Transports

[DaBoss]

Alright, I brought this up before, but I will bring it up again. I would like to apologize in advance to anyone that I might offend with this, or if it is being discussed elsewhere. I also apologize if this is ends up being a rant, as it's rather late.

What is there that can really scare a trader these days? Pirates can do little to actually make a trader stop and RP. Pirating isn't done for money, but to RP with people. This is extremely hard when traders have little to fear from pirates. I say they have little to fear because Transports have extremely high Armor by default, and, fi purchased, extremely high shield.

Please, look here. Is it just me, or are these comparable to the gunboat section of this?

After doing some very basic calculations, I have found the average gunboat armor, Nomad and Scorpion Gunboats excluded, to be 102,300. The average transport armor, Luxury, Prison, and Royal Liners excluded, is 92,500. Is it me, or is this kind of contradictory to the fact that these are civilian ships, not designed to endure sustained combat, yet they have an average armor comparable to military ships used to endure sustained combat.

Now, apply an armor upgrade MK VIII or a capital ship armor upgrade, and the numbers become unbearable. I am not a balance expert, and I have no clue what the average damage output of a pirating vessel, but I am fairly confident that they cannot match up to the armor and shields of a Transport in my experience as a pirate.

I understand the fact that if a pirate is in a bomber, and it comes upon an average transport, a single Supernova may destroy it. I understand how this may be a problem when pirating occurs, where, even if a trader has an escort, a pirate may simply SN it and ignore the escort.

However, is this not realistic? If I do remember correctly, a pair of Corsair fighters pirated a Gateway Convoy, composed of two large transports, and destroyed it without breaking a sweat. NPC transports are easy as heck to destroy, even a Starflier can do it, and I don't call for a nerf of such proportions, but Traders need to be afraid of pirates in some way.

Rules can always be imposes protecting pirates from things like escort-ignoring, such as a requisite time that must pass before a pirate may focus on a Transport, but, right now, it takes two Supernovas to kill some transports without armor upgrades, and even more with an armor upgrade. Even small, maneuverable transports are capable of taking a beating, even from bombers, with armor upgrades. It's nearing ridiculous, and transports don't even have a reason to hire escorts.

Gunboats, Bombers, and Fighters are designed to be combat vessels for usage by Military Purposes. Why is it that Civilian Transports designed to move goods have comparable armor to a Capital Ship Classes vessel, and can sustain damage from a Military Vessel specifically designed to destroy Capital Ships? It just doesn't seem, right to me.

Now, I might have been repeating myself a little bit, but I do think that Transports require a nerf of some sort. Thusly, I call for a reduction in their armor and shields, as that is where they are most unbalanced, in my opinion.

Now, then, please excuse me while I don a flame retardant suit, and prepare something self-esteem lifting for when this is shot down.

Sorry to be so blunt but u probably a pirate arent you. Done much trading lately?