Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass

Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Printable Version

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Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Durandal - 05-26-2018

These changes are in as of 26/5/2018. 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 again, Discovery. As my first time doing this in Antonio's place expect some of this to look plagiarized (with his permission) and a little wonky. This is a relatively big patch with some pretty exciting stuff, including drone bays NEVERMIND, major balance changes to several ships, and a lot of fixes as well. As always, it is recommended that you view changes in FLStat - its tutorial as well as some term explanation (responsiveness) can be found here.

Very Heavy Fighters

Wyvern

-Hull: 10.8k -> 11.1k
-Responsiveness: 0.4717 -> 0.4998
-Core: 12.4k -> 11.4k

Small, agile, and with a large powercore, the Wyvern rivaled the Wraith for over-performance in group fights, all while sporting a 6th gun - its Rheinlandic counterpart's only drawback. Its responsiveness has been toned down heavily and its powercore reduced to a more reasonable level. It has seen a slight armor buff to compensate in duels, where it was performing pretty much as intended.

Titan

-Responsiveness: 0.5227 -> 0.5386

An already slow and unwieldly ship, the Titan's greatest advantage has always been its shape. Its thin center of mass gives it a great profile for dogfights where it was dodging just a little too well. While a possible model based solution is being discussed, the reduction in responsiveness should bring it more in line with its opponents such as the Odin and Rapier.

Tachi

-Guns: 6 -> 5

An agile fighter with a slim profile following its remodel, the Tachi was over-performing with no key weaknesses. Rather than creating a clone of the Wyvern, we opted to cut the number of guns on the Tachi down not only to create a more unique ship, but to fix its overlapping gun/cruise disruptor hardpoints underneath. As an aside, its codename slots have been changes, so make sure to remount your guns if you had codenames on a Tachi!

Raven's Talon

- Turn rate: 65.48 -> 66.00
- Responsiveness: 0.4441 -> 0.4216

A large and slow civilian fighter, the Raven's Talon has always been a little underwhelming. This latest patch gives it a large buff to responsiveness, intended to fill the gap of dogfight capable civilian ships, alongside the Scraper and Starblazer. An Eagle or Sabre should be able to best these three ships in a duel, and as this is a big change we'll be keeping a close eye on these three ships.

Scraper

- Hull: 10.7k -> 11.1k
- Turn rate: 68.27 -> 66.25
- Responsiveness: 0.4605 -> 0.4211
- Camera adjusted

The Scraper has always been an oddball. Following the formula of the Raven's Talon and Starblazer, the Scraper loses some of its turn speed in favor of reaction time and hull plating with the intent of making it a viable dogfighter. In addition, its ass-hugging camera has been adjusting to a much more reasonable distance, which should make the ship much less of a pain to fly.

Starblazer

- Hull: 10.2k -> 10k
- Turn rate: 72.37 -> 66.50
- Responsiveness: 0.5090 -> 0.4201

The final ship in our groupfight lineup, the Starblazer is the smallest and most nimble with the weakest armor and powercore. Once another civilian duelist, we've chosen to rebalance the Starblazer as a dogfighter in the hopes of having a more varied civilian fighter selection. This ship is significantly smaller than the aforementioned two, and may prove to need further adjustment in the future.

Rabisu

- Center of mass moved 4 units rearwards.

The Rabisu had been over-performing for quite some time, and nobody could seem to figure out why. As it so happened, its center of mass was located almost directly on the tiny central area causing many shots to miss, especially during turns. The center of mass has been moved rearward towards its fat(ter) arse, and will hopefully create a much more balanced vessel. Demonstrations have been provided below. No octopi were harmed and/or armwrestled in the making of this change. We promise. Really.

Ex I
Ex II

Recycler

- Torpedo slots can now mount bomber torpedoes.

Bringing the Recycler in line with other SHFs, it can now mount Novas, SNACs, etc. This is a pretty straightforward change that doesn't really require explanation.

Capital ships

Typhoon

- Turn rate: 21.01 -> 22.25
- Responsivness: 0.4605 -> 0.4878

The first in our capital ship lineup is our Typhoon. A slender, nimble ship which is already quite capable of dodging shots, the changes made to the the Typhoon are experimental in the realm of cruisers. Until this point, all cruisers have had a response time proportional to their turn rate, meaning every ship which turned faster responded faster. We opted to increase the turn rate of the Typhoon to help it out a bit in duels, but need increase its response time (which displays as a lower response time due to the turn rate buff). This should leave the Typhoon in the already good spot it's in now in group fights without making it overpowered in the process.

