Godslayer Balance Essay

[The_Godslayer]

Whenever SNAC instakills are brought up as some sort of comeback mechanic I can't help but feel like players are actively lying to themselves. They weren't. Their primary use was punching down better than any other weapon ever could. Take off your nostalgia glasses, or simply admit that the power fantasy of taking down a dozen players solo is why you want them back -- don't attribute magic superpowers to a weapon that never had them.

The last times I ever punched above my skill level were during the VR Rheinland event where snac was reverted, and back when wardogs were first released and the KuBomber had just enough hull to minesit on two of them and force a joust to instakill VHFs and survive after. Since then, I've never beaten someone even marginally above my skill level, and these days I tend to lose 2, 3, and 4 v 1s in a matter of minutes. At this point, I can't list a win since 5.0 that was not entirely a continuous streak of dumb luck.

Losing is whatever. Losing without a chance of competition while I'm outnumbering a player is very funny, but not fun. The only options for me to participate in the current PvP environment is punching down horribly, or getting lucky a large number of times in a row. There is no point where my contribution helps anything in a fight, or even where multiple people of either my skill level or higher contributes anything to the fight. That is not fun, at least for me, and not enjoyable.

Now I face the urge to simply not log on in the game and only do forum RP because I know that if I run with an escort of 3, not only am I going to show up in someone's kill compilation, but there is exactly zero hope of a lucky shot saving the day. There's genuinely nothing I can do, even across ship classes, except die.

My nostalgia is already set aside. The two things I want to do in the current environment, PvP and RP, are becoming functionally impossible for me. I'd like them not to be.

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I'll do something about my superiority complex when I cease to be superior.

"Whatever happened to catchin' a good old-fashioned passionate ass-whoopin and gettin' your shoes, coat, and your hat tooken?"