Harpoon Cables.

[Gambrill]

i've noticed that these cable will go through ANYTHING, i'm talking ships to rubble to massive mountains.

i was wondering if maybe these cable could have a physical presence in the game, such as harpooning a poor little squid then flying round some rubble causing the squid to hit said rubble.

in my eyes it would make the harpoon such a more valuable tool

thoughts?

Gambrill

[Sonoskay]

IT can already be used for that perpous.. Aparently its a ok stratagy to put harpoons on a squid and use moon shine to slam people into rocks.

 Jusr becuase the rope goes through thngs doesnt mean it cant be used to slam other airships into terrain

[Plasmarobo]

I think making a harpoon realistic (reads: newtonian) is probably less fun.

Supposedly the harpoon just requires a lot more finesse than people expect.
As I understand it, it accelerates you towards each other. You just need to output more force then the other guy, then somehow not hit the object yourself.

(I think it's a good solution to a 1D problem, but unless you are going to slam into the wall yourself, or nearly anyway, it's to easy to 'orbit' around the obstacle).

Tentative suggestion: Kill their engines first?

[Mr. Arrow]

I believe the harpoon tether is governed with newtonian principles. According to a dev in one of the other posts on gun balance, it acts like a rope would (except collision) accounting for mass of the ships bound together. So a Squid needs a lot more acceleration to move a galleon because of the difference in mass.

Edit: Here it is

The harpoon logic is really weird.  As I said before, it's very very realistic.  Realistic to the point that no one really understands what's going on, there are just too many forces at play here that it's impossible for our human brains to commute.  Jay, the programmer who implemented this assures me that this is what the real-life physics equations would dictate.

I decreased the force the harpoon applies a patch or two ago and it got better, it didn't fling you all too much but the results were more predictable.  However, ships back then all had the same mass.  So now that mass is actually respected, the harpoon doesn't feel the same way as before.  In fact, it's acting has it should be but no one knew what it would feel like shooting a ship of different mass.

The harpoon is a long-term project.  I want to get to the point where you have tug boats.  Yes, Squid tug boats.  That means engine thrust is a huge part of the equation.

[Plasmarobo]

Sorry, I should have said:

I think making having a the harpoon realistic (reads: newtonian) is probably less fun.

[Queso]

The harpoon used to be highly realistic, however recent changes have been changing slightly to see if that increases it's usefulness.

[Keon]

Yeah, but I think it's always gone through terrain, right?

Anyways, I'm no programming expert, but from the little I know, harpoons bending around terrain would be expensive.

[Coldcurse]

while your at it, can you make it possible to let harpoon attach to the surface.

for sharp turning and making a trap for enemy ships passing by.

[Serenum]

while your at it, can you make it possible to let harpoon attach to the surface.

for sharp turning and making a trap for enemy ships passing by.

This would be really really cool.

[Zenark]

I figure the Harpoon would be more effective if pooning a ship didn't make it impossible to turn. Say you stick one on the front of a Pyramidion, wouldn't that make it so the front of your ship would almost always point at whatever was hooked? Right now it just seemed like it turns off your side engines.

[Gambrill]

while your at it, can you make it possible to let harpoon attach to the surface.

for sharp turning and making a trap for enemy ships passing by.

 a bit liek pirates of the carribean with the anchor?