Kagutsuchi

- Turn rate: 20.63 -> 21.50

The Kagutsuchi has always been a little underwhelming, and this is another slightly experimental buff to make light cruisers/destroyers faster, helping them in duels without impacting their group fight performance too much. Unlike the Typhoon, we opted not to lower its response ratio in the process.

Crecy

- Hull: 260k -> 270k
- Mass: 750 -> 700

A master duelist, the Crecy's good turn rate and excellent weapon arcs meant it was capable of holding its own in a duel without much issue, but its strange shape and size meant it was under performing a little in groupfights. Originally slated for a responsiveness buff, it was found to have the mass of a heavy cruiser during the balancing process, a stat which affects all other handling stats, essentially making the whole thing a little bit slower to respond, strafe, et cetera. These changes should bring it more in line with the ships it is meant to combat, such as the Typhoon and Triumph.

Triumph

- Turn rate: 22.88 -> 23.00
- Responsiveness: 0.4970 -> 0.4605

The Triumph was always meant to be fast. With relatively poor weapon arcs, this ship is intended to be wielded like a blade, not a hammer. Its responsiveness has been standardized, maintaining the standard ratio as other destroyers and cruisers do, with the exception of the Typhoon.

[Image: Penance-gallic-republic-cruiser.png]

Penance

- Turn rate: 23.04 -> 23.10
- Responsiveness: 0.5006 -> 0.4605

If the Triumph was meant to be fast, the Penance was meant to be faster.

Hel

- Turn rate: 20.05 -> 21.50

This abnormally slow medium cruiser has gotten a substantial turn rate buff.

Harvester

- Mass: 800 -> 700

Another oddity, this light cruiser had the mass of a battlecruiser, and should be much more agile now. This is a fairly big change, and may call for another balance pass in the future.

Weapons Changes

While I'm not going to go into huge detail here as a lot of these changes were more on @Titan's side, we both agreed that capital missiles were under-performing and not filling the high risk, high reward role we had intended for them, particularly the silos. The Desolator, Apocalypse, and Nightmare silos have had their ammo reduced and damage increased to function on a sliding scale, with cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships being able to deal totals of 15 million, 25 million, and 35 million damage with all of their torpedoes respectively - if they manage to land them.

As an aside, we are aware of the issue regarding nomad pulses, and you can expect their implementation soon along with some other goodies including revamped hybrid weapons, and some special additions for our more technologically oriented factions in general.

-Old capital ship missiles removed
-Nomad Battleship Annihilator damage 350.000 -> 430.000
-Nomad Battleship Annihilator energy usage 1.100.000 -> 1.720.000
-Nomad Battleship Annihilator reload speed 5s -> 10s
-Nomad Battleship Annihilator projectile speed 800ms -> 700ms
-Nomad Battleship Annihilator efficiency 0.31 -> 0.25
-Battleship Siege Turret fixed
-Gunboat Silencer Missile ammo capacity 100 -> 60
-Gunboat Annihilator Torpedo damage 125.000 -> 200.000
-Cruiser Trinity Torpedo damage 200.000 -> 300.000
-Cruiser Desolator Missile damage 380.000 -> 500.000
-Cruiser Desolator Missile ammo capacity 40 -> 30
-Battlecruiser Apocalypse Torpedo damage 850.000 -> 1.000.000
-Battlecruiser Apocalypse ammo capacity 30 -> 25
-Battleship Nightmare Torpedo damage 1.200.000 -> 1.750.000
-Battleship Nightmare ammo capacity 25 -> 20
-Battlecruiser Mortar Projectile speed 950 -> 800
-Battlecruiser Mortar Damage 240.000 -> 350.000
-Battlecruiser Mortar Efficiency 0.20 -> 0.25
-Battlecruiser Mortar Energy usage 1.200.000 -> 1.400.000
-Battlecruiser Mortar Reload speed 4s -> 7.5s
-Battlecruiser Trebuchet Projectile speed 950 -> 800
-Battlecruiser Trebuchet Damage 250.000 -> 360.000
-Battlecruiser Trebuchet Efficiency 0.20 -> 0.25
-Battlecruiser Trebuchet Energy usage 1.250.000 -> 1.440.000
-Battlecruiser Trebuchet Reload speed 4s -> 7.5
-Nomad BC Annihilator Energy usage 1.700.000 -> 1.500.000
-Nomad BC Annihilator Efficiency 0.22 -> 0.25
-Nomad BC Annihilator Projectile speed 900 -> 800

If you made it this far then congratz, you've read through my plagiarized Antonio style patch note thread. I hope to do these patch notes every time balance changes happen, regardless of who is involved with the balance team. A huge kudos to the people listed below (besides myself of course), we couldn't have done it without them!

