Carriers - What's expected and what's realistic

[Tenacity]

with giving carriers the ability to use thrusters and ensure that they arent faster than battlecruisers or cruisers.

I suggested a speed of 109 m/s. Battlecruisers thrust at 119 m/s and cruisers thrust at 129 m/s. This extra speed would not allow them to outpace smaller ships.

Also, given that the max range on most cruiser weapons (barring torpedoes/missiles) is right around 2.2-2.5k meters, having turrets with super fast projectile speed (your suggested 1800-2000m/s figures) that can also out-range cruisers would be a bad idea IMO. If a cruiser needs to get within 2k range to even hit you, you shouldnt be able to hit him at the same distance with faster/more accurate guns while also being able to thrust and having ridiculous power core and armor. That's a recipe for abuse.

Cruiser mortars have 2475 range. Missiles have even more. Additionally, since cruisers are smaller, they are able to utilize their full weapon range. A carrier's weapons are spread throughout the large ship. While a cruiser can most certainly fire its mortar when within 2475m range, most of the carrier's secondaries with 2500m range will not reach the cruiser. The actual range of weapons on the carrier will be about 300m-500m less than the stat ranges due to the length of the ship taking some of the range. Additionally, a skilled cruiser pilot can still dodge enough of the carrier's 1800 m/s secondaries to reduce their damage taken, while a carrier will still be taking heavy damage from cruiser mortars at that range. Additionally, the cruiser can come in an out of range to fire mortars, while the carrier will only be tickling it each time it comes in range.

Also, even if this does result in carriers being highly effective against cruisers, that is not the end of the world. It's a game of rock-paper-scissors. Carriers do not have heavy slots, making them extremely vulnerable to battleships. In return, they will be able to protect allied ships from smaller craft. They will not be able to chase down and kill cruisers, because they would be straying away from the support of allied ships, leaving them vulnerable to enemy battleships.

You're forgetting how freelancer calculates ranges. A cruiser might have 2475 range on its mortars, but you wont actually get a crosshair on a larger ship until you're well within 2200, sometimes closer. Distance is calculated to the center of the target. Blind fire might make up for this, but against a ship with a thruster will be ineffective. That mortar also has a speed of 900m/s, which means more than a 2 second travel time to the target, while your proposed 1800-2000m/s carrier weapons would have half that at the same distance.

The last thing disco needs is more big ships that counter small ships. We need to be moving away from battleship-lancer.

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