First of all, the GRN Gunboat is an odd ship, it is the size of a heavy Gunboat and armoured like one (120k base armour, same as the Hathor), however it only has a medium Gunboat powerplant and medium weapon slots (500k plant, and exactly the same slot layout as the Orca). This makes it a very strange ship to fly, and one which is, in my opinion, rather badly balanced (I, personally, believe it should be a proper heavy Gunboat). However, its shortcomings would be at least bearable if its guns were able to make up for them, which they don't.
Currently, GRN Gunboat turrets currently look like this:
Hull Damage: 594
Shield Damage: 297
Range: 798 m
Projectile Speed: 1,470 m/s
Refire Rate: 4.76
Energy Usage: 2,100
This gives it a hull DPS of 2829 (basic primaries are 2800), and as with the ship, these stats would be fine if the ship was a proper heavy Gunboat with 8 slots like an Imperator, but it isn't, it's an oddly balanced hybrid with only 6 guns, one of which only fires backwards.
The fact is, the Gunboat, in its current state, absolutely needs high-DPS turrets to balance out the fact that it is basically a heavy Gunboat size-wise.
What I'd suggest would be something more like this:
Hull Damage: 670
Shield Damage: 335
Range: 798 m
Projectile Speed: 1,400 m/s
Refire Rate: 4.76
Energy Usage: 2,500
These stats would put its guns in line with some of the very high DPS weapons (designed for heavy Gunboats), as it would then have 3189 hull DPS (Order primaries are 3200 DPS, Corsair primaries are 3240, and Rheinland primaries are 3280).
What raising its DPS to this level would do would be to give the GRN Gunboat decent firepower (not anything special, it still has very limited arcs), and would at the very least enable it to compete with Gunboats of similar class, and with the ships it faces in day-to-day combat, as right now, it simply can't (the Bretonian Gunboat and the Tridente both absolutely destroy it), and due to its size, it's rather useless against snubs.
Gallic GB is not much bigger than Liberty one and most importantly in gallia it only meets HF and light bombers which do have big trouble taking it down. Yes it can have issues vs Templars and specially vs Bret GB (which is now balanced specifically to defeat other GBs), but I don't see any big problem with that.
Igiss says: Martin, you give them a finger, they bite off your arm.
Can someone explain the purpose of the Liberty gunboat defense turret for me please.
Hull Damage: 660
Shield Damage: 330
Range: 798 m
Projectile Speed: 1,400 m/s
Refire Rate: 4.00
Energy Usage: 2,000
I mean...what is the point in this? If you want energy efficient guns go with the basics. Same energy usage, same speed, refire rate, more damage.
The Liberty defense turret should have a much better projectile speed, something close to solaris. That way it can live up to its name. Being suited in defense against snubs. Or it should have a better refire rate. Anything that makes it useful, because these statistics make no sense.
About the GRN turret, I have to agree with Montezuma. I understand that it is a gunboat meant to counter fighters and bombers, but it becomes useless against other GBs, or at least against the Bret GB. If that gunboat had more guns it would be much more used then it is, since it is a nice looking gunboat. At least it saves me from getting ganked by the GRN because going 1vs1 against a Bretonian gunboat in a perilous is suicide.
The 5.88 Zoner, Gaian and GC guns are still complete crap. Their efficiency sucks so hard, it's not even funny anymore. Compare them to the Gallic Civillian 5.88 Lasers or the Hessian 5.88 Lasers and make your decisions.
Damage to Energy ratio, higher is better
Hessian efficiency: 3.91
Gallic Civillian efficiency: 4.1
Golden Chrysantemum efficiency: 3.73
Gaian efficiency: 3.55
Zoner efficiency (Fury 5): 3.64
As a comparision: Heavy Flashpoint efficiency: 4.29
Vengeance V efficiency: 4.63
There is no excuse for these vast differences, they are all 750m/s guns and they're all of the same group (Laser/Photon)
8.33 were buffed across the board, they are damn efficient and have nice DPS. And most of them are 750m/s too. So I do not get why 5.88 are so extremely crippled and especially so different among themselves, regarding energy efficiency.
So the Arbeiter. I have to say the model is really sexy, I like it very much. The only problem is that fighting with it is a pain. It's a bit bigger than the Eagle, yet has the agility of the guardian and weapons like protectors just don't fit with this ship, though the weapon matter can be solved easily. The problem comes with fighting. Eating almost all of the damage while on full autododge is not okay. But right, let's say it is, deal with it, learn2fly. Alright. But then we arrive to the point where we have to fight with a fat eagle with guardian speed against Wraiths. Wraith is indeed a special ship, we all love it and hate it at the same time but please, both the Guardian and the Odin have more chance against it than the Arbeiter.
The Liberty Rogue fighters are all terribly underpowered.
First, I'll start with the light fighters. The light fighters are far too big to fit in with other light fighters. They've been given a very slight increase in hull, but that still leaves them larger, with less hull and firepower, than heavy fighters.
To balance this, I suggest giving the Bloodhound and Hyena 4/1 gun/turret mounts, rather than 3/1, and the power core would need to be slightly increased to support the extra gun mount. Even then, these fighters would still be ignored, but they would at least have some sort of unique feature: a little more firepower than most other light fighters, while also being larger.
Second, I'll get to their Greyhound, a Very Heavy Fighter. With only 4 guns and a turret, this ship is terribly underpowered, sporting less firepower than most heavy fighters, and being an easier target. This is another ship that could use an extra gun mount, making it slightly less useless.
At the moment, the only rogue ships that anybody uses are the SHF, Bomber, gunboat, and destroyer, which are actually decent ships, but hardly anybody uses the standard fighters of the Liberty Rogues, for an obvious reason.
Some thoughts about gunboats:
Bottlenose is way too fast. Now it can more than just outdodge other gunboats, it outturns them with ease too.
Few heavy gunboats (KuEx, Bret GB, Corsair GB), on the other hand, need a slight speed buff, so they can catch up with light ones.
Hydra got too much HP compared to other gunboats, while having good arcs, thin shape and decent speed.
It's HP must be around 95-105k
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Also, Rogue/Molly LF is too easy target. I think, it needs a new model. Keep the style, but make it a bit smaller.
Rogue/Molly VHF is a bit underpowered, i think making it slightly more dodgy (i.e. with reduced mass) would solve the issue.
' Wrote:Bottlenose is way too fast. Now it can more than just outdodge other gunboats, it outturns them with ease
It can also avoid bs secondaries at less than half of their range. It is an utter troll ship and should be either adjusted or removed. Considering everyone and their dog has one, facing them in combat gets extremely tiresome after a while.
"Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town."