Ship specific perks

[Altheran]

Disclaimer : I'll use Republic ship names.

 

I'd like all ships to be capable to be unique. I know that since they have different equipment capabilities, they are already "unique" in a way. But some don't stand out because they only use components that other ships already have... They can only do "a mix of things that other ships do".

 

Firstly, I am not asking for a fifth ability on the bar. But for each ship to have a component "that no-one else have".

But let's see what is unique to each ship.

 

Scouts :

 

• Novadive : EMP Field
  
• Flashfire : Blaster Overcharge
  
• Spearpoint : Tensor Field
  

 

Strike Fighters :

 

• FT-8 Starguard : Ion Cannon
  
• FT-6 Pike : used to be the only user of Ion Missile and EMP Missile until Clarion and Spearpoint announcment.
  
• FT-7 Clarion : Remote Slicing and Repair Probes
  

 

Gunships :

 

• SGS-45 Quarrel : Ion Railgun
  
• SGS-41B Cometbreaker : None
  

 

Bombers :

 

• Rempart Mark Four : all mines beside Seeker Mine and Hyperspace Beacon
  
• Warcarrier : all drones beside Repair Drone
  

 

You can see that the Cometbreaker has nothing to especially stand out, and that the Pike will soon lose his ability uniqueness. Both will only have fighting style to differenciate them from other, and will be unable to bring something only them can bring.

While it's not gamebreaking itself, I think granting (or leaving) them a component uniqueness will add flavor.

 

Now, let's go to suggestions :

 

Cometbreaker :

 

Light Railgun : 10 000m range - No sniping aiming and has to be aimed at lead indicator but can be used on the move - Same Armor penetration than Slug Railgun - Damage, cost, firing arc, and tracking penalty not set yet.

 

Basically the illegitimate son of Slug Railgun and Rocket Pods. Range and on-the-move ability meant to be a better "mate" for Proton Torpedo and long range blasters like Heavy Cannon.

 

Pike :

 

No new missile or cannon. The number of possibilities are already huge. Instead, I'd not allow Clarion and Spearpoint to use Ion Missile. I believe that Ion-type weapon should always be ship-specific. In addition, Clarion and Spearpoint seem to completely avoid combat-focused secondary weapons and only use support-type ones. While it's logical with their systems that are support-oriented, I believe that it is not wise, because I bet not everybody would use a ship for full support. Especially those that disliked Bombers for that very aspect, and hope the support Strikes and Scout to be more versatile.

So the idea is letting Spearpoint and Clarion use EMP Missiles, but instead of giving them Ion Missile, letting them use respectively Rocket Pods and Concussion Missile which are almost signature moves of the Scout and Strike categories.

 

Now, I have to admit I didn't log on PTS, so I have no idea if my latter idea would affect Spearpoint and Clarion ships in a good or a bad way.

 

 

So if you agree with that, feel free to say so (or to quote me in PTS forums if you have experienced it) and if you don't agree, please explain what bothers you in my propositions.

[Fractalsponge]

Light Railgun : 10 000m range - No sniping aiming and has to be aimed at lead indicator but can be used on the move - Same Armor penetration than Slug Railgun - Damage, cost, firing arc, and tracking penalty not set yet.

 

Basically the illegitimate son of Slug Railgun and Rocket Pods. Range and on-the-move ability meant to be a better "mate" for Proton Torpedo and long range blasters like Heavy Cannon.

 

This sounds like it would be ridiculously overpowered. Slug railgun on the move with full situational awareness?

 

The cometbreaker/dustmaker isn't bad because it doesn't have ion, it's bad because all the other component choices tries to fill a role that gunships are not really designed to fill as a class. If a gunship was really agile enough to really dogfight (and I mean not just versus newbies or surprise burst laser ambush), you'd have to severely gimp the railgun components. A cut down railgun might work for that, but if you leave the agility the way it is, any takers for the type2 gunship are basically still going to be the people that like the name.

