Dominion Support Vessel Unbalanced?

[RCIX]

posted on May 14th, 2009, 4:17 am

Last edited by RCIX on May 14th, 2009, 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

If one takes a look at the energy beacon ability on the escort cruiser, you give up around 100 energy to get 10 on each nearby vessel. However, what some may not know is that this ability stacks. That means that if you have a group of more than 10, you can refresh special energy on nearby vessels and at the same time gain special energy on your escort cruisers. is this unbalanced? after all, it means that you can basically recharge any ships special as fast as you can use the energy beacon ability. (Side note: this problem was present in 3.0 PR it was just easier to use as you needed less energy to trigger it)

posted on May 14th, 2009, 6:14 am

yep energy beacon might be changed in 3.0.6 or 3.0.7

posted on May 15th, 2009, 1:42 am

Shhhhh!  You weren't supposed to tell them!

posted on May 15th, 2009, 3:56 am

By the way is 3.0.6  ever going to be done?

posted on May 15th, 2009, 4:03 am

sure you know, it will be done when its done

posted on May 15th, 2009, 8:59 am

sure you know, it will be done when its done

feature-wise it's done, but still under testing

posted on May 15th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Hey, you didn't think I'd touch that underwear do you.. awaiting the release

posted on May 16th, 2009, 6:22 pm

Is every unique advantage of all ships being removed? Keep watering down (balancing, as you call it) the support ships, and FO is going to end up as Stock A1 with improved graphics.

posted on May 16th, 2009, 9:49 pm

If a "unique advantage" as you call it allows you to spam two ship types to oblivion, I hope that indeed we keep "watering-down" FO. In case you can't remember, AI and AII both relied on "unique advantages" in order to keep the spam coming (*cough* battleships). If you don't think that AoE abilitiies like Plasma Coil or Nanites for instances make a game unbalanced and boring, then just play without the most recent patch installed. Nobody will play MP when an alternative to such spam exists, so you can enjoy the game in SP then. FO will never end up as Stock AI because Armada I was full of such "unique advantage" ships... which made building any other ships pointless.

posted on May 17th, 2009, 5:46 am

we do not remove the unique character or feeling of a vessel. we do just take a look at situations where a certain "peak profit" of a special ability can be used to yield far to much benefit from a single game element - thats one aspect of the thing we call "balancing". You might got it wrong. we do not want to make all vessels the same (in fact the opposit is our goal). We just correct things that might be exploited, as our goal is to give every vessel a role in the game. The Energy Beacon will remain the same in 3.0.6, as i'm currently working on a good solution, but thats something for 3.0.7 then.

posted on May 17th, 2009, 8:01 am

I have a suggestion in that regard: what if you do like the AoE weapons and make each wave add a certain absolute special energy divided by all of the ships that it will effect?

posted on May 17th, 2009, 12:01 pm

The Energy Beacon will remain the same in 3.0.6, as i'm currently working on a good solution, but thats something for 3.0.7 then.

Looks like i can continue to cause havoc with the dominion arty and energy beacon in 3.0.6 

posted on May 17th, 2009, 1:17 pm

I'm being given a reprieve as well!  Hurray for energy beacon!

posted on May 17th, 2009, 4:40 pm

Might I add that it is actually difficult to get the Energy Beacon to properly recharge every support ship to full. I've found it difficult to use this strat after more than 6 clicks of the button (although that is 3 more clicks than there should be, as each ship has 360 energy or something like that).

posted on May 17th, 2009, 4:57 pm

like most special weapons, energy beacon has a 5 second cooldown time