Is it time to nerf cruise disruptors?

[Wesker]

If there's one piece of equipment that makes or breaks pvp in this community, it's the cruise disruptor.

This is the 4th time I've seen you gravedig terrible ideas in this subforum. Please take the time to truly farmiliarize yourself with the potentials of each class and all types of equipment before you draw conclusions like this that would completely rupture balance as we know it and in the process take away one of Freelancer's fundamental mechanics.

The name suggests its intended purpose: keeping people from cruising away, or stopping them while they're cruising, but it does so much more beyond that, whether intentionally or not, that it's become a necessity to any pvp engagement, from solo duels to group fights.

The purpose of CDs has reached far beyond what its name states since the beginning, CDs regulate and otherwise force people to consider a counter when agressively using ammunition of any sort. In several other versions of FL it is the same, allowing ammo to be used unchecked without a counter like the CD would create tons of other balance issues in the first place. But let's break it down.

A) Disrupts the 'engine kill' maneuver, a vital aspect of both snub and cap pvp

Point A: this is probably built into the engine and isnt something that can be changed. However, perhaps reducing Cruise Disruptor ammo capacity could prevent this from being spammed to completely shut down someone's maneuvering in combat.

This was done before out of spite and the end result crippled VHFs in particular since the target CD was one mostly employed by the VHF class. CDs have different stats to ensure that no one CD is the "meta" above all others in all scenarios. The most common VHF CD is the mosquito which has a very tiny range of 1.6k, it is made purely for snub pvp. The train, while having more range, does not have as much turn rate and is less effective in detonating ammunition since it does less damage.

However, in regards to crippling movement of caps and snubs, the capital ship portion is critical to ensure heavy battleships, battlecruisers, and other tanky-based capital ships cannot just engine kill on their lighter counterparts. The numerical amount is necessary in this case especially when you consider that in many modern-day scenarios there is only 1 person dedicated to keeping caps pinned, nevermind what he/she has to do to defend his/herself from other snubs and as well stop novas and missiles.

In regards to snubs, this is so far from the case it is laughable. CDs do not completely mitigate your ability to move, in fact - most veteran snub pvpers spend very little time in engine kill. As engine kill prevents them from strafing and in many cases - aiming properly. You have to remember that in snub pvp cases when a snub CDs you he is not only stripping you of your ability to EK (CDs do not mitigate ANY OTHER TYPES OF MOVEMENT) he is also stripping HIMSELF of that ability because of the detonation radius. As you become more and more proficient, you also realize that you can snap around people with short engine kills between CD shots. Since CDs fire so much slower than in other mods it's obnoxious.

And if my words aren't enough, here's a video against the very own founder of tCS Dominique Armande. (this vid was unlisted but now it's been some time, to everyone watching join RHA or tCS to see more exclusive vids )



Nowhere in this video am I struggling to move at all. The CD count is fine as it is and serves a very good regulating role.

B) Detonates mines, missiles, and torpedoes, which has both offensive and defensive applications that make it indispensable

Point B: Detonating ordnance offensively has been done for ages via minetrapping or blowing up a bomber's novas as he launches them. I dont like it, but it doesnt have as many implications as the defensive applications for ordnance detonation.
Missiles and Torpedoes have limited ammo, often times far more limited than the number of cruise disruptors one ship can carry, despite the fact that nearly every ship has a cruise disruptor and in a group fight you effectively have unlimited cruise disruptor ammo because of this. For the person using things like capship missiles/torpedoes, or nova torpedoes, this is extremely frustrating; most, sometimes all, of your ordnance, which you're spending a valuable heavy weapon slot on, will end up getting neutralized before it even gets to the target. On top of the cruise disruptors, explosive ordnance weapons already have several other counters: flak turrets, countermeasures, and simple dodging on applicable ships. This means you've got 4+ ways that the enemy can shut down your limited ammo weapon, and no ways to make sure it works reliably.

Yes, welcome to... the challenge of the game? What did you expect? An engraved invitation stating that because you made a sacrifice on your precious weapon slot to hurt capitals with novas, that it deserves to go about with a 9:1 ratio in favor of you landing nearly all of your Nova rounds? I have never ever, at all, in all my time on discovery until now seen a complaint like this. Numerically, yes, the number of CDs is greater than that of nova rounds, but that does not mean every nova round gets stopped, it does not render novas less than anything else. In fact, right now after the snac nerf, novas are more favorable. The instances of novas always being stopped are completely subjective to the type of situation, in large cap fights or large snub fights, bomber swarms will always manage to get most of their novas to the enemy vessels. In the New london storyline event, every GRN/Corsair player was running a dual nova bomber loadout and managed to down several of the heavily armored npc cap ships. The novas carried them, they do more dps in comparison to other weapons in the bomber arsenal, the fact that they are ammo-based is likely their drawback.

The snub aspect of detonating mines is a typical new-player or inexperienced-player complaint and since you didn't go so deep into it I'll let it slide. Perhaps if you invest more into VHFs or the fighter arena you'll quickly discover how it's not nearly as bad as what you stated earlier if you learn to use mines and CDs properly.

C) Disrupts cloaking devices and jump drives

Point C: This is probably an unintended side effect, but when we have cloak disruptors and jump drive disruptors, do we really need cruise disruptors covering those roles as well?

Cruise disruptors stop an opponent who is attempting to cloak, and dear god would this cripple interactions if it were changed. Every ship needing to sacrafice a CM slot to mount a cloak disruptor? Cloaks would quickly become twice the meta for avoiding interaction that they already are. Same goes for Jumpdrives, Jumpdrives take time to charge, but it would just enable people to easily avoid interactions or flee from fights.

Ultimately, point is that cruise disruptors have too many uses, too many advantages, and arent limited enough in their ammunition or capabilities to counteract those strengths.

CDs are not all the same, some have more ammo depending on their stats than others, they are a regulation tool for people that look to invest in easy cloak/jumpdrive getaways and for people who spam ammunition recklessly. They are a huge part of what provides a learning curve and teaches players to spend equipment tactically/properly (looking more at snub pvp here).

The minority is here are the people in favor of change, CDs are fine as they are. And I've just probably wasted time typing this but this notion is ridiculous.

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