Simple suggestions to improve gameplay

[Mary Read]

Hi all, after playing this nice game over and over i came up with some simple (i think, at least) suggestions that can improve the gameplay:

1) A nice green square with the ship name constantly visible for allied ship, so you don't have to scream things like "You, Pyramidion that is attacking that spire, you have a squid coming right behind you!".
2) Ability to change class or equipment one time each match (or if you think that could be too much exploitable, one each 5 matches). Because when you join a match that is already going (or you enter the lobby few seconds before the match begin) often you do NOT have the correct equipment or class the captain want for that ship. Even if you are an experienced player, that always remember to check the ship loadout, could happen that the captain want to play his ship in an original way, so your equipment is not good as it should be.
3) Autofire in ALL weapons (of course without transforming a semiautomatic weapon in a full automatic one), because clicking like crazy when shooting many of them (like light mortar, flak cannon, carronade, banshee, hades....) it's not healty! That's why you made "autofire" on the repairs tools, right?
4) Visible cone of fire for all the weapons in the ship's loadout screen, so you can immediately see if your weapons have a common fire arc or you are doomed to fire them one at a time... now you can still see this by trying the loadout in the sandbox, but i think it's a waste of time.

PS: sorry for my bad english, i'm not a native speaker.

[Coldcurse]

number 1 is not needed since you have communication between captains to report positions, you can see the position of your allied ship on the map. maybe a colorblind mode would be nice for players who cant see the difference or have trouble to see who's ally and who's enemy.
number 2 shouldnt be needed since the quick join button has been removed.
numbr 3 is already implemented in some weapons that demand autfire (other weapons fir to slow for autofire.), maybe have autofire enabled if you are using greased rounds would be nice.
number 4 is not needed, only if you are lazy. Play alot of gunner and try things out in sandbox if you are not sure. You eventually learn the arcs of every gun. Also communicating with your gunner might help.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

The following is just my personal opinion on your suggestions.

1) A nice green square with the ship name constantly visible for allied ship, so you don't have to scream things like "You, Pyramidion that is attacking that spire, you have a squid coming right behind you!".

I think having a general difficulty and authenticity is what makes a good game, it provides a challenge. Also, not having an overloaded HUD and unauthentic floating squares gives this game much more charme. But I'm with Coldcurse on colorblind modes for the most common colorblindnesses.

2) Ability to change class or equipment one time each match (or if you think that could be too much exploitable, one each 5 matches). Because when you join a match that is already going (or you enter the lobby few seconds before the match begin) often you do NOT have the correct equipment or class the captain want for that ship. Even if you are an experienced player, that always remember to check the ship loadout, could happen that the captain want to play his ship in an original way, so your equipment is not good as it should be.

Always 1 pilot, 1 gunner and 2 engineers. Basic rule of thumb for a running match. You can join the lobby, take a look at the weapons of the ship and the other crews loadout and then decide what to bring before jumping into the match. If the captain wants something else, just leave the match, equip it in the character menu (main menu top right corner) and then jump into the match again without pressing the "resume" button.

number 2 shouldnt be needed since the quick join button has been removed.

I don't really get the connection between quick join and his suggestion, as jumping in a running match is still enabled. It has to be made clear that you can view the ship layout even when trying to join a running match.

3) Autofire in ALL weapons (of course without transforming a semiautomatic weapon in a full automatic one), because clicking like crazy when shooting many of them (like light mortar, flak cannon, carronade, banshee, hades....) it's not healty! That's why you made "autofire" on the repairs tools, right?

I don't think we need continuous fire in most of the weapons, as those that don't have it at the moment don't have a huge clip and already a slow firing rate. In fact, it may happen that you keep firing the gun although you don't want it to at that moment with continuous fire enabled in those gun, thus losing ammo and time to reload.

4) Visible cone of fire for all the weapons in the ship's loadout screen, so you can immediately see if your weapons have a common fire arc or you are doomed to fire them one at a time... now you can still see this by trying the loadout in the sandbox, but i think it's a waste of time.

That is actually a really nice idea. I quite like that. Might help unexperienced and new pilots to avoid loadouts like a carronade/flak/flamethrower side on a Galleon or two top mercs on a Mobula.

[Coldcurse]

Point number 4 would be nice in unexperienced games, but I find it rather annoying in high level matches.
Maybe it could be made a feature that you can toggle on and off.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

Point number 4 would be nice in unexperienced games, but I find it rather annoying in high level matches.
Maybe it could be made a feature that you can toggle on and off.

4) Visible cone of fire for all the weapons in the ship's loadout screen

I don't see a problem for any kind of player there. No need to toggle it off. It's much more helpful than looking up everything in the manuals in-game or in the forum.

