I appreciate trying to make them unique but...

[Antynomity]

Cannons are useless as of now, on the ocean at least.

[DajeKotlyar]

Ability to aim and more dmg. That all I want

[Mysterious box]

I feel like if cannons become too accurate you run into the ranged combat issue where in despite adding ranged combat methods to the game it isn't designed to handle ranged combat so mobs and bosses get absolutely wrecked by it in a way that looks unnatural or it's so underwhelming that using a normal weapon is the better choice in most cases see blowdarts and Walter's slingshot for examples.

[chincer]

the fact that cannons need to be reloaded each time makes me feel they should by all means be better, you cant just equip a bunch of blowdarts after all, and they arent effective boss killers like catapults anyway, so makes sense they can be aimed

 

[Electroely]

The main thing I've been liking cannons for is smashing stuff. For only 1 gunpowder and 2 cutstone, you can instantly smash 20 marble shrubs (5 at a time) and save yourself the headache of chipping away at them with an opulent pickaxe. If their splash damage at the cannonball's landing spot destroyed structures similarly to the flying projectile, you could get massive value out of cannonballs... but that also means monkeys can instantly break 70% of your boat's structures with one cannonball. That sounds like a nightmare.

For combat, I find the cannons have too many flaws. Their fixed distance and direction already makes it difficult to attack much when every mob in the game has the game-plan of "run at the player until one of us dies" but even if you manage to find a way to not have mobs each you while you try to fire at them you still have to actually land the cannonballs... they do 100 damage on a direct hit and 60 splash damage where they land, but the width of their "direct hit" area is about the same as that of a single wall. It doesn't help either that the mobs' sizes are not taken into account - everything ranging from butterflies to Toadstool have to have their exact position inside the cannonball's damage area to take damage. The only value I see in cannons combat-wise personally is in some setup that forces mobs like Spiders into a line for them all to get hit by a cannonball in the face or in some goofy PvP battles.

13 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I feel like if cannons become too accurate you run into the ranged combat issue where in despite adding ranged combat methods to the game it isn't designed to handle ranged combat so mobs and bosses get absolutely wrecked by it in a way that looks unnatural or it's so underwhelming that using a normal weapon is the better choice in most cases see blowdarts and Walter's slingshot for examples.

I don't think it'd be a big problem if you could aim them. They require ammo, slow to reload and are liable to destruction so they'd end up being stronger but more cumbersome Winona catapults that need constant player interaction.

[Mysterious box]

2 hours ago, chincer said:

they arent effective boss killers like catapults anyway, so makes sense they can be aimed

 

Catapults are considered followers not ranged combat and are balanced by those standards.

 

2 hours ago, chincer said:

the fact that cannons need to be reloaded each time makes me feel they should by all means be better, you cant just equip a bunch of blowdarts after all

I'm not saying they can't be improved but their improvements can't be too big since they need to be balanced around other ranged options like Walter's slingshot and blowdarts.

2 hours ago, Electroely said:

I don't think it'd be a big problem if you could aim them. They require ammo, slow to reload and are liable to destruction so they'd end up being stronger but more cumbersome Winona catapults that need constant player interaction.

I'm not against adding aiming completely I'd probably make it slow at turning.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

i think cannon should deal a lot of damage but not be easy to aim. In that way you will feel rewarded when you do a good performance 

[finn from human]

I feel like actual homing would instantly take away that really fun "realistic" feeling that cannons have. I just want a mild homing to make sure things hit, think like Kirby and the Forgotten Land projectiles if you've played that, simply a gentle homing if you're about to juuust barely miss something.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

43 minutes ago, meow meow meow said:

I feel like actual homing would instantly take away that really fun "realistic" feeling that cannons have. I just want a mild homing to make sure things hit, think like Kirby and the Forgotten Land projectiles if you've played that, simply a gentle homing if you're about to juuust barely miss something.

i think they already have it

[LitulLola]

I was hoping for an indicator of where it's going to hit and maybe a 45° angle swivel??? I dunno... as of now they are not something that is good enough for me to include on my boat since I have limited space (on console/no Geo placement) so it's impossible to fit much on my boat

[DajeKotlyar]

Maybe make it like rudder. You click on it, then can slowly move it by WASD. Then press LMB or F to fire.

Also Klei should expend hitbox of flying cannon ball and, of course, dmg.

[Antynomity]

22 hours ago, Electroely said:

The main thing I've been liking cannons for is smashing stuff. For only 1 gunpowder and 2 cutstone, you can instantly smash 20 marble shrubs (5 at a time) and save yourself the headache of chipping away at them with an opulent pickaxe.

Honestly this is the only thing they are useful in atm, and they should keep this function while on land, while on boats they should work similarly to shipwrecked cannons with a dead spot where they can't shoot.

Like I don't get why making them 'slow at turning' is needed at all, we need a decent way to shoot the monkey pirates on boats, especially now with them fleeing every time their boat is hit with a cannon, they need to be useful in combat is all, oh and I don't care about dumb ways of balancing them, like i said before making them 'slow at turning' or inaccurate would take away the purpose of even building them on boats.