Topics

1

General Discussion / Ship Power Level Rating

« on: July 11, 2018, 12:55:52 am »

This is a list of all the ships. Please rate them from best to worst! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeLdDfTkxbgD3K8pizvFA5FpC6xdNmeHDW91IngkaSiMG62aA/viewform

I'm mainly making this to try and gather community information to see what needs buffing, what needs nerfing, what is fine, things like that. I'll share the results with the Experimental Crew. Please note that some ships are already being tweaked (Stormbreaker, Galleon, and Junker afaik), but I still want feedback based on current ships.

2

Gameplay / PvP 2v2 with Special Abilities

« on: July 02, 2018, 07:32:54 pm »

I'm currently designing a theoretical community game mode using PvE Practice 2v2 as the base line.

Here's what I'm thinking for now: ban Component Disruption and Superbuff from Engies, Cataclysm Rounds and Gigaton Blast from Gunner, maybe leave all the pilot options, since none of them SEEM OP from a glance. Only 1 of each Special Ability (no having multiple Choppies!) can be chosen for your ship, though each player can have a different ability. You cannot use the ability more than once per life (and obviously the cooldowns still apply anyway).

Other than the bans and limitations on Special Abilities, it's basically just 2v2 with the Special Abilities, weapons, and ships from Alliance.

To start this game mode, you simply have to get players into a PvE Practice match set for 2v2.

But, because I'd love to see this actually be a real thing, if any of you active community members who know how to organize this stuff wish to help spread this around and work it into the game in a more active manner (scheduling matches/tourneys/streams/what have you), feel free to step up, as I have no idea what I'd need to do to really make this a community event type of thing.

3

Feedback and Suggestions / Pilot Tool - Gas Cloud

« on: August 04, 2016, 06:13:15 pm »

Upon activation (like Tar), it creates a large cloud around your ship. If you are moving, it will make a ship along the path you are moving for 5 seconds. The cloud will remain in place for 45 seconds. Has a long cooldown, but instantly conceals the ship like entering a cloud would. Does engine damage probably. Opinions?

4

Feedback and Suggestions / Pilot Tool - Drift Boost

« on: August 04, 2016, 06:01:38 pm »

So, I would be surprised if this is a unique idea that hasn't been mentioned here yet, but I'm gonna post it anyway.

The Drift Boost provides a temporary but massive speed boost that falls off rapidly, with insane acceleration. It also sets your forward speed to max automatically. For the duration of the effect, you CANNOT make the ship change directions or change speed, though you CAN turn the ship to face a new direction. With this, you can go from 0 speed to say 200% of your normal speed in maybe 3 seconds, turn the ship to the left, come out from behind a big obstruction (like say the ship in the Desert map), keep facing that way while moving in the direction you were, open fire with your guns, and over a few seconds, return to normal speed gradually while returning to normal movement so you start going the direction you're facing.

This would be activated same as Tar, and certainly do Engine damage. Opinions?

5

Feedback and Suggestions / Secondary Fire Effects

« on: October 24, 2014, 04:55:16 pm »

So Eric said he’d need to think up Secondary effects for more than just the Harpoon if I wanted to get the Harpoon the way I wanted it. So, here’s my suggestion for Secondary Fire effects for the guns. Any with Zoom are ones I have no ideas for. Feel free to make suggestions. I WILL be emailing this thread to Muse, so hopefully we'll get a good dialog going with them too.

Artemis: normal missile breaks up into mini-missiles that spiral out in a spreading pattern, each dealing 1/4th damage. Can be used at any point after firing a normal shot.

Light Flak: Dual-Shot, firing 2 shots at once, but with twice the delay between shots.

Gatling: Zoom

Flamethrower: Zoom

Carronade: Zoom

Harpoon: Primary changed to attach rope, secondary to pull while held

Flare: Zoom

Mercury: Zoom (this is actually one I think should STAY zoom)

Mortar: Zoom

Banshee: Fire all rockets at once from all tubes (or all remaining rockets). Rockets spread out.

Mine Launcher: Primary fires mines, secondary deploys them. Minimum time before they can be deployed remains. Perhaps longer delay increases damage?

