Suggestion: Tracer line during railgun charge up

[Nemarus]

One thing that has always been frustrating to newer players about fighting Gunships is that there is often no warning before you're hit by one. Sure, if you should chance upon a charging Gunship in your view, you go evasive just to be safe ... but that is not a reliable counter, especially if you are pursuing other targets.

 

One thing I think would help the game is if, when a Gunship is charging it's railgun, it puts out a tracer line for 15km--much like a Spartan Laser in Halo. This would give a brief warning to targets. If I see a red line pass around my screen, I need to abandon the target I'm pursuing and go evasive or find cover.

 

Yes, this would reduce a Gunship's ability to conduct a "surprise attack". But it would also make their "misses" more tactically useful. A Gunship could support an ally just by visibly threatening enemies, even if it doesn't manage to hit them.

 

It would turn them more into artillery instead of Snipers (the tracer line is analogous to the whistling of incoming shells). They'd likely need some other tuning--more survivability and/or a small buff to railgun damage. I personally think it'd make things more interesting. Others might disagree, and that's fine.

[Kuciwalker]

If you made this change then a gunship would never hit a scout. Not ever. (Bad scouts don't count.) You would have to reduce charge times and/or only show the tracer at high charge.

 

Guesstimating: if you don't reduce charge time, you'd need the tracer to only show up for the last 1/3 or so of the charge. (This would still be a huge scout buff but not immunity.) Alternately, reducing the charge time by about 1/3 (without a reduction in damage, i.e. you do the current full damage with a 1.8s charge) would also work.

 

The problem in both cases, though, is that this is a really big buff to scouts relative to strikes, which is exactly what the game doesn't need.

[tommmsunb]

As a scout pilot. No.

[Fractalsponge]

No. This would remove the point of gunships in competitive play.

[Kuciwalker]

blah blah comparison to missiles blah blah

 

Yeah, under my suggestion above to reduce charge time by 1/3, the DPS of a railgun would be ~1.4x that of cluster missiles. But the flip side of that is that railguns would still only have about 0.5x that of clusters + blasters (I got my numbers against dulfy but obviously stuff is super variable so add a +/- 0.1 to those ratios if you like). And unlike missiles, railguns are subject to evasion - against an evasion-stacking scout this is a DPS reduction of anything from 1/3 to 2/3 on average, depending on how much tracking penalty the scout forces on the gunship. And every missile break is also effectively a "railgun break" too.

[Zharik]

I'd have to say that I would rather see them have to stop manually before scoping (and not being able to hit a magic stop button).

 

As compensation, when scoping their ship should automatically turn to face the selected target when in 15km range (to help minimize tracking from the aiming reticule being the steering reticule as well).

[tommmsunb]

Gunships are balanced the way they are, I honestly think they're weak. I don't fly gunships and I think they're weak.

[Nemarus]

Yeah, under my suggestion above to reduce charge time by 1/3, the DPS of a railgun would be ~1.4x that of cluster missiles. But the flip side of that is that railguns would still only have about 0.5x that of clusters + blasters (I got my numbers against dulfy but obviously stuff is super variable so add a +/- 0.1 to those ratios if you like). And unlike missiles, railguns are subject to evasion - against an evasion-stacking scout this is a DPS reduction of anything from 1/3 to 2/3 on average, depending on how much tracking penalty the scout forces on the gunship. And every missile break is also effectively a "railgun break" too.

 

If the suggestion you are referring to is the one where railguns fire more often, but hit less hard, then yes--that is probably the simpler and more effective solution.

[Nemarus]

Gunships are balanced the way they are, I honestly think they're weak. I don't fly gunships and I think they're weak.

 

That's because you don't get focused by Aimbot and Kuci And because your skill in a Scout, relative to the vast majority of GSF, is so high. And because Gunships are the easiest prey for Scouts, your skill differential against them will be magnified.

[Slivovidze]

Before GSF, I played a game called Star Conflict for a brief period. There is a ship class pretty much exactly like GS, and it has this laser while charging.

Difference is, that in that other game the range of the gunship ship is not so easy to cover with other ships.

If gunships had this laser, it would not be a thing against their surprise attacks, it would pretty much make firing railgun a death sentence. Similar to Commando hammer shot healing in PvP (never actually played, but heard of it being a call for a kill).

 

As an absolute gunship hater and killer for ever and ever I don't think stuff like that would help anything. Competent players can see the charge nova from million miles away. Gunship has one shot on a competent player. And incompetent players will learn quite fast. If hit, it is followed by pressing R and removing the gunship from battle (either by destroying it, or by disturbing it). I would not take their finishing shots from them.

[Zoom_VI]

If you made this change then a gunship would never hit a scout. Not ever. (Bad scouts don't count.) You would have to reduce charge times and/or only show the tracer at high charge.

 

Guesstimating: if you don't reduce charge time, you'd need the tracer to only show up for the last 1/3 or so of the charge. (This would still be a huge scout buff but not immunity.) Alternately, reducing the charge time by about 1/3 (without a reduction in damage, i.e. you do the current full damage with a 1.8s charge) would also work.

