Watching the history of bombers, over on the Discovery channel. It seems bombers always were a lot bigger than fighters. Watching the old famous ones B17 for exemple, they look much more like freighters than big hefty fighters.
So basicly what i'm getting to... why not enlarge bombers, let's say twice the current size, nerf their agility, give them freighter armor, more defensive (rear) turrets... Armor can stay about the same. Boost the super nova while we're at it.
This way bombers are easy pray for fighters and just about anything like freighters are, but on the other hand are really super when it comes to taking down large objects.
Imagine Pretorian, with 4 rear turrets, and 36000 shield, blasting it's way throu fighter barrages to take down his arch enemy's capital ship.
Likewise cargo would be improved, to let's say about 200, so cargo piracy becomes more of a viable option.
They would in all respects handle more like freighters, perhaps something close to SHF's, all the while being large targets capable of afflicting great damage on their oponents.
I hope this has some support it would change it's "swiss army knife" position it has now... As things are bombers were introduced to fight caps, but really they can fight fighters quite well. For no good reason I might say. There were no vanila bombers, so why were made the way they are today?
Donate to the Poor Pilot's Fundation via Sirius Bank /givecash GreenHawk 1000000 now, and support poor pilots sirius wide!
Skype: jure.grbec
My primary char: Jose El Nino - Corsair Elder captain of the SS Greenhawk
Currently Inactive due to pursuit of life long dreams, will be back...*edited* As promised am back.
making them large is a way of course - however battleships are usually compared to ww2 battleships, while bombers are usually compared to modern fighter/bombers. - making bombers larger was discussed, - but some bomber models simply don t offer that option. - the catamaran for example looks silly when you make it larger.
imo - bombers should all be the size of the barghest, should have something like 30.000 armour and 30k shields at a reasonably good agility ( barghest ) for the size and possibly the ability to regenerate energy quicker - so they can refire the supernova easier.
but such a change wouldn t be popular. - bombers are.... unlike their primary targets, the capital ships - mostly operating on their own without escorts. - making them such a size means that they are DEAD against any fighter, even a lone light fighter or heavy fighters would take a bomber out easily, - with a minirazor for example.
it would make bombers as much a "group" vessel as capital ships are. - bombers are the most used ships on disco right now among all, factions and non-faction players, cause they have an unmatched size / dps ratio and the survivability of a slower VHF ( that means, much better than even a battleship )
while i d support that - we d need different models for some ships - ( rheinland bomber, catamaran, red catamaran at least ) - the other bombers can be upscaled without messing up the models proportions.
Khm...There is alot types of bombers in today aviation.Stratigic,tactical,close air support ones.
There are all different,and have different duty to do.So...please...no changes on bombers,they are just fine...If you make fl bomber turn around like b17,that would be killing spree for capitols.
That would be a good idea, but instead of boosting the supernova (since it will create imbalances, because we would not be able to remake all bombers in one go) I would go with a powerplant of around 60K and a recharge of 3500.
On the armor side of things, the increased size makes any armor useless, so I would give them a new "bomber class shield" (we have a slot for it in the freighter shield class) with a capacity of 60K and a recharge half that of a gunboats.
Rear turrets on a bomber a practically useless, since once you switch to turret view, you effectively cannot dodge while gaining distance to recharge, making you a sitting duck.I would go as far as to leave only class 9 gun mounts on it, and no mine slot.
So, my thought on it in a list are
Armor: - Irrelevant, but a bit boosted due to size (around 50%)
Size: 1,5-2x
Shield: Effectively a 50% scaled down gunboat shield, occupying a unique shield slot (so only bombers can mount it)
Guns: Two guns just for show on very limited hardpoints (10 degrees left right), no mines (so fighters can engage it easily)
Torpedo-CM: 2 torpedo slots and one CM slot, the CM slot unidirectional, the torpedo slot having no movement at all (current torpedo slots move around 20 degrees total)
Strafing: Strafing is crucial to avoid capital ship size, but the fighters can easily hit the bomber sized the way I propose it. So I would boost strafing to heavy fighter levels, even a bit more.
