Topics

61

Feedback and Suggestions / Heavy weapon: Skeet Cannon

« on: April 29, 2016, 04:44:25 pm »

I briefly head something on the fireside about a dual mode gun suggested. I am not sure exactly what it was, but this is my take on it.

You have a large skeet thrower that flings large disks. They are somewhat like unarmed mines in a disc shape, but with a more flat flight arc (like a Frisbee). They do little to no damage if they hit a target. The secondary of the weapon is a small accurate shotgun that also does little damage to a target, likely a bit of piercing and fire, with a good chance of starting fires. However, if the light gun hits the large skeet, it creates a spectacular explosion that damages all ships around it.

The small gun would use piercing incendiary slugs to penetrate and ignite/trigger the target disc.

Other guns that have piercing and fire starting abilities would also trigger the explosion. This would include Hades by default, and Gatling or Merc with incendiary rounds. This would add an interesting, even higher skill effect since the skeet would actually fly further than its onboard gun could shoot. You could fire a disk, then shoot it down with incend Merc. Or, if you are unlucky, it could be shot by an enemy just as it launches with incendairy Gat and explode your own ship.

It effect, this would be a high skill, high risk, high reward large version of the mine launcher.

62

Feedback and Suggestions / King of the Wandering Hill: game mode

« on: April 07, 2016, 06:16:04 pm »

I saw a review for the new Doom game, and it had something that might be pretty cool in Guns. The hill moved, but not instantly to a new place. Rather, the hill wandered on a set path (at least I think it was set).

So, the setup is this: Grab an escape balloon from Alliance, and set it on a path on whatever maps. Give it a 'capture' radius like the current point balloons. Let it go. It would then follow the path with players having to stick with it to capture/keep the enemy from capturing. Like the current KotH, you would have to remove collision on the balloon or give it a zillion weight so it could not be knocked off course.

This would add the interesting aspect of constantly having to reposition while tracking the blimp, or setting up ambushes and letting the enemy come to you.

63

Feedback and Suggestions / New Heavy Weapon

« on: April 04, 2016, 02:46:45 pm »

Sans the safety guard.

Maybe replacing the drill on the Kraken heavy harpoon gun.

64

General Discussion / Is this how the Hades works?

« on: April 02, 2016, 08:08:54 pm »

If so, I am even more in love with it.

65

The Pit / Salt

« on: March 19, 2016, 12:17:55 pm »

Don't let Salt sneak into your food or your favorite games.

66

Feedback and Suggestions / Open Testing Tuesdays

« on: March 19, 2016, 09:58:26 am »

In a game I used to write for, we used to have community wide testing directly in the game on certain days. This gave a much needed broader sample base. The next day, all changes were reverted and feedback was collected. Sometimes we made some big, silly, crazy overpowered changes just for fun as well.

Since balance changes are all happening serverside and no client update is needed, what does everyone think of having a day like this once a week/bi-weekly/monthly?

67

Feedback and Suggestions / Pilot tool: Tonic

« on: March 19, 2016, 12:06:33 am »

Feeling low and just don't have the stamina you used to? Can't quite bend that gun to yer will? Ship just ain't feelin' like she used to?

Quaff a tonic for all that ails ye! One gulp of LeMoon's Miracle Tonic will have you feeling like your old refreshed self again! Buy one now for a better you today!

Drinking tonic definitely has not be absolutely proven to cause mild to full hair or skin loss, loss of hearing and sometimes ears, hair growth on souls of feet or tongue, bad body odor, intensely bad body odor, toxic to others body odor, metal dissolving body odor, green tint to skin, blue tint to green skin, black tint to blueish-green skin, partial blindness, full blindness, melting eyes, eyes that fall out after growing spider legs and skitter away, loss of lower teeth due to loss of lower jaw, visions of dancing worms, actual dancing worms bursting from your chest, growth of extra toes, loss of current toes followed by loss of extra toes, sudden explosion or combustion of remaining blackish-blueish-green skin and or hair, festering boils, warts, warts on the festering boils, loss of appetite after consuming your crew, coughing, followed by loss of lungs through gaping hairy mouth hole, and mild sneezing.

68

Feedback and Suggestions / Hard and soft points vs Impact.

« on: March 06, 2016, 04:15:34 pm »

Suggestion is simple.

All ships would be given hitbox modifiers verses Impact damage. This would make some sections of a ship more or less susceptible to ramming. Possibly mines and Minotaur.

Pyramidian-  strong front and top with weaker sides.

Goldfish- weak sides and tail.

Mobula- strong center.