Edited March 7, 2014 by Fractalsponge

[Altheran]

This sounds like it would be ridiculously overpowered. Slug railgun on the move with full situational awareness?

 

The cometbreaker/dustmaker isn't bad because it doesn't have ion, it's bad because all the other component choices tries to fill a role that gunships are not really designed to fill as a class. If a gunship was agile enough to really dogfight (and I mean not just versus newbies or surprise burst laser ambush), you'd have to severely gimp the railgun components. A cut down railgun might work for that, but you still wouldn't have any takers for the type2 gunship except for people that like the name.

That's just the concept I want to bring : allow on-the-move at the cost of losing some range and some other QoL that regular Railguns have (no lead indicator reliance for exemple).

Like I said damage, cost, things like that, I don't want to bring random numbers for them, because that's a brand new type of weapon and would need some (internal) testing to properly balance it.

 

My point whith this idea is that the Cometbreaker actually becomes an hybrid between the Pkie and the Quarrel. At the moment it's "a Quarrel with a Proton Torpedo instead of Ion" (or "a Pike with two long range missile and lesser maneuverability"), and many people will say "Proton and Rails just don't work together". I try to make it work by creating a Rail that is something "in between" and give Cometbreaker an identity.

 

After, if people would still like Quarrel more than Cometbreaker that would be another story. But at least they'd be able to bring something on their own, and maybe people would chose it for that reason, and not only the name.

 

 

EDIT : I just reminded of an idea that I had some time ago, that "on-the-move rail" may not be an actual rail but a "Ray/Beam" that you press a few amount of time (~2s) before it reloads. I bit like the Clone Gunships in Attack of the Clone, if I recall correctly

Edited March 7, 2014 by Altheran

[Nemarus]

You're forgetting a few unique components.

 

NovaDrive's got Shield-to-Engine transfer ... which is perhaps one of the most powerful components in the game for Deathmatch (and will be even moreso after 2.7 nerfs Barrel Roll).

 

StarGuard has the ability to switch between two primary weapons.

 

Pike has the ability to switch between two missile/torpedo weapons.

 

And every ship has unique potential combinations of components. Some of those combinations (like most of the Comet Breaker's) make no sense. But other combinations can be very powerful. See the Flashfire, which has no "wasted" or contradictory components. A ship that has access to Armor, Reactor, Capacitor, Thrusters--that in itself is a "unique ability" in a sense. Combine that with Distortion Field, BLC's, Cluster Missiles and it's crazy powerful. And then Blaster Overcharge because reasons.

[Altheran]

You're forgetting a few unique components.

 

NovaDrive's got Shield-to-Engine transfer ... which is perhaps one of the most powerful components in the game for Deathmatch (and will be even moreso after 2.7 nerfs Barrel Roll).

 

StarGuard has the ability to switch between two primary weapons.

 

Pike has the ability to switch between two missile/torpedo weapons.

 

And every ship has unique potential combinations of components. Some of those combinations (like most of the Comet Breaker's) make no sense. But other combinations can be very powerful. See the Flashfire, which has no "wasted" or contradictory components. A ship that has access to Armor, Reactor, Capacitor, Thrusters--that in itself is a "unique ability" in a sense. Combine that with Distortion Field, BLC's, Cluster Missiles and it's crazy powerful. And then Blaster Overcharge because reasons.

Well I forget that Novadive Component.

 

But for Starguard and Pike, I just don't consider it at the same level of "uniqueness", for me it's no different from Quarrel and Cometbreaker, it's just "twin weapons instead of systems". Rempart isn't much different either, but since the mines in the system slot are not aimed or locked at all and can be "mixed" with missiles in secondary, it was wiser to not put a switch-like button and catter them to the system button.

 

The level of uniqueness I am looking for is "this ship is the only one to have <insert component name>, so that each ship has the "hey why not try that" or "let's build something around that unique ability" feeling.

Then, if we prefer not using that specific component, and decide to only be slightly different because of secondary component difference or a specific combination of component that are unavailable to other ships, fine.

