If you could give each variant access to an existing component...

[Nemarus]

Purely fanciful bored-at-work post, though I'm going to try and make suggestions which are, at least sensible and feasible at first blush. Try to keep the component suggestions within the current slot types supported by the variant. No "Ion Railguns on Flashfires!" nonsense.

 

If you could give every existing variant access to an existing component that it does not have, what would your choices be?

 

Semi-serious suggestions

 

Bloodmark/Spearpoint - Interdiction Missile

The Bloodmark/Spearpoint is so close to being a good ship, but its secondary missile options are just very frustrating. Thermite or EMP can be used for niche purposes, and Ion Missile is broken dumb. But Interdiction Missile would be a great match for this build, which already has a "speed manipulation" theme going with Tensor Field and Interdiction Drive. Some might say that Interdiction Missile on a Scout would be too powerful, but I think it would be successfully limited by its medium lock-on time and medium cooldown. Having Interdiction Missile would give people a reason to play this variant beyond the start of a Domination match.

 

Quell/Pike - Shield to Engine Converter

A Shield to Engine Converter combined with a Turbo Reactor might be a bit too powerful. Apart from the Blackbolt/NovaDive, the Quell/Pike is the only other ship lacking a reactor. I think this makes it an interesting candidate for the Shield to Engine Converter, and fits with its theme of versatility and power-transfer-flexibility. Plus, having a Strike with extended boost would really change up their dynamic I think, especially one with multiple possible missile loadouts.

 

While I think S2E on a Quell/Pike is most interesting, there are a number of improvements that could be made to it. As the "missile ship" it should definitely have access to the Interdiction Missile. It could also greatly benefit from Power Dive and Retro Thrusters.

 

Imperium/Clarion - Heavy Laser Cannons

I've never quite understood why the Imperium/Clarion doesn't get access to HLC's. I know that it needs to pay a price for Repair Probes--to turn it into more of a support fighter than its Strike cousins. But it already lacks Thrusters, weapon switching, and any dogfighting Secondary Weapons. It seems silly that all Bombers get Heavy Laser Cannons but this Strike fighter doesn't. HLC's would give it more long range power, plus the ability to deal with turrets and Charged Plating builds.

 

Dustmaker/Comet-breaker - Repair Drone

I think we can all agree that this ship needs something to make it stand out from its siblings. Giving it a Repair Drone would at least let it add some passive utility when defending a formation in TDM or satellite in Domination.

 

Legion/Warcarrier - Rotational Thrusters

Right now this variant has only two engine options, Interdiction Drive and Engine to Shield Converter. I think it really needs a third option, though obviously we don't want to give it a missile break. Rotational Thrusters would give it a little bit of added mobility (in addition to the active, final upgrade can include +10% Turning), and would allow it a bit of surprise tactical nimbleness. Hopefully it would raise the skill ceiling for Bomber play.

 

 

Somewhat fanciful but not immediately crazy

 

Rycer/Starguard - Power Dive

Power Dive would really help this ship by giving it extra mobility and frequent missile breaks, at the cost of Power Dive's higher learning curve.

 

And as has been brought up before, it makes no sense for the "primary weapon ship" to not have access to Burst Laser Cannons. Being able to use both BLC's and HLC's on the same ship would shoot it up in the power levels.

 

Razorwire/Rampart - Burst Laser Cannons

At first I thought this was too powerful ... but a Razorwire/Rampart actually lining up a target in front of it is pretty rare. While I'm a bit wary of adding BLC's to anything new in the game, adding them to the slowest turning ship in the game seems relatively safe, and would raise the skill ceiling a bit for Bomber play. Unfortunately, it removes the last reason anyone would ever take LLC's (if anyone even does).

 

Decimus/Sledgehammer - Feedback Shield

The Decimus/Sledgehammer is pretty good already--it is hard to add anything to it without making it outright superior to Strikes. I do think Feedback Shield would give it a little more protection from Scouts, and it could combo well with its mine or drone and Clusters.

 

 

For the lulz

 

Blackbolt/NovaDive - Charged Plating

Silly? Yes. Unbalanced? I honestly don't know if it would be. It'd be great for clearing mines and taking out Bombers. And if you're taking Charged Plating, you aren't taking Distortion Field or Shield to Engine Converter. Then again, if any Scout is going to get Charged Plating, maybe it should be the Bloodmark/Spearpoint...

 

Sting/Flashfire - Fortress Shield

For the true aces to prove themselves.

