Eliminating Capship abuse

[n00bl3t]

Selling capships in guard systems may reduce their numbers, but it also gives the official factions total control, not sure if we want that.... sure it could be done responsibly but.. it could easily be abused.

Noted.

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Anything I say is not intended as offensive, and to try and deliberately misinterpret it as such would be an attempt at trolling via misrepresentation.

It's not a conspiracy, it's localised bias. They're not intelligent enough to form a conspiracy.

[Thexare]

Now that I've had a little more time to think about this, I can actually contribute to the topic. Hooray, or something.

Unfortunately, I think Xoria had the right idea in another topic.

The people that are in fact abusing capital ships will simply find something else to abuse, such as bombers. The ships aren't the problem, it's the people that are abusing them - nerf the ships they're using and they're just going to find something else! I suspect that the number of people who'd improve because of added capital ship RP in systems would be depressingly low.

But I fully support efforts to get more frequent RP use of capital ships. Having a battleship or cruiser stationed in a system coordinating local military activities has more impact than it just being a bunch of fighters and bombers. It may not help with the people that are abusing capital ships, but I think it would make for a more interesting flight through Liberty (or any other house, or Alpha/Gamma). I'm not saying we should have a Dreadnought in every system, but a Liberty Cruiser coordinating Liberty Navy patrols in Colorado and issuing orders would do wonders for the atmosphere in my opinion.

Noted.

Noted.

[Cellulanus]

I've been thinking about how the vessels would be best balanced and I realized that examples from Starlancer would be perfect for determining the best balances, because lets face it, Freelancer was made as "Go anywhere and shoot anything all on your own because you are an invulnerable hero" and Starlancer was more of a "Your the best fighter pilot in the fleet that can take on entire fighter wings, but you cant win the war by yourself."

Fighters: Small, fast and agile. Good at engaging other fighters/bombers and other small craft including freighters and gunboats. They can soften up large capital ships by knocking stuff of of the surface but cant destroy the ship without support. Relies on its manuverablity to survive encounters with larger ships.

Bombers: Slow, not very maneuverable and will drop like flies to fighters or gunboats, but they can destroy capital ships easily with on good torpedo salvo. Relies heavily on fighters and stealth for protection.

Gunboats: Reasonably fas and agile, packs enough firepower to rip apart fighters and bombers with only a few hits. Lacks the firepower or armour to take on larger capships.

Capital ships: Very slow and handles like a brick. Packs very heavy firepower and heavy armour but is extremely vulnerable to enemy torpedoes. Relies heavily on support ships to eliminate fighters and bombers.

[Jinx]

the greatest difference to hwat you describe are the bombers. - in freelancer they are as small an agile as fighters. - their weaponry does not support anything they stand for ( that is deploy their ordinance from afar while staying clear of the battleships guns )

one solution ( which will not work or be accepted ) is to turn the nova torpedo into THE main bomber torpedo. - like - give it a chance to hit of near 100% ( unless the capital ship drops a CM ) - so it can .... if we want ... get a momentum of 100ms - a 360 degrees "sight" and an extreme tracking ability - so that if not intercepted, it will hit when fired from 3000 meters away.

but then - make it a bit larger, too .... so it can be shot down, on the other hand - make it damage capital ships for REAL - and improve its damage a little ( 200k ) - upgrade their price to maybe 30.000 / torpedo ( who says every bomber always has to have 70 of them..... )

so IF they could harm battleships, they would leave the bomber with the option to fire them from a SAFE distance. the battleship would need either an escort to shoot them down ( the torps, not the bomber ) or had to swap targets itself ( and torpedos have to be targetted manually, they cannot be targetted by cycling through the available targets )

but if we want bombers to be "slow" they would have to be - as a matter of fact, probably be as slow as gunboats ( trading long range damage for mobility ) - that way, bombers could harm battleships and stay safe from them - but they would drop like flies from fighters.

that leaves the question - who would fly a bomber then? - a bomber would NEED an escort - just as a battleship. - yea, if we apply the very very stupid *battleships in ww2* examples - bombers are usually escorted, too. - but like i said, its a stupid example. - however, if bombers are as vulnerable as in starlancer / freespace / homeworld 2 - they need fighter escorts - or they are dead before they can deliver the damage they are made for.

and fighters should have the power to cripple the shields of a battleship - but NOT the hull.

the situation is like that:

an unescorted bomber against an unescorted battleship results in a stalemate. - the bomber can stay safe, but the battleship can simply shoot down the torpedos itself.
if the bombers are escorted, the battleship must take care of them - cause they can drain its shields - so its not too easy to target the torpedos. - but it depends on the numbers of course. - fighters would be able to launch "fake" ordinance, too - like their own smaller torpedos or CMs that disturb the targetting of the battleship so that it cannot effectivly target the real torpedos, since it has to do it manually.
an escorted bomberwing against an escorted battleship would result in the typical battle - the fighters fight each other sort of - the battleships escort will have 2 jobs - take out the torpedos and take out the enemy fighters. - the attackers have the job to take out the battleships escorts and make sure that the torpedos make it to the battleship. - meanwhile the battleship can try to assist the escort by firing at the bombers ( a spray and pray ) or firing at the fighters that will probably be within the effective weaponrange.

but such a concept would never make it to disco - cause it would require bombers to act as a team with escorts, too - in order to be effective. - right now, bombers are THE stand alone ships. - they cannot take out a battleship all on their own - but they can take out everything else on their own. - just like battleships.... but their mobility, price ... and of course reputation makes them the better choice right now. they also do not cause such an "awe" when they appear. - they are "just another bomber" - and most cruiser or gunboat captains still feel superior to a single bomber ( when its really an even game ... depending on the pilots skills )

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[n00bl3t]

Noted.

*Sigh.*

Seriously if anything needs a nerf it's people noting that I note.

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Anything I say is not intended as offensive, and to try and deliberately misinterpret it as such would be an attempt at trolling via misrepresentation.

It's not a conspiracy, it's localised bias. They're not intelligent enough to form a conspiracy.