(Still packing for trip)

One of the things I've been planning to do is create a special new type of weapon that basically fires out a collidable "shield" surface that only lasts a few moments. Like say a flat plane that travels away from the ship, and expires after 5 seconds or so, but during that time would collide with any other object (ships, missiles, weapons fire, etc). It would probably not move very fast, due to issues relating to high-speed collisions. But it would potentially provide a barrier against incoming fire.

Such a "weapon" would then be balanced against a) the size of the deflecting surface, and b) the rate of fire. If the surface were fairly not-huge, and the rate of fire maybe like 3 per second or thereabouts, it might make an interesting defensive option without totally being a "stop anything" option for an assaulting craft.

Some pirate types will no doubt point out that assaulting a fleeing ship can be challenging enough already, and I agree, but this could have some interesting applications for other gameplay.

Back in the old days of the pyramid universe and CTF, it used to be that once you picked up the flag, you lost all ability to turbo. You had to make your way slowly to your destination, while being pursued by your enemies and defended by your teammates. It could be interesting to go in such a direction with turrets.

So, anyway, I'm not intending to derail this thread (although it hasn't seen much activity anyway, in the last week, until Ghost's contributions), but more eliminate some forms of thinking regarding the uses of turrets. I see these as more defensive structures than offensive. And I don't really think that a 4-man Behemoth should necessary ever be more offensively combat-effective than four different pilots in four different fighter ships. But that in certain situations and use-cases (like a special mission to take a large, heavy item through dangerous space) there should be some strong benefits.

Capships are similar. Our only really aggressive capship is the Teradon, a true frigate designed to take on other capships. The Military Trident is mildly aggressive (at least it has swarms and things) but the bigger Constellation and HACs really have more of a "carrier / support" type role at present (this may change of course, capship roles are all still fluid). So, for now anyway, even the turrets on capships are mostly defensive. I intend to make them even moreso.. having them prefer inbound torpedoes when I'm able to equip "bomber" class vessels with Avalons and the like. The turrets are really more about defending the ship, and supporting the fighters and bombers (and frigates) who go about the process of destroying the enemy.

Anyway, I have to get back to my packing now, but just a heads-up for some thoughts of mine, feel free to continue debating. I'll read when I return.

aw inc come on heavy ships already have the advantage of being able to use weapons that aim for them have a huge amount of armor able to use flares that do 2-4 times the damage of suns move and comparable speeds and aren't even the right scale now you want to give them shields too? this is going to start making flying vultures and cents and maybe even mauds obsolete

pey... stop posting when stoned. And very cool ideas, Inc. Would I be too bold to assume that any defensive weapon would have it's counter-weapon? So there would be a wep that may destroy or neutralize a shield (but cost a decent amount of energy and do little actual damage to a ship) etc?

Or say, the shields might only stop energy weapons and not missiles (or vice versa)?

Very cool ideas overall. And the capships as support for the most part makes sense to me (in context of gameplay, not really rl) given that you don't really want cappies to completely overpower EVERYTHING.

On a side note...
/me thinks using cappies as launch points (slash defense points) when trying to take over a station is gonna be AWESOME.
Seriously though, the implications!

Back in the old days of the pyramid universe and CTF, it used to be that once you picked up the flag, you lost all ability to turbo. You had to make your way slowly to your destination, while being pursued by your enemies and defended by your teammates. It could be interesting to go in such a direction with turrets.


HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAhHAHAHA yeeeesssss. Do it you sorry bastards, do it!

I see where you're going now with more of a defensive mindset inc. With that in mind, have you thought about applying passive bonuses to ships with player gunners? Maybe you get a small boost to your max speed or your turning ratio or battery recharge rate. That would create an incentive to use a gunner without making them balanced for offensive use.

In a sentence: moving between turret and cockpit.

The idea came up on 100 just now, and several people liked it. I've wanted it a time or two.

In the simple case, this is really handy for a miner. You can max out your beams while still being able to shoot in an emergency, and you can lock your turbo and fire at pursuers while fleeing a sector. Steer away from 'roids first!

The more complex case is when you're running along and the pilot needs to take a bio break. Now you have to sit dead and helpless in space until their return. But if you could just crawl through that access tube.... Think of the non-stop round the universe flight possibilities!

I say the second case is more complex because it involves flying someone else's ship and that seems to be a forbidden thing right now. I'm hoping it could be done such that the gunner would still count as a gunner and not temporarily own the ship.

I'd like to see the ability to slave unused turrets to manned turrets with the same field of view. I.e. if two other turrets can shoot at the same space that my turret is pointing, then they fire at the same time.

Likewise, I'd ;like to see the ability to slave the forward facing turrets to fire at the main gun cross hair from the pilots trigger.

I agree wiith both Jzalae and missioncreek2, the same thoughts came to me when flying. Especially the manning your own turrets would make sense, much like in the Wing Commander and Privateer games.

Huh, a thought on practicality occurs. Just talking scenario without making suggestions at the moment:

A large capship jumps into a system to do some damage to (whatever). A large attack force is riding inside the ship and undocks when they arrive at the system to attack all at once (or maybe even rides in the capship and mans the turrets to protect the capital ship and get close to [target] without taking fire before undocking). Perhaps there should be missions where a capital ship needs to survive in order to destroy the other target, so the turrets are a priority for being manned?

And people are going to lynch me for saying this, but maybe caps shouldn't repair ships that dock with it. That way damaged ships can run home to uncle cappy and man a turret instead of being destroyed.

If turrets are primarily defensive in nature for cargo ships and therefore shouldn't really be able to kill pirates or bots as much as cause them greif long enough for the larger ship to get away, then the 'wall gun' makes sense. Maybe another possibility is a kinetic weapon? Something that has a super short range but will knock ships into a spin and away when hit (like getting hit with a missle only not as much damage). Just something to keep the buggers off of you long enough to get away.

Capital-class gauss turrets do have a kinetic effect, but do more damage than most rockets. I'd like to see a scaled-down version for small turrets.