Fire Groups and Fire Control Groups.

[gn_leugim]

Currently we can group different turrets into one group, and toggle them on or off. but that is it. I though of a system that could be really nice to bring a new level of realism to ships and ship battle, which is Fire Control.

 

So, what is it? I've create this nice image/scheme to help you understand my idea:

 

 

So, first, the "Fire Control Groups" would be yet other properties of the ship that you could improve, just like number of turrets, number of system slots and so on. It could be enhanced by System upgrades or by special blocks as it is now the number of system upgrades.

 

So, now lets imagine your ship has no Fire system controls, 0, then, you wouldn't see any difference from how you play right now. all turrets try to point to your current cursor position and aim there, regardless of turret groups (even the ones toggle off move and aim at your cursor).

 

But now, imagine you have 2 system controls. Then you could do the situation you find in the picture above. You could create 3 turret groups (green circles, turrets are purple dots), assign two of these turret groups to each of the Fire control systems and let them aim, and fire at different targets (bright blue dots are aiming reticles/targets)

 

These could have orders, such as "attack closest target", "Attack selected target", "Attack facing target", to control where they are firing.

 

Also, lets imagine you kept the control of turret group 2 (the middle one) and 1 and 3 are on automatic control from the Fire Control Systems, you could shift to group 1 and the fire control system of that one would automatically move to group 2 and wait your orders (or keep previous ones).

 

The system would be controlled a bit like the fighter squads, but probably on the right side of the screen, to not mess up.

 

I think a system like this one would improve much more the gameplay as well the realism. why?

well, the realism would be better because this is how big ships would actually fight, imo. A ship like this would have weapons on all sides, not just one, so it could fend off attacks from any side. I don't believe Capital ships would have all guns in he front, which is a bit the system that now is favoured in the game, and in most space movies/games you see just that.

And gameplay wise, I believe it would be improved because, when you build destroyer type ships or bigger, it makes a bit sense that you, as captain, are not manning all guns and the driver seat as well. You are expected to command the ship, not do it all. you will be on the command deck, driving the ship, and telling your crew what to do.

 

Although I gave a lot of though on this, there are surely issues and other things to improve, so please, discuss :)

[koonschi]

Nice write up, like it a lot.

 

My suggestion would be, instead of firing groups, to assign turrets an auto-fire-on-can't-shoot-where-player-aims status, and they'll start firing at targets automatically, maybe prioritizing highly dangerous targets such as fighters.

 

They would go into auto-fire mode when the auto-fire flag is set for them and when it's impossible for them to fire at the location you're aiming at. Imagine having a turret on the right side of your ship and you're aiming to the left - the turrets on the right side have no chance of firing where you're aiming, so they look for targets on their side independently and fire at them.

 

Once you're aiming at a location that's in reach for them (direction-wise) then they'll start aiming at where the player's aiming.

[Volken]

Yes yes, this, definitely this. Also just a small thing, if a ship should loose all of it's crew the autofire shouldn't work for obvious reasons. And as leugim said in his post, we need to be able to tell the turrets what to prioritize.

[gn_leugim]

Imagine having a turret on the right side of your ship and you're aiming to the left - the turrets on the right side have no chance of firing where you're aiming(...)

 

That's sums pretty much the reason I started to think about this system, and in the end, I am trying to suggest and figure out a way to deal with this.

 

Regarding your suggestion, two questions:

1- " they'll start firing at targets automatically", how would they set priorities? 

2 - would be able to adjust the target?

 

I am more on the same boat as Volken, the ability to tell which targets we want to be prioritized is a big part of adding the realist I write about at the last lines. Otherwise, would be more like a "just a way of not clicking so much to attack (and mine?)" tool, which would not be bad at all. I sometimes get tired to click so much when attacking high HP targets, such as stations :D

 

nevertheless, the suggestion you give on the post could be another order/setting: dangerous targets such as fighters. Been able to dedicate high fire rate weapons (chainguns, anyone?) to target fast small targets, without having to do it manually, would be very good!

 

And picking the point of Volken, crew, one officer should be required to command each fire control. I think would be a nice touch as well.

[koonschi]

1:  Priorities would be configurable, but I guess they would mostly be the same (by weapon type). You'll want your chainguns or lasers to attack fighters or other fast moving, high priority targets first, then enemy ships, then stations maybe. Mining Lasers should also "attack" asteroids with resources. Rocket Launchers and Cannons should not attack fighters but ships and stations. I'm not saying these shouldn't be possible, but let's be realistic: No player who knows what he's doing will give other priorities.

2: Absolutely. They would reevaluate the priorities every few seconds (1 - 3, maybe? I have to check what feels good here), switching targets if necessary.

 

In addition, I also want turrets that can be set to always-auto-fire mode, so you can have fighter defenses when you're looking at the approaching squads.

 

I'll have to think about an easy way to set all this up that doesn't confuse people too much while still giving enough options and freedom.

[gn_leugim]

On number 1: What about setting particular targets? because I can imagine that, if two "similar priority level" targets are present, the turrets will choose the first closest one to target. Also, being able to choose a target, overriding the priority list, like e.g, asking the chainguns to attack the frigate instead of its fighters, would be a good thing, because, yes, there are some base assumptions on how you want your turrets to behave, but nothing is like being able to in the heat of battle, judge your self what are the real priorities. maybe the fighters are not so harmful and you want all guns on the cruiser, or the station is defenceless and every single firepower you can afford is helpful to deal with that huge fighter swarm you have on you. Having the guns grouped together would allow for a simple yet efficient way of controlling this, I believe. :)