About LFs- no need of troll ships like Liberator, I would give them better intercepting ablilites-better CD and 450 cruise but I wont give them more then 3 guns and all level 8. Take Hayabusa an Liberator as size for LF and make all of them like it but with weaker guns.
Hyena like LFs are useless or OP in Surveyor case- they could simply be made to HFs. http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=88060
This topic explains perfectly why.
(10-09-2013, 10:51 AM)Knjaz Wrote: Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)
Improving the LFs combat capability can be done in more than one way, That is, giving it special type of offensive equipment such as minigun of doom, higher projectile speed weapons, mounting razors, special nukes etc etc (changes that all revolve around the damage per second. In that case what’s the point of ship classes if we want the best of both agility and firepower?)
What happens if one of the stated examples gets implemented in the game (God forbid two)
1. Minigun of doom: I predict a clusterfuck of LFs in ever group battle because then they have both the agility and the firepower to be effective in damaging and of course keeping themselves out of harm’s way. Given the occasional lagginess of the game that’ll make fights even longer, more so than usual getting on everyone’s nerves.
2. High projectile speed tech: No skill solution to aiming? Picture this, any LF can circle around VHFs without taking substantial damage, even if the VHF is reversing in order to catch a glimpse of the obnoxiously fast flea. I’ve tried that myself many times and kept wondering “No how do I do this and shoot the guy at the same time?” Even using the widest wide screen monitor won’t help you, unless you’re using eyefinity for Freelancer which would be really really reaaally nasty. One way to do this is by having guns which projectile’s velocity is so fast that it reaches the target instantaneously. That alone in my opinion is just not fair even in comparison to the turret steer/zoom. In summary your LF becomes inhumanly powerful because then you’d evade more and deal guaranteed damage (Well almost guaranteed since you still have to move your cursor over the target)
3. Mounting razors on LFs that are kind of HUGE in comparison to their little brothers and sisters. Now that I find both ingenious and stupid. Reason being because the mini razor is an incredibly sluggish cannon, to hit you either have to fire with an astronomical lead or ram your opponent, fire everything and keep your fingers crossed. That’s not the biggest issues though, Razors commit your style to be more aggressive. So you know there’s this red beam of doom you’ve got that can seal the deal in one second, BUT how do you take the shot without dooming yourself? Notice how you rarely see people using razors nowadays. Simply because nuke trapping is way more effective and when getting up close to a target that is not jousting essentially means you have to chase them. What happens when you chase? A nuke says hello followed by its friendly neighbourhood disruptor. Normally that’s crippling for VHFs, but for the LFs… kind of worse, yep they go pop.
4. Special nukes: Umm isn’t spamming nukes and disruptors already too effective? You’d be surprised how remarkably easy it is to turn the tide of a battle by setting your CD launcher to fire along side your guns. This will only result in encouraging people to put even less effort into piloting. Hate to say it, but every time there’s an issue someone offers the bright idea of adding a new feature which does 90% of the job for you.
5. Torpedoes: Same issues as the razor I think, only this time you can spare your opponent the trouble of dropping a nuke. Torpedo launches>gets countered by a CD> you go boom.
6. Light fighter scales: Liberators and Hussars do a decent job in terms of both survivability and offensive. There’s no doubt that they both owe that to their streamlined profile, it’s like watching a discharged bullet with a mind of its own. I disagree on the whole Overpowered accusations everyone’s throwing at them. In my opinion they are how all light fighters should be: A pain to hit, easy to break. Meaning that yes, your full set of codenames has slim chances of two-shotting them any time soon. However stuff like ram damage followed by a nuke always ends in lots of stomped fleas. As for group fights, I personally believe that in the hands of experienced pilots a squadron Liberators and Hussars will absolutely tear apart everything. That’s when their OP colours shine. In duels they’re alright, the small size and agility somewhat helps them stay toe to toe. However in group fights it’s a whole different story. Funny thing is that the development of all fighter crafts always led to making them fast and a lot smaller. Think about jets. In space the Earth’s factors like gravity don’t apply anymore, but that still won’t convince people into thinking “Hey we need to build something bigger”. It hurts my eyes to see the griffin struggling to evade lasers because in reality it’s just an eagle made of cardboard without the top fin. Same goes for the Hyena, dear God get rid of the Geyhound and let the Hyena take its place, add a few extra totally redundant bits and pieces like wings for example (you can never have enough wings in the vacuum of space) to increase the shield bubble and there you have it. Don’t know if it should be allowed to use tenth level tech, anyways I’m drifting off topic here. Phantom is yet another underappreciated asset, not saying it’s that bad, but quite frankly… when you look at the Wraith and notice that it’s a tad smaller, speed difference doesn’t matter much, tenth level tech: Same deal as the Hyena.
