New Class: Communications Officer (not another Gungineer thread)

[Milevan Faent]

So I've been thinking. Right now, the poor Gunner is outnumbered 2 to 1 in favor of Engineers (sometimes he doesn't even get hired for a ship at all). What if there was a fourth option though, so instead of ships being lopsided, all ships had 1 of each class? This has been discussed a few times in many different ways, but often it's just "Gungineer" concepts, or concepts that mix what's already there together in some way. This thread is for a concept that's NEW though, not just a remix. The name is a WIP but otherwise, I kind of like the idea. Also, due to the fact they still have 1 slot for each category that already exists, they can still be a backup Engineer/Gunner when not doing their primary role.

Communications Officer (or something like that)

Their primary role is information warfare. They would get things that can be used to gather intel, or disrupt intel gathering, depending on their loadout. Examples include tools that add extra information when they're looking at the map (like course predictions for known ships, loadout idenification, ship identification, estimated time to get to a ship or get in firing range of a ship, and so on), tools that hide the ship from the map, tools that can break enemy locks, and so on. Range-Finder could be repurposed into a Comm Officer tool as well. While not necessarily as useful directly as say an Engineer or Gunner, they can provide a utility to your ship that can aid in tactical actions.

Details for how they would actually play can be discussed below if people are interested in the concept idea itself. Like hiding the ship would probably function similar to buffing the ship, and require either an action on the hull, or maybe even on the entire ship to fully hide it.




Update!

Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. Below are some example tools, provided by people who have responded.

Possible tools:

Sonic cone: Allows for short to medium range spotting through clouds.
Gauge: Gives all crew an indicator of engine throttles on enemy ships.
Resonator: Shows targeted ship's permahull. When used as a 'buff' tool on your own hull, temporarily prevents foes from doing the same to you.
Scrambler: Puts false ship markers on the map.
etc..

I could see a support class being really useful. Something like a Quartermaster/Strategist.

Cat O' Nine Tails - While equipped, crew move and perform actions 10% faster (running, repairs, rebuilds, reloading). Must be held for at least 10 seconds before effect starts. Effects end immediately when removed.
I've got your motivation right here!

Paints - Can be used on the hull and balloon to temporarily change the color of the flags and balloon paint. Used to confuse the enemy. Prevents spotting when used on both components.
What, that? That's always been red. I mean blue. I mean... FIRE!!

Inspection Lens - Used to give an estimate of hull, armor and balloon health on targeted ships.
Hm.. burn marks on the balloon, armor compromised by bullet holes, hull held together with what appears to be rope made of shirts. One more volley ought to do it.

Advanced Spy Glass - Allows precision marking of ship components, causes marked components to 'glow' for the crew. (Can spot guns and engines, makes them appear as a bright red for easier targeting. Wears off after 30 seconds)
It's right there, you can't miss it!

Decoy - Spawns a dummy ship that flies directly away from the ship, begins shooting randomly after 10 seconds. After 12 seconds it becomes 'spotted' by the enemy with the ship's name. Used as a distraction/diversion. Can only spawn one at a time. Skill is usable again after decoy is destroyed. Decoy self destructs after 1 minute.
It's a trap!!

Sound Amplifier - Use this tool to target an enemy ship and be able to hear the team voice chat/signals as well as read their crew chat and team chat. Takes five seconds to calibrate once a ship is locked. (works similar to range finder)
Sir, they seem to be saying terrible things about your mother

White Noise Generator - Adds random false information to the combat log. (ie: Jimmy destroyed Hull ; John Rebuilt Balloon , etc. Using names of players in the game for these actions that didn't actually happen)
Too bad it took them so long to notice that Jimmy really did break their hull

Thermal Detector - Estimates ship location based on heat readings. Does not work while your engines are running. Gives a reading every 10 seconds, readings are 3 seconds behind. (every ten seconds it will give you an idea of where they were three seconds ago). Only works if their engines are running, only works within 800 meters. Does not distinguish between ally and enemy.
Warmer... warmer..... Oh wait that's us.

Insulation - Buff used on the engines, reduces their output by 5%, reduces thermal detector's range by 30% for large engines and 20% for small.
Let's see them find us now.

These are all great ideas (for the most part, as some are more silly than anything). To clarify something, the intention of this class is to be like every other class, thus the other classes could take 1 tool from this class, and it takes 1 tool from each of them. It won't be special in any way aside from the utility it provides to a ship.

