Battlecruiser Rework

[DarkTails]

I have to wonder who thought this was a good idea. The hull size and hitpoint increase along with removal of nanobots I can understand and accept. The entire weaponry rework, most of it worse than BCs previously had is what I fail to understand at all. The BC Heavy Primary turrets are not a good replacement for the BS primaries they used to house. They lack the punch needed and most likely have already been ditched by most for either missiles or BC Cerberus turrets. The standard BC turrets do seem fine, so point there.

The next issue is the BC mortar. This is what largely reduces any sustained combat effectiveness Battlecruisers had. BC mortars require half or whole powercore to fire, depending on whether you have one or two. Any more and the third will simply not fire as the powercore does not support it. This revokes the BCs ability to be a legitimate threat to Battleships. Without the reliable use of mortars, BCs are forces to get incredibly close to enemy warships to perform any meaningful damage. In a scenario where it's solely a BC vs BS, the BC no longer has a feasible chance to provide any form of threat to the BS. If you manage to crack the shield before losing too much hull you decide it's not worth it or are destroyed, your secondary weaponry, unless you decided on a full cerberus heavy loadout, will only annoy the BS pilot more than harm him.

Another severe handicap the furthers the new disadvantage BCs are at, is their shield. Their shield is laughably weak now in comparison to their hull strength. While this would be a minor handicap should the BC class have proper firepower to provide a credible threat to the shipclass it is primarily used to counter, the lack of firepower behind BC guns and severe handicap of using heavy artillery only amplifies the disadvantage BCs are now at.

What would I do?

Adjust the BC mortar stats so that choosing to use them doesn't effectively remove you from the battle after two shots. (One salvo if used in dual capacity.)

Rebalance the BC Heavy Primary turrets so they provide an actual threat to enemy battleships/dreadnoughts

Shield: This I'm split on. With proper firepower the shield seems like a good equalizer, but if it will continue to lack firepower, it needs to be able to survive a punch, and the shield currently can't take one.