bombers (discussion only)

[Tenacity]

my idea, just discussed with dusty in-game, was to remove ALL guns from bombers, give them a couple more torpedo slots, and add a variety of torpedoes to the game (and remove the supernova cannon altogether).

For example, shieldbuster (emp) torpedoes, dumb-fire torpedoes with a larger blast radius and heavier warhead, cluster torpedoes, etc.

This would make bombers near useless against fighters (how many fighters have you managed to kill with a nova torp and nothing else?), but keep them effective against caps.

It would also allow us to rebalance fighter guns for higher projectile speeds, to make them more effective escorts and shorten fighter furballs, since bombers would no longer factor into gun balancing.

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[NonSequitor]

If you nerf bombers or buff capital ships, you completely change the balance that we have now, and we'll ultimately end up worse off than we were previously. One could perhaps buff Solaris, or return the old missiles now that vanilla weaknesses have been removed, removing the screen shake would deffinitely be a fair balance, but unless you want to pay the Admins to be around 24/7 to make sure such abuse doesn't occur, yes, the bombers are the role-play police.

Forgot my third paragraph, but I'm getting the definite feeling I'm repeating points and in return being ignored :/

No, you're not being ignored. Actually, come to think of it, it seems if most of our views are being brushed off. But, in order to revisit your concerns, I want to go over a couple of points for your consideration:

1) The cap ship point defenses stay as is, in order to facilitate teamwork (escorts) and to discourage lolwuttage on a grand scale. I think most of us would accept this.

2) Bombers should specialize in killing cap ships, but become more vulnerable to fighters. Is the balance upset by this suggestion? Honestly, I don't know, but we could at least try an idea or two out. Maybe more people would actually see a point in flying fighters. And the gunboat might even be useful again. Right now, it's a big ol' SNAC magnet.

Your last comment regarding bomber pilots as being rp police got me to thinking: who will "police" the bomber pilots? Who will get to play the role of arbiter of correct rp if some bomber pilot or pilots begin to indulge their pvp-apetite in oorpish ways?

[Lunaphase]

I would agree. Currently theres just as many lolwutters in bombers as there is in caps. Ive had 2 waran new guys with freelancer id's try to pirate me on my junker... Right outside yanagi, after DOCKING with yanagi, with junker iff's. Caps are not lolwutting, more than any other class out there. They just tend to be more visible since the effect they tend to bring seems to be larger.

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[ProwlerPC]

I am terrified at what would happen to the GMG| faction if bombers got nerfed because the Fighters can't take them down. As Friday pointed out, there is the always prevailant fear of lolwutters in caps but as pointed out the Bomber pilots are becoming the most significant lolwuters these days. THis is because the Bombers, particularly the smaller agile ones, are seen as having no threat. This may be true. Indeed I've been in a my VHF and found it long and arduous to take down a single bomber, I can say the same for fighting another VHF. It's not that the bombers are uber it's that the Fighter's don't have the "stuff" to be effective escorts against bombers. They don't really have the "stuff" to be effective as escorts against their own class. Instead what you have in the Fighter class is a set of ships that are only fun for long long dogfights which seperates them from the rest of the classes. Buff their weapons so that they can not only bring each other down more effectively but also bring down bombers more effectively. Let's see if that works before making any other adjustments, it might be that once the faction guns are pumped the VHFs will be effective enough that it still keeps the upperhand even if the target bomber is using faction guns themselves. Basicaly we need the Fighters to hit easier and chew through shield/hulls faster.

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[X-Lancer]

Basicaly we need the Fighters to hit easier and chew through shield/hulls faster.

right on the spot.

[atlantis2112]

Make bombers bigger? I don't know if this will cause scaling issues, but if we make bombers 50% bigger, a lot easier to hit.

[Colonel Z.e.r.o.]

my idea, just discussed with dusty in-game, was to remove ALL guns from bombers, give them a couple more torpedo slots, and add a variety of torpedoes to the game (and remove the supernova cannon altogether).

For example, shieldbuster (emp) torpedoes, dumb-fire torpedoes with a larger blast radius and heavier warhead, cluster torpedoes, etc.

This would make bombers near useless against fighters (how many fighters have you managed to kill with a nova torp and nothing else?), but keep them effective against caps.

It would also allow us to rebalance fighter guns for higher projectile speeds, to make them more effective escorts and shorten fighter furballs, since bombers would no longer factor into gun balancing.

I'm not trying to say this idea isn't good, or isn't yours (or at least didn't think if it on your own)

But I could've sworn I mentioned this idea in several other threads.

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Nathan's Log || The "Real Story" of Lenox Casper

[Galacius]

You know it amazes me how paranoid people are over lolwutters in lolcaps, when, besides the labc, almost all the lolwutters I see are in gunboats or bombers.

I really am against super manuverable bombers like the bounty hunter bomber. I really think they need to get a pretty big nerf for all that manuverability. I second the notion for more barghest type bombers, though I like the no guns 4 torps with mutiple torp types bomber.

[X-Lancer]

Make bombers bigger? I don't know if this will cause scaling issues, but if we make bombers 50% bigger, a lot easier to hit.

isnt that's how they should be =.=. easy target for GBs and fighters...

[Friday]

Dont bundle all the bombers into one category or the other. just as there is more than one type of fighter, there is scope for more than one type of bomber.

1) There is the Old Skool Bomber. Slow, lots of turrets for defence - basically a Freighter with Torp slots.

2) A no-guns/all torps bomber is a Strategic Bomber.
I am not against the idea - but it should be a specialised type of ship with a specific role. I am thinking faster top speed like a Yacht to swoop in and out of weapon range to line up a torp run...

3) The current 'light bombers' could be reclassified as Strike Fighters - maybe less powerplant - enough to fire a Nova Torp or two MRs, but not a SNAC - but with 4.84 agility.


But in terms of doing something to mollify the people who are up in arms about bombaho's - increasing fighter weapon projectile speed is the way to go. It enables fighter escorts to do their job.

In the short term - it isnt the bomber, its the fighter escort with the problem.

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