Ok, who here has seen the most recent Battlestar Galactica episode?

The fighting was badass, and it got me to thinking that perhaps we're a bit too spoiled with the autoaim cones.

What creates the tendency for players to do so much rolling (besides the default key layout, which is kind've absurd) is that the autoaim cone for most blasterfire is large enough for simple dodging and aiming strategies to work.

My suggestion is that you:

Get rid of rail autoaim altogether, compensate by giving rails more ammo.

Drop blaster autoaim (neuts, phase blasters, etc...) to the same cone as rails are now.

Drop gauss to a bit larger than the neuts are now

Drop AGT to Gauss autoaim.

increase all weapon speeds (except for flares) by 35%

Decrease ship speeds/accelerations by a fair margin. (the Rev C already needs this, but other ships would do well with it too)

Decrease Flare speed proportionally, this would allow players to net flares again, something which has become impossible with the high speeds, (the rate of fire+the speed means that there's too much distance in between flares to actually use a net)

This will create shorter fights, with more emphasis on aim. Shorter fights means that ambushes, first strike potential, strategy, begin to play more of a role than the 6 minute ordeals we have now.

What I loved about the fights in Battlestar Galactica was that the dogfighting was complex, but the resolution was fast. If you have the upper hand, the fight is over.

It would rock to at least test this out.

Can we implement these changes on the test server for a while?

I'm in support of it... but the thing is... There are people who will not like it... sadly enough.

And I believe that the auto-aim on rails hurts more than it helps.

I can understand wanting to decrease the auto aim and increase speed, that will make it more skill based, but decreasing ships speeds would be a mistake IMO. As as for shrinking the time of a fight, who wants 10 second fights, that's not fun, actually battling is what it's all about, not the quick and easy route with rockets, which takes little skill to use.

And on a side note, did anyone hear Starbucks monolog about war and dueling, my sentements exactly. But I think I'm alone on that one.

yea, the auto-aim on the rails, while useful under maybe 200m, actually is less accurate at greater range.

While I can see the gatling turret benefiting from gauss (or maybe slightly more than gauss) autoaim, what about the gatling cannon. As it is, it really only has the auto-aim of most blasters, and is far less useful.

So while I can see most weapons benefitting from these changes, I can see the gatling cannon suffering significantly. Why am I such an advocate of it? Cuz it looks really cool when fired with flechettes (and matches the paint on my hog), but is otherwise fairly useless. It needs its shots to travel faster to make up for its terrible accuracy.

I did John, and the first people who came to mind were you and Spacehunter. Funny that, and true concerning warfare. But I think the reason you may find yourself alone on that one just relates back to the state of VO right now. Not exactly a raging war.

Aww I came to mind, how nice�c B)

I've got nothing against the gatling cannon getting a boost. Its not even really a weapon right now. I'd say to up the spread, and up the rate of fire, while keeping the energy usage constant. And take away the autoaim entirely. (You don't WANT this thing to aim)/
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As far as shorter fights, the fights could still last beyond a minute between capable pilots. (I think that Nerde Verde and I would still have fairly long fights)/
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But there's no excuse for a 5 minute head to head brawl. Especially if we want Cap ship combat in the future./
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We'll need ships to get through their combat fast, otherwise the Cap ships will wipe them all out, individual battles won't even matter.

wowee! I fight for something for a year, and it's a troll. Shape posts pretty much the same thing, and it's the insight of the year!

Now all we need is Incarnite to come in and say "Well, I agreed with slowing down ships all along, but now that we have someone as grand and important to stand behind our decision as the mighty physicist Shape, I think we just might be able to pull this off! Oh thank you so much Shape for this grand opportunity to fix shit! May I lick your feet?"

PS: YEA I'M IN A FUCKING BAD MOOD BITCH, FUCK OFF.

I'm all for this Shape. It would make combat much more interesting. Possibly more reliant upon tactics and strategy. One thing though, that size increase for the cent needs to happen before we do this.

I'm sorry but the cent does NOT need a size increase, it's not suppost to be big, it's a light intercepter, WTF???

Since when did light interceptors get weapon ports equal to a station guard?

Why do we all of a sudden need to change the entire fightingmethod that has been used during the alpha, beta and a big part of the release?

Where did the notion of small improvements stay in the sake of balance?

That some speeds of the ships need to be adjusted, ok. But take these changes slowly... or we'll get another x months of complaints and moans and etc...

actualy if you want more BSG like combat you should either cut all ships armor by a steep percentage (50% or more) or increase all weapon damage by a similar amount. the reason the fights end so fast in BSG is because one burst from a viper's weapons cripples or destroyes a raider (and vise versa). this would also make ambushes and tactics more effective because well, your targets die easier.

as far as reducing autoaim and ship speed, it's not nesesary a bad idea, but i don't agree that it would make the game better (different but not beter).

Genka: the slowing down ships part was something I agreed with you on, which is why I added it. These arguments have been around for a while, but my main suggestion, to reduce all autoaim cones, has not (I believe).

The autoaim cones and weapon speeds, however, would make this a much more dangerous universe.

Actually, to add to this and that, John, one of the other things to come of that SCAR episode was the realization that, should you try to run from Scar, you'll be dead.

Now THAT is not something that holds any truth in VO. How many time have you (and others, including me) managed to book it without a scratch?

These types of changes would definately help with that. If we could make it so that not only would fighting be more dangerous, but once your into a fight, your in. Should you run you will probably die. People wouldn't be so quick to hop into a fight unless they really committed to it.

Hey if you wanna memorialize those track times be my guest :)

Addendum: Reset all race times.

shape, i think it will make the universe less dangerous, and way more frustrating for newbies (and me)

Why would it make it more frustrating for newbies?

I'd like to see this as well, if only to test it, but I think it'd require a client patch, wouldn't it?