 

Mangler/Quarrel - Shield Projector

Don't think too long about this one. I didn't.

 

Jurgoran/Condor - Ion Missile

The Jurgoran/Condor is nearly perfect, so it's hard to think of something interesting. So here's Ion Missile.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Nemarus

[Fractalsponge]

Bloodmark/Spearpoint - Interdiction Missile

 

Way OP. I'd rather give it clusters.

 

Pike/Quell - Shield to Engine Converter

 

Great idea.

 

Imperium/Clarion - Heavy Laser Cannons

 

Do want, but the problem is it really makes the T1 not very appealing.

 

Dustmaker/Comet-breaker - Repair Drone

 

This would be hilarious. I might even start running it for this.

 

Legion/Warcarrier - Rotational Thrusters

 

I think this would encourage tick bombers even more, since they wouldn't even have to turn slowly in place to face a surprise attacker.

 

Rycer/Starguard - Power Dive

 

This should be semi-serious I think.

 

Razorwire/Rampart - Burst Laser Cannons

 

See bit about tick bombers. Can't do this.

 

Decimus/Sledgehammer - Feedback Shield

 

Great idea. I'd run this over directionals all the time .

Edited January 9, 2015 by Fractalsponge

[nyghtrunner]

It's probably getting into loony power territory, but...

 

I'd love to see the Rycer/Star Guard get access to BLCs. It might be too powerful, but I always found it odd that the ship that is kind of supposed to specialize in lasers doesn't have access to the "best". And I also think it would be good to have a very solid option to pair with Ions that doesn't have such a counter-intuitive range or aim differential. Something like that would make it a pretty damned solid short range melee fighter, especially with access to thrusters.

 

I'd honestly probably prefer Ion range to be brought more in line with Heavies in terms of range, but since we're talking about adding components...

 

Another one I'd like to tinker around with would be Protorp on the Bloodmark/Spearpoint rather than Thermite, but I think part of that is that Thermite's tracking and locking just doesn't seem to be quite as "clean" as Protorp's.

[tunewalker]

Don't try to balance a Quell or a Comet Breaker in a 2 missile break world. Its not possible for them to be balanced with out being reworked from the ground up or breaking half the other classes.

[Caernos]

Has anyone ever suggested adding BLCs to the Quell? Would that make it actually viable or would it just be OP?

[tunewalker]

Has anyone ever suggested adding BLCs to the Quell? Would that make it actually viable or would it just be OP?

 

It would be neither Viable or OP... it would still be in the same boat its in.

[DamascusAdontise]

Rycer / Starguard: Give it BLC (I have thought about this a long time, adds a lot of value and little chance that it will be meta shifting - while still allowing a strike to be competitive)

 

Sting / Flashfire: Snap Turn (I love this power so much the only thing that could make it better is if I could use it on my Sting)

 

On The Funnier Side:

 

Spearpoint / Clarion: EMP Field (double up on EMP missile and field anyone?)

 

On Those Already Suggested:

 

Would be interested to see how CP turns out on a spearpoint (seems to mesh well with the minebuster playstyle)

 

Wholly against bursts on bombers tho.

Edited January 10, 2015 by DamascusAdontise

[RickDagles]

How about Thermite on a T2 Strike? Ion + thermite could be a fun combo.

 

HLC on the T3 scout

Edited January 10, 2015 by RickDagles

[BrianDavion]

I'll agree with those suggesting BLCs for the Star Guard.

[Delta_V]

Eh, Retros and Interdiction Missile would go a long way towards making the Quell viable. The Comet Breaker, though... yeah, I got nothing.

 

Anyway, here are my thoughts:

 

Bloodmark/Spearpoint

Agree with the OP, Interdiction Missile would be fitting here. If that is OP, then use Clusters instead.

 

Quell/Pike

STE would be interesting, but I think I'd rather see Retros and Interdiction Missile. Retros just for the obvious lock-on benefit, and Interdiction Missile because it's supposed to be the missile ship, and it's just bizarre that a gunship gets exclusive access to this missile.

 

Imperium/Clarion

Agreed, Heavy Lasers seem like the best option here. And if the T1 Strike gets a better close range option, that combined with the ability to use dogfighting missiles would keep it from being overshadowed by the T3.

 

Dustmaker/Comet-breaker

Sure, why the hell not? It won't make it viable, but I can't think of anything else to do with this stupid thing.

 

Legion/Warcarrier

That might be interesting, but the issue with satellite ticks is a valid concern.