Overall LFs really ought to be tiny, Liberator and Hussar are not unfairly small, it’s just their bullet shape that makes them difficult to target from the front. Both are quite long, but you won’t seem the attacking you flipped vertically. All ships that are flat like pancakes or just being flying dildos offer an incredible advatange at staying alive a lot longer. These issues can’t be helped unless every ship gets remodeled and turned into a fat brick. So Griffin, Phantom, Hyena, Decurion, Falcion… etc etc. They truly have my sympathies.
As for the special types of CDs that can easily counter any torpedo or missiles. Well… people won’t use missiles and torpedoes anymore which is both a plus and minus. Capital ships with thrusters won’t have to worry about getting ripped apart once they’re out of the turret’s range, this alone cripples the heavy class capitals. Now how is that fair to solve one problem by creating another?
Right then, enough with the critics as that’s one of the easiest things to do, look at some ideas that people put a considerable amount of time into them and laugh in their face while showing why the suggestion sucks. In my opinion all light fighters gain infamous troll label because the little buggers are prone to dying ridiculously quick. That’s the one thing that keeps them balanced in the game and endorses trolling even more. You have to be like water in LFs: Open minded for new tactics, don’t counter force with brute force of your own, be calm, know your surroundings, be capable of moving with pinpoint precision… the list goes on. When you’re fighting in a VHF do you honestly worry about all those vital factors? Hell I know I’m not standing on my toes because if a nuke hits me, big deal I’ll regen, take two. So people really are not fond of dying under a second. That’s why LFs engage their freak-out mode when the shield drops and circle around for 10-15 seconds until it comes back again. (Don’t know anything about the recharge delay of the shields so don’t sue me please). Giving them offensive new toys won’t stop them from circling around like a spineless coward when the shield is down. They’ll continue to do it only this time the VHF’s chances getting brutally buttraped are much higher.
What if the defensive abilities get altered? Most importantly the shield itself. People always focus on getting the better guns, they keep drifting towards to the offensive side of things and so the shield is one of the most underestimated equipment in this game. Tweak the LFs shield so that the recharge delay will be really small, something like 4-6 seconds. But at the same time make it extremely weak by nerfing it down to 2700-3800 hp(The reasonable choice would be 2000k so that taking it down won't be an issue). Honestly I don’t care much if I have a 2000 hp shield or 5k that is the current one. Only difference will be in the shots it takes to deshield it. The 5k shield absorbs two shots of four codies if I’m not mistaken. Now those two shots are a pain to score. My goal here is to make the shield easily bypassed just with one shot of the 2.0s and with two shots of the dual debilitaor. I’ve always found it funny how all types of shields even the tier one can absorb a SNAC.
The quick recharge shield ought to make LFs feel more secure because if they tend to make more mistakes they won’t be punished by getting insta-killed right off the bat. (They'll still die if they run into a double nuke)
Of course adding this type of tech gives them a big advantange both in duels and group brawls, the metagame will certainly change. For that all Light Fighters must have their agility lowered because what’s stopping them from shieldrunning?
Bottom-line:
Slightly lower the speed stats and give them a shield that re-creates the scenario where we’re trying to shoot down a CSV but it keeps using 2-4 batteries to regenerate its shield every 3-4 seconds. Absorbing dps is an invaluable buff.
