Messages

46

The Lounge / Re: The First Ship You Flew In When You Came Out Of Novicehood

« on: March 01, 2016, 02:00:52 pm »

The first ship I ever flew on, as a raw novice, was a goldfish. Standard-issue Hwachafish.
The ship I learned on was a metamideon with a friend pilot I met in-game. He was a solid pilot, and we won way more fights than we lost.
The first ship I piloted properly was a blenderfish, complete with ramming all day, every day. (Mostly on purpose)
The ship I really learned to love to fly is my mobula.

47

The Docks / Re: Unity

« on: August 25, 2014, 03:05:45 pm »

We host our own. It's still up currently, though probably empty at this time of day.

That's why our tag is NEV. Nanotrasen Exploration Vessel.

Honestly, a lot of interest has been flagging for the game. BYOND is dying a slow, painful death, and the SS13 numbers have dropped to less than half they were last year. I'm personally keeping a close eye on Centration (Which is a spiritual successor.) and getting involved elsewhere while I wait.

It's funny because GOIO is built on Unity

Yuuuup. That had zero bearing on the name. We do joke about it though.

48

The Docks / Unity

« on: August 25, 2014, 02:34:26 pm »

Welcome To Unity

What are we: Unity is a small cross-platform clan of gamers with a particular interest in aviation, space, roleplay, and exploration games. We are fully aware of how corny the name sounds, and quite honestly as the unofficial leader of the group I couldn't give another damn at how trite or overused it is. I picked the name because it was simple, memorable, and stood for what I wanted this group to stand for. Thus far nobody seems to hate it, and the name has stuck.

Who are we: Unity is a group of friends. A virtual family, in some instances. Many of us are quite close, and we have learned to trust each other near absolutely. That is not to say we do not like introducing new players into our ranks. Quite the opposite, in fact. That said, the banner of Unity has withstood migration through multiple servers and games, and if I have any say in it it will remain intact for some time yet.

Why are we: The formation of Unity is painful for me to speak about. We are a splinter group, a small clique of friends that divided from a much larger community after multiple waves of dissent with said group's management. As a whole, I would state that what we hate most is a lack of transparency in the communities we originate from. Unity exists as an effort on my part to keep intend and administration clear and concise to all members. Everyone has a say in the clan from the day they first join us, and no voice is unheard.

Where are we going: As of late, our group has been struck by intense apathy on our home server. The games we founded on are being played less and less, and our members have begun to spread out. That said, despite falling apart as one would expect a single-server group to do, we have begun to migrate as a group. One member of our group has begun to host a Minecraft server, and others have begun to run irregular Garry's mod nights. I personally was brought into GoI by four or so clan members during the recent sale. Here I see an opportunity. A chance to introduce new blood into our family, and a chance to have a blast playing with as much teamwork as our little community can stand.

Like any family, or community, not all is roses and cream. We do bicker. We fight. We have members who are not able to actively participate, and we have braggarts. I am not perfect by any means. Our servers sometimes go down without warning. Sometimes we lie.

Through all of that, however, we at Unity stand tall together. We are not, and probably never will be the best. That is not our goal. Our goal is to rise together as a group, look down at the world, and flick it off.

We stand together in Unity.
Do you wish to stand with us?

Communication we use
Skype
IRC

Games we Play:
Minecraft
Guns of Icarus
SS13
Garry's Mod
Tabletops (Roll20)
Guild wars 2
-And many others

49

The Cantina / Re: Character discussions?

« on: August 25, 2014, 01:46:05 pm »

The tall, swathy woman stared at the man who had approached her. Long of limb and limber, she possessed a wiry grace that seemed out of place in the revelry of the catina. Her expression was masked behind a pair of tinted aviator's glasses, and her clothing was of simple cut, with no trailing strings or frills that would get caught in an engine or gun mechanism. Slung across her hip was a thick toolbelt, half a dozen tools within easy reach of her hands. Even her hair was neat and orderly, contained within an unadored hairclasp.

Her hands moved as she spoke, indicating a tall, slender man in Arashi dress with a vivid pink mowhawk who was tipping back a second glass of hellfire at the bar.

