MusicKiller mentioned this on the Limpet Mine suggestion (which is kinda obsolete now).
Basically its a new button for ordering ships to attack specific modules.
You hit the Focus On an' it drops down a selection of "Engines" "Weapons" "Command" or "Suspendium" and available gunners will target the specified modules on the enemy target ship!
The focus fire should only be able to be used on identifiable modules ONLY though or it wont make sense. You can see the smoke stacks, propellers, guns and the bridge (through windows) on enemy ships so you should be able to single them out for destruction first, right?
This adds more tactical options from disarming the enemy for capture or making heavier ships crush themselves or even putting a stop to pesky small ships dodging everything!
..Holey crap! I made a valid suggestion in under 4 paragraphs YEAH!
It should probably be limited to targeting the front, middle, and back if the ship. Otherwise, a ship armed with several suspendium cannons could immediately immobilize anything it comes across.
I disagree. My nickname is Musickiller. With a small K. Don't worry, everyone is trying to write it that way..
Everything else seems ok.
I also wanted to add that dropdown buttons is a good idea. Small ships with large button list look crappy, so buttons like "focus on moving, firing, reparing/.." could be grouped.
P.S. it's 5 paragraphs since u spent a paragraph on saying how cool you are...
1) target any module. With no restrictions
2) target module groups
3) click a target
1) Easy to make, easy to understand. You can point on any module of enemy ship. No point to make any restrictions, because player won't see through walls anyway, and a sticking out propeller is an obvious hint. Why this option is the best - spmetimes it is needed to tear the ship in half.
2) Actually is what I thought when told Firebird to create a topic. Tricky one to make, because if you order to fire on "lift" group, it's a cheat way to find one easier.
3) May be also a fine option just to click on a palece you want cannons to destroy, coz there will always be only a chance that a bullet hits the target.
Anything else is stupid. Ask me why if you don't think so. Can describe, don' have time now.
Option 3 looks like it's the most balanced; it keeps a bit of the randomness in there (you don't know exactly where the gunners will shoot), but still allows for one to target the location of the engine/weapons/command bridge.
"Why this option is the best - spmetimes it is needed to tear the ship in half."
The ''mark the target module(s) with the mouse" options (3, 1) seems good, but the only downside is people will have a hard time in multiplayer unless they are a savant at clicking on fast moving objects precisely And accurately without the pause button.
I think the drop down to target module groups is best, you could get around the auto find thing by having gunners only attack marked modules that have some external indicator (smoke stacks, rifle butts, etc) AND when hidden modules are exposed by hull breaches they go onto the list of 'shoot that'.
I think aiming where to focus fire should be manual, probably even new players can effectively guess weakspots (smokestacks, windows, areas guarded with lesser armor.) An aspect of this that would make it very useful would be to select specific ships to target specific areas of the enemy ship. For example, I could tell my heavily armored ship with suspendium cannons to focus on destroying the enemy's weaponry, while I could tell my 2-3 smaller ships to focus on shooting the engine.
The target system could treat airships back walls on as a grid to allow even more precision, so say a ship was built a 16x16 square with heavy armour on the bottom right and weaker as it up and left, you could click a specific armour panel to focus fire on and say if you clicked he top left most block the grid would know that's wall 1,1 then the allied ship knows to shoot at grid space 1,1 on ship X.
This could be improved by say, clicking a target ship to select it, brining up a little transparent grid and selection and you can quickly tap arrow or WASD keys to select spaces, this reduces the need to pause and makes it more accurate then you can't like during multiplayer.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
MusicKiller mentioned this on the Limpet Mine suggestion (which is kinda obsolete now).
Basically its a new button for ordering ships to attack specific modules. You hit the Focus On an' it drops down a selection of "Engines" "Weapons" "Command" or "Suspendium" and available gunners will target the specified modules on the enemy target ship!
