[*] Remake Barge or Remove it

[Alphablood1]

Common the barge has no practical use for itself atm it makes no sense inRP and it makes no sense out of RP so whats the point in a slow, big, usless, spinning, none turnible, non movible, death ship

You cant even trade with in any way and thats including the fact of not getting pirated a barge isnt gonna run from a pirate especially a few bombers and maybe a few caps

Like make it a usfull ship that makes sense i get it barges are sopposed to be big and slow but not unmovable objects that spin faster than planet manhattan i vote for its redesign built it like a proper barge like every other game out there and make it actually useful in both RP and non-RP

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Leader of the Atlantian Empire Military Force|AEFLSM
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[Tibbles]

Make it ope use, so more people can play with it please ^.^ Until that not many people can give feedback about it

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[Moberg]

[...] but now since they removed its ability to Jump with others [...]

Just yesterday I saw the most recent SRP'd barge jumptrading to Gallia, and it's basically the only thing that the player does with it, so it's still possible to jump with it, if you position yourself and the jump ship correctly.

In general, I dislike that the ship is usable for anything but roleplay. It is not supposed to be powertrader ship 2.0
Reducing it's cargo a little while at the same time having enough to support plenty of docking modules and RP cargo can probably help with it. The movement speed in itself is fine, in my opinion. While others state that you should maybe reduce the size, I would actually keep that the current way too. You rarely encounter a Barge, and seeing such a behemoth leaves some players (mainly newbies) staring in awe, an effect that should be kept.

[Masterial]

You Cant Take Trade-lanes *CHECK

Ask those, who can..

[Highland Laddie]

I wouldn't mind seeing its maneuverability buffed at least a little bit. Mostly a quicker cruise charge....or if charge time remains same, then increase cruise speed up to 150 or so.

[TLI-Inferno]

The problem right now is that every time somebody wants a buff to the barge everybody screams "Y U POWERTRADE METAGAMING NUB!"

It isn't about powertrading. It's about the fun of using a barge. The way they are right now, they are basically unusable as they are impossible to protect and are less effective at hauling than a regular transport. They are SRP ships, pretty darn rare, so they ought to be good enough that it's worth flying with escorts and having a large-scale and fun operation.

They need to be given 12x regular cruiser turrets. People keep saying "barges aren't supposed to be a solo ship". They won't be. They are bigger than the biggest battleship, even with 12x regular cruiser turrets they will get killed by pretty much anything. The problem right now is that bombers can hug the barge and just SNAC from 0m while escorts struggle to hit the bomber, with any missed shots hitting the barge. If the barge had 12 regular cruiser slots (which would be filled with cruiser solaris), at its enormous size it would still be unable to kill the bombers on its own, but it would be able to force them to evade and shoot from further away, giving escorts an actual chance at protecting the barge. And "Why cruiser turrets? Why not gunboats or just increased amount of transport turrets?" The barge is incredibly long, and its rear guns can't even shoot past its nose. It needs cruiser turrets just so that it has enough range to actually reach people who aren't laying on top of it.

It also needs a better shield slot. It's infinitely bigger than a freakin' battleship, any shot is an automatic hit. It should be given a gunboat shield. Have a gunboat stand still, and you will see that a VHF can easily drain its shields alone. Considering how enormous the barge is, every shot is an automatic hit, so you can rest assured that even with a gunboat shield the barge would still be quite vulnerable, but the bigger shield would still be helpful.

Barges also need their speed increased. Right now, they are so slow that a Stork can haul more in an hour than a barge, so why would anybody even bother flying a barge and bringing along a bunch of escorts and going through all that trouble? No, I'm not asking to turn barge into a powertrading tool. But it needs to move quickly enough to at least be worth going through the effort of using. Its regular speed should be increased to 40 m/s and its cruise speed should be increased to 180 m/s. It would still be very slow, and considering its inability to use lanes, jump, dock on planets, or turn around in less than three hours, it would not be a "powertrading" tool. But it would be good enough that people could enjoy group operations with barges.

Of course, with all of these buffs, it would need to be made incapable of docking, forcing people to work in groups with another transport (or multiple transports) for unloading and loading the barge. This would make things quite interesting, increase the use of the barge as a roleplay ship while also decreasing its use for powertrading.

If you still think this sounds "OP", come on, you're administrators and developers. It wouldn't take long to make those changes and test it in combat yourselves to see that the barge, even with these buffs, would still be very easy for enemies to destroy, but at least it would be able to keep bombers further than 0m away, allowing escorts to actually have a purpose.

[Highland Laddie]

I don't think it needs to be made incapable of docking, or even really given much in the way of shield/weapon buffs.

I just think it needs to have one of the two:
1. Shorter cruise charge time
2. Higher cruising speed

Either of these could actually go a long way towards making the Barge a better, more usable ship.

[TLI-Inferno]

I don't think it needs to be made incapable of docking, or even really given much in the way of shield/weapon buffs.

I just think it needs to have one of the two:
1. Shorter cruise charge time
2. Higher cruising speed

Either of these could actually go a long way towards making the Barge a better, more usable ship.

Those would make it better for trading, yes, but it does need a buff to weapons as well.

The way it is right now, it is impossible to protect. It has basically no weapons, so bombers can hug it without any risk of getting killed. This makes it nearly impossible for escorts to kill the bombers, because any shots that miss the bomber hit the barge, and nobody can honestly say that they actually hit an enemy bomber with 100% of their shots. Even a "fast" fight involves only 20% of shots hitting the enemy. So when escorting a barge, escorts would be killing the barge faster than they even hit the enemy.

This is why the barge needs a buff to its firepower, to force bombers to back off a little bit and shoot at it from further away, allowing escorts to actually have a purpose.

[Highland Laddie]

Well, that's more of a problem with the escorts than with Barge itself, isn't it? I could see maybe......MAYBE a slot or two for GB weapons. But 12 Cruiser turrets?? No way. The vessel, both by name and design, is a large transport vessel. It's purpose IS to move large amounts of cargo. It is not meant to be a mobile superfortress (we already have the Nephilim for that) nor a space station (we have PoBs for that).

What it definitely needs to be able to do to fulfill its primary role with even moderate success is one of my two proposals, neither of which would make it overpowered or a superb power-trading machine, but just make the ship a bit.more practical without a major overhaul or balance problem. Otherwise, it is both more practical and cost-effective to just use a group of transports.

[SnakThree]

Well, that's more of a problem with the escorts than with Barge itself, isn't it? I could see maybe......MAYBE a slot or two for GB weapons. But 12 Cruiser turrets?? No way. The vessel, both by name and design, is a large transport vessel. It's purpose IS to move large amounts of cargo. It is not meant to be a mobile superfortress (we already have the Nephilim for that) nor a space station (we have PoBs for that).

What it definitely needs to be able to do to fulfill its primary role with even moderate success is one of my two proposals. Otherwise, it is both more practical and cost-effective to just use a group of transports.

No. It's purpose is to HOLD large amount of cargo.

It was created with such intent and remains as such.

Leave the Barge alone.

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