Turret rotation when ship is moving

[Amadeus]

As it stands, having a weapons bot is substantially more beneficial than a human player. They have perfect accuracy, no matter how much the pilot moves the ship. This should change, and the fix would be quite simple- have the weapons crosshair NOT be moved when the ship turns, unless the weapon is at the boundaries of its cone of vision (i.e. the turret cannot rotate any further in the direction the ship is turning against, so the turret would have to start turning with the ship to maintain staying within its cone of vision.)

This would make aiming far, far easier for human players, evening out the playing field and making the weapons specialist far more fun and interesting to play, while still retaining some of the challenge, in that hitting moving targets would still be somewhat difficult.

[obliviondoll]

I actually think this way is good for encouraging coordination between the pilot and gunner(s). Guns of Icarus works this way, but the problem here, imo, isn't that players need help aiming. I'd rather see the AI get a nerf to their accuracy, even if it's only applied to shots taken while the ship is changing course, or only to the main gun, or even both.

EDIT: At worst, if this is added, the current system should remain as an option for the game host.

[zeeph]

Player aiming is good as it is right now, i dont want something that let my easily everytime.

[Capt.Cliff™]

Bots skills can be changed, just keep um low. Simple.

Turrets should be under ships too.

[obliviondoll]

Originally posted by Cliffy:

Turrets should be under ships too.

At the moment, from what I've read on the website, the game focuses firepower on top because you have a choice between firing on the enemy and exposing your own ship's systems to take damage, or using your armoured underside to protect your systems at the cost of being unable to return fire.

It would be nice to have a ship (or several, eventually) with different weapon/armour balance. Like a warship with its systems only moderately protected from all directions, in exchange for having weapons mounted in every facing. Something like that could have a front-mounted main gun instead of top-mounted, with smaller turrets mounted top, bottom and on both sides of the hull. Give the ship full omnidirectional fire, but with the armour spread evenly over the ship, its systems are somewhat vulnerable from any direction as well.

[Spongie]

I disagree completely with the statement that bots are better than humans. Bots are only better than poor aimers. I also disagree with having auto rotation etc. It really reinforces the teamwork between pilot and gunners to have "true" aiming.

Besides, even with the raised difficulty (we actually have to dock for repairs), it's still super easy for the pilot and gunners to coordinate, even without chatting, if you can get into the main cannon rythm.

1. Make sure turrets have clear sight of the target.
2. Stand completely still and wait for small guns to fire.
3. When small guns have fired, main gunner fires.

Wrinse and repeat. If your crew know these instructions they will rip through enemies like nobody's business. Main gunner may also fire before the smaller turrets if the smaller ones take too much time to recharge. The smaller cannon gunners just have to accept this if their charges are not synchronized well. That said, as long as everyone times their business around the main gun you should be ok.

You can even place yourself at about 5-8km away, strafe in one direction and as soon as you see incoming enemy fire, you strafe the other direction. At this distance, your strafing will have a minimal impact on the gunners and you can still easily dodge things like railguns and spreadshots.

[obliviondoll]

Having tested things a little (not too much though, haven't had a lot of time with the game yet), I feel justified in saying that the AI isn't super-elite perfect accuracy weapon lord or anything in my first game with default settings, but it would be nice to see its accuracy impacted by ship movement, which is something that doesn't seem to be implemented currently. I wouldn't think it needs to be a large effect, but a slight "scatter" effect when firing a shot while the ship is turning, accelerating or decelerating would help it feel more like a human gunner. That said, if I know what my pilot is doing (either because they're predictable/AI or because they warn me in advance, I've already learned to compensate for the most part.

[Spongie]

Actually, the AI misses with the railgun a lot when the ship is moving. It is a worse shot than me because at least I have the skill to wait for a good opportunity whereas the AI seems to fire immediately when charge is 100%.

[obliviondoll]

Problem is that it misses when it really, REALLY shouldn't, and hits consistently when it probably shouldn't. If the ship is flying at a steady speed in a straight line, it messes up railgun shots. But if the ship is spinning wildly but moving slow, it has no trouble correcting for the spin. Would make more sense for accuracy to - like a human - react to changes in movement and facing more than simple velocity.