there should probably be an acid version that deals more damage but removes the stun effect, the back pack explosion will work about the same for the acid version, big area of effect and big tic damage but no stun.

Acid and molten metal could be a good duo together