Forums » Suggestions

Ship Ports.

May 01, 2003 Rabid Panda link
Certian weapons should take up more then one port, say if you made the avalon one large adn one small. would this be possible to implement? Just think of the possiblities of weapons that you could make with these requirements. You could have classes of weapons like Small, 2x Small, 3x Small, 4x Small, 1x Small 1x Large and so on. A wide verity of weapons that people can master is always a good thing.
May 01, 2003 Celebrim link
I was reading some posts back from September and it looks like the developers have fairly firmly decided on the current port set up. More or less, the poster in September made the same suggestion as you did just now. I think what the devs have is a good set up that maximizes custumibility and keeps the interface simple, but it is probably going to be harder to balance ships and weapons compared to a less flexible one such as the ones you and I and others have suggested.

One of the devs recently said that increasing the number of weapons is not an immediate goal, but that they had lots of ideas for weapons planned. To a certain extent, I think we've seen less focus on really achieving balance lately than we have on making sure nothing can break gameplay. This indicates to me that E3 is naturally dominating developer concerns right now.
May 01, 2003 Cmdr. Freeman link
So there's no chance of a "small in large" upgrade kit (along the lines of mounting rails for putting a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" drive bay...that's how I'd see my idea in computer terms :P )?
May 01, 2003 Celebrim link
I didn't say there was no chance. I'm not a dev.

But since I discovered that this extact system has been in place since at least September (and probably alot longer) I seriously doubt we will see any major changes in it unless it becomes unworkable, and I don't see any reason that it will.

As far as the kit goes, I basically think that if there is ever a reason why you would want to mount a small in a large that the weapons have not been balanced that well. Large weapons should be better in every role (sniping, harassing, coup de gras, seeking, defensive, etc.) than thier small equivalents or else large slots are not the advantage they were clearly intended to be. It seems to me that the only real call for this was back in the pre-nerf rail when the rail was the only truly effective weapon that could be mounted in large numbers and as such was clearly the best choice for a weapon in a ship with a large number of weapon slots. The problem there was that a small weapon was the best in the game, not that you couldn't mount smalls in a large slot. Once the rail is balanced (and I'm annoyed that it isn't yet), the devs could create a large weapon to fulfill the heavy sniper role and if that weapon was balanced people would generally either prefer either to take a ship like the Hornet to specialize or else take that heavy weapon for the power it offered at the expense of pure specialization.
May 01, 2003 Acierocolotl link
In truth, I don't really think there's much weapon balance at all, beyond the gatling guns being superior to all small arms. I don't even know where to begin with large-class missiles and rocketry; it should be clear that the guns aren't balanced, as you only see tachyons being used (with the very rare graviton). Most of the others weapons are inferior... but that's alright. I expect it's not the final setup, by far.

The main reason I wanted to reply, actually, is that you wanted to write "coup de grace". "coup de gras" means "fat blow".
May 02, 2003 SirCamps link
actually, the adv/ gatling isn't all that great. It can be fooled (at least prom-mounted ones) by rolling-right-sliding left-and sliding up maneuver. That leaves you open to attack with rockets or gravs.
May 02, 2003 SyberSmoke link
Well I personaly would like to see some beam and turret nounted beam guns. I would love to see bewing able to buy a turret as an upgrade and then shoving things in...but that's me. But still...I would like to see some beam cannons...Please devs? Can we have some beam cannons? Pretty please with sugar and a cherry on top?
May 02, 2003 Nihm link
Well, if weapons start taking up more than 1 port, I think the ships will need to have a port upgrade...
May 04, 2003 MaloventEvil link
agreed. ships need a port upgrade feature... maybe score based?
May 04, 2003 Suicidal Lemming link
Never make anything score based! NEVER
May 04, 2003 HumpyThePenguin link
he he he...kill bots in sec 4 all day to get a torp upgrade...too easy