I made up 2 new guns which would be a bit different in mechanic, with special effects on enemy ships. I really suck at pixelart, but i think you should see what it is supposed to be or to do.
1 One:
Coalthrower
this weapon would be really uneffective agains steelarmor and should do extra damage/higher fire chance
on the picture, the thing on the back is supposed to be the burnming coal which will be shot out
2 one:
Suspendium Cannon,
as suspendium reverts gravity when powered why not launch projectiles that just let the armor fall off?
This one is supposed to do heavy hulldamage as the suspendium lets the armor fly away. should do very less damage on crewmembers or slow them down.
could also need coal per second and ammo
I think we need more "utility" weapons/modules, like a waterstand who speeds up crews who walk through or (maybe the suspendium cannon) who slows or disables the enemy crew
I love the illustrations. :D I'd already planned a flamethrower of some form, and I like the suspendium cannon concept. I also want to put in a lightning gun, which is going to be very powerful but huge and fragile.
I get the feeling that an harpoon gun is in the spirit of the game.
it will be used on ships that fly in high altitude to lower them and thus making them easier targets.
think the harpoon guns should be big! and bulky and hard to use without decent aiming telscope.
Ship-based harpoon guns would be fun. The main things to figure out are how to make the physics work properly, and what decides when they get fired at whom.
Also, I totally want to have a boarder upgrade of individual grappling hooks:
would be so epic tho have a "boarder bay" wich acts like a gun and shoots crewmembers with hooks out.
about the physics: i think you could just let them swing in a predefined curve with vayring length that the crew will climb
On the topic of harpoons, I think that if you were slightly higher you could use the ropes as a rip line, or if the ship is above another it can parachute to the other ship and breach the roof.
I like that from a positioning aspect. You have to get your ship into position before you can launch an invasion.
Wrt/physics, a single-person grappling hook is straightforward. The hard thing would be ship-to-ship grappling hooks: how does being tethered together affect their movement.
I don't know how your movement code is, Zark, but you could model ships swinging around eachother by modifying the center of mass. I.e. if the rope is taut, then the center of mass would be along the rope. If it's not stretched taut, then just have it not effect movement until it's stretched again. Speaking of stretching, maybe the ropes could break if enough force is put on them?
Something like that could work, yeah. I think it's mostly a question of doing slack vs taut... Once I'm done with all the UniScreen and terrain stuff, I'll get to start on this. :D
Also considering switching to a more normal tech tree system so that you can have a bunch of different techs for boarding: hooks, gliders, and incredibly dubious Suspendium Jetpacks!
Suspendium jetpacks? Sounds fun :P Maybe they would have a limited duration due to the fact that they have to carry coal with them. Also, it would be fun to command your jetpackers to shoot ram boarders mid-travel!
So I've decided to rearrange what goes into which version a bit, which sadly means boarding has to wait till the version after next. OTOH, flamethrowers and suspendium cannons are gonna go in now! :D
Maybe a boarding pod? Depending on its size crew can fit into it, and you can manually launch it at the enemy ship, which will have to fend off boarders, to add to it, I think to defend from it should be an armory to which your men will be assigned to, they get weapons to defend the ship from boarders?
How about a ram and if you breach the hull, your crew can board the other ship?
Also would it be possible to have vertical weapons so you can fire down on a town/ship or if the ship has a very low ceiling level fire up at the ships above? Kind of like a cannon on a turntable like this:
RedSpade: use formatting to actually post the pic please.
And I realized that one of the default ships were just ramming, no guns, just nothing. Maybe implement the mechanic into that ship or something
In a multiplayer match, could there be a tech tree of some sort, and it would be like income, more science from more cities/towns.
There could also be duels over water or land where it would be just Ship Vs. Ship.
Another thing is to implement ground vehicles or something that can attack the ships, but not a immoble defense...
hey david. i had an idea of a sniper of some sort. its special power is to aim for a certain part of the ship, like if you tell it to aim for the bridge then it will aim for the bridge.
hope you like the idea and will add it to the game. game on :)
How about Mortars and Howitzers?
The Mortar is maybe 2/3 long and logicaly need space on the top and is expensiv.
It should has a low fire-rate and has only indirect fire except enemys above the ship.
Now to the Howitzers is min. 2/5 long plus the howitzer itself on the top.
It should get a high damage-potential and can shoot direct and indirect but really slow. It is really expensiv in money and ammunition.
The howitzer can turn its "canon" to aim at enemys behind your ship.
the design of the 80cm-Kanone(E):
Ahh, Schwerer Gustav, such a crazy piece of equipment.
Indirect fire is an interesting question - because shots can currently go through other airships and land formations, it's less useful, but this is actually something I should explore changing. If you can hide behind stuff, being able to use mortars would be very useful.
