Call for Gunner Ammo Ideas

[Richard LeMoon]

A little outside of what is possible, but...

Optical Shot

Highly specialized
Single shot
+80% lift
+200% range
-70% Velocity
-90% damage
Shots never arm.
Gunner gets bullet cam view with view rotation.
Can spot enemies from bullet view.

These shells are hollowed out and the internals replaces with optics and transmitters. Allows you to shoot a single, slow-moving, straight-flying bullet that gives the gunner a safe view from a distance. The rotational fisheye lens camera lets the gunner look sideways for a unique ability to see around corners. They can also spot enemies by clicking like the spyglass.

Benefits to engineer: Low to null
Benefits to pilot: moderate
Benefits to gunner: High

[Verbose Mode]

That is a surprisingly cool idea, but might be better suited to a unique gun than a ammunition type.

[Saull]

I would very much like to have a discussion of proximity ammo and it's place in GoI's future. If I had my way it'd function closer to loch ammo as a mid/high risk high reward way of turning around 2v1 scenarios when enemy ships are flying real close to each other. Sorta like how grenades work in modern FPS games. But that I suppose is a thread for the Dev app forum

[Milevan Faent]

A little outside of what is possible, but...

Optical Shot

Highly specialized
Single shot
+80% lift
+200% range
-70% Velocity
-90% damage
Shots never arm.
Gunner gets bullet cam view with view rotation.
Can spot enemies from bullet view.

These shells are hollowed out and the internals replaces with optics and transmitters. Allows you to shoot a single, slow-moving, straight-flying bullet that gives the gunner a safe view from a distance. The rotational fisheye lens camera lets the gunner look sideways for a unique ability to see around corners. They can also spot enemies by clicking like the spyglass.

Benefits to engineer: Low to null
Benefits to pilot: moderate
Benefits to gunner: High

While kind of cool in concept, it doesn't make sense as an ammo (as others have said). Also, this kind of technology seems kind of out of place in GoIO.

[macmacnick]

Milivan, GOiO is set as if WWI extended for decades beyond 1918, and the world's desolation is a result of this. The camera was invented in the 19th Century, and television sets became commercially available in the 1920s. That is not to say it was invented in the 1920s, but became commercially viable then. Most likely, the early models would have been restricted to government use, in the GoIO setting, or they might not have invented the television, and instead use the precursory Scanning Disk, which was invented around 1824, which was also a component in the early Mechanical Television sets. So, yes, the technology would be in-place.

[Milevan Faent]

Milivan, GOiO is set as if WWI extended for decades beyond 1918, and the world's desolation is a result of this. The camera was invented in the 19th Century, and television sets became commercially available in the 1920s. That is not to say it was invented in the 1920s, but became commercially viable then. Most likely, the early models would have been restricted to government use, in the GoIO setting, or they might not have invented the television, and instead use the precursory Scanning Disk, which was invented around 1824, which was also a component in the early Mechanical Television sets. So, yes, the technology would be in-place.

Yes, cameras existed.... but not modern cameras. You seem to be confusing current and 1920s tech. A camera back then could NOT have done anything like what you're talking about here XD Even assuming some advances since then, just based on the rest of the current tech, it seems unlikely a remote control wireless digital camera (which is basically the only way to do what you're talking about) would exist.

[Verbose Mode]

A good solution for the normal ammo selection is to have all cannons pre-loaded with normal ammunition upon spawning. Once the initial clip is spent, it loads in the current ammo selected if not already done so.

That way all players can use the guns without panic to get their ammunition loaded, while forcing choice on ammunition type.

An interesting bonus to that is the ability to have a gunner pre-load ammunition types and letting an engineer use it afterward without losing the said type (until the clip is emptied, of course.)

This is a great idea on how to handle having "normal" ammo as a loadout ammo type.

That, and If the shooter who emptied the gun does not have the ammo type that was in the gun, they load the first ammo in their inventory (or only ammo, in pilot/engi's cases). So players know what they are firing, the "bullet" icon next to the magazine count could be replaced with the currently loaded ammo type.

No problems with empty guns at spawn, although I kinda like that idea. There seems to always be a flurry of activity at spawn as the pilot runs to the wheel, the engineers whip out their buff hammer or spyglasses, and the gunners... Load their preferred ammo. This happens anyway.

If it really seems like an issue you could, say, have guns sit at a "half-loaded" state until someone hops on, so it reloads faster.

While this would be an excellent implementation to make gunners more viable, it still does not address the fact that a engi will simply take normal ammo and a buff hammer, and still outperform gunners.

