Just a thought that might add to the tactical aspect of the game:

"It's dangerous to go alone!" - with this in mind, a lot of teams play grouped up for the obvious benefits that come with that tactic (better support, easier for healers, etc.). There aren't really many downsides to grouping up in this way, besides risking everyone being hit at once by large radius weapons like nukes. Obviously you can currently damage yourself with nukes/missiles if they hit your own ship, but there isn't currently any friendly fire. Nor is there collision damage for that matter.

So I'd like to suggest a mode that includes both - where your weapons do equal damage to your allies as well as enemies, and with some collision damage - nothing too high though, but where it would obviously vary based on ships speeds and size, i.e. a corvette flying head first into a dreadnought is going to regret it, but likewise two dreadnoughts colliding at a snail's pace would do some damage, but nothing drastic.

This would mean players would have to be more careful with positioning when firing at the enemy, when getting close to heal others/be healed, and when racing about the map in light ships. It might also add an additional tactical element. For instance, a dreadnought that's about to get killed by a stationary light destroyer might be able to charge into it as a last ditch effort to take them down at the same time, or a corvette accidentally charging into a heavy destroyer due to a poorly executed Assault Blink Warp could prove fatal.

I'd suggest this be a specific game mode rather than default behaviour though, because some people may have gotten used to there being no friendly fire, and because sometimes it's nicer not to have to worry about details like that!

Any thoughts?

Great suggestion Leon! Enabling friendly fire could make for some interesting gameplay. What do others think of features like this?

Want. Could even make shields reduce healing too.

Great idea. It'd be a fun twist on things, though I do see it making trolling all too accessible to those with ill intent.

Played games with "friendly fire" & when it happens 3+ matches in a row... there comes a time when 'oops sorry ha ha' stops cutting it for all players.
If adding FF is for increased hostilities then yes FF will do nicely and some people have no problems trolling back. Some will just have fun shooting back after getting shot first by the troll.

PS. Graybox Devs expect to spend more time on support just over players reporting each other.
Just some food for thought.

Not a fan of friendly fire personally. While it does bring a little more realism and forces you to put a bit more thought into your actions, those will not be the primary effects on gameplay. For the most part it will just be people accidentally shooting or bumping into each other and losing health for it as well as the occasional unhappy individual taking his frustrations out on his teammates, and none of that will have a positive effect on the game.

Max_Rickson#5893 posted (#post-46215)

Played games with "friendly fire" & when it happens 3+ matches in a row... there comes a time when 'oops sorry ha ha' stops cutting it for all players.

I absolutely agree. Unlike in games like COD or Battlefield though, where an "accidental" friendly fire will kill you, in Dreadnought any attempts at trolling will be fairly obvious, because a teammate would have to make quite a sustained and concerted effort to deliberately do enough damage to an ally to kill them.

Kusa_Aezotee#0336 posted (#post-46216)

For the most part it will just be people accidentally shooting or bumping into each other and losing health for it as well as the occasional unhappy individual taking his frustrations out on his teammates

Again, I absolutely agree. Which is part of the reason why I really think (if this were to be included) it should be a selectable mode, rather than a default.

A Friendly Fire mode definitely wouldn't be for everyone, just as the "Insane" difficulty options or "Hardcore modes" in some games aren't for everyone either. But in this case, where a squad's tactics really can make or break a match, I believe Friendly Fire and Collision Damage could really add to the tactical elements (and potentially the sense of realism) of the game for those players that might want it.

I really like the Idea.

But I'm also really worried about the trolling potential this involves.

You could prevent trolls from killing friendlies with a weapon-lock. (If I remember correctly there is something like this in Planetside 2) When you shoot your team, you first get a warning: textmessage and sound.
If you don't stop in time, your weapon will be disabled for a while. The time your weapons lock, can be longer the more often you shoot friendlies.
Could be bad, if a teammate gets in the way of your missle-salvo though!

Also it would prevent exploiting friendly fire.
I don't know how a healer get's his points but I guess it depends somewhat on the amount of damage healed?
-> One teammate shoots the other, healer heals, gets points. Repeat.
Boring, but a possible exploit.
Cheers.

No thanks.... I dont need to get rekt by some noob with plasma ram or nukes or blast pulse

FooJub#4039 posted (#post-46254)

No thanks.... I dont need to get rekt by some noob with plasma ram or nukes or blast pulse

Yeah I imagine that would happen on occasion... I envision this as being a sort of "realism mode" or even potentially a "hardcore mode" in some ways, so ideally speaking noobs wouldn't be too drawn to it.

smove#7353 posted (#post-46237)

You could prevent trolls from killing friendlies with a weapon-lock.
Could be bad, if a teammate gets in the way of your missle-salvo though!

Also it would prevent exploiting friendly fire.
-> One teammate shoots the other, healer heals, gets points. Repeat.
Boring, but a possible exploit.

I hadn't thought of those at all... a weapon lock sounds like a good idea. I was personally thinking more simplistically that friendly fire could also cause negative points based on the damage you do (as opposed to being based on killing them). That may also detract from someone wanting to be involved in that potential healer exploit to some extent. Although with most matches full of Dreadnoughts and Destroyers, the healer's usually busy enough as it!

A few extra things to consider on this:

1. Blast Pulse: there's a lot of complaining at the moment about the Corvette's blast pulse going through shields. Friendly fire would make blast pulse an ability you'd really have to think about using, rather than just being able to spam all the time. It'd still be great when zooming through groups of enemies, but a potential risk if friendlies are among them. So it could add an additional tactical element to a module that is otherwise fairly exploited at the moment.
2. Disruptor Pulse/Drain Pulse: should these affect friendlies? Or because they're friendlies would they theoretically know of a way to be immune to it? I'm not sure what technical thing would apply, but something like friendly ships knowing what frequency the pulse operates on and adjusting their ships' hardware to be resistant to it.
3. Mines: I think it would make sense for these to damage friendlies, but not be set off by them (following the same principle as above)