Discovery Freelancer Patch 4.88.6 Capital Ship Changes

[Antonio]

Discovery Freelancer Patch 4.88.6 Capital Ship Changes

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The changes are in as of 1.11.16. If you find any bugs or irregularities immediately report them here. Feedback and everything else should be posted in the continuation of this thread.

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Hello everyone and welcome to one of the biggest, if not the biggest balance patch in the past few years. This one is focused specifically on capital ships, although it affects all classes indirectly in one way or another. The most significant changes are a global buff to all battlecruisers, removal of Cruiser Razors, introduction of Cruiser Gatlings, changes to forward guns and reworked missiles. Another thing that we're happily announcing is that the "revive" bug of the Rogue Destroyer, Corsair Battleship and Red Hessian Battleship is finally fixed! Once they reach 0% hull, they aren't coming back to life anymore. The changes are not yet in and this thread serves to give you a preview of what's coming soon as well as get community input before it's too late in case we messed something up. Anyways, without dragging the intro just for the sake of word count, let's get to the actual patch notes. There's a LOT to cover.

Battleships

Arbiter

-Hull: 1 200 000 -> 1 400 000
-Nanobots/Shield Batteries: 1800->2000
-Heavy turret arcs buffed
-Number of heavy turrets: 3 -> 4

Kicking off with Arbiter, the ship has been neglected for a long time. The main weakness of the ship is its enormous size, and lack of stats to reflect it. We're giving it some love by buffing the armor and regen count as well as very good heavy turret arcs to compensate. Oh and for those wondering how big it is, it's as long as a Marduk and Zoner Colony Ship, which are considered to be the biggest battleships in the game.

Bretonia Carrier

-Hull: 1 050 000 -> 1 300 000
-Nanobots/Shield Batteries: 1750 -> 1900

Suffering from the same problem as the Arbiter, the stats don't reflect its size. We're buffing the survivability a bit as a result. Pretty straightforward.

Colonial Carrier

-Number of heavy turrets: 2 -> 3
-Number of primary turrets: 5 -> 4

All medium battleships have 3 heavy and 4 primary turrets, so there's no reason for the Zephyr to be any different considering the fact that all its stats imply it's a medium battleship. We're changing the turret slots to line it up with the rest.

Rheinland Carrier

-Better heavy turret arcs

The Elbe is the only battleship in the game that has no heavy turrets shooting backwards. No need to say anything else really, heavy turret arcs buffed to 360 degrees.

Outcast Battleship

-Number of heavy turrets: 2 -> 3
-Number of primary turrets: 5 -> 4
-Hull: 820 000 -> 1 000 000
-Nanobots/Shield Batteries: 1600 -> 1700

Sarissa is arguably one of the worst battleships in the game. It has subpar stats in pretty much all categories, so we're buffing it all-round to hopefully make it comparable with other ships of its class. Since it's significantly easier to hit than other medium battleships, it's becoming the most tanky one in return.

Gallic Battleship

-Cargo: 1500 -> 1800
-Regens: 1700 -> 1950
-Forward gun:

-Speed: 900 -> 580 m/s
-Damage: 650 000 -> 850 000
-Range: 4 500 -> 3 000 m
-Energy usage: 2 400 000 -> 2 200 000

Valor has been the most dominant battleship in the game for a long time. The main reason is because of the forward gun mehanic as well as having no hostile battleship that can facetank it, resulting in not only duel dominance but also groupfight dominance. Winning against the Valor on even numbers was practically impossible, no matter the battleship. The regens buff is a long overdue one, as its armor vs regens ratio is the most disproportionate of all battleships. Cargo buff is pretty irrelevant combat-wise, but we want to give people the impression that apart from the combat role it also serves as a carrier for Gallia.

Now let's move onto the forward gun. Because of the way client side detection works, guns that always shoot in a fixed direction (forward guns) are very problematic. The person getting shot by the forward gun will often see the projectile missing him/her by quite a bit, but the damage would still apply. That makes dodging virtually impossible, and is an extremely unhealthy feature. What we're doing with forward guns now is instead of being an all-round overpowered sniping weapon good against everything, it'll become a low-medium range tanking tool used mostly against battleships that are either too close or big enough to get shot by it even with the velocity nerf. It'll also open up a window in which you can dodge the forward gun if you're far enough from the Valor. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on this change and how it evolves.