Hades: Zoom

Heavy Flak: Zoom

Hwacha: slower, but less spread, and not auto-fire (kind of just a random idea, so I'm well open to a better idea)

Heavy Carronade: Zoom

Lumberjack: Zoom

6

Feedback and Suggestions / Pilot Tool Suggestions

« on: October 04, 2014, 03:43:13 pm »

Spyglass: This has been a staple for non-pilots pretty much since it was established as far as I know. It’s a great tool, and everyone uses it if they aren’t the pilot. It’s also one of 2 items that break the standard paradigm for tools. But here we run into a problem. Because of the value of Spyglass, Rangefinder is all but ignored outside of testing and practice.
 
To address this, I propose the following change:

• Max targeting range: 1000m.
• Marked targets have an outline colored to indicate damage conditions (green <75% health, yellow 25-74% health, red > 25% health
• Perhaps incorporate overall condition into the previous indicator as well: 75% or more of components undamaged = 50% brighter color, 50% of components damaged = neutral color, 25% or less components functional = 50% darker color

Rangefinder: As previously mentioned, this tool is rarely used. My previous suggestions are all in preparation for the suggestions I have for this tool, in order to bring both of them into viability.

• Allow the Rangefinder to mark targets like current Spyglass.
• Rangefinder shows the range to all targets marked by it, with a white outline instead of the green/yellow/red of the previous system.
• Max range: 2000m

As an idea, perhaps both only update their range/damage indicators while being viewed with their respective tool, but will show the last known condition/range while they are marked. This further encourages players to occasionally use these tools beyond those first 5 seconds of a fight. It also makes it a tempting option for a pilot, who may wish to sacrifice a tool in order to keep track of enemy health conditions. Obviously these indicators replace each other, with the most recent being the one shown.

7

Feedback and Suggestions / Daily Specials

« on: September 15, 2014, 03:50:00 pm »

So, I have had this idea sitting in the back of my head for the last few days, and was hesitant to put it out there, but I've decided what the heck. The idea is basically that at roughly 4 PM PST (7 PM EST) , a special match will be put up in the game. It will have specific rules to it, and the rules will be different each day. If it goes through a weekly rotation, or has events selected at random (from a preformed list) or whatever hasn't been decided, but if people are interested, this could be pretty fun. Below are a few of the ideas I've had so far, though some of them are things people already do occasionally anyway.

All Mines match
AI Only match
Harpoon Only match
Flamer Only match (gotta have some Cake love after all)
Heavy Harpoon Only match (must use Heavy weapons or Harpoons only)
All Squid match
All Galleon match
Galleon race? (this is a random idea I literally just had, and would probably draw inspiration from the Squid Races I've heard about, if I can find the rules for them)
Squid race (cause why not include them too)
All Snipers (weapons with 1000m or longer range, and light flak because it's so close to the cut-off)

These are only the ideas I've come up with so far. If you have any, share them below! If people are really interested, maybe today or tomorrow we could even start actually doing this. The event would last an hour at most probably.

8

Feedback and Suggestions / Pilot Tool: Directional Armor

« on: September 13, 2014, 05:32:49 pm »

Pretty simple concept. There would be one for each possible direction. Damage taken to that side of the ship is halved, but damage from guns on that side of the ship is reduced by 25%.

9

Feedback and Suggestions / New Damage Type: Fragment

« on: June 05, 2014, 06:16:44 am »

Fragment Damage Modifiers

Balloon: 1.2
Hull: 1.4
Components: 0.4
Armor: 0

Special: Fragment Damage ammo explodes into fragments on impact with anything, creating "fragments" that deal 10% of the damage of the gun each (the number of fragments being dependent on the gun, and each dealing the same damage). The fragments go in random directions from the point of impact up to twice the size of the AoE of the gun. As such, while the gun with this damage type may not hurt your ally, if you miss but hit your ally, the gun can still hit the enemy if they are close enough.

10

Feedback and Suggestions / Lets Talk: Ammo

« on: June 01, 2014, 02:54:08 am »

So, the current direction of the game looks to be shifting ammo from the very generalized way it is now into a more niche system. I figured I might as well start a discussion on this, and get the input of the community as a whole, as well as throw out my own ideas for some concepts. So, lets get started!

Lochnagar
No changes to suggest for this one, it's already a niche ammo as is!

