Armaments

As of 2120, human military technology has come a long way from the early days of the FSN. From a beginning of basic missile and beam weaponry, humanity has fashioned a trinity of armaments, and now stands on the brink of an entirely new stage of military development.

In the energy weapon sphere, lasers are falling out of use by military designers after a poor showing against Shiplord composite matter. Particle beam armaments are projected to take up the slack, with mass fire at close ranges capable of inflicting damage on par with grav shear weaponry. The relatively small size of emitters make them perfect for auxiliary designs. Some engineers still prefer laser weaponry for point defence, but the logic of unifying FSN weapons technology appears to be winning this argument. Particle beams are basically lightspeed, anyway.

Missile systems have remained basically unchanged following the Federated Solar Navy’s first trial by fire. The only major development is possibility of a new drive that doesn’t require Practice to construct, thanks to the Fifth Secret. Most missiles carry a Shieldbreaker warhead, but larger auxiliaries and capital ships are armed with a small number of antimatter devices. Due to the universal presence of hitscan point defence, these weapons are deployed in massive waves so that some inevitably reach their targets. New designs retain a sizeable missile armament, but naval engineers are beginning to call that into question.

The final part of the trinity of current weapons systems are the ones that have come furthest, having only been developed in the last ten years. Gravitational disruptors are what truly broke the Shiplord Tribute Fleet, but until very recently there was a harsh limit to the number of ships that you could deploy with them. Now that you’ve unlocked the Fifth Secret, that limit no longer applies. These are the true main armament of any capital ship, and hold primacy across all parts of the Shiplord fleet. Now that you can build and operate these without Potentials, the FSN can finally begin construction of a true capital ship strength.