OK, normal thruster on a BS is too OP. even if it just buffed its speed from 90m/s to 120m/s... Especially ships like Osiris and Dunkirk would be nearly unstoppable due to their small size and hefty firepower. Leaving big ships helpless like they are now, BUT what if this was changed?
Currently, if you are in a BS, with CAU 4 (950 000x3.0=2.85m armor), say its a Ranseur, and your attacked by 4 =CR= bombers (to make it real, who bring just 2 bombers to kill a BS when you can bring more?) at Tau 23 JH in Tau 37. YOU CANNOT CRUISE, and the bombers stay at a safe distance of ~2k, you can't kill them beacause they evade your fire.
With an impulse of 90M/S even those mere (is it 33k?) is faaaaar too long of a distance to run. YOUR DEAD.
Currently, anything staying outside the 2k deathzone of a BS is going to take it down IF it has guns capable of brining down the BS shield. THIS IS A FACT. Noone of you can ignore this fact, because its a FACT.
IF a battleship had thrusters, normal ones, even if it just slightly buffed its speed to 120m/s (which would most likely mean that the BS can make it to the FP). BUT conventional thrusters on lighter BS's or smaller like Dunkirk and Osiris would basically create a WMD without parallell.
Now, how could we give battleships a thruster, and not make it OP?? Yup, lets use "Cruise drain". A battleship "thruster" like the ones used on cruiser would require nearly impossible ammounts of fuel to be carried even for a short burn as these behemoths of a ship has just too much mass for a conventional thruster system, BUT if this system was a function added to the engines itself?!
THESE NUMBERS ARE ALL EXAMPLES:
Battleship Afterburner: ship speed increases to 130m/s
Power drain: 600 000 u/s
Time to reach top velocity: 5 seconds (this will ensure an "even" drain on all ships)
Power regeneration stopped for: 1-2 second(s) after use
Cost: 200,000,000 Credits
The biggest and fattest power core in game is the 9,000,000u core used by Legate, Valor, Ranseur, Kusari BS, Rheinland BS and Liberty carrier (and others). This core has a regeneration rate of 300 000 u/s.
The smallest core is the 7,000,000u one used by Mako, Osiris, Zephyr and Togo. This core has a regeneration of 220 000 u/s.
The 9mill core is used on the HUGE ships, i mean huge. The current Ranseur (although being replaced) is still 1.4 times that of the Osiris which is its enemy. The Mako and Osiris faces the Marduk, the nomad BS, which is probably around twice if not 2,5 times the size of the mako and osiris.
With a smaller core, and a standard "burn time" of 5 seconds before you reach top velocity would leave the light battleships with around 4mill energy left, thats almost half its core emptied just to get a slight speed boost. While a bigger battleship would be left with 6mill energy. Which would leave it able to still fire off its heavy weaponry yet still suffering from its energy loss (dual mortar and your core is almost dry).
With such speed boost, only the big sluggish ones "win" well, they suffer less and remains a dreaded force on the battlefield. BUT the lighter battleships like osiris wouldnt be able to go "full solarizer" at all as the 4m left would dry out so fast that the ship would struggle to keep its efficiency in battles.
IF this could be implemented, it would be a welcome "fix" as well, NOW you can run away, while suffering energy loss, but still being able to shoot. Also, IF you EK and get CD'd you still gotta wait 1-2 seconds before you start regenerating power.... oops, better not use it for too long.
... currently - those that say "battleships MUST be used in a team" have the upper hand. - but there is like NO basis for that opinion. - think of sci-fi settings like star trek - where battleships get along perfectly fine WITHOUT escorts.
so its just in the heads of the players that battleships must have escorts.
the above is just a reminder that there is no dogma about what must and must not be.
in general - battleships with thrusters is a troubling one - and when facing 4+ bombers ... yes, you re probably screwed. - however.... if you team up with 3 mates and intercept a lone battleship - YOU will want to have a chance to kill it - before it flies 200k to a base. ( blue messages are the currency of pvpers )
thrusters also allow directional changes - so even if the thruster only took a battleship from 90 to 100ms - such a ship would be able to E-kill / turn... a feature that allows battleships to be even more like overweight fighters in terms of tactics.
either way - the bomber / anti-battleship lobby is large ... and chances to buff up battleships are near zero. ( no, i m not saying that its just or unjust )
from the current point of view - it would be more logical to give them their CDs back before we experiement with thrusters.
current use of most battleships:
- used for roleplay rather than pvp : usually alone ( no escort wants to watch you RP while no pvp happens at all )
- used for pvp rather than roleplay : often faction battleships only undocked right into a battle or used for an advance ( here you get escorts, but thats a sad thing, cause here the battleship is hardly used for RP but rather for pvp )
- used to seek pvp : usually alone ( little RP - but a slightly greater chance to get escorts - cause there is a chance for pvp )
- used to simply sit around and chill : usually alone ( little RP here - and little chance getting an escort that gets bored with you )
consider the above ! - the more you RP with a battleship, the less likely you can get escorts
' Wrote:what battleships are "meant" for is subjective...
... currently - those that say "battleships MUST be used in a team" have the upper hand. - but there is like NO basis for that opinion. - think of sci-fi settings like star trek - where battleships get along perfectly fine WITHOUT escorts.
so its just in the heads of the players that battleships must have escorts.
the above is just a reminder that there is no dogma about what must and must not be.
in general - battleships with thrusters is a troubling one - and when facing 4+ bombers ... yes, you re probably screwed. - however.... if you team up with 3 mates and intercept a lone battleship - YOU will want to have a chance to kill it - before it flies 200k to a base. ( blue messages are the currency of pvpers )
thrusters also allow directional changes - so even if the thruster only took a battleship from 90 to 100ms - such a ship would be able to E-kill / turn... a feature that allows battleships to be even more like overweight fighters in terms of tactics.
either way - the bomber / anti-battleship lobby is large ... and chances to buff up battleships are near zero. ( no, i m not saying that its just or unjust )
from the current point of view - it would be more logical to give them their CDs back before we experiement with thrusters.
yeah, CD's would be nice especially when missions get bugged and you get osirises flying in cricles (while in cruise) and shooting at you with no time or chance to kill them....
Yes thrusters would possibly increase the turn rate, question is how much?!
If you get jumped by a couple of bombers while flying your shiny battleship alone, then you deserve to have your ship destroyed, its debris collected, made into glass then shattered again.
Light battleships, when properly equiped, have decent chances against bombers already. The here point being - you're not supposed to survive against bombers. Giving battleships thrusters won't make a difference, your opponents would just call more bombers so they can blow you up even quicker.