Heavy Clip
While this one is also sort of niche, it's also kind of dull. I see this used on maybe 2-3 guns in the game period. So, I'm gonna throw out the suggestion I've seen a few other people make, as it's also one I strongly agree with. Make Heavy Clip make the ammo heavier! This means instead of just reducing the recoil to 0 and the ammo by 25%, make the projectiles actually gain an increase in their drop speed. This should have no effect on the life of the ammo (that is, how long it takes before it stops existing automatically), but on any ammo that drops, goes up, or even has no drop, it now gains a drop.

Why? Because this actually has a HUGE impact on how many guns work! On some guns, like the shotguns (aka carronades), the effect is minimal as it would still almost work as it does now, just maybe hitting lower than it does right now and requiring a bit more work to aim. On guns like the Mines or Hades, suddenly the way it works has changed SIGNIFICANTLY! Mines are now depth charges if you fire down, dropping huge distances, and even if you fire up, the way they move has changed enough to change how this will place them! Perhaps you just hopped a mine over the enemy to land right on the opposite side of them, instead of it ending up way above or below them, due to the change in it's arc!

*new* Light Clip
With this change, I feel it's appropriate to create a counter-part to it, similar to Dragon Ash and Dense Slugs (dev app ammo that we will probably see eventually!). Light Clip works in the opposite direction of Heavy Clip. Instead of reducing the recoil, it doubles it! Suddenly, that very narrow blast is fired wildly, and no one knows WHERE it will go. In exchange, the ammo is increased by a decent amount (not sure how much, but probably more than the 25% that Heavy Clip reduces it by), perhaps the turn speed of the gun is increased slightly, but most important of all, bullets (or flying orbs of death, or mines, or missiles, or whatever the gun fires) are lighter, and thus float upwards for a brief time after firing (like 1-3 seconds at the most), rather than falling down like normal. This again changes the arc of the shot, but does not change the life of the shot.

Why? This change actually creates a new way to manipulate a gun's arc, and when combined with the other ammo types, creates whole new ways to use many of the guns, especially for a Gunner. Suddenly your gun can hit that little bit higher up than it used to be able to, and when combined with Heavy Clip, the reverse is true. Depending on what you're firing, you've suddenly got a LOT of new options!

Incendiary
I actually suggest this one not be changed. We need some not-super-niche ammo types for Engineers, and while this isn't exactly NOT niche, it's not really niche either. It's rather generic actually. I don't usually see it get used much though, so it may actually need a slight (SLIGHT!) buff.

Among the other ammo types I haven't covered so far, I'm either uncertain what (if anything) to do with them, or they are probably better off just remaining as they are as the more generic engineer ammo, so I'll leave this here for now. I'll probably touch on others if ideas come up.

If you have any ideas of your own, discuss them here! If you either agree or disagree with what I've said so far, speak up, I wanna hear from you! Let's gather a bunch of feedback to share with Awkm in his quest to improve gunners!

11

Feedback and Suggestions / Boomerang Gun?

« on: May 30, 2014, 04:10:17 am »

Obviously the name would be different, more interesting, but as I had this idea kind of just randomly occur to me, I figured I'd share it.

The exact details aren't things I've thought through all the way, so I'll probably tweak these in future posts (or waste a mod's time asking them to change the post since we can't edit our own posts unlike on every other forum I've ever been on), but here is a rough concept for a new gun. This can be either Heavy or Light, I'm not too picky which.

Primary Damage: Impact (moderate-to-low damage for weapon type)
Secondary Damage: Piercing (moderate-to-high damage for weapon type)

Ammo: 1
Reload: 4
Range: Very Long
AoE: Not sure, but probably on the large side

Horizontal Arc: 80
Vertical Arc: 20

Special: When fired, the projectile will arc around back toward the gun (based on where the gun fired), flying toward the 0-degree point for the gun (so a projectile shot to the left will arc back toward the right). The projectile has a flight time of 8 seconds before it will finish returning. If it hits something, it does not return. The projectile has friendly fire turned on (if the ship is still at the place where the shot was fired, and it hasn't hit something else, it will hit the ship (and the gun) that fired it.

The turn speed for the projectile would be such that if fired all the way to the left, it would go out to maybe 20% of the maximum straight distance it can travel, and end up coming back at the ship from the right of where it was fired (also at an 80 degree angle). Reducing the range of the shot will also reduce the Flight Time.

