Idea on Capships, Bombers, and VHFs

[Jinx]

mind, dab has not made that thread to execute or get backup for any nerfs - but it was a suggestion about rebalance in total.

the greatest problem i see in attempting to rebalancing on a "shipclass" basis is ... that the capabilities of the shipCLASS within is too great anyway.

looking at the VHF - you have a range from:
- blood dragon ---> werewolf

when its about bombers - you have a range from:
- red catamaran ---> barghest

on gunboats - you have:
- BHG gunship ---> kusari explorer

on cruisers you have:
- BHG destroyer ---> outcast destroyer

and on battleships you got:
- osiris ---> rheinland battleship

a lot of those classes overlap generously when the discussion is about the classes to be separated clearly....

so - we have a problem that the red cat is somewhat better in a dogfight than lets say - a werewolf ( its smaller, has more firepower, more armour and heavier weapons )

we have a BHG gunship that is not much bigger than a barghest, nor much less agile...

etc. - what we currently miss is a definite bottomline of shipclasses. - so of course one would say - that the LEAST agile VHF is still more agile than the MOST agile bomber ( and of course the smallest bomber should be bigger than the biggest VHF ) .... but sadly, it is not like that... and some models ( like the red cat ) do not allow to upscale without looking utterly silly.

right now - we try to keep most variables equal ( like top speed, shield power, usable weapons etc. ) - so all fighters have the same top speed, all fighters use the same type of weapons ( except for the bomber specific torpedos ) and all of them use the same shields.

the more variables we define uniquely for each shipclass, the more balancing has to be done. - and while in theory its possible of course - such balancing takes up a major part of the "expansion". and at one time.... we d like to "deliver" the 4.85 version. ( i think i remember that blizzard needed over 3 month of intensive beta testing for only the balance on diablo 2 - and years on the battlenet to further balance - and THEY only had 5 char classes with a few skills - while we have like hundreds of ships, countless weapons and an ambition to create a believable yet fair roleplay enviroment )

when it comes to uniqueness - players are very cunning... they are VERY good at figuring out the raw advantages and disadvantages... and few players would really restrain themselves from making use of what they CAN do.

if you say that a supernova is meant to hit capital ships - and capships only. - players can either stick to that - or they say "hey, but i m good at blowing up fighters up with it, too - so i ll do it"

nothing would be easier than to ask the players to use heavy anti-cap weaponry only against capships.... it would mean that a lot of the problems would be solved... when bombers only used their light weapons against fighters.... but you ll soon see that players simply will NOT keep it under control. - they WILL use the supernova .... cause they can.

but in order to create a perfect or almost perfect balance based on the shipclasses... the shipclasses would need to be balanced in itself. - that includes fully new concepts of ships, roles - models, weapons. too much work for a voluntary freelancer project, i daresay.

a compromise is to take a step back and simply enjoy what we got. - bombers can fight against VHFs with surprising ease... we cannot boast the VHF, nor can we nerf the bombers ( as a class ) too much. we can nerf a few ships - but thats not the point of a general discussion about the shipclasses balance.

like i said - version 4.85 will take a whole new attempt at ship balance. the greatest effect of it will be that... it will feel very different - and many players will feel like utter noobs once 4.85 is out. old tactics won t work anymore - and even the aces will need to "learn" again.

but it will not take too long untill we get the same old problems - thats asured. we will not be able to:
- make battleships as powerful ( or the smaller capships ) as they "ought" to be in terms of roleplay...
- balance ships so that everyone feels treated fairly - and its only down to skill

i expect tons of complaints of "how the dev team messed it all up" once the next version is out - and it ll take some time till everyone will get used to it - but still.. i am quite confident that we are making the right steps to revise the shipclasses.

in some parts we go much further than Dab suggested, in some parts we don t go that far.

but for the major part of it - ( from what i experienced on the beta ) - capship fights are FUN. - both bomber vs. cap ( and thats fun for both sides ) as well as cap vs. cap.

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