Add accuracy capacitor, some other secondaries?

[Verain]

Currently, capacitor is range/damage/frequency. These are good options, but I think an accuracy capacitor would be excellent. Given the power of accuracy, it couldn't be 10% or anything, but it could be something. A shield piercing capacitor would also be nice.

 

Reactor components, large is probably a bit too strong, or the others a bit too weak. But how about a reactor that mitigated some shield piercing instead? Maybe that should be "hard shields" as an actual shield component.

 

If an armor component offered repairs (a slow hot), how weak would it have to be before it wouldn't be a right call? How much weaker before everyone wouldn't take it? I still think it would be a neat armor component, even if it ended up over nerfed yet vastly overpicked like hydro spanner.

 

Magazines are overall the worst. Could one of them reduce reload times? That seems an appropriate option, it would certainly be as mediocre as the other options. I think that the max capacity one here could use a serious increase, and likely the extra ammo one could be a bit better.

 

Thrusters are one of the only components with both three valid choices and different playstyle ramifications. The only things I could come up with here are ones that could be degenerate, such as making boost a bit cheaper. Since boost is the only thing that uses this up, it would be either better or worse than regen thruster. I think the max base one could be improved safely, but overall this is a solid component slot that really offers cool things.

 

 

Sensors do everything that they should do already. I think if we see a reduction on the 15km min range, plus a nerf of dampening, that would be nice (the second part is probably going to happen, but without the first part it makes no sense- dampening has no real use on live). A sensor type that extended the range of NPC weapons by a bit (cap ship turrets, nearby drones) could be the only thing I could think of, but even with a very minor increase it would be chosen over the purely sight based ones, and as such I think sensors is just about perfect.

[Armonddd]

An accuracy capacitor would likely become an autopick unless it was something like +5%. Pinpointing is already essentially a requirement, though admittedly no offensive crew member provides any bonus resembling a capacitor bonus (they're closer to magazine bonuses, really). In a game about burst damage, making sure your burst doesn't whiff is extremely powerful.

 

I think there's already plenty of shield piercing out there as is. If there were a shield piercing capacitor, I would absolutely gear up a skybolt with BLC + pierce + shield damage, double volley clusters, and shield piercing capacitor, and it would be my best ship for matches against skilled players. Currently shield piercing is the only way to whittle down an opponent who's significantly better than you and one of the better tricks to have against exceptional pilots. It's also the best way to handle someone who can remove themselves from a fight with almost no hull and come back with full shields. I don't think shield piercing needs a buff.

 

Now, let's talk about a firing arc capacitor. Something like +1 degree base, +2/3 degree per upgrade. It'd come out a bit better than the crew skill passive, which essentially means you're trading your capacitor for a crew skill passive... which imo is a losing trade. At what point would that be balanced? I would really like that for my quads, honestly.

 

I could also see hull damage and shield damage capacitors, though I think they'd be kind of tricky to balance because I forsee shield damage capacitor being the best at what the damage capacitors do.

 

An armor penetration capacitor is another theoretical idea, but I think that would pan out badly because armor penetration is already so common and probably needs nerfed.

 

As a scout or gunship, large reactor is autopick. That said... turbo and regen reactors are definitely powerful and interesting choices in combination with other things. With directional shields, both turbo and large are interesting choices. With quick-charge shields, turbo vs regen is an interesting choice with marginal advantages to each depending on what you're trying to do (I'll let you do the math to figure out which is better when).

 

The problem is, scouts and gunships don't really take either of those components -- they take distortion field or S-E converter, because scouts can't really afford the loss of bulk that comes with quick-charge (exception: zuchisen is a brave mof), and only bad gunships get directional shields. I think a better way to balance reactors (instead of simply buffing the numbers on turbo/regen or nerfing the numbers on large) is to introduce additional interesting combinations like that.

 

I would be totally down for a "hard shields" reactor, though, because as I said I think shield piercing is still too strong. It would have interesting implications for type 1 strikes with charged plating, too (anyone else who can take charged plating shouldn't, because they should be taking a team support option). I don't think hard shields would work as a shield component, though -- you lose that interaction with charged plating, and you directly introduce competition with distortion field (which does the same thing but better, if RNG favors you, and also has a missile break). Not that the competition isn't a good thing, but I think hard shields would mostly lose. I think it'd be a more interesting choice when weighed against reactor components than shield components.

 

An armor component with a hot would be... tricky. Minor components don't currently have active abilities, and while there's evidence that they might in the future (see: keybinds for abilities 5-8), I don't think we should discuss this specific example in a vaccuum. I think it's obvious that some sort of passive hot would be bad -- active abilities require more skill and are better for the game. I could maybe see something like... "when your shield power regeneration delay ends, your hull heals for X over Y seconds (overhealing is discarded). Cannot heal for more than Z in 60 seconds." That's a lot more complicated than any other minor component currently, though.

 

Not sure I agree that magazines are the worst because sensors exist, but they're definitely the most in need of a buff. I would be absolutely down for a reload time reduction -- my pike feels like it's carrying around regen magazine because it's the best of a bunch of bad options. Theoretically you could also invent a magazine that reduces lock-on time, but I think there's only one missile out there that really needs it, so if it were needed I think that missile should be buffed instead.

 

As for pool size -- these are always a trap, on every minor component. There's really just not a good way to make pool size compete with regen without making it so you can't regen between engagements or something silly like that.

 

I agree that thrusters are in a pretty good place right now, though I'll admit that I personally never use speed thrusters. I can see their usefulness on something like a scout with boost recharger or S-E converter, though.

 

Sensors I really never have a use for -- you can generally figure out where most opponents are by looking at where they aren't, and the default numbers are enough to cover the important areas of the battlefield your team occupies -- but I agree that they'd be hard to buff. Maybe if default sensor numbers were halved and sensor component numbers were bumped up by 50%? I dunno, that's kind of crazy and runs the risk of not working. I just don't have a good fix for them.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Armonddd