12

Feedback and Suggestions / Ideas for an alternate Pipe Wrench

« on: May 23, 2014, 03:32:05 pm »

Right now, Pipe Wrench is a mid-point between Spanner and Mallet, not especially good at or bad at fixing broken or damaged guns. This makes it a decent gunner tool, but mostly worthless to an engineer who will just take Spanner/Mallet most of the time (unless they're a buff engineer). I don't want to really make it any better for the engineer, but I do think it could be more interesting, and better for the Gunner at the same time. Most of the time, I've seen gunners ignore this in favor of Spanner for the better rebuild power. Below are three variations of the same idea (numbers are more for example purposes rather than any sort of real balance) that I think could make this a more appealing option over spanner. Discuss!




Pipe Wrench 1: 100 HP (down from 120), 5 sec cd, 4 rebuild, gains 10 HP per second for 5 seconds, total healed: 150 (up from 120)

Pros: Slightly more healing than current Pipe Wrench in the long run, potentially could help while on the gun since you will be healing while you can be firing.
Cons: Still not really very impressive, and slightly lower burst healing than production.

Gunner vs Engineer: An engineer will always be able to do better than this with Mallet/Spanner, so they have no reason to take this. The regen is "nice", but not nice enough to warrant taking it.

Pipe Wrench 2: 80 HP (down from 120), 4 sec cd (down from 5), 4 rebuild, gains 5 HP per second for 10 seconds (Can stack up to twice for 10 per second, refreshes duration when used), total healed: 130-180 (up from 120)

Pros: Slightly better cd means the burst can happen a bit more often, but with the reduction in burst, it's not as useful. The heal itself is slightly better than option 1, and noticeably better than production. Other Pros are similar to Option 1.
Cons: This version requires using the Pipe Wrench twice within 10 seconds to maximize the healing potential. Not hard, but it's still better if you're more dedicated to one or two guns instead of just any gun. Other Cons are similar to Option 1.

Gunner vs Engineer: In this case, the reason to not take it as an Engineer is even stronger. You probably won't be by the same gun twice in 10 seconds when you're busy chem spraying and repairing everything else. As a gunner usually stays by one or two guns ANYWAY, this is perfect for them.

Pipe Wrench 3: 70 HP (down from 120), 4 sec cd (down from 5), 4 rebuild, gains 5 HP per second for 10 seconds (can stack up to four times for 20 per second, refreshes duration when used), total healed: 120-170-220-270

Pros: This heals significantly more the normal Pipe Wrench - if you fully stack it. Other pros are similar to the other options.
Cons: You obviously need to fully stack it to really get the maximum benefit. Until you get at least 2 stacks, this option is clearly inferior to production Pipe Wrench. At 4 stacks, it's comparable to a Mallet, but with how long it takes for that heal to happen, it will be more like just keeping the gun alive, and you have to remember to occasionally hop off to keep the buff up. If you miss the timing, you'll have to start over with a significantly weaker HP per 5.

Gunner vs Engineer: See option 2.

13

Feedback and Suggestions / 4v4 Game Mode Concept: Defend the Transport

« on: March 16, 2014, 11:46:40 pm »

The concept for this is relatively simple: Maps using this game mode are elongated with 3 intersecting paths leading from one end to other.

One team is the Defenders, and they are guarding a massive cargo ship (or something else appropriate to the setting, as I don't really know or care about the Lore of GoI). They start at one end of the map, with the Transport with them at a random spawn leading into one of the three paths.

At each intersecting point the Transport may choose to change to a different path at random, so it's impossible to predict where it will be at any given point. Transport Ship is relatively durable, and has an auto-repair for the armor that functions like a crew trying to keep the ship intact. The armor only repairs when not taking damage for whatever amount of time is balanced.

The Defenders always know where the Transport is (both on the map, on the compass, and as a Marked target with a distinct color to differenciate it from the Enemy Targets). When killed, Defenders can respawn at any intersecting point along the map, but only those closest to the Transport are active.

Attackers have to destroy the Transport. They do not have any way of knowing where it is, and spawn at the far end of the map to begin. If at least one of their ships has sight of the Transport, Attackers can spawn at points two spawn points away from the Transport. If the Defenders guard the Transport all the way to the opposite end of the map from where it started, they win. If the Attackers destroy it, they win.

