My idea for balance--limiting ships by adding variety

[AceofSpades]

So I've read alot of good stuff about cloaks, interesting ideas that are well-thought out. There have also been little pop-ups about the uselessness of other devices as well. Then somebody had an excellent idea and proposed unique ship types, or the overall limiting of what ships could use this tech. This got me to thinking that the problem is much more about limiting the over-use of tech than complaining about how much different stuff we have. Players like the variety, we just dislike the fact that every ship can use every single massive bonus at once.

Well here's my idea, and it's based on a pretty simple concept. We all want cool toys to play with, but it makes no sense to have Freelancers, Xenos, or other Pilots flying ships with the best armor, cloaks, and other goodies. In fact, no ship would be so multipurpose in RP. Therefore I think the best way to solve the problem is by limiting what ships can mount as well as continuing to create and balance new gear for the community. This may not seem like a major change yet, but bear with me for a moment.

What if we had to choose, specifically, what we could mount on the ship. Of course, cargo limitations and such currently force you to make a few decisions. But what if a ship could ONLY mount either a cloak or armor upgrade? It seems like a simple thing now, but I can explain the possibilities this offers with an idea that I think would be a good "device" on par with Jump Drives, Cloaks, and that whole lot. We could add a powerplant upgrade, much like an armor upgrade, that would increase the powerplant on your ship by either a multiplier or a finite amount. While this might seem a bit OP at first, what if every vessel out there had to decide between an Armor Upgrade, a Powerplant Upgrade, or a Cloak? I've seen this powerplant augmenting equipment type on multiple servers and don't see how it wouldn't be popular here. And while balance is always an issue, once you have a variety of gear that all has its ups and down BUT cannot all be mounted at once on the same ship, you will have fewer complaints. Shooters will get powerplants, others will grab cloaks or armor, and if one is OP it can be combated in other ways.

Oh and also, the instant added variety would be unimaginable:
Suddenly even ships of the same class could have ridiculously different roles. VHF's might be loaded with power and codenames, or armored up. Gunboats and Carriers of the very same faction will be completely different types of ships.. they might be cloaking killers, armored beasts, or weapons platforms.

We'd all love to see variety, but I think we can also all agree that we would all enjoy some level of limitation on how teched out a ship can be. Nothing in Sirius, in my opinion, should be Cap 8'ed, able to cloak, and fire the best weapons. However I have nothing against there being cloaks, massive armors, and overpowered powerplants, because each ship should be different. So maybe instead of focusing as much on nerfing or balancing this equipment, it might be more worth our time to discuss the best way to limit its use.

Because also... i think just assigning the cloak to certain ships, and leaving armor and other bonuses how it is, is in no way going to solve the cloaking problem long-term. Offering people alternatives that inspire them away from using a cloak on behalf of other advantages, or at least make them seperate with some other goodies in order to use it, seems like it'd be what will even things out smoothly.

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[5:57:11 PM] InfernalTater (Lewis) [Formerly TLI-Inferno]:meanwhile, Aces 'I don't always miss my destinations, but when I do, I'm on the other side of house space.'

Seriously nerf Junkers.

Shoot to Thrill

[Oorn]

I generally like this idea, but I think it just won't work with current gear stats. AUs will have to be rebalanced, unforseen changes to combat will be made.
Problem is, any decent solution to equipment problem also has this problem. If we want this problem gone, will HAVE TO do major rebalance of pretty much everything. I don't think anyone from Dev has free time/courage to do this.

If, however, rebalance will be made, I think this idea similar to your is best: every ship has X number of special hardpoints, to which support equipment can be mounted, armors, shield boosters, CMs, cloaks, JDs, anti-cloak scanners, etc. Also, X will vary for different ships: for example rogue ships will have.lower stats but more sp hardpoints. It will also make sense iRP, pirate ships are weaker, but can be customized more easily.

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When "roleplay" around you seems to be diminishing... all you can do is be a new beacon of roleplay to light up everyone else's interactions.

[SparkyRailgun]

Choose between shields and armour.

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[Oorn]

Choose between shields and armour.

Invest heavilly in shields, and your survival time in fighter combat will be higher than with armor, but you risk being 1shoted by fighter missiles/capital guns.

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When "roleplay" around you seems to be diminishing... all you can do is be a new beacon of roleplay to light up everyone else's interactions.