I just get a Idea with the Howitzer.
If you have a ship with a howitzer, you can bombard a city. This will cause that the bombarded city gets a temporary debuff like it's plundered and if the enemy do esn't stop you for a certain time , the residents of the city will rebel against the this enemy, but they will hate you more than the devil.
The enemy must attack you without his defences, but if you win this , you probely used many of your resources and must restock dthem in one of your towns.
Well, I'll just repost my idea of having large weapons that need to be stabilised or they damage the ship.
Also weapons that can be obstructed from all sides and still shoot but have other limitations to make up for it (such as, for example, taking up a lot of space as opposed to obstructable weapons of equivalent power.)
There could also be weapons that limit the mobility of other ships to an extent.
Why am I resposting it here? Well, it's because I posted it in another forum. By reposting this here I hope to
a) Possibly spark a discussion that leads to new ideas
b) Find out if Zarkonnen has any plans related to new weapons and such (I remember him mentioning that he likes the weapons that need to be braced correctly so they don't damage the ship)
My housemate came up with an interesting concept that ties into this the other day, which is that you could make a Suspendium repulsor by simply rotating the crystal by 90 degrees. This would push away all other Suspendium crystals - and the ships they're in. So it would be an interesting module to put onto buildings to prevent boarders.
@Zarkonnen: Orrrr, you could put it on your ships, let your enemy think they can board you, and push yourself away from them while the boarders are in mid-jump!
It would also be a good defence for ships that don't want to be rammed! This also raises the thought of rotating the crystal 90 degrees in the other direction...
As an aside, if you haven't yet decided on what the Dragon's Head Coat of Arms bonus is yet, I suggest it should increase the chance of fires on enemy ships and improve flamethrower damage, or give access to a larger-scale Dragon's Head flamethrower a la the Ram's head Ram.
I have a couple ideas that I'd like you guys' opinions on/ help fleshing out. I don't have pictures at this moment, but I'll try to whip something up on MS Paint in a little while.
Idea 1: Flechette gun. A shotgun type weapon that doesn't do a whole lot of damage to armor, but punches small holes through it and kills crew/damages modules. Almost like a high-velocity spear gun. It could help get crew-disable kills on other ships and be about the size of a normal cannon, maybe have a 4 block spread and do minimal damage to the armor blocks it hits but like I said, kills stuff behind it. It should have an easy enough time going through Steel walls/armor and wood realistically, but a tougher time with stone due to the tougher nature of trying to shoot something through solid rock.
In case you don't know what flechette is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flechettes.jpg
And an exerpt from that page to give you an idea of their use in regular warfare: Smaller flechettes were used in special artillery shells called "beehive" rounds (so named for the very distinctive whistling buzz made by thousands of flechettes flying downrange at supersonic speeds) and intended for use against troops in the open
They've been known to punch clean through walls at high velocity and their larger cousins Sabots Rounds were used as Armor Piercing rounds to kill tanks in WWII.
Idea 2: High Explosive block. A block in either 1x1 or 2x2 that contains a volatile explosive. And you're thinking "Wobbs, you madman, I don't want to put explosives in my already delicate airship!" Well you're right. Neither do I. But imagine; You're pushed back to your capital city. You have very little funds and the enemy is bearing down on your doorstep. You're desperate. You think to yourself "I wish I had something that would level the playing field and let me give my enemies a surprise that may make them bug off for a bit" Do I have the thing for you.
This explosive block could be slapped on a cheap-o little dinghy and sped at a larger enemy ship to do some damage to it, and make your enemies rethink the monetary risk of going after you. Maybe ram the explosive ship into their props so they can't escape, or drive it into one of their gun batteries to soften them up to other ships. The world is your oyster with the right application of High Explosives.
Obviously this second idea is less technical and intelligently worded than the first one, but lets be real. Everybody is familiar with the magic of explosives.
That's all for now, hopefully you guys like my ideas/have comments or criticisms.
(Also, first post sorry for the long post, but I hope I did well.)
Midshipman
I made up 2 new guns which would be a bit different in mechanic, with special effects on enemy ships. I really suck at pixelart, but i think you should see what it is supposed to be or to do.
1 One: Coalthrower
this weapon would be really uneffective agains steelarmor and should do extra damage/higher fire chance
on the picture, the thing on the back is supposed to be the burnming coal which will be shot out
2 one: Suspendium Cannon, as suspendium reverts gravity when powered why not launch projectiles that just let the armor fall off?