The Transport moves slowly. It may take a full minute for it to reach a new Intersection from the previous one, and a map could have between 5 and 10 Intersections along it, depending on the map. Another variable is to increase the number of paths from 3 to 4 or more. When one team wins, the teams switch from Attackers to Defenders and vice versa. If the event of a tie, a tie-breaker occurs with the teams swapping one more time, and the Transport spawning only 2 Intersections away from the end.

EDIT: To clarify something before it comes up, a Squid could probably go from one end of a path to the other in about a minute, maybe a minute and a half, depending on the size of the map. This is of course adjustable on a map-by-map basis, but that should give a general idea of how slow I picture the Transport itself moving in comparison to the speeds the other ships can achieve. At the longest, I could see it taking maybe 2 minutes for a Squid to reach from one end to the other.

And before someone asks why there are random paths, it's because otherwise this is just mobile Capture the Point of a sort. With this random element to it, scouting is necessary, as is having enough firepower to take on the enemy's four ships, then later defend the Transport when it's your turn. This encourages more diverse ship combinations than 4 Pyras or 4 Galleons or something, as that just won't work with both Attackers and Defenders.

14

Feedback and Suggestions / Zenith (concept for a new ship)

« on: March 08, 2014, 10:36:20 pm »

So I made a ship concept a while back that I abandoned due to realizing I couldn't edit the OP and I had written the description in such a way (and hadn't fleshed out the concept beforehand) that people had a lot of trouble understanding what I was trying to get across, and just kept saying the ship was a copy of the Mobula. I have since learned more of the game, and believe I can now get the concept across better. While I still won't be able to edit the post due to the illogical limitations placed on the forums by Muse, I can at least ask Mods to do it for me, even if I still feel that's really unfair to put the work on the mods like that. That all said, here's my revamped and expanded concept for the Zenith.

Statistics

I am going to start with a simplistic conceptual version of the stats for the ship, using a 1-5 scale based on the graphic used to display ship stats in the game when modifying a ship.

Speed 2.5 (vertical speed is above average, horizontal speed is just a bit below average)

Maneuverability 3.5 (horizontal acceleration is high, vertical acceleration is below average, turning speed is slightly above average, able to get really good altitude)

Durability 2

Armor 3.5

Firepower 4 (6 guns, but see below)

The ship is broken down into 2 levels, similar to the Mobula, but different. Engines and guns are semi-shielded by the hull from attacks to the sides (and front or back, depending on which level the component is on). Guns are angled either up or down depending on which level the gun is on. Upper guns are protected from the front of the ship, while lower guns are protected from the back.

Details

The ship is slightly narrow but long, similar to a skiff in shape. The front of the ship is where the primary ladder down to the lower deck is. The lower deck extends slightly beyond the upper deck, with places near the lower side guns where it is possible to "parkour" up and down to get between decks, although it is tricky. The rear of the top deck has a raised section (like in the picture). The section near the balloon also has "parkour holes", allowing a view straight through the ship to the bottom from the angle where the wheel for the captain sits due to the area around the Medium gun being mostly open.

The top deck has 3 light guns angled 30 degrees up and pointing to the rear, with the "side" guns pointing to the rear at a 30 degree angle to either side. Located at the middle of the top deck is the balloon, with the main engine located dead center to the rear. The pilot wheel is located on the raised section at the rear, with the main engine underneath the raised section. On the rear of the raised section is the rear middle gun, with the side rear guns to either side on the lower section.

The lower deck has 2 light guns and 1 medium gun. The Medium gun is angled straight down (and to the front if it matters), and near the front of the ship. The two light guns are located off to either side of the main section of the lower deck, but angled 45 degrees down and 20 degrees to either side from the front. Along the rest of the lower deck is the Hull compotent location, and to either side is the side engines (located near the "parkour" entrance to the lower deck). Due to their positions, the hull partially covers the guns from attacks from the sides and behind.

In theory this ship has no blind spots, since there are guns that can hit you no matter what side you approach from. However, due to the angles the guns are at, there are blind spots foward and above, as well as behind and below the ship. Immediately to either side may or may not put you in the firing arc of two of the side guns (one top, and one bottom), while forward and below will definitely put you in the firing arc of 2 guns, and 3 guns if you approach from above and behind. Obviously getting immediately below the ship is a death sentence, as there the medium gun can actually hit you.

