Godslayer Balance Essay

[Tenshi]

leading to horribly labor intensive fight mechanics like battlecruisers controlling strafe, turn, roll, shield regen, weapon groups, and crosshair snap, let alone managing enemy missiles and actually aiming and firing your own weapons. Your reward for managing all of these simultaneously is 10 or less seconds of firing your weapons at an enemy who is also doing the same in order to minimize how much damage you can do to them, and likely being forced off your angle of attack by another member of the groupfight, or reaching a position where you need to drastically change your orientation to allow your guns to fire again. In short, you put an extreme amount of effort in, and your reward is the feeling of impotence, ineffectiveness, and relative uselessness, regardless of your real contribution.

A note before the below: the opinions shared come from a person who was an Osiris/Overlord gamer before 5.0, and an Akhetaten/Battlecruiser gamer post 5.0. If some (or all) of these points don't apply to you it might be because we come from different backgrounds.


I'm not a particularly fond passenger of the current balance hate-train and I've never really subscribed to the typical "Hate Haste" messages that many members of the community live by, but that's one of the few occasions where I have to say I agree with the point being made.

Was it better 4 years ago? No, not really. As a Battleship in a fleet fight you still had about as much "value" to bring to the table as a Battlecruiser/Battleship has today. I'm not trying to gaslight myself by going "Damn back in the day I could pull off some amazing MLG plays on the Akhetaten and send 'em to my friends". No, lmao, I couldn't.

The difference between then and now is that back then I had to keep three things in mind to properly play the game (probably even less during a 1v1) whereas right now I have to keep thirteen things in mind to properly play the game.

I enjoy how things got complicated and how classes got mechanics, and in a 1v1 scenario I wouldn't even compare today's cap PVP with cap PVP pre 5.0, it's like playing an entirely different game. I also firmly believe that people who despise current cap PVP (in the sense of duels) and want to return to pre 5.0 era are severely coping due to their inability to perform in a class that has actual mechanics involved and the class' gameplay doesn't come down to "press WASD while flying in a straight line at your opponent or away from your opponent". Yes, as much as nostalgia hits me and I've missed killing <literally anything> in a 1v1 as an Osiris because my ship's 'run in a straight line and WASD' was better than anyone else's 'run in a straight line and WASD' even I admit it was disgusting that duel PVP came to that.

Now while I find great enjoyment in how duels have changed, I sincerely think that the very same changes make fleet engagements simply unplayable, and I fully agree with the quote above in the context of fleet engagements.

Thing is, I'm not really adding anything constructive here.

I'm not providing the secret sauce so that issue can be fixed while keeping duels as fun.

Nor am I calling Haste incompetent for being unable to get that done because frankly, I don't know how that is possible myself.

In my experience since 5.0 released (I've probably been in three (?) fleet fights ever since) anything above a 3v3, maybe a 4v4, gets so complicated with how many things you need to keep in mind that at this point it's just better to not bother with it.

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