Author Topic: Other than Airships  (Read 37306 times)

Offline Phores

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #30 on: June 13, 2013, 06:24:23 pm »
Allow crew to equip fun but mostly ineffective "fluff" items.
Just things which make the crew seem more like people than avatars of non-stop ship-ship war or give "idle" animations and the like. Examples:
  • Flintlock pistol: Firable by the individual rather than the ship. Does, at maximum(if any), the damage of a single gat shot.
  • Grappling hook: Activate when falling from the ship to pull yourself back aboard.
  • Watering can: How else did all those potted plants survive?
  • Falconry glove: Call/Release a bird of prey. Make it hunt down a gull for added effect.
  • Cleaning bucket: Scrub the deck with use. Throw increasingly dirty water on enemy ships (just for humor).
  • Book: Crouch down and read a page, local pc can generate spam styled text. Add in an "I wish I could read" quote or like.
On the note of that point: character voices would be nice (especially for things like captain changing "priority"). "Macro voices" has been suggested elsewhere too for audio yells for those without a mic for things like "Balloon down!" or "Man starboard guns!".

Depending how far you can go with the age rating there is ofcourse:
  • Cigar/Ciggarette/Pipe: Just for look, fairly staple steampunk. Use lights/stows.
  • Moonshine: Generic game drink effect. Just make it a slight blur to it's not too much of a hinderance.
  • "Contraband": Every crew has it's vice, plays with contrast/gamma/etc. Particularly common dystopian feature.
  • Sweet memories: Briefly pull out a picture of a steampunk styled pinup.

Edit: This whole section:

Bigger ships would be awesome though smaller(3 and less crew) would be very awkward to ballance to a playable level.

Bigger ships could pull in up to 8 man crews for capitol ships/flagships used in scenario/"asymetric" matches (hey, fun doesn't always mean equal teams)

Simply big ships in the 6 man area would be more managable for skirmish

Ballance could be interesting, offsetting tremendous firepower and armor for becoming more akin to an angry terrain feature.
 Large guns having separate "turn speed" and "reload speed" hit locations could make engineering them more awkward while simple fear of being in arc makes them an area denial. Basic gun ballance can be extrapolated from current weapons by increasing projectiles/second with an increased bullet life and/or reduced bullet drop, some weapons could even be given continuous fire (fire rate slowed by damage).
 The boiler room idea could work maybe even make it never have enough power to siginificantly power everything at once: forcing the tough decisions of fight or flight for the cumbersome giants.

 As is the galleon feels to me like it's in an awkward palce, overgrown and clumsy for a 4 man ship yet too stunted to be a terror of combat that would justify a "heavy" placement.

 On an aside, large weapons that would be interesting to see on some of these bigger ships: (probably wouldn't be affected as much by special ammo though)
 Baloon mines: Think inverted sea mines, fire from a mid range cannon, reload and clip size prevents too many being around before their baloons fail. (Genuine area denial/cloud trap)
 Superheavy mortar: Only fires at distant locked enemies, fires a very high arc shell at the enemy landing several seconds later, devestating the local area. (Flush enemies out)
 Bolas: (could possibly fit this to current mid-size) Functions much like the harpoon but binds 2 other ships together.
 Ball and chain: Fire a harpoon at a ship with a heavy weight attatched, generally messing with their momentum and turning (possibly sinking)
« Last Edit: June 13, 2013, 06:47:43 pm by Phores »

Offline Khamael

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #31 on: June 14, 2013, 09:37:38 am »
I like your fluff items, though I think it's incredibly unlikely they will be implemented anytime soon due to the fact that they have absolutely no gameplay applications. Then again, aesthetic is a major feature of this game, so they might be added eventually.

For the differently sized ships, I kind of imagined there being only certain levels when they can be used, or at least made so that whoever sets up the match can decide, as in there's an option that looks along the lines of:

Teams [ 2 ]
Ships:
3-Man: [ 1 ]
4-Man: [ 2 ]
5-man: [ 1 ]

I like your heavy weapon ideas. They also have the feature I want added which is guns that don't do direct damage, like your balloon mines.

Also, I was discussing heavy weapons with a friend, specifically the concept of them requiring two people. He said that, while that's a good idea, it should be at least possible to fire them alone and just be at a disadvantage. Sort of like requiring a gunner in a seat to fire and another off to the side reloading. That way, if they're desperate enough, you could get in the seat, fire, then get out, walk to the other side, reload, walk back, repeat. It would be much slower, but it would probably prevent people from refusing to use heavy weapons outright due to the difficulty.

Offline James T. Kirk

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #32 on: June 17, 2013, 11:49:27 am »
Just to make a quick backtrack:

A free for all sounds like something that could be quite fun with 8 ships in total.

Personally, I don't think so.

A free-for-all completely negates the need for harassment ships, disablers, or any other support loadout; one player would do all the work on a kill, and someone else would swoop in and take the point.

Free-for-alls would be made of Merc/flack Pyramidions, gat/flack junkers, and, maybe every once in a blue moon, a gat/mortar Pyra.

While crew-based teamwork would be maintained, team balancing of ships and captain coordination (two major parts of the game) would be out the window.

Making a shaky alliance between another ship to take down a Galleon would be interesting, but coordinating the strike without alerting your prey to your plans would be hard to implement.

