The Bustard as it is now is a pain to fly into combat unless one is running the 8-Pulse gimmick. The turret slots at the equipment dealer even lie to the player. They read "Cruiser Turret - Heavy", but it can only mount regular Cruiser guns. To remedy the sadness of "Aw man, I can't six-LM insta peeps like a proper lolcap", which even I would consider to be completely and totally horrible to be on the receiving end of, I have put forward a couple suggestions and the reasoning behind them.
Suggestion A: Give it Cruiser Heavy slots
With Cruiser codenames available and the recent nerfs to Cruiser guns (FFS why did you nerf Pulse, devs?), perhaps a couple, maybe Turrets 5 and 6, of the Bustard's guns should have the option to mount Cruiser Heavy Turrets, mostly because it would look cool. Also, it would make Bustard more customizable with no visible downsides to the pvp environment's other occupants beyond "Oh wait, it can LM us now. Better use our Thruster a bit more."
Suggestion B: Single BS Heavy slot
Make Mount 8 a BS Heavy slot so Bustards can Nightmare peeps, or mount one of those cool cap codenames. The introduction of Transport flaks have made Bustard's extremely limited missile defense abilities able to done more efficiently, both in terms of actual credit cost and in terms of area covered. A flak-equipped Taureau can do the same job for a little under 1/10th of the cost of a Bustard, and has the added bonus of being able to make any snub shield disappear at will.
Again, further customization options with little to no functional change in how a fight will play out beyond the Bustard having a bit more punch in a 360 arc on its top side.
tl;dr Can I use cap codes on my Bustard pretty please?
Basically, talking from the POV of an intelectual member:
•The Bustard is a liner, a liner with Carrier "genes*. It can be used as a RP ship, or as an actual civilian carrier(no longer possible, thx Docking modules no work).
•If your " changes" would take place and suceed, your precious Bustard will be turned from a normal liner/carrier Hybrid into a Crusier as fat as a Carrier. Which guess what- will most likely change its class. Making it what?- a CRUSIER CLASS SHIP. Thus becoming unavalable to Freelancer IDs.
•The Bustard was never ment for combat, neither transporting (or maybe a heavily armored one). Its just an RP ship, a pretty one.
•Hey ho and a bottle of rum, lets turn the Bustard in combat mode? Naaaaah, please no.
(01-03-2018, 02:05 AM)Goliath Wrote: Bustard is a liner. Not a capital ship.
No it is quite obviously a Carrier... Cruiser... Abomination.
And I have to agree with Exo in saying they need to be changed. Standard Cruiser turret slots do not lend themselves to creativity or variety when that's the only thing other then a light battleship slot on the ship, yes. It is the only Capital class usable by freelancers and the rustles the jimmies of some older players but I don't really care. The Barge isn't coming back, it's never coming back, it was a horrible idea. The Bustard is a pretty neat all things considered, it's one of the more expensive ships, it's one of the more useful ships given it can use Fleet Jump Drives to move forces where they need to be (And as we learned in Delta, even Kidnap enemy capital ships to even or tip the scales in a fight.) I think a real heavy slot or two would benefit the ship a lot and not make it broken. As it stands, it's pretty bad in combat and could use a way to not just be a big non thrusting target.
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ID-wise and in terms of balancing, it is classified as Liner, and that is all about it. InRp, it is a carrier, civilian, meaning not military. The sole purpose of the ship is to bring fightercraft from A to B. Gameplay-wise, it can be used for anything else than fighting. It is bigger than some battleships while it is clearly not a military ship, as otherwise it wouldn't be permitted to fly around in Liberty and Bretonia, or to be used on Freelancer ID. The ship is great the way it is. Keep in mind that Discovery isn't for people who want the one ship that is the jack of all trades.
(01-03-2018, 02:24 AM)Goliath Wrote: mounting codenames on a Bustard is just stupid.
I'll give you that much. But inRP it isn't seen as a Liner, it's seen as a Carrier, this how a lot of crap started in places like Delta (Looks at Exo) Rheinland thinks of them as Capitals, that's why you can't just fly them there. Bottom line is, it's a capital class vessel in Universe, Liner Out of Universe so that Freelancers can fly it. I don't see why giving them access to Heavy weapons (As advertised on the equipment screen) I'm not saying let them have a Full heavy loadout, that's stupid. I'm just saying give them at least one slot.
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