[Crafeksterty]

Number 4 does make it more easy, but. Takes away the oldschool discovery and fun of it.

I do this almost everytime on practice after every patch on guns. Finding a new ways to make a ship usefull with tools and execution. Weaponary angles and etc etc.
The book on the top left should give you enough information before you test, but on test should you confirm if the guns be able to overlap to a single target.

[Imagine]

Sorry, but I can't agree with these. 1, 3, and 4 reduce the skill level in playing the game which is part of the fun of it all. And number 2 is, as someone pointed out, not such a big deal now that Quick Join is gone, and don't forget, you can always abandon match, change tools/ammo, and then resume game to switch loadouts if you mistakenly took something you didn't want to (though you can't change classes afaik, not being able to do so is a good thing frankly).

[Milevan Faent]

Number 4 does make it more easy, but. Takes away the oldschool discovery and fun of it.

I do this almost everytime on practice after every patch on guns. Finding a new ways to make a ship usefull with tools and execution. Weaponary angles and etc etc.
The book on the top left should give you enough information before you test, but on test should you confirm if the guns be able to overlap to a single target.

As a newer player, I do not find this "oldschool discovery" fun at all. In fact, I hate the fact I have to put in work just to see the basic info for the guns that should be visible to me already at all times from the very beginning (and would be in most other games). Being able to see firing arcs in the ship customization screen (with a toggle on/off button) would make ship building FAR easier. Hell, I'd love to be able to see an overlay for the range and firing arcs for all the guns (each with a different color) while in Practice Mode, so I could learn how to build better ships and become a better pilot.

[Caprontos]

I think number 1 should be done for various reasons. But it should be a "toggle" thing.. like press P to show/hide ally spot box.. This way people who want to use it can and people who do not don't have to.. so win-win.. I can think of several benefits for having it available and think I suggested it in the in game chat before..

[Omniraptor]

I agree that every semi-automatic action should be automatic. Banshee, light flak, mortar, buffing, rebuilding, whatever. Frantic clicking is annoying, loud and can lead to rsi.

[Crafeksterty]

Number 4 does make it more easy, but. Takes away the oldschool discovery and fun of it.

I do this almost everytime on practice after every patch on guns. Finding a new ways to make a ship usefull with tools and execution. Weaponary angles and etc etc.
The book on the top left should give you enough information before you test, but on test should you confirm if the guns be able to overlap to a single target.

As a newer player, I do not find this "oldschool discovery" fun at all. In fact, I hate the fact I have to put in work just to see the basic info for the guns that should be visible to me already at all times from the very beginning (and would be in most other games). Being able to see firing arcs in the ship customization screen (with a toggle on/off button) would make ship building FAR easier. Hell, I'd love to be able to see an overlay for the range and firing arcs for all the guns (each with a different color) while in Practice Mode, so I could learn how to build better ships and become a better pilot.

There is a testing button, you can always use that to explore combinations and simulate how they work. With the F keys and target practices.

Along with information regarding the guns after using them. Just click on the book top left of the screen ingame menus. They give knowledge on how the gun is effective.
For example, you see that the gattling has a very low downwards arc so you can stay very high above a ship and still not loose arcs.


To figure out if horizontal arcs overlap with weapons. You can always see if the ai can fire the weapons at one target. Or better yett, jump on the gun and look all the way closest to what may the other gun aim at, spawn a target (F7) and go to the other gun and see if that targets it. Go to your helm and see exactly where both guns can hit from the ship.

There are a lot of weird arcs with different combinations of guns. You cannot know how and where to aim the ship with on the target you want your crew to shoot at without testing it out on practice. Seeing arcs on the costumization screen WORKS. But it will not tell you from the HELM PERSPECTIVE on HOW to turn your ship so that those guns can both or all three hit the same target.


The game shouldnt do this for you. You are going to create assumptions like Gat only works best with Mortar, Flak Only works best with Hades, MErc only works best with Artemis and some other combinations because the guidlines make is explicit and guide you to use what is obviouse.

While now, for example, you can combine a merc and a hades on a Spire, SUPER difficult for the pilot to aim with. But can work. You would dismiss this with the guidlines cause it would show as too narrow. While now, that guidline is invisible to us and in an oldschool fashion can be used and be a unique build if used properly.

[ramjamslam]

Number 3 has been talked about before, here is the old thread containing discussion

[Milevan Faent]

Number 4 does make it more easy, but. Takes away the oldschool discovery and fun of it.

I do this almost everytime on practice after every patch on guns. Finding a new ways to make a ship usefull with tools and execution. Weaponary angles and etc etc.
The book on the top left should give you enough information before you test, but on test should you confirm if the guns be able to overlap to a single target.

