Guns Of Icarus Online

Main => Gameplay => Topic started by: DeltaForceTwo on May 17, 2013, 10:09:53 pm

Title: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: DeltaForceTwo on May 17, 2013, 10:09:53 pm
For me I feel is really just not posible to kill a ship with the firepower of a squid alone.

First to say I really like driving a squid, runing around the enemy blind spots, getting in and out the fights easily. releasing black clouds everywhere to see <"captain name" destroyed everything>

But them, how can you kill with a squid? I tried with a flank in the front side and a gat in the right side, but is really hard to shot them both at the same time (yes, posible but is not like with the spire or the junker, is a lot harder.

I used a carronade and well... you can annoy a ship for some time yeah, but that's about it.

Fire... I gave fire a try too and well, getting veery close is pretty dangerous and not really that rewarding so what's the deal?

As I see the Squid is the most rare ship in the battlefield, I never ever see a Squid unless playing a resource race.

When I'm flying a Squid I feel like I have to stay in the blind spot of an enemy for like 1 minute to kill him and if I get in a bad spot I will die in 2 seconds.

So I'm asking, is the squid underpowered? should I try something diferent? Or it's me that I'm just bad?

Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Shinkurex on May 17, 2013, 10:22:47 pm
It's not that you are bad (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you were flying against me)... You did real good to annoy me, and if I didn't have the crew I did, I would've died 9x's over... The Squid has always been a support ship... annoyance is it's role... knock out a few components to get the heavy hitters in to deal the final blow... Now the squid does have the ability to kill (and if you watch the cogs, BFS did it well) you just have to find that sweet spot to get two guns on the ship
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Machiavelliest on May 17, 2013, 10:35:04 pm
The Squid has the gat/flak combo.  It's really a function of patience, because unlike the Pyramidion, where you can trade blows, with the Squid you obviously can't.  You may have to engage/disengage four times to put enough permahull damage down to kill.  When to make the call to disengage is the defining factor of kills in the squid, for me.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: DeltaForceTwo on May 17, 2013, 10:36:30 pm
The thing is, if they move the Right side gun closer to the Front side one so is easier to hit with two guns, will that make the Squid overpowered?
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Machiavelliest on May 17, 2013, 10:43:12 pm
The thing is, if they move the Right side gun closer to the Front side one so is easier to hit with two guns, will that make the Squid overpowered?
Nah, it's pretty easy to hit as it is.  You just need to make sure your crew spots them.  The fact you're in the blind when maneuvering to fire is one of the Squid's key challenges.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Kadreal on May 18, 2013, 02:35:33 am
I've yet to see a skilled squid that could actually get a kill by himself. It's just so hard to line up two guns while keeping yourself in a blind spot. Plus they activate the claw and you basically have to bugger out since they'll typically turn too fast to stay in the blind spot.

That and the squids maneuverability often protects her foe as much as herself. With the weird offsets gun experience while turning it can be hard to reliably hit the enemy when the squid is maneuvering, reducing her already weak damage.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Machiavelliest on May 18, 2013, 03:36:59 am
I've yet to see a skilled squid that could actually get a kill by himself. It's just so hard to line up two guns while keeping yourself in a blind spot. Plus they activate the claw and you basically have to bugger out since they'll typically turn too fast to stay in the blind spot.
  Or you climb/descend slightly and drive past their bow as they're turning.  One thing about the claw: the extra turn rate puts more rotational inertia on the ship.  That means it's harder to stop turning.

That and the squids maneuverability often protects her foe as much as herself. With the weird offsets gun experience while turning it can be hard to reliably hit the enemy when the squid is maneuvering, reducing her already weak damage.
Getting sustained fire is an issue, for sure.  That's why gat/flak Squids are difficult to run.  Try putting a carronade on there so your gunner can just point it in the general direction of the enemy ship.

A new-ish crew and I got three kills in the Squid in one match today.  The other team let one member become isolated.  If you keep both ships together, the Squid is useless in a 2v1.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Kadreal on May 18, 2013, 04:07:27 am
seems I need to come fly on your ship some time
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Letus on May 18, 2013, 04:53:46 am
...do miss Carronade and Flames though...
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Machiavelliest on May 18, 2013, 05:01:37 am
...do miss Carronade and Flames though...
Yep.  Fire requires a bit too much sustained sweeping for my tastes.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Squidslinger Gilder on May 18, 2013, 05:55:36 am
Squid is an advanced pilot ship. In a head to head a squid can take down any ship in the game solo if the pilot and crew is good. Problem is...Muse screwed with it last patch. Its about 80-90% as effective as it once was. Y-axis tools play a huge role in effective piloting it. The ship needs to be able to evade gun arcs and till Muse fixes all the stuff they broke, it won't be back to it's former glory. Also it needs a speed fix. You can outrun it with kerosene when the squid is using kerosene too...which is insane and shouldn't be possible.

Our Cog matches with Squid have been pretty shitty. It is a ship that relies a lot on good conditions. Polaris it was rubberbanding all over and pausing often. That is just suicide when facing slower ships that don't have firing arcs which rely on good movement and pilot control. Destructoid it was in slowmo conditions as the fight dragged on. Might as well be a target in sandbox with that. All it was capable of was being a gat turret to help chew armor for the junker. Which is what I ended up doing. If you want to see more of what it is capable of check the Hungry Duck match we had. We made mistakes but it was before Muse screwed with the game and before the servers were overloaded.

