While I'm in a SS, what am I doing for the team?
I'm discovering asteroid fields for my (other) miners.
I defend my allies and kill enemy scum.
I'm locating enemy pilots who use the nullifier.
In short: I'm making my enemies reakt to my actions – simply by my mere presence even.
But most importantly: I'm flying a space ship - IN SPACE! How cool is that?
Also: I'm flying a space ship in the notion of doing everything I listed above.
What does the W.console guy do while I have my sweet space adventure? … Basically nothing – at least nothing untill someone (and usually only in the end game when the fully/decently upgraded BC) comes along to shoot at.
I think THIS is why every captain in their right mind will man the W.console with a drone early/mid game when you don't need to compensate with a player's skill to adjust to the enemy's energy (shields) management.
Now, to solve this 'boredom-problem' at the W.console, I propose to you, a new type of weapon system which can be launched from the front of the BC by the W.console for energy, but cannot be handled by a drone since it's too complicated for the simple right-click-spam drone to handle, but will feel natural to a human player.
I speak of the Guided Torpedo!
When hitting „T“ or the button in the command card, the player launches a mid-range, (maybe) slow (I'll leave the speed up to your personal preference, Siretu) Torpedo with limited duration of flight before self destruct (blowing up) and the option to detonate it at will (before fuel runs out, or because you reached your destination).
The special gimmick to this is – as the name already implies – that it can be steered by the player by either the „A“ and „D“ keys which will alter the angle at which it is traveling by a set amount XOR just use the RMB to steer it like a SS currently is, which would require less skill, but would allow for more precise manouvers – which in turn will show off your skill when … let's say you pass though an asteroid field to reach that AI miner or even a wraith who thinks he's so smart to hide behind one instead of trying to shoot it down (+showing skill in avoiding counter measures).
Yes, I didn't mention it untill now, but I think you should be able to run away from it and a SS should be able to shoot it down (with enough skill to avoid crashing into it and miners should have upgrades and/or their red beam activated to handle this threat (or just simply avoid it of course, which will stop them from mining a bit)).
The Guided Torpedo should do the following:
It should handle as if you launched a SS from the hangar console (changing the camera, command card, deselect the marine and change controled unit to Guided Torpedo and so on …).
It's speed should not be possible to be altered mid-flight and let it turn like … let's say a destroyer or less even.
The player should be able to detonate it prematurely with maybe the „F“ key or „D“ for „Detonate“
Fuel: The amount of fuel available should be indicated by the throttle bar which is already a given to any SS and also, this should make it properly intuitive for a noob as an indicaton of how much longer you can fly before self destruct (the throttle bar grows smaller as you reach zero fuel – don't be misguided, speed won't change, just the indicator or just make it deplete mana - this might be easier to program).
I think it's obvious, but I'll say it anyway: self destruct should be like a player's „Detonation“ command (If mFuel <= 0 Then Run 'Detonate' EndIf). This should minimize frustration caused by lack of skill and bring a feeling of "Oh man! So close... you won't get away next time!".
„Detonation“ should be an AoE-blast like the sieged tank's – allowing for friendly fire if used incorrectly, or the enemy is somehow skilled enough to use your torpedo against nearby AI-miners if controled by a stubborn noob. (please kick trolls abusing friendly fire extensively ;D)
The Guided Torpedo should NOT „Detonate“ on raming an object, but instead lose hull (I said 'hull' so it can be upgraded alongside SS' hull points (+hull from upgrades should be minimal, but compensate for enemy upgrades in a ½ or 1/3 ratio) and fail to detonate if it is „killed“.
It should have a cooldown – maybe as long as the cooldown for the BC's boosters... 30 seconds or something after rebuilding is initiated – it should thereby feel like an awesome experience instead of a spamy projectile which you wouldn't have to handle with any care whatsoever. Explane it with internal construction-nanobots in the imaginary Torpedo Bay (By that I also mean, that you don't need to build a torpedo seperately in the construction console, otherwise it would be too much work to handle for a newbie – this is an arcade game afterall
).Balance for skill:
While the features I listed make the Guided Torpedo seem OP to some players, I want to reasure you that in actuality I did not intend it to be so.
In fact, I want it to be weak as crud, but be unlocked from the start of the match so that a captain can make a well educated decision on whether he/she wants to upgrade it for his Weapons-buddy or if upgrades would be wasted on a noob.
How will this new toy bring balance for skill?
While a newbie should be able to harras enemy miners and maybe also help out his teammates in trouble, a skilled player should be able to explore its' wast potential when upgraded or mabe even without any upgrades. Although this doesn't seem like much, a skilled enemy will render it nearly useless except for AI miners who will boost away on sight – stoping/hindering them from mining. Upgrades on the other hand may narrow down diminishing returns in skill comparisons (depending on the upgrades Siretu will be willing to implement of course).