Many of these tools could be used while on Guns, thus allowing improved utility as a back-up gunner, while many of its abilities can also be used while on the move, or require using them on specific parts of the ship, thus allowing the class to play a backup engie too. While not as good at either job, it is viable due to he way it plays.

To use some of the examples quoted above: Thermal Detector, White Noise Generator, Sound Amplifier, and Sonic Cone could potentially be concepts that work even while on the guns. Using them while on guns would not reload the ammo, but it would reload default ammo during the next reload unless you switch to your 1 ammo type.

For quasi-engie examples, we have Insulation, Paints, and Resonator. While none of them fix the ship, they do require you to move around the ship to get to various parts, meanwhile you can switch to your wrench and hit them to heal them up a bit too.

Surprisingly, if you don't mind losing some mobility options, you can even play this as a quasi-pilot, using Phoenix Claw as the pilot tool, Advanced Spy Glass to call targets, and Decoy and Scrambler to help draw ships away from your own.

While these are not necessarily exactly what I would want to see as final tools for the concept, they DO (for the most part, aside from the Cat O' Nine Tails, which is just silly) embody the spirit of the concept. That's why I wanted to bring attention to these concepts specifically. Any other ideas that are added to this thread might be added up here to keep all the best suggestions together.

[Imagine]

There's a fourth class already in the works, though Muse is keeping a tight lid on what it is at this point.

As for what you suggested, it's probably not good enough to actually keep a ship going vs traditional setups once you get into an actual battle.

[Richard LeMoon]

Interesting. So they would take one pilot tool, one gunner tool, and one engineer tool, then choose three class specific tools that no other class could take (let's face it, adding another set of tools to other classes would get pretty crowded.

Possible tools:

Sonic cone: Allows for short to medium range spotting through clouds.
Gauge: Gives all crew an indicator of engine throttles on enemy ships.
Resonator: Shows targeted ship's permahull. When used as a 'buff' tool on your own hull, temporarily prevents foes from doing the same to you.
Scrambler: Puts false ship markers on the map.
etc..

Not sure how much something like this would be used, but interesting idea.

[Milevan Faent]

There's a fourth class already in the works, though Muse is keeping a tight lid on what it is at this point.

As for what you suggested, it's probably not good enough to actually keep a ship going vs traditional setups once you get into an actual battle.

I didn't know they had an actual plan already. Any suggestions for improvements to the concept, or alternatives that might be more useful?

[Imagine]

There's a fourth class already in the works, though Muse is keeping a tight lid on what it is at this point.

As for what you suggested, it's probably not good enough to actually keep a ship going vs traditional setups once you get into an actual battle.

I didn't know they had an actual plan already. Any suggestions for improvements to the concept, or alternatives that might be more useful?

I'd love to provide some, but I'm generally terrible at such things and really don't know what they could make that would be more useful than gunner/engie/pilot.

[-Mad Maverick-]

what about an option to sleep with the captain or a way to promote inner racial tolerance?

[Richard LeMoon]

Tools would be flowers, chocolate, beer, cheesy poetry, flattery, and a cot?

[HamsterIV]

Even though there would never be boarding, how about a marine class? The more marines you have on  your crew the faster you capture points. Maybe even capture through an enemy block if the other team doesn't have marines on point.

Mechanically Marines could just run faster than the average crew member and make do with one engineer tool and one ammo type.

[Thomas]

I could see a support class being really useful. Something like a Quartermaster/Strategist.

Cat O' Nine Tails - While equipped, crew move and perform actions 10% faster (running, repairs, rebuilds, reloading). Must be held for at least 10 seconds before effect starts. Effects end immediately when removed.
I've got your motivation right here!

Paints - Can be used on the hull and balloon to temporarily change the color of the flags and balloon paint. Used to confuse the enemy. Prevents spotting when used on both components.
What, that? That's always been red. I mean blue. I mean... FIRE!!

Inspection Lens - Used to give an estimate of hull, armor and balloon health on targeted ships.
Hm.. burn marks on the balloon, armor compromised by bullet holes, hull held together with what appears to be rope made of shirts. One more volley ought to do it.

Advanced Spy Glass - Allows precision marking of ship components, causes marked components to 'glow' for the crew. (Can spot guns and engines, makes them appear as a bright red for easier targeting. Wears off after 30 seconds)
It's right there, you can't miss it!

Decoy - Spawns a dummy ship that flies directly away from the ship, begins shooting randomly after 10 seconds. After 12 seconds it becomes 'spotted' by the enemy with the ship's name. Used as a distraction/diversion. Can only spawn one at a time. Skill is usable again after decoy is destroyed. Decoy self destructs after 1 minute.
It's a trap!!