Update as of 3/13/14

This is a remake of a remake of a ship concept now. Originally designed this as a bomber, but now I'm changing to a concept yet again. So here it is, the Zenith Mark II

Statistics



The ship is broken down into 2 levels, similar to the Mobula, but there the differences end. To start, lets give an overview of the layout.

Details

The ship is slightly narrow but long, similar to a skiff in shape. The front of the ship is where the primary ladder down to the lower deck is. The rear of the top deck has a raised section (like in the picture). The section near the balloon also has a massive hole, allowing a view straight through the ship to the bottom from the angle where the wheel for the captain sits due to the area around the Medium gun being mostly open. The balloon is attached via cables to the sides of the ship at the front (like a sail), with the space immediately below it empty, allowing a clear view from the front of the ship to behind the ship.

The top deck has 3 light guns located at the rear of the ship. Located at the front of the top deck is the balloon, with the main engine located dead center to the rear, behind the raised section and partially covered by it. The pilot wheel is located on top of the raised section at the rear. On the rear of the raised section is the rear middle gun, with the side rear guns to either side on the lower section. All three guns point to the rear. Just before the stairs that lead up to the raised section, and the edge of the hole in the deck, is the ladder leading between the decks.

The lower deck has 2 light guns and 1 medium gun. The medium gun points foward. The two light guns are located off to either side of the main section of the lower deck, pointing to their respective sides. Along the rest of the lower deck is the Hull compotent location which is located right next to the ladder, and to either side is the side engines. The rear guns would be to either side of the side engines if they were on the same deck.

In theory this ship has no blind spots, since there are guns that can hit you no matter what side you approach from. However, due to the locations the guns are at, the lower deck guns cannot fire up very easily due to the deck being in the way, while the upper deck guns likewise cannot fire down very easily, and have limited firing arcs due to the hull also being in the way. But here's the twist.

Located next to every gun is an interactable button. By stepping on the button, the gun that corresponds with that button will switch decks and positions as follows:

Middle rear gun (pilot's gun): lower deck facing foward, able to fire through the holes in the deck normally used by the other guns and various empty spaces.

Left and Right upper deck guns: lower deck pointing to either side with same setup as the forward side guns.

Medium gun: upper deck facing back toward the ship (the balloon is directly behind it). It has a clear shot in all directions up.

Left and Right lower deck guns: upper deck pointing forward, limited clearance to the sides due to the hull.

If a player is on a gun that has the button pushed, the gun will move the person using the gun with it. As a possible fix to stop trolls, moving a gun with a gunner in it might require the gunner to right click to confirm the move.

The above is merely a first rough draft. Suggestions on positions for the guns are welcome. I am likely to reduce the number of guns available as well. The end goal is to either make it so it is only possible to cover 3 sides of the ship at any one time, or make it so it is only possible to EFFECIENTLY cover 2-3 sides at a time (this option would require making it possible to get 2 guns pointed to any particular side, while requiring at least 1, maybe as many as 2 different sides only having 1 gun covering it, while perhaps also still having the possibility of no guns covering a side).

15

Feedback and Suggestions / New Class: Communications Officer (not another Gungineer thread)

« on: March 03, 2014, 06:19:43 pm »

So I've been thinking. Right now, the poor Gunner is outnumbered 2 to 1 in favor of Engineers (sometimes he doesn't even get hired for a ship at all). What if there was a fourth option though, so instead of ships being lopsided, all ships had 1 of each class? This has been discussed a few times in many different ways, but often it's just "Gungineer" concepts, or concepts that mix what's already there together in some way. This thread is for a concept that's NEW though, not just a remix. The name is a WIP but otherwise, I kind of like the idea. Also, due to the fact they still have 1 slot for each category that already exists, they can still be a backup Engineer/Gunner when not doing their primary role.

Communications Officer (or something like that)

Their primary role is information warfare. They would get things that can be used to gather intel, or disrupt intel gathering, depending on their loadout. Examples include tools that add extra information when they're looking at the map (like course predictions for known ships, loadout idenification, ship identification, estimated time to get to a ship or get in firing range of a ship, and so on), tools that hide the ship from the map, tools that can break enemy locks, and so on. Range-Finder could be repurposed into a Comm Officer tool as well. While not necessarily as useful directly as say an Engineer or Gunner, they can provide a utility to your ship that can aid in tactical actions.

Details for how they would actually play can be discussed below if people are interested in the concept idea itself. Like hiding the ship would probably function similar to buffing the ship, and require either an action on the hull, or maybe even on the entire ship to fully hide it.




