Suggestion: Add a feature to the weapon group screen. It allows to adjust the following things.

a) Adjust salvo size of swarm missiles. Currently, there's 40 to a launcher, fired in sets of 8. Why not allow for sets of 2, 4, 5, 8 and 10? This would probably not encourage spamming too much, but it would increase longevity of a swarm user.

b) Allow for the firing of double-taps or sets of three by fast-firing energy weapons like the neutron blaster.

This would also become important for capital ships, if there are to be CvC missile weapons that can be fired in swarms.

Opinions?

nice idea, be cool to shoot swarms in pairs :D

I agree, multiple firing options for weapons would be nice. One thing that would be cool is the possibility (with energy weapons) to push them beyond their limit, maybe overcharge them or fire them too rapidly, causing them to inflict more damage but run the risk of overheating or overloading, with various undesirable consequences depending on the type or strength of the weapon. These weapons would come standard with a safety that prevents this, but can be turned off if you desperately need the extra firepower temporarily.

WE dont need longevity of a swarm user, we want him dead quickly. :P

Hehe. But actually, we do want longevity for swarm users. Because if you can stay in combat for longer than just 30 seconds, you are a worthwile support option. Whereas with sets of 8, you can spam, and that's it.

I don't want to encourage spamming, on the contrary. Maybe delay should be increased proportionally to the decrease of salvo size. Doesn't make sense, but balance would be better.

I'd rather not see any delay increased artificially. Keep the firing rate the same, just give options for salvo size. The "balance" comes from the trade off. A bigger salvo packs a bigger punch, but uses ammo quicker. A smaller salvo conserves ammo, but requires a bit more accuracy and more hits to kill your opponent.

what about macs? their mice only have one tap.

New Macs come standard with two buttons, I believe. If not, you can buy one. Don't most people use joysticks for this game, anyway?

Even though my iBook has only one button, I wouldn't mind seeing support for two.

Swarms came in handy today. =D

The new Apple Mighty Mouse indeed has more than just 1 button (4, in fact).
And no, there's not that many people who use joysticks for VO, unless there has been a drastic change while I wasn't looking.

And yes, Apple should wake up, smell the coffe and finally put more buttons on their laptops. And send all the neglected, piss-poor not-yet-new-*Book-buyers a mod kit.

/rant

If you hold 2 fingers down on the trackpad and click the button it becomes a right click.

Doesn't that screw up pointer movement?

I have a now out of date iBook G4, and so have not yet used one of the new MacBooks or MacBook Pros. The closest I have come is being kicked out of CompUSA because I drooled on one. (Just kidding). As I understand it, using two fingers on the trackpad allows you to scroll up/down/left/right, which is very convenient and I wish mine would do that. I was unaware until this thread that it also allows you to "right click." It seems logical that this would indeed interfere with pointer movement, since it would put you into scroll mode. However, this is much more desirable than what currently happens when the trackpad is touched in two places, which is that the pointer jumps around (because it consideres the center or pressure between the two contact points to be "the" contact point). This hasn't been a problem for me in VO, but it sure plays hell with my aim in Halo if my palm accidentally brushes the thing. Currently, to right click I press <Control> and click, and unless you need the <Control> button for your fire button or something this has never been an inconvenience. I do wish that a right button were standard in the laptop line, though, but this is a very minor concern. Sure, fewer lines on the computer looks better, but one more seperating the buttons wouldn't hurt. And that's all I can say without turning this thread into a Mac vs. PC flame thread....:)

Hehe. And this is why I almost always use a mouse. There are nice laptop mice out there, and I hate the trackpad...

Back on topic. If possible, I'd really like to get a developer's opinion on this, but since they're busy with other stuff, I'll probably just bump the thread once there's less work to do.

Okay, maybe before that.

uhm yeah. that was a joke people. 'double clicking' has nothing to do with how many buttons are on a mouse. which is why... oh forget it. im moving to mongolia.

Good. Go feed some yaks.

hahaha... yacks...

Ananzi, rereading your post I realize you said one "tap," not "button." I read it as one button, but I see your joke about double clicking.

I've gotten so used to my trackpad that I prefer it over a mouse. I'm just careful about my other hand. I use left index finger for trackpad, and the right hand for keyboard controls. I beat Halo on Legendary Mode that way, and it works well for me. Took forever, though.

A toggle button to change salvo size would be great, though, with three or four customizeable presets to cycle through.

Seems to me that modifying your energy drain rate for added damage, 'overclocking' your weapons if you will is something that would apply more to beam weapons, as opposed to projectiles. It's hard to charge up a bullet. And yes, that is what our neutron blasters are firing. Shiny bullets, but bullets none the less.

I know for a fact from endless hours of playing Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 that it is in fact possible to charge up a bullet. If not, how come I hear that cool sound when my Mauler gets all shiny red and kills with one shot?

Seriously, though. If we're talking about actual bullets as in a mass driver (which a neutron blaster is not), you can overclock it by increasing the firing rate until the mechanism no longer has time to cool, and overheats, possibly causing equipment failure and permanent damage.

A neutron blaster is an energy weapon. Each shot is a pulse of neutrons, created by a device that is powered by the ship's battery. The more energy is used to produce neutrons, the more neutrons are produced, meaning a more powerful shot. This also would create heat, and so there would be quite a few components of the device that could melt or fuse, causing it to fail.

If the game kept track of weapon temperature, with an increasing probability of failure at a certain point, then a few new tactics are available. There would be a trade-off for a temporary significantly increased rate of fire countered by the risk of your weapon failing completely and being unusable until you have it repaired or replaced at a station.

As a side note, a real neutron blaster would fire a pulsed beam (pulsed, to qualify it as a "blaster") of neutrons at a target, which would cause structural damage at the sub-atomic level as well as generate extreme amounts of heat very quickly in the target. It would be very hard to sheild against, since it penetrates and heats stuff up from within. This is off topic, but I think it would be cool to have such a weapon in the game.