Solaris Codename

[RParade]

Gunbalance does seem to be in a bad state, currently.

SOLARIS codenames are nice, but definitely not as nice as they should be, I agree. Currently as it stands, it's more viable to use a class 9 gun like the Kraken, which offers more damage (and 700m range, I think) at a sacrifice of a little extra power.

Still, though.. The SOLARIS is not a bad gun to compliment your weapon pairs with, not at all. It really sits nicely alongside a pair of Kraken's or Wyrm's.

Nomad "spammage" is a problem. The Nomad Energy Cannon is better than every gun out there save CODENAMEs, and a pair of them will use less energy on the whole than a pair of House guns, or codename weapons all the same. The Energy Cannon really seems to set a "standard" of sorts for what you should be trying to get out of your craft as a fighter pilot, and that's not a good thing considering the Nomad series of equipment is intended to be rare or unique (at best).


.. Personally, I'd like to see more variety in weapons. It'd be cool to see a gun that has a refire rate of 2.00, but with a projectile speed of 750m like the Debilitators. Has anyone ever noticed how easy it is to hit someone with a Debilitator as compared to any other gun? Must be in the projectile speed.

The problem you run into with things like Nomads and CODENAMEs is that there really isn't any way to restrict them. It's already restricted to some large extent, I mean... You can only salvage a wreck once with a character, right? This means you can't even get your own pair without making the journey at least twice.

It'd be better if you could tie it to the player's Freelancer ID, that way you could only salvage once per wreck per FL account. It would still be abused inevitably, though oddball setups like CODENAMEs/Nomads would become less common (amongst new players, anyway - older chaps would gain a huge advantage).


Is Gunbalance really so important, though? Honestly, it's not going to make much of a difference what a pilot has mounted on his fighter. Regardless of weaponry, LF/VHF fights (especially when they're fair or evenmatched) are almost always decided by who's the better pilot, and not who has the better guns. I see plenty of pilots walking into dogfights all the time with really nice setups against "lesser" setups like Kraken's or Splitters and still they get creamed just the same as anyone else does.


I do think certain setups are abit unbalancing, though.. For example, you can essentially mount two Thor's Hammers (or any other codename that does quad-digit damage) on a Fighter and it'll equate to four guns in terms of raw damage output. 'Course, your ability to hit a target is significantly less considering you've a slower gun and less guns to begin with, but if you have aim it really can provide a very nice setup with room for expansion (missiles, and so on).