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Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 3 Balance Changes

The changes are in as of 31/3/2018. If you find any bugs or irregularities immediately report them here. Feedback and everything else should be posted in the continuation of this thread.

Hello everyone and welcome to detailed balance patch notes for 4.90.1 patch 3. It's been a while since I did one and hopefully these types of interactive notes are becoming standard for future patches as well. This patch mainly focuses on VHF ship balancing, CD ammo buff, introducing new nomad ships and fixing minor bugs. We'll make another balance pass for VHFs so if you're surprised a name isn't on the list, there's likely a good reason for it. Any suggestions you have are welcome to be posted in this thread. To view changes it's highly recommended to use FLStat - its tutorial as well as some term explanation (responsiveness) can be found here. Without further ado let's jump into it.

Very Heavy Fighters

Anaconda

-Responsiveness: 0.5601 -> 0.5041

We like to see variety within VHFs by having a very big, very fast unresponsive ship, but the responsiveness it had made the ship too sluggish to dodge fire. As a result the responsiveness is getting buffed which directly increases Anaconda's groupfight power.

Courbe

-Armor: 13.8k -> 14.5k
-Core: 12.4k -> 15k

Being one of the biggest VHFs will always be one of the biggest disadvantages, especially when the stats don't reflect that. Courbe is becoming a proper "very" very heavy fighter with the best core and one of the highest armors among VHFs.

Greyhound

-Greyhound: Turn rate 68.31 -> 69.78
-Responsiveness 0.4723 -> 0.4605

Having 5 guns usually means that you're either very small or very quick, and Greyhound is neither. Instead of buffing the guns to standard 6 or downscaling it, we're giving the Greyhound some extra turn rate and responsiveness to be more manouverable in both duels and groupfights.

Lhotse

-Turn rate: 64.98 -> 66.38

Receiving the 7th gun helped the ship escape the terrible state it was in, but it needs some additional love. Turn rate buffed to add extra dueling capability.

Manta

-CD arc buffed
-Gun arcs buffed

Manta is an example of a ship that's great in duels and lackluster in groupfights mostly due to its size, shape and turn rate. Instead of buffing it in a role it'll never be good at (groupfights), we're giving it some extra arcs on guns and CD to mine trap and trade at early turns better. It has all 6 guns shooting top left or top right and 3 guns shooting bottom left and bottom right. That means a Manta will want to pass under a ship to get all 6 guns on the target while the target will want to pass under a Manta to force it on the 3 guns. A duel buff overall.

Marlin

-CD arc buffed
-Core 11.4k -> 12.4k

Similarly to the Manta, its CD arc was worse than other VHFs so it's getting fixed. Core buff is to make it a bit better at groupfights considering it has more armor than the Manta which allows it to be a bit better at groupfights and worse at duels.

Nephthys

-Armor: 13.6k -> 14.2k
-Turn rate: 64.96 -> 66.24

Similarly to Courbe the stats didn't reflect its size. Turn rate buff will help it utilize the 7 guns more while armor increase is a minor buff all-round.

Odin

-Turn rate: 68.75 -> 66.03
-Regens: 66 -> 64

Odin is a prime example of a ship that has top tier stats in everything without being overpowered in any. The result is the ship being strong all-round and having no weakness. While that's great for the Odin players, it's not great for everyone else. Turn rate is getting nerfed to tune down its dueling potency. It'll undoubtedly still be a great groupfighting ship.

Prosecutor

-Responsiveness 0.4835 -> 0.4605

Small responsiveness buff to groupfights due to its size.

Rabisu

-Turn rate: 68.75 -> 65.89

Rabisu is one of the most infuriating ships to duel for most people due to its tentacles distracting aim. By nerfing the turn rate we're still keeping its boxing style with showing all tentacles towards an opponent untouched, but other players will have an easier time getting behind it and outmanouvering the Rabisu.

Raven's Talon

-Responsiveness 0.4605 -> 0.4441

Small responsiveness buff to increase groupfight potential. Same as Prosecutor.

Scraper

-Responsiveness 0.3135 -> 0.46405

We're killing off memes by nerfing a ship that for some reason had by far the best responsiveness of any VHF in the game, comparable to the most responsive HF in Saishi. We've no idea why it was like that, but it was blatantly overpowered and is getting nerfed. Responsiveness matches the Sabre now.

Sunbeam

-Turn rate 65.48 -> 67.82
-Regens: 62 -> 68

Regens buffed to match its armor. Turn rate buffed to help utilize its dueling shape.

Sutinga

-Armor 11k -> 12k
-Regens: 65 -> 68

Buffing the survivability to match its size.

