Discovery Freelancer Patch 4.88.6 Capital Ship Changes

[Antonio]

What about bret gb??

What about it?

The Bret GB is the easiest GB to hit. Its big and slow. surely it will need a buff to its agility or hull/armament

The hull and firepower is high enough already, and although it is pretty big the only thing that we could buff is the turn rate, which won't help the survivability that much. It's a unique gunboat that excells at taking down other gunboats, and does the job against snubs.

@Antonio I've been around in Bretonia long enough to know the "brick" as one of the worst ships in the game. Its anti-gunboat role means nothing in any engagement where at least 1 enemy bomber is present. In scenarios like lets say Coalition GB +2 Bombers vs Bretonia GB + 2 bombers...80% of the time the Bretonian one will fall and you all know why...

I find it a bit rude that after so many years all capital ships are being properly balanced with exception to the bretonian "brick". I read the whole patch note from top to the bottom and when I saw the brick missing...you can't imagine my frustration. So the only "bug" or detail to be fixed about it....was the sound of its broken Forward Gun? Like really? You are right the ship is unique. Both the brick and the dessi in vanila were carrying different loadouts - big razor like guns - which is why their shape is "platform carrier". These ships are supposed to be balanced differently as unique vessels with unique loadouts. Otherwise they are nothing but broken shadows of what they were supposed to be. It is like removing the FWG from LSC cuz of reasons...

Anyway - I would like to ask about the Gunboat alone....because it was missing from the notes. It is massive, very easy target and its armor and energy are enough to represent it as a "stat monster" but in the end its less useful overall. Why haven't you considered to give its "Bretonia Primary Gunboat Turrets" some sort of buff, restricting them only to this ship, to prevent abuse? More speed and damage (to deal more before falling apart) or...better range (to counter the light/medium gbs) that kite its guns at nearly max range? I am not suggesting to just "give give and give" something to the ship...I am asking to reconsider balancing it accordingly. If it needs to be given...then sure give it something. I am sure all would agree there is nothing to take away from it (Its armor/energy and size are ...fine) so what then? Also its forward gun is useless vs gunboats. Fix its arcs...make it useful. If this gun have arcs that would allow to even snipe bombers foolish enough to be too close...then sure it can give a punch.

Overall this ship is currently "unique" as being the unique easy target in any fight - the first to fall. No wonder people don't like it as priority.

About all else - Kudos. Good changes. Was about time for such a drastic rejuvenating change.

Changing turrets is not an option since it automatically buffs any other faction that has 90% or 100% on Bretonian lawful tech, but we can work around with the forward gun. We took a closer look into the gunboat and have some cool forward gun changes coming in soon, stay tuned.

[Unlucky_Soul]

What about it?

The Bret GB is the easiest GB to hit. Its big and slow. surely it will need a buff to its agility or hull/armament

The hull and firepower is high enough already, and although it is pretty big the only thing that we could buff is the turn rate, which won't help the survivability that much. It's a unique gunboat that excells at taking down other gunboats, and does the job against snubs.

@Antonio I've been around in Bretonia long enough to know the "brick" as one of the worst ships in the game. Its anti-gunboat role means nothing in any engagement where at least 1 enemy bomber is present. In scenarios like lets say Coalition GB +2 Bombers vs Bretonia GB + 2 bombers...80% of the time the Bretonian one will fall and you all know why...

I find it a bit rude that after so many years all capital ships are being properly balanced with exception to the bretonian "brick". I read the whole patch note from top to the bottom and when I saw the brick missing...you can't imagine my frustration. So the only "bug" or detail to be fixed about it....was the sound of its broken Forward Gun? Like really? You are right the ship is unique. Both the brick and the dessi in vanila were carrying different loadouts - big razor like guns - which is why their shape is "platform carrier". These ships are supposed to be balanced differently as unique vessels with unique loadouts. Otherwise they are nothing but broken shadows of what they were supposed to be. It is like removing the FWG from LSC cuz of reasons...

Anyway - I would like to ask about the Gunboat alone....because it was missing from the notes. It is massive, very easy target and its armor and energy are enough to represent it as a "stat monster" but in the end its less useful overall. Why haven't you considered to give its "Bretonia Primary Gunboat Turrets" some sort of buff, restricting them only to this ship, to prevent abuse? More speed and damage (to deal more before falling apart) or...better range (to counter the light/medium gbs) that kite its guns at nearly max range? I am not suggesting to just "give give and give" something to the ship...I am asking to reconsider balancing it accordingly. If it needs to be given...then sure give it something. I am sure all would agree there is nothing to take away from it (Its armor/energy and size are ...fine) so what then? Also its forward gun is useless vs gunboats. Fix its arcs...make it useful. If this gun have arcs that would allow to even snipe bombers foolish enough to be too close...then sure it can give a punch.

Overall this ship is currently "unique" as being the unique easy target in any fight - the first to fall. No wonder people don't like it as priority.

About all else - Kudos. Good changes. Was about time for such a drastic rejuvenating change.

Changing turrets is not an option since it automatically buffs any other faction that has 90% or 100% on Bretonian lawful tech, but we can work around with the forward gun. We took a closer look into the gunboat and have some cool forward gun changes coming in soon, stay tuned.

Since you did mention its a unique ship, how about balancing it in a unique way? Making it a hybrid like the Salvager? Just a suggestion

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[FallenKnight]

Changing turrets is not an option since it automatically buffs any other faction that has 90% or 100% on Bretonian lawful tech, but we can work around with the forward gun. We took a closer look into the gunboat and have some cool forward gun changes coming in soon, stay tuned.

You are right ...and you might be wrong at the same time. To solve the Brick's Mystery issues there are 3 paths which the dev team can take.

