Have a look at Mars Matrix, Ikaruga, Radient Silvergun, and the PC game Kamui. These are all games in the same genre yours is in. Each features a different and original take on the overused weapons all too often in games of this type.

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Original post by Prinz Eugn Sell is probably the wrong pronoun, because in the US military money isn't a problem ;)

I think you meant verb, but thats besides the point[grin].


For everyone who isn't able to try out the demo, here's how the weapons system works in Angels 20:

-You have a default gun, and a secondary weapon type(bombs , rockets,etc)
-You can switch your weapon types at your homebase, or supply depots
-While your default gun has plenty of ammo, you're secondaries are typically more limited.
-supply depots are never that far away, so not having the right weapon for the job won't be that much of a problem.

Thanks I googled those games, but they all seem more fantastic/futuristic than our game, which is set 30 yrs in the future. Although instead of weapons getting more powerful like Radiant Silvergun, weapons in our game may get less powerful as the game progresses as a cheap way to crank up the difficulty.

"pronoun"! What was I thinking!?

Oh, by the way I got a 4 on the English AP exam while Sapo was too much of a pussy to even take the class

Well, if we're talking 30 years in the future, then I would imagine that things like rail guns and tactical lasers wouldn't be too far of a stretch...

Missiles can be used and used again by changing things like: firing range, payload(BOOM!), capacity v. damage, etc... Then give them cool names like: Tomohawk, Sidewinder, etc... etc... ad naseum.

Other than that, what you can do with an airplane is somewhat limited, they're only of so much size and so they can only carry so many weapons at once, and the amount of tactical "speed of sound" operating weapons are somewhat limited.

As for the 25mm Vulcan Cannon, regardless of others' opinions, I think that keeping this, or something similar is a good idea. All US Fighters come stock with it as it is built into their aircraft as a default backup and is highly effective in a pro-longed dogfight situation. If you can't get the other guy to stand still long enough to actually waste one of your high-priced missiles, it's much more cost effective to fire off a few hundred rounds at them as they cruise through your field of vision.

Anyway, on the limited info, that's my two cents, something to chew on.

Vopisk

That's good, we already talked about a mission where you get the help of an ABL (one of those 747's with a big laser in the nose), and railguns weren't something I considered for air combat before, I kind of always wanted to draw a big modern cement fortress with some sort of huge gun you had to destroy, but I wasn't sure it would fit. That railgun in there would make more sense than anything else, thanks!

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Well, if we're talking 30 years in the future, then I would imagine that things like rail guns and tactical lasers wouldn't be too far of a stretch...

True, we are planning on having some sort of ABL type support unit for some missions.

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As for the 25mm Vulcan Cannon, regardless of others' opinions, I think that keeping this, or something similar is a good idea. All US Fighters come stock with it as it is built into their aircraft as a default backup and is highly effective in a pro-longed dogfight situation. If you can't get the other guy to stand still long enough to actually waste one of your high-priced missiles, it's much more cost effective to fire off a few hundred rounds at them as they cruise through your field of vision.

Yeah, the gun is the only real effective weapon against the enemy airplanes in our game, so I think it's here to stay.

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Oh, by the way I got a 4 on the English AP exam while Sapo was too much of a pussy to even take the class

Why don't you tell them about your chemistry test too...

EDIT: Damn beaten by a minute....

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Original post by Prinz Eugn That's good, we already talked about a mission where you get the help of an ABL (one of those 747's with a big laser in the nose), and railguns weren't something I considered for air combat before, I kind of always wanted to draw a big modern cement fortress with some sort of huge gun you had to destroy, but I wasn't sure it would fit. That railgun in there would make more sense than anything else, thanks!

No problem, see the movie "Eraser" with Arnold Schwarzeneger(sp?!) for some cool rail gun effects. :p

Also, since we are talking about some time in the rather distant future, I don't think it would be too far fetched to reach out a little bit for some futuristic weapons such as "phasers", "proton torpedos" and other Star Trek-ish weapons. Plasma and energy weapons will probably dominate the future, especially thirty years from now, as a renewable power source is better than a bunch of clips of bullets (imho). However, flight and air-combat simulators are not my field of expertise so I'm not really sure what would be probably, plausible or even possible.

Vopisk

Hmmm... I do think that star trek type weapons are going too far, the closest thing I've considered is a microwave beam thing that made enemy airplanes go haywire for a second or something, but I don't see a need for it.

I think I've played your game (side-scrolling with ground targets that totally kick my sorry butt?), and I think you have plenty of weapons. For such a fast-paced game with such simple interactions, too many choices would become overwhelming. Take a look at something like R-Type. It had a handful of weapons, but they weren't wildly diverse. Gun, spread gun, bomb, homing missile, etc.

With the guns you have, your players will be able to address almost any situation. Just because you don't have dozens of different missiles and bombs and such doesn't mean you haven't covered all the bases.

That said, I think some kind of low-altitude snakeye-type bomb would be handy for precision drops without blowing your own tailfeathers off. It has little fins on the back that act sort of like a parachute to make it fall slower.

Also, the Durandal-type anti-runway bomb is really cool. It drops with a little parachute and drifts until it's pointed straight down and your plane has left the vicinity, then it activates a rocket engine and streaks down to the ground, burying itself in the tarmac and then detonating. Sweet.

Iron Chef Carnage,
Both your suggestions are so good that we have gone back in time to put them in the game before any such flaws were noticable.

:)Actually, we already have snakeye type bombs and a bomb that shoots into the ground as you described, but going into detail would reveal the extremely cool final weapon, which can only be used in the last mission of the game.
trust me, it's going to be awesome. So your suggestions are good, but we've already got those (Sir Sapo didn't go into enough detail describing the weapons we already had)

And about the ground fire... we're going to have to try hard to make the game playable for everybody, because Sir Sapo and I are insanely good at it(we have had it the longest, after all), but that's a different subject.