Wraith

-Turn rate 71.62 -> 69.01

As mentioned before at Greyhound, being a 5 gunner usually means being very small or very fast. Wraith was both which resulted in great groupfight potential as well as duels. We're nerfing the latter. Some might notice that the Wraith is much easier to deshield than do hull damage compared to other VHFs and that's because it has a bigger shield bubble while being smaller compared to them. Considering shield consistently goes down in groupfights and hull is the thing people struggle with mostly, it still remains a strong groupfighting ship.

CD/Torpedo fighter slots

-MR: Power 6400 -> 5400
-Nomad MR: Power 8000 -> 5200, Damage 16.8k -> 17.8k
-Inferno: Power 8670 -> 5400, Range 688 -> 1600
-Tatarus: Power 10401 -> 6400, Range 660 -> 1600

Nomad MR buffed to match with the human counterpart. Energy consumption buffed for all guns. Inferno and Tatarus are usable against caps with the extra range.

-Mosquito: Ammo 50 -> 90
-Nomad CD: Ammo 50 -> 90
-Train: Ammo 50 -> 70
-Reinforced: Ammo 65 -> 70
-Nomad Heavy CD: Ammo 50 -> 70

Rebuffing the unnecessary ammo nerf to CDs, especially with introduction to a lot of capital ship missiles that require CDing them constantly.

-Wasp CD:

Damage: 10/5
Range: 2500m
Speed: 490m/s
Ammo: 140
Detonation radius: 50

Wasp is intended to be a spammable CD for intercepting missiles and keeping groupfights in check in terms of ship cruising on someone, cloaking or escaping. It's recommended to have at least 1 interceptor per groupfight especially if there are large fleets involved. High ammo enables people to not have to worry about saving every single CD when doing the abovementioned. Using it to finish off a target won't do much since it has 10 hull and 5 shield damage.

-Hornet CD:

Damage: 300/150
Range: 5500m
Speed: 2400m/s
Ammo: 90
Detonation radius: 400
Dumbfire

Hornet is intended for chasing and CDing capital ships from very long range. It's dumbfire which means it has no tracking which is why the stats are so good. It's a situational CD that sometimes might allow you to catch an escaping ship.

Nomad ships

Anzu

-Changed from a gunboat to an SHF
-Armor: 90k -> 30k
-Regens: 320 -> 270
-Turn rate: 41.25 -> 56.34
-Responsiveness: 0.4605 -> 0.4682
-Core: 400 000/40 000 -> 39 130/2350 (Spatial core)
-6 class 9 guns
-2 class 8 guns
-1x mine launcher
-1x cd/heavy torp slot(Nova, SNAC, scorcher)
-2x CM slot
1x SHF shield hardpoint
-45 reverse (Spatial engine stats)

Anzu has arguably the worst shape for balancing in the game by being very small at the back and normal/big at the front. The result was an Asco on steroids and the ship never was meant to be flown by players. However since it got added to the game by mistake we decided to give it a try by making it an SHF. Judging by its shape, it will be bad at jousting targets but good at dodging away when focused, resulting in mediocre duels and good groupfights. It's hard to say anything early for such a tricky ship, but go test it out!

Marduk

-Turn rate: 8.71 -> 11.46

Reverting turn rate to the release version. For some reason it got nerfed, but it's obvious that Marduk isn't performing well due to its fatness compared to other medium battleships. Extra turn rate will help it being more manovuerable and use turret steering better.

Ish'Tar

-Added into the game as a purchaseable player ship
-Armor: 3.3m
-Turn rate: 9.17
-Core: 16m/300k
-4 heavies
-4 prims
-7 secondaries
-3 forward guns
-Forward gun:

-300k damage
-1m power usage
-5 seconds refire
-0.3 efficiency
-3k range
-1.5k m/s

Ish'Tar is a massive ship that's going to be comparable to the old Marduk. It has almost double the capacity of a heavy BS core, but the same regen, so once you spend the initial pool you're back at being the same as any other heavy BS. It only has 7 secondaries due to the model itself having holes for guns on it so adding any extra guns will need detailed ship modification, but it instead gets 3 forward guns that're mostly gonna be used against cruisers. It can be used against gunboats if you aim well, and battlecruisers and battleships to an extent. Also a ship that needs further testing.

Resheph

-Armor: 275.000 -> 310.000
-Regens: 720 -> 775
-Turn Rate: 24.83 -> 21.01
-Turret amount 8 -> 12
-Turret Arcs adjusted

Resheph's uniqueness was being very big and very fast with only 8 guns. While that gave it an edge in some scenarios it was underwhelming in most others. As a result we're giving it standard medium cruiser stats comparable to a Scylla.

