new weapons: thinking outside the box

[Helios.]

i've been very thrilled with the outflow of ideas for new content, the new ships, the new guns the new ammos. some of which introduce completely new mechanics and searching to solve problems we didn't even know we had

unsurprisingly for anyone reading, i have a suggestion, surprise surprise, for a new (heavy even!) weapon

the hypaspist two man cannon

watching the Flak and Heavy flak i always wondered why after shooting the first shot, the chamber could be reloaded without having to reload the second chamber as well, allowing for a reload while shooting the second barrel and its resultant reloading as a completely seperate mechanism, allowing for reloading the first shot while leaving the second ready to fire throughout the process.

then i thought, well, a continual fire weapon woudl be absolutely bonkers, i want that. how do i balance it?

as a new player i always wondered at the automatic reloading of weapons, and by this time in my GOIO career, i think we take it for granted. lets shake things up!

so my proposal for a weapon is as follows:

a weapon whose separate chambers can be, indeed MUST be, reloaded by a second person. with one person shooting and a second reloading the chambers (standing behind hitting with spanner i think, unless anyone things a specialized tool would be more interesting than frustrating) allowing for a steady rate of perpetually uninterrupted fire.

i think the weapon itself then could be absurdly powerful considering the extra cost of use in needing a second person to maintain optimal damage.

so basically if you have the gunner doing both jobs, it would be maybe 60% dps of a heavy flak over time. with a loader it would be roughly twice that.

maybe adding a slight amount of pierce damage could allow the Hypaspist cannon to make the goldfish more interesting to fly, giving it another viable option for that front gun.

if the spire weapon angle changes are implemented, spreading the side guns apart to point along the starboard and port beam. this weapon would allow the second crew member downstairs to be able to be useful even when the ship is engaged in front on combat

the name Hypaspist comes from the idea of a 'shield carrier:' An attendant who stands by and supplies the resources required for a soldier, allowing them to concentrate on fighting

[ZnC]

This is very interesting. A simpler way to create this kind of gameplay right now is that the gun overheats when fired (without fire stacks). Gunners usually don't carry firefighting tools, so it'll need to be extinguished/chem'd by an engineer. There's also potential for interaction with Heatsink Clip; it doesn't overheat, but you don't maximize your damage either.

As an (ex-)competitive buff engineer I enjoyed supporting my gunner, but only did so through conventional buffs and repairs. The most common case for this is the front engineer on a Goldfish. I liked the fact that you needed to time your buff. Knowing when an enemy is in range and when your gunner is about to take a shot.

Sadly the chance of this idea (or any gun idea for that matter) being explored is very slim.

[Richard LeMoon]

Though I like the general idea, it honestly sounds tedious. Kinda like being a gunner's buff engie, only the buff just lasts the span of a hammer hit.

However, since I like the idea of a 'crew' gun, what if we had a heavy gun that had a full-time 'AI' (actually just an animated part of the gun) constantly shoving more ammo in a gun. They would stand on a platform on the side of the gun that rotated with the gun.

[Naoura]

The only way I can see this working is on a Boss Ship.

A ship armed with a weapon that would require that much in the way of a new mechanic would have to be a dreadnought, massive, and would open up the whole can of worms with more than 4 people on a ship. Granted, Alliance shakes that up, but it's unlikely that it would work as intended.

It DOES open up an old question on Medium/Heavy weapons, one that was put to bed a long time ago. If this were to be considered, it'd be very, veeeeeerry likely to be fudged pretty damned quickly.

I could see it working, but only on a ship with a prow gun. Something like the Boss Ships, given to the players, and requiring a lot more time and effort than Muse is probably going to be in business for.

[Richard LeMoon]

I could see it working on stationary bases as well. One four person crew per gun instead of a ship, with the gun being the size of a Goldfish. It would require completely different things for the crew to do, though, since the 'pilot' would be the gunner. Engineers to keep whatever the mechanics working. Loader to load in the proper rounds, since it is not a self loader? Maybe someone has to drive around a forklift with live ammunition. xD

Or put smaller guns on the big gun.

Crazy times.

[Naoura]

I think that would change a bit too much, Richard. That'd be a massive divergence from the regular play of Guns. Easier to implement than a massive double-ship, but... still.

[Helios.]

perhaps the reloading might not need to be as full-time a job as i first conceived it, maybe having a range finder might also be specifically important, giving the engie something else to do for the other half of their time?

i just hate on a fish when theres nothing to do, or a spire when you are standing there just sorta staring out into space waitign for teh side guns to come into play on a sniping ship () not in a sniping war obviously, but when its more of a close range ship trying to close across dunes or whatever

i like the idea of a heat mechanic for the weapon, more specific monkeying might be required for this to work best.

the other

[Naoura]

The ranging idea would work a lot better, honestly. With one operator controlling the elevation and ammo types, and the other controlling the traversal and firing the weapon. It'd make it incredibly team-based, and would require immense coordination between the players, but if you give them a powerful enough weapon to make it worth it, it'd be interesting to see.