Drop Pods and Orbital Cannons

In my mind the game would benefit from drop pods and orbital cannons, as the title says. Drop pods would work by allowing players to drop down on a aprox location and start fighting on the surface. The orbital cannons would work by allowing the weapon master to hit a aprox location with a variety of ammunition, the cannons can be upgraded for better accuracy and more devastating effects. An example of this would be dropping 2 of the 4 players down with support from the other two players bombarding designated targets on the planet. I really think this would be a great and outstanding feature.

Going all Warhammer 40k on us? I think that it would be an interesting addition, but if they implemented it, I think the cannons should require tons of resources.

But like they've said, they want everyone in a group to kind of stick together. I'm not sure how much I'd really want them implementing it. I think it would also be a little bit of a waste in the fact that the ship would just have to drop down to pick the players back up anyways. At that point you may as well just have all four players down on the ground watching each others' backs.

These ideas belong in a war game, which this is not. It's a good idea but I'm not sure it conforms to this type of game, it's more of a survival strategy. From what I've read about it, most places wouldn't be worth bombarding, much more exploring the surface, looking for resources and trading with colonists (think Firefly). I think bombarding would be a very overpowered and generally unneeded function also drop pods would render the truck/car in the cargo bay obsolete and I think it's a very cool feature (although they might consider changing it into some kind of hovercraft).

These ideas miss the point of the game, I'd rather have to land the ship get into a gunfight then just blow the crap out of the bandit camp (or whatever) and then just fly on by, bit boring really, not to mention you'd destroy the goods you were trying to obtain.

We have no plans for orbital cannons, more to the point, it wouldn't really be possible with our current set-up (the way in which you transition from space to planet surfaces). In agreement with Valstaris, we want our players to stick together as much as possible.

There is still much talk going on about escape pods, but this is a very rocky subject. Some argue that escape pods would be cool, some say it would kinda break the game, some of us even say that the ships aren't really big enough/have enough crew to warrant escape pods.

We will of course keep you informed. But as far as orbital cannons go, I think it's safe to say you probably won't get that in the game.

Let us know your thought's on escape pods, or any cool ideas you may have on them. Be interesting to get an outside opinion.

Yes, I see all of your points about it, I agree now, these features shouldn't be in this game, I just wanted another opinion about it. As for escape pods, a problem arises when only 2 people make it onto their pod, two people die, get sent back to the hub, and now the team is split, the pod should force all 4 players (or however many are playing) to get inside the pods or pod in order for them to fire off, as for what they actually do, not sure, any ideas?

I like the idea of drop pods, mainly for instances like that forest planet that has been mentioned. I know in that instance there are going to be plateaus that we can repel down. But for other planets where those small areas exist, I think that mechanic should exist. Although it would somewhat split up the group, what about for times where you need to send someone down to the planet to scope out a bit. Times where if the ship landed, with all your cargo, it could potentially be ambushed and destroyed.

As far as an escape pod(s), I believe there should be only one. If you know destruction or loss of the ship in imminent, you could take whatever is on you plus some of the ships cargo. But only some.

I dont think escape pods should be in the game. As Overwatch said its gonna split up the group if not everyone gets in the pod. It may work by forcing all four players in the pod, but that kinda defeats the point of having it.

Say that two people is in one end of the ship and two in the other end, and then you take a seorius hit and the ship is gonna explode. Maybe not everyone makes it to the pod, and then you cant fire it. Everyone dies anyway.

Personally I'd prefer wingsuits over droppods, seem more exploration friendly, and also more versatile as they can be used from more positions than just the ship.

As for the idea of escape pods, I sort of like the idea that it refuses to leave anyone behind but gives the players a chance of escape with some of their things in some emergency cases.
However whether or not it should split the players if it fires before all players are on board, idk.. perhaps it just flies on autopilot to the hub, so everyone is joined together anyway.
And perhaps it can only launch when the ship explodes, that way you don't have cowboy players who just randomly launch the escape pod.

Another thought however is, what if one player is on the surface and the other three are in the spaceship, and the spaceship explodes and kills the 3 players?

Wingsuits or paragliders and such would be pretty cool.

If one player is left behind on a planet i guess the persons friends would have to go and fetch him. I can't see any way to prevent such a scenario unless the ship can't take off without all players in it. i don't think that would be a good feature, but thats just my thougts.

I saw in another topic that in the reverse where one play dies and can't be revived he goes back to the hub and can take a "taxi" to his friends.
I don't know if this would be applicable in this situation too.

Probably

We've spoke a lot about this and think it's acutally a really cool idea. If your ship is fired upon to the point where it becomes completely disabled, a countdown will begin for the ship destruction. The length of the countdown depends on the size of your ship (larger ships will have a longer countdown). During this time your ship will be bombarded by your enemy, lot's of explosions going off on board, lots of panic and camera shake. It gives you some time to grab your best gear off the ship before it's lost forever.

The escape pod can ONLY be used during this emergency countdown time period. The pod can be controlled in space by the first to enter it. Once it breaches atmosphere, you only have slight guidance control. Once the pod crashes, it acts as an emergency beacon, which also attracts ground threats to your location. You must hold out until rescue forces arrive to take you back to Last Watch.

That's our take on it anyway.

If done that way it actually sounds pretty cool!

Yea, that could be really cool.

Really like that idea.

I totaly agree whit the idea from above!

Brilliant! It will be done...