What type of Weapon Mounts can possibly exist on StarShips.

[Unicron]

In terms of non-Trek examples, I've recently been thinking about capital grade warheads. Which, in the relevant examples I can think of (Dropfleet Commander and Snap Ships), refers to large missiles designed specifically to target and destroy enemy warships. They're huge and expensive to produce, so a given ship can only mount a few, but if used properly they can be very effective in a fleet action.

 

[Imaus]

Honestly I'm partial to full turrets on the outside of the hull and missiles just strapped on. No fancy internal mechanisms needed, though it depends on what the turret is spewing out.

Space is so relatively sparse and craft not liable to be zipping around to much for collisions to be much of a problem; and it's arguable even then if the expense of putting missiles inside a ship or the maintenance nightmare of retractable turrets is worth it, either against environmental threats or other weaponry.

 

[Go-Captain]

With the most recent episode of ST:LDS, the USS Titan has (Inset into the Hull, Flat Blue Phaser Arrays).

The Beams form above the cavity and fire at specified target which is an interesting design choice.

So that's a new method that StarFleet has now officially used.

They're a neat evolution of the array, though still an array of some sort.

Do we have the Death Star laser listed? It combines beams mid flight into a single mega beam, can fire the sub-beams off individually, and I would assume the main beam could be steered by adjusting the sub-beams.

DC’s Excelsior had lightning like tracing phasers to deal with cloaked ships...
A quick question on side arms... how many had underslung barrels like from OTHERWORLD...I think only the Swarm pod soldiers from Voyager

I think there are a bunch of Trek weapons with secondary barrels, but they never fire anything different other than kill and stun. If they fire pulses it's all pulses, if it's beams it's all beams. Alternate settings are rarely every seen or mentioned with alien weapons, let alone the need for a distinct emitter rather than combining all function into one.

In terms of non-Trek examples, I've recently been thinking about capital grade warheads. Which, in the relevant examples I can think of (Dropfleet Commander and Snap Ships), refers to large missiles designed specifically to target and destroy enemy warships. They're huge and expensive to produce, so a given ship can only mount a few, but if used properly they can be very effective in a fleet action.

I would like to see different classes of torpedo of different diameters like that. I had an idea for a duplex torpedo, where the warhead is loaded first, and the propulsion section loaded second like the shell and propellant of artillery. It's just a way to get more torpedo into the standard size launcher. That's kind of a mid-step for hulls which can't handle a larger launcher firing wider and longer torpedoes.

Also, photon missiles which use unpowered launch tubes but sacrifice range. The other advantage is they can jump to warp on their own.

The one thing I don't like about Trek combat is it is mostly the same through the whole thing, no evolution of arms and tactics. By expanding the projectile types it would mess around with the status quo of Trek combat.

Honestly I'm partial to full turrets on the outside of the hull and missiles just strapped on. No fancy internal mechanisms needed, though it depends on what the turret is spewing out.

Space is so relatively sparse and craft not liable to be zipping around to much for collisions to be much of a problem; and it's arguable even then if the expense of putting missiles inside a ship or the maintenance nightmare of retractable turrets is worth it, either against environmental threats or other weaponry.

Taken to a wacky level you could have a ship with external fuel tanks, and those tanks are connected straight to impulse engines. The tank engines can detach and work as missiles, so as the ship fires missiles off it looses propulsion, but it allows for absurdly deadly offense.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Do we have the Death Star laser listed? It combines beams mid flight into a single mega beam, can fire the sub-beams off individually, and I would assume the main beam could be steered by adjusting the sub-beams.

Species 8472 manages to pull that off, but I dunno if I can count that as a mount since their ships are Biological.

I think there are a bunch of Trek weapons with secondary barrels, but they never fire anything different other than kill and stun. If they fire pulses it's all pulses, if it's beams it's all beams. Alternate settings are rarely every seen or mentioned with alien weapons, let alone the need for a distinct emitter rather than combining all function into one.

I think each barrel is optimized for a specific type of energy emission.
Ergo one to Maximize Energy Pulses
Another to Maximize Beams
StarFleet love's their multi-tools, programability, and variable functions

 

[Unicron]

I would like to see different classes of torpedo of different diameters like that. I had an idea for a duplex torpedo, where the warhead is loaded first, and the propulsion section loaded second like the shell and propellant of artillery. It's just a way to get more torpedo into the standard size launcher. That's kind of a mid-step for hulls which can't handle a larger launcher firing wider and longer torpedoes.

One reason I used to enjoy the game Tachyon: The Fringe is that you could customize ships, and you had a nice range of options. You had four classes of rack (munition) weapons, although the faction you chose might determine what you could mount. GalSpan vessels tended to favor a lot of guided torpedoes and missiles, while Bora vessels couldn't mount those but favored rockets and sappers.

Each type has its own attributes, perhaps in part for game balance purposes. Torpedoes are guided and generally fairly reliable, but had a relatively slow lock and fire rate. Missiles are also guided and more general purpose, with their main drawback being somewhat limited ammunition. My personal favorite is the Swarm anti-fighter missile, a favorite of GalSpan, which fires a cluster of sub-missiles and is pretty nasty when it hits.

Rockets are generally unguided warheads, with the balance of being cheaper (so you can buy more of them for a single launcher) and mounting a larger warhead than a guided version (so that the damage range between most models is pretty close, or in some cases favoring the rocket). With a bomber type hull and a skilled pilot, a rocket array can be an excellent heavy weapon.

Sappers, with one exception, are not true warheads but are designed to drain energy from the target's hull, like from shields or weapons. The remote sapper is a bomb that can be triggered by the pilot, under ideal circumstances. The Bora colonies are primarily miners and modified much of their military hardware from engineering equipment. Some pirate groups have acquired sappers as well, though they're a less common weapon outside of Bora space.

Both guided warheads and sappers are vulnerable to defense systems which can counter them, if the target ship has them equipped. Guided ECMs will try to fool a target lock by releasing chaff to trick the missile, and sappers can be overloaded with a burn-off device. So there are options in both directions for a pilot to consider.

 

[publiusr]

Now I might scale up the battle spheres of Vengeance and stack them like Malon tanks on a carrier. Warp in, drop them off, and warp out.

Each with M-5 controls.