Has anyone made a ship that relies on ion-cannon relay ships for more range, flanking, and or faster re-targeting?
Your Ion Prism Ships?
- Edited
Well, I built this (this is one of my earlier designs, as I don't currently have access to my later ones, but the main ION beam is pretty much is the same) I designed it to be the most powerful single beam ship possible using the normal grid size. My later designs include some actual defensive armoring, except on the rear, and engines, additional weapons, etc. (But I am on the wrong computer for that) But this beam is designed for the maximum efficiency of damage compared to the number of ion beams. (Though I have since found that 100 uncombined ion beams are far more powerful, once they are all targeting a singular spot)
- Edited
Alpha Yeah, I could have, I realized very shortly after finishing the beam amplifier that it could be far more efficient, but it looks so cool when firing, so I didn't really bother. (Got some better shield designs so I was experimenting with them a bit.) Also Linking the prisms was something I did in my more later designs, though those are on my desktop, not my laptop, so I can't access them right now.
Egglanoir I've got just as much firepower in a cheaper and modular prototype 'thingy' I built to test out the prism functions:
Yeah, it's pretty bad, but don't judge it, it's litterally the first desing thing I used prisms on.
- Edited
Alpha Its actually more effective to combine 2 beams of equal strength, I know because I calculated it. I decided to play around with my design to make it a tad more efficient, but then I ended up making this...
- Edited
I wonder if there is any practical use for ion beam overcharging (putting it into a loop so that it stacks before releasing it).
It can amplify a beam's power by about 4x but it only lasts a short while unless the loop contains a lot of prisms.
If nothing else it can create a rather ridiculously large beam for a short while 
.
It's... Beautiful... ;-;
- Edited
My first try
- Edited
An even more ridiculous version of my laser. Uses the big ship mod. (Gets really laggy, might be able to nest it 1 more time, maybe 2, but programming all the lasers is a pain. (By the way, I find discord to be great at image hosting, or at least it seems to be most of the time, just make a private server for free, and just upload there)
This is no time for half measures. 128 ion beams per platform, for 1024 beams total.
I can't come close to running it at full speed, so I don't really know how fast it zaps anything.
In addition to giant ion prisms, I've also been trying to make some more practical versions:
My first prism ship, the Beholder
And my newest, the Gistova, featuring a more compact prism array
Both rely completely on two very fragile weapons. Has anyone created a more survivable design?
- Edited
DecidedlyNinja
This is bad desinged ship
- Edited
Thought I'd join in the fun with a relatively well rounded small ship.
Meet the Oxalate. It's a one mega-credit vessel with an 8 way ion cannon, 2 emp missiles, and decent missile defense. As an added feature, the bulbous nose is specially shaped to keep EMP missiles away from the shields protecting the final focusing crystal.
Oxalate ship
6 days later
This is the ship I entered into the design competition. It's ions can combine up when frontally focused and the prism array is surprisingly survivable. Plus when the arrays are destroyed, it works like an ion broadside so it works pretty well for its cost.
- Edited
Working on one of my monstrosities, this is the start of development.
Able to maintain continuous fire.
This is only the weapon, The platform comes later.