Red Hessian Battleship

-Forward gun:

-Speed: 900 -> 580 m/s
-Damage: 520 000 -> 720 000
-Range: 4 500 -> 3 000 m
-Energy usage: 1 900 000 -> 1 800 000

See the paragraph above, same explanation. The Jormungand loses some of its sniping abiltiy but is stronger in tanking targets.

Council Battleship

-Hull: 1 250 000 -> 1 350 000
-Regens: 1700 -> 1950
-Cargo: 1500 -> 1800

Redemption's main strength is the fact that it can mount 6 heavy turrets, a trait no other battleship has. However, with the nerf to cerberus turrets, its strength fell off significantly compared to its only enemy - the Valor. So here's how we intend the Valor-Redemption encounter to go from now on. We're buffing the hull and regens to match with the Valor, which means that if the Redemption manages to get in very close range to the Valor without getting hit by the forward gun, it'll have an advantage of 1 heavy turret (since it can only fire a maximum of 5) against a forward gun. A very fair tradeoff (a battleship cerb is more efficient than the Valor FG), and the duel between the two will be an interesting one to watch in the future. P.S. it's highly recommended that you mount 6 Cerberus Battleship Turrets on it.

Marduk

-Nomad Battleship Annihilator Turret: energy usage decreased from 2650k to 1100k,
damage lowered from 550k/275k to 350k/175k
-Nomad Battleship Secondaries: speed 1600 - > 1800, refire rate, 2.00 -> 4.00, energy usage 34k -> 17k,
damage 3600/1800 -> 3000/1500
-Nomad Battleship Primaries: - damage 25k/12.5k -> 38.750k/19.375k, power 90k -> 120k

Although the Marduk looks scary, it's actually pretty bad. The main reason is it being almost double size than most battleships, making dodging fire impossible. The size is so big that unless a drastic downscale happens, it'll always take more than 95% of the fire. What we can do in return though, is make it very scary when shooting things back. We're doing that by buffing the guns all-round. Expect it to definitely be a big threat now in terms of firepower, but still an easy target if people pile on it. Oh, and if the numbers for primaries look off it's because the Marduk has only 3 primary turrets.

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Changes to guns and equipment

Secondaries

-Solaris Battleship Turret: damage increased from 950/475 to 1200/600
-Battleship Mitrailleuse: damage increased from 1100/550 to 1300/650
-Council Battleship Secondary Turret: power usage from 15 500 to 12 000

Primaries & Cerberuses

-Basic Heavy Battleship Turret: energy usage from 37.8k to 41k
-Corsair Battleship Turret: energy usage from 55.5k to 49k
-Cerberus Battleship Turret: range 1495 -> 1750
-Nomad Heavy Battleship Turret: range 1505 -> 1750

Artillery Weapons

-Battleship Pulse Cannon: speed increased from 800 to 850, range increased from 4200 to 4500
-Mortar: energy usage decreased from 1 200 000 to 1 100 000
-Trebuchet: energy usage decreased from 1 400 000 to 1 200 000
-Heavy Mortar: energy usage decreased from 2 500 000 to 2 300 000, range increased from 4500 to 5000
-Heavy Trebuchet: energy usage decreased from 2 800 000 to 2 400 000, range increased from 4500 to 5000

We're doing small buffs to the battleship artillery weapons to encourage long range sniping rather than facetanking or spamming prims at each other. Give it a try, it's much more fun.

