Author Topic: Guns of Icarus Print Guide  (Read 14580 times)

Offline Arrow Windwhistler

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Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« on: July 18, 2015, 01:15:19 pm »
So, as a few of you may have heard, I'm working on a Guns of Icarus user guide for print. It's my final assignment in a technical communications course. Yes, it's actually going to print. Hell, I'm gonna send it to Muse Games when it's done.

When's it gonna be done? The final due date is the end of August, so it's coming up quickly.

What's the objective of the guide? It's not to tell people everything - that's what the wiki's for. This is a print user guide to people getting started. They don't need to know all the advanced stuff, but they should know enough to get started. You know how new players barely know to use the Pyramidion's front guns as its main weapons? The guide's supposed to fix issues like that.

Okay, so a print manual isn't really gonna fix that. True. The assignment though called for a print manual, and so I'm doing a print manual.

How can you help?
Well, I'm looking for reviewers right now to make sure the stuff I'm saying is at least accurate insofar as a novice is concerned.

I'm also looking for layout ideas.

If you happen to be epic at Adobe FrameMaker, I need to talk to you.

The file's too big to send as an attachment, so I'll need to email it instead.

People who help can, at their wanting, have their name added to it (space pending; will not have more than 1 page for names, after all).

So yeah. Who wants to help me out with this thing?

Offline BlackenedPies

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2015, 04:41:05 pm »
I'll help review

Offline Arrow Windwhistler

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2015, 04:50:50 pm »
Okay, I'll need an email to send a draft to.

Offline Lueosi

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2015, 05:05:36 pm »
As one of the recent Wiki authors I'd like to review too. Email via pm.

Offline Arrow Windwhistler

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2015, 05:15:01 pm »
Alright, it's been sent out.  :)

Offline Lueosi

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2015, 05:35:53 pm »
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The My Clan button is only available if you are a clan member
You should take a look at how it looks like if you are not member of a clan. I think the button is "Create a clan" or so. Definitely useful for fresh new players.

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The Leaderboards show the highest-scoring players.
Currently the leaderboard doesn't show anything, but it's purpose is to display a ranking of current competitive clans. In fact the weekly skirmish event (SCS) will implement this ranking based on participation and wins in the very near future.

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Guns of Icarus Online runs regular community events, such as fighting the game’s developers for
free items. Upcoming events are shown here.
I would also mention the regular semi-competitive (VIP, Iron Fork) and competitive events (SCS).

Offline Arrow Windwhistler

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2015, 05:51:18 pm »
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The My Clan button is only available if you are a clan member
You should take a look at how it looks like if you are not member of a clan. I think the button is "Create a clan" or so. Definitely useful for fresh new players.

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The Leaderboards show the highest-scoring players.
Currently the leaderboard doesn't show anything, but it's purpose is to display a ranking of current competitive clans. In fact the weekly skirmish event (SCS) will implement this ranking based on participation and wins in the very near future.

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Guns of Icarus Online runs regular community events, such as fighting the game’s developers for
free items. Upcoming events are shown here.
I would also mention the regular semi-competitive (VIP, Iron Fork) and competitive events (SCS).

Alright, I've made quick mention of competitive/semi competitive events, and the leaderboard thing. The "My clan" not showing up is going to be a little more difficult since I'm already in a clan, so any screenshots I'm taking are obviously not going to appear properly.

Offline Lueosi

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2015, 06:18:31 pm »
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While there are currently seven ships available to players, those under
level 8 will be restricted to three ships
I think you should explicitly mention the restriction only goes for novice matches.

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Figureheads appear on the bow of the ship.
A few figureheads on a few ships show up at the front of the balloon.

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[Pilot - ] Can only be used while at the helm
I find that a bit misleading and would formulate it to something like Pilots can only join ships as captain.

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While no ship can truly counter another directly
I would say While every ship has the potential beating any other ship, some may have an advantage against some special ships.

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Pilots can also use their Stamina (default: left shift) to boost the ship without damaging the engines.
Nor the balloon.

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These tools can be selected by using either the mousewheel or the number keys.
You should discourage players from using mousewheel as one will activate unwanted tools when scrolling through them.

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The Spyglass, Rangefinder, and Tar Barrel require an additional button press once selected to activate.
I'm not an expert of the Rangefinder but I think you don't need to click. Also Spyglass and Rangefinder have three different zoom levels with mousewheel. Additionally you don't need to zoom in with Spyglass to mark ships which allows very fast spots.

