Are ships too tough?

[Kontrazec (Somni)]

Blodo, this isn't entirely true. No one complained about 'fast fights'. Problem was that some ships were more vulnerable to instakills then others.
So, for example, an Odin would have an advantage over Wraith. However, that was pretty well balanced with vulnerable ships being quite faster. So, the Odin never had an advantage, we both know this.
Same goes for Viper-Sabre. Viper could instakill a Sabre, but Sabre was so fast (faster then now) that it was almost unhittable.
Yes, some fights did end faster, but not all of them.
I still remember having quite a few fights that ended after few hours.
As far as I remember, it was quite the opposite. Fights did last too long, and that's why we rebalanced fighter guns.
Bombers are a different story, and I think they'd be perfectly fine with fighter guns. What nerfed bombers more then their slow guns is the inability to pick up a full load of bots/bats from a dead target.
If you take a look at bombers then and now, you'll notice they were nerfed like hell with more then one change.
1. They were not vulnerable to nuclear mines, so they could nuke vanilla ships and win the fights with that. Now they don't have that advantage. Most people would just nuke-ram at that time.
2. They had fighter guns, easier to kill the shield - more chances to SNAC or nuke. Now they use very slow guns.
3. They could pick up bots/bats after they made one kill and start all over again. Now, even if you make a kill, you'll most probably die after it.
4. They could use a dual mini. I never used it, but I know it was a fighter-killer, especially on some ships like Catamaran.
5. They could use a mini + SNAC = best way to surprise a fighter, switching targets a lot and trying to 1-2. Similar to current pulse/razor gunboats.
Now, I agree with you that the fights last even longer now, due to inability to instakill other then shotgun here and there, or nuke+missiles, or nuke+mini.
I agree that removing bots/bats will only make people shield-run even more. It won't speed up the process, it will just make the shields much more important then the hull.
So, yes, I also think the guns need further upgrade. Or even better, but obviously less popular - make nuke mines instakilling weapons again.

Okay I'll have to interrupt you there. BOMBERS. DO. NOT. KILL. FIGHTERS. Period. Bombers kill BIG things.

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Sucks to be a weight on the wrong side of the brilliance-insanity scale.