The Icarus Cannon

[Spud Nick]

How many pages does this thread need to get too before we get this gun in game?

[redria]

42. Also, it has to be set at max page length (I show 50 posts per page).

[Dolphirus]

Our cause is just. It shall be done.

[Omniraptor]

That's what the poor fools in the torpedo thread thought.

[Buchou]

This is very interesting. I would be hesitant about the increased damage at long range thing, though. If you are aiming for some realism, then this part should be inverted. Light emitted from a single point dissipates as it travels. It should theoretically do less damage the further away you are.

This would have to be a raycast weapon. The concepts of this gun mean that giving it projectile rounds could cause major lag.

Personally, I think I would do a light-ray weapon like this as a kind of experimental sniping gun. It has a very very quick reload, short of instantaneous, and it's damage gets larger the less ammo is in the clip. Each shot does fire damage without a chance to apply fire stacks, and it fires very fast.

I don't know how practical my idea is, though. I think you guys' suggestions fit the current meta better. I thought that the damage relevant to ammo remaining would be an interesting tactic to consider. I reasoned that the focusing lenses would adjust as the gun fired, increasing the intensity of the beam. The damage would have to be independent of clip adjustments made by ammo types though. Again, this is just an idea. To be honest I don't think that this could be implemented.

I like the whole concept though. I hope Muse considers all the things in this thread because they're very well thought-out and reasonable. Much moreso than what I thought up :p

[Milevan Faent]

This is very interesting. I would be hesitant about the increased damage at long range thing, though. If you are aiming for some realism, then this part should be inverted. Light emitted from a single point dissipates as it travels. It should theoretically do less damage the further away you are.

This would have to be a raycast weapon. The concepts of this gun mean that giving it projectile rounds could cause major lag.

Personally, I think I would do a light-ray weapon like this as a kind of experimental sniping gun. It has a very very quick reload, short of instantaneous, and it's damage gets larger the less ammo is in the clip. Each shot does fire damage without a chance to apply fire stacks, and it fires very fast.

I don't know how practical my idea is, though. I think you guys' suggestions fit the current meta better. I thought that the damage relevant to ammo remaining would be an interesting tactic to consider. I reasoned that the focusing lenses would adjust as the gun fired, increasing the intensity of the beam. The damage would have to be independent of clip adjustments made by ammo types though. Again, this is just an idea. To be honest I don't think that this could be implemented.

I like the whole concept though. I hope Muse considers all the things in this thread because they're very well thought-out and reasonable. Much moreso than what I thought up :p

You obviously never watched Mythbusters. The Archemedes Death Ray is the closest thing to this concept in real life. It's an array or mirrors that reflect the sun to light a target on fire. The target has to be a VERY precise distance from the array or it does not work. As such, this entire concept isn't so much a laser beam as it is a cone of light that generates heat at the focus point. THAT is why there is a "minimum" range in the concept. Ideally, the way it works is minimum range - sweet spot - maximum range, with the damage hitting it's peak in the sweet spot only. In this way, the weapon has a high skill requirement, but could be devastating when used right. While the gun does fire a "beam", it's not a cylindrical beam, but a reversed cone.

[Buchou]

No I understand the concept. We did optics in high school physics. But the version you're talking about focuses light at a specific point. I wasn't talking so much about sunlight in my version but maybe a steampunk-laser of some kind that doesn't have the focal point issue. The whole sunlight thing has been talked about lots here, so I figured I'd at least try and bring something new to the discussion, but I guess I didn't explain it very well. My bad :/

[Milevan Faent]

No I understand the concept. We did optics in high school physics. But the version you're talking about focuses light at a specific point. I wasn't talking so much about sunlight in my version but maybe a steampunk-laser of some kind that doesn't have the focal point issue. The whole sunlight thing has been talked about lots here, so I figured I'd at least try and bring something new to the discussion, but I guess I didn't explain it very well. My bad :/

Ah, I see now. I had thought you didn't understand what had already been discussed. Personally I think the concept is interesting BECAUSE of the focal point design. It's different from anything currently in the game, and would introduce new gameplay, instead of just a new/alternate way to do something. A laser idea is neat, but I think that would have to be a separate concept.

[Buchou]

Mmm, I was just wondering how they would implement the focusing feature into the game. I'm worried that if the idea is too complex mechanically then it may take them longer to produce it, or maybe they won't produce it at all.

The game doesn't currently support damage drop-off so it can't reverse the drop-off to do increased damage up to a sweet spot and then down again. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is maybe have it do 0 damage until it "arms", which introduces a minimum range. But then I don't know about increasing damage beyond that up to a sweet spot and then down again. I hope the game engine allows for something that enables this.

[Milevan Faent]

Mmm, I was just wondering how they would implement the focusing feature into the game. I'm worried that if the idea is too complex mechanically then it may take them longer to produce it, or maybe they won't produce it at all.

The game doesn't currently support damage drop-off so it can't reverse the drop-off to do increased damage up to a sweet spot and then down again. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is maybe have it do 0 damage until it "arms", which introduces a minimum range. But then I don't know about increasing damage beyond that up to a sweet spot and then down again. I hope the game engine allows for something that enables this.

"Arming" doesn't reduce damage to 0, it just doesn't do the burst damage. The easiest way is to simply make it so it only does burst damage in the sweet spot. Mechanically it's insanely simple, and really shouldn't take much work to code. It's simply taking the Arming mechanic and making it work both normally, and after X distance, whatever that may be, to create the sweet spot. In theory, it shouldn't be that much work. Certainly not as much as it could be.

[Dolphirus]

I'm still a fan of the idea that damage builds up over time until it hits it's upper end potential. I can't imagine the mechanics behind such a thing would be difficult. The "sweet spot" is interesting, though I think it would make the weapon too limited. I'm currently picturing two of these things on a galleon...

[Dresdom]

Building up damage is a great idea. Pretty unique.

[Omniraptor]

I'm for having both that and sweet spot- you have to pick a range, then maintain it if you want to do lots of damage.

[Dolphirus]

I just keep going back to the Starcraft 2 Void ray. We've seen this mechanic time and time again in games. It's pretty easy to understand and it also makes for some interesting lore. As I'm not an avid SCII I won't claim to be the best to explain. Basically the unit starts by outputting a small amount of damage. The longer is attacks, the more damage it does. I guess the idea is to chain the attack in quick succession to bring down units much faster than should be possible. The downside being that if you don't keep it on target long enough it won't do enough damage to compete. It seems like a very high risk vs reward weapon and IMO Guns of Icarus could do with more of those (we''re looking at you Gat/Mortar)

[Lenymo]

A voidray type weapon would be awesome. +1