 

Rycer/Starguard

Power Dive would be invaluable from a mobility perspective. But BLCs would also be nice. If those are too much, I would settle for LLCs and buffed RFLs. BLCs paired with HLCs would let you switch from fighting at 1km to 6km at the push of a button. And that would actually give the T1 Strike a unique capability; it may not be as lethal as a BLC Scout up close, but it can fight effectively at a greater variety of ranges.

 

 

Razorwire/Rampart

Um, yeah. Don't think these guys need to be made even more annoying on a satellite. And if they specced into armor-ignoring BLCs, it would only make them even better at clearing other bombers off of nodes, which would perpetuate the silliness of countering bombers with more bombers of your own.

 

Decimus/Sledgehammer

This would be an interesting option. Can't think of anything else to add without stepping on Strike Fighters' toes.

 

 

No comment on the "lulz" section.

[tunewalker]

How about Thermite on a T2 Strike? Ion + thermite could be a fun combo.

 

HLC on the T3 scout

 

Naw, that would still be useless on T2 strike. I mean, useful... as useful as a T2 strike can be... IE not....

Edited January 10, 2015 by tunewalker

[Verain]

I actually would like to see thermite and interdiction on the Pike. But it would definitely not fix the ship.

 

Some of the added components buff the target ships, and many do not. Shield converter on a type 1 gunship would add neither gameplay nor power to the ship, even as a "lulz" option. Quick Charge Shield would, by contrast, add some gameplay.

 

Personally, I think Shield to engine should remain a 1-ship thing. Certainly there's no issue with turbo reactor, as the ability to jam the button for a minute straight is essentially the same thing as jamming it for the whole match anyway- but the bigger problem is that the Pike was never meant to be the mobility strike. Wanna buff strike mobility? The whole class could use that.

 

Likewise, it's a very obvious choice to leave heavy lasers off of the Clarion. It is not intended to have access to that weapon, with its biggest hitter the Strike-iconic Quad Laser. The fact that it doesn't have the heavy laser adds uniqueness and flavor versus the other strikes.

 

 

 

The big strokes of genius Nemarus has in the OP:

 

Rotational thrusters for girl bombers.

Feedback Shield for Sledgehammer

 

These would really allow for some extra character in the bombers. Feedback shield would have balance ramifications, but IMO they would be pretty interesting ones.

 

 

 

The strike components- power wise, I'd add retro thrusters to the Pike, Burst Laser or Light Laser to the Starguard, and Quick Charge Shield to the Clarion. But I think the first step for strikes is a baseline buff.

[Fractalsponge]

Rotational thrusters for dronelayers would definitely add flavor, but I don't think it's a flavor people would like. Right now one of the toughest targets to deal with for most pilots is a bomber tucked into one of the crevices of the satellite, covered by mines and drones.

 

For non-minelayers, the only real way to decisively deal with that kind of setup with it is to go in and try to burst it down as fast as possible. Against a halfway awake bomber, the only real way to do that is to surprise the bomber and force it either to move from its spot, or laboriously turn to face the attack from an unexpected direction. To give a dronelayer the ability to instantly do this with 2 quick clicks, and then on top of that to give it massive weapon pool to spam HLC against its attacker, is dumb.

[Ramalina]

Thermites and interdiction for a T2 strike would open up some offensive possibilities.

 

Interdiction would potentially allow you to put a lot more pressure on mobile opponents, by forcing them to think a bit more about when they want to spend their missile breaks, and also by making getting hit by a torpedo much more likely in the event that the wrong choice is made.

 

Thermites would substantially increase the T2's anti-bomber power, the only thing that the T2 is arguably well suited for. The problem is that Proton Torpedo damage, and Concussion piercing damage, are low enough that even if things go perfectly for the strike pilot, a bomber is not a quick kill though it may be a very low risk kill. With thermite's debuff a T2 strike would actually have a much better prospect of getting a quick kill by following up with HLCs and another missile.

 

I'd be more interested in the extra missiles for the T2 than BLC's for the T1. Ion cannons fill a more limited but similar niche to BLCs, and in some ways are actually better in a high evasion meta (talking about ROF to brute force through evasion in a given burst of fire).

 

Retro would also potentially open up the mid-close range game a lot more for the T2 strike.

 

They could definitely use a class wide buff for strikes on top of all of that though.

