First off, stop using the word "nerf" everyone. We're all here to achieve balance, not "nerf" someone into submission, lol. :P
Second, and I will agree before hand Dab, it *DOES* need to be fixed. The Colonial Viper is not impossible to hit. Infact it's quiet simple to hit. Just don't aim at the cockpit glass (that's what is invulnerable)
Dab Wrote:Sunslayer kills Manta, Eagle, Sabre, all in one hit. Bomber in 2-3. Colonial took 4. Nerf it, or trash it.
This is actually a product of the same bug that caused the explosion radius on Mortars & Nova's to be removed. It's the exact same thing with fighters that it is with capital ships.
See the new ships are not pieced together part by part, therefore there is only one structure to take damage. However ships like the Manta, Eagle and Sabre all use original FL Models. These models have pieces designed to get "blown off" Now, missiles torpedos and mines were originally designed to do more damage than they are "rated" as they are explosive ordances. Therefore any ship with multiple "parts" takes multiplied damage.
So lets use a Titan as an example, which has two wings, a top fin and a bottom fin, and the regular fuselage. That right there is 5 parts on the ship that are effected by weapons damage. Now if you stick to energy weapons there is no difference nomatter where you hit. It does the same hull damage at all points, however the only drawback is that "part" gets blown off when it's "individual" hull is depleted. The problem with Freelancers programming however, is that any weapon with a blast radius damages all the parts in the radius. This in turn, in the case of the Titan, multiplies the damage by 5.
Now this unfortunate (and unfixable) bug gives every single custom made space craft a major advantage over the stock freelancer crafts as they do not have that extra "vulnerability" to explosive weapons. They have the same protection towards explosives that they do regular, single point impact energy weapons/projectiles.
That torpedo bug can only be fixed in one way, and that would be to go through every original craft in freelancer and "mold" their models together so they are no longer built in parts. Otherwise, you have to painstakingly make a part for each and every one of the new fighters in the mod.
Bugs in the original game like this are what makes it so painstakingly hard for a modder to balance weapons & ships properly. I should know, I was doing a battleship weapons revamp for another server before it died.
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In a nutshell, I agree, the Viper needs a fixing, bad. However the sunslayers have no bearing on the Viper's balance what-so-ever as every player made craft (that wasn't made with "parts") shares the same advantage.
EDIT:
Reread some of the above posts and would like to agree with something.. Vanilla ships suck.
Vanilla ships should be *THE BEST* no questions asked. They should all surpass the quality of the player made craft IMO.