So.. lets make a special topic about it.. I like to see arcs for shooting but maybe also arcs for shields?
because it was raised in the backer forums Also I like the idea of firing arcs for some things anyways it makes the player think a little more on how they are going to lay out there base and defend it. It increases micromanagement a fare bit I guess but I think it could be an interesting little addition.
This is micromanagement that I can live with though. I like the idea of setting up defenses in this way where you have to think about how you set fixed turrets, artillery etc. Things that encourage creative gameplay and punish cookie cutter strategies interest me and hopefully lead to a more fun game.
I'd prefer this to apply to large artillery installations / super-heavy defense but not standard point-defense, and certainly not AA installations. It would limit the game ending potential of Super-artillery, and give strategic options against someone dug in, but applying it to all defensive structures would make them of extremely limited value.
Unit weapons may be restricted to directions. But in a broader sense, could defenses be the same way? For example a unit may have thick armor in the front, but a gigantic glowy kill spot on top. It is a bit of a damage modifier system, where hit location changes how much damage a unit takes. I dunno. A lot of it could end up luck oriented. A tiny change in shot spread can make weak points difficult to hit. It could also open up a wide range of unit differences such as heavy front assault bots and casual all rounders. It's potentially interesting.
Interesting for sure, it would definitely make flank attacks and the like more effective. Whether that's a good thing or not I'm unsure. At any rate I'd rather have more emphasis on strategy than tactics. Having to babysit units in a fight is not fun for me; I'd rather throw a clump of killbots at my enemy and worry more about doing other things than losing that battle because I wasn't micro-ing my dudes. Not that keeping an eye on an attack would or should be a waste of time, just that it shouldn't be everything.
I guess the arc would only be used for the more powerfull and ranged weapons. This makes the smaller less powerfull weapons still a viable option in late battles as they can shoot 360 degrees instead of a cone.
It would be interesting to have a few powerful weapons that either can't be repositioned (a fixed artillery installation with a limited firing arc) or take some time to reposition. Then you can have strategies based on bypassing fixed defenses by attacking from an unexpected direction. Lawrence of Arabia!
At the very least this would be a cool feature for some types of artillery banks. (like, for instance, maybe you can get a more rapid-fire type of directional artillery) Whether that would be interesting or fun for shields might be better left until we're actually playtesting, so I guess it depends whether they have the time/resources to bother with the feature.
