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Joined: May 2012
Staff roles: Balance Dev
(02-28-2024, 02:06 PM)Prysin Wrote: The barge could have its cruise speed increased by 25ms and impulse/thrust/reverse by 10ms without changing the CSU notably much. But it would feel a lot better to use.
I suspect if we were to buff it, a better buff would be so reduce its cruise charge time. Increasing top speed by that significant a margin makes it better in those areas where it already is really good - regardless of what people in this thread are attempting to "prove" by showing comparisons between transports taking tradelanes and the Barge, or unusually short routes which also just so happen to favor the Barge in comparisons.
If anything, I would be more inclined to let it cruise substantially sooner (after hitting Shift-W) but to slightly tone down its maximum cruise speed to keep it in check in long routes, if required.
The Barge, as of this moment, both in theory and in practice, is good at long cruise-based routes. It is better there than 5ks are. It is also very well suited to any one-way routes and any kind of Earhart-related resource gathering op. Or anything mining related where you're jumping one way to then only have to fly the way back, really.
Yes, the Barge is notably worse in House space where lanes are present, and in very short cruise-based routes. That is correct. It is also unlikely to be changed, even though we can mitigate the second "issue" somewhat by reducing cruise charge time. It's extremely long anyways, and has no real good reason to be that long at this point.
Oh, and can we please stop pretending there weren't any real world tests performed for the pre-patch Barge? I personally ran a few common routes and made anywhere from 1.5 to 2.0 times as much as a 5k could running the same route. And I really wasn't particularly good at flying the Barge. I want whatever people are having that claim a lane-capable wasn't just an enormous upgrade over 5ks.