A strafing ship?

[treseritops]

I've been trying to think of different game elements for ships and the number one thing I think would be interesting would a ship with strafing capabilities.

Obviously it would have max maneuverability (or maybe not?). It could perhaps strafe but turn very slowly (similar to pyra vs. junker). I'm not sure what kind of guns would provide balance.

Any thoughts? Would anyone else like to see this?

[Eukari]

Well...that's sorta what the Squid does right now- it's a fast, fragile ship that can move in, shoot up an enemy, then escape before the enemy can respond. It's even got a rear-facing gun for the old parting shot. The Pyramidion also works somewhat like that, in that it's designed to fly straight toward the enemy, guns blazing. (and then hit them head-on)

Coming up with a new ship is hard, because you basically need to design a whole new niche that's not already being filled by one of the current ships. The best I could come up with is a true blocking ship- one that's nigh-invulnerable from a single side, but all its guns face the other way. For a brawler, you'd use your shield as cover to close, then flip around and start blasting. For a sniper, you'd be safe from an enemy ship ambushing you on your blind side. Putting the shield on front is too obvious- what about the right- or left-side? Then you're not just flying straight at the enemy like a Pyra; you've got to circle a little bit to close- very different tactics.

Its use for teamwork is obvious- ally having trouble? Get in between them and the enemy's guns to provide them some time to repair. It could also provide a big, juicy distraction while an ally's Mercuries do their work, or allow a fragile gunboat (Spire/Mobula) the protection it needs to close into range.

It could have good acceleration, but perhaps be a little slow to turn (unless you use a Phoenix Claw). I'm thinking...four light guns, or one two light and one heavy; they'd face the three directions the shield doesn't cover. If you put the shield on the right side of the ship, then the dual light guns (or single heavy) would face forward, with one light gun facing to the left and rear.

Edit: I call it...the Paladin.

[treseritops]

Well I suppose merging those two ideas would be perfect then!

I think the difference between a strafing ship and squid is that the strafing doesn't need to be about fast/low-fire power as much as it could be more like a sister to the mobula (has a strong side) but trades power of mobular for excellent maneuvering (specifically the ability to strafe to keep the guns facing one way or turn to switch to the shield perhaps?

Two benefits/unique abilities this would create:

1. Charging a ship they could still point forward while strafing to be sure to pass on the enemies weak side, possibly turn as they passed and keep their strong side on the enemy all the way through the pass.  Similar to pushing yourself across a room on a deskchair while spinning. (all the gunners throw-up)

2. The shield idea as described above.

Balancing ideas?

1. Only two guns on front, shield on back? Essentially it can keep the guns facing easily but if it's guns aren't facing it has no shot at all. Basically only ship with only 1 facing of guns (even mobula stretches a bit to each side depending on armament).

2. Low hull health? Balance out using the shield to have exceptional hull armor with low health.

[Eukari]

I think the problem is that strafing is a specific tactic, and building a whole ship around one single strategy isn't very sound. What happens when you get double-teamed, or are fighting around a king of the hill point and can't afford to maneuver too far? Function follows form- the strategies we use with our current crop of ships were developed from their unique capabilities and differences. When designing a new ship, I think you need to start with how it's built, and that will tell you what it can do. You also need to look at the ships that we already have- if they can already perform what you're looking for, the new ship won't be unique enough to stand out. We could certainly use another ship that strafes, but we don't need a new ship for strafing...if that makes sense.

[Surette]

I'm confused—isn't that what the junker and squid are?

[Sammy B. T.]

The Junker engages in a strafe combat. However what he means is the ability to go straight left and right (not turning) as well as forwards and backwards.

[Surette]

Ah, I wouldn't be a fan of changing basic game mechanics for a single ship.

[David Dire]

Le Necro




A ship that could go left and right in directions actually sounds pretty good.

Technically we should be able to partially strafe left/right with some of the ship's engine setup, so it's a plausible mechanic. We would probably limit this to one ship though just to make the ship unique, though, as we've exploited most good ship designs already.

[Replaceable]

strafing ship? why not just fly the galleon like a crab?

[Richard LeMoon]

We used the tactic once of pushing a Galleon into battle sideways with a Goldfish. It was not very fast, so we gave up.

[Indreams]

@ David Dire
Nice gravedigging! 


I wouldn't mind such a ship being a co-op boss. A ship that strafes left and right... why does it have to be a ship?
Would it be possible to have a boss that isn't a ship, but a train? Trains are steampunky!


Valkyria Chronicles is almost a steampunk game. They use blue magic ore (ragnite) instead of coal. Ch. 10 pt.2 (Liberation of Fouzen) features a Canyon map with a rail spanning across it. On that rail sits a railway gun called Equus. The objective is to destory the bridge beneath Equus and send it crashing down. In addition to fighting your way to the bridge, the Equus puts down Mortar fires, moves around, and locks down a half the map with impressive machine-gun barrages.

A few reference pics:


Fouzen, not dissimilar to maps we already have.


Equus, an impressive railway gun you must defeat.


So,.. something similar to this mission would be really cool in Co-op. Not that fighting ginormous behemoths aren't enough.

[BdrLineAzn]

@ David Dire
Nice gravedigging! 


I wouldn't mind such a ship being a co-op boss. A ship that strafes left and right... why does it have to be a ship?
Would it be possible to have a boss that isn't a ship, but a train? Trains are steampunky!


Valkyria Chronicles is almost a steampunk game. They use blue magic ore (ragnite) instead of coal. Ch. 10 pt.2 (Liberation of Fouzen) features a Canyon map with a rail spanning across it. On that rail sits a railway gun called Equus. The objective is to destory the bridge beneath Equus and send it crashing down. In addition to fighting your way to the bridge, the Equus puts down Mortar fires, moves around, and locks down a half the map with impressive machine-gun barrages.

A few reference pics:


Fouzen, not dissimilar to maps we already have.


Equus, an impressive railway gun you must defeat.


So,.. something similar to this mission would be really cool in Co-op. Not that fighting ginormous behemoths aren't enough.

Still need to finish that game, but the anime was decent.

[PixelatedVolume]

A nifty idea someone had a while back for a spire fix (irrelevant now, of course) was to turn the spire's engines 90 degrees so it would move like a crab.  I think it would be pretty cool but that ship seems to be in a good place right now so better to not fiddle.

[Arturo Sanchez]

[ShadedExalt]

Side rams would be a thing, then.