Concept for an Irra Replacement Model

[Tenacity]

Yuri was able to start re-creating the old concept design tonight, this is what he has so far:

Obviously it's not even close to finished yet, but I'll give the master time to work =P



As far as the forward gun goes, I thought it might be an interesting change of pace to have a delayed firing mechanism used for it. In short, you'd click the fire button, for 1-2 seconds you'd hear a 'charge up sound' and light/energy would build within the mouth of the ship, then it would fire off. Alternatively, it could do the charge up effect and then have a high rate of fire on the weapon itself (anywhere from 6.00-10.00 perhaps), not quite enough to be a 'beam' weapon but something that had the feal of drilling through an enemy vessel.

Of course, delayed firing makes aiming much more difficult, so if you didnt go with the high refire style of weapon you'd probably have to have higher damage potential or make the weapon track slightly, like cruiser/bs missiles do.

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[Tenacity]

Also, quick gimpjob to represent what the Irra's forward gun projectile could look like. My suggestion was an oversized variant of the Singularity cannon projectile, perhaps heavy mortar sized.

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[Maelstrom]

I like the look of this thing so far. Now to get rid of ships like the havok that really don't fit in with the rest of the game.....

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[Tenacity]

Ok, I sketched up a new concept image for Yuri to use, based on his old 07 gunboat model (which was shown on page 2). This thing uses basically the same basic shape, but extends it out to cruiser size (obviously the whole thing would be scaled up a bit, the gunboat model looked rather large for a gunboat anyways) and adds features like the marduk intakes and bomber wings, as well as takes into account a design/location for the forward gun.

EDIT:

The bomber-style wings on the back would actually be reversed - the one currently showing on the top of the ship would be on the bottom, this puts them inbetween the tendrils rather than overlapping them.

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[Tenacity]

Size representation compared to something rougly the size of the nomad gunboat, and the new model for the zoner fearless cruiser:

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[Pingu!]

Its waaaaaay to big in last concept image. Can't someone just mod current model to include forward gun, because I fail to see what's wrong with model we have now.

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But you either follow our rules here and work with us - or STFU and GTFO.

[Tenacity]

Its waaaaaay to big in last concept image. Can't someone just mod current model to include forward gun, because I fail to see what's wrong with model we have now.

It's already big, and the fearless is a light destroyer - the Irra has 47% more base hull strength and more than twice as much power capacity/regeneration as the fearless.

Of course size is up for debate, that was just a suggested size.

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[Jinx]

size appears to be OK - if its a heavy cruiser.

the back looks good - the front looks too much like a vacuum cleaner. - its just too simple. - in terms of model design .... ( yes, i know its gimp and not an actual model )

its good to take a page from existing models - but its not too good to make it look like a kitbash.

think of what the separate parts of the models are meant to be. - don t add wings when they don t serve a purpose ( applies mostly to factions that don t care for aesthetics - and nomad ships don t appear to be build for looks )

also - think really really hard. - do you really want a F-gun?

nomad ships are meant to be balanced equally to public ships - no more OP gear "cause they face bad odds" - a cruiser with f-gun will be like the lib siege cruiser ( significantly less point defense turrets )

then think of what ships you are most likely to meet ( order / bhg )

and only then - decide if it makes sense.... .


an anti-cap F-gun makes sense vs. ships like the rheinland battleship behemoth. - a ship that actually CAN be hit from afar.

but you will face osiris and makos BBs - which are considerably smaller and more agile. - so .... does a F-gun really make sense for you?

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Tenacity]

the back looks good - the front looks too much like a vacuum cleaner. - its just too simple. - in terms of model design .... ( yes, i know its gimp and not an actual model )

Most of the detail on nomad ships comes from the textures and skeletal structure (which arent represented in that image), they dont have a whole lot of detail in the model itself.

its good to take a page from existing models - but its not too good to make it look like a kitbash.

Isnt really a kitbash since that other model never made it into the game, and was lost entirely. We're just expanding it's design into a cruiser sized ship.

also - think really really hard. - do you really want a F-gun?

nomad ships are meant to be balanced equally to public ships - no more OP gear "cause they face bad odds" - a cruiser with f-gun will be like the lib siege cruiser ( significantly less point defense turrets )

Forward guns are much easier to balance for pvp than light mortars, because they actually take skill to aim - hence why current forward guns have higher damage/better efficiency than LMs.

This irra model is more than twice the size of the liberty siege cruiser or blood dragon cruiser, shouldnt be any problems with keeping the turrets it has now and adding the forward gun, especially since nomad cruiser turrets are not significantly more powerful than sirius counterparts (and are much harder to use against small craft than other cruiser turrets, due to a 1.00 refire rate).

then think of what ships you are most likely to meet ( order / bhg )

and only then - decide if it makes sense.... .


an anti-cap F-gun makes sense vs. ships like the rheinland battleship behemoth. - a ship that actually CAN be hit from afar.

but you will face osiris and makos BBs - which are considerably smaller and more agile. - so .... does a F-gun really make sense for you?

It's true we're fighting smaller, less agile ships, but from my experience using the current Irra we already have to get relatively close to fight anyways.

The Irra is limited to 1.9k range right now, with it's turrets. It cannot use pulses or light mortars or anything other than basic nomad cruiser turrets. It's designed more like a battlecruiser-ish tank than the smaller cruisers which are meant to fight from 3-4k range.

So far, I've taken my cruiser against a Geb Carrier/Battlecruiser, an AI cruiser, an LABC, and a Liberty Dreadnaught.

Against the Geb, I had the help of a single scorpion gunboat, and once I got behind him where he only has 8 turrets to fire back with, I pretty much got within 200-500 meters and tanked him down.

Against the AI cruiser... he didnt stand a chance at all. The LABC was piloted by Gafwmn, a rather good battlecruiser pilot. Using turret steering, he was unable to hit me with any heavy weapons, and I ended up tanking him down at close range too, flying circles around the vertical axis of his ship to make turret lock more difficult.

The liberty dread we killed with two scorpions, my irra, and some assistance from a lane hacker gunboat. He did some heavy damage to my ship, but staying at 1800m or so and using turret steering, and with the distraction from the gunboats, we were able to burn him down as well.



What the Irra needs most for those types of battles is a weapon which it -can- use at longer range, but can also use up close. A forward gun is good for both. There was also the suggested forward gun that, rather than firing large blasts, would take 1-3 seconds to 'charge up' and then would fire a stream of shots, making targetting easier for it against smaller battleships and cruisers due to a high refire rate.


Anyways, if it's really an issue we can simply put a light mortar equivalent (with a large firing arc) in the 'mouth' of the ship instead of a forward gun, I just find the forward guns more fun (and challenging) to use - as do most of the other keepers, from opinions heard over our skype channel.

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[Maelstrom]

Wait, if you won every battle, especially against good pilots, doesn't that tell you something about the balance of the ship?

If you can take the hits and still get close and win, then you deffinately do not need a weapon with more range. It may not be your style of combat but it seems to work just fine. If anything, from your description, this thing sounds over powered.

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