 

RE: Shield to Energy for the T2 strike, the extra mobility and higher base shields would be nice, but drawing down your shields when you need both them and the extra mobility doesn't appeal. It works nicely on scouts because they have the legs to get in, fight, get out, and then use StE to shake a persistent tail or get back to the fight quickly. In a strike you're much more likely to need extra shield or mobility earlier in the process, so the up-front and on-demand payoffs from QCS would probably still be somewhat superior to StE. Might depend on what the server's local meta is and how hard you get focused as a pilot.

Edited January 10, 2015 by Ramalina

[tunewalker]

Thermites and interdiction for a T2 strike would open up some offensive possibilities.

 

Interdiction would potentially allow you to put a lot more pressure on mobile opponents, by forcing them to think a bit more about when they want to spend their missile breaks, and also by making getting hit by a torpedo much more likely in the event that the wrong choice is made.

 

Thermites would substantially increase the T2's anti-bomber power, the only thing that the T2 is arguably well suited for. The problem is that Proton Torpedo damage, and Concussion piercing damage, are low enough that even if things go perfectly for the strike pilot, a bomber is not a quick kill though it may be a very low risk kill. With thermite's debuff a T2 strike would actually have a much better prospect of getting a quick kill by following up with HLCs and another missile.

 

I'd be more interested in the extra missiles for the T2 than BLC's for the T1. Ion cannons fill a more limited but similar niche to BLCs, and in some ways are actually better in a high evasion meta (talking about ROF to brute force through evasion in a given burst of fire).

 

Retro would also potentially open up the mid-close range game a lot more for the T2 strike.

 

They could definitely use a class wide buff for strikes on top of all of that though.

 

RE: Shield to Energy for the T2 strike, the extra mobility and higher base shields would be nice, but drawing down your shields when you need both them and the extra mobility doesn't appeal. It works nicely on scouts because they have the legs to get in, fight, get out, and then use StE to shake a persistent tail or get back to the fight quickly. In a strike you're much more likely to need extra shield or mobility earlier in the process, so the up-front and on-demand payoffs from QCS would probably still be somewhat superior to StE. Might depend on what the server's local meta is and how hard you get focused as a pilot.

 

If you could reliably land either of the missiles on SKILLED pilots yes. But a good pilot simply SHOULDNT get hit by these in a 2 missile break world.

[phalczen]

If you could reliably land either of the missiles on SKILLED pilots yes. But a good pilot simply SHOULDNT get hit by these in a 2 missile break world.

 

What if the crew passive Rapid Reload was improved to reduce lock on timers, in addition to its other effects? Would that help compensate for the difficulties in a "2 missile break world"?

 

Potential caveats:

1) Probably an 8% reduction isn't enough on its own (2.6 sec for concussion down to 2.4 isn't much), so maybe buff it to a 20% reduction?

2) While such a proposal would reduce the lock-on of cluster missiles in addition to the other missiles in the game, that lock on is already so brief (1.3 seconds with the tier 1 upgrade, 3 second reload without the passive) I don't think it would have a huge impact. If the capability of firing a cluster every 3.4 seconds is that much more dangerous than 4.3 seconds, the damage of the missile could be reduced slightly to compensate.

3) A buff to the reload time would benefit minelayers and dronecarriers to some degree, and perhaps this is a reason not to invoke this change. Is 12 second cooldown between mines that much more dangerous than a 15 second cooldown?

4) Rocket Pods are already instant fire, and as I said above in #2, clusters probably wouldn't benefit as much as other missiles, so I think people would still use an offense crew member with the Pinpointing/Spare Ammo passives over a buffed Rapid Reload in ships using those secondaries. And for many pilots who primarily dogfight with primary blaster weapons, they'll probably still opt for Improved Kill Zone/Pinpointing over a buffed Rapid Reload. So the users of this buffed Rapid Reload would probably be limited to type 2 strike users, and possibly type 3 strike/gunship/bomber users (where in the case of the T3 GS, interdiction missile's lock on might be reduced to 1.3 seconds instead of 1.7). It might even help the otherwise underpowered EMP missile (a modest improvement in the lock-on but a much more noteworthy improvement in the reload.) Using a crew member that has Rapid Reload would not cause any pilot to lose Wingman or Running Interference as actives, and for some pilots might offer compelling alternatives to WM/RI like Concentrated Fire or Bypass, which we already see occasionally in the game as it is now.

Edited January 11, 2015 by phalczen

[Verain]

To give a dronelayer the ability to instantly do this with 2 quick clicks, and then on top of that to give it massive weapon pool to spam HLC against its attacker, is dumb.