Missiles

-Basic - damage 180k/90k -> 38k/270k, power 2mill -> 1.3mill, ammo 20 -> 40, refire rate 0.05 -> 0.1
-Kusari - damage 180k/90k -> 39k/275k, power 2.3mill -> 1.2mill, ammo 20 -> 40, refire rate 0.05 -> 0.1
-Council - damage 220k/110k -> 40k/280k, power 2.1mill -> 1.25mill, ammo 20 -> 40, refire rate 0.05 -> 0.1
-GRN - damage 220k/110k -> 41k/285k, power 2.2mill -> 1.35mill, ammo 20 -> 40, refire rate 0.05 -> 0.1
-Liberty - damage 200k/110k -> 42k/290k, power 2.2mill -> 1.4mill, ammo 20 -> 40, refire rate 0.05 -> 0.1
-Bretonia - damage 220k/110k -> 43k/295k, power 2.6mill -> 1.45mill, ammo 20 -> 40, refire rate 0.05 -> 0.1
-Rheinland - damage 220k/110k -> 44k/300k, power 2.7mill -> 1.5mill, ammo 20 -> 40, refire rate 0.05 -> 0.1

Current missiles have pathetic ammo, refire rate and damage. We're buffing all the stats straight, except that they'll be less efficient, with a minor tweak which is the damage. Because of the way some battleships work, they don't all take equal damage from missiles. Some, like a Liberty Dreadnought can take up to 2 times the damage if it hits a specific component or up to 4 times if a missile hits its engines. Since the only way of fixing that is to basically make mk2 versions of problematic ships (vanilla ones) and that requires a lot of work, instead of it being a weapon against hull, we're turning it into a shield buster, with solid enough damage on hull to still damage equipment. It's also very hard to flak it off, but still dies to a cruise disruptor. Overall, even if it hits the hull of a vanilla ship the damage will be significantly less impactful than before.

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To finish things off, we're removing nanobots and increasing the hull of all battleships accordingly. This is mainly due to inRP reasons (it never really made sense to instantly repair such large ships), but also to make battleships "feel" stronger. Don't worry though, it doesn't affect combat in any way whatsoever as you'll still have the exact effective health like before, regardless of the armor upgrade. The only thing that might go up is your repair bill, and for those wondering all NPC battleships are losing their armor upgrades to compensate and they'll be around 20% more tanky overall.

They will have approximately 90-110% hull more than before, with no nanobots. The shield batteries remain, same as before. Battleships that got buffed this patch were affected in the new calculation, but we included the "hull and regen" changes anyways for the sake of transparency. Note that the numbers are rounded and we did some minor balance tweaks between certain battleships rather than putting the exact number we get by multiplying. Oh, and if this change is proven to be successful, we'll probably be making the same thing for other capital ships. If not, we'll revert it.

-Zoner Colony Ship: 1 500 000 -> 2 800 000
-Persephone: 1 450 000 -> 2 650 000
-Hellfire Legion Battleship 1 400 000 -> 2 600 000
-Rheinland Battleship: 1 400 000 -> 2 600 000
-Council Battleship: 1 350 000 -> 2 500 000
-Valor: 1 350 000 -> 2 500 000
-Kusari Battleship: 1 280 000 -> 2 550 000
-Legate: 1 250 000 -> 2 400 000
-Ranseur: 1 200 000 -> 2 300 000 2 450 000
-Geb: 800 000 -> 1 600 000
-Coalition Carrier: 1 000 000 -> 2 000 000
-Bretonia Carrier: 1 300 000 -> 2 300 000
-Liberty Carrier: 950 000 -> 1 900 000
-Zoner Carrier: 860 000 -> 1 800 000
-Rheinland Carrier: 830 000 -> 1 800 000
-Zephyr Mk II: 827 000 -> 1 750 000
-Liberty Dreadnought: 840 000 -> 1 800 000
-Marduk: 1 650 000 -> 3 000 000
-Sarissa: 1 000 000 -> 2 000 000
-Jormungand: 835 000 -> 1 800 000
-Bretonia Battleship: 800 000 -> 1 750 000
-Togo: 780 000 -> 1 650 000
-Murmillo: 750 000 -> 1 650 000
-Mako: 730 000 -> 1 650 000
-Osiris: 700 000 -> 1 650 000
-Kusari Yacht: 600 000 -> 1 800 000
-Civilian Carrier: 700 000 -> 1 200 000