Other changes

-AoE EMP human & nomad field power consumption increased from 1.25m to 5m due to a bug
-Battlecruiser shield icons changed from nomad to human
-Nomad gunboat shield rebuild power set to 8k to match with human version
-Light capital ship thruster introduced; copy of enhanced with more hit points and a price of 8 millions
-Nomad Cruiser Blaster power 60k -> 52k (to match with human version)
-Silencer GB missile radius bug fixed: 26 -> 50

's changes (they were made before I joined the team so you'll have to ask him for explanations):

-Order Battleship secondary arcs buffed
-Javelin Cruise Missile Tracking rate reduced from 0.22 to 0.15
-Javelin Cruise Missile Tracking angle reduced from 240 to 220
-Javelin Cruise Missile Mass increased from 135 to 145
-Siege Turret Damage 90.000 -> 75.000
-Siege Turret Power Usage 67.000 -> 100.000
-Siege Turret Reload Speed 1.8s -> 2.0s
-Siege Turret Range 3.600 -> 3.000
-Sledge Turret now doesn't have damage penalty to shields
-Breaker Turret Damage 28.000 -> 30.000
-Breaker Turret Energy Usage 105.000 -> 95.000
-Breaker Turret Turn Speed 20 -> 10
-Nomad Cruiser Blaster Projectile Speed 1.000 -> 900
-Nomad Cruiser Blaster Range 1.000 -> 1.300
-Nomad Battleship Primary Turret Reload speed 1s -> 0.75s
-Nomad Battleship Chaos Turret Projectile speed 800 -> 700
-Cruiser Blaster Turret range 1.53k -> 1.3k
-Core Battlecruiser Arcs Fixed
-New FX for Incapacitator Torpedo
-Monsmeg/Hellbore Dispersion 0.6 -> 0.1
-Battlecruiser Secondary Turret Range 1.900 -> 1.500
-Battlecruiser Secondary Turret Reload speed 0.5s -> 0.25s
-Battlecruiser Secondary Turret Projectile speed 1.250 -> 1.300
-Bretonia BS Secondary Turret model changed

If you made it this far then congratz. I hope to do these patch notes every time balance changes happen. The team we have right now is in solid cooperation and we're making good progress so I hope it stays that way. That's all, thank you for your attention!

Credits to:

(03-31-2018, 11:33 AM)Antonio Wrote: [ -> ]
Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 3 Balance Changes

Wraith

-Turn rate 71.62 -> 69.01

As mentioned before at Greyhound, being a 5 gunner usually means being very small or very fast. Wraith was both which resulted in great groupfight potential as well as duels. We're nerfing the latter. Some might notice that the Wraith is much easier to deshield than do hull damage compared to other VHFs and that's because it has a bigger shield bubble while being smaller compared to them. Considering shield consistently goes down in groupfights and hull is the thing people struggle with mostly, it still remains a strong groupfighting ship.

>Anzu was made a SHF

Time for a refund request.

Good changes overall. I like how the tankier ships such as Nephthys and Lhotse got a buff they deserved because of their massive hitbox, I always thought those ships were superior until I used them and realized how much of a big and fat target I was. I also appreciate the nerfing of the Wraith and Odin being too good in duels. Of course also removing the memery which was the Scraper.

What I really like the most is the changes to the Manta's arcs, making fighting against it tactical.

(03-31-2018, 11:45 AM)Shelco Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-31-2018, 11:33 AM)Antonio Wrote: [ -> ]
Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 3 Balance Changes

Wraith

-Turn rate 71.62 -> 69.01

As mentioned before at Greyhound, being a 5 gunner usually means being very small or very fast. Wraith was both which resulted in great groupfight potential as well as duels. We're nerfing the latter. Some might notice that the Wraith is much easier to deshield than do hull damage compared to other VHFs and that's because it has a bigger shield bubble while being smaller compared to them. Considering shield consistently goes down in groupfights and hull is the thing people struggle with mostly, it still remains a strong groupfighting ship.

lmao

(02-28-2016, 05:46 PM)sindroms Wrote: [ -> ]
(02-28-2016, 05:27 PM)Stone21 Wrote: [ -> ]Not worth the effort [...]

If we started guiding dev work by that sort of approach, Disco would not exist at all, given how the community reacts to changes and additions.

good stuff

Good work dev team Smile

I won't be crying over a minor mistake you've made regarding the Ish'tar, but the main thing is, you finally got that out.

Thank you!

--Delete--

I'm happy with the CD changes, especially the Wasp! Also glad to see the Wraith toned down to be in line with other fighters. Perhaps some Heavy Fighters could see some love, soon, such as varied power cores or some receiving 2 code slots...?

Since we're on the topic of fighters, would you mind taking a look at my Analysis of Suntigers, ? It seems a lot of people are interested in this relic of the past being re-vamped. End-stats are up to the Balance Team, of course!

Anyways, good stuff regarding Universal Armor Upgrades being melded into a single item and made cheaper! This'll help both rookies just starting out, as well as long-time members with setting up new ships. Cheers!

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Antonio

Shelco

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