Improvement: ESLs (Lightnings)

[ShadetheDruid]

I had some more random ideas related to this, and i've focused the ideas a bit more than just having random half-ideas floating around (plus actual formatting, yay). This will lack proper names for stuff, for me thinking of names takes way too much time. Some of this would probably work better as entirely new vehicles, but i'd still be a big fan of making the customisation for existing vehicles really in-depth so you have lots of options to choose from.

So as we all know, the existing options for the Lightning are as follows: Viper, HE, HEAT, AP and Skyguard for the turret, Racer and Combat for the chassis. Expanding on that, I would propose the following.

Empire Specific Chassis
The cost for these would possibly be slightly more than the other chassis. The general idea with this is to mix a few bonuses from the other chassis that fit the faction style (but likely less than you get from the other chassis so they aren't made obsolete, this is the most important thing), then finish off with a new faction-based twist.

NC-Specific Chassis: Provides bonuses to reverse and brakes, and a small boost to front and top armour.
TR-Specific Chassis: Provides bonuses to general speed (foward and reverse), and a small boost to fire rate of the main gun.
VS-Specific Chassis: Provides bonuses to turning speed and acceleration, and a reduction in loss of speed due to terrain.

I'm not an expert on balancing PS2-related things, so it's possible these might be out of whack (though they don't have specific numbers/amounts, so that's less of an issue).

Now expanding on the original idea I had, equipping your faction's chassis to your Lightning would allow you mount new empire-specific weapons to your vehicle. Some of these would be versions of the existing weapons, but I have some random ideas for others too. The ones that are just empire-specific variants of existing weapons should just be a matter of mounting the existing weapon on the empire-specific chassis and having it "morph" into the new type, charging certs/SC for them as "new weapons" might be a bit much.

Viper
The default gun on the Lightning is already pretty TR-ish, in my opinion, but there's still ways to "get around" that.

NC-Specific: Something in between the calibre of the Viper and Python variants, does more damage and fires in a 3 round burst pattern with less arc.
TR-Specific: An autocannon-style weapon, 12 round (or more) magazine, fires much straighter than the Viper and, obviously, does a lot less damage.
VS-Specific: A plasma launcher, similar to the main gun of the Magrider but more on the power level and firing style of the Viper.

Python AP/HEAT/HE
There's a few things that can be done here to make them more empire-flavoured, but overall it applies to all three types.

NC-Specific: Slightly higher calibre than the standard Pythons. Fires slower, hits harder.
TR-Specific: Less damage than the other Pythons, but has a two-shot magazine.
VS-Specific: Fires plasma instead of shells (obviously), no/low recoil on the cannon itself.

Skyguard
The Skyguard is another one where there's plenty of room for variety, just because there's lots of ways to shoot things at aircraft.

NC-Specific: Two barrelled flak cannon instead of the standard four, fires slower with a smaller magazine, but has a bigger flak explosion radius and damage.
TR-Specific: A rapid-firing gatling gun, very fast bullet velocity (with low individual bullet damage) to make up for the lack of flak explosion.
VS-Specific: A quad laser with no bullet drop, moderate firing speed and decent velocity. Again, no flak, so the damage should be decent to make up for needing direct hits.

Now, onto a couple of new ideas.

Light Artillery
Artillery has come up a few times as something people would like to see, normally in the form of a heavy and vulnerable, but powerful and very longed ranged vehicle that has lots of mechanics involved in firing it (people to act as spotters etc). So, how about a much, much lighter/less powerful/shorter range variant on that idea as a weapon option for the Lightning? Something that can hit from long-ish range (no more than a normal tank, but more useful/dangerous than a standard tank at that range), with more power than most tanks, but very slow firing and very limited in its firing angle. Something as an intermediate step between tank and fully fledged artillery.

NC-Specific: A large mortar cannon with a reasonably large splash radius. Very slow firing.
TR-Specific: Pods for long range rocket barrages. Fires lots of low damage, low splash rockets.
VS-Specific: Plasma launcher that fires a disc of plasma with a decent splash range. Moderate on the fire rate, slightly less limited in its firing angle than the other two weapons.

Infantry Support
A complete contrast to the light artillery, something a lot more close range. Infantry support weapons would be for those Lightnings who like to get in close with the infantry and provide fire support as they move in. A vulnerable place for a Lightning, but also where they can provide a lot of support to troops without also blowing them up at the same time like with the tank cannons. The theme I thought of for this was along the lines of the empire specific heavy weapons.

NC-Specific: A large pellet cannon for spreading the damage over a wide area, good for suppressing and destroying groups of enemies. Yes, essentially a giant shotgun mounted on a Lightning turret.
TR-Specific: Something along the lines of the MCG, or the Heavy Cyclers on the MAX. Two large chainguns or miniguns mounted either side of a turret.
VS-Specific: Lasher-equivalent in the form of a cannon. Fires fast but weaker projectiles with similar lashing splash damage.

That's all i've come up with for now!