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Atlas Howitzer: Heavy gun

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Naoura:
That's what I was meaning. Quick reload with single round.

Naoura:
Had a recent thought on it, and it brought up a question: Horizontal arc?

Field howitzers would have to be moved by their base to reorient and fire in a different direction. On Guns, it wouldn't have the same option, and would be relying on motorized turning. However, due to the force of each shot, it would be much, much safer to lock the weapon to a very, very thin to nonexistant horizontal arc.

That would require heavy synergy between captain and gunner. Thoughts, @Richard?

Richard LeMoon:
If Muse went with a tiered guns system, where you have to be a certain level to get said gun, I would not be too opposed to a more restricted horizontal movement. If it is a general use gun, then you have to keep it more open.

The Lumberjack and Merc are both 15deg guns, covering a 30deg arc. The Hellhound carro is next at 25.  Flak and Hawacha are both 30. I was personally thinking of placing the Atlas at 20deg. If it were a tiered gun, maybe 15 or less. You do want to keep a nice balance between skill and frustration. I think ship recoil is still the best for this, requiring more pilot/gunner coordination than most other guns.

If there were some slower firing mechanic, you could borrow from the lens array and slow the gun down some just before it fires. This would be hard to do, though, considering it reloads after every shot. You would have to aim it, lock it down, then fire. Perhaps hold the trigger, and it fires a second later after the gun does its lockdown animation. This would be an interesting mechanic to explore, but I think it may stray too far into frustration territory. Perhaps if it was a secondary function. Hold right mouse to lock the gun to 10% speed, but do some sort of buff. That way, people get the choice of being frustrated or not.

Naoura:
I'm really not sure how you could do the tiered weapon mechanic in the game. There... really isn't a way I can think of to do it without fundamentally changing the game. The captain brings the weapons aboard the ships, correct? That means that the captain, who would most likely be a higher level, would have control over what was brought aboard and what the gunner would have to use, as it is now. Tiering up the weapons... how? Make it so that the gunner simply can't use the weapon until he reaches a high enough level? Make the weapon change when the gunner uses it? I just don't see how to implement it properly in that case. The captain is the one in charge of what weapons he brings, meaning that the captain would need to pay attention to the skill level of his crew and change the loadout from there. I don't mean to be rude, but would you mind telling me how you want to tier the weapons? How to implement it and everything?

I like the locking down mechanic, but it might just be easier to simply keep it locked. More teamwork involved between captain and gunner, but I like the argument of letting you lock it down before firing. That'd give the gunner enough control over his own weapon, while still requiring skill to use properly. Perhaps a moment or two for the weapon to actually lock down?

For the buff over the lockdown, I would say firing speed. The wepon is locked into position, right? Meaning that it is stable and not needing a pause so as to not stress the motors and turntables that the weapon would be built on. Lock the weapon down, and it can fire a little faster, but it cannot change arc. The recoil mechanic would be the same, meaning that it would be marginally frustrating as the ship keeps getting kicked back a bit, but you would be able to send more rounds out a little bit faster before the ship needs to be made stable again, and the weapon needs to be aimed again. That would make it a mid-high level skill requirement, where lower level players can just use the primary fire at a slower rate, but with the same power, while a higher level player can lock down the weapon and attempt to barrage an area while the captain, of similar skill, tries to manage the recoil as best he can.

Problem with that would be Impact Bumpers. A Captain could probably just throw on the bumpers and hold position from cover, using the locked down Atlas to simply pour rounds into an area, adjusting the ship on the reloads so as to keep the rounds pointed at the enemy. I do think that that would make the ship a target for a faster, more maneuverable ship that would be difficult to hit by the Atlas, which might balance that a little. It really would be artillery, in that regard, needing to be set up behind a wall of quasi-infantry like Pyras or Junkers so that it could effectively shell an area. Not the most obvious effective use of firepower, since everyone wants to go for the hits, but it's the nonobvious power of the weapon, morale. No one wants to go into an area that has Atlas rounds pouring out of it, just like no one wants to be on a Galleon's broadside when they're running double Hwatcha. I've had heartattack moments on Paritan when I start to cross one of the streets and walk directly into those lions, same could be said for the Atlas.

Richard LeMoon:
By tiered, I simply mean things you earn over time. Start with Quad Flak (current), earn Duel Flak (old version), finally earn Atlas to finish off the 'arming ship killer' tree. They are balanced with the other guns, but you just can't put them on your ship until you earn them, wither through levels or challenges. I lean towards challenges, since it allows lower level players to prove they can handle a gun before they put it on their ship.

The faster fire rate sounds fun. If you are good, you could even use it to your advantage on a Galleon, using the recoil to follow a ship going the right direction. Metal Gear style.

Impact bumpers don't stop a ship from moving, so would do nothing for this gun if it did have ship recoil. You would have to use Moonshine or Kero (or the 'Anchor' tool talked about some time ago).

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