Ship Idea

[Dr Pantaleon]

I usually don't post stuff in this forum and I am sure that Muse already has more than enough ship designs, but the other day I saw this picture:
 http://th01.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2013/225/e/f/pure_steam___war_zeppelin_by_47ness-d68hxvs.jpg
and it made me think about an interesting new design. I just want to know what you guys have to say about this idea.

- Main feature: 2 balloons with individual hardpoints for repairing. If one balloon was destroyed, the ship would sink, but only very slowly. The ship wouldn't tilt to the side a lot tough. I understand that it would be really difficult to program and very annoying for everyone involved so we'll ignore that.
- rather low hull health and armour but the actual hull would be very small and also hidden behind the balloons. It would be nigh impossible to hit the hull from the side.
- average speed but maybe high turning speed?
- I am not sure about the guns. If there are side guns, the upper half of their field of fire would be blocked by the own balloon. Maybe the guns could be angled downwards and make the ship somewhat of a bomber.

in short, it would be something like a junker with lower armour and two balloons.

Comments?

[GrandCheez]

Heck, I'd love it if they did this for the galleon with it's 3 separate balloons.  It would be something to finally gain some even footing with a goldfish popping and grounding every ship in the game.

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

Interesting look and idea.

If a ship of that size and style would be done it would give an alternative to the low profile ship but then the mobula would need more appeal too. I mean it is a good ship but perhaps like some have suggested more use for the top deck by gun replacement, then maybe a tunnel and drophole for the engs to get to the hull and balloon?

The ships have all been different but.. where would you place the guns on the suggested ship?

[Dr Pantaleon]

True, the Mobula has a similar approach. "Shoot the balloon instead of the hull"

The guns are the part I'm not too sure about. My first idea was to place them on the sides, like on a Junker, but then the own balloon would block half of their field of fire.
We could put some guns on top o f the balloons, facing forward. That would make for some interesting play, as the ship's prow and stern are it's vulnerable spots. Only here the enemy can easily target the hull.

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

How about.... One heavy out front, two small sideguns on front of each balloon but with angle limit just ending before front angle so with some small maneuver as the goldfish can use side while reloading heavy and one small gun on rear?

[Sammy B. T.]

The reapir work would be awkward. The Squid gets away with its redundant components as they're easy fixes. Balloons however are not. They're massive targets, and are a lot of repair and rebuild hits. The vertical movement of this badboy would need to be something amazing to make such a hard balloon repair and rebuild feasible.

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

Well.. Pipes could connect to both from one and if middle front and rear had the balloon and hull?
What if the captain would sit below and in front of the front gun to see better from between the balloons? And middle hull could be two levels similar to squid with hull?

[ramjamslam]

This looks very much like the ship docked north east of the Refinery.  Two balloons though, don't engi's have to run around enough as it is?

[Saull]

Yeah, like ramjamslam said there is a ship similar in design sitting just outside the boundaries of the raid on the refinery map and also I think you can see the ship in the first GoIO trailer. Wasn't the ship designed in some way that it didn't exactly fit into the skirmish mode gameplay model but they had hoped to use it in anyway they possibly could. I really liked the ships looks and wouldn't mind seeing more of it

[Sprayer]

See those spots in the cockpit that look like smut stains? Those are supposed to be members of the crew. Just saying, that picture shows a ship that seems about three or four times as large as a galleon. There are stairs that lead into the bloons (love the detail btw) and probably into the hardpoints on the sides and rear of the ship. 6 engines mounted on the bloons and one main engine. The entire concept needs some real scaling down if it is to make it into skirmish mode.

[Dr Pantaleon]

Genozide's suggestion concerning the guns sounds quite good. A medium gun would give the ship a bit more power. The ship probably would be rather fragile, so why not turn it into a glass cannon entirely?

The reapir work would be awkward. The Squid gets away with its redundant components as they're easy fixes. Balloons however are not. They're massive targets, and are a lot of repair and rebuild hits. The vertical movement of this badboy would need to be something amazing to make such a hard balloon repair and rebuild feasible.

that was one of my fears as well. Carronades would be really good against this ship, but on the other hand, you'd have twice the amount of balloon health and would only sink quickly if both balloons were down.

Also, this picture is from another game calles "Pure Steam." I never said to introduce it to GOIO the way it is, it just gave me the idea of having a ship with two balloons.

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

The device you repair to get balloon up isn't the balloon itself. So why not just have pipes going to the sides from ONE of these then the repair should be np?
It might need then coding to make both balloons affected when shot at but if they were connected into one then they'd have to compensate and be affected both.

Though i like the idea of separate balloon fails and tilt it might be easier if there's the one device and both get affected. Then engineers will have it a bit easier.

[Crafeksterty]

I just dont know what this ship adds to the game. Other than being unique in the ship and maintaining it.

Its effeciency does not really seem to spring itself for gameplay reasons outside torwards other ships and the game itself.


I mean, the galleon has 2 sides with heavy weapons.   The junker sort of works the same way but for smaller reasons.
The spire is a vertical glass cannon, the mobula is a horizontal multitool.
Pyra all about frontal assault while squid is all about harrassing.

Or in most cases for those ships. The goldfish is quick to help support ship etc etc.


If this ships is an idea, then it needs to help out in the gameplays roles (Does not have to be specifically) to have a chooseable ship instead of just a unique ship to manage.

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

It would be like the offspring of a mobula and goldfish with the hull of a squid but turning maneuverability instead of speed so that makes it interesting imo. It would add to the lowprofile ship category.

[Dr Pantaleon]

I agree with genozide on this matter. It would be a very mobile ship (although not overly fast) and hard to kill quickly, due to the balloon shielding most of the ship.
But it wouldn't be as easy as on a galleon. A capable enemy would be able to target the small hull, which can be destroyed rather quickly.

We could supply both balloons from one device, but then the balloon would have to have a lot more health in total, which would make it harder to repair.
Why not give it two repair points, but put both of them close to each other. This way, I think it would be easier because you basically can repair it twice as fast. And most of the time only one of the balloons will be destroyed.