Make Borg Regen not usable under fire

posted on October 2nd, 2011, 9:41 pm

This is an interesting discussion.  I definitely like the idea of splitting the sphere into 2 branches: hitpoints and regeneration.

What about this?  Make it so the sphere can only fit 2 regen modules with the special being granted with 1 and doubled with 2.  In addition, add a structural integrity module that greatly increases the defensive value of the sphere and is limited to 2.  Give both these modules very low offensive and system values to discourage players from building hyper-defensive spheres.

Then allow the torpedo and holding beam modules to be fitted twice, giving the option to either boost offense or regenerative ability (extra energy for the regen sphere, more base regen for the integrity sphere)  Since the regeneration ability depends more on holding beam modules for the special energy, there's a hard trade-off for more firepower.

At the same time, make torpedo and prime modules cheaper.  So the cost of a sphere is more related to its staying power. (since we want to avoid letting players mass huge numbers of them without ever losing one)  On the other hand, if a borg player wants to throw out a RAWR sphere it will cost less than a regular sphere and have deadly offense but hardly any defensive ability.  You can work out an actual system of tanks and DPSers in your fleet which allows the borg more of the strategies available to other races.

posted on October 3rd, 2011, 3:21 am

This is an interesting discussion.  I definitely like the idea of splitting the sphere into 2 branches: hitpoints and regeneration.

What about this?  Make it so the sphere can only fit 2 regen modules with the special being granted with 1 and doubled with 2.  In addition, add a structural integrity module that greatly increases the defensive value of the sphere and is limited to 2.  Give both these modules very low offensive and system values to discourage players from building hyper-defensive spheres.

Then allow the torpedo and holding beam modules to be fitted twice, giving the option to either boost offense or regenerative ability (extra energy for the regen sphere, more base regen for the integrity sphere)  Since the regeneration ability depends more on holding beam modules for the special energy, there's a hard trade-off for more firepower.

At the same time, make torpedo and prime modules cheaper.  So the cost of a sphere is more related to its staying power. (since we want to avoid letting players mass huge numbers of them without ever losing one)  On the other hand, if a borg player wants to throw out a RAWR sphere it will cost less than a regular sphere and have deadly offense but hardly any defensive ability.  You can work out an actual system of tanks and DPSers in your fleet which allows the borg more of the strategies available to other races.

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edit: but the 2 regen 1 regen thingy is foggy.. can you explain it a bit more clearer tryptic?

[Tryptic]

posted on October 3rd, 2011, 4:13 pm

Last edited by Tryptic on October 3rd, 2011, 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well Arash, your approval means a lot to me seeing as you're our oldest borg player atm.

EDIT: after I started, I realized there were some serious flaws with my idea and proceeded to work on it overnight.  This is what I came up with thanks to a whole lot of Excel spreadsheet manipulation.

The current regen module looks like this:

Regen Module: 7/7/7
1 regen module, small bonus
2 regen modules, 200 energy/second regen
3 regen modules, 100 energy/second regen

I'm saying make it into something like this:

Regen Module: 10/5/5
1 regen module, 200 energy/second regen
2 regen modules, 100 energy/second regen
and make it slightly more expensive, say 30% more

Then add something like this:

Structural Integrity module: 0/20/0
and give it a similar cost to the regen module.  Maybe more Di, less Tri.

Now, make the other 4 modules slightly cheaper to balance out the cost.

Allow 2 Holding Beam modules to be fitted at once.  Since the regen modules now add less system value, a Holding Beam will take the place of the 3rd regen module in full-regen setups:

Old 3-Regen/1-Holding: 59/66/73
New 2-Regen/2-Holding: 58/62/76

Old 3-Regen/1-Prime:                74/64/67
New 2-Regen/1-Holding/1-Prime: 73/60/70

The reason that the Regen and Integrity modules are more expensive than the others is to make it hard for players to super-tank a sphere.  Usually players will choose 2 regen or integrity modules for the sphere's defense plus 2 others that will determine its offensive abilities.  Using more defensive modules will result in a more durable ship with a higher cost, while using fewer will produce a cheaper DPS-dealing sphere that's hard to keep in the fight.

So now that I've shown that regen spheres will stay pretty much the same, what about Integrity spheres? Here are some of the new setups we'd get to see:
2-Integrity/2-Prime: 68/88/54 (Tactical Sphere  :D )
2-Integrity/2-Beam: 58/98/38 (Tank Sphere )
2-Integrity/2-Holding: 38/92/66 (Mage Sphere ) without regen
1-Integrity/1-Regen/2-Holding: 48/77/71 (Mage Sphere  :blink: ) with regen
1-Integrity/1-Regen/1-Holding/1-Prime: 63/75/65 (Hybrid Sphere  B) )
1-Integrity/1-Regen/2-Prime: 78/73/59 (Hybrid Sphere 2 )

For reference, the current 2-Regen/2-Prime sphere is 82/62/68.

Here are some new "cheap" spheres.  They're only a couple hundred resources cheaper though:
1-Integrity/3-Prime: 83/73/62 (Soldier Sphere)
1-Regen/2-Holding/1-Prime: 63/72/69 (Bargain Sphere)

This one would be feared across the battlefield because it's so cheap, but it's also very easy to snipe and its regenerative abilities are pitiful:
3-Prime/1-Torp: 103/53/62 (RAWR Sphere )

Now, for some of the more expensive ones:
2-Integrity/1-Regen/1-Holding: 48/90/57 (Dode tank Sphere)
1-Integrity/2-Regen/1-Prime: 73/73/56 (Extra tank Sphere)

And finally the most expensive Sphere of all, the full-tank Sphere:
2-Integrity/2-Regen: 58/88/48

I spent a few hours crunching the numbers to try to balance this idea, and obviously it would take more balance work before it's good to go.  Still, I think it could be done, what do you guys think?