' Wrote:- torp mounted, but NOT ammo dependable gun/missile to CD - so unlimited CD from a LF
- high speed EMP mines - maybe even cluster mines that won t hurt the enemy but simply drain them dry
- pulse gun that emites an explosion that does 1 point of damage and has a HUGE radius to explode all but capital missiles
- extreme CM to assist larger targets to get away by dropping CMs with a very very high radius and success rate
- decloaker
- jump inhibitor
This please,
Perhaps not the pulse gun due to infinite CD's being perfectly capable of stopping most missles.
Not extreme CM, but instead 2 CMs.
(One enhanced for themselves, 1 heavy to assist others.)
Look guys, here is the deal. This is not a thread about "LFs suck, we must buff them" but rather about "LF concept sucks, we must change it". Now, ideally I would like to come up with a solution that involves slowing LF speed to roughly the same as your typical VHF, while also being balanced with the low hitpoints and low amount of gun slots that they would retain.
The obvious answer to that would be glass cannon balancing for LFs, where they deal a lot of damage/are very useful in a fight, but are fairly easy to kill themselves. Now some of the suggestions above are interesting: the high power use, high damage, high refire burst gun for example.
But I think choice is nice. I think specialisation is nice also. So some of Jinx's ideas appeal to me too, the high ranged CM is an interesting idea for example. Might make LFs into extremely viable escorts, if they can negate Train CDs. The "pulse gun" might be a bit too strong though, it would negate missiles too hard...
Talking about that interceptor role:
i have no idea if this is possible, but how about a weapon, mounted on the CD slot or such that "entangles" an enemy- aka reducing his thruster speed to XX (maybe to lower than transport thrust)...or if you really want to think big has additional CDing capabilities.
That way you would create a shipclass able to really intercept by nailing its target down, be it a trader escort making way for its protegee to run or the evil pirates who won´t leave any witnesses to the military scout who stops the battleship until the main force arrives.
Of course one could think of a " Fighter net" a "transport net" and a "cap net" to specialize and maybe balance it further...
Already mentioned sooner. How about a fighter gun split simmilar to turret split?
Class 1,2,3 being light, medium and heavy weapons. Classes 4,5,6 being simmilar for heavy fighters (which are suffering more from the redundancy syndrome than light fighters) and classes 7,8,9 being for heavies. Class 10 staying a wildcard.
' Wrote:slowing LF speed to roughly the same as your typical VHF
Doesn't make sense, make a new class of fighter if the ideas you want are to be implemented, but a light fighter should be light - nimble and fast moving but with light weapon systems. Don't go changing the LF concept because some people don't like it, not least because changing it affects many people's ships to serve a different purpose than what they bought them for.
The light fighter concept does not suck, it just needs improving or needs things added to it. Ideas that do this have already been brought up in this thread, the best ones imo being faster thrust speed and slightly better guns (still keeping the dps fairly low compared to VHFs and HFs).
' Wrote:Already mentioned sooner. How about a fighter gun split simmilar to turret split?
Class 1,2,3 being light, medium and heavy weapons. Classes 4,5,6 being simmilar for heavy fighters (which are suffering more from the redundancy syndrome than light fighters) and classes 7,8,9 being for heavies. Class 10 staying a wildcard.
Yep, I agree with this idea. I've dabbled in it a bit, but it would need a total revision of all fighter guns basically, so a pretty good plan is needed beforehand.
Quote:The light fighter concept does not suck, it just needs improving or needs things added to it. Ideas that do this have already been brought up in this thread, the best ones imo being faster thrust speed and slightly better guns (still keeping the dps fairly low compared to VHFs and HFs).
Well problem is that the smaller the ship is the more impact lag has on the ability of others to hit it, the less skill is needed to dodge, the harder the ship is to properly balance. If we gave LFs good support for example, we'd still have the issue of Hyena vs Liberator for example, which are probably the two extremes of the class - one because it's too big for what the class is supposed to achieve, the other because it is far too small. Their speed compounds this problem further, it doesn't have that big of an impact on the Hyena for example (except in very specific situations like duels and people who are able to actually use this advantage, and there are very few of those due to the way FL physics and targeting systems work) as opposed to Liberator which is basically almost unhittable and with the 8.33s is actually an excellent addition to a battle... but for the enemy it is an extremely difficult ship to kill even in a medium pilot's hands. And then the voidrunner showcases the extreme of the extreme where it is actually almost completely impossible to kill, and yet somehow becomes yet harder to kill if it lags even slightly.
VHFs are already pretty fast that in a laggy environment the battle is ludicrous. But at the moment LFs are balanced in such a way that most of them can be basically ignored in battle. If we suddenly make them meaningful, then they will become the main battle vehicles of choice on account of now being slightly to majorly OP depending on the LF... and that's not really what I want.
Current LF balance is good for a) scouting and b) light support.
a) we don't need scouts *sad*. We look at chat-list and know all we need. Put some fog-of-war* over a chat-list and LF will become mandatory for safe passage everywhere.
b) LF can support bigger ship (bomber, SHF, even GB) like bomber supports battleship. But it's hard if you just copy/paste your favorite VHF PvP settup and tactics on LF.