Very very specialized ship that maybe one or two people would ever fly. I see no point in adding it if nobody is going to fly it. I mean think about it, the only thing this is useful for is stopping smugglers. Even if each police group had one, that would be 4 ships total. Not really worth it if you ask me.
' Wrote:We need to give LFs SOMETHING so that they aren't just smaller underpowered VHFs.
LFs are perfect as they are now. Not underpowered at all.
People like you just underestimate them.
The class' purpose is to fight against other fighter classes. (HFs, VHFs and Bombers).
And so far it has succeeded in it amazingly well in my honest opinion. (Based on personal experience).
' Wrote:Very very specialized ship that maybe one or two people would ever fly. I see no point in adding it if nobody is going to fly it.
Barge.
Quote: I mean think about it, the only thing this is useful for is stopping smugglers.
Teams of bounty hunters and mercenaries could also use them to catch targets. And if police could use them for stopping smugglers, pirates could use them for stopping traders.
There goes Thex again, Bringing a Brilliant light to the key points at hand ^^.
My opinion on the matter is this: While creating an Interceptor class sounds good on paper, (and Kinda in Theory as well) I think I'd have to agree partially with Hawk's input. However Thex (As always) Seems to put up a great rebuttle to it. I think that while Pirate's and Hunter's would use it, it would still be under-used dramatically. Pirate's wouldn't find Too much use for it, seeing as they just sit at a lane anyways. Hunter's MIGHT, but only the Guild, as the solo BH's would then need to split the resulting profit with the Interceptor I'd think. Frankly I love the idea of each House having their OWN Interceptor actually. But Balancing it so that it's not too good at fighting while keeping it's job steady would be an "interesting" job.
Conclusion: Excellent Idea as a Specialist Ship, not exactly an entire Mainstream ship class however.
"The pen is mightier than the sword." -Edward Bulwer-Lytton. "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword never encountered automatic weapons." -General Douglas MacArthur
' Wrote:But Balancing it so that it's not too good at fighting while keeping it's job steady would be an "interesting" job.
The way I see it, the Arrow's already basically the right idea, just switch turning and speed around. The class 9 guns could still stay, probably; with its turning being rather crappy, it'd be basically limited to strafing runs (especially with neither torpedo nor mine), not even being able to use the traditional Arrow tactic of never getting off the target's ass.
And ease up on the flattery, would ya? You're still paying me for those bounties.:P
I think the ID of a fast craft could work, but more as a Rapid-Response/Scout Vessel. Rather than have lickety speed, it could have special functions such as a short cruise engine time and a long-thrust. I'd also say they be lightly armed and armoured, and not able to CD, otherwise they'de be too powerful. Couple of class 8 guns, and you've got yourself a ship to scout ahead, or ships that can rapidly reach another destination ahead of another group. Say the Rogues in Liberty, I dunno, launch an Assault on a Carrier traveling through Manhattan. Someone deploys the Scouts, and they head on, find out about the size of the enemy deployment, and engaged high-priority small-targets, such as Bombers.
Of course, I have no idea what I'm talking about, kinda nulling my point.
The problem here is that we cannot use real-world fighter airplane analogies to apply to the game? Why? Because of the vast difference between offense and defense in the real world and in the game. In the real world, offense is vastly more powerful than defense. You get hit by a single missile or 5 rounds from a cannon, and you're pretty much done for. There are no shields, no armor, and the best way to avoid damage is to evade and toss out countermeasures.
Going by this reality, interceptors make perfect sense. They are fast, faster than most other planes, and their purpose is to destroy bombers. Well, bombers are nice fat easy targets, and a single interceptor is a major threat to three or four bombers (or more, if the fighter pilot is good with his gun). Therefore, this drives the bombers to get escorts in the form of fighters that are designed to kill other fighters. This makes taking on bomber formations much tougher for the interceptors because interceptors are splashed by a single missile too. They gotta stay alive and deliver their payload to the bombers while the enemy makes it tough for them.
However, transfer this to freelancerverse. Defense is so much more powerful that three or four bombers, even if they had maneuverability nerfed so much that they had no chance of hitting the interceptor whatsoever, would still have no reason to bring escorts. Why? Because a single interceptor is no threat, they'll just weather the beating on their shields and hull, and SN the capship into oblivion anyways. The interceptor can't do anything because of the balance of power between offense and defense.
This is why I support raising gun speeds. It will shift the balance more to the side of offense, which promotes an actual response. The stronger defense gets, the less teamwork and combined arms are necessary. The stronger offense gets, escorts and interceptors will actually make sense and have a role in the game.
"The pen is mightier than the sword." -Edward Bulwer-Lytton. "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword never encountered automatic weapons." -General Douglas MacArthur
lowering the shielding on bombers to a lesser level would promote teamplay also, and enable the light fighters and interceptors to ACTUALLY do there job, surely a single bomber no bigger ingame than a V.H.F would not be able to power all the things they can currently equip all at once
super shields, mega weapons and thrusters
no wonder bombers do not fear the light fighter/interceptors
because it takes so long to kill one of these ships because both their defence and offence is sky high.
and it shows ingame with the ever mounting hoards of lolwut SNAC bombers teams all over sirius that can kill anything they like whenever they feel like it.
Lowering shield values on bombers would not solve this problem in the most efficient way. In my mind, the proper fix would be to remove all fighter shields and armor upgrades, and not touch the guns. Of course this is never going to happen, so we need to come up with something else that addresses this problem.
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