Improving utility guns usability (flare, harpoon)

[Van-Tuz]

Greetings. I think that some attention should be directed at the guns that are performing a non-killing role. I think they should be brought to the battlefield more often.
But these guns have a problem: to bring one you'd have to replace one killing gun. Or you have to equip them in a slot that makes using it difficult. (rear slot at a Galleon for example)
To solve this i suggest to make special gun slots just for these support guns. With the possibility to equip them in one of the usual light gun slots. These slot aren't supposed to be on every ship. Only on those that have very few slots or have them in a positions that makes using these guns difficult.

Adding these special slots would also allow developers to increase ship's support capabilities without affecting its damage output.

Examples:
Galleon may have 2 of these slots on the both sides of the structure under the balloon. With a passage trough the center between the two guns.
pic 1
pic 2


Goldfish may have one in front of the helm.
pic 3

[Imagine]

Lots of ships already have slots which serve as utility already (sides of the pyra, goldfish, for example), and the harpoon right now is still more or less just a broken gun (already acknowledged by players and devs alike). A fairly unnecessary change here.

[Van-Tuz]

Side guns on Pyramidion may be (more likely) used for alternate config (long range, disable)
Side guns on Goldfish more likely to be used for gatlings/flamers.
Like i said, swapping any of these for a flare gun is not a worthy option as it hampers your damage/flexibility.

The problems of the harpoon isn't the point of this thread. It should be discussed separately. This thread is about making all (current and future) utility guns to be usable more often.

[Imagine]

Side guns on Pyramidion may be (more likely) used for alternate config (long range, disable)
Side guns on Goldfish more likely to be used for gatlings/flamers.
Like i said, swapping any of these for a flare gun is not a worthy option as it hampers your damage/flexibility.

The problems of the harpoon isn't the point of this thread. It should be discussed separately. This thread is about making all (current and future) utility guns to be usable more often.

"More likely" is your opinion, doesn't hold all that much validity. Yes, on some maps you might see side long ranges on pyras, but I've seen far more flares on their sides than any other gun, and gatlings on side of fish really only makes sense with hwachas and even then most ships don't use them (and if they do, it's generally only on one side, leaving the other open). Regardless, flares are present way more than you seem to believe so.

I brought up the harpoon because you put it in your thread title.

[Alistair MacBain]

Harpoon is broken and cant be an argument for anything like this.
And there often is a flare on minimum one ship in higher lvl matches. You rarely see them in pub matches cause most people dont have the coordination or strategy to use them.
In higher lvl matches you often see them. Mobs, Goldy, pyra, Galli, spire ...
All those ships can utilize a flare quite well with the fitting loadout.
Id say the flare is the most used gun on the lower back of a pyra.

[GeoRmr]

Harpoon is not broken. It is extremely useful both as a killing weapon on the galleon, and as manoeuvring tool on the squid.

Yours Sincerely,
The Ryders.

[Mezhu]

Harpoon is not broken. It is extremely useful both as a killing weapon on the galleon, and as manoeuvring tool on the squid.

Yours Sincerely,
The Ryders.

k

[Hoja Lateralus]

Forcing players to take disabling guns won't do any good. If you want to disable - you disable, if you want to kill - you kill, if you want a bit of both - you do a bit of both.

It's something like saying "Well every engineer should be able to rebuild so one engineer slot should be blocked for spanner only"...

[Dutch Vanya]

Harpoon is not broken. It is extremely useful both as a killing weapon on the galleon, and as manoeuvring tool on the squid.

Yours Sincerely,
The Ryders.

It just needs a quicker reload.

[GeoRmr]

Harpoon is not broken. It is extremely useful both as a killing weapon on the galleon, and as manoeuvring tool on the squid.

Yours Sincerely,
The Ryders.

It just needs a quicker reload.

Agreed. Doesn't have to be much, just a little quicker.