Great ideal combo is Squid/Pyra. Junker relies too much on getting it's broadsides on target so it can't close range firing along with the Squid.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Serenum on May 18, 2013, 06:58:22 am
The squid was my first love in this game, mostly because I love fast and maneuverable vehicles in every game, but I had to switch to other more effective ships.
It is fast and mobile, but doesn't have anything else going for it except a realtive ease to repair because of the compact layout of the bridge.

I've managed to take down 1 on 1 a few ships with a front gatling and side carousel, but that brings in another problem, both my gunners complained that they didn't have to do anything, basically the gatling gunner just turned to the right as much as possibile and the carousel gunner turned on the left as much as possibile and when I managed to put the enemy ship in the sweet spot they both opened fire.
The squid is simply not fun for everyone else except the pilot, and it's a high risk, low reward ship. There isn't anything I can pull of with the Squid that I couldn't do better with a Pyramidion or a Goldfish with the help of the right steering tools, except running away really fast from things.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Morbie on May 18, 2013, 07:37:07 am
I'll just put this here.
http://youtu.be/lmoPWwv3O84
If four pilots can do it, you can to!

Not too sure how to go about piloting the squid?
http://youtu.be/N_pi49MXd4c

How's that for a shameless plug?
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: N-Sunderland on May 18, 2013, 09:42:57 am
The squid is simply not fun for everyone else except the pilot

Very, very wrong. It's ridiculously fun to engineer on a Squid.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Letus on May 18, 2013, 11:23:36 am
The squid is simply not fun for everyone else except the pilot

Very, very wrong. It's ridiculously fun to engineer on a Squid.

If you aren't sweating after engineering or piloting a squid...you're doing it wrong....
though there are those days where it is just too easy...
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Serenum on May 18, 2013, 02:25:55 pm
The squid is simply not fun for everyone else except the pilot

Very, very wrong. It's ridiculously fun to engineer on a Squid.

Why should it be more fun to engineer on a Squid then on any other ship? Because it's easier?
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Machiavelliest on May 18, 2013, 02:39:02 pm
Because the Squid is held together with duct tape and wishful thinking.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: N-Sunderland on May 18, 2013, 02:49:38 pm
The squid is simply not fun for everyone else except the pilot

Very, very wrong. It's ridiculously fun to engineer on a Squid.

Why should it be more fun to engineer on a Squid then on any other ship? Because it's easier?

Easier? Not at all. I hate it when engineering is easy. I want it to be hard. And if your opponents are good, they'll make your life on a Squid difficult. Just look at those engines, for example. With the way they're spread out, you need some serious parkour to keep them going when they're getting damaged. You also need to be careful about the decisions you make. The hull can go from full health to dead in a couple of seconds, so it's risky to run over to the back engines to fix them. You need to take risks to keep that thing in the sky.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Queso on May 18, 2013, 02:54:10 pm
Well one of the main advantages of the squid was it's ability to cover ships with flame and keep them down. However since flame was nerfed that's a significantly more difficult strategy and now there is almost thing that benefits from being able to hold that close to an enemy with only a single weapon. I'd love some more powerful hyper close range weapons.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: NikolaiLev on May 18, 2013, 10:11:10 pm
Fire was hugely nerfed, so fire isn't good to rely on.

Explosive damage was nerfed, so you can't rely exclusively on it without sustained piercing damage; gatling needs to be on target which isn't possible, and Mercury isn't good for close range.

The Carronade... well, why not just fly a Goldfish?

The Squid's been through a lot of rough nerfs, especially the one back in beta/release that buffed all ship speeds, meaning the disparity between the Squid and other ships was reduced.

Its speed just isn't powerful enough to justify its horrible setup, firepower, and poor armor.  So, yes, I believe the Squid is underpowered.

It needs more armor than hull, so it can do hit and run.  It needs something done with its weapons; two front guns, maybe one of the guns set on the front diagonal position (the Spire treatment), or, as my friend suggested, the addition of a side Heavy weapon (though I personally don't like that suggestion too much).

It needs something.  I'm not sure what, though.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Captain Smollett on May 19, 2013, 12:49:37 am
I'm with Queso, add or buff a hyper close range weapon into the meta and add a reasonable turning arc and the Squid is back baby!
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: JJPSX on May 19, 2013, 02:07:34 am
I really want to like the squid, and I've only tried it twice, but both times I found it tough to be more than a nuisance.  It's not that you can't destroy ships with a gatling/flak combo, or disable ships, it's just that it felt like other ships did it better.

You can't really take a hit, and generally other crews can keep their ship in the air as you maneuver to stay in their blind spots to keep the appropriate weapon trained on them.

It's not that the squid is useless, just that other ships do these roles better, at least from what I've found.
Title: Re: Is the Squid Underpowered?
Post by: Machiavelliest on May 19, 2013, 03:38:00 am
The Squid is excellent at hunting down and eliminating isolated opponents.  If both opponents decide to focus you down on a Squid, you have to run or die.  Your teammate also needs to be able to break up an enemy formation--the Squid itself doesn't have the firepower to keep two focused allies, especially gat/flak Pyramidions, from killing a target.