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Alright, here goes. Disclaimer: I'm not much of a Battleship (or caps in general) user, so I might be completely wrong.
I think everyone acknowledges that smaller, nimbler Battleships currently are simply more effective PvP tools than the larger, tank-like Battleships.
Why? Because kiting, as long as it is pulled off well (which isn't that hard if you have a clue what you're doing), will inevitably let you win a fight.
There really is no way besides using "surprise attacks" or things like jumpholes and jumpgates to close the distance and exploit a heavy Battleship's superior firepower and hull.
Here's what I propose to change this:
Increase heavy battleships' impulse speed by a marginal amount, say, 95 or 100 m/s rather than 90 m/s. This way, they can slowly get closer to kiting battleships.
Now, before you scream "But then kiting will be impossible, and heavier battleships will be overpowered!", here's the trade-off:
Heavy battleships would lose substantial amounts of agility. Something like a 30-50% reduction in steering rate.
This way, kiting battleships could maneuver and manage to get away / out of optimal arcs / behind the heavier battleship just before said battleship gets into a position that allows it to unleash all of its firepower.
In other words, skilled light battleship captains will be able to steer their ship in such a way that they can avoid certain death and come out on top. Skilled heavy battleship users on the other hand might find they can anticipate how the lighter battleship is going to move, and prevent it from pulling it off.
Now, for those who really need an "inRP" explanation: larger battleships have large engines and large mass. They can accelerate to a higher speed, but changing directions is more difficult.
There you go.
Now, for this to work (kiting battleships have a chance, as do larger ones) a certain, "optimal" balance would have to be found, of course.
Ideas, hatred and "You're an idiot" may be posted below.
In terms of pure combat balance, it's a potential method to tweak battleships. Outside of combat, I must say that flying a heavy BS from A to B is frustrating enough without making them into combat barges.
Interesting idea but moving heavy battleships around is pain as it is.
In 1v1 Lighter battleship could cruise out and continue at appropriate for its range and tear down heavy without getting much damage itself (like it ussualy is now).
In fleet combat, heavies are hell of a easy target to hit by enemies but combined effort could trap light battleships to get mauled by heavies.
Posts: 3,218
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Joined: May 2012
Staff roles: Balance Dev
(03-26-2013, 05:17 PM)Omicron Wrote: In 1v1 Lighter battleship could cruise out and continue at appropriate for its range and tear down heavy without getting much damage itself (like it ussualy is now).
Well, cruising is generally an option people don't quickly go for in fights between capital ships given the substantial loss of energy. And if necessary, the heavy battleship can spot the cruise early enough and simply cruise right after them.
The few degrees of steering lost might making grabbing lanes and such a tad of a pain, I have to admit that. On the other hand, with a bit of practice, it's quite doable already as long as nobody bumps into you.
I'd personally say it's worth considering at the very least.
Oh, and really.. A battleship flying without any kind of CD-armed escort should pretty much be a sitting duck. In the case of two battleships fighting it out completely solo, either side can just decide to cruise away and leave as-is.
Without that change, heavy battleships would simply be better in practically every way than lighter battleships. Pretty sure it's necessary unless you feel heavy battleships are severely underpowered right now.
On the topic of finding a way to make heavy battleships able to fight kite bs' on more even terms, adding much higher reverse speeds to heavies would fix the problem without having to tweak too much in the way of balancing turn rates and forward impulse speeds, and without giving an offensive buff to heavies.
(03-26-2013, 07:33 PM)Hasteric Wrote: Without that change, heavy battleships would simply be better in practically every way than lighter battleships. Pretty sure it's necessary unless you feel heavy battleships are severely underpowered right now.
Find a better way to balance your suggestion. As it stands, I have to spend 20 - 40 seconds righting my battleship every time I collide with something. If a fighter bumps it even lightly, it'll swing 90 - 180 degrees in under a second and I have to sit there like a moron re-rotating my ship. It's hard to take capship RP seriously when a NPC corsair is making you spin like a gyroscope every few seconds.
If your changes were implemented, and it took twice as long to recover from a bad bump, how much fun do you think they'd be to fly?