Sovereign Class - Durability Issues

posted on March 11th, 2009, 11:37 pm

May I ask a question Optec (wow that was really rhetorical on my part, *d'oh):

What are your plans for changes to the Dominion, if any?

So far my quickest characterization of each race is:
Fed: strongest support, very defensive (both in terms of structure and shields 'n stuff): mixed fleets with a ton of support.
Klingons: weak defense, strong offense, single purpose ships that can be spammed
Borg: hard to tell... (they play so differently): perhaps brute force as both high armor and high attack
Romulans: expensive powerful late game ships and a reliance on at least a bit of early support to keep them in the field
Dominion: Not exactly sure; heavy reliance on support, but decent firepower throughout (kinda reverse of Feds on the offense/defense side of shields and weapons)

May I ask what you and the Team were going for?

posted on March 11th, 2009, 11:41 pm

optec i understand that, all im saying, is #1 can we have some defense increase

and #2 can the fed have somthing that can give it a punch, descents weapos are only 36 just like sovys, and while phalanx are more powerful, there more expensive, and the feds dont really have the punch, that i feel, one of those more powerful ships should give them,

if you guys added the promethius, and made it very powerful, and made the phalanx powerful, or gave the feds, a medium game ship with high defesne (miranda 2) then it might be okay, but as of right now let me say this

i hear what you guys are saying, but both races have support ships, and feds seem to bew focuesd on defense and science, suchs as a system of upgrade or refit, and i realy dont see that uniqness in the feds, (or the kligons, they dont seem to have anything to special, and id like to see that changed)

so i beg you, can you please, just make sure, that according to your balances forumals(idk what they are or if they work) that everything seems balanced, because from my point of view it dosent

and i repectfully disagree with you that feds are equal, it seems like the breen cruisers, and the roms warbirds, and such, can just roll over the feds, and are produced cheaper, and for the roms, there little genrix have nice refits that can roll over alot of other feds ships

personally, id take 3 extra chassises if the feds leter ships could be stronger

it be nice if fed could have some refit or somthing, im sorry, maybye thers somthing im just not getting, then again maybye not

but i really do like fleet ops, and i think you guys have doen a great job, however, id like to see feds more unique or somthing, and i feel like nobodys listening to me

maybe it just seems like there a bit bland because most of the things you guys have, we have seen in the show, its predictabel...

maybye feds just need some new spice, not the same old, white circle with two blue engins atached to it,
maybye somthing a bit.... darker, like section 31?, or maybye more of a usss dauntless design, or defiant design, with different markings, idk, get away from what we know about feds

well those are some of my thoughts

anyway thanks for you time guys time

[Optec]

posted on March 11th, 2009, 11:44 pm

Last edited by Optec on March 11th, 2009, 11:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

well you hit most of the points. The Dominion can be compared to the Romulans i think. The Romulans have very string "expert" ships that excel in a single sector. A Romulan player has a great advantage if he gains control over the game and can force the opponent to work into his or her tactics.
The Dominion is a bit similar. their vessels are a bit more flexible and allround, but are still quite specialized on a certain purpose (like the T-15 Heavy Cruiser to give a hard example). But unlike the Romulans the Dominion does not have that many tools to "force" another player. they have a good mass production layout and very powerful support vessels, that focus about dealing single or area damage and reduing the enemies performance or boosting their own performance. A Dominion player should rely on a backbone of mixed ships and a few other teams of vessels specialized for certain encounters. Our idea is to make the Dominion a bit more "fleet oriented" then single ship oriented.

But if you want to discuss that further, please open up a new topic, as we are currently assimilating this poor Sovereign topic, and as Picard cant accept assimilated Sovereigns we better stop here

//edit: back to topic:
Yep the Federation is fine due to our Balancing Formulas. You have been heard (well its hard to dont read it as we had many posts about it now ) and as i said a Federation redo is on todo to give the Federation a more "Federation-like" touch, so they will be more unique. But its still not fixed what exactly will change, so I can't give any closer information

posted on March 12th, 2009, 12:12 am

I just thought of something that might take care of the whole thing with the Sovy, and calm everyone down.  Possibly give it something like the D'deridex's 'Majestic Flight' ability.  That would make it more durable, thus handling the staying power issue without the potential twitches of a flat-out higher defense.  Maybe something like 'Auto-modulating shields'.

posted on March 12th, 2009, 12:31 am

well thank you optec, im still not sure if i see it as balanced but thanks for looking at it

one final question when can we expect the redo

as in 3.6, 3.7, 4.0?

posted on March 12th, 2009, 10:53 am

thats not sure yet, depends on the other stuff on the list. not in 3.6 definitely, as the Federation is currently fine it is not on that high priority

posted on March 12th, 2009, 1:26 pm

Ray, you seem to be forgetting about one thing: The Federation has (relatively speaking) long-ranged weapons. The Excelsior-II has artillery-ranged weaponry at officer rank, no vessel besides torpedo vessels has that. The Phalanx has the longest-ranged weaponry of main battleships, but it's too slow to run from a Negh-Var. The Sov is the most well-rounded battleship, it's pretty fast, has medium-ranged weaponry, and can beat a Negh-Var by running. And then there's the Descent. It's arguably better than a Tavara, because it a) is faster, b) has three lives, c) can Burstfire it's torpedoes, d) this is a big one, it's free  e) it can beat a Negh-Var one 1-1. I honestly don't see what's wrong overall with the Feds, other than spamming.  Back on topic: The Sov most definitely needs a boost in shields, but it's special is fine, and so is it's weaponry. Remember that it can take down a bunch of fighters with 1 blast, clearing the way for the rest of your battalion!  

posted on March 12th, 2009, 2:02 pm

instead of changing weapons strength of the sov you could give the ability to toggle its torps between standard fire and 4 burst-fire torps. in burst fire mode the reload time would be lengthened doing this would slow the reload time. But the great part about the fed is that most of their ships weapons range is at long and the excelsior 2 at officer rank is artillery also most of them have 360 fire radius. one other thing is it seems like the descents torps miss a little more often that they should but that is my only complaint about that ship.

posted on March 12th, 2009, 5:04 pm

Hello, I said that! Anyway, I find sniping enemies with my Excel-II's fun, cause they can't really do anything about it unless it's a fast cruiser. Anyway, the Sov is fine for firepower, with having the longest ranged weapons for any main battleship (main as in accesible by all avatars of that race) , and the 2nd fastest.

posted on March 12th, 2009, 5:23 pm

true you did but i said it again for effect 

posted on March 12th, 2009, 5:26 pm

Why does everyone do that to me?

posted on March 12th, 2009, 8:17 pm

I love how my post was mostly ignored earlier in the thread.

Still think the game is mostly balanced... on the subject of sovereigns - a little more attack and a change in special weaponry and I'll be happy.

posted on March 12th, 2009, 8:30 pm

@ megaman, there is no way, a sov could ever beat a nevargh, a tested a 1v1 and the sov was crushed, running would only make it worse

posted on March 12th, 2009, 8:59 pm

>:( What do I have to do, send you a video?!!!!!!!

posted on March 12th, 2009, 9:01 pm

dude, i tested a nevargh vs a sov, the sov died of course, and the nevargh still had sheilds