01-30-2012, 01:11 AM
Looking at a list of ships within the Discovery Mod, I see a few vessels that stand out as being underpowered since 4.85 or earlier. They had a purpose in previous mod versions, but that purpose is gone now. I'm not talking about minor balance issues, or low tier ships that could be used by new players as an upgrade path to proper fighters. I am talking about ships with major major balance issues that should of been fixed by now - ships that would no doubt see some use if only they didn't have glaring balance issues.
Armored Transport: The 4.84 armored transport was too powerful - transport shields plus agility plus small size made it more deadly then most gunboats. 4.85 nerfed it too much, and it is still too weak to actually be useful.
To improve it, let's start by making it unable to mount transport turrets. Transport guns are too big for such a small model. From there, rebalance it either as a freighter/transport hybrid or an ultralight gunboat with an extended cargobay (without making it the 4.84 AT again). Its shield can be changed too - perhaps a freighter shield, or not giving it enough energy to support Adv. Transport shield...
The AT's size already makes it tougher then standard trains (although not really enough to save it). A few tweaks might make it a really tough nut for pirates to crack, and it's small cargo hold automatically prevents it from being a powertrader ship.
EDIT: I feel that this ship should be rebalanced as an ultralight gunship or freighter/transport hybrid. Somehow I failed to include that part when I typed this up
Yacht: Ahh, where do I began? Gunboat slot, but no energy to fire battle razors or pulse cannons. Gunboat turret only fires forward. Overpriced for what it's worth.
It was origionally put in as it was a luxury vessel that was not a yacht. Now that yachts are considered transports again, it currently serves little purpose.
To improve it? Give it a cruise speed of 370 to match the +20 to impulse speed. Perhaps give it enough energy to actually fire 1 battle razor shot, but not enough energy for it to serve as a gunboat proper. Perhaps make all the turrets gunboat turrets, with powerplant limitations keeping it from being a gunboat? Or perhaps replace the forward gunboat slot with an actual forward gun custom-balanced for the ship that uses it. 70 mil for 1500 cargo is too much - lower the cost?
Moldy Crow: What's wrong with this vessel, you ask? From a pure balance perspective, nothing. But the model has all those engines on it and yet cruises slower then light fighters and freighters.
I propose boosting its cruise speed to 395. Now you got a heavy fighter that can act as an interceptor. Make it somewhat fragile to make up for this - less hull, less nanobots. Compared to a light fighter, this ship gets more firepower in exchange for survivability, but it is still more agile then freighters are.
These aren't minor balance nitpicks. These are huge sweeping oversights that make these ships completely unusable. As we continue to introduce more new stuff, we must remember to update the old stuff from time to time.
Please do not let this thread devolve into minor nitpicking about balance. That pales in comparison to the ones I am pointing out.
Armored Transport: The 4.84 armored transport was too powerful - transport shields plus agility plus small size made it more deadly then most gunboats. 4.85 nerfed it too much, and it is still too weak to actually be useful.
To improve it, let's start by making it unable to mount transport turrets. Transport guns are too big for such a small model. From there, rebalance it either as a freighter/transport hybrid or an ultralight gunboat with an extended cargobay (without making it the 4.84 AT again). Its shield can be changed too - perhaps a freighter shield, or not giving it enough energy to support Adv. Transport shield...
The AT's size already makes it tougher then standard trains (although not really enough to save it). A few tweaks might make it a really tough nut for pirates to crack, and it's small cargo hold automatically prevents it from being a powertrader ship.
EDIT: I feel that this ship should be rebalanced as an ultralight gunship or freighter/transport hybrid. Somehow I failed to include that part when I typed this up
Yacht: Ahh, where do I began? Gunboat slot, but no energy to fire battle razors or pulse cannons. Gunboat turret only fires forward. Overpriced for what it's worth.
It was origionally put in as it was a luxury vessel that was not a yacht. Now that yachts are considered transports again, it currently serves little purpose.
To improve it? Give it a cruise speed of 370 to match the +20 to impulse speed. Perhaps give it enough energy to actually fire 1 battle razor shot, but not enough energy for it to serve as a gunboat proper. Perhaps make all the turrets gunboat turrets, with powerplant limitations keeping it from being a gunboat? Or perhaps replace the forward gunboat slot with an actual forward gun custom-balanced for the ship that uses it. 70 mil for 1500 cargo is too much - lower the cost?
Moldy Crow: What's wrong with this vessel, you ask? From a pure balance perspective, nothing. But the model has all those engines on it and yet cruises slower then light fighters and freighters.
I propose boosting its cruise speed to 395. Now you got a heavy fighter that can act as an interceptor. Make it somewhat fragile to make up for this - less hull, less nanobots. Compared to a light fighter, this ship gets more firepower in exchange for survivability, but it is still more agile then freighters are.
These aren't minor balance nitpicks. These are huge sweeping oversights that make these ships completely unusable. As we continue to introduce more new stuff, we must remember to update the old stuff from time to time.
Please do not let this thread devolve into minor nitpicking about balance. That pales in comparison to the ones I am pointing out.