Topics

1

The Docks / Hi, I think I'd like to find a new captain

« on: April 27, 2014, 03:32:31 pm »

Hi guys,

I think it might be time for me to find a new captain and crew to get to know and hopefully have fun with playing this game again.

I prefer manning the lumberjack, but it's been a while since I've sat behind one.

I like to think I'm loyal, humble and submissive and have no problem following orders

I'm an adult, quiet, maybe a little withdrawn now but I'm motivated and punctual

The only drawback I have to dissapoint you with is that I really am a gunner, I am not very happy about playing any other role, so I might not be as versatile and flexible as other aspiring crew members

Ok that's all I think, I'd love to hear from you

2

The Docks / The Corvus Marauders 2.0 : Moving Forward

« on: April 30, 2013, 11:10:50 am »

Hello

Having done a little bit of restructuring and re-evaluating our goals and ideals the past weeks we felt it was due for an update on who we are and what we stand for.

Let me start off by introducing you to a bit of history on Corvus Marauders;- not to be confused with the Crows!

How Corvus Marauders came to be

A lot of the players that now represent Corvus were part of a much larger group of players that called themselves King's Gambit.  This group was very mixed - both old and young players;- mature and juvenile; quiet and vocal...  It was no suprise to anyone there would be some friction and eventually the group split across the community.

A majority of the active players went into a new group you all know and remember as the Crows, a somewhat tighter group of players often playing together and facing the community with their -CROW- tagged ships.  However there was still a small number of players not entirely satisfied - it was fun but not "quite there yet".    Eventually the Crows split as well;- and AquaMac and Skrimskraw decided it was probably best to form a small team of players in an invite-only "clan" finetuned only to accept the mature;- loyal and insightful players.   This is when the Corvus Marauders were founded.

Today Corvus is a group;- not a clan - consisting of just two ships hosting 8 players with 4 substitutes.  We're too small to really call ourselves a clan but we can fill two ships and we're oriented merely around being able to compete in a 2v2 format. 

Some of us in Corvus are married;- in our 30s or even 40s;- some of us are a parent so it was bound we would find one another and get along well.  We are friends first;- but friends that share the passion of playing effective and co-operative.

What does Corvus do?

At time of writing we have recently abandoned the community event called "Cogs Scrimmages" and decided we would go our own way and chase our own ideals in our search for a semi competitive playing experience.

We're currently working hard to structure ourselves and gave each other somewhat specific tasks to contribute to our amazing group of people - examples of such are officially crowning AquaMac to be the primary and only leader of Corvus;- Skrimskraw to be in charge of arranging and scheduling friendly scrimmages with other Team captains and Grayknight who is more than happy to work on our own website;- forum and news feed.  (And I'm just the one in charge of cackling on about how awesome we are).

So that's our current ambition - we're an invite-only group that doesn't take applications and currently has no plans to become an actual clan and we wish to be a group other teams can always approach to schedule a friendly war, a competitive scrimmage or a practice session.  We are also more than happy to be useful practice to you so you can participate in events such as the Cogs with an idea of how well your build works in competitive play.

Contrary to what I've felt people have thought about us we are very reasonable people with a healthy look on things and a positive attitude.  We want to stress out that we are all about fun;- and even competitive play should be fun and have all the room for some improvisation and democracy.

The people that make Corvus happen

Our current roster, not including "friendly connections"  that can sub for us; the people officially a member of Corvus are:

Main ship 1:

Pilot: AquaMac
Gunner: Phoebe
Engineer : SushiDemon
Engineer : Grayknight

Main ship 2:

Pilot: Skrimskraw
Gunner: Vetta
Engineer: Mattilald Anguisad
Engineer: CFG

Substitutes:

Count Havelock
Natar Ravenclaw
PhatGuySebb
HumanDuracell

Sounds cool, how do I contact?