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Battlecruisers

Battlecruisers are in a tough spot at the moment. They're too big and too slow to dodge enough fire and take down cruisers, and have trouble killing light battleships because of the range they need to get themselves in, resulting in loss of too many repairs. Some of them have barely more armor and regens than heavy cruisers. That leaves them effective only against heavy and some medium battleships as well as a few heavy cruisers, and even then they feel very unrewarding to fly. It takes a long time, one mistake and the battleship will take half of your bots, and it's very stressful. As a result we're introducing a global buff to all battlecruisers in terms of hull and regens. How does that change their current state? Against cruisers it makes them that much more tanky to make cruisers work hard for the kill. Cruisers still probably have an edge, but it's a very small one now and depends entirely on the skill of the pilot. Against battleships, being allowed to do 1 less mistake as well as having the ability to fly closer to them knowing you can live will result in you dishing out more damage overall.

-Core Battlecruiser: hull 405k -> 465k 440k, regens 900 -> 1100 1050
-Council & GRN Battlecruisers: hull 400k -> 440k 420k, regens 890 -> 1050 1000
-Hellfire Legion Battlecruiser: hull 450k -> 500k, regens 900 -> 1200
-IMG Battlecruiser: hull 475k -> 490k, regens 900 -> 1150
-Kusari Battlecruiser hull 440k -> 485k, regens 900 -> 1150
-Liberty Battlecruiser: regens 900 -> 1100
-Rheinland Battlecruiser: hull 475k -> 505k, regens 900 -> 1200

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Cruisers

Colonial Cruiser

-Powercore: medium -> heavy

Being one of the largest cruisers in the game while having a medium core doesn't make it well for the Thanatos when comparing it to other cruisers. We're buffing its powercore to match the rest of the stats.

Nomad Cruiser

-Regens: 750 -> 850

The regens are disproportionate to the armor it has which makes it lose some fights it's not supposed to. This buff will hopefully fix that.

Rheinland Pirate Cruiser

-Hull: 250 000 -> 280 000
-Regens: 650 -> 720
-Number of heavy turrets: 2 -> 3

The main problem the Hel suffers from is that it has a size of a medium cruiser but hull and heavy turrets of a light one. That makes it very weak both in duels (it has the smallest hull of all cruisers in the game) and in groupfights (it's bigger than other light cruisers), so we're turning it into a proper medium cruiser.

Core Destroyer

-Powercore: light -> medium

After the upscale the armor and regens went up, but not the core. We're fixing it now to make it a light-medium cruiser hybrid.

Order Cruiser

-Regens: 750 -> 720

When we look at Resheph the main ship it's fighting is the Core Destroyer. Since they're both approximately the same size and are belonging to 2 factions who're main enemies one of another, we're nerfing the regens of the Resheph so they match with the Thresher. Overall, Resheph will have 5k less armor but an extra heavy turret (which fires only backwards) so expect the fight between the two to be a very close one.

Liberty Cruiser

-Regens: 700 -> 750
-Reverse thrust: 0.5 -> 0.3
-Forward gun:

-Speed: 900 -> 680 m/s
-Energy usage: 350 000 -> 300 000
-Range: 3150 -> 3 500 m

Although it's fun to reverse at -50m/s, it is also a tiny bit too good. It makes outmanouvering the LSC next to impossible even for gunboats which are the most agile capital ship class, let alone cruisers. We're nerfing it down a bit to give the opposing side a chance but still keeping it above average because of the forward gun purpose the ship has. The regens go up by 50 to match with the Scylla (more on that below).

As for the forward gun itself, it works on the same principle as the Valor one, but not so extreme because of the high refire. The problem with this one isn't that it's hard to dodge, it's that the purpose of the forward gun itself was to fight battleships from long range, not sniping gunboats and some cruisers as well in the process. We're doing that by buffing the range and efficiency (you'll have 1 more shot before running out of core if continuously firing, which is a 100k damage buff), but nerfing the speed of the gun itself. You'll have harder time shooting smaller targets while still remaining relevant against battleships, and to some extent battlecruisers.

