Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Fellow Ex-Gunners Of Icarus Lend Me Your Ears!

« on: June 01, 2013, 09:54:21 pm »

1. Give Gunners Priority over weapons.
2. Take away special ammo types from other classes.
3. Make Gunners shoot weapons more accurately than other classes. (a bigger modification than the rest)

2

Gameplay / Re: SHIPS Balance Questions and Concerns v1.2

« on: June 01, 2013, 04:09:08 pm »

The poor Spire, I know I tend to target them when they are on the battlefield. I think they need to be able to turn on a dime. They aren't really streamlined to be fast, but they should be able to turn like nobodies business. This way as ships have to physically steer their ships around it, it can just spin in place and keep firing. I think also possibly giving it another medium gun wouldn't be game breaking. Whereas the galleon is the slow heavily armored weapons platform, the spire could be the lighter more agile weapons platform. It would take up more of a damage dealing support role, not going directly into the fray, but dealing out damage from a stationary position while a teammate chases to finish them off.

3

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: My 25 hour experience with the game

« on: June 01, 2013, 04:03:06 pm »

4. Kicking people off guns
Captains can kick people off the helm. I just think the gunner should be able to kick other guys off guns. Which makes sense, right?

I actually agree with this, I think this would help make the gunner class more desirable. Obviously the gunner would not be able to kick other gunners. Right now why not roll with 3 engineers they each get an ammo type, and they shoot just the same. Giving the gunner priority on the guns, not only makes sense, but will hopefully push people to be gunners if they want to gun rather than be engineers.

5. Damage indicators
They can be pretty vague at times and I'll sometimes have no idea how much damage I'm doing. I can assume I'm doing a lot of damage if I see really big hit indicators, but sometimes it feels as if my crew has been pummeling a ship for so long it's a wonder they're still flying.

On option to turn on damage numbers and numerical health indicators on subsystems somewhere would be nice.

As far as damage to a ship, when you start to really damage a ship, you can physically see the ship coming apart. Beams start to bend and buckle, the hull starts to look battered.  I think the damage indicators are fine as they are, they are just to help you know if you hit or not. Personally I would like the option to turn them off, I like to be able to see the components of the ship that I'm firing at.

4

Gameplay / Re: GUNS Balance Questions and Concerns v1.2

« on: June 01, 2013, 03:54:24 pm »

You guys really ask for it sometimes don't you? We also know where this argument goes, therefore I'll simply say gunners are not useless on any ship.

Well of course the gunners are never useless, they fill their niche. But I think currently it does seem that for many ships the 1 captain 3 engineer load out is simply better. With engineer being able to have one type of special type of ammo, there really aren't that many benefits to being a gunner. The gunner does have the advantage of being able to change ammo given the situation, however this rarely as valuable as having an individual engineer for the balloon, hull, and guns. When a your ship gets hit with a good hwacha barrage, having that extra engineer to help get everything back online is nice. I don't want to start a flame war here, this is simply constructive criticism from personal experience.

5

Gameplay / Re: GUNS Balance Questions and Concerns v1.2

« on: May 31, 2013, 08:40:52 pm »

Part of this game is adapting to what your opponent brings but to be honest there hasn't been much purpose for a gunner regardless on my Junker for a while.

Don't forget that a Junker excels at dodging. Chute vent, buffed balloon or kerosene easily allow you to dodge most of the hwacha at range. Assuming you have a chaingun on your broadside, any chaingunner worth their salt will shoot out the manticore before it gets close enough to cripple you.  As for ambushing, it doesn't really matter what they're shooting with if you let them sneak up behind you; giving any opponent that much advantage is usually a death.sentence.

Disabling weapons are always the toughest to deal with when you're new since it's rare for new pilots to have a crew organized enough to quickly deal with it.

Our pilot is pretty good for how new he is. It seems as though we will just need to practice disabling the Hwachas ASAP, like you said adaptation is key. I think if we can get killing Hwachas down, then we will be a force to be reckoned with. I'll also have to convince the gunners in the group I play with, that they need to look into putting down the guns, and picking up a wrench.

6

Gameplay / Re: GUNS Balance Questions and Concerns v1.2

« on: May 31, 2013, 08:05:43 pm »

I have never had a problem beating a team with a Hwacha fish.

They lack a lot of dps.  Often I'll just outright ignore it and team up against their teammate.  They may disable one ship momentarily but heir teammate will be dead before they reload and my engineers (always bring three with spanners against a good hwacha opponent) will already have guns up and firing for a 2v1.

