In relation to the Major/Minor play-style thread
here, and with much thanks to
Echoez for the
initial idea, I have a continuation of the development of GoIO classification theories.
While weapons may be used outside of their intended purposes and manipulated by the play style of the team using them, the weapons themselves have certain intrinsic properties that defines how they should and shouldn't be used.
The first of these values is the intended purpose of a weapon: the primary value that a weapon adds to your ship. A weapon falls on a scale that ranges from
Control to
Killing.
A weapon tending towards control purposes will help to control the flow of a match. It can be used to disable parts, pop balloons, move enemies (or yourself) into a more favorable position, or control your view of the area itself. These weapons can assist in killing, but control is their primary strength.
A weapon tending towards killing purposes is a weapon that is optimized to deal armor and/or hull damage. These weapons are intended to help you kill an enemy as quickly as you can. They are less oriented towards altering the ability of a ship to fight back effectively, and more oriented towards killing a ship before it can fight back effectively.
The second of these values is the way in which a weapon affects the behavior of the ship it is on. A weapon falls on a scale that ranges from
Passive to
Aggressive.
A weapon tending towards passive play is a weapon that can take effect in a variety of circumstances. Longer range weapons tend to fall into this category as they may be deployed effectively while the ship is flown passively.
A weapon tending towards aggressive play is a weapon that has severe effectiveness limitations. Shorter range weapons tend to fall into this category as they must be moved forward until they have acquired range before they may be used effectively, requiring a ship to be flown aggressively.
Each weapon may be assigned a ranking defining what its core characteristics are in relation to these categories, allowing for a classification of all weapons based on their intended use. While weapons may be used creatively outside of this, it requires more advanced play-styles. Assigning a value between -5 and 5 to each weapon for each category, we can create a quadrant graph displaying the classification of a weapon in relation to all others.
| | Aggressive | | |
| | | | | |
| Control | - | -----+----- | - | Killing |
| | | | | |
| | Passive | | |
CK: Control vs Killing value
PA: Passive vs Aggressive value
Weapon | ( | CK Value | , | PA Value | ) |
Gatling | ( | 4 | , | 4 | ) |
Mortar | ( | 5 | , | 4 | ) |
Carronade | ( | -5 | , | 4 | ) |
Flamethrower | ( | -2 | , | 5 | ) |
Flare gun | ( | -4 | , | -4 | ) |
Harpoon | ( | -5 | , | -1 | ) |
Mine launcher | ( | -1 | , | 3 | ) |
Artemis | ( | -1 | , | -4 | ) |
Hades | ( | 3 | , | -3 | ) |
Mercury | ( | 1 | , | -4 | ) |
Banshee | ( | 2 | , | -2 | ) |
Light flak | ( | 5 | , | -3 | ) |
Heavy flak | ( | 5 | , | -3 | ) |
Lumberjack | ( | -3 | , | -5 | ) |
Heavy carronade | ( | -5 | , | 4 | ) |
Hwacha | ( | -1 | , | 1 | ) |
Please note that this is a preliminary ranking of the weapons and their values. Please discuss if you feel a weapon belongs elsewhere, or if you feel the classification system is lacking or is inherently flawed. As we continue to build systems defining the planned/emergent behavior in GoIO, I want to make sure all theories and systems are optimal. If this system fails, then we can continue to look for the underlying features that relate the weapons together in a comparable way.
(Also, if someone wants to make a pretty graph picture to show what this actually looks like, that would be flippin' awesome.
)