Dragon Cruiser

-Reverse thrust: 0.5 -> 0.3
-Forward gun:

-Speed: 1100 -> 680 m/s
-Energy usage: 680 000 -> 700 000
-Range: 4070 -> 3 500 m
-Damage: 165 000 -> 200 000

Same as the LSC, read the paragraph above. The only thing that looks off is that the range actually got nerfed, which is because it was for some reason too high in the first place (1000 difference compared to LSC fg).

Kusari Destroyer

-Turret arcs buffed
-Hull: 280 000 -> 300 000
-Turrets: 9 -> 11

Having only 2 turrets shooting backwards and not too much tankiness to be facetanking other ships, it's arguably the worst cruiser in the game. Turret arcs are getting buffed as a result.

Outcast Destroyer

-Turret arcs buffed
-Hull: 300 000 -> 335 000
-Regens: 750 -> 800

Storta's stats don't match its size. We're buffing armor and regens as a result, and adding a bit better turret arcs since it has huge blindspots at the moment.

Rheinland Cruiser

-Hull: 350 000 -> 320 000
-Regens: 825 -> 775

The Donau is a bit too small for the amount of survivability it has, so we're nerfing its hull and regens.

Liberty Rogue / Molly Destroyer

-Hull: 318 000 -> 295 000
-Regens: 800 -> 750
-Number of heavy turrets: 4 -> 3
-Powercore: heavy -> medium
-Fuse ("invulnerability") bug fixed

One of the current "kings" of the destroyer/cruiser class. Amazing arcs, very good size and shape, a heavy core and solid hull make this ship way too good. In order for its stats to match the size, we're introducing an all-round nerf to almost all the stats. It'll become a normal medium cruiser now, and even potentionally get a challenging partner in Liberty in terms of the LSC. They both have the same armor, regens and to some extent size so the duel between the two should be an interesting one.

Coalition Destroyer

-Hull: 268 000 -> 260 000
-Regens: 700 -> 650
-Number of heavy turrets: 3 -> 2
-Powercore: heavy -> light

The second "king" of destroyers, this ship is just perfect. It is the 2nd smallest cruiser in the game, but has the stats of heavy and medium cruisers. Perfect "tube" shape help the case even more, which makes the Typhoon an unstoppable force. We're introducing a global nerf to all the stats, especially core (who thought it's a good idea to give the smallest ship the biggest core?), to make it a proper light cruiser it should be.

Bretonia Destroyer

-Hull: 330 000 -> 260 000
-Regens: 825 -> 650
-Number of heavy turrets: 3 -> 2
-Powercore: heavy -> light

The "king of kings". By far the most broken cruiser, if not capital ship in the game, the Crecy has dominated fights for years. Being the smallest cruiser in the game while also having a really tricky shape (bigger at the front, very small at the back), not only is it the hardest destroyer to kill but it also hits back like an Irra. It has the hull, regens and core of a heavy cruiser, and I can only express anger that the ship wasn't balanced properly by the (ex) balance devs, given how disgustingly overpowered it is. All of the stats are going massively down as a result and it's becoming a light cruiser with proper light cruiser characteristics.

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Changes to guns and equipment

Cruiser Razor - REMOVED

Cruiser Glaive - REMOVED

Snub pilots, your prayers have finally been heard. We don't like the current state of the Cruiser Razors and since we didn't find a proper way to balance them without making them too bad or even better, we're removing them from the game. The spammy instakill mechanic coupled with a high m/s projectile, very fast turning turret and turret zoom has proven to be too harmful for the game's health and gave little to no counterplay as well as being extremely stressful and frustrating to fight against on snubs, and to some extent gunboats. Au revoir.

NEW - Solaris Gatling Cruiser Turret

-1170 range, 1800m/s, 8.33 refire, 1000/500 damage, 4000 energy usage

NEW - Cruiser Mitrailleuse

-1170 range, 1800m/s, 8.33 refire, 1050/550 dmg, 4200 power usage

Cruiser gatlings are the new replacement for razors. Since cruisers are the only capital ship class that doesn't have them yet, it was the fastest alternative we could find until we come up with something cooler. Apart from the stats listed above, they'll have a very slow turn speed to not be as effective against snubs, but be a big threat against gunboats. They will occupy a heavy slot just like the razors did, so if you opt for an anti-gunboat (and to some extent snub) loadout, you'll be much vulnerable against capital ships.