1) Vanila Balance: This would be best balance. Check this image. Thats the vanila gb encountered in the original FL game. It explains why the ship shape is so different. It carries 2 forward guns and look their location - at the sides. These are marked as "primary cannons" of the gunboat, while the Disco version of the primary turret is marked as "secondary". Yes...yes this is vanila and here we have disco differences but the legit point remains - This ship should be balanced according to its original model/design - to carry 2 main guns (special/unique guns) which have special/unique stats. These guns are NOT forward firing alone...they can rotate to fire backward as well...meaning the ship can engage while firing or disengage and fire backward. Removing the current FWG on top (which was never made to be present there) and placing 2 "rail guns" at their original locations is the right move.

2) Weapon Balance: This would be good but not best way to solve the problem. You are right that making the stats of the turrets better might lead to an abuse by those able to use them on other ships. Nevertheless that could easily be solved with the ID restrictions or simple cargo requirements for all bretonian turrets. For example - increasing the cargo of the gunboat a lot by also increasing the turret cargo requirement a lot will turn them useless to be mounted on any other ship. (Even if players abuse/want to use 1 of these turrets they will be unable to mount anything else...who would fly a gunboat with 2 guns alone?)
That would be easy and open the door for the dev team to experiment as much as they want without giving players chance to ruin the tests.

3) Resize Balance: This would be the worst case scenario. This is vanila ship and its size as stupid as it is was intended to be like that. Making it smaller (like ku gb) will turn it in to medium gunboat or definitely will lead to a new set of problems. Instead of taking this step would be most logical in RP Bretonia to have a small gunship (makes sense inRP for 2-5 man vessel with few guns, cheap and easy to build) to support the fleet with strict "anti-snub" role...while then the brick will remain as "anti-gb" duty only. But involving new ships would not be welcomed and again will not solve the issues for this specific ship.

Its good to hear you are up in to something with new changes...but I think its time something new to be tested instead to stomp on the same ground for decade of no progress with this ship. I would really recommend suggestion 1) just because its a vanila ship with a specific design/role.

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Discovery Bridges[Feedback] Baron Piett[Biography]

[sasapinjic]

2) Weapon Balance: This would be good but not best way to solve the problem. You are right that making the stats of the turrets better might lead to an abuse by those able to use them on other ships. Nevertheless that could easily be solved with the ID restrictions or simple cargo requirements for all bretonian turrets. For example - increasing the cargo of the gunboat a lot by also increasing the turret cargo requirement a lot will turn them useless to be mounted on any other ship. (Even if players abuse/want to use 1 of these turrets they will be unable to mount anything else...who would fly a gunboat with 2 guns alone?)
That would be easy and open the door for the dev team to experiment as much as they want without giving players chance to ruin the tests.

Corvo can easy abuse this because it is a Cruiser/Gunboat hybrid that use Gunboat weapon , has Cruiser power core and it has 1200 cargo .
I like idea 1 tough .

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Spoiler

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^ where you can get Freelancer ISO , in emergency

These two spoilers were too big so now they're both one ~Champ

[FallenKnight]

I doubt corvo players have access to BAF ID or 80-90% to bretonia armed forces weapons...

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Discovery Bridges[Feedback] Baron Piett[Biography]

[sasapinjic]

I doubt corvo players have access to BAF ID or 80-90% to bretonia armed forces weapons...

i believe Corvo + Freelancer ID pilots can use Bretonia weapons with 75% power , but with Cruiser power core you can still mount any Gunboat weapon and fire forever without power loose .

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Spoiler

welcome to Loberty
^ where you can get Freelancer ISO , in emergency

These two spoilers were too big so now they're both one ~Champ

[TheFreelancer]

Nice! (I don't have much else to say really)

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^ A Massive Eejit ^

[Shelco]

About the Scylla...

Arcs:

The scylla, or cruisers in general, are ships that larger ships mostly see with their asses.

A battleship will always be behind a cruiser and the cruiser will shoot backwards.

The Scylla can fire all 3 heavies backwards and forward, that is good, BUT, while it has 9 normal turrets it can only fire 3 backwards.

Since Battleship shields are something tough, you pretty much need pulses, and since pulses should also be able to fire like heavies, you need to give them the 2 only slots of normal turrets that can fire forward AND backwards, leaving the Scylla literally ONE turret to fire backwards, WTF?!

As a battleship, if you want a cruiser down fastly, you cruise to it, recharge and unleash your fire, what would a Scylla do in such a situation?? You at least would have to cause as much damage as you can but then you can only add 1 more firing turret to your heavies, which means: A Scylla is easy as hell if you cruise up to it.

In case you want the Scylla to be a "all in moving forward destroyer" it isn't, especially not by reducing its powercore AND hull.

Against snubs:

Ever seen a Bomber kissing a cruiser from the front? -NO

In the case of a Scylla, a bomber would stay behind, making it possible to kick a Scylla's ass like HELL, what is it going to defend it?

Razors? NOPE, they will be gone.

Heavies? NOPE, have fun hitting a snub with cerbs and mortars

And of course, normals? NOPE, only 1 available.

BUT there is an easy fix for that.Slot 5,6,7 and 8 could easily get a more wide angle and done, additionally, make the removed heavy slot a normal one and you have one more.

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[JohnyWalker]

Nothing new for the actual useless Liberty Carrier?... low base armor, no rear fire... only 2 heavy slots...

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(Thanks Suis)

[Vendetta]

The Thresher is going to be interesting, even with the medium core.

As it is right now, it's awful. I don't know how much of a difference the power core will make when its size doesn't match the firepower it lacks, and given that it's almost incapable of dodging now a'days, it could potentially do with some more cruiser turrets. Two, at least, but we'll see how the changes work out.

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