Cannon Accuracy

[grimzod]

Quite a few ppl say the am cannon is too powerful. With a large one you can core a massive vessel in no time flat that is true for the following reasons:

1. Cores are always visible (radar is supposed to jam this but doesnt always)
2. Cannon can overwhelm shields with less resource investment.
3. Cannon are 'laser' accurate even at great range.

I suggest we change number 3. Heres how:
Assign a probability of scatter and distance of scatter (up to some arbitrary number, 1 = 1 square to the right or left up or down of the actual aim point) for each round fired. Spamming a lot of rounds is very power intensive but this change in no way stops you from hitting a targets shields if it is large - keeping the cannon relevant.
Small ships would benefit from this in that the cannon is no longer instant death for them if they attack a larger, better armed opponent.
This, if it is possible to implement, will make the cannon into a shield defeating weapon but not the SHIP defeating weapon it is now. You could also open the door for more weapons in the future that are mor eor less accurate with different characteristics that will match a far greater playstyle in the future.

My inspiration for this is World of Tanks. In that game they have a reticle that is representative of accuracy, crew efficiency, aim time. In WOT hitting a certain area can kill a tank quickly so this random hit area that gets smaller the more you aim is important in keeping the game going for a few minutes rather than ahving every tank ammo racked in the first 3 minutes fo a fifteen minute match.

 

[rity]

hmm, I like the idea of nerfing lasers. Maybe instead nerf the hell out of the hull damage they do, no scatter though. ( also maybe less shield damage) But then introduce something as a an intermdiate between missle and laser, like a projectile type weapon (ie railgun, cannon etc) that does decent hull damage, but has the aforementioned scattering. it should have some area damage, some shield damage, but mostly hull focused.

 

[Ambedrake]

Cannon accuracy would be a great idea, possibly with a balancer where a sniping accuracy can be balanced against damage cap. Say if you want a shorter ranged high damage beam you can do so since your in close the scatter is not as much of an issue. But if you want a long range sniper you would need to trade damage cap for distance.

NOTE : By damage cap I actually mean the maximum damage capable of the weapon regaurdless of length.

I would like to see the damage to hulls a bit more balanced though, as it is you need to make pretty much a space brick to last very long against almost any AM cannon. Possibly would even be worth implimenting a greater array of hull pieces in variable strengths. Right now we have hard and normal, why not have hulls in those two categories but with a quality level attached giving them greater resistance in trade for greater mass or something similar.
Doing both the scatter idea, possibly a little more refined, and a variable hull density idea together could make for some epic fights as well as some detailed ships both inside and out.

 

[bobucles]

There is one good reason to have less than perfect accuracy with weapons: It spreads damage across a larger hull space. This makes hull blocks more effective at long range, but does not hurt high accuracy drilling at short range.