Gunboats beating Cruisers

[Warlord]

Heya community,

After some field research and some observing I have come to a conclusion that we are having a problem with the gunboat class.
As a matter of fact you can say that the gunboat is currently at a strength of what a cruiser/destroyer is supposed to be.

Many of the gunboat turrets are with a 4.00 re-fire rate. The average hull and shield damage a gunboat turret would do is 750/350 that is for each shot a individual gunboat turret inflicts.
By doing the simple match this comes to the conclusion that one gunboat turret does 3000/1400 Hull/Shield damage each second.
If we compare this to a cruiser turret which is at a 2.00 re-fire rate and a average of 2300/1200 this comes to a total of 6000/2800 a second.
Now the stats look like the damage is twice as much which is no problem at all, but the issue lays with the re-fire and the speed.
A gunboat's re-fire is 4.00 and it's speed is 1,400 m/s. That of a cruiser is only 2.00 and 1.000 m/s

So the gunboat it's guns are a lot better as your re-fire is higher as well as your speed, which increases your accuracy significantly.
Not to mention the agility most gunboats have, this works well in their advantage.

What you see a lot nowadays is gunboats who make their turrets work as a chain gun. They don't fire the turrets even but in a wave effect. Because of the low energy usage the turrets take they can simply keep 'spraying' their opponent.

You can also notice how many have start using the Battle Razor who is known to be stronger then the stats intend. These razors are meant to harm other capital ships but are currently used as a Mini Razor only then for gunboats, they can easily take down fighters and bombers who are close enough to them. It's like having your very own flak system.
You 'spray' down your target till he gets close and use the battle razor when he's close enough.
The razor is slow but because the projectile it launches is rather big sized it's harder for bombers to dodge them as they ability to dodge is limited.

Keeping distance from the gunboat and try to 'SNAC' it from there is nearly impossible. The gunboats agility grant them to 'strafe' sideways so much that by the time the 'SNAC' projectile has reached it's distance the gunboat has move away a long time ago.
Even if you mention to get a 'SNAC' hit it's nearly as effective.
A gunboat's shield capacity is 140.000 with a regeneration of 2000 while a 'SNAC' only does 66.000 on a shield. By the time you can fire it again the gunboat's shield has already re-charged.
Leaving you to the only option to get in close and shoot your weapons at it.

A EMP bomber gun does 3160 Shield Damage a second if you manage to make all hits count. Not to mention that you are being sprayed and razor'd at, as well as your energy supply going down slowly leaving you from charging yourself for another 'SNAC'

So what if you make it trough their shield, you still have to take down the hull. It's a common fact that if you wait for your energy to recharge the gunboat's shield already have re-charged, meaning you have to shoot it down first and wait again for your energy to come up.
The average gunboats hull is 100.000 with the 132.000 hull damage the 'SNAC' does it will mean that the gunboat would be destroyed instantly.

But theres rarely any gunboat around that does not carry a armor upgrade. Recently people have made enough cash to even afford the Capital MK 8 upgrade which multiplies your base armor by 4. That makes it a average hull of 400.000 meaning it could need about three 'SNAC' hits on the hull in order to be destroyed.
This is also more armor then all cruiser's base armor (the highest is 390.000)

The 'spraying' and Razor as flak, high agility, plus the powerful shield and hull makes it nearly impossible for fighters and bombers to survive. Only thing you can do is send in capital support yourself, but not all factions are able to do so.

I have come to a conclusion that gunboats are currently to strong, there are many around already (high possibility is because they are in fact this strong) but their strength makes it a unpossible opponent for the non-capital vessels.

Please share me your opinion on this matter.

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[Man103]

A gunboat CANNOT beat a cruiser until and unless the Cruiser guy is a super noob and the gunboat guy is a super pro

Gunboats are supposed to destroy bombers and VHFs.

They are doing what they are supposed to do


Good bombers can easily take out average Gunboats without using a single bat or bot with only a SNAC and 4 EMP P turrets

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I know my English is Bad sorry about that.