Credits to:
@Durandal
@Antonio
@Titan*
@Xalrok
@Kyoi
@Backo
@Foxglove

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - InfinityCircuit - 05-26-2018

This patch should be renamed "Make Torps Great Again."

On another note: I don't see how debuffing the Titan will fix anything, to be honest. It was already outperformed by it's Outcast counterparts 9 times out of 10. For what should be a top-tier ship, it's really not performing up to spec.

And the Raven's Talon? What the heck is that? Does anyone even have one? Does it now compete with SHF and VHFs in House militaries?

It's still Tier 3 in terms of maneuverability, T2 in power core, and T3 or 4 in terms of hull points and weapon mounts. Eagle, Titan, Nephthys, and Marlin all have it beat, and that's not really an inclusive list.

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Foxglove - 05-26-2018

This literally is also proving that everyone saying that the tentacles on the Rabisu were causing it to be harder to hit didn't know what they were talking about. Feelsgoodman.

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Karst - 05-26-2018

Looks great, I'm especially happy to see the unloved Raven's Talon finally getting improvements.

I can't really judge yet but the Starblazer is looking pretty weak, with that garbage powercore it's never going to be a groupfighter and all its other stats are now bad as well. I get that it's small, but not as small as one might think with that fairly flat, wallish front profile.

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Sciamach - 05-26-2018

Can we take a moment to talk about how the Sarissa is the worst cap in the mod?
Theres a reason nobody flies it: it's far too large to be a light battleship, its model is almost as awful to look at as the old Storta model, it is entirely too slow to turn, and even if it is supposed to be a medium battleship, it's only got 2 heavy slots.

This thing has been worthless since before I left 2 years ago-- can we Please stop shafting the Outcast shipline for no reason and give the ID some ships actually capable of doing their jobs?

Also: can someone please explain to me why the Valor, a ship of roughly similar length to the Ranseur, has 4 heavies and a forward gun, meanwhile the Ranseur only has the 4 heavies with questionable arcs, and lacks any forward armament despite the model being somewhat built for it?

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Mephistoles - 05-26-2018

The Titan is one of the most difficult to balance ships in the mod because of its shape. It's a high armour, low speed VHF but its shape, a vanilla model, just makes it so hard to hit, especially if it's not actively shooting back at you.

The compensation for its strange shape results in it having high armour and high power core and these three factors combined make it an incredibly powerful groupfight ship. Much like the Akegata, while a shame, the best solution to its balance issues is a change to the model.

Regarding the Rabisu, the effects it has do make it harder to hit and always have. The ship has been way too overpowered for a long time and I have previously said the first step to rectifying that is removing its effects. The change above, however, may do the job and if it does then that's great.

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Antonio - 05-26-2018

(05-26-2018, 10:27 PM)Foxglove Wrote: This literally is also proving that everyone saying that the tentacles on the Rabisu were causing it to be harder to hit didn't know what they were talking about. Feelsgoodman.

They were a problem since the new model came and were nerfed already. They do hinder your ability to fight it just like giant lights on a ship or the AI thruster having no effect in the way that it's difficult to determine ship's position and next move sometimes. It's hard to tell if a ship is in EK or if it's going at you/reversing/any other movement. It's not something game breaking, but it's obviously impactful. In Rabisu's case specifically it's less so in groupfights and much more in duels when the tentacles visually expand the volume of the ship. Saying you don't mind it at all is fair enough, but don't call us out on not knowing what we're talking about if for us it does impact fights. Besides, this has nothing to do with it, it's a hitbox fix which would and should have happened regardless of tentacles.

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Enkidu - 05-26-2018

I liked the changes. Surprised by the hel improvements (as a hel driver), as I've always found the Hel a song to dodge stuff in. in-part due to its flat spade shape and the relative ease of pulsing people whilst running away (and running away is a good majority of what you do in it). Although these changes might make it a workable alternative for the Vidar, for the hessians amongst us who have access to both, since before the Vidar had unquestionably better characteristics.

Kudos on the titan modifications.

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Felsvar - 05-27-2018

Solid Changes and no comments.

I got a question though.

Nomad "Adad" Bomber (new) model - is it going to be passed on its balancing?

Will we get it to match the new Nomad Line; IE Rabisu, Siris, Marduk(New), Ishtar?

Will the Greater Irra have a new model?

Sorry for all the nomad questions. I'm just too attached to the blue jellies.

RE: Discovery Freelancer 4.90.1 Patch 6 Balance Pass - Lythrilux - 05-27-2018

yay i can raid iota with confidence again