 

But I'd really like ships to not be able to differ only by a "silent difference".

 

At the moment Cometbreaker doesn't have any unique component, and Pike will soon lose that kind of "uniqueness"

Edited March 7, 2014 by Altheran

[Nemarus]

I think you're underestimating the power of being able to switch weapons.

 

Let's look at the Pike vs. the Clarion. Sure, the Clarion can fire Ion Missiles and EMP Missiles, which were formerly exclusive to the Pike. But if the Clarion equips one of those, that means it can't take Proton Torpedoes. And it doesn't even have access to Concussion Missiles or Cluster Missiles.

 

A Pike, on the other hand, can take a utility missile (Ion or EMP), but it can ALSO use a dogfighting missile such as Cluster or Concussion. Or it can take a Torpedo for long-range work and Cluster Missiles for short-range work. Its "signature ability" is its incredible versatility.

 

The StarGuard doesn't get quite as much flexibility from its primary weapon swap system, but it still gets quite a bit. Every other ship in GSF needs to make a single choice for primary weapon, and with that choice they have to commit to a single set of parameters which will heavily define their playstyle and capability: weapon range, damage, tracking penalty, firing rate, power draw, effectiveness vs. shields, effectiveness vs. armor. There is no one weapon which is "good" at all of these things--all of them are balances of several tradeoffs. If I equip Rapid lasers, I have no chance of attacking targets at long range. If I equip Heavy lasers, I'll have a hard time fighting up close around a satellite.

 

But the StarGuard can simply take both, giving it versatility to deal with foes at any range. Some people use Heavies/Rapids. Some use Ions/Quads. Some use Ions/Lights. Some (though I don't quite understand why) use Heavies/Quads. I do think it was a mis-step to not give StarGuards access to Burst Laser Cannons, but that's BioWare's call, not mine.

 

Anyway, that flexibility is a huge asset in itself.

 

Imagine if there was a ship that let you switch between two Shield or Engine abilities ... the latter especially would be crazy powerful. You could take Barrel Roll/Retro, or Barrel Roll/Engine-to-Shield Converter, or Snap-Turn/Interdiction...

 

My point is--switching is powerful. It lets you make what are normally build-time decisions and instead make those decisions during a match.

Edited March 7, 2014 by Nemarus

[Armonddd]

Imagine if there was a ship that let you switch between two Shield or Engine abilities ... the latter especially would be crazy powerful. You could take Barrel Roll/Retro, or Barrel Roll/Engine-to-Shield Converter, or Snap-Turn/Interdiction...

 

Holy crap, I would never play anything other than a scout with barrel roll and retro if that were released. That kind of versatility... it would be ridiculously powerful, even if the game arbitrarily decided that only one of my engine abilities could break missile locks.

Edited March 7, 2014 by Armonddd

[Altheran]

You say you think switching weapons is enough, fine. I, as a Starguard pilot, won't disagree that it's strong on his own. Such is having Systems. But strength isn't the matter.

 

While having switchable weapons, Starguard and Quarrel have exclusive components (Ion Cannon/Ion Railgun) on top of that, just like any other ship beside the Cometbreaker. Initially I only planned to bring the attention on the lack of such component of the Cometbreaker which I consider being one of the various causes that makes her uninteresting. It was almost perfect just the Cometbreaker to refine left.

 

Now with Spearpoint and Clarion, I don't say they'll break anything gameplay wise, but I regret that they destroy that (unfinished) concept, which I think that was perfect. (In addition to the concept of "one Ion weapon = one ship").

Leaving Ion Missile as a Pike exclusivity is my selfish request. (Although I'm not sure that those using Thermite and Proton are enough for an offensive use and building an hybrid between a regular ship and a support ship. Those weapons are rather niche weapons that end being as opportunity weapons that tend to need to coupled with something else... Hence the idea of giving the Rocket Pods and Concussive Missile which are the most basic secondary weapons of their respective ship category. One stone, two birds)

Edited March 7, 2014 by Altheran