B-5 Fighter Lifespan

posted on March 10th, 2011, 1:23 pm

How about just a small damage reduction for the b5 fighters?, curently b5 is the most usefull ship in the game, it has no pasive so no weakness, only single stage conduits or fast track comp, depends on the avatar. It has 37(40) defense so most ships tank for it, 120 speed for a carrier? this is not a destroyer  It can be micromanaged easily. Damage output is low, but real damage comes from fighters. Even cos they are capped you are still looking at about 20 fighters. Even if you destroy some of b5, firepower switches to another carrier, so thats not the solution. Fighters cant be targeted, so you have to kite to destroy them, and they replenish for free. They are the ones who actually can and do make a diference in a team game. They are usefull in any situation. B5, a ship that can easily take out a big D in 1vs1!, and it has a dilithium cost of moonson! So what they are suply heavy, dominion is made that way, you can actually cap them before your first supply buy, Unlike the avalon you can rush for them in 1vs1. Dominus and boggz tested that. It was intrepid/moonson spam vs b5 start. Only ablative armor ships like vorcha can really whistand to fighters cos they are short ranged. They are similar to distruptor rhiens, just too good in team games. They actually impact game balance a lot, especially in team games. I played a lot of games with them and against them, and they make a difference. Something has to be changed, not sure what, but curently they are just too good.

posted on March 11th, 2011, 8:26 am

I wouldn't say that they are as good as Dis Rhienns. They are large sized and medium/short ranged. So there are respectively two passives that counter them:SSEC/ADai;, Phase Plates/FTC. Furthermore, as you pointed out, they don't do damage that much.
However, once you got 5against you they are really nasty. Due to their fighters they actually have arty range and they are indeed very fast. That's the only thing I'd change about them. All Dom ships but Breen Battleship and S7 are fast, make the B-5 rather slow, let's say 110-100 speed. Fast carriers don't feel right, I agree with timmy here .
Another idea would be to radically increase the time until new fighters arrive. But that's problematic since you can't aim on fighters directly. People would probably complain: "I can't control the fighters, they get shot and then B-5 is dead." or: "ooh, it needs ages until new fighters arrive, wow. I can't aim on these so it changes nothing."

posted on March 11th, 2011, 9:41 am

about the fast carriers thing, from real life stuff, you would expect a carrier to be slow cos its carrying stuff that has to fly out of it, but i think fo fighters are beamed, and transporters work at sublight speeds with ease.

but still, i wouldnt mind seeing the b5 speed drop by 10 for balance reasons.

posted on March 11th, 2011, 7:10 pm

FO fighters are not beamed anymore, they actually fly out (or as close to that as the game engine can get.)

posted on March 11th, 2011, 7:13 pm

FO fighters are not beamed anymore, they actually fly out (or as close to that as the game engine can get.)

not according to the tooltips, they say the fighters are beamed. the icon on the single unit overview is called Hangar, and its tooltip says that the fighters are all beamed in and out. they are just beamed near the ship.

posted on March 11th, 2011, 7:16 pm

Hmm, beamed within the shields then? An odd way to do it.

Also, are the tooltips up to date?

[Anonymous]

posted on March 11th, 2011, 7:17 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on March 11th, 2011, 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hmm, beamed within the shields then? An odd way to do it.

Also, are the tooltips up to date?

maybe they are beamed out of the shields, like the troopships do

well i have never heard anything about fighters not being transported. im going by the guide tooltips here, maybe in game is different lol. ill check

EDIT: i checked, in game tooltips are same as guide. they beam.

posted on March 11th, 2011, 8:14 pm

the tooltips are actually obsolete, fixed with the next patch

posted on March 11th, 2011, 8:21 pm

the tooltips are actually obsolete, fixed with the next patch

so fighters fly out through a door, like shuttles? in which case i think carriers shouldnt move so fast. avalon speed, or slightly faster, is about right imo.

posted on March 11th, 2011, 8:27 pm

Why? Velocity is relative in space 

posted on March 11th, 2011, 8:56 pm

Why? Velocity is relative in space 

meh, real science doesnt apply, this is trek. flying fast moving stuff out of other fast moving stuff cant be easy

you should know better than to apply real science to star trek

posted on March 11th, 2011, 9:07 pm

Flying out is no problem as long as the inertial dampeners are on when the carrier accelerates or deccelerates. It's getting back in that's tricky.