Sensor Blackout - 60% of why Feds Crush

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 8:48 am

Well, I have a police when I see a Cannie.  It only works as Klingon and Romulan, however.  I cloak either my K'vorts or my Serkas, and blow the living hell out of the things.  They are #1, top priority, no other ship in the entire game is that hated.  Not even the Noq'duj with it's AoE random system disabler.  Sensor Blackout is far, far too powerful to take any chance that the feds can fire it off.  As Dominion, I immediately shift to 'bugship ramtime' and as the borg?  Well...I do the only thing I can do.  I try to assimilate the things because I can't shoot quickly enough to kill fed ships anymore.  (Hit them one time, they move to retreat...depending on the ship it may be a full 6 seconds before I fire again.  This hold true for the Neghvar as well.  1 salvo every 6 seconds for most of a fleet = just retreat, you aren't going to win this battle).

Cannies, in fact, are the primary reason that I always research the Boarding collective feature.  That way, when my ships are crippled by blackout, I can try to steal the cannies, or maybe a sabre or something so I can fight back.

So, in short, yes, Sensor Blackout is the new plasma coil.  It's area and range are more than sufficient, especially if the user sends 2 at once to do it so you can't kill them both in time to save your fleet.  It's duration and repeatability along with it's titanic reduction in enemy firepower at no actual cost to the feds (what else are you gonna have a cannie do?  Sensor blackout is the one and only reason they are deployed) makes it into what I believe to be the most devestating power in the game.  Backed by a small force of Akiras or Excel-IIs, it will allow total annihilation of an enemy fleet with little to no losses on the fed side...without skillful micro.  The enemy fleet is simply that crippled.

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 4:39 pm

aye, the current changes are to reduce the maximum number of black-outed targets to 6. its still in evaluation, but it sounds good so far

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 4:52 pm

Hey great!

  Any kinda of reduction is good.

  Though I wonder if simply reducing the number of affected ships is enough.  Let's face it:  sensor blackout goes off and it means instant retreat or lose your entire force.

  I still suggest a reduction in the numbers.  Let it affect the entire fleet but not for so long and not to such a crippling degree.  You can still fight with only 75% weapon speed but it WILL make it harder.

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 4:54 pm

I got an idea... the Sensor blackout can be an area effect weapon... the more ships it hits... the shorter the effect lasts... just like how the plasma coil splits damage.

Because I find the effect a wee bit too effective... sure we can reduce maxium targets... but maybe also split the effect without nerfing it?

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 5:12 pm

i dont want to over-nerv it, i think the limitation should be enough its intended to be good

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 5:30 pm

its intended to be good

Okay... just that, I think some romulan SPW are a bit nerfed. Sure the Rommies are good in large numbers (found that out in a previous game), but I find things like the radiation torp and the stealth field only effective if fired in numbers.

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 5:45 pm

and both will be changed in a future redo

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 5:47 pm

is it just me...

the Romulan Griffin?  has that nifty red ring that kills the sensors of all the ships in a given area.

i'm thinking that the caranaval should be able to block out ONE and only ONE ships sensors from a distance.

am i alone in that?

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 7:40 pm

is it just me...

the Romulan Griffin?  has that nifty red ring that kills the sensors of all the ships in a given area.

i'm thinking that the caranaval should be able to block out ONE and only ONE ships sensors from a distance.

am i alone in that?

  I don't know if you're alone, but I just feel that the numbers for the Canaveral are off.

  The Griffin yes, does have sensor jammer that does damage and disables weapons or sensors but FOR 5 SECONDS not for 25.

  Also, anyone who says the Griffin's Jammer isn't good should see what happens to a fleet (any size) of ships Cruiser-size or smaller when 8 jammers go off at once.

POP

posted on October 25th, 2009, 9:15 am

Well, Ive not checked the ODF, but Im pretty sure Sensor Blackout deals damage.  I fired it off with 3 canaverals, backed up by 3 sovvies in the middle of more than 10 enemy destroyers.  The destroyers all blew up instantly, and I know the sovvies and the canaverals dont have that kind of firepower on their primary weapons.  I believe I was fighting dominion bugs, and I did not fire off distortion field.

I like Optec's solution, limit the number of ships affected too.  It would keep it from crippling 32 Vorcha's  (Ive had that done to me before, but I was stupid enough to have em all in one place before a battle and my enemy found my rally point)

posted on October 25th, 2009, 11:03 am

Well, Ive not checked the ODF, but Im pretty sure Sensor Blackout deals damage. 

Trust us when we say it doesn't. 

posted on October 25th, 2009, 6:25 pm

Well, Ive not checked the ODF, but Im pretty sure Sensor Blackout deals damage.  I fired it off with 3 canaverals, backed up by 3 sovvies in the middle of more than 10 enemy destroyers.  The destroyers all blew up instantly, and I know the sovvies and the canaverals dont have that kind of firepower on their primary weapons.  I believe I was fighting dominion bugs, and I did not fire off distortion field.

I like Optec's solution, limit the number of ships affected too.  It would keep it from crippling 32 Vorcha's  (Ive had that done to me before, but I was stupid enough to have em all in one place before a battle and my enemy found my rally point)

3 Sovvies is why.  They blew the destroyer's warp cores.

posted on October 26th, 2009, 2:44 am

I will say again,  I did NOT fire off distortion field.  I didnt even have time before the destroyers went boom.

posted on October 26th, 2009, 3:04 am

I will say again,  I did NOT fire off distortion field.  I didnt even have time before the destroyers went boom.

  Then maybe it was magic.  Sensor blackout does no damage.

Or maybe it was invisible Borg 

posted on October 26th, 2009, 3:09 am

One way to test it is to do an AI game with free tech, fast ship build times and infinite resources.  Then build a fleet of canaverals, set them to green alert, find some enemy ships and hit them with multiple Sensor Blackouts.  If you're like me you have to see it to believe it, so hopefully this will help.