 

Rotational thrusters are not overpowered, and this use of them is very underpowered. If a bomber is actually in a hole, then it's already facing outward- one reason so many bombers try crap like that is that they don't have to rely on their poor turning radius with this method.

 

This is one of the reasons we likely won't have a lot of solid changes, however- everyone is so concerned about adding power in edge cases. Of course a component would add power in edge cases. The actual use of rotational thrusters would be to force a fly by, thus possibly negating a burst cycle. This is a great idea precisely because it adds depth to options without being a big problem.

 

 

We won't see it either way, of course.

 

 

But a good pilot simply SHOULDNT get hit by these in a 2 missile break world.

 

It's fair to point out that a lot of that post was talking about anti-bomber possibilities, and no one is proposing putting the missile break on the type 1 or type 2 bomber.

 

 

What if the crew passive Rapid Reload was improved to reduce lock on timers, in addition to its other effects? Would that help compensate for the difficulties in a "2 missile break world"?

 

I have a lot of balance suggestions:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=752949

 

Here's my thread for engineering passives:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=736226

 

And here's my thread for offensive passives:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7338365

 

The overall point is that these should all be changed around a little bit, but decreasing lock time is a solid idea. My concern is always with clusters, which are marginally overpowered on live for their intended role, and would, with reliably faster locks, become even more problematic. If that was taken into account, then yea, that would help.

 

 

...but....

 

Maybe the issue is that these components are weaker than they should be?

 

Ion Missile (moderately weaker than it should be)

Concussion Missile (very slightly weaker than it should be)

EMP Missile (vastly weaker than it should be)

Proton Torpedo (moderately weaker than it should be)

Thermite Torpedo (moderately weaker than it should be)

[Ramalina]

A large part of my thinking was that with Interdiction the T2 would actually have 2 missiles that are reasonably easy to lock and launch that have consequences great enough that you have serious motivation to burn a missile break.

 

Clusters are easy to lock, but depending on the target anywhere from 1-5 of them can be shrugged off almost without consequence.

 

Concussions are reasonable to lock, have serious consequences, and are worth burning a missile break to avoid.

 

Torpedoes are unreasonable to lock, so though they have serious consequences if they hit, you almost never need a break to deal with them.

 

The special effects missiles, well, yeah. Let's not go there.

 

Interdiction is easy to lock, and the debuff is extremely dangerous. A T2 strike needs a target to hang around for a while so it can be pounded, and that's what an interdiction missile delivers. Even if the target manages to get a break off, you're now in a position where it's the T2 forcing the first break instead of having to wait for another ship to do it for you.

 

Cluster spam becomes more practical, paired with slowing concussion missiles you can hold a target around to pound with HLCs, and in a few rare circumstances you might even be able to force a strike, gunship, or scout to take a torpedo hit rather than relying on them making at least 3 really boneheaded mistakes in a row.

 

It would open up a much wider range of feasible secondary weapons combos for the T2, and fill some gaps in the playstyles available as a consequence.

 

As badly reload time limited as the interdiction missile is, it'd still likely reduce the time between successful missile volley launches for T2s by a significant margin.

 

Of course the greatest pain on the receiving end would be for strikes. I'm pretty sure all the good strike pilots sleep on beds made of white-hot needle-sharp spikes though, so I doubt they'd really notice a difference.

 

Would it fix strikes? No. Would it bring T2s to the level of T1s and T3s? No. But it'd be better than what we have now, and at the moment my belief in prospective systemic balance fixes in GSF seems to have wandered off to wherever my belief in the tooth fairy has gone. Not that I believe the changes proposed in this thread would happen either mind you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thermites, yeah, that was all about burning down bombers. Landing 3 proton torps on a target that knows how to LOS is just painfully slow. Attack of the killer snails slow (with apologies to all the predatory snails that have faster TTKs than T2 strikes).

Edited January 11, 2015 by Ramalina

[tunewalker]

Rotational thrusters are not overpowered, and this use of them is very underpowered. If a bomber is actually in a hole, then it's already facing outward- one reason so many bombers try crap like that is that they don't have to rely on their poor turning radius with this method.

 

This is one of the reasons we likely won't have a lot of solid changes, however- everyone is so concerned about adding power in edge cases. Of course a component would add power in edge cases. The actual use of rotational thrusters would be to force a fly by, thus possibly negating a burst cycle. This is a great idea precisely because it adds depth to options without being a big problem.

 

 

We won't see it either way, of course.

