Game Type Idea: VIP

[Eukari]

So, bored at work. Had an idea!

Right now we've only got two gametypes- deathmatch and king of the hill. This is an idea for a new gametype that wouldn't require radically changing anything- i.e., it should still play like Guns of Icarus Online. The game works as 2v2 or 3v3, but I think it'd be better in 3v3.

Basically, when the game starts one ship randomly gets selected as the "VIP." The VIP's ship is permanently spotted, and can't shake the spot by flying into clouds or whatnot. When the current VIP dies, the VIP status passes to the ship that got the killing blow. (based on who gets the "______ killed ______" credit in the newsfeed. In the event nobody gets the kill (like when the pilot rams the ship into something and blows it up), the new VIP is chosen randomly.

You can score points in two ways: every kill the VIP makes awards one point for their team, and every kill made to the VIP awards one point (in addition to passing the VIP to the killer).

The strategy for the VIP is to kill as many people as possible without dying, thus scoring points. The VIP's allies will attempt to keep them alive by engaging the enemy team- but must keep in mind that any kills they make don't award any points. For the non-VIP team, they must try and kill the VIP quickly while dodging both the VIP and its allies' fire.

High-level strategy could revolve around a certain ship on each team being the 'designated' VIP, loaded out to kill. 'Support' ships could be fitted to disable, giving the 'designated' VIP easy kills, and also to keep the enemy from killing the VIP and stealing it. Of course, if you get too specialized, you might quickly find yourself in a sub-optimal situation...

The biggest issue I foresee would be one team using the VIP to get a couple of kills, then just flying around while their teammates run interference. (though, I'm pretty sure the time limit in the game is crazy-long) Perhaps after a certain amount of time (a couple of minutes?), the VIP starts getting a debuff that makes them easier to kill? Nothing major, at first, but one that slowly lowers their max armor until (after a long time) they're just flying with hull.

Some ship-specific strategies:

• Goldfish: Good support-ship with Heavy Carronade/Hwacha/Lumberjack. Not the best VIP due to its lack of killing power.
• Junker: Good all-around ship, can load to kill and to disable. Frankly, the Junker would probably be a bit overpowered in this mode.
• Squid: Harassment and hit-and-run tactics would serve best. Could get into blindspots and support, or swoop in to finish off as the VIP. Speed makes it easy to get out of sticky situations.
• Galleon: Could be a decent VIP (everyone's coming for you anyway, so you'd not need to move much), or a support ship if the VIP draws them in. Speed would make it hard to chase anything down.
• Pyramidion: Great at chasing down and killing things, good for stealing the VIP quickly. Keeping it, however...
• Spire: Firepower makes it a good support ship; most people will be gunning for the VIP, not you. Pop a Lumberjack on there and shut them down! Too fragile to probably hold the VIP spot for very long.
• Mobula: Like the Junker, it's many guns makes it flexible. A few Artemis slings to take out the engines, and some Gatling/Mortar to bring them down. However, it's large blindspot will make it more difficult to fight alone.

[Cheeseycom]

Nice idea! 
I can see you've put a lot of thought into this.

Definitely agree there needs to be some kind of debuff to stop the VIP giving people the runaround. Perhaps instead of armour loss, it could wear down the engines instead?
Say, after 5 minutes without engaging the enemy or taking any fire, the rate of damage becomes so bad it's nearly impossible to keep up any kind of speed, and they become sitting ducks?

[Rainer Zu Fall]

I like your "the team gets points for every ship killed by the VIP" instead of "the longer the VIP survives the more points (as in CP)".
But I can see a problem with getting the kills. The VIP had to shoot at the enemy as the only ship of it's team to make sure he get's the kill. In points for survival time the VIP could just camp somewhere where that team has an advantage, yeah.
I still think this would be a better solution because the VIP is marked 24/7 as you wrote it and thus camping would be less effective. Sure, a team consisting of 3 squids could just run away all the time, but strategy helps catching them since you're not only one ship on the other team. Would make teamplay more viable to win.

Furthermore it would be a good addition if the VIP would change: First a red ship, then a blue ship and so on. That way the other team can only score points by keeping their VIP alive. (Just like baseball.)
If one team scored the required number of points to win, they've ... uh ... won.

[treseritops]

I really like the idea of expanding the gameplay!

I would kind of rather change the point system to maybe include the non-VIP ships getting kills counting as *something*. Simply because the kill-steal in either direction can be difficult and dangerous. Imagine a round where for some reason the VIP continuously keeps missing out on stealing the kill, or where the non-VIP ally accidentally steals the kill. They're essentially punished for teamwork.

Perhaps a kill by the VIP is worth 2pts and killing the VIP is worth 2pts.
A kill by the VIP-ally is only worth 1pt. Killing the VIP-ally is worth no points.

If you imagine match-ups and possibly outcomes, and then set up the points accordingly I think it makes more sense.

2v2

All four ships engage. VIP-Ally kills an enemy, then dies. Enemy kills the VIP. In this case the VIP team gets 1pt and the enemy team gets 2pts. It's also clear that the enemy won that engagement, the VIP got 0 kills, and although they lost a ship they still killed the VIP.

3v3

All six ships engage. Enemies focus fire on VIP, VIP team focuses on Enemy1. VIP kills E1, switch to E2, Ally1 kills E2, and then E3 kills VIP and escapes. In this case the score would be 3-2 in favor of the "ally team". The enemies did earn the VIP but also lost two of their ships and had to escape just to avoid giving up another 2pts by letting their freshly crowned VIP die.