You will be able to contact us in various ways in the future when our forum and e-mails are set but you can currently contact the following people in-game; on the forum or through steam:

- Questions about Scrimmages; setting up or scheduling friendly games:   Skrimskraw  (Steam: Skrimskraw)
- Questions about Corvus as a group, issues you have with a player of Corvus: Phoebe (Steam: Tushy)
- Website related questions: Grayknight (Steam: Grayknight)
- Anything else: AquaMac (Steam: AquaMac)

Note: Asking me about the website, AquaMac about scrimmages or complain to Grayknight about SushiDemon will most likely mean you will be forwarded to the right person.

Our ideal as a group within the community of Guns of Icarus Online

We often play at random intervals where we are unable to fill a ship;- yet we always make sure we fly one and represent Corvus.   This means we don't really gun and engineer for others;- but we do let people join our ship(s).

We are very "newbie" friendly and try our best to explain them how the game works and think we are generally likeable in this sense.  We've made a lot of friends and help them get started on our ships because we are naturally always trying to improve ourselves and express this in a friendly way to people who might not be as knowledgeable as we are.

We want to be and try to be an active participant in the community of Guns of Icarus Online and do not want to alienate ourselves or seperate ourselves from the greater majority.  Our recent withdrawal from the Cogs Community event might confuse people in that sense;- but we believe we're only coming out of it stronger and more able to freely schedule and interact with the community at our pace and comfort.

We are opiniated and will sometimes try to voice thoughts constructively even if these thoughts are negative because we feel it's important to be honest and open to one another.  We respect every team out there as much as we hope to be respected by others and hopefully this goes both ways.

In closing

Aaaaand that's basically us;- what Corvus used to be and how we came to exist - what we are today and what we hope to be in the future.   

 I will be using this topic as a temporary news feed on how we're doing, who we're playing and generally just what's happening around our small group so do check once in awhile if you're interested and feel free to leave feedback on us - positive and negative is appreciated all the same!

A big thanks to everyone from all the players of Corvus for being a wonderful community that is passionate as we are about this game and it's team spirit and we hope this topic will bring us even closer.

And as always : See you in the skies!

- Corvus Marauders

3

Guides / The Lumberjack Part 1 : Piloting a Lumberjack

« on: April 06, 2013, 08:09:29 am »

Alright; so you want to Pilot a Lumberjack. 

First of all;- I'm really bad at guides.

Look at this post as a Phoebe's Perspective Post and not as an absolute guideline to how the Lumberjack should be used.


1. Before the match

First determine which ship you're going to use that can hold a Lumberjack.  The only ships that can are the Goldfish; Galleon and Spire.  Which map and enemy ship selections should have an impact on your choice.  I would generally recommend:

- Only use a "Lumberfish" if the Enemy takes a Spire or Galleon and you plan on scoring all your points against that ship; and that ship only.  Against a spire - just keep the lumberjack aimed steady at it and it will explode without the need to get it bouncing.  Galleons will likely drop and bounce a little before they are destroyed;- you can speed the process of kills up if you take a light flak with Charged ammo to use after your Lumberjack finished a clip on a bouncing Galleon.  They can bounce a long time if they have a full-time engineer on both hull and balloon;- so the light flak will make sure a single engineer on the hull is no longer enough to survive.  *if your team ship is nearby;- just keep using the Lumberjack to bounce the Galleon;- it will explode eventually;- but your team ship can easily finish it off while you make sure it can't recover.

Do not use "Lumberfishes" against other ships;- and try to avoid them if they are paired with a Spire or Galleon.

- Only use a Spire with a Lumberjack on Duel at Dawn or Fjords.  A Lumberjack Spire really has no buisness out in the open where it's just going to get destroyed by pretty much every other ship loadout.  On Fjords;- make sure you have spots but lose your own spots in the clouds.  Don't fly too high - just barely out of vision;- and use the long range available to you to support your team ship.   The only argument for using a Spire on Duel at Dawn is the improved control against the winds. 

- In almost all other situations;- use Lumberjacks on the port side of a Galleon with a mercury on top;- either a single Lumberjack with a Typhon or double Lumberjacks.   You *can* put a hwacha next to it;- but since you are going to play a role of Area Denial;- the hwacha won't come into action unless the enemy is carelessly flying in your apocalyptic zone of destruction.  Two Lumberjacks would almost always be better than a Hwacha next to one;- because destroying a ship that tries to get close is a lot more efficient than taking down their guns if they succeed to do so.  The typhon is there to brutally finish ships off at medium ranges;- something the Hwacha can't do and the Lumberjack is slightly less efficient at once Hull armor and Balloon are down.