Drogue Chute also lowers engines power. You should also mention some tools to keep their effects after activation for a specific period.


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he "My clan" not showing up is going to be a little more difficult since I'm already in a clan, so any screenshots I'm taking are obviously not going to appear properly.
If you are not the leader then you can easily leave and join again.

Offline Arrow Windwhistler

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2015, 07:04:02 pm »
Alright, I threw it all in. Thanks so far.

Question: Do you favour the current bullet point layout, or would it be better to have it in terms of paragraphs?

Offline Carn

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2015, 07:12:44 pm »
Out of curiosity, why is this in the Gallery?

Offline Arrow Windwhistler

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #10 on: July 18, 2015, 07:33:23 pm »
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GoI-inspired art, stories, screenshots, video, and other cool stuff you've made.
Well, it's not entirely made yet, but it will be in a month or so.

Offline BlackenedPies

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #11 on: July 19, 2015, 05:26:14 pm »
A couple excellent resources for stats:
http://ducksoficarus.servegame.com/
http://gunsoficarusonline.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Airships

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After selecting and equipping an airship, the pilot can recruit up to three friends to take into battle as crewmen - and will be responsible for maintaining the ship when struck, and also attacking enemies.
I think you mean that the crew will be responsible for repairing and shooting, so replace "and will be" with "who will be". It will make it clearer to replace the term "struck" with "damage".

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[Pilot] should always be at the helm of the ship, steering it to the best of their ability.
Depending on ship and situation the pilot may leave the helm to repair or shoot.

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A Goldfish, for example, will focus on presenting its bow to its target, as opposed to a Galleon which will want to present its side.
Perhaps this is a good place to explain direction terminology. For example "presenting its bow (front) [...] present its port (left) or starboard (right) side. Only the galleon and squid carry a stern (rear) mounted gun".

It should be mentioned that pilots should never carry spyglass and that rangefinder is only used for testing and shouldn't be brought in combat.

For the ammo section I'd recommend adding the stats, for example (-15% ROF) and (+20% clip)

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Burst Rounds
Should mention that it reduces rate of fire and increases clip size.

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Charged Rounds
Best used on single-shot weapons that require reloads often
Best used on guns with 2 or less shots per clip, which eliminates the clip size penalty.

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Greased Rounds
Reduces damage
Can also be used to improve the close quarters capability of some long range weapons (ex. Echidna Light Flak Cannon)
Decreases individual shot damage while increasing damage per second
I recommend heatsink in place of greased on light flak due to the much higher damage per clip and that it already shoots fast enough. This is a good place to introduce the concept of arm range and perhaps the example of lumberjack should be used instead of light flak for a couple reasons: light flak only benefits from heatsink while lumberjack benefits from heatsink, greased, and incendiary and that the light flak is never in a primary gunner slot where a lumberjack is always in the gunner slot.

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Incendiary Rounds
The 20% fire chance is applied to each shot that strikes the target - each pellet from a carronade will have a 20% chance to start a fire, for example.
20% is applied to each damage affect for each shot that hits. Since most weapons have two damage effects (primary and secondary) with the sole exception of flamethrower, shots have a +40% chance to start fire.

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Lesmok Rounds
Improves range and projectile speed, making shots that arc fly at a flatter trajectory.
Reduces damage.
It increases projectile lift by 70% which makes the shots have a flatter trajectory. The increased projectile speed has no effect on flatness.
It reduces clip size by 30% which reduces dps, but has no effect on damage per shot

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Lochnagar Rounds
Charged rounds are more practical for all the same weapons; avoid using Lochnagar unless the captain instructs you to use it.
Deals 250 damage, the same as a mallet. One mallet will fully heal a loch shot and light guns have 200 hp.
The main bonus of loch is that it reduces arm range by 60%, which is triple the bonus of heatsink/greased. Charged shouldn't be mentioned, loch is for close range on arm time guns.

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While [goldfish] ties with the Spire for having the second-weakest armour in the game
it also has the second highest amount of health in the game, and is far more mobile than the Spire or the Galleon
Third weakest armor after squid and spire. Perhaps the armor and hull stats should be added. Goldfish (400) armor (1100) hull.