The Supernova: To furtherly reduce its effectiveness against fighters, i would make it not being able to send its projectiles left or right (like the gunboat guns work)
@Jinx Well modern fighter/bombers hardly carry payloads that are that more powerful than fighter payloads... mostly it comes down to perhaps twice the firepower, i'd really consider them VHF's when it comes to it. There are larger bombers thou, in operation that really excell at bombarding power, at a cost. I wouldn't tweak the armor much, as 20k(50k actually) is quite good, regular lvl6 freighter shields should prove to be quite sufficent. 30k's of shielding is far more than that of any fighter. Even the Burghest isn't exactly harmless. Imagine it with two extra turrets, It would change the balance quite a lot to be sure, perhaps supernova speed could be upgraded for more long range shots against caps, while at the same time their agility would prevent them from taking on VHF's. The shere regen of their shields would protect them quite well from lighter fighters and such.
The whole idea is to balance damage potential/size perhaps enlargments in the region of 2x is a bit to much for some bombers. Barghest for example is quite large and alright. But really improved shields, about the same hull stats, would make up for the loss in their size.
@ferongr I object the nerfment of guns, mainly becouse it would require a player vipe. Much the same with mines. We can add things however...
With the size increase and agility decrease turrets are the way to go,
Soo let's come up with some stats..
Freighter Shields 24.350 / 320 regen (now 11k/220 regen) Notes: A full barage of main battleship guns are needed to drain them. The regen would support hit and runs... more than 1 minute to fully regen the shield where's the 30 seconds it takes now...
Increased size, decreased turning speed, strafing can stay the same. Reason: easier targets, while at the same time it would be hard for them to engage fighters in a offensive manner. A small decrease in turning rate I might add. Handling should be close to light freighters, agile but you know you're not in a fighter. How much of a size increase... BD 2x for sure, Burghest probably not at all, most around 1.5x overal the smallest bombers should still be smallest after all is changed and done.
Firepower modifications: perhaps better power regeneration, but the supernova should stay at the current firing speed, so you have to fire other weapons with the extra power you might have. Extra turrets. As you now are much more prone for attacks from your rear you must defend from them more. With new lvl 5 turrets coming in to effect, a bomber could quite well barrage fighters chasing him. Droping Mines, and blowing them up, all tactics are fair game. While Jousting a fighter superior shields would probably still spell the end of a fighter.
Cargo increase. No bomber should get a cap armor kind of space, but a 240 on perhaps Waren could prove very likable by Junkers.
Right now bombers have firepower that is quite limited by the ammount of guns they have, so they really mount just the best power hungry weapons. Perhaps with additional mounts that could change.
This would in my oppinion acchive two main objectives. Fighter escorts could protect cap ships, bombers wouldn't be able to take down fighters as easily as they do now, as fighters could given a choice simply evade a joust and out turn the bomber. (they can do that now, but not as easily as one would like to)
Possible problems would be against gunboats. Right now bomber can solo a gunboat, likewise thou gunboat can solo a bomber much easier, even in groups gunboats are hard to beat, with their dodging of bombers. So this solution would probably make gunboat the king. But then again, another gunboat can take down a gunboat, and perhaps new improved bomber shield would take quite some punishment before giving in, perfect for 2 bomber teams....
If bombers would die to easily, we could always boost their armor to about 30k, giving them longer time to live up... the changes probably wouldn't be as drastic as they sound. Anyone flying a Burghest should feel right at home, and with the new shielding, even better than there...
Donate to the Poor Pilot's Fundation via Sirius Bank /givecash GreenHawk 1000000 now, and support poor pilots sirius wide!
Skype: jure.grbec
My primary char: Jose El Nino - Corsair Elder captain of the SS Greenhawk
Currently Inactive due to pursuit of life long dreams, will be back...*edited* As promised am back.
Well Barghest is most likely going to become a bomber like that... as to the others.. most would need completely different models cause upsized current ones will look crazy..
think of them as fighter bombers.
Igiss says: Martin, you give them a finger, they bite off your arm.