This one is supposed to do heavy hulldamage as the suspendium lets the armor fly away. should do very less damage on crewmembers or slow them down. could also need coal per second and ammo
I think we need more "utility" weapons/modules, like a waterstand who speeds up crews who walk through or (maybe the suspendium cannon) who slows or disables the enemy crew
Tell me what you think!
Aerial Emperor
I love the illustrations. :D I'd already planned a flamethrower of some form, and I like the suspendium cannon concept. I also want to put in a lightning gun, which is going to be very powerful but huge and fragile.
Midshipman
lighting seems pretty interesting, by the way you should imrpoove formatting its all pretty wierd, like double enter to make a space
Captain, Engineering Corps
It works for me lama
:)
Able Airman
I get the feeling that an harpoon gun is in the spirit of the game. it will be used on ships that fly in high altitude to lower them and thus making them easier targets. think the harpoon guns should be big! and bulky and hard to use without decent aiming telscope.
Midshipman
Sharpkris i think that would be a way to speed up boarding leter on in the game!
Able Airman
it could also keep enemy ships from fleeing
Aerial Emperor
Ship-based harpoon guns would be fun. The main things to figure out are how to make the physics work properly, and what decides when they get fired at whom.
Also, I totally want to have a boarder upgrade of individual grappling hooks:
Midshipman
would be so epic tho have a "boarder bay" wich acts like a gun and shoots crewmembers with hooks out. about the physics: i think you could just let them swing in a predefined curve with vayring length that the crew will climb
Captain, Engineering Corps
On the topic of harpoons, I think that if you were slightly higher you could use the ropes as a rip line, or if the ship is above another it can parachute to the other ship and breach the roof.
Aerial Emperor
I like that from a positioning aspect. You have to get your ship into position before you can launch an invasion.
Wrt/physics, a single-person grappling hook is straightforward. The hard thing would be ship-to-ship grappling hooks: how does being tethered together affect their movement.
Midshipman
maybe taking the speed of both, and halve the combined, or halving the smaller one if more heavy
Lieutenant
I don't know how your movement code is, Zark, but you could model ships swinging around eachother by modifying the center of mass. I.e. if the rope is taut, then the center of mass would be along the rope. If it's not stretched taut, then just have it not effect movement until it's stretched again. Speaking of stretching, maybe the ropes could break if enough force is put on them?
Aerial Emperor
Something like that could work, yeah. I think it's mostly a question of doing slack vs taut... Once I'm done with all the UniScreen and terrain stuff, I'll get to start on this. :D
Also considering switching to a more normal tech tree system so that you can have a bunch of different techs for boarding: hooks, gliders, and incredibly dubious Suspendium Jetpacks!
Lieutenant
Suspendium jetpacks? Sounds fun :P Maybe they would have a limited duration due to the fact that they have to carry coal with them. Also, it would be fun to command your jetpackers to shoot ram boarders mid-travel!
Aerial Emperor
So I've decided to rearrange what goes into which version a bit, which sadly means boarding has to wait till the version after next. OTOH, flamethrowers and suspendium cannons are gonna go in now! :D
Lieutenant
Maybe a boarding pod? Depending on its size crew can fit into it, and you can manually launch it at the enemy ship, which will have to fend off boarders, to add to it, I think to defend from it should be an armory to which your men will be assigned to, they get weapons to defend the ship from boarders?
Able Airman
How about a ram and if you breach the hull, your crew can board the other ship?
Also would it be possible to have vertical weapons so you can fire down on a town/ship or if the ship has a very low ceiling level fire up at the ships above? Kind of like a cannon on a turntable like this:
Captain, Engineering Corps
RedSpade: use formatting to actually post the pic please.
And I realized that one of the default ships were just ramming, no guns, just nothing. Maybe implement the mechanic into that ship or something In a multiplayer match, could there be a tech tree of some sort, and it would be like income, more science from more cities/towns. There could also be duels over water or land where it would be just Ship Vs. Ship. Another thing is to implement ground vehicles or something that can attack the ships, but not a immoble defense...
Just some random ideas
Aerial Emperor
Behold, the flamethrower:
Coming to burn up your ships... shortly.
(Also, I've edited RedSpade's post to embed the image.)
Cabin Boy
hey david. i had an idea of a sniper of some sort. its special power is to aim for a certain part of the ship, like if you tell it to aim for the bridge then it will aim for the bridge.
hope you like the idea and will add it to the game. game on :)
Commander, Engineering Corps
How about Mortars and Howitzers? The Mortar is maybe 2/3 long and logicaly need space on the top and is expensiv. It should has a low fire-rate and has only indirect fire except enemys above the ship. Now to the Howitzers is min. 2/5 long plus the howitzer itself on the top. It should get a high damage-potential and can shoot direct and indirect but really slow. It is really expensiv in money and ammunition. The howitzer can turn its "canon" to aim at enemys behind your ship. the design of the 80cm-Kanone(E):
Aerial Emperor
Ahh, Schwerer Gustav, such a crazy piece of equipment.