Offline Phores

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #33 on: June 18, 2013, 08:57:41 am »
Yeah, some ships really arent possible to take down solo without some real work or BS meta reducing the game to one of a handful of builds. A 2v2v2 match would be interesting though.
 LMS would be the most viable but favours hiding a lot while kill count favours a lot of killstealing, either would have a rather interesting metagame within them.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2013, 08:59:30 am by Phores »

Offline Echoez

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #34 on: June 18, 2013, 09:01:46 am »
Yeah, some ships really arent possible to take down solo without some real work or BS meta reducing the game to one of a handful of builds. A 2v2v2 match would be interesting though.
 LMS would be the most viable but favours hiding a lot while kill count favours a lot of killstealing, either would have a rather interesting metagame within them.

Now that is a pretty cool suggestion, 2v2v2 still has the team element into it and sounds very fun to me personaly at least. Though I'd like to only see it on objective based maps, not DM.

Offline Plasmarobo

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #35 on: June 18, 2013, 09:45:54 am »
I think the "Flintlock" or any personal firearm items should only work against birds.

There should be an achievement for that.

Offline James T. Kirk

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #36 on: June 18, 2013, 09:48:48 am »
Yeah, some ships really arent possible to take down solo without some real work or BS meta reducing the game to one of a handful of builds. A 2v2v2 match would be interesting though.
 LMS would be the most viable but favours hiding a lot while kill count favours a lot of killstealing, either would have a rather interesting metagame within them.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9uwqiFJQr1qcvueb.jpg

Offline Phores

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #37 on: June 19, 2013, 06:15:11 am »
Why dont we have both?
Was what I was erring towards, though don't want to overcomplicate it.

Non DM would be a good way to do it, you could easily do a koth match with 3 teams (would have to lower/remove the conversion timer though).

Thinking about it, with a bit of scripting, could have some pretty interesting scenarios:
  • 2 Teams racing to be the first to deliver a lucrative shipment across a windy map, a 3rd of pirates trying to steal the shipments by destroying the ships before they make it (spawn the "pirates" part way through the maze/course)
  • 2 Teams trying to be the one to kill a 3rd (both with unlimtied respawns) while the 3rd has to hold out for a set time on limited lives (even 1 each). (this also works for 2 teams)
  • Triangle of hate, each team has a target team and is scored by that team dieing but not the other (who is targetting them)

Actually, thinking about it: What I'd really like to see is a map/scenario editor with something like a contest every other month for best map(s) to be entered into official circulation.

Offline James T. Kirk

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Re: Other than Airships
« Reply #38 on: June 19, 2013, 12:44:08 pm »

    • Triangle of hate, each team has a target team and is scored by that team dieing but not the other (who is targetting them)


    Now this sounds interesting.

    It would be cool to fire at a target that can't fire back, but on the flip side, you can't do anything to stop the guy firing on you.

    Disablers would be thrown out of the equation, as your only defense against the guy shooting at you is the guy you're shooting at.

    Harassers, snipers, and brawlers are still a part of the mix, though.

    It would be either really fun, or really annoying, depending on how people end up playing it.

    Offline Phores

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    Re: Other than Airships
    « Reply #39 on: June 19, 2013, 05:43:15 pm »
    It would be cool to fire at a target that can't fire back, but on the flip side, you can't do anything to stop the guy firing on you.

    An interesting idea, I was thinking more along the lines of being able to shoot back but if you killed them it would just give points to another enemy.
    ie. all can shoot all but any of team A dieing gives team B points, B dieing gives C points and C dieing gives A points.

    Offline James T. Kirk

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    Re: Other than Airships
    « Reply #40 on: June 19, 2013, 10:47:57 pm »
    Too easy for trolls to troll.

    Also, that Powder Monkey who either can't hear you or thinks he knows better could also screw you over.

    Maybe if the Game mode was locked to level 3 and up...

    Offline Khamael

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    Re: Other than Airships
    « Reply #41 on: June 20, 2013, 02:08:57 am »
    I really like the thought of the two teams racing and a third trying to kill them both. It's really unorthodox.

    If that's not received well though, how about this? Two teams, each with two ships. One ship on each team is carrying cargo that they have to get to the finish line before their opponent does and the other ship on the team tries to intercept the cargo ship and keep it from reaching the finish line.

    Offline James T. Kirk

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    Re: Other than Airships
    « Reply #42 on: June 20, 2013, 09:41:02 am »
    The little story on the loading screen could say something about two factions (red and blue team) racing to receive payment for the same cargo, while sky pirates (black team) try to take it for themselves.

    They could even have the teams rotate every round! The trick would be making each round short enough so all three teams could go without the game taking more than 10 - 20 minutes.

    I really like the idea of working with a different ally (or working on your own) every round.

    Offline Phores

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    Re: Other than Airships
    « Reply #43 on: June 20, 2013, 10:27:52 am »
    They could even have the teams rotate every round! The trick would be making each round short enough so all three teams could go without the game taking more than 10 - 20 minutes.

    I really like the idea of working with a different ally (or working on your own) every round.

    The rotation may take a little work but a feature I'd want to see anyway (forming a small team/single ship that gets randomly slotted in to matches as a whole unit).

     Keeping it fast would be pretty easy, no respawns and a course length in the region of 4x length of dunes.
    I really want to play this now...

    Offline Khamael

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    Re: Other than Airships
    « Reply #44 on: June 26, 2013, 01:59:25 pm »
    That would work really well. The rotation could work if it was made so that the round ends as soon as a team gets a kill. Or rather as soon as either the black teak is killed or both the red and blue teams are killed.

    I don't think they should return to the lobby after that though, because that would break up gameplay. Maybe each game has everyone on each team once?