 

The problem in both cases, though, is that this is a really big buff to scouts relative to strikes, which is exactly what the game doesn't need.

 

You could have the line have the same luminosity and brightness of the charging aurora - which scales with charge.

 

I knida like the idea because I think the one big reason that has caused so much of the gunship QQ is that most of the time it feels like your being smited from the heavens. I for one also feel like it causes to much paranoia because a scout pilot I am constantly living in fear of some gunship I might have missed that's about to vaporize me.

 

Fear/paranoia is not something that you want to invoke with a game, you want the player to be challenged but not terrified.

 

Also I think this plays into why people like to complain about BLC and blaster overcharge scouts because while the build itself isn't that overpowered given the long cooldowns on offensive cooldowns, it still leads to somebody having a really ****** game experience every 60 seconds or so when they get blown up with no time to react.

[Zoom_VI]

Similar to Commando hammer shot healing in PvP (never actually played, but heard of it being a call for a kill).

Actually no, in any competitive situation that beam doesn't help the enemy team at all, in ground pvp where everyone is within 30m of each other and has giant nameplates and casting bars there is no such thing as hiding, so the beam doesn't give anything away.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Zoom_VI

[Kuciwalker]

That's because you don't get focused by Aimbot and Kuci

 

False. Oh so false.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Kuciwalker

[Zoom_VI]

False. Oh so false.

 

You focus fire yourself?

[Kuciwalker]

You focus fire yourself?

 

The subject of that sentence was Rumina.

[tommmsunb]

That's because you don't get focused by Aimbot and Kuci And because your skill in a Scout, relative to the vast majority of GSF, is so high. And because Gunships are the easiest prey for Scouts, your skill differential against them will be magnified.

 

No, I play against them a lot too. Sometimes Alex tries to make me his only target. The way it is now, they can't get away anywhere near as well as other classes can (aside from bombers.) which makes stealth their strong suit.

[Kalphitis]

There is already an adequate warning system in place that shows gunships charging up a railgun shot: They begin to glow with an ultra-powerful god-like aura that expands to roughly 5x their size.

 

Seriously, it's not much of a mystery when a GS is firing.

 

What is a mystery? Knowing who the gunship is targeting....

 

Good gunship pilots will charge up and then switch targets at the last second to enhance their surprise tactics. To counter this, good players need to either pay attention to their orientation, or press 'c' to figure out what target they're really after.

 

If you add a 'target line' per the OP's recommendation, it reduces this little mystery/mind-game that the GS can play and will make the game less interesting imo.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Kalphitis

[Zoom_VI]

There is already an adequate warning system in place that shows gunships charging up a railgun shot: They begin to glow with an ultra-powerful god-like aura that expands to roughly 5x their size.

 

Yeah that would be true if I had 180 degree visibility instead of 60 degree, currently to prevent being sniped from the heavens you almost have to fly in circles to keep an eye on all directions.

[Sidenti]

...is this an actual request, or a joke like I want to believe it is?

[Nemarus]

...is this an actual request, or a joke like I want to believe it is?

 

It was a "Suggestion" based on an idle thought, and in the original post where it was suggested, I noted that were it implemented, the Gunship's survivability and damage would have to be retuned given the loss of its ability to make "surprise" attacks. Others then proceeded to engage in respectful discussion of why they agreed or (in case of most) disagreed with the suggestion.

 

That's all fine. It was an idle thought, nothing more. I'd say the most revealing thing to come out of this thread is that the newest member of my guild likes to carelessly fling insults instead of rationally discussing ideas. Good to know.

[TrinityLyre]

I think gunship railgun charges are fine as-is. They don't need tracer lines added to their railgun charges. Gunships are already easy as heck to lockdown (even the ones with ridiculously oversized egos) provided you utilize tab targeting and have a modicum of situational awareness.

 

If you want to enhance the newbie experience, there's likely better ways to do it.

Edited May 6, 2014 by TrinityLyre

[Sidenti]

It was a "Suggestion" based on an idle thought, and in the original post where it was suggested, I noted that were it implemented, the Gunship's survivability and damage would have to be retuned given the loss of its ability to make "surprise" attacks. Others then proceeded to engage in respectful discussion of why they agreed or (in case of most) disagreed with the suggestion.

 

That's all fine. It was an idle thought, nothing more. I'd say the most revealing thing to come out of this thread is that the newest member of my guild likes to carelessly fling insults instead of rationally discussing ideas. Good to know.

 

I can be a jerk in print. And in person. And, I'm told, in my sleep.

 

But seriously. A) Those laser sight things on the handguns and rifles from the old old old Cartel packs (you know the ones I mean) traumatized me that much and B) as you get to know me, you'll come to appreciate my sense of humor.

 

Or kill me.

 

Either way, you'll have fun. -bp

[GrimAce]

As a scout player whose greatest weakness is situational awareness regarding Gunships, and who hates them with a furious passion...I'm still against this idea.