Dominion Fighters. SO CLOSE!!!
posted on January 20th, 2010, 11:55 pm
Hey guys!
So Dom, Mal, and myself played a FFA today to test out how the new ships and factions square up.
I'm happy to say that aside from a few minor things, the Feds, Dominion, and Romulans all came out very well! We played a friendly but aggressive game and quite quickly Mal had produced a number of B-5 Carriers. They worked excellently and gave the feel from the shows of having tons of tiny Dominion ships flying about causing trouble!
However we did notice a few things that seemed to be maybe overlooked.
1. The Fighers were balanced quite well until they got the fighter upgrade. At that point they were not only DEVASTATING but also incredibly difficult to destroy. They are quite nice without the upgrade and thus it may no longer be needed
2. The Carriers themselves are VERY fast and sturdy. This may not seem like a big deal, but since the fighters draw the fire first when you don't choose a B-5 as a target, it can run off quickly when it's dying. This means that if you give chase you can't target it because you auto-target the fighters.
3. The fighters also absorb special abilities that aren't targeted. I tried to keep the carriers from running off by using the engine overload frmo 2 Sovereigns. Sadly the fighters ate the effect and the Carriers ran off at high speed. Also Dominus was primarily using his Leahvals throughout the game and the Metaphasic disruptors constantly targeted the fighters instead of more valuable ships.
-Not sure how to adjust this, but it is certainly something to think about.
I think that may be about it. Being so fast they were rarely if ever killed, and the fighters with their upgraded systems were just atrociously powerful. Both Dominus and I ended up having to gang up and Mal and still lost
.
Just a thought. The fighter system is great! The B-5 and Avalon's are great! But it has introduced a new element that has effects that are hard to predict.
So Dom, Mal, and myself played a FFA today to test out how the new ships and factions square up.
I'm happy to say that aside from a few minor things, the Feds, Dominion, and Romulans all came out very well! We played a friendly but aggressive game and quite quickly Mal had produced a number of B-5 Carriers. They worked excellently and gave the feel from the shows of having tons of tiny Dominion ships flying about causing trouble!
However we did notice a few things that seemed to be maybe overlooked.
1. The Fighers were balanced quite well until they got the fighter upgrade. At that point they were not only DEVASTATING but also incredibly difficult to destroy. They are quite nice without the upgrade and thus it may no longer be needed
2. The Carriers themselves are VERY fast and sturdy. This may not seem like a big deal, but since the fighters draw the fire first when you don't choose a B-5 as a target, it can run off quickly when it's dying. This means that if you give chase you can't target it because you auto-target the fighters.
3. The fighters also absorb special abilities that aren't targeted. I tried to keep the carriers from running off by using the engine overload frmo 2 Sovereigns. Sadly the fighters ate the effect and the Carriers ran off at high speed. Also Dominus was primarily using his Leahvals throughout the game and the Metaphasic disruptors constantly targeted the fighters instead of more valuable ships.
-Not sure how to adjust this, but it is certainly something to think about.
I think that may be about it. Being so fast they were rarely if ever killed, and the fighters with their upgraded systems were just atrociously powerful. Both Dominus and I ended up having to gang up and Mal and still lost
.Just a thought. The fighter system is great! The B-5 and Avalon's are great! But it has introduced a new element that has effects that are hard to predict.
posted on January 21st, 2010, 12:09 am
What do you mean?! Dominion fighter carriers are fine! 
Erm...well...I guess there are a few issues... 
Part of it stems from the new speed increases, as the dom fighter carrier is technically a short ranged vessel, but Pure tech grants it medium ranged for free (through the avatar bonus). So now it's a medium ranged ship with the speed of a short ranged vessel. And since short ranged vessels can disengage from combat whenever they want (the opposite extreme of long-ranged kiting), so can these fighter carriers. The catch is that the fighters stay there, so any ship trying to move to attack the carriers hits the fighters instead.
The energy core upgrade is powerful, but also extremely expensive. So I don't begrudge that point. But the main issue is that a carrier (the fed one as well), can move in, move out and basically kite with their fighters. The longer ranged avalon is slower, but has long range, so can continue to kite while any intercepting vessel can't attack it while on the move, and has to catch up and then specifically target the carrier. This protects your whole fleet from being attacked.
Also, I was playing with yandoman vs. stardus and cbosdell. While I'm glad the video's not up, because it's one of my worst plays ever
, it showed what happens when dominion (cbosdell) and federation (stardust) get together and make fleets full of carriers. That makes a combined fleet of 10 carriers, with 50 fighters at least in that group. That was extremely powerful.
So while I love that carriers are no longer a joke, they might need to be looked at again to see if they aren't too powerful. They really seem to be.
Erm...well...I guess there are a few issues... Part of it stems from the new speed increases, as the dom fighter carrier is technically a short ranged vessel, but Pure tech grants it medium ranged for free (through the avatar bonus). So now it's a medium ranged ship with the speed of a short ranged vessel. And since short ranged vessels can disengage from combat whenever they want (the opposite extreme of long-ranged kiting), so can these fighter carriers. The catch is that the fighters stay there, so any ship trying to move to attack the carriers hits the fighters instead.
The energy core upgrade is powerful, but also extremely expensive. So I don't begrudge that point. But the main issue is that a carrier (the fed one as well), can move in, move out and basically kite with their fighters. The longer ranged avalon is slower, but has long range, so can continue to kite while any intercepting vessel can't attack it while on the move, and has to catch up and then specifically target the carrier. This protects your whole fleet from being attacked.
Also, I was playing with yandoman vs. stardus and cbosdell. While I'm glad the video's not up, because it's one of my worst plays ever
, it showed what happens when dominion (cbosdell) and federation (stardust) get together and make fleets full of carriers. That makes a combined fleet of 10 carriers, with 50 fighters at least in that group. That was extremely powerful.So while I love that carriers are no longer a joke, they might need to be looked at again to see if they aren't too powerful. They really seem to be.
posted on January 21st, 2010, 12:12 am
Also, since almost everything was said, for those who read this thread, remember that these fighter carriers also leave droppings EVERYWHERE. In other words, they deposit small pockets of fighters across the map, leading up to many more fighters being spawned then should be possible. This can be especially devastating if a fighter carrier stays in one place for a while, then leaves. It spawns new fighters, but many of the old ones stay put 
posted on January 21st, 2010, 12:19 am
Infinite fighters!
posted on January 21st, 2010, 12:39 am
But ... I was under the impression that the Fighters were beamed back onto the ship once the fighter max was reached ...
I've seen fighters be beamed out of space. Isn't that what keeps them from spawning too many?
Just to clarify: The new carriers are PERFECT in their intended use. They just have a few little oddities that were hard to foresee
I've seen fighters be beamed out of space. Isn't that what keeps them from spawning too many?
Just to clarify: The new carriers are PERFECT in their intended use. They just have a few little oddities that were hard to foresee
posted on January 21st, 2010, 12:50 am
Last edited by Optec on January 21st, 2010, 11:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
yep if there are to many fighters they will be beamed back and the pilot gets his wings cut for leaving the mission area 
posted on January 21st, 2010, 12:52 am
HA! That's awesome
posted on January 21st, 2010, 2:08 am
Optec wrote:yep if there are to many fighters they will be beemed back and the pilot gets his wings cut for leaving the mission area
Too bad some of the pilots are ex-cons and manage to find other ways of hijacking the ships...
posted on January 21st, 2010, 2:09 am
posted on January 21st, 2010, 2:17 am
Damnit Boggz! Now that video is playing in my head 
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