Shooter mode in space

cehus · July 2013

This is sort of inspired from Nemesis when they did random phaser shots to hopefully locate the Scimitar. One thing I've always wanted in space was a way to blind target areas of space just fire all weapons just for the hell of it. This could add a layer of depth to players who want to feel like they want to have more control over their ships, or for Role players who would like a chance to fire a warning shot at another player.

Players would have the opportunity to switch out between classic STO space mode and Space shooter mode by the press of a button like they can right now on ground. When in shooter mode, the player's weapon would travel 10 km, and anything that comes in the path of the beam would take damage. Cannons and Torpedoes would work differently, The damage would be dealt to whatever takes the impact first. When weapons impact a cloaked ship, they would not de-cloak it, but there could be some VFX that indicates an impact. The player could then extrapolate the course of the ship and continue firing in that general area.

Being a complete idiot with regards to game design, I have no idea if you could use some of the existing ground tech as a base to start off of. I am not sure if this would be easy or hard to do, but it is something I'd be very interested in seeing. If implemented, would you use such a feature?

rattler2 · July 2013

When faced with a cloaked Scimitar...
"Initiate Maneuver 'Last Act of Freakin' Defiance!'" ^^

shadowwraith77 · July 2013

An old Star Trek game I have for the PS2 mad use of manual 360 firing with something to the effect you are saying, however on that game the weapons traveled much farther than 10km lol. As for hitting a cloaked ship visually it can be done easily by simply a small visual effect of ship side for a 1-2sec duration or in the case of a shielded scimitar a shield hit effect visual. However this would cause grief if it allowed people to shoot each other in public areas and sector space, because idiots would sit there blowing up people's ships for a laugh much like the do with the warp in while exploding bit.

cehus · July 2013

shadowwraith77 wrote: »

An old Star Trek game I have for the PS2 mad use of manual 360 firing with something to the effect you are saying, however on that game the weapons traveled much farther than 10km lol. As for hitting a cloaked ship visually it can be done easily by simply a small visual effect of ship side for a 1-2sec duration or in the case of a shielded scimitar a shield hit effect visual. However this would cause grief if it allowed people to shoot each other in public areas and sector space, because idiots would sit there blowing up people's ships for a laugh much like the do with the warp in while exploding bit.

Just like on ground, in social zones these abilities could be disabled.

aarons9 · July 2013

there kind of already is a shooter mode in space.. you just cant get to it without changing the options.

you can change the camera, giving you the over the shoulder view so to speak.. its how i fly shuttles and fighters..

cehus · July 2013

aarons9 wrote: »

there kind of already is a shooter mode in space.. you just cant get to it without changing the options.

you can change the camera, giving you the over the shoulder view so to speak.. its how i fly shuttles and fighters..

I'm talking about having manual control over weapons, not a chase camera.

racerexia · July 2013

To be honest, no, I do not want shooter mode in space. First off, this is not a cheap copy of Asteroids or something. Sorry to say that, because it sounds a heck of a lot of fun, but the truth is, if they did that, then they would have to alter the ship movement limits when it comes to the vertical axis, which is something I have been wanting for since day one. Now that would be extremly cool, but we can't have it, and to be freaking honest you can't have shooter mode without full control of that axis, it would be no fun at all. After that, in order to give some semblance of balance to the game they would have to allow ship strafing, that is manual control of the ship's slide ability, which would require inertial dampners to be disabled when it comes to in-universe mechanics. The level of realism required for things like that would mean the entire game engine would have to be reworked ground up. They might as well just make a mini game you play in space, like they did for SWTOR. Or heck why not a PVP space shooter a la World of Tanks, but with the ships you already have unlocked in Star Trek Online. That would be cool. Then all that you and I want to have in this game where it comes to space combat would become a reality. Anyway, while we sit and wait for Cryiptic to cook that up for us I will go look at Star Citizen and see how they are doing on their end. :cool:

PS
Hope you do not mind the sarcasm, its not aimed at anyone in this thread, I just felt like being cynical.

hypl · July 2013

So what about the 3-4 rows of abilities you have in space? How would that work? Ground shooter mode works because you don't have many ground abilities to use, so it's less of a hassle to cycle through them. They can also be mapped to a controller. Now imagine this with space, trying to cycle through 30-40 different abilities a handful at a time, or try mapping this to your controllers or l33t gaming mouse or keyboard. There's also shield and power distribution to consider, as well as throttle.

Unless space combat is revamped from the ground up to be more streamlined (which I seriously doubt will ever happen), I don't see how shooter mode in space could work.

sorceror01 · July 2013

hypl wrote: »

So what about the 3-4 rows of abilities you have in space? How would that work? Ground shooter mode works because you don't have many ground abilities to use, so it's less of a hassle to cycle through them. They can also be mapped to a controller. Now imagine this with space, trying to cycle through 30-40 different abilities a handful at a time, or try mapping this to your controllers or l33t gaming mouse or keyboard. There's also shield and power distribution to consider, as well as throttle.

Unless space combat is revamped from the ground up to be more streamlined (which I seriously doubt will ever happen), I don't see how shooter mode in space could work.

This exactly.

Look, I like how Ground Combat can be nice and streamlined and fast paced.

But in space, you are operating and commanding a freaking starship.

That is by no stretch and simple thing, because it's an incredibly complex machine you are presiding over.

I like that it's complex and varied, and frankly, it should stay that way.

hypl · July 2013

To add, this doesn't rule out the possibility of implementing a shooter mode for small craft. Since they don't operate at the same complexities as a starship does, this could work, and it might actually be pretty fun.

timezarg · July 2013

I'd say no to this. Here are my reasons: Shooter mode wouldn't work that well in space, it just wouldn't. Also, what you're detailing would create yet ANOTHER method of detecting someone in cloak. . .as if cloak-using players didn't have enough to worry about.

ursusmorologus · July 2013

I'd like to have it

a3001 · July 2013

I'll have to say no to this as well. I can see space shooter mode going well for cruisers and other beam boats, but not so well with escorts and anyone else using cannons as you'd have to move and get the target in your sights first before firing. It'd practically have to be foward fixed and at that point you're dogfighting. Not to mention that the devs will have to add some sort of Gauss distribution of shot and sort out the mechanics so that beam boats and their energy usage. I think I've made my point...

lykum · July 2013

few new beam/cannon specialties to take advantage of, equipping them the way subsystem targeting bonus works for nebula and voyager? had no idea subsystem targeting worked that way for sci, thought it was a passive!

icsairguns · July 2013

I don't know about a shooter mode but I wouldn't mind a scatter volley or fire at will at no targets. just random fire in what ever arc the weapon has to try and flush out a cloaked enemy.

Shooter mode in space

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