As one additional counter measure except flying away from it or shooting it down, I just thought of a wraith who could EMP the GT to make it explode prematurely or make the pilot lose control over its steering to maybe make it damage the enemy instead for instance.
Upgrades for the Guided Torpedo:
I am aware, that this is a very delicate topic, so I'll try to think of upgrades that won't affect balance too much but still make the GT somewhat useful, so people won't be scared off or start hating on the idea simply for the sake of arguing. Remember, that the GT is meant for support purposes, so that the poor soul on W.console doesn't need to die of boredom, but also feel amazing, when killing off an already weakened enemy.
Upgrades that have an effect on the GT:
SS Hull upgrade -> increases the GT's hull very slightly (to compensate for enemy dmg upgrades in a ½ or maybe only a 1/3 ratio).
SS Energy upgrade -> inreases fuel efficiency/mana amount very slightly, thus increasing effective range.
BC Turn rate thingy researched -> increases the GT's turning rate slighly or unlock a similar spell for the GT.
These will upgrade the GT for a noob even though the captain is against utilizing it and make it a bit more useful when reaching later stages of the game.
GT exclusive upgrades:
This gives a great opportunity to expand upon the branching tiers idea we already have in kinetics and plasma transfer (as a reminder: there are two more upgrades besides ionic ;P).
Branch A: Utility – gives the GT additional gimmicks
sub-branch Alpha: on „Detonation“: Leaves behind a weak DoT-AoE the size of a psy-storm for a short period.
Tier 2: More damage for AoE
sub-branch Beta: on „Detonation“: Leaves behind an AoE the size of a psy-storm which slows down all SS within the AoE for the duration of staying inside as a debuff. OR: reseting throttle to 30% in a 1-second interval for 3 seconds. Explane it with fluctuation in energy capacitors; or similar to when your SS runs out of mana mid-flight. Skilled players will simply hold/spam „W“ I guess.
Tier 2: increase Area of Effect (to 1.3 or 1.6, maybe 2 times a psy-storm)
sub-branch Gamma: on „Detonation“: Disables victim's Generators in an AoE-blast for a short period of time. The SS won't be able to regenerate Mana for like... 3-5 seconds.
Tier 2: Additionally, siphon Energy from victim(s). SS loses like... 35-50% of its' current mana.
Branch B: Power – enhances the GT's combat behavior
sub-branch Alpha: Increases speed – Warning: also increases fuel consumption (range keeps the same)
Tier 2: Decrease fuel consumption (range increases)
sub-branch Beta: Enhance mavouverbility – increase turning rate, accumulative with passive upgrade mentioned above or this may unlock an ability to increase the turn rate significantly.
Tier 2: Increase speed – Warning: also increases fuel consumption (range keeps the same again)
sub-branch Gamma: Bigger AoE-blast (same damage)
Tier 2: Increase Damage by maybe x1.5 – Noobs/Newbies should feel the need to find something better than the GT to deal damage against the enemy and that's when penta-bursts and the general laser upgrades come in.
I also thought of a third branch, that would benefit the launcher itself, like decreasing energy cost to build a GT XOR cooldown, but this thread is already hard to digest at once I think ^^. Please bear with me, I'm almost done.
To sumarize:
Noob VS Noob – Noob will learn to hit enemies, the enemy will learn to avoid and maybe counter it over time. The Noob may want to focus on AI miners if the enemy becomes too aware of the GT-spamer-noob.
Noob VS Pro – Noob will most likely not hit a Pro with a GT but maybe repell, maybe even kill a destroyer and feel good about it. Again, AI miners will run/turbo away, the Noob may find that funny and entertaining.
Pro VS Pro – I think a Pro might think of something else instead of dealing damage to the enemy. Disturbing AI and player miners might be a valid and respectable use of the GT. Not to mention the possibilities when aiding your Wraith/Corvette/Desroyer/Miner comrades in times of urgent need or scouting for enemies who might be nearby, cloaked by a nullifier or just make the enemy feel a bit more uneasy around you.
Again, the GT should not be able to two-shot Miners or seriously damage the BC over a big distance; I was thinking of a range from BC spawn to … let's say 2/3 of the distance to the centre of the map (BC might need to move a bit after kerm spawn for the GT to reach enemy miners behind the kerm-field so the enemy needs to keep an eye out and not just stand there idlely mining). It should become weaker the more upgrades the enemy gets, but keep up with them a bit with utility and psychological warfare instead of damage, so it will neither be OP nor rendered totally useless later on.
It's a toy for everyone and not a Meta-changer for min-maxing Pros (but I guess Pros will find a way to implement this new weapon system to their play if they so desire (see upgrades)).
Thank you for reading through this wall of text and I hope you can acknowledge the effort I put into working on this idea I got from playing Star Conflict (took me like 5-6 hours and it's 6am now
)If you want to get a feeling of what I mean; Star Conflict is a F2P MMO-3D-spacecraft-arcade-shooter – unlock a Jericho long-range frigate and try it out for yourself.
