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Messages - Captain Phil

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136
General Discussion / Re: beta dayz
« on: March 31, 2013, 07:03:32 pm »
Remember when all of your achievments where reset on release.
Remember the release of hwacha and spire, and ironicly the two stunk together.
Remember yelling at Firestone to get out of from under the wreck in Scrap.

137
Feedback and Suggestions / Ship Design Concept: The Carrier
« on: March 31, 2013, 06:27:58 pm »
The Carrier
In the game Guns of Icarus there were small aircraft to go along with the airship to give you a bad day; currently the developers are working on introducing biplanes into Guns of Icarus Online. We all know that biplanes will be in adventure mode, but how can they be integrated into skirmish mode without breaking current game play? The answer is a small compact carrier around the size of the galleon. The stats I have envision for the carrier is that it will have the armor and health close to around what the galleon has, and the airship’s forward speed will be slower than the galleon’s; however, the carrier will have a much higher turn speed to allow it to position its docking bays toward incoming planes allowing for quicker and safer landing. As for gun placements, a small gun on the port and starboard should be enough for a carrier.

Role of the Carrier
The carrier will fit in the current fleet as a support ship having ability to send up to two small aircraft to assist ally ships. Of course, depending on the load out of the small aircraft and the carrier itself will determine how the captain and crew will engage in battles. Two small aircraft that could be used by the carrier is the biplane, of course, and a helicopter.

The plane
The plane will have high speed and mobility that will allow it to dart around ships making them hard targets to hit. The plane will be fast allowing it will be able to get across the map quickly to assist an ally ship and back before it runs out of fuel were the helicopter would not be able to cover the distance in the timeframe needed. Yes, fuel system, will get to that later. Though the plane is fast, it does not have much health, so gunners will have to fly smart or be shot down quickly.

The helicopter
The helicopter will be a small aircraft that has better defensive stats then the small plane in exchange for mobility. The helicopter will be able to stick in an airship’s blind spot and dish out some decent damage. However, if caught out of positions, the helicopter will have a hard time escaping with its low mobility. The helicopter will be able to shine in defending the carrier from attacks, or charging into a battle with their carrier.
Combat system for small craft
   
Selection of Aircraft
Within the hold of the ship there will be two docking stations. In ship customization the captain will be able to change out which type of small aircraft will be in which section of the hold, and what weapon will be mounted on the craft. It will be important for your gunners to know what they will be using, so they can change their tactics and equipment accordingly.
   
Health, fuel, and permanent buffs for small craft
Like the guns on the airships, the small aircraft will have health points, and when the health points are depleted the craft will be destroyed. The small aircraft will have relatively low hp; about 125-150 for plane and 150-200 for helicopter: However, unlike the regular guns on the ship, the small aircraft will have a fuel bar within the craft’s display along with a compass pointing to your home carrier, and an altimeter. The fuel system will force the small craft to either kamikaze (not a good idea which will be explained in a bit) or return to the carrier to refuel and repair. The reason for a fuel system is to keep the planes balanced. If a plane had the ability to constantly harass an enemy ship, or fly all the way across the map so the carrier can hide in a cloud, it would be unfair for other airships. Introducing the fuel system will force the carrier to be close to its planes for faster refueling.

If a small craft is destroyed then it will have to be rebuilt within the ship’s hold like you would rebuild a gun. The catch is that rebuilding a small aircraft takes a long time (by long time I mean around a minute of hitting the rebuild station with two spanners), and thus is more time conservative to return to the carrier for repairs instead of crashing into an enemy ship.
Another idea to discourage crashing the planes is a permanent buff system. As stated before, I am trying to make it worth the time to return to the carrier when you are low on fuel or health. Even with the long rebuild, two or three spanners will still rebuild the plane fast enough to make it more time consuming if you took your time to fly back depending on how far the plane is out. So, to make it so that gunners will want to fly back to the carrier I came up with the idea of permanent buffs. Each time you return for repairs, the added metal to the plane’s battle scars will increase its durability. The gunner also gets the feel of the plane down; thus allowing him to fly the plane more efficiently and save fuel.
In other words…
The more hp you repair on return, the higher the hp of the plane will be for the next time the plane leaves. For example: you dock your small plane with 50 /150 hp remaining, after repairs the plane will now have 175/175 hp. staking up to an ‘X’ amount.
For fuel you will have an added duration of how long you can stay out. For example: you return with 25% fuel left. Now next flight out you will be able to stay out for an additional 15 seconds. These are just random numbers I am throwing out, but the idea is there
Damage reduction system for small crafts

