MASC - 900" Range
Quote from the Mapping Guidelines:
"MASCs (Siege Cannons) are approximately 100 long and 50 tall (64 when deployed), have a firing range of 900, and do splash damage in a radius of approx. 400".
900" range is quite a lot and I was wondering if anyone else feel like this is a bit too much? At least in my map one would be able to siege multiple Tech Points from the same spot with a radius that big, and judging from the layout of the tram map included in the Guidelines this would also be the case for that map. You could for instance siege 5 RTS & 2 Tech Points if you sieged up in "feed" from the looks of it.
I don't think my map is that small either, the travel times are equal or greater then what BreadMan listed for a large map with up to 6 techpoints in this thread: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=109433" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=109433</a>.
Would be especially interested in a opinion from one of the devs on this subject. Does that number still stand, and if so, is it possible to siege multiple TPs in your official maps?
"MASCs (Siege Cannons) are approximately 100 long and 50 tall (64 when deployed), have a firing range of 900, and do splash damage in a radius of approx. 400".
900" range is quite a lot and I was wondering if anyone else feel like this is a bit too much? At least in my map one would be able to siege multiple Tech Points from the same spot with a radius that big, and judging from the layout of the tram map included in the Guidelines this would also be the case for that map. You could for instance siege 5 RTS & 2 Tech Points if you sieged up in "feed" from the looks of it.
I don't think my map is that small either, the travel times are equal or greater then what BreadMan listed for a large map with up to 6 techpoints in this thread: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=109433" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=109433</a>.
Would be especially interested in a opinion from one of the devs on this subject. Does that number still stand, and if so, is it possible to siege multiple TPs in your official maps?
Comments
Save me a bench, I assumed the same :D
Edit:
"Fireing range of 900"
Nothing mentioned about diameter!?
And yes, I think it might be bit too much aswell.
Hehe, to explain why I assumed it had insane range: I made a circle in spark and measured it to a 900" radius, I was stupid enough to image the MASC being able to fire from one end to another within this circle (which is, of course, the diameter, not the radius). So I thought it had twice the range it actually does...
Anyway, I'm also curious how you know that, Barlow :)
I thought MASCs were the through the wall ones? And turrets were the LoS ones in your rooms.
"its not a ballistic weapon" "its an electronic weapon"
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgOb4kX0fXQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgOb4kX0fXQ</a>
I think the 900 distance is ok but the 400 splash radius does seem fairly large. At that radius is could potentially hit a room full of closely placed structures but I'm guessing that the damage won't crazy high or the damage in AOE tapers off a good bit.
=)
But that usually ended up with a scan spam untill everything was dead.
Here is the info:
The M.A.S.C is a Commander Controlled NPC much like the Builder/Welder bots. This also replaces the previously commander placed Siege Cannon.
The main differences from NS1 siege cannons is the mobility and MASCs will need Line of Sight to fire..
Never made sense how it Electronically shot through walls anyways to me, it would seem like all the "Electronic Energy" would lose its density when trying to pass through a wall; especially with metal/rock surfaces. Maybe glass objects(when defined by the mapper) will be allowed for the Siege-Shot to shoot through it(the glass).
If so then perhaps a neat upgrade for it would be an expensive phase launcher attachment, the railgun inside the weapon would accelerate the projectile til it's muzzle velocity but just before the projectile leaves the barrell, the phase launcher attachment phase shifts the projectile beyond "one" wall, but only one wall, so it will bypass one wall and emerge in the room beyond this wall and maintaining it's muzzle velocity until it's target or if there is more than one wall between, impact the wall instead.
Just a thought.
Here is the info:
The M.A.S.C is a Commander Controlled NPC much like the Builder/Welder bots. This also replaces the previously commander placed Siege Cannon.
The main differences from NS1 siege cannons is the mobility and MASCs will need Line of Sight to fire..<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Barlow where is that from? Needs to be changed. MASCs are wall penetrating but need LoS on their target, just like NS1 sieges.
It's maybe confusing, because it says that <b>MASCs</b> need LoS, while it's enough that some unit in the whole marine team has LoS to the target, while the MASC is in range.
Now I can redo my layout properly.
LOS and wall penetrating has me confused =S so it needs to have a clear view of what it is shooting at or needs to be aiming at it even if it is through the wall?
LOS and wall penetrating has me confused =S so it needs to have a clear view of what it is shooting at or needs to be aiming at it even if it is through the wall?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ok sorry, yes it's as psyk0man says: the *marine team* must have LoS on the target before the MASC can shoot it. The MASC can shoot through walls at any target within range, as long as it's visible to a marine player or the commander pings it.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/ns2-masc-range.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
yes, no, maybe? :)
edit: just a thought.. what determines if something is in range to be shot at? e.g. on the picture the center of the hive model is 900 away from the marine, but due to the model size, the edges of the hive are closer. So when the masc fires, will it check if the center of the model is in range, oder will it just check if something of the model is in rage. Same goes for splash damange.
let me visualize it..
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/ns2-masc-range-2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
In this simplified version you would have two rooms connected by a hallway, each with a tech point. The players would have to walk the blue line to get from one to the other while the red line is the siege range. On that sketch the blue line adds to ~2900" which (i measured ~5secs for 900") is roughly a travel time of 16 seconds which would be within the 15-22 frame. But both tech points would be siegable from one spot and i guess thats something that should not happen :)
If they change the range during alpha/beta, they'll probably decrease it, considering the current map sizes.
Smaller range means you extrude that siege spot a little more.
Bigger range could be worse for layouts, but there are also other ways to buff the MASC than to increase range.
UKchaos: I agree with psykoman, there's enough clarification here. As to your question, you would of course not be able to damage the hive/other structures by shooting at the ground.
Sorry! You are probably right.
I only ask because the mapping guidelines are a little vague and I thought Breadman was only talking about the line-of-sight issue.