2. The properties of a Lumberjack : What Pilots need to know.

Some bullet points you really really have to know and respect about Lumberjacks - each of these equally as important.

- The Lumberjack has an arming time of .8 seconds;- which means it will only do primary damage if the projectile takes longer than that to hit an enemy ship.   This translates to "Close is bad."  - You want the secundary damage to kick in.
      * If an enemy ship approaches you;- start full reversing very early to extend the time in which you have the advantage of                           distance.
      * If an enemy ship is in your face; don't keep your Lumber aimed at it.  Either point your other guns at it or simply flee and take cover at your team ship. It's pointless.  Just fleeing and gaining distance again or trying to shake them off is often the best choice.
      * Advise the Gunner to take ammo which allows them to play a little with projectile speeds to deal with distance issues.  (IE: Greased and Heavy short, Lesmok long)

- The lumberjack has a tiny downward angle; but a massive if not the biggest upward angle out of any other gun. It is a mortar after all.

      * This is very important to know.  You can still hit almost every ship if you are far below; hugging the ground - even if they are almost above you.  You lose gunner range on ships if you fly too high above however.  You can actually go very low to increase the distance and let the arming time kick in easier as an alternative tactic.  Just beware of carronades.
      * The lumberjack has massive arched shots.  The lower you fly;- the easier it is for your gunner to hit the target.  If you fly equally as high as a ship that is moving;- chances are your gunner will miss entire clips.  If you fly about 5 ship lengths below;- it gets gradually easier for them to hit in the exact same situation.

Why is this?

If you fly on equal level of the ship you are trying to hit;- the Lumberjack has to shoot straight ahead.   Now;- I don't know if you ever played any of the Worms games - but this gives the projectile a medium arch and starts descending very rapidly.  The gunner has to aim much higher than the ship to actually hit the target at larger distances;- and this can be very difficult - a tiny mouse movement can cause entire clips to start missing instead of hitting.

If you fly very low however;- the Lumberjack naturally already has to aim at a higher angle.  This flings the Projectile at a much greater arch;- almost straight up;- and due to gravity it will not start descending until it reaches a maximum height.  This allows the gunner to point pretty much at the ship itself and still hit - or only slightly above it at massive ranges.

Not sure if you're still with me.  Just remember :  Fly higher than target = Alright at distance.  Terrible close.  Fly equal = bad in every situation.  Fly a lot lower than target = excellent.

- The Lumberjack reacts extremely violent to ship movement.

   * If you are turning to a target;- don't counter steer until you're almost pointing at the ship directly.  If you counter steer continuesly;- the tiny ship movement will translate to the projectiles coming out of the Lumberjack;- and the first clip will just fly off in every direction based on which countersteer movement you're doing.  Just stop steering a single time;- and then counter steer very lightly to bring the turning accelerations to a complete stop;- then don't touch the turning engines at ALL unless your lumberjack completely loses firing range.
   * Once you set up a good camp to shoot at an enemy ship that is not firing back or posing an immediate threat - always cancel all throttle and try to come to a complete dead stop.  Don't keep traveling.

- The Lumberjack doesn't have a large cone of effect.

    * If your Lumberjack gunner isn't firing for a while and he or she doesn't communicate;- doublecheck your linings to make sure you're actually pointing it at the enemy ship.  It has a nasty small cone.  More experience with this gun will allow you to easier determine when your ship needs to turn.


3. Some additional features of the Lumberjack you might find interesting. 

- The Lumberjack;- if gunned by someone who hits with it, will always win against Mercuries.
- The Lumberjack destroys pretty much every balloon in two hits regardless of where you hit;- and will often destroy hull armor on the third or fourth successive hit. *At the same time*  This makes it a Hellhound Carronade for larger distances with an inbuilt Gatling gun.  Sounds powerful enough?
- The Lumberjack can kill a Spire in a single Burst Round clip (7 shots)  if their Engineer isn't quick enough.  It will almost surely kill a Spire in two clips even if one Engineer is fulltime on the Hull.  Yes;- this means from full health/spawn down to exploding.