[Ash]

Well think about it, gunboats have to be good at beating something. Take the venom out of the snake and what have you got? You got a..a belt.

(Yes, it was stolen, and yes, i love it)

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[Warlord]

A gunboat CANNOT beat a cruiser until and unless the Cruiser guy is a super noob and the gunboat guy is a super pro

Don't just read the topic title, thats only meant to attract attention.

Gunboats are supposed to destroy bombers and VHFs.

Well think about it, gunboats have to be good at beating something.

Alright place yourselves into the following position. Your running a trading company, your traders get pirates to much that it effects your profit and the morale to much.
So you decide to set up a escort service to fly along with your traders in order to raise the morale and profits again. But those escorters run into a lot of gunboats who just makes short work of them.

Now your a civilian organization so anything larger then a fighter or bomber is impossible.
See my point being?

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[Akura]

I can do some damage to Cruisers in a Gunboat.


But you are right, Cruisers are the only class of ship without any real boost...

[Man103]

A cruiser has like 750+ bots and bats 300000+ hull and a good armor upgrade.
A GB has 300 bots and bats 100000+ hull with some armor upgrade.

A cruiser has mortars, ever tried to to hit a gunboat with a mortar?
Try it and see what happens

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I know my English is Bad sorry about that.

[Warlord]

A cruiser has like 750+ bots and bats 300000+ hull and a good armor upgrade.
A GB has 300 bots and bats 100000+ hull with some armor upgrade.

A cruiser has mortars, ever tried to to hit a gunboat with a mortar?
Try it and see what happens

Mate once again, don't just read the topic title.

What I'm saying is that gunboats are about as strong as cruisers are, which is just madness.
Cruisers should get a boost just like a gunboat already has them, plus mortars aren't that good mate you try and hit with it, sure not worth the energy.

Another point that you don't seem to get yet is that all fighters and bombers are powerless when theres a gunboat involved.
Should we all just go fly gunboats and make Freelancer a capital ship game?

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[Cris]

I agree with the gunboats being extra agile for their size, and agree with the hull stats being a bit higher, but hey a armor upgrade is well, an armor upgrade. Also bombers are not supposed to take a GB (note that the gunboat is a warship) by themselves, some can, but the idea is to make a bomber's role more bomber-ish and less uberpwner-ish

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Join DHC today! Click >>here!<<

[Warlord]

Also bombers are not supposed to take a GB (note that the gunboat is a warship) by themselves, some can, but the idea is to make a bomber's role more bomber-ish and less uberpwner-ish

So your saying that we have to become like wolfs, we move in groups and attack in groups. So when we see a gunboat we should just overwhelm it. I can wait for all the flaming to go down on that.

What about the people that don't have allies, I got a Vigilante he's practically on his own.

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[Montezuma/Kukulcan]

A gunboat CANNOT beat a cruiser until and unless the Cruiser guy is a super noob and the gunboat guy is a super pro

Wrong.

I for one managed to take out JD's BHG BC in an Imperator (and he is a damn good pilot), and i would assume that other people would be able to mannage the same given that i dont consider myself one of the best pilots on disco, or even near that. To improve the performance of Cruisers against GBs you need only to give them better firing arcs, with their longer ranged weapons and heavy weapons such as mortars, they would be able to make short work of Gunboats should they be able to focus more than 2 or 3 turrets on it at one time.

As for the matter in hand of bombers being incapable to take down Gunboats (not really much of a problem IMO), the solution i would suggest would be to create a bomber EMP cannon, doing something in the range of 100,000 sheild dammage and 2,000 hull dammage, with the same speed/range as the SNAC roughly.

And on one last point, the solution to Gunboats is -never- to send for cap support, the best option is to send for bombers, you would only need 2 or 3 working in tandom to take down the heaviest of Gunboats, unless the Gunboat pilot posesses significant skill.

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