Dysfunctional ship-lines

[Wesker]

what is your take on the ship options for your favorite factions?
and, how do we make HF's a popular class? Is it better we upgrade HF to VHF by resizing the models?

Hi, as a new person overseeing these issues, I can assure you that I am working on a list of changes needed for all VHFs and HFs (fighters in general) to fix and or make them more appealing to the current community. (as per quote I will cover the combat portion of this).

What many people fail to realize (and I can tell you as someone whos been playing and practicing fighters for quite some time now) is that each "class" of ships has a specific role which otherwise surpasses others in discovery. This is a feature that is not present in any other Freelancer Mods that I know of off the top of my head.

Going from the bottom, LFs serve as a major utility and groupfighting asset in discovery, they can be mixed with all other classes above them and are the best fighter support units since they are very hard to hit and extremely agile. They can outrun any class in the game, which makes them the best at cat and mouse interactions in disco. Their drawback of course is that they are weaker than all other classes. This makes them less preferable for confronting other classes alone with no support, it is not their "role".

Classes for fighters in discovery are like a food chain, the next surpasses the latter in a one on one confrontation to ensure that no one class is too powerful in all aspects. However as the chain goes up, the ships at the top of this "chain" are weaker in teamfights than the latter classes. (Hence the LF example.)

Moving on, the number one thing 90% of this community is so woefully ignorant of is HFs. In terms of fighter to fighter combat, HFs are the BEST teamfighters in the mod. A group of skilled HFs will destroy a group of skilled VHFs and SHFs - potentially even LFs as well.

The reasons are simple, they have enough armor and regens to compare to some VHFs, while holstering the smaller sizes & manuverability. HFs function in packs, think of them like wolves, a wolf that attacks a moose alone may fail, however if a pack of wolves moves and attacks as a unit, they will not only be able to kill one moose - but several others.

The swarm from BZ, flood from Halo, these are terms that translate to how HFs function as a class. The most terrifying things in disco are packs of chimeras, Switchblades, and most of all - centurions.

Now, like I mentioned earlier, because of their armor being lesser, they are surpassed one on one by heavier classes. It is easy draw the opinion that this class is useless, since most encounters now-a-days in discovery are individual person to person interactions. Most group interactions are pvp interactions in listed events, there are a few instances of this naturally. But even in those cases it's usually capital ships and not snubs, because everyone is too afraid to fly snubs :p

VHFs are the Tigers of disco, they can function alone, they are very stretched in their capabilities, but not the best at any. The "safeguard" mentality of the average player traversing systems and flying about in discovery is why these ships are so common in comparison to others. They want a ship that's an average jack of all trades for any case, and the VHF is just that. The Tiger/VHF may seem like the boss of the animal kingdom because of its versatility, but this is not the case when you look at the potentials of other classes.

Freelancer has a history of endorsing VHFs, snub dueling is the gem of freelancer after all, and VHFs provide the most fast paced and skill approach to dueling in discovery.

SHFs are like the Bears of discovery. Colossal, strong, and very intimidating. I'd imagine even a Tiger would reconsider taking a Grizzly bear on one on one - there is no shortage of this in disco. SHFs are the kings of dueling, no fighter below an SHF can out-duel an SHF unless the SHF pilot is not proficient and/or equips the wrong setup to deal with VHFs. Recently, I have begun to see more SHFs out of conn, the "lone pilot" type of interaction in disco -which is most common at the present time- is the reason for this. But do not be fooled, a group of SHFs will loose to a group of VHFs, just as a group of VHFs will loose to a group of HFs.

The current status of discovery in terms of interactions is why many come to false conclusions on what is "useful" vs what is not. Discovery does the best of any mod at incorporating all it's aspects into gameplay. The problem more lies with the player's ignorance of the potential of each class.

This does not go to say that there aren't certain ships and shiplines that are flawed, however this is not the bulk of the issue. You're right, based on the current Disco environment, Gaians would be more appealing. More players fly caps than those that fly snubs, and VHFs are necessary to survive alone (and like I've repeated multiple times, most interactions come between two people flying alone) but that does not mean the GC line is less relevant. Put a group of blossoms against a group of Anacondas, the players flying the anacondas will immediately consider converting to feminism.

I really want to see a Xeno shipline, if only so that they gain activity and we can have some good old fashioned xeno-junker brawls.

Personally I think Heavy Fighters should be changed completely - make them missile-based fighters (weaker than VHFs, but with multiple missile mounts and less gun mounts). That'd make them appeal to players that arent very good with typical snub combat.

What you're describing is basically crossfire, and I can assure you - it would be even LESS appealing to newer players. As someone who's recently taken a dip into crossfire pvp, the skill base and reflexes demand of missile based pvp in Freelancer makes Disco look like a "training wheels" mod. (Which for someone like me, I actually really like) Though I might go ahead and anticipate this whole notion is because

appeal to players that aren't very good with typical snub combat.

This should never be the case, all games have a learning curve, a need to practice to improve. VHF pvp and snub pvp has always been the gem of Freelancer. Currently, snub pvp is at the easiest its ever been to learn because of drastic steps to dumb down the gameplay. Taking away from it even more will just ruin it for everyone who has bothered to invest their time in getting better. We already have caps for these people afterall. incoming slander replies :3

I do not mind bringing back aux slots, and with them torps to spice up the skill gap more and adding a major vanilla feature back. But making pure missile VHFs or HFs will completely change the face of discovery to a copy cat of crossfire.

And if you aren't intimidated by my ranting, maybe this will intimidate you.



This is what missile heavy pvp looks like, and yes - we are not very far from it.

Many of Disco's fighters come similar in turn rate/armor/even responsiveness, and the weapons a bit close in damage. Mix that in with even the vanilla missiles and new players will get even more angry than they currently are. The current system makes it simple as it could ever be to learn fighters. All you have to learn to do is CD, mine, and move. That's it. Aim is an aspect as well in all cases, but most other Freelancer mods are not nearly as aim-reliant as disco. There are so many features of Freelancer pvp that are extracted from disco based on the notion of it being "too hard" for the average player. We do not need more of this.

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