Ok... ship balancing

[Tenacity]

Indeed!

I agree, it makes sense that a gunboat have a 10000 speed 8.33 re-fire 1400 range fighter slaughtering weapon. I mean, after all, it would be exceptionally annoying if fighters stood any chance at all in any fleet, or individual, engagements.

Furthermore, in further reply to the idea that a gunboat with yet further increased maneuverability packing such weapons would be useless against caps I submit the following: lulz.

when the gunboats dont have access to weapons with enough firepower to even scratch capships... what's the problem?

They serve as fighter-killers, because the larger caps (here, at least) dont have the defenses to take down enemy fighters.

Right now, even a VHF can effectively take down most gunboats one on one because they dodge so well. Compounded with lag, that's a big problem.

Bombers should be the only non-capships capable of harming capships, and the fact that a pair of fighters can easily take down a gunboat somewhat frustrates me. They shouldnt even have the firepower capable of taking out a capship, but there they are... with mini razors, infernos, shield busters, and nuke mines. Restricting the gunboats to anti-fighter weapons removes their usefulness against capships in exchange for becoming fighter-killers.

Really, if you look at what that does overall to gunboats... they'd probably end up being used less than they are now. Most players are using gunboats because they're both cheap and fairly effective against cruisers at the moment - a gunboat with proper weaponry can sit at 2k range and easily out-strafe cruiser fire while returning fire that the cruiser isnt able to dodge (because it's slower and less manuverable).

Also look at the fact that, right now, bombers are effective against ALL opponents and really have no counters. They've got the firepower to take out caps, but they can use that firepower almost as effectively against fighters. Making the gunboat a 'fighter killer' would also make it a good counter to bombers where currently there is none.

---