[DEVBLOG#303] Replacing gravship artillery

Hey everyone,
As we’re wrapping up work on Chapter 1 of Vanilla Gravships Expanded, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a big design change that came out of our recent testing phase and why we think it’s ultimately the right call for the mod’s first release.

Originally, Chapter 1 was meant to launch with three large gravship artillery pieces:

• Gauss Howitzer — a massive triple-barreled electromagnetic cannon

• Javelin Launcher — a 12-missile long-range rocket platform

• Anticraft Emitter — a heavy anti-ship beam weapon designed to melt armor and hull plating while penetrating any defenses like shields or PDCs

All three of these turrets were large, 5x5 structures, which meant they had to justify their footprint by being extremely powerful. However, there’s a balance problem here: gravship artillery was never meant to replace ground-based turrets. Their strength lies elsewhere: they can fire across the world map, engaging enemy gravships and orbital targets that normal autocannons or mortars can’t even reach.

The issue is, Chapter 1 doesn’t yet include those threats. There are no hostile gravships in orbit, no enemy platforms to bombard, so these massive guns had nothing to truly shine against. Testers who built them expecting massive firepower instead found that autocannons, rocketswarms, or mortars were simply more effective at dealing with regular raids. And they were right. The howitzer, launcher, and emitter were tools built for battles that don’t exist yet.

So, we decided to rethink our approach.

For Chapter 1, we’re scaling back the artillery lineup and introducing smaller, more practical variants that better fit the current gameplay loop:

• Gauss Gun — a single-barrel electromagnetic cannon for precise, high-velocity strikes.

• Javelin Pod — a compact 6-missile launcher designed for short, rapid engagements.

• Anticraft Caster — a medium beam weapon firing short, pinpoint bursts of energy.

These turrets are 3x3 in size, still require a linked targeting terminal and operator, and can fire across the world map, but their range and power are reduced to one-third of the full-size versions. They’re balanced around the kind of enemies you’re actually facing right now: raiders, mechanoids, and local threats, not orbital adversaries.

This adjustment makes gravship artillery usable right from Chapter 1, while giving us room to expand later. When Chapter 2 arrives (the combat-focused update) the full-sized artillery will return, complete with enemy gravships, orbital duels, and planetary-scale warfare, where their true purpose will finally shine.

On top of that, we have also addressed some feedback related to gauss artillery reloading. While the javelin pod and the beam launchers have their own ammo systems - gauss cannons needed to be reloaded by hand, which made little sense in space. We have introduced new ammo boxes - something you may remember from Vanilla Factions Expanded - Deserters. Those ammo boxes are consumed when the gauss artillery reloads, automatically giving your colonists a rebuild order to rebuild the ammo box. This will allow for continuous bombardment.