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A casual airship idea

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smithney:
Have you ever dreamt of a compact, yet durable ship, capable of withstanding long periods of gunfire?

We have the colossus called Galleon, and then two bruisers by the names of Junker and Pyramidion. However, we don't have a compact off-tank with decent mobility that would trade gunpower for durability. That brought me to an idea of a ship with slightly awkward gun placements, but good operability and survivability.

I have chosen to name it...

Nimbus

Overview:
The Nimbus is a medium-sized ship (think Pyra) with round profile (and considerably big balloon), strong armor and permahull, two big engines for notable forward thrust, and four light weapon placement covering wide horizontal range, but without an easily mantained focus point. It's main strength is its overall durability combined with fairly decent mobility. The downsides are its mediocre firepower and subpar maneuverability.
TL;DR:
Pros:
Tanky
Easily maintained
Good speed
Cons:
Low damage output
Meh steering
~Coordinated crew works wonders (as always)

Piloting:
Piloting the Nimbus is in many ways similar to piloting a Pyramidion, except that the guns are located in less convenient spots. The ship has good acceleration and speed, but its mediocre steering make it hard to focus target ships. That said, Nimbus' two "back" guns can remedy this problem by covering the sides during a pass-by. All things combined, while you might have a slight problem with focusing the front guns, enemies are less of a threat thanks to the wide range covered by the gun placements. Finally, unless you are facing gunfire, you shouldn't have too many problems with maintaining altitude. While Nimbus is no Spire in terms of how fast can you go from low to high, its durable armor can give you and your engineer precious time in case you hit rock bottom.

Engineering:
Upper deck:
There are three things to be maintained on top deck: the two big engines and the balloon. While it may not seem like much at the first glance, keep in mind that Nimbus is a tank ship, and thanks to the balloon's big size the upper deck engineer might experience multiple rush moments in a single match. However, in case the engineer feels his deck is safe, he can use a hole behind the helm that will allow him to quickly access any guns the bottom deck has to offer (if they are not already occupied, of course) or to help repairing the hull under heavy damage.
Bottom deck:
This is the gungineer's domain. That said, the guns won't be the gungineer's main focus, that would be the hull, located below the staircase to the upper deck. Nimbus is a tank ship, which means that the armor is an integral part to the ship's functionality. Without the hull down, Nimbus can't take the role of piñata for which it is designed. If the hull is safe, then he/she can feel free to aid the gunner in raining bullets on the enemy.

Gunning:
Gunning on the Nimbus isn't as easy as it looks at first glance. This isn't a Pyramidion, it's not a Junker either, and it's definitely not a Galleon. At least not when it comes to gunfire. This doesn't mean that the Nimbus is harmless, it is actually completely capable of hailing woe on the enemy, but to do so, the synchronisation between the gunner(s) and the pilot is necessary. There is a relatively small angle that starts on short-to-middle range in front of the ship, where it is possible to hit both front guns at the same time. Abusing this point is key to the Nimbus' damage. The back guns are a different story. In case you happen to pass by an enemy, you can mount the back guns to give the enemy a parting shot or two before the pilot starts to reposition. These guns are also a good option for long range guns with wide horizontal angles (think Artemis), since they can allow you to deter enemies approaching from the sides.

Group fights:
This is where Nimbus works the best. Unlike any other ship, Nimbus can abuse his enormous armor to steamroll into the battle and escape alive. Even more charge-oriented than Pyramidion, it can rush into the battle and survive any initial onslaught the enemy has prepared. With a skilled crew, the Nimbus can be as versatile as Junker, as threatening as Pyramidion, and as resilient as Galleon.

Schematics:
In the attachment.
courtesy of my 1337 MS paint skills  :P

The parting shot:
Feel free to comment, give recommendations, etc. I will not always be able to respond to your feedback, but I'm sure as hell gonna give it a try in my spare time. :)

Carn:
Interesting idea, except for the fact that the Pyramidion, is one of the smallest ships in the game. Along with the fact, that it would need at least three engines to work with how they've programmed this game (I think that's true, I may be wrong). Light engines provide mild forward thrust, and turning thrust. Main engines provide the vast majority of your speed, but no turning thrust. So I think you'd need at least three engines.

DaOrks:
I like it just for the name Nimbus.

smithney:

--- Quote from: Carn on June 19, 2015, 08:32:03 pm ---Interesting idea, except for the fact that the Pyramidion, is one of the smallest ships in the game. Along with the fact, that it would need at least three engines to work with how they've programmed this game (I think that's true, I may be wrong). Light engines provide mild forward thrust, and turning thrust. Main engines provide the vast majority of your speed, but no turning thrust. So I think you'd need at least three engines.

--- End quote ---

It depends on what you consider small. To me, Pyramidion is one of the medium-sized gunships (along with Junker and Goldfish). But to be honest, that's exactly the point. I don't want another hulking Galleon, but rather a compact, yet tanky ship.



Now to the engine issue. I've popped the engines' wiki page and found these two things:

"The heavy engine is positioned in line with the airship's center of mass - making it only affect the horizontal mobility of the airship. Light engines are positioned off the center of mass of the ship - making them contribute torque to the airship - affecting both the horizontal and the angular mobility of the airship (i.e. turning)."
"The mechanic of turning employs the light engines. The engines on the side you wish to turn towards generate thrust backwards, while the opposite side's light engines generate thrust forward, thus turning the ship."

From what I understand, the heavy engine has been always used only to propel the ship forward, which is the reason why it has no steering programming. However, the second paragraph describes how the steering actually works. I believe that with some special programming just for the Nimbus, it is possible to turn it into the steadfast charger it is supposed to be. But in case it doesn't work, I have two ideas where to place the main engine:
A) Bottom deck. Located on a balcony behind the staircase. This means more burden for the gungineer to take care of, but also makes it more challenging for the upper deck engineer, since he will have to use the hole in the upper deck more often for emergency purposes.
B) Upper deck. Laying on the back of the ship, exactly under the balloon platform. This will tie the main engineer to the top deck. While the gungineer will have more time for gunning, the upper engineer will have to really think twice before using the emergency hole, reducing it to a situational niche.

I personally enjoy challenge as an engineer (yes, I'm one of those masochists who like manning a Squid), so I would prefer plan A for gameplay purposes. But the plan B makes the Nimbus easier to maintain in case the original idea is too hard to implement.

Attaching my glorious Paint schematics as always ^_^

EDIT: BTW thank you for your feedback and for raising important questions. Keep them going guys. ;)

Carn:
It IS on of the smallest, if not the smallest ship though. I'm comparing it in actual physical size to the other ships. The goldfish is considerably bigger than the pyra.

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