- Joined
- Nov 12, 2019
- Messages
- 576
So, these are just my thoughts and a little bit of a view I'm having as an alpha tester, versus what my knowledge of the devs vision is.
I've not participated in a lot of fights in the last few months, but I recently dueled the infamous Subway and Solon from Collective. My take away from it was that there is something goofy about the toughness of materials, and the strength of weapons. As well as the number of weapons. Now, the scenario here was a light fighter with 2 laser cannons, and built to be small, versus heavy fighters in single combat. This is obviously not how organic combat will look like.
What this did show me though is that perhaps weapons like rail cannons and plasma cannons are a few things in the negative. There is no reason to not use them. They do a lot of damage, and can be used on a relatively small ship. The weapons aren't heavy or large enough either, making trying to snipe them off a ship not exactly a viable strategy. They can also be used with a spray and pray strategy. Just fill the space with munitions and hope something hits. With rail cannons, this seems counter to their intended use.
I think perhaps instead of a limit of 30 weapons, its 30 points. Lasers and autocannons getting low point values and plasma and rail cannon getting higher ones.
I also think that these two weapons should be larger. Physically, and by mass. There should be pro's and cons to every weapon in every use case, but it seems the idea is that they can all be used equally in all cases (barring the RC's need for more power).
The vision I've understood from the devs is that they want more WW2-esque combat. So wouldn't it make more sense for lasers and autocannons on fighters to be the idea? Sure those WW2 fights may have packed in a good number of machine guns and cannons, but disintegrating an opponent in one or two hits was not realistic. Much less a warship. I think an analog to a RC equipped fighter could be a bomber or a torpedo bomber, but then with 100 shots in the mag, they can stay in the fight awhile.
Another thing is that light fighters should be in some manner competitive, just like corvettes and so on should be. But they aren't. They get no advantage in any way. Nor do corvettes.
The trouble is in the current design of the game, there isn't anything disbarring the use of anything. Anything we could come up with to help either of these groups, like warships, would be usable by heavy fighters, that just get larger and tougher, but their tactics don't change. Its a glaring problem. While I do have ideas on how to deal with it, the thing is, they all just help the heavy fighters be better than they already are. Backend things that could help are speed restrictions, and adjustments to maneuverability, but I don't know enough about that to describe further what I would propose, while the exponential speed scale has been discussed quite a bit.
Maybe when something like radar cross section and radar guided weapons come about, we may see an end to heavy fighter meta, but I don't see it in the current setup and my knowledge of whats on the horizon. Which is a pity. I like large ships myself, meant for crews and cooperation. Some like sneaky little expendable fighters.
I also want to be clear, I'm in no way out to slight Solon and Subway. I learned a lot in those fights. They are also much more skilled in the fighter pilot realm than I am. Their ships are also the product of many people taking a lot of time to make really good ships. I designed mine myself on my own. So kudos to those guys for awesome ships, and those ships makers.
I've not participated in a lot of fights in the last few months, but I recently dueled the infamous Subway and Solon from Collective. My take away from it was that there is something goofy about the toughness of materials, and the strength of weapons. As well as the number of weapons. Now, the scenario here was a light fighter with 2 laser cannons, and built to be small, versus heavy fighters in single combat. This is obviously not how organic combat will look like.
What this did show me though is that perhaps weapons like rail cannons and plasma cannons are a few things in the negative. There is no reason to not use them. They do a lot of damage, and can be used on a relatively small ship. The weapons aren't heavy or large enough either, making trying to snipe them off a ship not exactly a viable strategy. They can also be used with a spray and pray strategy. Just fill the space with munitions and hope something hits. With rail cannons, this seems counter to their intended use.
I think perhaps instead of a limit of 30 weapons, its 30 points. Lasers and autocannons getting low point values and plasma and rail cannon getting higher ones.
I also think that these two weapons should be larger. Physically, and by mass. There should be pro's and cons to every weapon in every use case, but it seems the idea is that they can all be used equally in all cases (barring the RC's need for more power).
The vision I've understood from the devs is that they want more WW2-esque combat. So wouldn't it make more sense for lasers and autocannons on fighters to be the idea? Sure those WW2 fights may have packed in a good number of machine guns and cannons, but disintegrating an opponent in one or two hits was not realistic. Much less a warship. I think an analog to a RC equipped fighter could be a bomber or a torpedo bomber, but then with 100 shots in the mag, they can stay in the fight awhile.
Another thing is that light fighters should be in some manner competitive, just like corvettes and so on should be. But they aren't. They get no advantage in any way. Nor do corvettes.
The trouble is in the current design of the game, there isn't anything disbarring the use of anything. Anything we could come up with to help either of these groups, like warships, would be usable by heavy fighters, that just get larger and tougher, but their tactics don't change. Its a glaring problem. While I do have ideas on how to deal with it, the thing is, they all just help the heavy fighters be better than they already are. Backend things that could help are speed restrictions, and adjustments to maneuverability, but I don't know enough about that to describe further what I would propose, while the exponential speed scale has been discussed quite a bit.
Maybe when something like radar cross section and radar guided weapons come about, we may see an end to heavy fighter meta, but I don't see it in the current setup and my knowledge of whats on the horizon. Which is a pity. I like large ships myself, meant for crews and cooperation. Some like sneaky little expendable fighters.
I also want to be clear, I'm in no way out to slight Solon and Subway. I learned a lot in those fights. They are also much more skilled in the fighter pilot realm than I am. Their ships are also the product of many people taking a lot of time to make really good ships. I designed mine myself on my own. So kudos to those guys for awesome ships, and those ships makers.