Just trying to figure out how the points can accurately describe who won the brawl and reached their goals best.

[Captain Phil]

Definitely a new twist on a VIP suggestion. Having points scored by the VIP will force strategic combat over a game of cat and mouse. With the VIP having to make kills themselves, I do not think having them be spotted 24/7 would be really needed. I know a few LJ snipers who can shoot you wherever you are on the map.

[Eukari]

My worry about letting non-VIP ships get points is that it creates incentive for the VIP to just run and hide. If I'm in a Squid, I could just jet around while my two teammates earn kills on the enemy team. It'd take longer, but because the non-VIP team can't score except by killing me, it essentially becomes a long, slow slog to inevitable victory. (assuming I don't screw up, in which case it just goes the other way)

Another idea is to give each team a VIP. This would probably only work in 3v3, because otherwise it could easily turn into an alternating 2v1 that's incredibly one-sided. With a VIP on each team, you still need to organize yourselves to ensure the VIP is safe, try and time your shots with your teammates, etc., but now both teams always have a relatively easy way to score. If I try to play "Catch the VIP," I'm leaving my two teammates versus their three ships...and their VIP can rack up kills. The idea is to create incentive for the VIP to actually fight, while still having gameplay that's different enough from a normal deathmatch to be enjoyable.

Something else- would it be ridiculously unbalanced to have the VIP's ship permanently buffed? It might help ensure the VIP is the one getting kills, and give a boost in a "hot potato" situation where your current VIP dies and it gets passed to you...while you're still fighting two enemies. Another thing might be to automatically heal your ship when you're made VIP...or delay it for 30 seconds or something, so that you have time to die/get away and don't feed the enemy a free point.

Captain Phil- I think you're probably right. It was intended to add another layer of insurance to keep the VIP in combat, but it'd be an absolute nightmare on wide-open maps like Dunes.

[Cheeseycom]

The 3v3 Two VIP idea sounds interesting, although it does sound like a different game to the one you initially proposed.
It would probably be a bit more balanced than the other suggestion, although I'm sure there would be someone way of making that one work as well.

I think it makes sense for the VIP to get some of kind of buff/benefit, since they are about to become the focus of the enemies attention.. what would it be though? Are you referring to the normal buffs that ships can have? I'm not sure if that would give enough advantage to the VIP, they don't seem all that powerful.
Perhaps an additional speed boost of some kind? Or perhaps the boost could amplify the strongest trait of that particular ship (so Galleons gain additional armour, Squids become crazy fast.. might be difficult to work out for the more average ships though).

Auto-healing the new definitely VIP makes sense though.. I could see things going very wrong without some sort of system in place to give new VIP's a chance.

Now, I know you suggested that VIP's be perma-spotted to help identify them, but assuming the enemies will also be spotting the other ships on your team, how will they tell the VIP apart from the others? It might be an idea to have something a bit more distinctive.. their own flag colour maybe? Or the 'spotted' bracket could simply be a different colour perhaps.

[Kitty.Hawk]

My worry about letting non-VIP ships get points is that it creates incentive for the VIP to just run and hide. If I'm in a Squid, I could just jet around while my two teammates earn kills on the enemy team. It'd take longer, but because the non-VIP team can't score except by killing me, it essentially becomes a long, slow slog to inevitable victory. (assuming I don't screw up, in which case it just goes the other way)

My suggestion to avoid this would be to require X percentage of damage be done by the VIP ship. So your allies could get the last kill, so long as the VIP contributed significant damage. Alternately, you could require the VIP to be within a certain distance, thus in harms way. The problem with that is that it eliminates sniping as a tactic.
 
I do worry about the VIP in a 3v3, as 3 ships focusing down on a single ship will nearly insta-kill most ships. Perhaps the hull buff idea would be required to make them more survivable?

[treseritops]

Honestly, people ruining the gameplay through a "cheap" or boring strategy happens in deathmatch already. I imagine most people have played a match on canyon ambush where a galleon decided to camp on one end of the map with long range. We sat there waiting for the other team for over 5min just floating...

I think on most maps it would be harder to hide/run. Plus you'd have to work hard to make sure that the VIP wasn't your junker/galleon/mobula. Otherwise people could easily catch it.

[Plasmarobo]

I do worry about the VIP in a 3v3, as 3 ships focusing down on a single ship will nearly insta-kill most ships. Perhaps the hull buff idea would be required to make them more survivable?

You have at least two ships to defend and deny, and one of the offensive ships would also be a VIP, which requires careful tactics if it's going to attack. I don't think this is a huge deal, though the permabuff thing sounds interesting.

I think on most maps it would be harder to hide/run. Plus you'd have to work hard to make sure that the VIP wasn't your junker/galleon/mobula. Otherwise people could easily catch it.

In a game about teamwork, I'd think your allies would just have to step it up a notch to defend you. THERE IS NO HONOR IN ESCAPE!

I like this idea though. Sounds like an interesting game mode, though I agree, the game is heavily balanced against 1v1 or 2v1. The 3v3 game mode suggestion makes more sense, if only because it would not require retooling of balance.

[Calico Jack]

Speaking personally I rank VIP missions on a par with QTE for levels of enjoyability in any other game I've played.