Update!

Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. Below are some example tools, provided by people who have responded.

Possible tools:

Sonic cone: Allows for short to medium range spotting through clouds.
Gauge: Gives all crew an indicator of engine throttles on enemy ships.
Resonator: Shows targeted ship's permahull. When used as a 'buff' tool on your own hull, temporarily prevents foes from doing the same to you.
Scrambler: Puts false ship markers on the map.
etc..

I could see a support class being really useful. Something like a Quartermaster/Strategist.

Cat O' Nine Tails - While equipped, crew move and perform actions 10% faster (running, repairs, rebuilds, reloading). Must be held for at least 10 seconds before effect starts. Effects end immediately when removed.
I've got your motivation right here!

Paints - Can be used on the hull and balloon to temporarily change the color of the flags and balloon paint. Used to confuse the enemy. Prevents spotting when used on both components.
What, that? That's always been red. I mean blue. I mean... FIRE!!

Inspection Lens - Used to give an estimate of hull, armor and balloon health on targeted ships.
Hm.. burn marks on the balloon, armor compromised by bullet holes, hull held together with what appears to be rope made of shirts. One more volley ought to do it.

Advanced Spy Glass - Allows precision marking of ship components, causes marked components to 'glow' for the crew. (Can spot guns and engines, makes them appear as a bright red for easier targeting. Wears off after 30 seconds)
It's right there, you can't miss it!

Decoy - Spawns a dummy ship that flies directly away from the ship, begins shooting randomly after 10 seconds. After 12 seconds it becomes 'spotted' by the enemy with the ship's name. Used as a distraction/diversion. Can only spawn one at a time. Skill is usable again after decoy is destroyed. Decoy self destructs after 1 minute.
It's a trap!!

Sound Amplifier - Use this tool to target an enemy ship and be able to hear the team voice chat/signals as well as read their crew chat and team chat. Takes five seconds to calibrate once a ship is locked. (works similar to range finder)
Sir, they seem to be saying terrible things about your mother

White Noise Generator - Adds random false information to the combat log. (ie: Jimmy destroyed Hull ; John Rebuilt Balloon , etc. Using names of players in the game for these actions that didn't actually happen)
Too bad it took them so long to notice that Jimmy really did break their hull

Thermal Detector - Estimates ship location based on heat readings. Does not work while your engines are running. Gives a reading every 10 seconds, readings are 3 seconds behind. (every ten seconds it will give you an idea of where they were three seconds ago). Only works if their engines are running, only works within 800 meters. Does not distinguish between ally and enemy.
Warmer... warmer..... Oh wait that's us.

Insulation - Buff used on the engines, reduces their output by 5%, reduces thermal detector's range by 30% for large engines and 20% for small.
Let's see them find us now.

These are all great ideas (for the most part, as some are more silly than anything). To clarify something, the intention of this class is to be like every other class, thus the other classes could take 1 tool from this class, and it takes 1 tool from each of them. It won't be special in any way aside from the utility it provides to a ship.

Many of these tools could be used while on Guns, thus allowing improved utility as a back-up gunner, while many of its abilities can also be used while on the move, or require using them on specific parts of the ship, thus allowing the class to play a backup engie too. While not as good at either job, it is viable due to he way it plays.

To use some of the examples quoted above: Thermal Detector, White Noise Generator, Sound Amplifier, and Sonic Cone could potentially be concepts that work even while on the guns. Using them while on guns would not reload the ammo, but it would reload default ammo during the next reload unless you switch to your 1 ammo type.

For quasi-engie examples, we have Insulation, Paints, and Resonator. While none of them fix the ship, they do require you to move around the ship to get to various parts, meanwhile you can switch to your wrench and hit them to heal them up a bit too.

Surprisingly, if you don't mind losing some mobility options, you can even play this as a quasi-pilot, using Phoenix Claw as the pilot tool, Advanced Spy Glass to call targets, and Decoy and Scrambler to help draw ships away from your own.

While these are not necessarily exactly what I would want to see as final tools for the concept, they DO (for the most part, aside from the Cat O' Nine Tails, which is just silly) embody the spirit of the concept. That's why I wanted to bring attention to these concepts specifically. Any other ideas that are added to this thread might be added up here to keep all the best suggestions together.