Artillery Weapons

-Cruiser Pulse Cannon: energy usage 190k -> 150k 120k, speed 850 -> 950, range 3995 -> 3000
-Light Mortar: damage 150k -> 200k, energy usage 1m -> 1.05m
-Light Trebuchet: damage 170k -> 210k, energy usage 1.2m -> 1.1m
-Nomad Cruiser Annihilator Turret: damage 160k -> 220k

Cruiser artillery weapons are extremely inneficient now, and make even heavy cruisers struggle to continuously damage battleships. If you miss only one shot while taking down the shield you're pretty much back to square one so we're buffing the damage to help a bit. It's nothing spectacular, but it gets better in groupfights.

Minor gun changes

-Basic Cruiser Turret: energy usage 7000 -> 8000 7200
-Nomad Heavy Cruiser Turret : range 1750 -> 1910
-Solaris Cruiser Turret: range 1000 -> 1170
-Cruiser Mitrailleuse: range 1026 -> 1170
-Kusari Destroyer Turret: damage 1350 -> 1200, speed 1050 -> 1350, power usage 3800 -> 4000, refire rate 3.03 -> 4.00
-Outcast Destroyer Turret: damage 1400 -> 1175, speed 1000 -> 1300, range 1600 -> 1500, power usage 4300 -> 4050, refire rate 3.03 -> 4.00

Cruiser Missiles

-Jaeger-Sucher - dmg 190k -> 140k, power 1.65mill -> 980k
-Rheinland - dmg 185k -> 135k, power 1.6mill -> 980k
-GRN - dmg 178k -> 130k, power 1.6mill -> 940k
-Bretonia - dmg 170k -> 125k, power 1.5mill -> 900k
-Order - 141k -> , 120kpower 1.25mill -> 860k
-Council - 140k -> 115k, power 1.2mill -> 820k
-Liberty - 120k -> 110k, power 1mill -> 780k
-Basic - 112k -> 100k, power 1mill -> 740k
-Kusari - 105k -> 105k, power 0.9mill -> 700k
-All cruisers missile have 4k range (previous rangers varied up to 6k)

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Gunboats

Brigand Gunboat

-Hull: 105 000 -> 90 000
-Regens: 350 -> 300
-Powercore: Medium -> Light

One of the most notorious gunboats in the game, this ship gave every snub pilot nightmares at one point or another. Having the best shape one can ask for (normal sized at the front, extremely small at the rear), it's really obnoxious to fight. Without runining the ship completely we're going to emphasise the only true weakness it has which is other heavier gunboats by nerfing the armor and regens and turning it into a lighter version. Should this prove insufficient (there's only a few Asco pilots on the server so it's hard to tell), we'll look into it further, but for now it should die to most gunboats in a straight 1v1 scenario.

Blood Dragon Gunboat

-Turn rate: 31.04 -> 35.81
-Better turret arcs
-Armor: 105 000 -> 115 000

The ship has been under the radar for quite a while, and it's no wonder when you look at the stats. Mediocre size, armor and core, horrible turn rate and arcs. We're fixing the last two to get it in line with the rest. Additionally, it's getting an armor buff.

Kusari Explorer

-Turn rate: 23.87-> 33.42
-Hull: 100 000 -> 115 000

Kusari Explorer is arguably the worst gunboat in the game. It's not only huge and lacks decent armor, but is also by far the least agile gunboat in the game, even slower than some cruisers. We're buffing the latter 2 stats to at least make it half decent.

Nomad Gunboat

-Hull: 120 000 -> 155 000

We like the concept of very big - very high firepower ships like the Nomad Gunboat, but the armor it currently has doesn't match its size. We're fixing that by making it into the most tanky gunboat in the game. Makes sense since it's also the biggest one, right?

