4.95.0 Patch 7

[Binski]

The Dunlin seems more like a 'Civilian Mining Frigate', than an explorer vessel. I think factions with dedicated mining ID's, like the IMG, GMG, ALG, BMM, should get maxed mining rates on this ship, as they'd practically make a new main mining vessel in any fleet. In the end I think we'd see high cargo capacity miners out in the field more often. I hate to say it but most group mining is dead here, this ship gives a good option to the lone trader. And if you'd say, then the Dunlin might be all we ever see for trade ships, I'd reply with, then clone the ship a few times and give it a few different models, but same basic capabilities, and at least there will be more visual variety. For now though, for pirates to see Dunlin's everywhere won't be so bad, especially for those who can group pirate.

Also when it comes to all of the bomber changes of the last year, I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad. I think bombers will be the least flown ship on the server. At the same time, I suppose that means the Pirate Transport just went back to the best ship to pirate with again. Otherwise, you'll practically need a cruiser to conduct any lone piracy at all! And I say that having barely pirated at all in the last year. It still rarely feels there's enough random traffic to go pirating these days.

Bombers could use one (unique) main advantage over other ship classes that make them worth it. Yes, they still work in big groups, but the days of using a Waran to definitely get stuff done are over. They need at least one, long range, high speed torpedo option, maybe as a toss up to the shorter range ones with high ammo. I'd rather a mega torpedo that has a really decent chance of landing a hit, and take a 10 unit limit on the ammo, or even 5. Especially if a torpedo could be made to function like an area weapon and have a 1.5-2 km damage radius (so then even if you're close to the target, you may cause partial damage).

The same could be done with the Corona Beam. I'd rather a bomber with a reduced turn rate, and a nice long range high powered beam weapon. You'd have the range advantage for at least one weapon choice, but even slower turning bombers would mean fighters still maintain the definite advantage over them. In these cases though, you'd be going to the bomber class for that super heavy weapon, accepting it will be far less maneuverable, turning more like a transport (bombers are supposed to be heavy). Basically that would become the only real role for a bomber, and still allow for some reasonable lone usage. And, the long range option means us bomber guys could specialize in that as a skill.

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The Further Exploits of Captain Antares (August 2015) │ (alt) JonasHudson
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