I'm sure this will get shot down quickly, but I thought it would be cool to possibly outfit our ships with grappler arms. They are basically robotic arms that could hold weapons like blades and also artiliry like guns and such, but would allow for combat without energy/ammo based weapons. If you have ever seen the anime "Outlaw Star" then you know what I'm referring too. Thoughts?

I... what? This is space combat, not space giant robots.

Plus from a purely technical standpoint I don't think it could be done.

you mean "giant space robots"? Not what I'm talking about, they are just manipulater arms attached to your space ship, I could totally see the UIT in particular having them for mining and other endevors. True it would be hard to implement but not impossible. NOTHING is impossible.

no not impossible just not worth it. First of all if your looking for these arms to be used in combat then no. Not gonna work. Who here would allow you to get within 5m of them? Sure there's the occasional bump when your fighting but not enough for you to punch em with a mechanical arm. And for mining? You mean just as a cinematic thing or what? Sorry john but no.

What happens when you run out of ammo and all you had were missles equipped, Like I initially stated, I'm sure this would get shot down but I thought I'd suggest it. There are a few of you out there that need to open your minds just a bit though, wayyyyy to narrow minded in my opinion.

OK, it's sort of out there but not totally infeasible.

What if you had a grappler arm that automatically grabbed if you bumped ships in the right location? Hehe, you could be like um was it "hawkman" or something on that awful second series Buck Rogers (Was it called 'Seeker'?)

Remember his ship had hawk claws on the bottom and he would pilot it over his enemy and grab them with the claws. Man I thought that was cool in 3rd grade...

Maybe you would get all an enemies cargo and cause 25% damage after a successful grapple.

Maybe the devs should add everything I thought was cool in 3rd grade, I'll start working on a list.

I think this idea was shot down with one of those african elephant-killing guns before it was even posted.

Nice to know Genka =P

or we could use the arm as a mining claw instead of using the beams. This could be the really cheap one that you can afford from killing one bot. It's super slow compared to the beam and only gets crappy cargo.

/

I agree with Starfisher entirely.

@Hoax: I for a second thought you were serious.... Then I saw the last line of your comment... :D

well the way you all keep suggesting you'll all turn this into one of the most boring space based games ever. I'm just trying to suggest alternative things. I new it was would be unpopular but making comments that I am to the equivilent of a 3rd grader is uncalled for Hoax. If you don't like it that's fine, don't comment and the topic will go away. Otherwise make your statement for not seeing the need and be done with it, unless you wish to start a flame war! =P

I didn't mean it in a derogatory way at all johnhawl218. I was laughing at myself for bringing up that Buck Rogers show. It's one of those things that I thought was cool as a kid but watching it now it really sucks. I didn't mean to imply that your idea was immature, we have Genka for that.

I really would have fun flying a hawk man ship, but I do think it's a little dorky. So I added the last line to make fun of myself before anyone else could. Note I beat roguelazer to the punch =)

Really I was trying to come up with a way your suggestion might work, thus the line about:

"What if you had a grappler arm that automatically grabbed if you bumped ships in the right location?"

I thought that would be more implementable than an arm that you manipulate like the space shuttle has or something. Or the 'space bass giant robots' that Starfisher fears.

I'm not against random off the hip suggestions at all. I believe the devs are perfectly capable of filtering out what's feasible and fits their plan. I think of it as brainstorming, throw out any old idea, it might inspire a new thought that will work even if the original won't.

coolio, genka has me all worked up.

GENKA!!!!!!!!
(reference to wrath of Khon {sp?})

No, not really. Genka is an intimate form of Genna, which is short for Gennady, which happens to be my name.

edit: Oh, YOU were making a reference... I seee. Sorry then.

I thought your name was n00b? Intimate? Hey baby...

Hi sexy.
The rate's 500c per hour. And no tickling.

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wow that's great.

{BUMP}

WE WANT GRAPPLER ARMS!!!!