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With the gunner manning the forward weapon, the two engineers will often separate the ship in
forward and aft segments. The fore engineer will maintain the armour and the weapons, with the
aft engineer maintaining the engines and the balloon.
The bottom engi will also repair engines and the front gunner (or buff engi) helps repair armor. Top engi is typically the position of the buff engi.

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The carronade’s usefulness on [hwatchafish] is not particularly notable, though it can be used to harass opponents with attacks on their balloon.
I prefer carronade to gat due to good disable power and better arcs. It keeps ships disabled and can quickly empty a clip with greased. It can be noted that the primary gun should be located on the right side because the left side gun is farther away from critical components.

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This loadout does not provide captains with many short-range options, as the only short range options are a carronade (also for popping balloons) and a mortar (effective only if enemy armour is destroyed). The Lumberjack’s poor projectile speed and arcing trajectory make it difficult to aim for novice players
Mortar shouldn't be used because it relies on an ally to strip armor. The lumberfish's only defense is staying in a safe position whether by staying out of arcs or running away.
Lesmok is required on lumberjack.

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[Blenderfish]The carronade on the port side and the machine gun on the starboard side do not aid this loadout considerably -  captains should keep the nose of the Goldfish pointed at their enemy’s balloon at all times.
Guns with 60 degree arcs like banshee and flame can be used at the same time as the heavy carro

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Skilled captains can then use the Goldfish’s mobility to stay behind their helpless target, popping their balloon as fast as they can repair it. Blenderfishes are very difficult to fight, but their range is extremely low
Blenderfish relies on ramming or point blank tactics in order to kill. Sitting back and popping balloon doesn't work against experienced captains. Range is mid-close, about the same as gat.

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The three default loadouts work very well with the Goldfish - all three can be used effectively even beyond novice matches.
I don't recommend lumberfish without plenty of experience.

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Banshees and carronades are less popular but still viable, especially on Hwachafishes.
I don't recommend banshee on hwatchfish. Hwatchafish requires a primary gun (gat, carro, flame) in order to break armor while the banshee is a secondary gun and only useful when paired with a primary.

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[junker]The two engineers will then typically choose who will man the forward gun and maintain the armoud, and who will maintain the two secondary engines and the balloon, and fire the two side guns on the upper deck.
Typo in "armoud", mention that the armor is repaired from the front by standing at the side and looking at it. This is required to rebuild armor, although it can be repaired by jump hitting. The gunner should help rebuild armor if necessary.

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Sniping: Using the Mercury or, more commonly, two Artemises
If artemis are to be used then you should use a trifecta. A few examples include triple artemis, banshees/artemises, and the classic hades double art.
Trifectas are very important on junkers and be easily accomplished by guns with 60+ degree arcs.
Avoid using lesmok gat due to low dps and high jitter.

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Pyramidions have slightly below average turning abilities but are quite speedy.
This is no longer the case. Pyramidions have very similar stats to galleon. Acceleration 2.25 vs 2.10 m/s2 and max speed 30.35 vs 30.02 m/s. Pyramidions are the speed of galleon.

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Squid Layout
Repairing engines on squid requires the use of engine jumps. Go to the ramps leading to the bottom engines and jump up at the point before the ramp goes down. Hit the top engine and continue to the bottom engine.

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Galleon Loadout
Double hwatcha gat works very well, but the double hwatcha right side does not. Double hwatcha cannot accomplish anything by itself so a heavy carro is recommended in combo with hwatcha.
Hades lumber flak, hwatcha carro is the meta galleon loadout.
Rear gun should be flare gun.

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[Spire] is notably somewhat slow, but its call to fame is its impressive rotational ability
Spire has good acceleration (double that of pyra at 4.50 m/s2) and excellent vertical movement.

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The Mobula is faster than the Spire
Mobula has the same max speed as spire (28.00 vs 28.01) and slightly less acceleration (4.25 vs 4.50 m/s2)

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Opponents who close the distance with the Mobula will give it considerable problems, especially if the pilot did not bring a Phoenix Claw for enhanced turning abilities.
Phoenix claw is not recommended for mobula due to the large difference between its turning acceleration and max turning speed- which leads to high turning momentum. The mobula has good turning speed and high turn momentum but lacks acceleration which claw doesn't help for. I recommend saving stamina for turning and for bursts of vertical speed.
Getting used to mobula turning is essential and I recommend taking it out in practice mode.