Outcast Gunship

-Turn rate: 34.85 -> 37.24
-Hull: 97 000 -> 125 000

Tridente used to be a very scary gunboat years ago. After the upscale, it never got the proper stats to reflect the new model. We're finally giving it some love to make it decent again.

Border Worlds Gunship

-Hull: 105 000 -> 115 000
-Turret arcs buffed

A minor hull buff to compensate for the size and better turret arcs since it can only shoot 2 backwards.

Junker Gunboat

-Hull: 140 000 -> 120 000 105 000
-Regens: 400 -> 350
-Turret arcs buffed

Wrecker is one of the few ships that are pretty tanky but have very bad turret arcs. That ultimately makes the ship have significantly less firepower against pretty much everything, so the tankiness didn't mean much. We're fixing the arcs but reducing hull to not make it too good.

Scorpion

-Hull: 105 000 -> 120 000
-Turn rate: 33.42 -> 37.24
-Turret arcs buffed

Just like the Tridente, this ship used to be scary a long time ago. The nerfs have shoved it under the radar, even up to the point where Wild factions almost never use it and opt for other available gunboats. We're giving it some buffs to match it with the rest.

Coalition Gunboat

-Hull: 108 000 -> 98 000
-Turn rate: 36.98 -> 34.38

Storm is one of the few gunboats with 8 turrets coupled with very good turret arcs. It's also one of the most agile gunboats while staying relatively small, so instead of touching its strong firepower potential we're nerfing the manouverability and survivability.

Gaian Gunboat

-Regens: 350 -> 300
-Turn rate: 38.20 -> 35.81

Claymore is one of the gunboats that are considered pretty obnoxious when fighting them. It's a combination of many factors, mostly size and agility. For its size and hull, the regens are disproportionate so we're tuning them down a bit and it's also getting a turn rate nerf.

Kusari Gunboat

-Turret arcs buffed
-Hull: 100 000 -> 115 000
-Turrets: 5 -> 6

Kusari gunboat is one of the worst gunboats in the game (see the pattern? Ku Gb, Ku Dessie, Ku Explorer) because it has the worst possible shape and horrible turret arcs. Basically the shape makes it look small while it's actually not. It's small at the front but huge at the back, but since most of the damage goes to the last ~20% of the ship the frontal smallness is meaningless. Combine that with 1 turret shooting directly backwards and you have all you need to make a ship which almost nobody will use ever. Arcs and hull buffed.

Lane Hacker Gunboat

-Hull: 85 000 -> 95 000

Although it's getting a remodel very soon, it can enjoy the last buff it'll ever get before being replaced. We're buffing the hull up a bit because the ship is a bit too weak.

Red Hessian Gunboat

-Hull: 110 000 -> 130 000
-Regens: 350 -> 380

Heimdall is supposed to be a tanky heavy gunboat that excells at dueling other gunboats. However, it has a very tough time against its main counterparts - the Rheinland and Corsair gunboat because it's simply outtanked. We're buffing its stats to approximately match it with the latter two.

GRN Gunboat

-Hull: 120 000 -> 105 000

Perilous is one of the most underrated gunboats in the game. All of the stats are pretty good, especially hull which is a bit too high for the size it has so it's losing some.

Council Gunboat

-Hull: 105 000 -> 100 000

A minor hull fix to be slightly less than the GRN version because Council has better primary guns, making the duel between the two dead even.

GMG Gunship

-Hull: 100 000 -> 120 000
-Turn rate: 40.11 -> 37.82

GMG Gunship is an average gunboat with mostly average stats, except two - armor and turn rate. The former is too low and the latter too high, so we're fixing them a bit.

Liberty Gunboat

-Hull: 110 000 -> 85 000 95 000
-Regens: 350 -> 290
-Powercore: medium -> light
-Turn rate: 35.81 -> 33.42 REVERTED

If you read the paragraph about Bretonian Destroyer, you'll find a lot of similarities to this one. Basically, Defiant is the Crecy of gunboats. It's arguably the 2nd smallest gunboat in the game right after Bottlenose but the stats don't match that at all. In fact it's almost as extreme as the Crecy. It has a core of a medium gunboat, hull of a medium gunboat, and regens of a medium gunboat, all of which should be light. All in all, a long-awaited change of a gunboat that's been considered by far the best for a long long time.