Sound Amplifier - Use this tool to target an enemy ship and be able to hear the team voice chat/signals as well as read their crew chat and team chat. Takes five seconds to calibrate once a ship is locked. (works similar to range finder)
Sir, they seem to be saying terrible things about your mother

White Noise Generator - Adds random false information to the combat log. (ie: Jimmy destroyed Hull ; John Rebuilt Balloon , etc. Using names of players in the game for these actions that didn't actually happen)
Too bad it took them so long to notice that Jimmy really did break their hull

Thermal Detector - Estimates ship location based on heat readings. Does not work while your engines are running. Gives a reading every 10 seconds, readings are 3 seconds behind. (every ten seconds it will give you an idea of where they were three seconds ago). Only works if their engines are running, only works within 800 meters. Does not distinguish between ally and enemy.
Warmer... warmer..... Oh wait that's us.

Insulation - Buff used on the engines, reduces their output by 5%, reduces thermal detector's range by 30% for large engines and 20% for small.
Let's see them find us now.


I think ideally they would have access to three of their tools, one gunner, and one engineer.

[Milevan Faent]

Added examples and explanations of some of my thoughts to the OP (this is just to alert people who may be watching this thread, but haven't looked in it since the update).

[Thomas]

My only question, and perhaps I missed it somewhere, would be where would the tools go? Would this be considered a separate set of tools, and everyone gets to bring 6 items instead of 5 (3 from their role, 1 from each of the others). Or would the tools be divided among the other roles, and this wouldn't be an official new role, but something more like the gungineer?

In my initial response, I considered the idea that it would be a separate role, but it's the only one with access to those tools. Essentially bringing three of their own, and 1 of engi and gunner. (none of pilot).

However, I could see the tools belonging in the pilot or gunner category, allowing for a pseudo role (or just giving gunners a bigger variety).

I'm not sure how it would affect the game to create another tool category; although it would most certainly change how matches are played.

[Milevan Faent]

My only question, and perhaps I missed it somewhere, would be where would the tools go? Would this be considered a separate set of tools, and everyone gets to bring 6 items instead of 5 (3 from their role, 1 from each of the others). Or would the tools be divided among the other roles, and this wouldn't be an official new role, but something more like the gungineer?

In my initial response, I considered the idea that it would be a separate role, but it's the only one with access to those tools. Essentially bringing three of their own, and 1 of engi and gunner. (none of pilot).

However, I could see the tools belonging in the pilot or gunner category, allowing for a pseudo role (or just giving gunners a bigger variety).

I'm not sure how it would affect the game to create another tool category; although it would most certainly change how matches are played.

This would be a full new class, which means every class gets 1 more tool option. This is certainly how any fourth class made by Muse will also work, as I am certain they won't make a fourth class that's different from the others, aside from its toolset. I added this to my explanation in the OP. So adding this class means every class now has 6 tools.

As explained in the OP, many of the tools can be used pretty much wherever. This means they can fill the role of "secondary gunner" or "secondary engineer", in addition to their base support role. They can even be "secondary pilot" in the few cases where it might be used, like on the Spire, with the Pilot and whoever is in this role swapping between their assigned gun and the pilot wheel (while their primary gun is reloading), thus ensuring there is always a pilot. In other cases, since they have to move around the ship all the time ANYWAY, playing a secondary engineer is just natural, while if you have a lot of items that can work while on a gun, you have no reason to not also be manning guns when possible. In this way, the class fills a secondary role in all the current classes, with its own unique twist to each of them. While it will never have the mobility of a pilot, the repair power of an engineer, or the ammo control of a gunner, it will have its own options that serve similar roles (if only loosely), with a focus on information warfare, debuffs, buffs, and information gathering.

[Coldcurse]

Asfor the decoy thing. Yeah I always have a spare inflateable galleon in my pocket...

[Spud Nick]

Is that an inflateable galleon in your pocket or are you just happy to see my armor down?

[Thomas]

I think the idea is to have a small dummy target (like in practice mode), since that's a mechanic that already exists. Chances are, anyone that see's it won't be fooled, but if they hear it and it shows up with the ship name on a spot, they can be temporarily tricked until they actually head over to it.

So you could send it off down one side of the canyon in Canyon Ambush while you quickly head to the other side. They'll hear the shots being fired and see the 'spot' and assume it's your ship (or make an educated guess that it's not) while you flank them from the other side. You send it off into some clouds on dunes and make them think you're coming through a dust storm while instead you used this time to hide behind the structure.