[macmacnick]

Oh, milivan, they had basic cameras, of the kind that could take burst photographs, at about 12 pictures per second, which also allowed for the early motion pictures with real people to be filmed.

[Milevan Faent]

Oh, milivan, they had basic cameras, of the kind that could take burst photographs, at about 12 pictures per second, which also allowed for the early motion pictures with real people to be filmed.

This much I know. But the level of technology required to do what this would effectively be doing (wirelessly transmitting an image at high speed, while also being small enough to fit inside a weapon's ammo which by it's very nature is not too incredibly large, AND being remotely controlled) isn't really something they could have done. Like you said, they had BASIC cameras (see below), which at best were bulky, could not capture pictures fast enough to create a smooth image, probably could not be remote controlled easily, and almost certainly could not transmit images wirelessly in anything approaching an effective speed. The sheer size of all the parts combined would be too big for any ammo fired in this game, save MAYBE a mine (and even then I'm not entirely convinced it could fit). I may not know exact details about that time period, but I know enough that I have a very hard time seeing an effective camera that meets these requirements and is small enough for it to be used like this existing in GoIO.

[Dementio]

Does it have to be realistic?

I feel like the topic of this thread is shifting. You can question the logic behind it if it ever gets implemented. Just like how these ships can stay aloft, how pilot tools work, how buff works and on and on.

I would like this ammo type.

[Twomd]

What if you added a type of ammo with a disabling charge, it would temporarily disable the system it hits. For instance, if it hits left engine, that engine shuts off for a small period of time. The tradeoff to this would be a significant decrease in damage. For guns like chaingun, you could make it so that a certain amount of bullets must hit to disable.

Currant Shots:

Disables System Temporarily
-75% Damage
-25% Projectile Speed
-25% Fire Rate

[Coldcurse]

what bout knockback bullets that slow the ship infront of you to prevent it ramming your ship.

[Coldcurse]

what bout knockback bullets that slow the ship infront of you to prevent it ramming your ship.

Or at least slow him down enough to give your captain enough time to reposition the ship.

[Armani]

Hello everyone!

I've been playing for a while, and theres something that has stood out to me personally about a gunner which I find rather jarring: a complete lack of non-manned weaponry. Literally everything in a gunners kit is designed to be loaded into guns (Aka ammo types). And because of this, there is a sense of tunnel vision for gunners.

Gunners man guns. Guns are only usable in combat. All of the gunners tools are ammo types. This means that all of a gunners tools are useable for combat only - Ammo has no value other than combat related things. What I would like to see is a bit of utility to be added. Here are some ideas I drafted up that open up gunner tools that may allow for a bit of pure utility in the gunners kit.

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ITEM 1: SMOKE BOMBS
You might think I mean another ammo type. I don't.

Smoke bombs would be like the spyglass, just on a cooldown. Throw a bomb by hand, hit an enemy ship, have the bomb stick to it and start spewing out a medium sized, dense smoke cloud from that area. Balance wise, it would be wise to add a cooldown to the ability - say 10 seconds - to the ability. That way people just don't spam the things over the edge, and landing one feels like you really accomplished something.

The result of smoke bombs are fairly obvious? You can't see stuff, so walking around is harder. The possibility for a laugh as someone blindly strolls over the edge of their ship. Impairing the navigators vision. Etc.

What it adds is something a gunner can use that isn't related to a gun. When all of your guns blow out a gunner could use this to buy time. Engineers and navigators also have the option of equipping something to use purely for utility and that doesn't require a gun. People could use it to have fun. It even fits a bit with the theme of marines on ships - because we all know boarding is a horrible idea. Think of it as psudo-anti personal gear.

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ITEM 2:
Blunderbuss

Keeping in line with the idea of the steampunk marine, enter the blunderbuss.
 
When ships are rammed against each other, not everyone is able to get to a gun and help fight. Open up the battlefield a bit with the option of pulling out a gunner tool - a short range rifle. Use the rifles to knock around enemy players, disrupting them (but not doing damage).

This next part is critical - NO DAMAGE IS DONE BY THIS GUN. That would be horribly unfun. Instead, a blunderbuss would be used to knock enemy players around on their ship. Knock gunners off guns, navigators off the wheel, engineers away from repairs, etc. It fits with the theme in that gunners transition from being gun crew to being real soldiers. Fighting quickly becomes uninterrupted, and feels better and more fluid. Also it would be single shot, and on a medium length cooldown (the reload animation would be so cool ).
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I have other ideas, but I'd like to see if anyone likes these first. Best of luck in the skies all!

[Imagine]

There will not be anything that can introduce player to player combat, whether it's boarding or shooting (even if non-damaging).