Liberty Rogue / Molly Gunboat

-Hull: 95 000 -> 85 000 REVERTED
-Regens: 350 -> 290
-Turn rate: 37.24 -> 34.38
-Turret arcs buff

Being almost identical as the Liberty Gunboat in size and shape , we're tuning some of its stats down to match with the Lib GB. That includes hull and regens mostly, it'll be faster but less responsive than the Liberty Gunboat, with less guns. It's also getting 2 more turrets to shoot backwards, making it defend better when running away from targets which is often the case.

Civilian Gunboat

-Powercore: Light -> Medium

A small buff to match the powercore with rest of the stats.

Zoner Gunboat

-Turret arcs buffed

Fixing some blindspots the ship has.

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Changes to guns and equipment

Minor gun changes

-Basic Gunboat Turret: energy usage 2000 -> 2500
-Solaris Gatling Gunboat Turret: energy usage 2750 -> 2300
-Nomad Hybrid Gunboat Turret: energy usage 3802 -> 3600
-Cerberus Gunboat Turret: range 990 -> 1170 (matches with pulses), power 9500 -> 12000 11000
-Bretonia Gunboat Forward Gun: Sound fixed (now sounds like a razor), 520k core usage, 1600m/s, 200k damage

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Repair Ship & Gallic Repair Ship

-Regens: 200 -> 300
-Nanotool upgrade:

Range 200 -> 600
Hit points 5 000 -> 70 000

With the introduction of hull buff to battleships, repair ships got a big indirect buff. While we like the current rate at which a ship is repaired, the range is still pretty low, and the gun itself would get blown off by almost any missile (1 sidewinder is all it takes). We like the concept of a repair ship and would like to make it viable enough to see it in large groupfights.

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If you managed to read everything up to this part, congradulations. I repeat once again, changes are not yet in and will be coming in the next major patch, maybe sooner. There's a lot of changes, so it's natural that some bugs might appear. Do not hesitate to report them as soon as possible if they do so we can fix them quickly. Also, feel free to express your own opinion and thoughts about the changes themselves, we'll happily answer you why we did the changes we did from our point of view. Maybe there's a ship or gun we missed or balanced poorly. This is also not the final list in terms of exact numbers and changes, but if we change anything we'll keep this thread up to date. That's pretty much it, thank you for reading and have a nice day!

Credits to:
@Antonio
@Haste
@Tachyon
@Impyness
@Titan*
@Thunderer
@sindroms

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SNAC Montage Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Thruster SNAC

[Epo]

Well, some of the changes are interesting. Thanks for the effort!

[Shiki]

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[Emperor Tekagi]

Looks really nice to me. Especially the changes regarding cruisers and gbs. Many gbs needed some love, hopefully the changes will work out the way they are supposed to.

Looking forward to them.

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Me watching the daily drama turn into yet another Disco-doomsday discussion:

[Vendetta]

Mmmmm.

That's going to be weird.

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Currently unable to consistently be present in the Community due to life constraints.

Youtube

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[Sombs]

Now that's what I call changelogs! Keep up the good work!

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Uncharted System Stories: 18 | 32 | 34 | 37 | 38 | 85

Templates: Character | Transmissions

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[Apollon]

Some really nice changes. Especially the awaited KuGB and KuDessie buffs.

Anyway, Bot-less battleships with buffed Hull is going to be interesting. Well, I suppose we only have to wait to see the results.

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[Goldberg]

I know that Wesker wanted like one more primary turret on the Bismarck, is there any way the Bismarck can get another one?

I would also like to have one more on it.

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[Alley]

I'm not too sure about removing bots from battleships but I will wait and see how it plays out. Having a repair ship may now provide an edge I guess.

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Alley was right.

[Thunderer]

Yes, the Bismarck is slightly outmatched by the Jormugand. I'd rather put 2, so it can carry 2 pulses to effectively deshield Jorms, because their shield is what helps them stay alive a lot.

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