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Mobula Layout
The top gun can be repaired and grabbed from the helm position. I recommend the pilot bring extinguisher to extinguish fires on the top gun.

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Weapons
It should be mentioned which guns can be in the gunner position and which guns shouldn't.

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Artemis
Charged, greased, heavy clip, incendiary, and lochnagar have no use on artemis. Not gunner gun

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Flamethrower
Charged, heavy, and loch have no use. Incendiary is more effective than regular ammo, but at 30% closer range and less damage. Gunner gun

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Banshee
Charged, incendiary, and loch have no use. Burst doesn't add much benefit and reduces dps. Primary ammo heavy clip or greased. Not gunner gun

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Carronade
Burst, lesmok, and lochnagar have no use. Heavy clip is very effective at breaking components especially heavy guns. Gunner gun

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Flare
Lesmok is very useful on flare because the max range is only 750 meters. Heatsink is mainly for combat use. Heavy clip is great. Flares cause 15 fire stacks when they hit an enemy, but very little damage.

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Flame
Double listing for flamethrower on page 33

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Light flak
Charged is marginally better than regular ammo. Heatsink is the best choice for reducing arm range. Heavy clip has use for accuracy at long range. Generally the choice is lesmok, burst, heatsink. I don't recommend greased. Not gunner gun

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Hades
Regular ammo is better than charged and burst.

Perhaps all light guns should be listed together with primary (gunner) guns first, secondary guns second, and utility guns last. After that list heavy weapons

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[Lesmok is] illegible for the Hellhound
I think you mean ineligible.

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Hwatcha
Charged, greased, lesmok, and loch have no use, incendiary has virtually no use. Heatsink is better than regular at closer range.

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Merc
Greased, incendiary, and heavy have no use. Burst has limited use for disabling. Heatsink is good for disabling but is limited in damage to armor. Merc has plenty of range so lesmok isn't necessary, and lesmok merc can be outrepaired except heavy guns and engines. Loch has limited use to instantly break armor.

Offline BlackenedPies

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #12 on: July 20, 2015, 01:42:46 am »
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Chem spray
Prevents new fires from occurring on a component for 20 seconds.
Chem lasts for 25 seconds which includes the 5 second cooldown.

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Requires multiple applications to extinguish fires level 4 or higher.
Long cooldown may conflict with itself (reducing time to extinguish) or with repair tools
You could instead explain that chem requires cycles to keep up fire immunity, and that it reduces repairs per second. The goal is to chem spray before you catch on fire, and if you are under fire it requires application every 20 seconds.

Rule of thumb is 2 mallets then chem. By doing this you are reducing repairs per second by a minimum of 22% compared to only using a mallet. So although flamethrower doesn't do significant damage to chem sprayed components, it reduces effective repairs and forces constant chem use. Despite this, in most cases chem is superior to the fire extinguisher and is the default fire tool for experienced players. Extinguishers have use for specific positions, but in order to get the most efficient repairs while being shot by fire guns chem is required.

Calculation for repairs points per second (RPS):
Mallet = 250 HP, 9 secs
250/9 = 27.8 rps
With 2 mallets and chem
(250+250)/(9+9+5) = 21.7 rps

Offline BlackenedPies

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #13 on: July 20, 2015, 01:56:56 am »
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Dynabuff Industries Kit
Time it takes to buff is a better measurement than hits required. Engines take 3 seconds, guns 6, balloon 7, armor 10.
Duration times can be included: engines 120 secs, guns 20, balloon 90, armor 120.
http://gunsoficarusonline.wikia.com/wiki/Dynabuff_Industries_Kit

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Buffed weapons have a 25% damage bonus. Lasts only six seconds - activate buff only when firing.
Buffed guns do +20% damage and last 20 seconds. Gun buffs can be kept up perpetually by buffing during reload.



Offline Arrow Windwhistler

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Re: Guns of Icarus Print Guide
« Reply #14 on: July 21, 2015, 09:06:54 pm »
Okay thanks BlackenedPies. I mentioned the time to buff because for me anyway I always buff something until it's one swing away before triggering it. So knowing the number of whacks means you can count the number of whacks minus one to store the buff.

I'm fairly certain the gun buff doesn't last 20 seconds, I'll double-check that...