Zenith (concept for a new ship)

[Milevan Faent]

So, since I've started getting active in this section of the forum, I figured I might as well try and come up with more ideas I can share rather than just commenting on everyone else's ideas. Admittedly this idea is a bit out of left field, but it won't leave me alone, so here it is.

The primary concept of the ship is really good vertical movement, but only decent turning and speed. The ship would be split into two decks, an upper deck, and a lower deck. Not sure on the number of guns, but they would be split between the two decks =. The lower deck would have really good visibility below the ship and behind, but not so good above or to either side (and only semi-decent in front), while the upper deck has good upper visibility and to either side, but poor visibility behind the ship (the majority of the guns would be here, at least 2/3rds of the guns). The pilot's wheel would be positioned on the upper deck by default.

Now here's where the left field idea comes in. When the ship moves vertically, either just the pilot's wheel, or maybe even all the guns can change positions. While moving up, everything is in the default position, but when above a certain altitude and while not ascending, the positions are reversed so the majority of the guns are on the lower deck, and the pilot's wheel lowers to the lower deck. The reverse is true while descending; the pilot's wheel and guns switch to the lower deck while descending, but move to the upper deck when below the the previous altidude and not moving vertically.

Alternatively, all the guns and the wheel are moved to the lower deck when above a certain alitude, and above when above a certain altidude, but split as normal when between the altidudes.

As another variation, only 1 gun moves instead of all the guns, and it's a Medium gun.

Obviously this is intended to be a high fire power ship, but it's not too fast. Decent defenses though. Requires a lot of coordination between the crew and captain.

Balloon may be partially protected by the hull of the ship, making it hard to hit, or move along with the components, changing how much of it is visible.

So that's all the ideas I've had sitting in my head. Let me know what you think and I'll keep trying to refine the concept.

[Dutch Vanya]

The primary concept of the ship is really good vertical movement, but only decent turning and speed.

That is the Mobula. Otherwise it sounds interesting, not totally clear on how the switching mechanic would work though.

[Milevan Faent]

The primary concept of the ship is really good vertical movement, but only decent turning and speed.

That is the Mobula. Otherwise it sounds interesting, not totally clear on how the switching mechanic would work though.

The concept is similar to the Mobula, but the Mobula is really just a flying wing with guns on it, and is just as fragile as that sounds. This would be a larger ship at the least. Could you tell me what you're not clear on? I can try to explain it better if I know what you don't get.

[macmacnick]

The main reason the mobula has a great reputation for moving up and down quickly is due to its great vertical acceleration.

[Milevan Faent]

The main reason the mobula has a great reputation for moving up and down quickly is due to its great vertical acceleration.

Ah, I should probably clarify that I meant more for the vertical movement to be the speed of the movement, not just the acceleration.

EDIT: Why can't I modify my opening post?

[Velvet]

EDIT: Why can't I modify my opening post?

just the way this forum works, edits are only possible before a certain amount of time has passed.

A high firepower ship with good vertical mobility that requires great co-ordination between captain and crew? That's a Mobula.
Of course the switching system is a significant variation - one which doesn't have any obvious contribution to the game and assumedly would be far more difficult for Muse to implement than a standard ship design. You've explained the switching system in some detail but not really mentioned what it's supposed to achieve, which would be an important part of the concept. Building an idea around a gimmick doesn't seem like good practice to me; at least in my opinion the gimmicks (if there must be gimmicks) should be built around ideas.

Differentiating the ship by size or balancing adjustments like higher hull health could have a couple of outcomes; an OP Mobula replacement or an underpowered Mobula replacement. As it is all ship types are extremely distinctive and I don't think there's any point introducing something so similar to a pre-existing ship when there are so many distinctive possibilities remaining. Of course, there are ways your idea could be extremely different from the Mobula. But as it is the only one you've mentioned is the unnecessary, probably unimplementable one so we can only assume that's all there is to your idea.

Personally I'd really like to see a frontal kill ship (like a Pyra) based around medium guns... but like any ship idea it's nothing special, because the primary requirement to design a new ship in a game like this is not an idea so much as a lot of work from artists and programmers and an ongoing commitment to the balancing, bugfixing and other maintenance effort that an increased number of ships would entail. Maintaining a small number of unique ships is probably the best thing for Muse to do with skirmish mode as not only is it the cheapest strategy, it also means that it will be easier to ensure that the existing ships will remain highly distinctive and balanced*; as they should be.
I certainly hope for and look forward to an armada of diverse and interesting ships to choose from in Adventure mode though.

*although there's arguably some balance issues, it's not like more ships would make that easier to fix...

[Milevan Faent]

EDIT: Why can't I modify my opening post?

just the way this forum works, edits are only possible before a certain amount of time has passed.

A high firepower ship with good vertical mobility that requires great co-ordination between captain and crew? That's a Mobula.
Of course the switching system is a significant variation - one which doesn't have any obvious contribution to the game and assumedly would be far more difficult for Muse to implement than a standard ship design. You've explained the switching system in some detail but not really mentioned what it's supposed to achieve, which would be an important part of the concept. Building an idea around a gimmick doesn't seem like good practice to me; at least in my opinion the gimmicks (if there must be gimmicks) should be built around ideas.

Differentiating the ship by size or balancing adjustments like higher hull health could have a couple of outcomes; an OP Mobula replacement or an underpowered Mobula replacement. As it is all ship types are extremely distinctive and I don't think there's any point introducing something so similar to a pre-existing ship when there are so many distinctive possibilities remaining. Of course, there are ways your idea could be extremely different from the Mobula. But as it is the only one you've mentioned is the unnecessary, probably unimplementable one so we can only assume that's all there is to your idea.

Personally I'd really like to see a frontal kill ship (like a Pyra) based around medium guns... but like any ship idea it's nothing special, because the primary requirement to design a new ship in a game like this is not an idea so much as a lot of work from artists and programmers and an ongoing commitment to the balancing, bugfixing and other maintenance effort that an increased number of ships would entail. Maintaining a small number of unique ships is probably the best thing for Muse to do with skirmish mode as not only is it the cheapest strategy, it also means that it will be easier to ensure that the existing ships will remain highly distinctive and balanced*; as they should be.
I certainly hope for and look forward to an armada of diverse and interesting ships to choose from in Adventure mode though.

*although there's arguably some balance issues, it's not like more ships would make that easier to fix...

Yeah, I already was told by some Muse people the forum has this illogical timing lock when editing becomes impossible. I've more or less abandoned this idea already since I can't edit the OP where all the information NEEDS to be for anyone to really see it. I've already had several ideas I'd like to put there to show the distinctions for the ship, but since I can't, I've lost almost all the motivation I had in working on my idea. It's a really annoying limitation to not be able to edit my own content I posted on the forum.

That said, while both the Mobula and my design have good vertical movement, that's where the similarities end. I want to edit the OP so I can actually show the differences, but since I can't, I'm going to get in touch with a mod to just close this topic. This forum really makes it impossible to keep all the information in one spot, and having to hunt through the entire topic (or having to constantly repeat information because it's scattered through several pages) just makes it too annoying to keep working on this idea. Thanks to everyone who commented though.

[RearAdmiralZill]

Locked at OP's request.