The main issue with the small craft is that any heavy gun, and even some of the small guns would just one shot them, making the carrier just about useless. The easiest way that I could think of to prevent this is to add a damage reduction system to the small aircraft. If a single shot will do more than 50% of the aircraft’s current health, then it will only do 50% of the aircraft’s current health. If the small aircraft has less than 25% of its maximum health then the shot will do full damage and destroy the craft. This system will prevent the small craft from being instantly taken down just as they leave the carrier’s hanger by snipers. Another concept to add is making the small craft invulnerable when docked. Since the objective of the small aircraft is to be useful and not a hindrance to the operations of the ship.
   
Fixing up your plane on the go
Unfortunately there is only so much you can do from your craft’s cockpit. However if you happen to have a wrench or other repair tool you can give your plane 10% temporary hp. This dose count as maximum health, so if your plane is at 20% health and you do a makeshift repair to up its health to 30% the next howitzer shot you take will bring your craft down to 15% instead of 0% health. This temporary health will also assist in keeping your plane in good shape in sandstorms. If you fear fire more than gunfire then you can bring a fire extinguisher in case you come across any flamethrowers in flight. When your small aircraft is on fire it will do less damage, respond slower, and take damage; but you can still fly around and the fire will go out relatively fast so one burst of flame will not completely disable you until you return, but the plane will take damage from the fire, so getting the fire out faster is a good idea. (fun concept- kamikaze-ing with flaming ship sets airships on fire?)

Gunner tools
The gunner will also be able to use his or her different ammunition types except the lochanagar shot since it would destroy the plane. This will give the gunner the ability to make his attacks more effective against an enemy airship or small aircraft. Also they can use the heat sink coil to protect their craft from fire, and allowing them to bring a wrench with no risk.

Flying and Docking.
Starting out the small craft will spawn upon a rotatable platform. Once the craft takes off, it will have about 90 seconds to 120 seconds of fuel before the craft crashes and dies (would need actual game play to balance decent times out). Fuel can be conserved by using techniques such as gliding with the plane and keeping the engine for the helicopter on minimal thrust when hovering in a spot; though the helicopter will slowly descend with minimal output. Physics will also be incorporated within the plane; pointing your plane up will slow you down, and doing nose dives will speed you up. All of this is common physics and mechanics so I will not dive into it much.
When your plane or helicopter is low on fuel or has taken one too many hits then you will have to head back to the carrier for maintenance. If your carrier is taken out in battle, your plane will still be able to fly around. If you manage to though, you can return to the carrier since the carrier will not spawn another plane if that plane happens to be out. Also on the bright side, if your plane is destroyed after the carrier, then the replacement plane will automatically spawn, no rebuilds required. So yes, you can kamikaze your plane after your carrier falls with no penalty, but only then!
The crashing systems for the two small craft will work differently. The small plane will be destroyed instantly if it collides with anything, even your home carrier, so practice landing. Clipping your wing on something will also damage your plane significantly but not destroy it unless it is already at low health. For the helicopter, when you crash into things you will just bounce off. This will do a bit of damage to both the helicopter and the enemy ship. Note, you can also crash into an enemy or ally airplane or helicopter which would effectively destroy both crafts, so watch where you fly.
Another small idea to assist the carrier’s pilot to position the carrier correctly for an incoming plane is to have two lights by the wheel. If a plane is docked the light will show green, and if a plane is out the light will show red. This will allow the pilot make sure the incoming plane does not end up crashing because the docking bay she or he is trying to land in already has something in it.
Last bit for this section is just how the whole landing system will work in my mind, since this system will allow for a compact carrier. In the landing bay there will be two nets within the hanger bay on each side. The pilot will have to line up the plane and make sure both wings hit the nets. The nets will sling back slowing the plane down. Then the plane will drop on to a rotating platform where it will be turned around for departure after repairs. The helicopter will be able to fly in and drop onto the platform without having to worry about the nets. This is just my idea on how a landing system will work for the two craft; maybe someone else will have a better idea.