As a newer player, I do not find this "oldschool discovery" fun at all. In fact, I hate the fact I have to put in work just to see the basic info for the guns that should be visible to me already at all times from the very beginning (and would be in most other games). Being able to see firing arcs in the ship customization screen (with a toggle on/off button) would make ship building FAR easier. Hell, I'd love to be able to see an overlay for the range and firing arcs for all the guns (each with a different color) while in Practice Mode, so I could learn how to build better ships and become a better pilot.

There is a testing button, you can always use that to explore combinations and simulate how they work. With the F keys and target practices.

Along with information regarding the guns after using them. Just click on the book top left of the screen ingame menus. They give knowledge on how the gun is effective.
For example, you see that the gattling has a very low downwards arc so you can stay very high above a ship and still not loose arcs.


To figure out if horizontal arcs overlap with weapons. You can always see if the ai can fire the weapons at one target. Or better yett, jump on the gun and look all the way closest to what may the other gun aim at, spawn a target (F7) and go to the other gun and see if that targets it. Go to your helm and see exactly where both guns can hit from the ship.

There are a lot of weird arcs with different combinations of guns. You cannot know how and where to aim the ship with on the target you want your crew to shoot at without testing it out on practice. Seeing arcs on the costumization screen WORKS. But it will not tell you from the HELM PERSPECTIVE on HOW to turn your ship so that those guns can both or all three hit the same target.


The game shouldnt do this for you. You are going to create assumptions like Gat only works best with Mortar, Flak Only works best with Hades, MErc only works best with Artemis and some other combinations because the guidlines make is explicit and guide you to use what is obviouse.

While now, for example, you can combine a merc and a hades on a Spire, SUPER difficult for the pilot to aim with. But can work. You would dismiss this with the guidlines cause it would show as too narrow. While now, that guidline is invisible to us and in an oldschool fashion can be used and be a unique build if used properly.

I know all about practice mode, I use it all the time. My problem is more that I have to do anything to unlock information on the guns, rather than being GIVEN such vital information from the start. Yes, I can unlock it simply by using the gun, but as a PILOT, my preferred role, I never USE the guns, so the only way I get this info is by practicing with them in Practice against the completely ineffective AI, which gives me no real information about how the guns play aside from a general feel. I want to be able to just look up the info. Right now, I CAN'T "just click on the book top left of the screen ingame menus", because the info is all locked.

/rant

Sorry for getting all ranty there, but this has been something I've hated about the game since I started playing off and on back in December. As for the firing arc stuff, I can see that, but I still think it would be useful. Also, the method you described is near impossible. Ships constantly drift no matter what you do, so if you aren't on the helm to adjust for the drift, it will always create false data about the firing arcs if you try to fire them yourself. The AI could do it, but the AI is AI, and thus rather stupid. i could use a stationary target with the AI, but the way they act is sometimes unreliable, even when set to all attack. A player will always aim better than any AI, especially with the more tricky guns like the Artemis at close range. The AI couldn't hit the slow-moving target dummy no matter what, unless I actively did my very best to make sure it didn't have to adjust it's aim at all, despite the fact I, as a player, can accomplish the feat with ease.

If I got a crew together, I would trust information I got from them more, but it's still kind of a pain. At the very least, I'd want to spawn an actual enemy ship, and have better AI. That at least would be give semi-reliable data if I have to do it the hard way. Players would be preferable though.

[Piemanlives]

This may come off as incredibly snobbish but you should be giving the other classes a go from time to time, if you see the game from only one perspective then you're only seeing a fraction of what's to offer. But back to the actual topic of the thread:

1. This as stated above, would kind of ruin how the in game ui feels, and because you don't need to see this green square to tell an allied vessel that an enemy vessel is attempting to flank them.

2. If you're mid joining a game you should really take to joining as an engineer with a standard kit, it's a well rounded kit that is rather useful in most situation, that aside however if you're joining a match a few moments before it actually starts, you should still be joining as an engineer when popping a lobby and then letting the captain direct you as needed pregame to set up your loadout, I'd rather have a third engineer join midmatch rather then another gunner in which our repair capacity is drastically reduced.

3. Autofire is already incorporated into the game for certain weapons.

4.I've already kind of stated my opinion however let me re-iterate: Something like this is rather unnecessary, if you haven't actually used the weapons in an actual combat situation, as in, you getting on the gun during an actual match and firing it into the face of the enemy, you can't expect to actually use the weapon effectively, whether you're just on the helm the whole time as a pilot doesn't matter, having the knowledge from actually using them is much more important then just knowing stats.

[Sammy B. T.]

As one of the guys that generally rails against anything that makes this game "easier" I think seeing cones of fire would be a cool feature added and be great for discussions about balance of ships and guns.