Romulan and photons?

posted on April 14th, 2011, 10:39 pm

We ever going to see more torpedos and less pulse/phasers from the romulans? Just from a balance perspective I lack any choice really for a ship that can fight the borg effectively. Although I'm not great shakes as the romulans to be honest.

The damage reduction to large targets/structures from pulse is a draw back.

Just my few cents.

posted on April 14th, 2011, 10:54 pm

Rhienn refits and big D's have good torps. Rhienns have to be used with strategy though, when the shields drop, cloak and repair that ship.

posted on April 14th, 2011, 10:57 pm

Quite a few Rom ships have torpedos...... however they dont use photons, roms use plasma torpedos.

posted on April 14th, 2011, 11:23 pm

Yeap, I definitely agree.  There should be at least one easy to access ship that fires torpedoes.  It doesn't even need a 360 arc, but could be more like a beefy susa.  I think you guys are definitely on to something.

Incidentally, the leahval and spectre a great vs the borg due to their survivability and the borg's current lack thereof for its smaller ships.

posted on April 14th, 2011, 11:31 pm

Romulans definitely have a hard time base cracking, but I don't know if any existing ships should be made to use torps.

If there's any balance change that could help with this it would be to make the D'Deridex more accessible.  I know I've advocated improving its special, but what if instead they took away its special and gave it a cost reduction?  It could still have the shield recharge passive.

I really like the way the Vor'cha is a staple Klingon unit, the way it was in the show.  If the big D was made cheaper, and maybe a bit weaker, it would become more of a core unit while the other warbirds are like specialists.  That would make torpedo firepower more accessible to the Roms.

One thing you can try that might not be around for much longer (or might get easier to use, we'll see) is the fed mixed-tech leahval.  With torpedoes.  It comes too late to be a frontline combat ship, but makes a good source of basecracking damage.

posted on April 14th, 2011, 11:34 pm

yeah, the leahval can get the job done quite well a lot of the time. it can use a borg trick back at them, regen (auto repair). it really keeps them alive for days as the borg dont have an early option for finishing blows (like meta d or proximity torp).

@tryptic:

generix are good base crackers too, especially supports which can take out weapons. leahvals will get auto targeted and can tank.

torp rhienns also are good.

posted on April 14th, 2011, 11:52 pm

Just build a ring of starbases arround the enemy base. If you do things right, you can even plan the constructor WITHIN weapons range of the enemy base and still not loose it (I've seen it happen).

posted on April 15th, 2011, 1:42 am

I really like the idea of having the big D being more of a base unit, it would be awesome to have massive fleets of big Ds fighting and raiding like in the show. So a price decrease and maybe some stat decreases would go along way in making it more useful

posted on April 15th, 2011, 1:59 am

Well, the romulans have one of the easiest times getting large ships.  All you need are two tech stations and a large yard.  You can skip the small yard if you just want the D.  It is pretty baseline if you want it to be in team games.

posted on April 15th, 2011, 2:02 am

What about 1v1s to get people away from generix spam?

posted on April 15th, 2011, 2:09 am

Lolz.  So you want to give the Romulans even faster access to top tier vessels to steer them away from generix spam?  Why not make it so the generix isn't such a flexible powerhouse instead?  See how all your hatred towards guns and farscape is rotting your brain?!?!

[Tryptic]

posted on April 15th, 2011, 3:59 am

Last edited by Tryptic on April 15th, 2011, 4:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Lolz.  So you want to give the Romulans even faster access to top tier vessels?

Honestly, YES.  I tried warbird rush strategies for a while and they're not viable, not the way they're meant to be.  Yes the Romulans look like they can reach battleships faster than any other race, but they can only afford 1 ship!  The dominion can get their B5 prototype less than a minute later AND start building a second right away AND have some smaller ships to cover it.  The result: if you're planning to rush to large ships you should use the dominion.

The devs have stated that they want to see Romulans using more warbirds like they do in the show, but currently the Romulans are the race LEAST likely to field large ships.

First, I suggest that the Warbird yard gain a supply cost but take much less Di and Tri.

Second, I suggest the same for thd D'Deridex: a cost reduction and an increase in supply cost.  That way it becomes more like the B5: you can build a few of them very early, but you can't keep spamming them when the supply runs low.  Then maybe give them a similar setup to the Klingons with nano-fabricators.  When they reach officer rank, they give back a large amount of supply.

Better yet, have Helev's big D get supply back with nano-fabricators, and give Mijural's big D Aldohv type cloak

-----
Some quick build-time numbers

B5 BC: 40+70+60+107 = 277
Cehlaer: 70+60+91 = 221
D'Deridex: 70+90+88 = 248 (upgrade facility can go parallel to warbird yard, but this slows down mining)

small yard = 40
Tech lab = 70
Large yard = 60
B-5 Prototype = 107

Research Institute = 70
Warbird Yard = 60
Upgrade Facility = 90
Cehlaer = 91
D'Deridex = 88

posted on April 15th, 2011, 6:54 am

All Dominion ships are more supply heavy and cheaper in terms of ressources, however, you get supplies much more easily, too. You can't put that gameplay feature on Romulans, you'd have to give them something additional to get supplies. I'm also opposed to a decrease in stats of the Big D, if you field that 1,3km vessel the enemies of the star empire should tremble.
I'd rather suggest reducing the costs of the warbird yard and changes of the Romulan tech tree. Easiest way would be to make a warbird yard possible with Tal Shiar academy too. That way there would also be the possibility for Norexan rush, which is the warbird answer to many small ships. Usually you don't need pulses later on. However, I'd connect with it moving the multipurpose disruptor to a different station then, because it's an incredible useful special weapon.
@Acheron: yes, Romulans lack torpedo firepower, however, you don't necessarily need them if you have strong beams. It's not like torps would do increased damage to Borg ships.

posted on April 15th, 2011, 7:42 am

Hmm, I can get 2-3 Eresis out pretty easily.  There's definitely a shock and awe factor when large warbirds decloak.  And remember, we're talking about powerful ships with decent hulls that can turn invisible within 2 seconds.

I have to disagree with the statement about warbirds being the least easy cap ship to get out.  There are tons of replays that have people doing early warbirds in team games.  But it's only one of many strategies out there, and the generix is so strong and so versatile that a lot of noob players can say, "derrrr, I can spam teh generix all day and not get caught"

I wish I could write you a novel, but it's way too late over here.  Besides, I need to give Myles something to do.

posted on April 15th, 2011, 10:49 am

just for that im gonna correct your comment that it needs 2 tech stations and a large yard to get birds. it only needs research inst and large yard then you can make the baseline bird (cehlaer/eresis), both of which are nice, but the cehlaer is your best bet imo. it is certainly harder to get several out than b5, but those birds are quite something to see. the cehlaer especially will be nice, beams wont miss, can fire 1 beam backwards at least, of coure has good hull and cloak, a useful special for getting the final shots for a kill, and even has a useful defensive passive that will tank some common counters to big ships (like bombers or sangs)

about seeing loads of big D in the show, these ships are big and strong and cost a lot, the romulan empire has years in the show to amass a fleet of them without any serious wars to worry about. they had the neutral zone with the feds to avoid losing ships there, and the klingons rarely seemed intent on a full scale war, so seeing large numbers of ships isnt an indication they are cheap, just that the romulans didnt lose many.