A Bit Of A...Shift...

[Jinx]

i don t know what a gunboat will use ( not need ) the CDs other than pirating. when it comes to real fleet vs. fleet fights, there are other ships featuring CDs, too.

so a solution would be... take away the CD mount from gunboats, give them a mine slot instead. keep their firepower. i do believe, that todays transports need the firepower of a gunboat. fighters CAN destroy a transport, but its not really a fun thing to do. a transport captain can usually endure a fighter easily for a long time and / or just repeatedly hit cruise.
so the fighter pilots job is not only to shoot ( and hit ), to repeatedly CD but also to dodge transport shots aswell as check the radar for incoming assistance for the transport. while that might be how pirating should be ( in terms of things you should really do ) its maybe a bit too much for a GAME. so, i d say...

do not increase transport armour anymore. its good as it is.

if we take away the gunboats CD mount ( too bad the program does not allow a restriction to only specific kinds of missiles ) at least a gunboat alone cannot pirate anymore ( but of course it looses quite a tool in a pvp fight - but oh well ) - the pirate would team up with someone with a CD.
it leaves the heavy bombers to pirates. ( which are more than enough most of the time ) with one CD and one supernova, a bomber can easily threaten a transport.

one alternative way is:
like suggested on capital ships greater than a gunboat ( cruisers, battleships ). it would be possible to tenfold their armor BUT take away their shields. what effect has that for a fighter?.... easy thing, like on capships, it would be possible to target subsystems which is impossible due to the high shields and recharge of the shields usually.

but yes, that d be a big step - and the idea is not welcome among most of the users of such ships:). but think of the advantages:

- gunboats could remain the way they are, but would take longer to kill a transport ( if a transport had like 4 times the armor )
- fighters could maybe hardly take out a transport as a whole, but they could destroy its turrets, leaving it defenseless and so its only a matter of time so that even a light fighter can kill it.
- EVERY hit ANY ship lands on a transport will cost the captain cash. soo, why not damage it to 50% and ask again, damage it further etc. etc. the transport captain can very easily evaluate how much damage he wants to take untill he is willing to pay - if he doesn t manage to get away.

another idea is to simply slow down train disruptors. Flak cannons and novas have some sort of that behaviour... they need a certain time to "accelerate"... maybe make train disruptors firstly 150 speed only, lower their turn rate and give them a slow start.

edit: its nothing new with that version, imo... i was able to CD every transport before the beta, too. ( not when they were cruising allready ) - but when a transport cruises allready and i shoot a CD, he has plenty of time to drop a CM ... uh.. provided that ship HAS a CM , which i think should be on every bigger transport. if we justify their thick armor and shields, installing a cheap CM would be simply natural for any cooperation.

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