Spire- Strong everywhere except a small area from the pilot up to the balloon. Extra weak there.

Galleon- strong everywhere.

Squid- Normal on the front of the balloon, weak everywhere else.

Junker- Strong balloon front, normal engine column, weak everywhere else.

69

Feedback and Suggestions / New gun class and mount type: Ball turrets

« on: December 19, 2015, 02:38:53 pm »

This idea is for either completely new ships, or modified current ships (though only a few would apply).

The idea is to introduce a completely new class of guns and mounts based around WWII era ball turrets. The guns themselves could have the same stats (other than arcs and moment) of light or heavy guns, depending on if there would be more than one class of turret.

One unique aspect of these guns is that they all have a 360 degree relative horizontal arc, meaning they can rotate completely around their axis. A second unique aspect is that they can be placed in any orientation on the ship, top, bottom, or any side, including any angle. The vertical arcs would be limited by relative positioning of the turret, and would always have near 0 degrees negative arc. Each gun would have its own positive vertical limit. The combination of these would create a lot of possibilities.



As illistrated here, different guns would have different abilities. A gun with 'full' range of motion would be able to shoot at anything in one direction with no limits. Guns with this level of motion would have to be substantially weaker than other types. They can be placed on any mount and have great arcs.

'Lifted' and 'Flat' arc guns would be more powerful, but have more limited use. Most guns would likely fall into the 'Flat' range of motion.

70

The Gallery / Steampunk airship Tree ornament.

« on: December 19, 2015, 12:46:50 pm »

This is not my video. It is from I guy I am subbed to on his 'Lost Wax' channel. I thought some of the more creative folks here might like to make this cute little ornament, or adapt his techniques to make their own GOIO version.

(cleek imaje for video)


Pattern page

71

Feedback and Suggestions / Aiming marks on Galleon (ode to the sky tour pilot)

« on: November 25, 2015, 08:23:10 pm »

Cue the minstrel music....


The day was new and the sky grew bright.

Excitement filled me to the brim.

I was to have my first mission since a fortnight

But low, boarding the ship, I saw him.

Hair a ruffled, clothes unkempt, a blank stare upon his eye.

Our pilot, our captain, this young bit of scruff

Who put this boy on the helm?

He carried a spyglass in one hand and in the other a buff.

Has insanity fell on this realm?

And what shall we be flying, oh captain of mine?

A Pyramidian, Goldfish, our something of ease?

A Galleon, he says without waste of words or time.

He needs not speak to folks such as these.

We take to the skies with resigned hearts.

We know this battle will likely be our last.

Our fellow ships fly North to the fray, while to the South our pilot departs.

Our pleads fall to deaf ears as he decides to climb the mast.

Minutes or hours pass, we could not tell.

Our intrepid helmsman finally joins the fleet.

Alas, oh alas, we found a fresh hell

This was the fate we expected to meet.

Onward we fly at the foes, straight as an arrow.

'GET RECKED" he shouts in a smug little quip.

Charging with the confidence of a bull, but the brains of a sparrow

He does not know the guns are on the side of the ship.

The splinters fly.

The engines cry.

The ships all die.

We all know why.

It is the fault of the Sky Tour Pilot.


Serious suggestion:

Place aiming marks on the side of the Galleon for easy reference. Paint marks, chalk, pegs, cross-hair stuck in the railing anything to help new pilots instinctively line enemies up with actual guns.

72

Feedback and Suggestions / The Case for Falloff Damage and a Third Damage Type

« on: November 15, 2015, 12:00:20 pm »

The guns in this game are terrifying in power and range. If every shot hit every time, the damage would be insane. This brings in a certain problem we are all very familiar with. In order to 'balance' the high damage, they have made the guns hard to hit with. The guns with the most damage potential have been given such a high amount of spread that no amount of skill can compensate. Heavy clip broke this, and had to be nerfed to compensate.

This removes much of the fun factor, especially for new players that don't understand why they are missing. It is also irritating for those of us that know exactly why we are missing.

This proposal seeks to solve this issue by revisiting falloff damage, as well as introducing a third damage type on each gun. It would also allow the reintroduction of 100% jitter reduction Heavy clip for all your lazer Hwatch needs.

