Good ideas I say, and we need more fighters. I see cap cap cap Fighter! cap cap cap bomber cap cao cao....
I yes want a cap, but Its not like I want all caps. Not smart. Guy with all caps vs a guy with one bomber = guy with all caps owned. As long as the guy with the bomber is an ok pilot.
2 cents spent, better go beg for more money...
Natsumi Hideyoshi (The Order) | Alexis Hunter (Liberty Navy) |
I like the idea of using a Mass Effect based combat system. It would actually work better with the Freelancer engine. FL is geared toward one-man ships with forward firing guns, considering you cannot maneuver in any other camera view and can only target one ship at a time. Fewer guns that have more effect.
The problem, however, is that to rework the combat system like that would be to depart radically from FL universe naval combat, which DOES utilize larger number of turrets, etc. That works fine in the Mass Effect universe, but it doesn't fit here.
I messed around here on DiscoRP for a while, got chastised for OoRP a bit, migrated to another server (ended up a server guide, somehow:P) and have since matured somewhat as I've gained experience with the mod and the way it works. I have messed with everything from fighters and transports, to capitalships, both on the attacking (and being attacked) ends.
Vanilla FL worked on the basis of weapon classes gradually increasing in power from C1 - C10. Disco continues this with their fighter weapons which works fine. Transports and freighters have their own gun classes. Then comes warships, and the issue of how to control/regulate them as well as making them effective combatants, whether it's a gunship or a battleship.
Rather than making the raw damage potential increase from Class 8 to Class 9 and so forth, why not use these last three classes as specific classes of weapons? Example, Class 8 contains anti-fighter weapons. Class 9 contains mid-range or "standard turrets". Class 10 contains heavy weapons (razors etc). In some instances, they may be allowed to overlap (where one hardpoint can mount a variety of classes).
How in the world, you ask, is this ANY different from a more complicated version of what we have now? Well, the difference is you can control the manner in which a given ship can be utilized. Say a certain gunboat is intended as a anti-fighter ship, it would be unable to mount anything but anti-fighter guns. Or say a certain battlecruiser is intended as an inclose cap brawler, he would have a bias toward heavy weapons and fewer lighter ones.
See, ALL heavy weapons fall into the same class, whether they are gunboat or battleship, the power requirements generally render incompatible matches impossible or at least highly ineffective. On the off chance a GB wants to, and CAN fire a LM, he should be able to, though he'll find himself unable to do anything else for a while. Whereas a battleship could choose to mount larger numbers of lighter weapons if he wished, perhaps to be death against smaller ships while ineffective against larger.
Besides giving you the option to restrict certain ships into certain roles, it would also allow for some of the variety and variation present in fighter ship to also exist among capital ships. As it is, you look at a battleship, it's a safe bet virtually every one of them will have as many heavy mortars as he can mount, supplemented by regular mortars, and then other stuff thrown on as a space filler. You largely know what to expect.
If this was opened up a bit, you'd potentially never know what a ship was armed with or what it was going to be strong against.
I do think something should be tweaked to bring capwarfare more into the realm of the engine's capabilities. As it is, it's difficult to do anything to anybody that isn't more or less in front of you without being an easy target. Might as well integrate that into the gameplay. On the main server, too, a less guns/more effect approach could potentially help some with lag during larger battles.
I try to be thought out and concise with my posts. Apologies if I ramble, or if my posts are useless drivel:P