Weapon Mechanics / Balancing

Hello,

I was recently wondering how one would incorporate the classic 'rock, paper, scissors' mechanics into weapon types.

Please be aware, the weapons in question are used on a spaceship , but the mechanics behind it could be converted into an RPG game.

Anyway, so far, I have 'Energy' weapons and 'Projectile' weapons.

What could the third one be? Is there anything that would be suitable?

The idea behind this would somewhat similar to this...

Energy  BEATS  Projectile

Projectile  BEATS  3rd Type

3RD Type BEATS ENERGY

So...

Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Reflective?

You know, bounces the energy beam back/away, but is pierced by the projectile?

Directed energy vs Ballistics vs...magic?

Come back to me, I can do better.

I second the reflection idea.

I was kinda thinking something like 'Subspace Technology'  or maybe 'ElectroMagnetic' or something...

Not sure :/

Electromagnetic shielding? Could reflect stuff/disrupt the energy beams, but be too weak for stuff being shot at it.

Yea thats kinda what i was thinking..

Ideally, it would be something that can be used for both weapon and shield, like energy shield and weapons, projectile shield and weapons and [x] shield and weapons.

That way I can differentiate between them all and choosing a different ship has even more mechanics behind it. (they are already pretty solid but this would be an excellent addition)

I'd say go with explosive, and set 'projectile' to only cover solid weapons, stuff fired from railguns and the like.

(energy:)  Energy weapons - Force Field

(solid:) Projectile weapons - Armor Plating

(explosive:) Explosive weapons - Chaff Defense

You could have forcefields work well against standard weaponry, but fail to hold up against an explosive discharge.  Explosions would not work well against specialized armor plating, though, due to advances in material synthesis, and explosives really only came back because they work so well against energy force fields.  Special chaff systems would be used to weaken energy weapons, forcing them to waste energy on destroying the reflective chaff.  And while the chaff could be used to absorb some of the impact from a bomb or something like it, it would barely slow down a piece of artillery flying at high speeds, making it not ideal to use against physical projectiles.

I was also thinking something similar to that...

Weapon types being Energy, Projectile and Explosive. Explosive weapons would launch small bombs - the main difference between explosive weapons and projectile weapons is - projectile weapons continue momentum until out of screen or hit enemy. Explosive weapons launch small device which explodes after a set distance. The damage would be dealt using a blast radius.

Energy/Projectile/Explosive is how EVE Online does it. They also have a "hybrid" category that combines energy and projectile weapons, but I think they only did that because there's four factions, not just three, and each needed a signature weapon.

How about: kinetic, energy and chemical/explosive, going in a kinetic -> energy -> chemical -> kinetic formula; kinetics pierce energy shielding, energy stifles reactive materials and explosives deflect kinetic impacts.

Dude! Explosives!

Yea, I think I will opt for Energy / Projectile / Explosive... It feels like that fits the style of my game more than anything else.

Thanks for the thoughts guys ^-^

Does that mean all energy weapons will be melee and not, you know, projected? ;)

lol no...

Energy weapon, such as lazers, will be fired at the target like a projectile; however, as it only consists of energy it does not act like a projectile when hitting the target.

Example - A projectile would hit you, then continue hitting you till it stopped or came out the other side.

An energy weapon would hit you, then your body would 'absorb' the impact - thus feeling its effects.