7 gun 2.00 loadouts - coming changes

[Durandal]

This isn't the post I wanted to write today, but the fact that 7 gun 2.00 loadouts are a thing once again came up on the backend.

I'm just going to cut right to the chase and say it - 7 gun 2.00 loadouts were never intended to be a thing. To the best of my recollection there were only two 7 gunners for the majority of Discovery's existence, and only one in vanilla (unless the Anubis had a 7th as well), the Nephthys and the Sabre.

Let's talk about the Sabre first. The Sabre was historically an unlawful/unaffiliated powerhouse of a ship, flown by factions and individuals with no access to non-codename 2.00 weaponry (Magma Hammers & Firekisses, for the longest time. Later, Grand Culverins)

Back in 4.86, when the Hellfire Legion got their tech, they were refused 2.00s and instead given a 3.03 plasma, at least in part due to the potential for abuse on the Sabre and their new 7 gun VHF, which later became a 6 gunner because - you guessed it - it was over the top when they finally received 2.00 plasma guns.

But now we don't have OFs restricting tech access. Anyone can buy anything and for a long time both the balance team and the administration turned a blind eye to potential for abuse in this area. We now have some strange, unaccounted for situations. You've got ALG flying 90% IMG Lhotses with full Firekiss loadouts, still the issue of 7 Judgement 2.00 Sabres, and Liches with 7 Buckshot loadouts.

I know that a lot of people are probably going to take this poorly, and file it away under the "don't fix what ain't broke" cabinet. What I'd ask everyone to realize however is that for the most part, these changes are all relatively recent. Up until the past 2-3 years, the Lhotse and Arbeiter had only 6 guns, the Lich was inaccessible to... well, pretty much everyone, even attempted RoS restarts, and Sabre pilots lacked access to 2.00s. The only long standing outliers I can think of are the 2.00 Judgement Sabre which has existed since around 2013 or '14, which was balanced by a weak (10.4k) powercore - since removed in 2018, and the Nephthys.

My personal theory on why the Nephthys remained the way that it did for so long is because the paradigm was previously that the nomads had access to overpowered tech (anyone remember the old voidrunner?), coupled with it being a holdover from Mjolnir's balance era, where balance was in part dictated by the skill of a faction's pilots, something we've long since done away with.

The plan as it stands now is to remove all 2.00 turrets from the game and replace them with guns that can't fire, and infocards which inform pilots of the change. Ships with 5 guns and 1 forward firing turret such as the Guardian and Avenger will have their turret slots converted to gun slots. There is no technical difference here, and there would be no changes to firing arcs or weapon compatibility otherwise.

SHFs & Freighters would have their turret slots switched over to gun slots as well, allowing these slower, larger ships to continue mounting a greater number of 2.00 weapons.

I've written this post primarily to inform people that this change is coming soon™, in the hope that some transparency behind design decisions will lead to less anger and misunderstanding throughout the community when it does.

~ J