Game-play Theory and Balance of the carrier
As said before, the carrier will be able to excel at being able to support its ally ships with its small aircraft. I can view the carrier being able to push itself into the middle of the fray taking hits for squishier ships. The carrier can also stay in the back, hiding behind a galleon even, and sending out its aircraft for long range support. On Control point maps the carrier will have the ability to stay on a point and send out airplanes to assist ally ships in the capturing of other points. However, this can be dangerous since the carrier will be helpless if it is caught without its small aircraft to cover it. Also the carrier is even larger than the galleon, so managing to ram an enemy ship would be worthwhile. It may be annoying pealing all the squids off though if you manage to ram them. That would have to be the worst squid captain ever to get hit by something moving as fast as a kite.

Possible issues with the carrier
The balance of a game is always at stake when something new is added. Hopefully I gave enough ideas so if this ship and the small aircraft are added; the balance of the game would not be disrupted. The thing I am trying for is to have it so any ship can beat any ship in a one on one battle, and skill would be the determining factor. While the pesky helicopters will be getting in annoying places, the ship will still be able to maneuver fast enough to get the helicopter in firing range and deal with the threat quickly. And even if the carrier is as tough as the galleon and has more mobility with its guns (since its guns are moving around all the time) the carrier itself would be slow and can be chased down by carrondes easy.
Unfortunately I am not a professional designer of any sorts, but maybe Muse can use a few concepts and bring the idea of a carrier to life in this game. I am getting tired of hearing people crying over not being able to leave the airship (boarding), and while this is not anywhere near boarding, it will allow players to get off the airship once and a while for some epic dog fights, brining a new flavored to the battle field. You can check out the drawn designs on my deviant art, but I am sure Muse needs no help in creating a neat looking ship. And even if the ship may be broken in skirmish mode, keep in mind that it could work out in adventure mode.


Miscellaneous tidbits that I may have missed or cannot really fit in easily
-   You cannot cap points with the small craft; the carrier itself has to be on the point.
-   You cannot use captain tools (spyglass is an exception) when manning the small craft.
-   Captains can see the location of their planes on the map “m”

Please leave comments, try to bring up problems that may occur with this ship and/or anything within the mechanics I may have missed or misunderstood.
Thank you for reading this through. Credit for art designs goes to both me and my good friend Aaron. (The airship would like a galleon and a junker smashed together and the helicopter just would be a disaster without him.)

All the pictures - http://pwhampton.deviantart.com/

-Captain Phil


138
World / Re: What faction will you fight for?
« on: March 31, 2013, 05:05:23 pm »
I'll fly for whoever has coin to pay, as long as the missions are not hurtful to others; I'm not the pirate or bully type.

139
Can't wait, will most definitely try to pitch a few bucks in, even if it is a little. Tis also a pitty that I will not be able to attend PAX either. Anyway, good luck on this kickstarter.

140
World / Re: Favourite town?
« on: March 22, 2013, 02:40:49 am »
Going to have to go with Town of Fallow; I just love the peaceful places.

141
Gameplay / Re: Wind on Water Hazard
« on: March 22, 2013, 02:28:30 am »
Don't need a wind gauge, just need the flags on the ship to move with the wind.

142
Guides / Re: Buffing 101
« on: March 21, 2013, 02:37:51 pm »
The buff tool/pipe wrench is the best combination if you are rolling with a buff engineer. However, if your ship is running three engineers, because the guns only need one type of ammo to use, then the one buff engineer can go with a spanner/buff/mallet set up since there are already two fire extinguishers being used by the other two engineers on the ship. *note- I have yet to try this idea since I do have a go-to crew to test these ideas with, but it should work fine.

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