Alright I'll add a Gunner part sometime later this week;- where I'll talk about my perspective on which Ammo to use; which aim angles to use;- how to use the map to aid your aiming, etcetera.  This was just for pilots.

4

Community Events / "Gold Rush" Event game tonight (Saturday 31st) Sign up here

« on: March 31, 2013, 12:01:13 pm »

Hey guys;

I designed a small one-lobby event called Gold Rush for some casual fun.  This is played on Canyon Ambush.

We're playing tonight, 22:30 CET (21:30 GMT)

You can sign up here.  Password to the game will be given out to people when the lobby is created about 20-15 minutes before.

What is the objective in "Gold Rush" -

-- One captain chooses a Goldfish.  This captain is also the referee for the current round.
   The Goldfish flies around on one side of the map.  He can not enter the canyons under any circumstance.
-- Three captains choose a Squid.  They start on the other side of the map.  Their objective is to be the first to ram the Goldfish.
   When the Goldfish has been rammed;- that squid scores a point.  The goldfish let's the enemy squid(s) kill it so it respawns
   on the other side again; and so the round can end from kills at some point.  Obviously the squid on the same team as           
   the Goldfish can't do this;- but kill count does not matter.

The squid that scored the most points;- which the Goldfish referee is keeping track of;- will win the round.  The round ends naturally from Goldfish kills to reset it's position.

Rounds are expected to go very quick and somewhat chaotic.  Being playful and creative is encouraged.

RULES:

Goldfish:

- The goldfish may not attack an enemy squid.  They may only try to flee and keep them from ramming.
- The goldfish captain may use any tool they desire;- except Tar; since it hurts the squids.
- The goldfish may hide.  But they are entirely prohibited from entering the Canyons.
- The goldfish crew must consist of 1 captain and 3 engineers.  The engineers are there to help referee;- and to repair the goldfish engines etc. from helm tool useage. 
- After the goldfish has been rammed; and an enemy squid has scored a point - engineers do not repair; so the goldfish can be killed quickly to reset the round.
- After the Goldfish has been killed to reset the round;- he and the ramming squid confirm who scored the point;- and lets the squids know when he is in position again on one end of the map;- and which end this is.

Squids:

- The squids may not use any guns to attack other squids.  Each squid should have 3 engineers.  Flare guns are allowed.
- Squids may use Tar to bother the other squids in the race.
- Squids may use any other helm tool that might be useful at their discretion.
- Squids may decide to simply race to the goldfish;- or to ram the other squids to keep them from doing so.
- Squids can use any path they wish through the Canyons.
- The squid captain that rams the goldfish lets everyone know through Regional chat;- the Goldfish has to confirm it.


After a round has ended and a winning squid emerged;- another crew and captain take on the role of the Goldfish;- and the crews can swap captains for the next round so other people get a chance of doing more constructive things than just repairing engines and such.

If the event does not reach a full sign up;- we'll reschedule with some more time.


Sign up by posting here.   Be online ahead of time so I can get you into the passworded lobby called "Gold Rush"

SIGNUPS:

Ship 1  :  Phoebe, MasX, ,
Ship 2  :  , , ,
Ship 3  :  , , ,
Ship 4  :  , , ,

unknown ship:  Mattisamo

5

The Docks / I am looking to gun(gineer) a cogs ship

« on: March 31, 2013, 09:07:31 am »

Hi;

I am looking for a crew with captain that more or less already has the same people playing everytime;

I've been floating around playing with and against a lot of different people who play in cog teams but I want to start learning and getting used to playing with the same crew a lot and ideally start participating in the cogs as well as a main gunner/gungineer

I am not competitive spirited but I do want to play serious, and I think I'm pretty decent

I should note that I have at least 30 hours of guntime with lumberjacks and I think it's an amazing weapon; but I can handle every gun in it's niche and know the ammo types to bring and the situations in which they should be used

I am submissive

6

The Lounge / Just a joke.

