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Old Post Your Own Orbital Death Laser

pra

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So the idea is: a factory plot which shoots a satellite into orbit, and then produces signal grenades or something like Euclid's C-Finder, which summons an orbital laser strike at the target.

The launch facility could evolve from something else. From an ammunition plant of example, or just from the scrap thing. In the ideal case, it would actually have a rocket on it, which the player can launch by pressing a button. A prerequisite could be having a certain amount of oil.

After that is done, the factory becomes a "communication center". Either it changes again, or the comm stuff is already part of it. It then starts producing the flares, or produces the targeting gun once. If the same building is built again, it skips the rocket thing and becomes the comm center right away.

The satellite itself in this idea is just a huge mirror. In order to actually fire something, you need to build huge surface-based lasers. This is a 2x2 martial plot which gets unlocked as soon as you have launched the rocket. It requires a lot of power for obvious reasons.

In the end, the whole thing works like the minuteman artillery, only with lasers. Should probably have "infinite" range, or at least enough range to target everything in the current worldspace. No idea how far Far Harbor is supposed to be, I almost suspect that there isn't enough earth curvature to hinder the laser inbetween.

For balancing, I'd say, make it more powerful than artillery, but restrict it to once every 24h for each laser station you have. That is, if you have only one, you can fire once daily. If you have 5, you can fire 5 times, etc.
 
The Ion cannon from Command&Conquer or like the Broken steel dlc orbital laser?

Anyway...It could be some sort of BIG - ADVANCED - MASSIVELY EXPENSIVE tier 3 of a martial plot... maybe when the puts our hands on the 4x4 plots...

Consider that something like this is pretty hard to balance.

maybe some kind of "Wonder Plot" (like age of empires), you could have only Tot at the same time in the whole game...
 
Hm... an update: Maybe we should wait about place something -THIS- big.
It's like building a pyramid starting to the top...

Still I like the idea of some "superweapon" plot (even considering them highly overpowered).

I mean: if it's something that BECAME a "death laser" when it reach it's apex ok, but itsould need some looong time
for example: Superweapon Plots: Hacking Network (a bit out of lore, but just as example)
-> Level 1 Satellite Image (Discover position on the map)
-> Level 2 Satellite Routes (I don't know... More caps from the Caravans that pays for fresh data on raiders activity area?)
-> Level 3 Death Laser (Gives control of the Death laser for 2 days a Week for a limited amount of fire [Orbit and overheat problem as balance limitation])
 
Try this:
Load up an extended artillery range mod.
Set up 5 artillery per settlement in every settlement.
Go somewhere central on the map
Casually throw a smoke grenade somewhere in the middle of a bunch of baddies in a spot you know is in range of multiple settlements
Run like hell

The explosions go on for quite a while :)

Who needs death lasers, I've got boom booms, shrapnel, and nameless supermutant and ghoul squidgy bits all over the walls.
 
Try this:
Load up an extended artillery range mod.
Set up 5 artillery per settlement in every settlement.
Go somewhere central on the map
Casually throw a smoke grenade somewhere in the middle of a bunch of baddies in a spot you know is in range of multiple settlements
Run like hell

The explosions go on for quite a while :)

Who needs death lasers, I've got boom booms, shrapnel, and nameless supermutant and ghoul squidgy bits all over the walls.

Hey! It's not about the result! It's about a GODDANMFUCKINGLAZERFROMTHEORBIT!!! ghghgh :P
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For extra boredom reduction, load up Nordhagen and the Castle with a good 15-20 artillery each and then go toss a few flares at the BoS at the airport.
 
Herm... as lore-friendly alternative, perhaps a 'mechanized artillery' plot that counts as 3-5 artillery pieces in the space you need for 2, but forces attacks on the settlement a lot more often (it is a serious threat that needs to be neutralized), weighted towards gunners, institute, NW raiders, and BoS if posable. Make it an advanced martial plot dependent on Old Guns, the flare factory, and nuclear arms factory.
 
