No, variable space-slots is not a workable option, assuming:Sloth wrote:Having just one-slot-weapons and each slot representing a fixed amount of space would have more disadvantages, namely that huge ships would have to have a large amount of weapons instead of huge weapons, which is not only boring but also means tedious designing.Geoff the Medio wrote:If we assume that one slot represents a fixed volume of physical space, then this might be a problem, but the number of slots in a hull doesn't necessarily have to scale proportionally with the on-screen apparent volume of a ship model, as long as we can fit the weapon models onto the hull model somehow... So, we could have a single-slot death-star laser that looks much bigger on the model than a single-slot pea shooter tier-1 PD weapon.eleazar wrote:Graphically, if we do (as i hope) build 3D models of the weaponry, and place them on the 3D hull models, it would be rather cool to have weaponry that's much bigger than the weapons you can build at the start. The dramatic impact of a death star with lots of little weapons isn't nearly as dramatic the one huge beam.
That just leaves the decision between (or taking both):
1. multiple-slot-weapons
2. slots representing a variable amount of space
concerning 1. there has been some contras in this topic (For example from me).
There is no concept how to accomplish 2. in these posts so far ( I think?). So are there any ideas?
1) the smallest ships are much smaller than the biggest ships
2) the difference in the size of weapons is significant
3) Weapons will be large enough to be visible on more than rare occasions.
And if 1, 2, & 3 are not true there's not much point in actually displaying the weapon models on the ships. We can't "just fit the weapon models onto the hull model somehow". If a scout can hold 5 ordinary laser cannons, it can't fit 5 death-star beams in the same spaces. Slots need to have at least a general association will a volume of space. — or else weaponry doesn't show on the model, and the question is moot.