« on: March 22, 2013, 10:16:11 pm »

Three ducks were brought to court. The guard asked the first duck what its name was and why it was there.

The duck answered, "My name is Quack and I was blowing bubbles."

The guard looked confused but moved on to the next duck, asking the same question.

"My name is Quack Quack and I was blowing bubbles."

When the third and last duck walked up the guard said, "Let me guess, you're name is Quack Quack Quack and you were blowing bubbles."

The last duck answered calmly, "Nope, my name is Bubbles."




I hope he appreciates the humor; else I'm in trouble.

If you don't see me again;- the third duck fired me.

7

Website and Forum Issues / Are your Class Ranks not displaying properly?

« on: March 22, 2013, 09:59:19 pm »

Hello;

There's been questions about the ranks not showing their properly updated values on peoples profiles here on the forum.

While this issue has actually been fixed;- and the ranks are now immediately substracted in-game and updated shortly after ranking up - it will not (yet) show the rank on your profile unless you relog on the forum.

So as a (maybe temporary) fix for people who are set to stay logged in on revisits;- you can log out and log in again to update your rank status.

Phoebe

8

The Gallery / This is a story

« on: March 09, 2013, 03:40:58 pm »

Now I just need someone to sing it and record it:

Now this is a story all about how;
Their squid got flipped; turned upside down
I'd like to take a minute just float right there -
I'll tell you how to win these battles cruisin' mid-air.

With a crew on my Galleon that I nursed and raised;
On the dunes  is where I spent most of my days.
Chillin' out, floatin', cruisin' all cool,
Once in a while shootin' some fools.

When a couple of Squids who were up to no good,
Started makin' trouble over worthless loot.
I got in one little fight; my crew got scared!
I said, "Man these guns and take back the air!"

I turned towards the Squid, and when it came near,
The license plate said "Shoot Me" and I saw Bubbles in my mirror
If anything I could say that this man was rare,
But I thought "Forget it; our airspace is not for share!"

My crew fired at the squid about seven; eight times
and I yelled to the Engie "Gonna ram; hold tight!"
Looked at the explosion; I was finally there...
To sit proud at the helm;- waiting for the next to dare..

9

General Discussion / Details on spotting

« on: March 09, 2013, 09:08:30 am »

Hi 

Could someone educate me a bit better on how spotting and shaking exactly works?

Sometimes it works just fine; sometimes it just does not; so I am really starting to wonder what the general rules for spots and shakes are - perhaps people could start off helping me by answering these questions:

1)  Is there a minimum or maximum range at which I can spot ships in conjunction with the zoom level while spotting?

Why I ask :  Sometimes I can spot ships without even zooming at all;- just clicking on the ship in the distance and it'll register at spotted.  Other times I am zoomed in on a ship and it won't spot for the life of me no matter where I'm pointing while clicking.

2) Is there a known bug which prevents someone from succesfully placing a spot?

Why I ask : Like above; often a ship is within 500-600m and no matter what I try it just won't spot.  Just clicking the ship;- zooming on it first; trying various zoom levels; aiming for every component on the ship before clicking - nada.

3) When can you spot other ships in (dust)clouds?

Why I ask : Often my crew seems to spot ships just fine in clouds;- but I for the life of me can't seem to do it.  I play on pretty low graphics so my clouds are a bit thicker and less transculent;- but even if the ship is in vision I can't spot them.  Is there a trick to spotting ships that are in clouds?

4) If the vision ships is partially obstructed; can you still spot them?

Why I ask : I have a lot of trouble spotting a ship if for instance the front end of my own crews ship is only just slightly covering vision;- or their front end is just barely behind an object.  Pretty much their entire ship is fully clear in vision but even close range I can't seem to get a spot on it.

5) When do you have a succesful shake?

Why I ask : Often when I'm flying my squid I just try to shake them in clouds; but the open eye never dissapears.  Most noteable on dunes when I dissappear fully into dust clouds and exit the other end my ship will have suffered damage but I just haven't managed to lose the spot on my ship.

6) Any additional information

Why I ask :  If you have any other things or rules to spotting and shaking I would really appreciate all that information ;- helpful tips or issues you know about

Thank in advance!