New Equipment Ideas

[roder]

Just a few off the top of my head, I definitely thought there should be more variety, other than all non-pilots using Spyglass, there should just be only 1-2 dedicated spotter i think.

Pilot Equipment
-Mini-Flare gun: Used to signal for help, but can also be used to see into short distance. Same function as beacon flare gun, but difference is reduced to 3/4 distance and limited to only 4 uses per game.

-Sulfur Spray: Similar to Tar Barrel, but sprays flammable material out of both sides of the ship. Coats enemy ship to cause fire damage to be more exaggerated, but can also coat own/allied ships. Should be light yellowish cloud, lasts 20s.

-Anchor: Drops a heavy anchorhead, will stop ship acceleration if it grabs onto objects in world (longer time to stop if higher height from object), allows for on-the-spot turns or stops enemy from pushing you into a rockbed. Can also damage ships below. It only made sense to me that ships would have anchors.

-Trumpet: Sounds off war-like trumpet call, only usable once per 30s, can only be heard on ships in close vicinity. -50 morale on enemy team, +50 morale on same team. I wish there was an actual use to it, would be fun.

Engineer Equipment

-Oiler: Oil can that lubricates gunner rig, increases width of rotation of guns for 30s only. Useful on guns with low width of view, or can help side-guns target same object as front guns easier (balancing of +width needs looking over, ofc)

Gunner Equipment

-Non-tracer rounds: Projectile path is not visible and does not give up location and also dumbs down sound (can still hear if close enough to ship), has effect only on bullet/projectile-like guns (no invisible fire/mines!)

-Sparkler: 1 round only, long loading time. Projectile that latches onto ship and emits blue burst of light every 3 seconds, lasts 15 seconds. Can help track enemy ships trying to escape into fog. Only lights from point of impact, cannot be seen if on opposite side of ship from your point of view.

-Mini-Balloon: Shoots out an inflatable balloon that helps ship rise and only rise, gun is not usable while balloon is out and changing ammo will cut off balloon. Balloon will automatically detach after 10s.

[NoWuffo]

I definitely vote that the air ships should have horns. They shouldn't have any bonuses or purpose, I just totally want to honk at other pilots (however it would quickly become spam-fodder for lower level players... hmm)

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Could just nerf the beacon flare gun to be like that. Really it wouldn't be a bad thing to do that.

Fire dmg is already fine where it is at. Plus it would have issue with Chem Spray unless Muse returned Chem back to it's original 40% spam setup.

Kerosene/Moonshine and quick use of throttle can accomplish this. Anchor wouldn't be necessary.

Trumpet = trollpet. It would be heavily abused and would only lead to the community pressuring Muse for kick vote features even more than they are now. Its a nice idea in theory but it would be prone to a lot of abuse.

Oiler...this I like. It could be a mini buff tool for mechanical parts but say with a much higher benefit. Price would be increase chance of flame ignition. Or maybe risk of them just totally igniting on their own.

Silencer/non tracer rounds are good and all but you'd have a lot of complaints about phantom bullets. Plus some are needed for aiming purposes.

Sparkler would be interesting. With the excess clouds added to the game right now, it would likely find a use. But I'd suspect it would be quickly nerfed.

Not needed for mini balloon. There is hydro. It is much more optimal that way than giving it to gunners.

Keep thinking stuff up. Ideas aren't bad. Never know when you might strike gold with one.

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

Wild idea..

Engineer Toolbox aboard ship at special location (not so easy to find).

1-2 min cooldown to change tool setup (only for eng and tools).
optionally only for swapping other than spanner, mallet, wrench.

EDIT : already suggested. nvm.

[Sprayer]

Shameless advertisement for another idea

Sparkler is a neat idea - would be quite nice to have it as a standard feature of the flaregun too.
Non-tracer rounds - meh, there is no real stealth in this game, you are fighting using battleblimps, not Nighthawks.
Oiler would be nice - could be a gunnery tool that is not ammunition.

[Spud Nick]

How about a watering can so I can finally water my plants?

[roder]

Could just nerf the beacon flare gun to be like that. Really it wouldn't be a bad thing to do that.

True, i was just thinking that the cost of 1 equipment slot is enough for a portable flare gun that you can shoot any direction instead of turning to point from a stationary beacon flare gun rig

Kerosene/Moonshine and quick use of throttle can accomplish this. Anchor wouldn't be necessary.