Alternatively in a 1v1 tell your Artemis/Mercury/Gat gunner to shoot out the Hwacha; by the time it shows up for the ram it'll be getting shredded to pieces and defenseless

In a 2v1 scenario, you are right that is not a problem. But let's say I don't have a good team mate, which happens from time to time. 1v1 is a different animal. Given plenty of time yes, you are right we have a Merc on the front of our Junkers, and we can usually take it out if they try and play chicken. But if the Goldfish captain has any sense, he won't do that, he wants to go for max damage and hit us in the rear for engines, or sides for guns. Ambush for the ram. I suppose 3 engineers might have to do the trick. However it is kind of sad, that simply because an opponent has a Hwacha (and if they can they will) that Gunners pretty much become useless.

7

Feedback and Suggestions / Hitting up Cons for cheap advertising/ POSTER COMPETITION?!

« on: May 31, 2013, 06:17:19 pm »

I love this game, and I can't wait to see what is released next. I play with several people online, and out of about 30, I've got about 10 of them playing now.
But regardless, I would like to see your game succeed, and I've been thinking of ways to help out.

One source of good publicity/ cheap advertising would be to put up flyers or have a table at Steampunk cons. I'm sure you are aware that these cons are all over the place. Here is a link with a list of some.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/01/steampunk-cons-2012

I think it would be a shame if your game wasn't exposed as much as it could be to a chunk of your target audience.

If the mods and the community are interested, how about a little competition.

Come up with an awesome poster/flyer design that best showcases what would draw steampunk fans to the game. Post it on the forums, and let the online army take them to cons.

8

Gameplay / Re: Echidna vs. Scylla

« on: May 31, 2013, 05:52:43 pm »

Yah I think that neither are really superior. Currently I am piloting a Junker. And the two main loadouts so far that I have used are Carronade/Scylla and Gat/Echidna. Each of them are good, Scylla is really good for up close and personal damage. When going against light/med ships this is a great loadout because it's unrelenting and doesn't allow them to escape easily. The Scyllla once you get used to the arc, is a dps machine.

Now when going up against heavy ships or hwacha heavy ships, the gat/echidna loadout is better. When you need to keep a little distance to keep the heavy weapons from ruining your day, the echidna is good for dealing heavy damage while being able to approach from odd angles and distances. The only downside being if you get rammed or hwacha rammed you will be wishing you had your Scylla.

9

Gameplay / Re: GUNS Balance Questions and Concerns v1.2

« on: May 31, 2013, 05:37:15 pm »

Yah, one thing I keep seeing over and over again that is becoming a problem are goldfish with hwachas on the front. So many matches I play, goldfish just charge straight at you, hit with hwachas to cripple you and then ram for hull damage. If they are using any kind of teamwork, the other teammate just hits you with some kind of hull damage/armor penetrating combo. This hwacha/ramming combo to completely disable a ship is just getting old, i could possibly see it as a last ditch effort, but no, it's become a main strategy. Especially paired with the goldfish, because it is kind of the medium ship, it can out speed most ships so avoiding it is nigh impossible. And even if you were to try and maneuver, if they get any where near you, your finished because hwacha disables everything in one shot. All of your engines or an entire side of you ships guns.

Enough ranting.

Hwacha needs to be balanced, there is a reason just about every ship that has heavy weapons is laden with them.
Perhaps less splash damage, could help, so that the entire side of your ship or all of your engines don't get knocked out immediately unless the rockets actually hit these things.

10

Gameplay / Re: MAPS Balance Questions and Concerns v1.2

« on: May 30, 2013, 01:06:42 pm »

Balance on KOTH maps seems difficult. While I like the idea of moving points, it would slide the map in the favor of maneuverable ships. Sedentary points I think shift the map in favor of heavy ships with heavy guns. I think the best idea might simply be to put a timer on the map, and leaving the points stay where they are. Fast ships would get a bit of an advantage first, being able to get to the points faster and get some points in before the heavies arrive. But once the heavies arrive, they would get the advantage of firepower. Tweak the points to be a smaller area, so that it's not so easy for both ships to camp in a good spot. And you have a recipe for a fairly well balanced game. This may also persuade teams to mix the types of ships up, so that you have a fast ship for early game, and a heavy for mid-late game.

11

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Naval Rams

« on: May 30, 2013, 12:58:20 pm »

Here.

Ahhh I see, melee weapons, i suppose that is one way of putting it. Sorry for a re-post, i'll try to read more in depth next time.

12

Feedback and Suggestions / Naval Rams

« on: May 29, 2013, 08:54:30 pm »

Ramming seems to be a tactic implemented by many people. It is a high risk vs. reward tactic, but that is what makes it so fun.
So would it be possible to implement different types of naval rams as weapons/addons.

A historical reference. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_ram

These could be made in many different shapes and styles depending on what kind of damage, and how much damage you would want to do.
Obviously there would have to be a downside, so very large rams would slow your ship down, or make it difficult to maneuver. Smaller rams wouldn't do much damage to hulls, but perhaps are sharp and could puncture balloons. There are many things that could be done, and I think the dev teams artistic talent are up to it.