New Research for 3.1.4

posted on November 3rd, 2010, 6:28 am

Ok.

  So here's my disclaimer:  This is a new and different idea for a research to fix what I consider the "B'rel Issue".  This is an idea brainstormed by -

Yandonman
Clintsat
Boggz
Butterbread
Mort

  I am the most active member of the forum out of this group so I've got the honor of bringing it up .  I do hope that this can be seen as different than the other B'rel thread I created.  This was an idea by multiple people and I feel it deserves it's own attention.



    A 2nd-tier Research

  Armory - "Industrialized Design"
The B'rel has long been the workhorse of the Klingon Empire.  However, the Dominion war proved how fragile the design had become after over a century of use.  Klingon "scientists" (:D) have devised a method of installing sensor targeting deflectors onto the B'rel as well as streamlining production.  The result is that a B'rel near another allied vessel will confuse automated sensors into targeting other vessels.  In addition to this, the new industries have reduced the amount of supplies needed to produce B'rels.

  Affect:

• The B'rel's supply cost is reduced by X
• The B'rel becomes classified as a Scout when WF is not used.

  So essentially two things happen:  The supply cost of producing B'rels drops and it drops to near last on the automatic targeting scale.  Keeping this research in the Armory prevents abuse early on of a low supply cost turning into spam as well as the targeting change causing too many headaches.  As an armory research it moves this into a mid-game ability.



  Reasons:

  I have been desperately trying to come up with a way to breathe more use into the B'rel.  It's regarded by a number of the best online players in the Fleetops community as a general waste of precious Klingon supply.  I've suggested lower supply costs across the board, higher supply gains, but in discussing it with the afore-mentioned players we all decided that the B'rel had use in the first few engagements and then became almost unusable in practical terms.

  As Yandonman put it: "it's a form of defensive boost that will increase survivability and the chance of ranking up (thereby gaining supplies) by reducing it to the last to be auto-targeted".  Which I very much agree with.  It's a form of defensive increase that would allow them to continue fighting in the mid/late-game by requiring a direct target in fleet combat to be destroyed.

  This research does not change the purpose of the B'rel, nor does it change the ability/inability to mass B'rels early on.  It's a research that would allow B'rels to do two things when they become essentially fodder mid-game:

  Specifically target long-range vessels in fleet combat.
  Stay alive to chase cloaking ships with manual targeting .

  Because no stats are changing, all the counters remain the same.  Killing B'rels remains exactly the same, only in fleet combat you must target them specifically.  I do feel that the scout classlabel should be removed back to destroyer when WF is activated to preserve balancing.

posted on November 3rd, 2010, 6:42 am

well im rether new the the online play and as a result i think i have a unique perspective..... i too was part of this effort to find a "fix" for the brel and i cant say that we found the perfect solution, but i really do think that there should be a change of some kind made to the ship or if not a change then "something" some aspect that will draw more people to want to build this ship..........after all its like the work horse of the klingon fleet and we should see it put to work in the game.