The focus fire should only be able to be used on identifiable modules ONLY though or it wont make sense. You can see the smoke stacks, propellers, guns and the bridge (through windows) on enemy ships so you should be able to single them out for destruction first, right?
This adds more tactical options from disarming the enemy for capture or making heavier ships crush themselves or even putting a stop to pesky small ships dodging everything!
..Holey crap! I made a valid suggestion in under 4 paragraphs YEAH!
Captain
A way to focus fire on a specific part of enemy airships would be rally nice, yeah.
Captain
I agree ! (not because you made it short Firebird ! lol)
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
If you want i could probably hit the 8000 character limit! :D
Commander, Engineering Corps
It should probably be limited to targeting the front, middle, and back if the ship. Otherwise, a ship armed with several suspendium cannons could immediately immobilize anything it comes across.
Commander
I disagree. My nickname is Musickiller. With a small K. Don't worry, everyone is trying to write it that way..
Everything else seems ok.
I also wanted to add that dropdown buttons is a good idea. Small ships with large button list look crappy, so buttons like "focus on moving, firing, reparing/.." could be grouped.
P.S. it's 5 paragraphs since u spent a paragraph on saying how cool you are...
Commander
@Clueboe And what's wrong with that? That cannon is large and heavy. that compensates everything.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
Oops.
Commander
You should only be able to target specific modules if you have a targeting computer.
Commander
bullshit.
There are 3 possible options.
1) target any module. With no restrictions 2) target module groups 3) click a target
1) Easy to make, easy to understand. You can point on any module of enemy ship. No point to make any restrictions, because player won't see through walls anyway, and a sticking out propeller is an obvious hint. Why this option is the best - spmetimes it is needed to tear the ship in half.
2) Actually is what I thought when told Firebird to create a topic. Tricky one to make, because if you order to fire on "lift" group, it's a cheat way to find one easier.
3) May be also a fine option just to click on a palece you want cannons to destroy, coz there will always be only a chance that a bullet hits the target.
Anything else is stupid. Ask me why if you don't think so. Can describe, don' have time now.
Commander, Engineering Corps
Option 3 looks like it's the most balanced; it keeps a bit of the randomness in there (you don't know exactly where the gunners will shoot), but still allows for one to target the location of the engine/weapons/command bridge.
"Why this option is the best - spmetimes it is needed to tear the ship in half."
Can't the same thing be done with option 3?
Commander
There will always be randomness. option 1 should be easier to realise. Anyway, let's wait for Zarkonnen, may be he'll say non of it will be. =)
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
The ''mark the target module(s) with the mouse" options (3, 1) seems good, but the only downside is people will have a hard time in multiplayer unless they are a savant at clicking on fast moving objects precisely And accurately without the pause button.
I think the drop down to target module groups is best, you could get around the auto find thing by having gunners only attack marked modules that have some external indicator (smoke stacks, rifle butts, etc) AND when hidden modules are exposed by hull breaches they go onto the list of 'shoot that'.
Able Airman
I think aiming where to focus fire should be manual, probably even new players can effectively guess weakspots (smokestacks, windows, areas guarded with lesser armor.) An aspect of this that would make it very useful would be to select specific ships to target specific areas of the enemy ship. For example, I could tell my heavily armored ship with suspendium cannons to focus on destroying the enemy's weaponry, while I could tell my 2-3 smaller ships to focus on shooting the engine.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
The target system could treat airships back walls on as a grid to allow even more precision, so say a ship was built a 16x16 square with heavy armour on the bottom right and weaker as it up and left, you could click a specific armour panel to focus fire on and say if you clicked he top left most block the grid would know that's wall 1,1 then the allied ship knows to shoot at grid space 1,1 on ship X.
This could be improved by say, clicking a target ship to select it, brining up a little transparent grid and selection and you can quickly tap arrow or WASD keys to select spaces, this reduces the need to pause and makes it more accurate then you can't like during multiplayer.