Thrawn's Revenge - A mod for Star Wars, Empire at War

Weapon System

Space

Thrawn’s Revenge uses a representative system to assign appropriate weapons to different units and balance them according to, where possible, their canonical armament. The basis of this system is that, for any given ship or weapon-type, a single instance of that weapon counts as one pulse from a hardpoint. So, for example, if a ship canonically has sixty turbolasers, we could give it six hardpoints each firing ten pulses, or twelve hardpoints each firing five pulses, etc.

The armament of a ship is displayed in the form of Total Pulses/No of Hardpoints for each type of weapon it possesses. So, for example, the Imperial Star Destroyer’s 60/6 Turbolaser hardpoints translates into six hardpoints firing ten pulses in each round, whereas its 6/2 Dual Heavy Turbolaser becomes two hardpoints firing three pulses in each round. To compare this to another example, take the Venator-class Star Destroyer, with its canonical armament of eight Dual Turbolasers. Since we aren’t representing all sixty individual Turbolasers on the Imperial Star Destroyer, it would be unbalanced to set the Venator up with eight fully charged (10 pulse) hardpoints. Instead, we have given it four hardpoints firing two pulses each round. This system has been used for all space units, although starfighters and some anti-starfighter ships (such as the CR90 Corellian Corvette) are handled slightly differently.

Laser Cannons/Maser Cannons

Laser and Maser Cannons are weapons that fire bursts of particle beam energy. These weapons are of a small enough calibre to be quickly and accurately aimed at fast-moving targets such as starfighters. Laser and Maser Cannons are capable of damaging both hull and shields.

Turbolasers/Megamasers

Turbolasers and Megamasers are immensely scaled-up versions of Laser and Maser Cannons. Generally turret-mounted, they are commonly found on capital ships and space stations. Equipped with significantly larger capacitors, they can store and discharge far more powerful bursts of beam energy. They are primarily used for ship-to-ship combat because their size and slow target-tracking is ineffective against the small and fast targets presented by starfighters. Turbolasers and Megamasers are capable of damaging both hull and shields.

Ion Cannons

Ion Cannons are ranged weapons which fire ionised particles or plasma that can cause serious interference with the operation of electronics and computer systems. Ion Cannons are only capable of draining energy from shields and systems, they do not do hull damage.

Warhead Launchers

Warhead launchers are used to fire a range of self-propelled projectiles that can deliver considerable explosive power to their target. Concussion and Rhazor Missiles are able to target practically any unit, while Proton Torpedoes are restricted to Corvettes and above. All warheads cause damage to both shields and hull.

*Rate of fire is the short delay between pulses as the weapon reloads. Recharge time is the longer recharge period after each completed round. The length of delay listed above is the standard rate for each weapon type; some vessels may have longer or shorter delays to reflect their power source, unit type, or technology.