New FPS shooting ranges (Debate)

[Rob]

Hello, I didn't actually know reducing the firing ranges was a contentious issue as I thought it was just a bug the fact you could fire half way across the map with a weapon completely out of the range of the other ships. While it was a tad satisfying blasting someone from afar with relative safety, it was a bit cheating.

The new firing ranges now put you into line with the AI firing ranges plus a little extra to give you an advantage, however the little extra still puts you into detection range of the enemy ships so if you do start firing, it would then start firing back giving you an exciting space battle rather than a sniper fest, plus you still have the advantage of the increased firing rate.

However since we are in Early Access I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject, nothing is set in stone and if everyone wants me to set them back to how they were then I am happy to do so.

The alternative is to instead make it so that if you shoot an AI ship from afar, they will retaliate from afar too, but this could cause issues and confuse people.

Thanks.

[tianlong]

Hello Rob

For me it feels way too short. I agree that the AI needs the same fire range than the player but at the moment it feels like i have to crash the other ship for shooting at it.

As special the fighters have a big problem now.

After the latest update i kill my cruiser when i have projektile weapons on it and shooting on drive.

And the fighters from the station hangar are not even shooting when they have projektile wepons.

My advice is to set the range 3 times longer for players and AI at least.

And the projektile wepons must fly faster.

But the new mining outpoast is great

PS: You did a great jop with this game, its like a wish comes true for me

[chefzero]

Flying in direct control was too OP. Just fly a Frigate equipped with Nuclear Torpedos and kill everything. So I'm ok with the changes.

It would be better if the aiming bugs on bigger ships are fixed first.

[piratep2r]

New player here; it seems to me like the range is really short right now, and I never was around for longer ranges.

Specifically when it comes to smaller capital ships shooting at HQ stations, it seems like they have to fly right up to point blank range before they start shooting at all. This seems quite strange. I think a significant range buff across the board would be good (at least current range X 1.5), but I know such things are rarely simple.

[loku]

Rob read my post under "ask rob" titled "why was there a range decrease". I go into more detail there, so I wont type an essay here but basically some weapons are completely useless now, and player battles arent as fun, and itd be much better if the AI could engage you from farther away. Not as far as you can, but if the AI gets attacked they should also be smart enough to fly into engaging distance.

I also agree with chefzero, the aiming bugs need to be fixed. And there needs to be a gimbal limit so its not as easy to accidently shoot yourself with the ship ur controlling xD

[chefzero]

I have two ideas on how to solve the aiming problem with bigger ships.

1. In the current state ships and stations flying on different levels to avoid crashes. On the screen in direct control the ships are on the bottom mid and cover up the stations. So basically an easy fix would be to set bigger ships on the lowest level (below stations).

2. The more elegant way is to group turrets. Simliar to the X-games you could assign the different views of a ship to the turrets (front, back, top, bottom, right and left). So you have to implement a turret-control terminal on the ship's bridge. This terminal then allows the user to control a group of turrets and to switch views via pressing TAB.

Pros:

• You can always fire with some turrets regardless of the direction in which the ship is flying.
• More fun for multiplayer coop.

Con:

• Big ships can no longer shoot at one target with all turrets.

Btw when I talk about big ships, I mean cruisers and bigger ones. IMO ships should be classified in small (fighter, mining ship, etc), medium (cargo ship, troop transporter, corvette, frigate, etc) and large ships (cruiser and bigger) cause not every type should be able to use every weapon/shield/tech.

[paffalon]

Hello, I can't say that I have noticed a direct issue with the current weapon range. However, the weapon range between the player and AI makes a difference. Even if it's a slight difference the small difference in weapon range puts you at a huge advantage when you circle around the AI controlled ships. The current weapon range also makes most of the turrets very ineffective at the range on a Battleship and the Monolith suffers the most. I will come back to this below.


AI Weapon Range

Honestly, currently, the AIs weapon range is to short. It would be much better if both the AI and the player controlled ship had the same range. If the weapons would have a fixed range it would be much easier to balanced it's stats when damage, firing speed and recharge time has to be balanced. With the range the AI has on the weapons the AI is at a disadvantage. The AI is not only at a disadvantage against player controlled ships but also against other AI ships. It may sound odd, but that is how it is. This is because the AI seems to have trouble with detecting hostile ships that approach from either the side or back. 





Player Weapon Range

While controlling a ship directly the range feels alright. However, with the slight range buff and enchanted weapons firing rate you are at such an advantage against the AI that a Frigate can easily take out 6 cruisers on its own. I like the enchanted firing speed you have when you are controlling a ship directly. However, the weapons range should be equal for both the players and AI.

When you have figured out how much of extra range you have it's fairly easy to circulate an AI-controlled ship at that distance. Leaving you with minimal damage taken and completely pulverizing the enemy. 






Issues

When we reach Battleships the weapons start so have so issues. The battleships weapons slots make it fairly easy to destroy the ship on your own. Especially if you use torpedos. The Monolith have the biggest issue with weapon range. The weapons at the back will never reach a hostile ship and weapons in the middle woun't reach a hostile ship untill it's littery infront of the Monliath.

The aimingis also very iffy in both the Monolith and Battleships or in general when 2 ships are very close to each other. You can greatly change your chance to hit by adjusting your camera angle. This is more important on larger ships. However, some camera angels will make you shoot your own ship and completely pulverise it within seconds with high-tech weapons.


With the aiming, I believe a lock-on system that only alows trurrets to open fier to the target with on friendly obsacels in between. Would solve the issue with you damaging your own ship when opening fire.