Stafleet Command Needs Research

posted on May 9th, 2010, 9:01 pm

we consider warp-in to be a mid/late game feature

posted on May 9th, 2010, 9:03 pm

You DO realize though that SFC was just moved UP in the tech tree so that they wouldn't be the early game cannon fodder, correct?

  You so also realize that it was just pointed out that the SFC WILL get a penalty when coding allows.  Don't you think that shows the consensus is that free ships needs a drawback?

  It's a great station, great gameplay mechanic, and awesome addition, it just needs a counterweight to it like the Intel Center (supply use, energy cost), Moq'Bara (short usage, TOP of tech tree), Hyperspace Artillery (oodles of things).

  Not everything can be free .  You've admitted to not using Feds often now.  Try something other than SFC until you really need it.  Double yard it and spit out Monsoons/Intrepids until you can make Akiras, Canavs, Novas, and such .

posted on May 9th, 2010, 9:14 pm

well then i belive that maybe the ships should be stronger or maybe more ships, like 4 of them, with no cost, not buildable till say, the 2nd or 3rd chassis, or advanced shipyard, and operated on a time, a true timer, they warp in to an area, stay for 25-45 seconds and warp out,  if they are meant for late game, maybe that is what is needed, i just find that for warp in, in the later game, those ships dont have the staying power

posted on May 9th, 2010, 9:47 pm

They all have great staying power ...

Excels have ADAI and a good defense, Amabas are FAST, have High Dens SG and a SUPER defense special, Nebula's are large size with a good defense ...

  Most ships will be targeted after the intrepids and Monsoons anyway ....

posted on May 9th, 2010, 9:56 pm

Not to mention they can attack from ANYWHERE on the map.  Man, the feds sure are underpowered.

posted on May 9th, 2010, 10:00 pm

The Steamrunner is fragile, but can decimate stations pretty quickly. Higher ranked ones are certainly not underpowered.

posted on May 9th, 2010, 10:27 pm

Im saying in the later game there staying power seems diminished, excelsior and steamrunner seem to fall quickly as does galaxy, and ambassador in the late game

posted on May 9th, 2010, 10:57 pm

The strongest factions are cloaking factions. They know everything, your tactic, what type of ships you are using, when you will expand etc. Properly played cloaked faction player will build just enough ships to take out your miners early enough not to allow you micromanage them efficiently. that will probably occure when you start expanding, it depends on the variaty of factors. Main rule is ekspand or die! So skillfull player can harass you to death. Hits one side, then another again. Point is if you are playing defensivly you cant be near your ekspansion, or near your first pair of moons at the same time. Turet can help but it can be micromanaged easily since it cant be moved Thats where free ships come in. to give you some edge, strenght in numbers. But still that building costs lot of resources for early game, so numbers should be about even(maybe).
I agree with ray and boggz also. But in any modern strategy invisiblity is a huge advantage. and when you balance firepower, specials and everything that cloak will always be a matter of discusion. especially strong in early game.
In previous version long range tachion pings were, much more helpfull, although they reqiured research. i liked them. While now you need a scout in a fight, to scan, but it can be destroyed easily, so you can use cloak with no worries.

posted on May 9th, 2010, 11:05 pm

i completely agree, and timmy is right, cloak presents so big of an advantage, i think it deserves it own thread, it makes it like timmy said, they have an instant knowledge of your stratagy, that at the beggining of the game forces you into a defensive position, now this is better in this patch but it is still there, i know you say, you cannot be like that, you must be offensive, but the truth is, they can get into your base, kill stuff cloak and run away, and you cant do anything about it, and because they have a scout in your base, they know how to time it right, so they know when and where to attack, if you move your fleet, they know where you are comming to, and they have the best imformation to make the best decision to counter it, so often times, you just need brute force to beat cloak, and it can be very tricky to stratagize against a player who knows your every move,

posted on May 9th, 2010, 11:32 pm

yep we will introduce some addition cloak detection options in the next patches

posted on May 9th, 2010, 11:39 pm

Cloak is a big deal right now, you're right, but the free ships makes up for it in many ways.  Watch some replays and see the size off the fleets the Feds can field.  SHOW me in those replays how cloaking makes up for that .

posted on May 9th, 2010, 11:51 pm

just some thoughts for 'creatively' nerfing warpin (just to have the thoughts out there):

* if a warp-in ship is killed, don't free up it's command slot. only let ranking up free up command slots.

* only have 5 slots available initially, require either a a) SFC upgrade to raise the cap, OR b) x number of officer rank warp-ins to raise the cap.

posted on May 9th, 2010, 11:54 pm

Boggz, in most of those games, the federation player had more moons going.  In the game we played, Star had 4 moons going at one time, so of course he's going to have a huge fleet.  He was even giving me resources just for fun!   The other games I've seen have been similar, where the federation player was able to expand to 3 moons and just crank out the ships.  I think once the extra cloak features come out, and the changes to warp in happen, they will balance each other out.

posted on May 9th, 2010, 11:56 pm

And its not just feds vs cloak, what about dominion hmm?

posted on May 10th, 2010, 6:34 am

  How about receiving two ships instead of three for each use ?