Fighter 'Classes'

[Ursus]

I think of LF as recon ship. Not really made for fighting, rather its to get in, do something, and get out. Kill any NPCs in the area, otherwise evasion is the design purpose. In a FPS shooter, this is the SMG class. In an FPS we would use this class to plant the bomb, to grab the papers, to do whatever, Disco doesn't have that kind of objective playstyle so this class does not get used very much.

HF is the dog-fighting ship. Still nimble, but with enough firepower to actually stay and fight, with emphasis on evasion and output. Do not get hit or you will die, but you can kill somebody with it and don't have to rely on running exclusively. This should be the interceptor ship, the anti-bomber ship. In a FPS, this is the assault class. Everybody should use this ship as the default. Problem is its usually too weak against the larger classes so people don't use it.

VHF is a large fighting ship, should have a lot of damage output, and ability to absorb damage. As a result it weighs a lot more and is much larger physically, making it much less nimble. This is the heavy machine gun class. It should be used as defensive ship, but because of the weaknesses in the lower classes it is used for everything.

In disco the bomber class is basically VHF++ which is wrong. I think bombers should be much different. Like a bomber should be the shape and size of the Lane Hacker gunship, using turrets instead of guns, with 159 max thrust.

Each class should be succeptible to the lower classes getting behind them and tearing a new one. Each class should also be able to make roadkill of the lower classes when met from the front. This is almost there now, some problems with it but close. The biggest problem is that most people use the VHF, when the HF should be the preferred ship.

edit--Just to be clear I'm not saying it should be like FPS. In an FPS the classes are very close to each other and they are just minor variations on the same thing. For example, the SMG class is weaker on damage output than the HMG class, but has higher mobility shorter reload etc, and both classes have the same number of HP. This doesn't work at all in disco, where fighter ships have different HP and don't really have reloads (not on guns anyway).

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