So, lets start with the obvious question. Why a third damage type? As of now, we have two damage types: Primary and Secondary. Secondary has both burst (Area of Effect) and Arming (activates after n range). This adds the ability to make guns devastating at range, but not very dangerous up close. This adds a lot of countering abilities. Get close and don't worry. My initial idea was to add falloff time to secondary to reduce the effective range of a gun, but that does not make a lot of sense to guns that are already disadvantaged by Arming Time. After some thought, I wondered how it would work to put the falloff on the Primary. Again, this did not make much sense, would be seen as a nerf, and would not add any improvements to the game. Finally, I wondered about simply adding in a third damage type that would be effected by the falloff damage. Suddenly, interesting possibilities started presenting themselves. Let's explore those possibilities.

For starters, reducing the damage of a gun at range allows the removal of some spread, increased velocity, causing higher hit rates. In other words, more fun. It is never fun to not hit your target. It is much more fun to hit your target, even if you are not causing as much damage. This was the basic benefit I was looking for when proposing Falloff. Putting it on a third, independent damage adds extra benefits well beyond that initial goal. In some cases, it could turn the meta game on its head.

Some examples are in order.

We can start with the black sheep of close range heavy guns: The Typhon Heavy Flak. Close range, this gun is a joke. Flakfish are seen as the weakest Goldfish build. Direct damage, 150 Explosive. Burst damage, 180 Explosive with crippling arming time of 300 meters. What happens when you add in a third damage type? Falloff: 100 Piercing (just as an example), falloff range of 290m. Before the shell arms, it is just a big, heavy bullet. This would give it different properties than an exploding shell, closer to a Merc or Gatling. Suddenly, a flak on a Goldfish is much more dangerous, but still requires strategy and skill to fly other than just trying to run away.

Moving on to another gun, this time one that suffered a spate of range and spread nerfs: Hellhound Heavy Carronade. The idea here is to remove a lot of the spread (and bring back heavy clip), increase the range substantially, and split the primary flechette between Direct and Falloff with a falloff range of 300-400meters. Starting to drool yet? Let's continue.

Manticore Heavy Hwatcha. How can this gun be improved through falloff? A primary improvement would be the reintroduction of Heavy clip providing laser missiles, but with the trade off of shifting some damage to falloff. The further a rocket flies, the less fuel it has, and the less boom it makes. Arguments could be made on whether the Explosive direct or Shatter burst damage should be divided. Personally, I would cut the Shatter and move 25% or so to falloff. I would also add arming time to Burst of 100 meters or less.

Whirwind Gatling: I pondered giving this the same treatment as the Hellhound, but thought we could mix it up a bit. Leave the other damage types alone, and put Fire damage on Falloff with a range of 30meters or less. The reasoning is that hot bullets, muzzle flash, and fresh tracers would cause fires at very close range.

Flamethrower would receive much needed balance, splitting the damage and causing much more fire damage close up than further away. I would set the falloff to 75 meters.

An interesting thing that could be done to the Lumberjack would be to add a small amount of Impact damage and a small push like mines and the Minotaur.

Speaking of the Minotaur, add a good deal of Impact damage up close.

Each gun can find a new balance between ease of use and damage, or interesting strategies based on new abilities. The downside, of course, is finding the right balance. Though I don't think that would as large an issue as trying to balance the guns with just the two damage types.

Finally, old and new ammo types can be designed to effect falloff damage, extending, reducing, or eliminating it. Lochnagar, for example, would reduce the range or remove falloff damage completely. Other ammos could remove Burst and reduce Direct damage while removing the falloff limit, turning the Hflak into a possible long range piercing gun. That would be pretty hard to balance, though, and great care should be taken.

Thoughts? Ideas on other ways Falloff could be used?

73

Feedback and Suggestions / Hull repair tool: Welding Torch

« on: November 08, 2015, 02:31:33 pm »

Not for armor. This tool's primary ability is slowly repairing the perma hull. Side effects are a chance of lighting the armor on fire. Perhaps also used to repair or rebuild at about half the rate of a pipe wrench.

The permahull repair might be something like n+(h*.01) per second, n being a flat number, and h being max permahull. Squids would gain the most out of n, while Galleons would gain the most out of (h*.01).

Thoughts?

74

The Gallery / Punk mask for Halloween

« on: October 22, 2015, 09:19:59 pm »

Just for funsies.

75

General Discussion / Fantasy GOIO

« on: October 22, 2015, 05:12:54 pm »

Like Fantasy Football (or whatever), but in GOIO using actual players. Draft your perfect crew and team. See who comes out on top. Would have to have access to Muse's data, of course.

Viable? Fun? Pointless (well, yes)? Something to pass the time in long queues and lobbies, or in the middle of sniping matches?

Anyways, just a random thing that jumped in my head for no damn reason (I actually can't stand football and think fantasy football is silly as hell).