Ship Idea: Basilisk

[SirNotlag]

It has been a very long time since Muse has come out with a new ship, granted with the current selection they have pretty much all bases covered. Still I have put some thought into ship designs that I feel would be able to fill a certain niche role not currently covered, or simply add variety with ships that would be fun to crew.

SHIP: BASILISK
TYPE: FAST ATTACK

Manoeuvrability:
Slightly less then that of the squid but still a very agile ship

Durability:
similar to the squid, very little armour but decent perma hull

Fire power:
3 light guns total, all facing forward making it very nasty when coming at you. Weapons are arcs are 15 degrees difference giving a lot of overlap but stopping the ship form having 2 merc guns sharing an arc. Bearings of 0, 15, and 345 allow for a trifecta but that would be risky as the hull armour is at the back of the ship away from the guns and is very fragile.

Unique features:
-It has wings! They dont do anything but it has them.

Advantages:
+lots of fire power in the front, it may be difficult to get all 3 guns firing at once, however they are close together allowing the gunner to run between them fairly quickly
+Massive manoeuvrability allow it to attack a ship and stay out of its weapon arcs
+canting the guns 15 degrees from each other give it a larger firing arc
+can use its ability to quickly relocate to make effective use of a sniper build

Disadvantages:
-No side gun means it cant effectively deal damage circling a ship
-Fragility makes it so it is unlikely to win a straight on fire fight
-hull armour being in the back makes it risky to use all 3 guns
-Turning engines are suspended on the back wings, being difficult to hit but can be shot at from all directions

Here is a rough floor plan of how the ship could be laid out


Here is a frontal silhouette of how the ship could look unique

[Hoja Lateralus]

So basially it's a squid that can bi- or even trifecta with front guns. I don't think so....

[SirNotlag]

<shrug> I think it would be fun to fly

would you still say no if it had 2 guns on the front and the 3rd on the back, or maybe a side?

[Milevan Faent]

So basially it's a squid that can bi- or even trifecta with front guns. I don't think so....

Actually, I've found one of the benefits of the squid being the 1 gun in 3 directions. While it can't kill, it's very hard to NOT have at least 1 gun firing. I often have moved such that I fly past an enemy ship and suddenly start firing with my ship's back gun as I reverse back toward them, a move most ships can't even consider trying. A high-speed trifecta ship is potentially OP though. It would depend HEAVILY on the lay-out. On the squid, it's EASY to keep the hull up. On this, keeping the hull and balloon repaired means not shooting, which makes it more like a fast Spire than a Squid. If it's hard to maintain, it might not be too bad. Just scary if it manages to avoid direct engagements.

[Replaceable]

Heh imagine going round a corner to see one of these on both sides of you.

Now that would be fun.

Harpoon and two mine launchers would also be fun.

[SirNotlag]

Actually, I've found one of the benefits of the squid being the 1 gun in 3 directions. While it can't kill, it's very hard to NOT have at least 1 gun firing. I often have moved such that I fly past an enemy ship and suddenly start firing with my ship's back gun as I reverse back toward them, a move most ships can't even consider trying. A high-speed trifecta ship is potentially OP though. It would depend HEAVILY on the lay-out. On the squid, it's EASY to keep the hull up. On this, keeping the hull and balloon repaired means not shooting, which makes it more like a fast Spire than a Squid. If it's hard to maintain, it might not be too bad. Just scary if it manages to avoid direct engagements.

Yeah when thinking up this ship I just wanted something fast and agile like the squid but with a little more killing power I came up with 2 ideas one was a ship that had 2 guns on the front and 1 on the back allowing it to fly by and shoot while it was charging and going. But since that is a tactic that is actually used on the squid I thought it was still to close to being a squid so I came up with all sorts of weird ideas in an attempt to make it different like having the balloons on the side with the hull suspended in the middle so it could use a balloon block simply by flying past a ship. I don't know if that would change it enough or if it would just make a better squid.

The other idea was this one simply because with all guns on the front it actually wouldn't want to get close for fear of the enemy getting out of its arc. A ship like this would have to play very different from a squid even though its stats are similar.

[Milevan Faent]

So, here's how I'd help to differentiate this from the squid. Make it FAST like the squid, but not maneuverable. Make the turning more like the Pyra, with decent (but not great) vertical maneuverability, and suddenly you have a ship that can get into position fast, can fight well, but has trouble keeping the guns on arc in a brawl. Likewise, to dish out maximum damage, you have to sacrifice the ability to keep the ship alive, and as it's fragile, that's dangerous. This means you have a ship that will have a variety of ways to play, but require a well coordinated team, much like the Spire, only faster in horizontal mobility, and lacking the heavy killing power that a Spire has. Spire would also be more maneuverable overall, thus leaving it with it's role. At least in theory.