Balance Changes notes

[pillow]

Ship changes that we were too slow to do

Nephtys

-Changed: Turn rate decreased from 66.24 to 63.44.
-Changed: Response time decreased from 0.4717 to 0.4240.
-Changed: Max bank angle decreased from 30 to 27.

As the title suggests we were meaning to do this in the previous patch but didn't get it out in time. Nephtys was the embodiment of a bully in duels but pretty much fell apart in a groupfight which is something we try to avoid; a ship being good in duels and not-as-good in groupfights is fine, complete specialization in one or the other leads to problems such as "gank that man he is in [ship] so it's justified" or "just dock lmao don't bother dueling that ship" or "I'm not going to participate in this groupfight because the [ship] can't survive for more than 2 seconds".

Sleipnir

-Changed: Response time decreased from 0.4491 to 0.4435.
-Changed: Max bank angle decreased from 30 to 25.

Not much was done to the Sleipnir beyond making it something other than torture to fly. CD arc vastly improved, ship should feel less like a brick and more like a ship.

Manta

-Changed: Powercore increased from 1140/11400 to 1240/12400.

We felt the Manta had a powercore a bit too weak for what it was. Speedy ship, yes, but it's also quite large and it tends to lose its footing in groupfights; now there's an actual reason to pick it over the Hammerhead.

Vindicator

-Changed: Armor increased from 10600 to 11525.
-Changed: Max bank angle increased from 30 to 40.

The Vindicator was kind of forgotten about (my bad) and after the HF patch the Bayonet ended up with more base armor than the VHF that came from it. It now moves similarly to the Bayonet to show that they're both of similar design, and the Vindicator now has a bit more base armor to not only be more distinct from the Bayonet but also to survive shotgun loadouts easier.

Insurgent

-Changed: The silly 21k strafe force brought down to 20k.

the image isn't exactly correct but I don't have a better one
Self explanatory.

Arbeiter

-Changed: Turn rate decreased from 68.64 to 66.30.
-Changed: Response time decreased from 0.4729 to 0.4346.
-Changed: Max bank angle increased from 30 to 35

The Arbeiter was another one of those ships that was really good in duels but fell short in groupfights. Similar to the Nephtys, we slowed its turn rate down but boosted its responsiveness and banking for some proper groupfight wiggling. Should be a lot better now.

Lhotse

-Changed: Turn rate decreased from 65.58 to 62.86.
-Changed: Response time decreased from 0.4661 to 0.4278.

Again, another duel-bully that died immediately in groupfights. Slowed down significantly but given response out the ass.

Werewolf

-Changed: Turn rate decreased from 64.77 to 61.49.
-Changed: Response time decreased from 0.5006 to 0.4004.
-Changed: Max bank angle increased from 20 to 40.
-Changed: Batteries/Nanobots decreased from 140/140 to 98/98.
-Changed: Shield class changed from SHF shield (20k, 500 regen, 9 sec recharge) to freighter shield (24k/29k, 320/250 regen, 12 sec recharge)
-Changed: Shield bubble lowered to 2.5k volume.
-Changed: Bomber slots reduced to a single one instead of two.
-Changed: Can't mount two MRs anymore.
-Changed: Scaled down by 15%.

I'm sure you're sensing a pattern: this is the big boy of duels right here. Up until this hotfix the Werewolf was the undefeated king of dueling without a shadow of a doubt, and it was honestly pretty broken. However, the moment you brought it to a groupfight, it took a while to die but it was otherwise helpless. An extreme version of the aforementioned VHFs.
The changes above don't mean to change it from an SHF- in fact we think the Werewolf is a good example of an SHF done right. However, we had to straighten it up a bit. Nowhere near as oppressive in duels anymore, with the added survivability in groupfights should make this ship more appealing to people, both to fly and interact with. It shouldn't be able to tank 50 nukes and still live with 40 bots remaining anymore, and it also shouldn't immediately melt in groupfights. Have fun with it.

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Conclusion

All I'm looking for right now is this drink