"That's me gunner, he is. Our last name was Thane, but when had to change it when we moved to Albys. Half our crews don't know this. Go blabbing and it'll be a short trip down a long drop for yah."

Her accent was thick, Welsh, a syntax that had long ago been lost except in the depths of the Baronies. Her limber frame was tense as she stared the stranger down. She looked ready to launch to her feet and throttle the man, or scale the nearby ladder and leap from the catina. Between her hands her drink had hardly been touched. As she spoke, she moved her hands, giving motion to the words.

"It's me story you want? Lord, there isn't anything real interesting about us. The lot of us come from the baronies, we do. Bunch of peasents who got sick of the lords and ladies and their airs. Grabbed an uncrewed goldfish, we did, and made for the south border all quicklike. It wasn't easy or safe for any of us. I had to jury-rig her engines more times than I care to count, and Ika drew a bead on at least half a dozen ships that were after us in the end. We was lucky, and smart, half of them didn't think to look down low, and 'Werty weaved us through the craigs and clefts like he was born to fly. Only one of 'em got a good spot before we popped their balloon and legged it as fast as we could."

A flash of teeth, a rare pearly white visible underneath her darkened complexion. The teeth of a woman who rarely drank, who took quite seriously her position. It was the wistful, happy smile of memories long savored.

"When I got 'ere the ship was a mess, and we was all tired as hell. We had to the authorities, we did. False names, no ID. All three of us spent a good week in the slammer while the Guild tried to work out who the hell had landed on their doorstop. The captains who chased us managed to catch up and told the half of our story we left out. It shocked them as much as it it did me when they turned around and told us we could fly out in the morning under guild colors. I guess the officials liked hearing about us giving the gaudy nobles slip after slip, they offered me a contract for a merc company the next day. Snubbing their nose at the Baronies over some trade deal gone sour, no doubt."

She tilted her head down, obviously trying to read the man's face. Her eyes were brown, with just the barest hint of a hazelnut green threading her iris. Her every sense seemed focused on reading the reaction of the man before her. At her side a second tall, willowy female trader clapsed her shoulder. The second woman's face was obscured by a bird mask, which scanned the crowd constantly while her commander spoke with the client. The bird-woman's head only paused once, when a second pilot crossed the room and clapped Ika on the back. A pair of loud shots momentarily drowned out the hubbub in the room as the Gunner grabbed his companion by the shoulder, sat him down, and let loose a roaring laugh.

"So now I'm here, and me company has grown from one ship to four. We reeled in the 'Bloody End' and captain Tallios from a brawl in a place like this, and Miss Vera seized her junker 'In the Trunk' on our third job after we downed it and sent the crew packing. Just recently I even bought myself a nice little guild ship of my own, 'Depth Changes' is a good platform to look out and spot those nasty little pirate pyras when they come in to tackle our clients. She blends in nicely with the mercent ships, and most raiders don't expect her to launch a barrage of missiles or start spewing flames from her lower guns. Of course, part of the trick is not getting tackled myself, but so far Werty's fish has been there when I needed it. 'Waiting for captain' is a doll when it comes down to a proper air brawl, and I ain't afeard to slam another ship if they look at me funny."

The woman grinned, leaning forward on her chair and setting her shoulders as she extended her hand.

"I aint gonna lie to you. If you want us on, I'm gonna make you pull weight too. We're mercs and guards out in the wastes. We 'ave no backup, and each man's fuckup is his own. If you can't man up for your own mistakes, you've got no place on my crew. If you can't man up for the mistakes of your crew, you've got no place in my company. If you can't man up for the mistakes of your fleet, I'll have no business with you."

"Now that that's settled, let's talk about compensation. Name's Jami, and we'll get you to your next port safe."

50

The Docks / Re: Current Available Clans

« on: August 25, 2014, 01:41:10 pm »

Clan Name: Unity
Founder: Jamini
Members: 8
Clan tag: [NEV]
Steamgroup: None currently
Primary Communication: Skype
Location: US, Canada, UK

Requirements: Fly with us. Prove you can communicate and be a team-player. Be willing to man up to your own mistakes. Accept your teammates for what they are, and respect them for what they can do.

