Laser Point

[York]

A power up that gives you a laser pointer to aim. Ill stuff right there. Nice snipes

[cycerin]

Not that useful though, 50% of a shot is in the timing and prediction. Might be if it lasts for a really long time, but still, it's a crutch powerup.

[[Y]]

Laser aiming is for projectiles that fly so fast that they almost instantly arrive at where the laser is aiming. No such projectile exists in altitude.

[innerlyte]

I've thought about this before. I don't think it's particularly useful as a power-up, but it might be cool as a Community Points purchase. That way, you could enable and disable it as you please. The idea I had is that no one else could see your laser sight but you. Otherwise, it would get kind of annoying seeing a techno light show all the time in-game.

In terms of its utility, yes, you would have to anticipate your target moving, but I think this could still help people pilot planes that require greater firing accuracy. When a real life sniper takes a shot from great distances, he will offset his aim to account for bullet flight time and environmental conditions, so this idea of reconciling target and bullet destinations is not necessarily new. Two set-ups that come to mind are the biplane's heavy cannon and the miranda trickster. With something like an explodet, it would be slightly less useful (as its projectiles are considerably slower). However, you still need to have good aim to plant a rocket between the two rocks your enemy is taking shelter. It may also be interesting to see a bomber with a curved laser sight that followed the projectile path of grenades (A bomber that aims -- how novel. Also, yes, I understand a curved laser could never exist, but who knows with a plane like the miranda patrolling the skies). Of course, things get hairy when a bomber changes its pitch, and grenades start following strange paths due to gravity's influence. Maybe you wouldn't use the laser sight with a bomber lol...

The only remaining questions is "Would a laser sight be imbalanced?" I can't really answer that for sure. Personally, I would probably ween myself off it once I got a good idea of each plane's capabilities. Perhaps the laser sight would expire after X hours. Of course, implementing something like this shouldn't be incredibly high on the "TODO" list, but either way, it might be something to think about.

[Varonth]

Originally Posted by [Y]

Laser aiming is for projectiles that fly so fast that they almost instantly arrive at where the laser is aiming. No such projectile exists in altitude.

Sure there is -> Laser itself

[Evan20000]

Is it really that hard to aim with Miranda/Biplane (The only planes this would be useful on)?

[[Y]]

I've rethought this laser aim idea, and I think that there are only a few situations where the laser can come in handy. One such situation is if you're sniplane and you rev up so that your nose is facing down towards an enemy. One more HC shot will finish off your opponent, but in the case of thin-profile planes like the loopy and biplane, you have a really small target as they're facing upwards at you. If it is a loopy, then you need to make either the 1st or 2nd HC shot before they use tracker to auto-aim and spam you to death. With a laser in this case, you can just line it up exactly on the enemy plane and fire your HC shot without needing to lead your target as they're flying towards you. The laser aim, if ever implemented should maybe be green perk that activates when you press a certain key and uses a small amount of energy per second, and letting go of the designated key would turn off your laser (visible to everyone).

It would seem like a training-wheel perk, though. Much like rubber hull.

[innerlyte]

Originally Posted by Evan20000

Is it really that hard to aim with Miranda/Biplane (The only planes this would be useful on)?

Of course not. It's more of a novelty than anything else. I thought it might be fun though. Also, as I mentioned earlier, it would be useful with the explodet as well. When I first started playing, Maimer told me he learned how to aim with the explodet. The other planes came easily after that. Currently, most explodet players are not very good at rocket use and generally rely too heavily on laying down mines. Giving them a little nudge to use rockets more efficiently couldn't hurt.

[York]

This has to be a power up. Because, if it's a perk or a purchase you can use all the time, it would be unfair. Besides that, people who are saying it wouldnt help or you wouldn't be able to aim....well, it would help. It's not hard to aim at all, but, I do miss sometimes. Plus, you can use it on a bomber. I hate how every angle your plane is facing, you shoot differnt angles. It would help whale to.

[Triped]

Originally Posted by innerlyte

Of course not. It's more of a novelty than anything else. I thought it might be fun though. Also, as I mentioned earlier, it would be useful with the explodet as well. When I first started playing, Maimer told me he learned how to aim with the explodet. The other planes came easily after that. Currently, most explodet players are not very good at rocket use and generally rely too heavily on laying down mines. Giving them a little nudge to use rockets more efficiently couldn't hurt.

Interesting. I always considered the biplane weapons best for learning. It's not hard to turn explodet near-misses into hits by detonating the rocket. Then again, Maimer can hit me and I can't hit Maimer.

[nesnl]

The reason I always say to people to learn to use the explodet rocket well and you can learn anything is because it is the slowest moving projectile. It requires the most predictive ability of any of the weapons in the game and as a result you are really forced to understand the patterns of how people fly their planes as well as having to force yourself to be accurate in firing your rocket. That is merely an outline, but anyone who plays the explodet well (and I mean the rocket side of things not the mine spam) knows how that plane makes you learn about the game in a greater sense than the other weapons. And I agree with redshift (innerlyte) that most of the newer explodet players are horrible with the rocket and who can blame them, it's hard to learn its use effectively while it is much easier to just point your rear end at someone and spam D (especially with remote mine). I am hoping with new balance that it will push the direction of the explodet back in the direction of rocket use and then we will start to see some better players.

In response to triped, while an explodet near miss can be a "hit" with a nearby detonation, it is often times of minimal effect on the plane. Sure there are lucky hits, but we all know the explodet players that almost get a guaranteed hit when they shoot at rocket at you and you don't get out of the way in time. There are also other factors with rockets such as with director rocket you want to detonate so that the plane is between the rocket and a wall (obviously only one situation). However, with a thermo rocket you actually want the rocket between the plane and the wall to force the nose to turn into the wall. It is little things like this that most people don't actually think about and just hope to get a rocket near a plane, detonate it, and hope that it does something useful.

I know this post is getting long and drawn out, but I think that part of the reason that explodet rockets are less used now is because planes can use afterburners when they have the bomb. I know this will date me back well into the beta, but for those of you who remember when you couldn't use afterburners with the bomb, a well placed explodet rocket was absolutely devastating. A plane would literally drop to the ground with no chance of recovery when a skilled explodet rocket stopped their momentum. This kind of skill in defense was key to winning games back then and it promoted the learning of the explodet's rocket. I was one of the people who always said that we shouldn't be able to use afterburners with the bomb. I still think that the game becomes more skilled when you can't use it.

Anyway, my 2 cents. Oh, and the laser point thing that was the original point of this post seems kinda pointless. It will only confuse people who can't aim and will do nothing for people who can aim. It would merely be a gimmick to allow you to spam better.

[Triped]

Good points - thanks.