Yeah i know that trick works, i was just thinking that anchor isn't completely the same because it interacts with physical landscape, and it also deals damage if ship is below and gets hit by anchor

Trumpet = trollpet. It would be heavily abused and would only lead to the community pressuring Muse for kick vote features even more than they are now. Its a nice idea in theory but it would be prone to a lot of abuse.

yeah i agree it could be abused, thats why i put the time limit between uses, i think that community is decent enough to use it for fun, like celebrating after killing a ship or taunt in the fog because they cant see where you are

Oiler...this I like. It could be a mini buff tool for mechanical parts but say with a much higher benefit. Price would be increase chance of flame ignition. Or maybe risk of them just totally igniting on their own.

yeah i like the higher chance to catch on fire

Silencer/non tracer rounds are good and all but you'd have a lot of complaints about phantom bullets. Plus some are needed for aiming purposes.

phantom bullet meaning it hit but didnt actually register? yeah i know a lot of people use paths to correct for their next shot, but that is the drawback of enemy not seeing arc you cant see it either

Sparkler would be interesting. With the excess clouds added to the game right now, it would likely find a use. But I'd suspect it would be quickly nerfed.

yeah i guess the logistics would have to be balanced, but i think it has its place in the game

[Richard LeMoon]

Given that mouse buttons do nothing while on the helm, a winnable/purchasable 'horn' prize would be kinda fun. Start awarding horns at level 4-5 pilot, or some such. That would cut back on the new pilot spam. I can see selling cosmetic 'sounds' to players as a good extra profit item for Muse.

On the Oil Can, I rather like that thought. But I would make it a gunner tool instead. I would make it a tool that you use while on the gun, taking up one of the ammo slots, much like the helm tools. Only works while selected, perhaps for 2 seconds after un-selecting. Makes your guns rotate and reload faster, but makes them 50% more flammable, like using Hydrogen on a balloon. Would have to switch from your ammo type to oil can after reloads, and switch back to ammo type during reload to keep from defaulting to standard ammo. This would make it very useful as a gunner tool (would give them standard+2 special+oil can), but terrible for and engineer to take as it would occupy their only ammo slot (standard+ oil can).

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Muse already stated there would never be a personal flare gun tool just because it would take a tear down and rebuild of the entire game to do it. It has been an idea a lot have posted on and they did finally answer why it couldn't be done.

[Sprayer]

[...]
On the Oil Can, I rather like that thought. But I would make it a gunner tool instead. I would make it a tool that you use while on the gun, taking up one of the ammo slots, much like the helm tools. Only works while selected, perhaps for 2 seconds after un-selecting. Makes your guns rotate and reload faster, but makes them 50% more flammable, like using Hydrogen on a balloon. Would have to switch from your ammo type to oil can after reloads, and switch back to ammo type during reload to keep from defaulting to standard ammo. This would make it very useful as a gunner tool (would give them standard+2 special+oil can), but terrible for and engineer to take as it would occupy their only ammo slot (standard+ oil can).

Or just a gunnery tool you use whilst off the gun? Like the spyglass, which actually is a helm tool. So a tool that takes up a gunnery tool slot but works like the engineering tools? (Just, well only on guns)

[Cid Ferringer]

I like a few of these ideas..

Anchors sound sweet. But probably a pain to implement for very little gain..

I'd love to have horns, just to be able to honk, kinda like those fog horns ships have?

Also, speaking of things ship have, I'd love a BELL that the captain can ring, to sound an alarm or for any reason really..
Kinda like "Enemy spotted! All hands battlestations, *DING DING DING DING*" Can also be used as morse code for really hardcore players

[roder]

Well they just added voice commands, so i guess that covers the "enemy spotted" but i have to admit i like your idea of  trumpet morse code haha

Does anyone else agree that not every crewmate needs a spyglass? they really should make another viable alternative

[NoWuffo]

Does anyone else agree that not every crewmate needs a spyglass? they really should make another viable alternative

There is something coming, don't worry. It just had too many bugs for this patch, so they're going to work on it for next time. I'm not sure what's allowed to be said or not, but since the Devs talked about it in the fireside chat this week, I'm assuming I can tell you about it. Two words... Range Finder.