Info: We are a group of friends with a true love of games related to aviation, space exploration, building, teamwork, and roleplay. We play a great number of games together, and are often looking for new multiplayer pastimes to become involved in. Everyone in Unity knows that the other members have their back when the going gets rough. As a group we respect resourcefulness, teamplay, and humility.  We don't brag. We don't blame. We simply accept what happened and learn from it.

51

Gameplay / Re: Fire Extinguisher - your opinion?

« on: August 21, 2014, 10:46:16 am »

The extinguisher has a suitable role on a ship, I normally like to see both the extinguisher and the chemspray if a ship has two engineers.

Where the extinguisher really shines is when one is on fire, but not currently under fire. This is predominantly when facing a Hades/Incendiary ammo, or if your ship manages to get out of range of a flamer. The low repair cooldown allows for much faster fire extinguishing and repair than the chem spray. It is a reactive tool, as opposed to the proactive chemical spray.

Times that the Chemical spray shines:
-Hull (Pre combat), Guns, Pyra Balloons.

Times that the Extinguisher shines
-Hull (Post combat), Engine fires, Other Balloons, Mobula hull/balloons.

By far, using the two in conjunction is best. When under direct flamer fire (and unable to fire) the extinguisher should put out heavy fires and the chemcal sprayer should immediately be applied when the cooldown ends to grant the fire immunity buff. This, naturally, requires quite a bit of coordination, but when pulled off can completely shut down a flamer attack.

52

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Design Paradigm, Game balance, and Gunner vs Engineer.

« on: August 21, 2014, 10:25:32 am »

Gunners don't have gunner tools.  They have gunner ammo.

That's the rule for now until ammo testing is determined to be finished.

I'm fairly new to GOI, but I do feel like this may be an error that is preventing gunners from becoming more than a Niche class.

The main issue is, Gunners rarely need more than two ammo types for the weapons they use. Even good gunners, the ones that use downtime to load secondary guns with specialist ammunition while buff engineers are buffing engines/prebuffing mobility parts, rarely need to use more than two ammo types in addition to normal ammo. Heatsink ammo in particular seems heavily underused despite the utility (mostly due to the penalties of using it when not about to get lit on fire.)

Gunner "tools" might not be a bad thing to look into. I do not suggest any "tools" that could be used outside of a gun, but rather active abilities along similar lines of pilot tools might be helpful for bringing a gunner in-line with the buffing engineer. Ideally these abilities would be used alongside ammo types, and would be suboptimal for a non-gunner to take.

Example Tool 1: "Active Reload"
-This tool takes the same slot as an ammo type. When selected it immediately starts a reload on your weapon. This reload is notably faster than a standard reload (33-50%), but damages the weapon through the entire duration of the reload.

-Essentially a Kerosene for a gunner, this would give an aggressive gunner the ability to make certain long-reload weapons (Hwacha) capable of firing more often and ultimately drastically increasing their overall Damage per second without touching the weapon's burst. In addition, it would allow gunners to swap ammo significantly faster at the cost of having to repair their weapon more often.

Example Tool 2: "Heatsink"
-This tool would replace heatsink clip. This active ability would immediately extinguish a weapon and render it immune to fire until the end of a reload, at a significant cost of damage output (~25% or so)

-Heatsink clip is extremely useful for a gunner, but it can be exceedingly difficult or impossible to quickly change a weapon out in time to counter a flamer (Most heatsink clips I have seen used are on weapons with fast reloads, like gatlings or mortars). When compared to chemspray, heatsink clip is without a doubt significantly weaker and used much, much less.  Currently, dual-gunner ships are extremely weak to flamers due to the lack of firefighting ability gunners possess, an active ability such as this would permit gunners to continue to fire even as their engines and balloon go down in flames (which should be your engineer's job anyway!)

Example Tool 3 - "Jerry-Rig"
-When activated applies a debuff to all aspects of a weapon for the current mag (-10/15% damage, rof, range, and no turning radius), but permits the weapon to be fired, even if destroyed,until the magazine is spent.

-This "tool" would give gunners an ability that no other class has, a final "Hail Mary" salvo when facing imminent weapon destruction. As an ammunition type this tool would virtually never see use due to penalties in virtually every category, but as an active ability it could allow a gunner to clutch victory from the jaws of defeat.