Changes to Bark-2, Hellas and Ace
Pilots! The latest update introduced some changes to the Bark-2, Hellas and Ace, the unique ships inspired by the real-life airplanes of the 20th century. These changes redefine the gameplay of these ships in many ways and reinforce their identity.
The core of the changes is that all weapons mounted on these ships can now fire at angles only within a specific zone in front of the ship. The size of this zone is 90 degrees along the vertical and horizontal axes in relation to the ship’s center. The image below shows the zone within which the weapons are able to aim.
Please note: the rotation angle of an individual turret is irrelevant; the weapon’s operational capability is affected only by the angle of the aim’s deviation from the ship’s longitudinal axis. This can be clearly seen when firing at a very close target: the angle of the turrets on one side can differ significantly from that of the turrets on the other side when the aiming point moves beyond the effective aiming zone.
As mentioned above, these ships were inspired by the 20th century planes that had guns mounted on them in such a way that they could fire only in the same direction the plane was flying. The unique weapons of the Bark-2, Hellas, and Ace partially replicate this feature with their limited aiming angles, while the ships’ speed and maneuverability further reinforce the “airplane” gameplay: the ships have slow strafe speeds, but this is compensated for by relatively high turning and flight speeds.
We’ve been considering implementing this mechanic for other weapons since the introduction of the first ship in this branch, the Bark-2. This feature would have been activated exclusively when weapons were mounted on this ship, as well as other ships in this branch, but we decided to first observe how pilots used these ships in the game.
While the most popular weapons for the Bark-2 and Hellas are their own unique ones, some builds achieved very good results using other commonly available weapons. However, our statistics show that the intended gameplay with the unique weapons is still more preferred.
We value the creative approach the players have to the Bark-2, Hellas and Ace, and we hope that their more authentic gameplay featured in the latest update will give these ships some new ways to shine!