Flare as Pilot Tool?

[The Cunning Linquist]

This conversation was mostly a joke between me and a friend, but it was interesting enough that I thought it warranted a gameplay article.

Do you think the flare should exist as a hand-held piloting tool, rather than a light gun?  It could have the same stats (reload speed, clip size, distance) only it wouldn't be able to cause damage or start fires on enemy ships (though that would be funny!). 

It would add more variability for the non-piloting roles since their piloting tools are (almost) always a spyglass, which was the main driving force behind our conversation.  But there are a lot of downsides, like how accessible it makes them (flares EVERYWHERE) and how you lose the ability to make AI do what you want (not a designed feature, but helpful).

Like I said, not a serious super serious suggestion, but it was fun to think about so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

-Cunning

[Alistair MacBain]

Rather not.
The biggest downside of this for me would be that inexperienced players can just to do many crap with it. It doesnt have to be intentional but when i plan to prepare an engage and my crew is just randomly shooting flares while i'm in a cloud then im screwed.
The potential to fail is way to high imo.

[obliviondoll]

Definitely not a suggestion I'd take seriously either, but it touches on the idea of having more useful piloting tools that can be beneficial off the helm. I would like to see that, because right now we have the Spyglass, and technically the Range Finder (but it's not really practical).

[Extirminator]

their piloting tools are (almost) always a spyglass

Although this is not the time nor the place to say this, but from what you said some people may interpret it in you always taking spyglass on a pilot loadout - correct me if I am wrong.

>>Taking spyglass as a pilot is as pointless as having an engineer without repair tools.
Reasoning:

You have a crew of 3 who should always have a spyglass, or at least 2 if one decides he needs a range finder. Not to talk about crew on the ally ship ready to spot in any second. In addition, pilots are usually too busy analyzing their surroundings, thinking of tactics and coordinating with their allies - crew members, and especially gunners who don't need to run around the ship repairing it, have plenty of time to spot the enemies.

All of the above contributes to the fact that having a spyglass on a pilot, is pointless, and directly harming to the pilots abilities to fly the ship better.

Glad to help and I apologize if I misunderstood your post.

[obliviondoll]

It would add more variability for the non-piloting roles since their piloting tools are (almost) always a spyglass

You seem to have misread the part in bold, Extirminator.

The sentence you partially quoted is exclusively referring to people who are NOT the Pilots when you read the whole thing.

[Extirminator]

Ah, indeed, it appears that I was wrong. Sorry about that

[GreyTea]

More pilot tools being practical off helm, Now this is me just throwing out there,


Sky Anchor, a designated position on the ship were you can interact with a component if you have the right tool,

Stabilizes the ship reducing sway,

downside when you use it to lower you have to reactivate to rise again and it would be a lengthy cool down so you can snipe without sway but you are sitting duck,

Mechanical Stilts  Increased movement speed around the ship. but harder to jump and climb,

Dancing shoes-self explanatory

just some fun ideas,


Throw in my thoughts for portable flare, Yes in theory brilliant idea but like Alistair said in practicality potential for troll is high

[The Cunning Linquist]

Thanks for clearing that up for me, obliviondoll.

I hear you on the pubbies screwing things up.  As a resident pubby, I can attest to the ignorant and frustrating behavior of my people.  You bring up a good point.

But I would also say that the crew inherently has the power to troll/unintentionally screw things up.  Every crewman has the power to carry lochnagar into the game and blow up the gatling the whole time.  Haha that's usually an intentional troll, but honest gameplay faux pas include hitting the hull with the mallet over and over when it has 9 stacks of fire, or emptying the mortar at the enemy's balloon, or not realizing the balloon is dead when you're top left on a pyra because you're too busy shooting.  There are gameplay things you learn with time and I would think the flares would fall in to that category.  If you don't trust your pubby crew with them (like lochnagar), just tell them not to take it and give it to the one guy you trust.

I'm not defending the portable flare idea, but i do object to the "It won't work because it gives pubbies too much power to screw things up" logic.  That just seems odd to me.

 - Cunning

[obliviondoll]

I don't think the flare gun specifically is that good an idea for a piloting tool, because it works really well as a gun and because of plenty of reasons OTHER than the potential for abuse.

That abuse problem is a big reason, but it's not the only one. And I'm sure there are other possibilities for piloting tools that DON'T require the helm to be useful, some of which may or may not be open to abuse.

Maybe they could change it so a non-pilot can take tar and use it on an engine to trigger a small tar cloud but cause minor damage to the engine. It wouldn't be an ongoing effect like the pilot using it, and it wouldn't continue damaging the engine over time. It would have to trigger a cooldown on the engine as well, delaying repairs slightly, but it could be a helpful tool for an engineer. You could retain the helm use as well, of course. Maybe they could do similar with non-pilots being able to trigger impact bumpers on the hull armour with a combined cooldown/effect duration and an instant "stop" effect when it's triggered rather than the speed reduction over the duration of the effect. Obviously, these effects couldn't be triggered on broken parts.

EDIT: Also, I acidentally "inspired" a Captain to run around his ship loading Lochnagar ammo into all the Flamethrowers... Oops (helped out my team though, he was an enemy). At least we found out how well that doesn't work, I guess...