Author Topic: Displaying fields of fire.  (Read 19850 times)

Offline Balisarda

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Displaying fields of fire.
« on: August 15, 2013, 04:17:54 pm »
Something that might be nice in the Ship Customization screen would be the display of fields of fire per gun mounted.  Since the ship is a model which can be rotated around the Y-axis, a three dimension pyramid (which could be toggled on and off) of each gun's firing arcs as mounted would allow one the ability to figure a good estimate of interlocking fields.  This might also be beneficial to put in the ability to rotate the ship around the X-axis as well, as to allow a top-down perspective of gun arcs.

Just a machine gunner's thought.

Offline Captain Smollett

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2013, 04:34:31 pm »
You know, I forget exactly who mentioned this, but there was a very experienced vet who brought up the exact same suggestion last night in game.

Not sure how hard this would be to implement but there seems to be a demand for this from new and old players a like.

Offline shadowsteel

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2013, 04:54:39 pm »
That would've been me. And seeing this thread today made me believe in mind reading. Almost.And Muse is behind it somehow.
Anyhow back on topic, I agree this would be quite useful as its very difficult to figure out which guns can aim where
« Last Edit: August 15, 2013, 04:58:43 pm by shadowsteel »

Offline Squidslinger Gilder

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2013, 05:22:48 pm »
This could go along with optional color coded hit markers and help teach newbies.

Offline Kharthynogus

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2013, 05:24:01 pm »
Agreed -- this would be very helpful. Though the pitches and yaws of every weapon are available online, there is no way to visualize it when customizing a ship. Such a view would allow players to easily see any weapon blind-spots or overlaps.

I would also add the ability to rotate the view of your ship up and down so all manner of viewing angles are available. Left-right motions of the mouse would rotate it like it already does, while up-down motions would tilt it.

Offline HamsterIV

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2013, 05:30:42 pm »
If they implemented this, some people would complain that it removes the intelligence factor from the game. Real gamers find their gun's traverse limits by hours of experimentation in game, not by looking at a handy chart.

Offline Squidslinger Gilder

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2013, 05:44:38 pm »
If they implemented this, some people would complain that it removes the intelligence factor from the game. Real gamers find their gun's traverse limits by hours of experimentation in game, not by looking at a handy chart.

They just gotta decide, do they want a healthier game community with better uptake and retention of players or not? Not like every proposal is mandatory or game changing. There are some I'd raise a fuss over but if it was optional then I couldn't care less as long as it would be helping in this way.

Offline Pickle

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2013, 06:29:04 pm »
If they implemented this, some people would complain that it removes the intelligence factor from the game. Real gamers find their gun's traverse limits by hours of experimentation in game, not by looking at a handy chart.

It's fine if it's in the Ship Customisation screen.

On the HUD it would be terrible.  Most of the complaints are about dumbing down the HUD in-game.

Offline Balisarda

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #8 on: August 15, 2013, 06:35:55 pm »
"...removes the intelligence factor from the game.  Real gamers find their gun's traverse limits by hours of experimentation in game, not by looking at a handy chart."

I'm not going grind into the meat and potatoes of that (I lie), but from that little quote, apparently every grunt who's ever drawn up a field of fire diagram to figure where to lay their guns for fire interlocking and terrain masking clearly have no idea what they're doing.  Hell, I utilize fire overlays for live-fire ranges with fixed lateral limits and known distances just to see what the effective distance and possible errant travel that a round can do.  Clearly, I'd much rather find out the traverse limits of my M240 on my vehicle in combat rather than beforehand.  /sarcasm

You talk about removing the intelligence factor from the game, but what you describe is more a matter of experience, but seeing as guns' traversal can be changed from patch to patch (I give you the Field Gun for 1.3.1), experience is subjective.  This would actually put into the game a legitimate intelligence factor, seeing as it is an inject of data that allows you to better equip and focus your firepower prior to stepping off.  Hell, a real tidbit of intelligence would be allowing players to look at enemy airships while still in the Game Lobby (but that would eliminate a lot of the fun factor and add way too much frustration).

Hence my suggestion that it be a toggled option, to allow young hard-chargers who don't need to look at a handy chart or read the instructions from getting their "hours of experimentation" and those of us who like to spend a few minutes configuring an airship that has good fields of fire and hours honing effective air combat getting our, well, hours effectively honing our air combat.

Just saying.  :)

Edit: Also to note, no ill will is meant in my commentary, I usually come of pretty direct and intonation never translates well when typed.
« Last Edit: August 15, 2013, 06:42:12 pm by Balisarda »

Offline HamsterIV

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2013, 06:42:25 pm »
It is a good suggestion.

I am doing some sarcastic ribbing Captain Phoenix for his post in this thread:
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,2043.0.html

Offline Balisarda

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #10 on: August 15, 2013, 07:28:08 pm »
To be clear though, this suggestion would be for Ship Customization only.  I am a sparse or no HUD type of player.  Honestly, I'd like to see the HUD compass go away and be replaced by a legitimate helm compass to the left of the ship's wheel.  I'd like to see the impact markers go away and be replaced with physical indications of the damage that I'm doing (honestly, it does a pretty good job of damage modeling for the game type).  I'd like to have everyone understand things like port, starboard, stern, bow, and location call outs with highs and lows.  I'd like to see the HUD names go away and legitimate and unique ship visual customizations come into play.

To pull from "Master and Commander", I'd like that experience of dread that Captain Aubrey realized when he looked through his spyglass into the fog and the Acheron emerged with her cannons ablaze, and I'd also like that satisfaction when you take her down with experience, wit, and good teamwork over that of rapidly clicking away hoping that she'll pop up on your HUD and then plastering a reticle in the clouds.

But I'd also like a million dollars.  :P

Offline awkm

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #11 on: August 16, 2013, 01:56:31 pm »
We will give out more gun information in a form of expanded unlocks (achievements will be relatively easy to get by just using the guns).  Information includes gun arcs and a smart way to display them.

However, it's tricky to display all gun arcs on a gun (in fact, we can't do it ourselves) that isn't just the game editor running.  It's just not user friendly.  And all of you who know me from the gameplay section of the forum, you know that I don't like giving full information.  I advocate learning by feel.  Having the gun arc degrees will be a boon but you'll still need to see how they are placed on each ship.  I want to maintain that level of feel, which means you have to play the game to earn it.

I understand the yearning to min/max from a pure data standpoint because that's what I like to do.  But honestly, looking at all the data on a spreadsheet (what my job requires) takes a lot of fun out of the game.  However, we will indulge a level of min/max interests via these expanded unlocks.

This goes for ship stats too.  By just being on these ships and shooting things with guns, you'll get the info in no time at all.

Offline Kharthynogus

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #12 on: August 16, 2013, 05:18:46 pm »
I just want to be clear: I don't think ANY of us suggested having the fields of fire display as part of the HUD. That would just be silly.

We were suggesting it for the ship customization screen.

Offline Twinkie D-Lite

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #13 on: August 16, 2013, 07:13:33 pm »
The solution to this one is easy. Its called sandbox and memory retention.

Offline Thaago

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Re: Displaying fields of fire.
« Reply #14 on: August 16, 2013, 09:07:25 pm »
The solution to this one is easy. Its called sandbox and memory retention.

Ehhhh.... that takes a 1 minute task and makes it a 3 hours one. Its fine to test the visual reference for where to hold a ship to fire a trifecta, its an entirely different matter to try out the literally hundreds of weapon combinations looking for overlaps.