Indirect fire is an interesting question - because shots can currently go through other airships and land formations, it's less useful, but this is actually something I should explore changing. If you can hide behind stuff, being able to use mortars would be very useful.
Commander, Engineering Corps
I just get a Idea with the Howitzer. If you have a ship with a howitzer, you can bombard a city. This will cause that the bombarded city gets a temporary debuff like it's plundered and if the enemy do esn't stop you for a certain time , the residents of the city will rebel against the this enemy, but they will hate you more than the devil. The enemy must attack you without his defences, but if you win this , you probely used many of your resources and must restock dthem in one of your towns.
Captain
Ah, a weapon suggestion topics.
Well, I'll just repost my idea of having large weapons that need to be stabilised or they damage the ship.
Also weapons that can be obstructed from all sides and still shoot but have other limitations to make up for it (such as, for example, taking up a lot of space as opposed to obstructable weapons of equivalent power.)
There could also be weapons that limit the mobility of other ships to an extent.
Why am I resposting it here? Well, it's because I posted it in another forum. By reposting this here I hope to
a) Possibly spark a discussion that leads to new ideas b) Find out if Zarkonnen has any plans related to new weapons and such (I remember him mentioning that he likes the weapons that need to be braced correctly so they don't damage the ship)
Aerial Emperor
My housemate came up with an interesting concept that ties into this the other day, which is that you could make a Suspendium repulsor by simply rotating the crystal by 90 degrees. This would push away all other Suspendium crystals - and the ships they're in. So it would be an interesting module to put onto buildings to prevent boarders.
Commodore
@Zarkonnen: Orrrr, you could put it on your ships, let your enemy think they can board you, and push yourself away from them while the boarders are in mid-jump!
Midshipman
It would also be a good defence for ships that don't want to be rammed! This also raises the thought of rotating the crystal 90 degrees in the other direction...
Aerial Emperor
As it stands, Official Lore says that the Suspendium repulsion effect is non-polar, so there's no way to pull.
However, lore could always get extended...
Midshipman
As an aside, if you haven't yet decided on what the Dragon's Head Coat of Arms bonus is yet, I suggest it should increase the chance of fires on enemy ships and improve flamethrower damage, or give access to a larger-scale Dragon's Head flamethrower a la the Ram's head Ram.
Able Airman
I have a couple ideas that I'd like you guys' opinions on/ help fleshing out. I don't have pictures at this moment, but I'll try to whip something up on MS Paint in a little while.
Idea 1: Flechette gun. A shotgun type weapon that doesn't do a whole lot of damage to armor, but punches small holes through it and kills crew/damages modules. Almost like a high-velocity spear gun. It could help get crew-disable kills on other ships and be about the size of a normal cannon, maybe have a 4 block spread and do minimal damage to the armor blocks it hits but like I said, kills stuff behind it. It should have an easy enough time going through Steel walls/armor and wood realistically, but a tougher time with stone due to the tougher nature of trying to shoot something through solid rock. In case you don't know what flechette is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flechettes.jpg
And an exerpt from that page to give you an idea of their use in regular warfare: Smaller flechettes were used in special artillery shells called "beehive" rounds (so named for the very distinctive whistling buzz made by thousands of flechettes flying downrange at supersonic speeds) and intended for use against troops in the open
They've been known to punch clean through walls at high velocity and their larger cousins Sabots Rounds were used as Armor Piercing rounds to kill tanks in WWII.
Idea 2: High Explosive block. A block in either 1x1 or 2x2 that contains a volatile explosive. And you're thinking "Wobbs, you madman, I don't want to put explosives in my already delicate airship!" Well you're right. Neither do I. But imagine; You're pushed back to your capital city. You have very little funds and the enemy is bearing down on your doorstep. You're desperate. You think to yourself "I wish I had something that would level the playing field and let me give my enemies a surprise that may make them bug off for a bit" Do I have the thing for you.
This explosive block could be slapped on a cheap-o little dinghy and sped at a larger enemy ship to do some damage to it, and make your enemies rethink the monetary risk of going after you. Maybe ram the explosive ship into their props so they can't escape, or drive it into one of their gun batteries to soften them up to other ships. The world is your oyster with the right application of High Explosives.
Obviously this second idea is less technical and intelligently worded than the first one, but lets be real. Everybody is familiar with the magic of explosives.
That's all for now, hopefully you guys like my ideas/have comments or criticisms.
(Also, first post sorry for the long post, but I hope I did well.)