 

 

 

 

It's fair to point out that a lot of that post was talking about anti-bomber possibilities, and no one is proposing putting the missile break on the type 1 or type 2 bomber.

 

 

 

 

I have a lot of balance suggestions:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=752949

 

Here's my thread for engineering passives:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=736226

 

And here's my thread for offensive passives:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7338365

 

The overall point is that these should all be changed around a little bit, but decreasing lock time is a solid idea. My concern is always with clusters, which are marginally overpowered on live for their intended role, and would, with reliably faster locks, become even more problematic. If that was taken into account, then yea, that would help.

 

 

...but....

 

Maybe the issue is that these components are weaker than they should be?

 

Ion Missile (moderately weaker than it should be)

Concussion Missile (very slightly weaker than it should be)

EMP Missile (vastly weaker than it should be)

Proton Torpedo (moderately weaker than it should be)

Thermite Torpedo (moderately weaker than it should be)

 

 

It is a fair point that it was about bomber strength, but personally I dont find Strikes unable to contend with bombers, and honestly I find an easier way to just slightly reduce Lock times of some of those more difficult missile (conc to 2.5, Proton to 3... related missiles as well) and or Make EMP Missile.... useful.

 

 

So, I am finally just going to come out and say it. The issue with "reducing reload times and lock on times" on missiles is it doesnt REALLY solve the problem, at least not universally. To lower it enough for the T1 Strike and the T3 Strike to feel it at all it would make the type 2 Strike absolutely worthless as once the reloads and lock times are that short enough you completely defeat the purpose of HAVING a secondary missile that doesnt need to be reloaded. Also it MASSIVELY increases the vulnerability of Bombers to Missiles, as missile DPS sky rockets AND it makes any ship that only has 1 missile break, SUPER vulnerable... looking again at T2 Strike and T2 GS on this one, Barrel role only missile break any one.

 

At the same time we cant just remove the Missile break on DF and call it a day. Because TEARS CRY Battle Scouts Cluster missiles.... which lets face it Battle Scouts are good enough as is, we dont need them better. So best answer from me... increase lock time to 2 seconds... Increase reload time to 4 seconds (this is base obviously) DPS reduced 33%.... if you want for good measure... do the other lock time reductions suggested... Yaa T1 and T3 Strikes are threatening. The lack of a Second missile break isnt a detriment (strikes and T2 GS I am looking at you) and Clusters missiles arent as bad any more. Scouts (as well as any other ship for that matter) now have to break off when strikes target them and Strikes now have a role as Peelers... Congrats....

 

If you are wondering what to replace the "break missile" thing on DF... I dont know... reduce CD 5 seconds... there now its equal to the other side, which was taken back in the 10 Second Barrel roll days by some pilots. So clearly isnt all that bad.

 

 

Edit

 

(with apologies to all the predatory snails that have faster TTKs than T2 strikes).

 

Quoted for the truth.

 

 

Edit 2: TL/DR To answer the question "would reducing Lock on times and reload times fix the balancing issue for strikes in a 2 missile break world?" No... it would create all new problems... it is impossible to balance all ships in a 2 missile break world with out remaking many of the ships from the ground up.

Edited January 11, 2015 by tunewalker

[RickDagles]

How about adding a new Co-pilot active ability - Armor Piercing. All primary and secondary weapons ignore enemy armor for 15 seconds. Or would this make charged plating builds obsolete?

[Nemarus]

How about adding a new Co-pilot active ability - Armor Piercing. All primary and secondary weapons ignore enemy armor for 15 seconds. Or would this make charged plating builds obsolete?

 

Charged Plating is already pretty obsolete against everything but mines, given that BLC, HLC, Slugs, and Rockets all pierce armor. To say nothing of Concussion Missiles, Thermites, and Proton Torpedoes.

 

This would further cement the superiority of Evasion.

 

Ironically, such a co-pilot ability would allow a few more viable anti-Minelayer builds, all of which themselves would use Charged Plating. You could have a Charged Plating Imperium or Quell with LLC's or Quads which could melt Charged Plating Bombers. And if the co-pilot ability affected secondary weapons as well, even a Quell's Cluster Missiles could be used to quickly taken down Bombers.

 

Such builds would be great at clearing Minelayers off satelites, but would themselves be vulnerable to anyone else running the AP co-pilot ability. Then again, anyone running the AP co-pilot ability is not running Wingman or Running Interference, which means they are at a disadvantage in Evasion competitions.