Mine Launcher

[Queso]

On topic gentlemen, please. As much as I want to slingshot a helicopter carrying a mine, I don't think we'll be seeing that this side of adventure mode.

[Captain Phil]

I wonder how they will shoot, click and hold? Tap the shoot to launch the mine close to your ship and hold it to launch it even farther; would make for precision placement.

[Shinkurex]

Hold and click might be the way implemented, but I think it would be interesting to do power lvls (Kinda like the throttle controls) to put the mine at different ranges:

I = 125
II = 250
III = 500

Numbers are there for demonstration purposes

[Pickle]

I wonder how they will shoot, click and hold? Tap the shoot to launch the mine close to your ship and hold it to launch it even farther; would make for precision placement.

I'm going to hazard a guess that they will work in one of two ways..

- fixed arming delay from launch, using the arc of fire to determine altitude and range of deployment (arming at the point the timer runs out)

- fixed deployment altitude based on altitude of launching ship, using arc of fire to determine range of deployment (arming when it returns down through the launching altitude)

The first would be the most useful tactically, but the second would have an in-built nerf to the usefulness of mines that might assist in balancing their use.

[Machiavelliest]

With an arming delay, you'll be forced to resolve collisions between the mines and the ships where the mines aren't destroyed.

I'm assuming they'll be particle-type effects that, when launched, have an initial lateral velocity that's accelerated to zero, but still affected by wind?  I have a feeling that you're gong to see a lot of Squids with mine launchers ramming then spamming mines, since they currently don't do friendly fire damage.

[Pickle]

With an arming delay, you'll be forced to resolve collisions between the mines and the ships where the mines aren't destroyed.

I might have confused thing by using the phrase "arming time" - perhaps "deployment delay" would be better?

But you raise an interesting point, and I suspect that there will be an arming delay and that striking a mine before this time will cause the mine either to bounce off without detonating or be destroyed without detonating.  Why? - because if this isn't the case you load with Greased Rounds and you've got a massively powerful weapon in close-range combat dealing insane amounts of damage with a 30-round clip (at base, Greased modifier to be added).  It would make the initial release of the Lumberjack without an arming timer look like a sensible balance decision!

[Wazulu]

Personally, I see two main uses of the mine launcher, with one I feel particularly evil.

Firstly, you could use the mines to boobytrap clouds at the start of a game- Duel at Dawn or Battle on the Dunes being good examples. This would be of great use to Sniper ships, as they would either force heavy damage or a slowing down in the enemy ship. While the practicalities of this technique have probably been argued prior to my post, I still want to try this out.

Secondly, and this is a truly dirty and contemptuous idea, is to use the wind to bombard enemies. Sounds stupid, right? Ah, but we've all played Desert Scrap, and faced the downright annoying sand storms. The idea is, as a storm rolls in, to place mines which will ride it all the way into the control point. Primarily, they'll be hard to see in the sand. Following that, nobody will be focused on shooting them down as they attempt to not crash/preserve engines/guns etc. By effectively spamming mines at this point one would make a constricted area even tighter, and the combination of this with the dust storm means any hostile ship would be a ripe target. However, I'm not sure if this is even feasible, as I need to know the speed of the mines and the correct part of the storm in which to place it. Also, I hope the mines will hit the walls if they miss, as they could get in the way as you try and hold the point.

Cheers for reading,

Wazulu

[Pickle]

Eric has already said that mines will remain stationary relative to the map, and will not drift on the wind.  So that rules out the Desert Scrap nightmare scenario.

awkm, thanks for the insight.  You have to answer this one question for me though.  Will you be able to harpoon mines???

That... is interesting.

The reason why they're always stationary is to reduce performance implications of 40+ potential mines out in the scene at once... you know detecting all their collisions.  However, if they only move with harpoons.... hmmmmm.....

[Wazulu]

Gah, my plans are ruined. Ah well, it's probably for the best anyway.

[Chango]

Eric has already said that mines will remain stationary relative to the map, and will not drift on the wind.  So that rules out the Desert Scrap nightmare scenario.

awkm, thanks for the insight.  You have to answer this one question for me though.  Will you be able to harpoon mines???

That... is interesting.

The reason why they're always stationary is to reduce performance implications of 40+ potential mines out in the scene at once... you know detecting all their collisions.  However, if they only move with harpoons.... hmmmmm.....

Boooo. If we have to deal with the damned wind the mines should too!