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Fallout 3 had the missile satellite the player could use once, so an orbital laser satellite wouldn't be out of the lore.
 
Fallout 3 had the missile satellite the player could use once, so an orbital laser satellite wouldn't be out of the lore.


No it wouldn't be, but the artillery and the sub transponder are already in the game, so no new FX would be needed...the sub missiles are another thought... a nuclear launch facility has potential....
 
No it wouldn't be, but the artillery and the sub transponder are already in the game, so no new FX would be needed...the sub missiles are another thought... a nuclear launch facility has potential....

A nuclear weapon needs all kinds of intense engineering behind it,though. I doubt even the Institute has the facilities required to manufacture tactical nukes. That said... Maybe a cluster missile? Thermobaric? Much simpler than nukes.
 
Well the technology is there in the commonwealth. Tactical Nukes are already a player item and the rocket booster plus guidance technology is in ArcJet.
 
It is available,but not for manufacture,which is a bit of an issue. There are plane-dropped bombs,ICBM warheads,and,courtesy of the Yangtze,cruise missile warheads,plus Fat Man shells. In very limited quantities. With no facilities,or factions,able to replace them. That's the point I'm making,here. If the Brotherhood or Institute can't produce their own nukes,what hope do the Minutemen or an independent party have? Because that's what you do when you're doing in the Workshop menu,and that's what your settlers do when they build up their plots; Building it themselves.

Now,cruise missiles with cluster thermobaric warheads? Far,far less complex know-how is needed to make that,with much more common materials.

You can literally make a small thermobaric charge with a can of axe,a way to remotely spray its contents all at once,and a remote way to ignite the vapour cloud. Much more feasible than,say,figuring out the precise critical mass of fissile material needed to create a runaway thermonuclear chain reaction in order to initiate fusion,plus a system to detect when to begin that reaction?
 
That's the part where the lore kinda breaks. You have the ability to modify and build plasma rifles, maintain Vertibirds that should be running on Fusion generators, and even make fusion generators for a settlement. If the ability to understand and maintain a fusion power plant is there, the ability to understand the simpler Nuclear technology would be also. However, somehow nobody has been repairing fusion powered vehicles.
 
A nuclear weapon needs all kinds of intense engineering behind it,though. I doubt even the Institute has the facilities required to manufacture tactical nukes. That said... Maybe a cluster missile? Thermobaric? Much simpler than nukes.
Gun detonation fission bombs are a lot simpler to make than a FAE (termabaric) unless you have access to propane or better gasses, and if you can refine hydrogen (like say for a fusion core), a mini nuke could be used as the initiator for a fusion bomb. Honestly, given the recoverable tech, the hardest part would be making a missile you could aim reliably.
 
Gun detonation fission bombs are a lot simpler to make than a FAE (termabaric) unless you have access to propane or better gasses, and if you can refine hydrogen (like say for a fusion core), a mini nuke could be used as the initiator for a fusion bomb. Honestly, given the recoverable tech, the hardest part would be making a missile you could aim reliably.
Surely as long as the "warhead" remains intact you could use Artillery to launch it?
 
Surely as long as the "warhead" remains intact you could use Artillery to launch it?
In theory, but you would need a significantly longer barrel (ideally 2 meters+, the vanilla 'artillery' are scarcely more than mortars) and a sabot.... and windage could still lead to blue fire. i was kida disapointed in the spred in vanilla, I mean there using 16th century smooth-bore, extremely short 'artillery' and magically getting precision that would be hard to match with today's technology. The shells should be landing all over hell and damnation...
 
Unfortunately, the lore breaks there as well. Accuracy, distance covered, and the fact the ammo is cannonballs, which wouldn't have an explosion at all.
 
There were explosive cannonballs later on, but that would require perfectly cutting the fuse so it explodes at impact.
 
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