Blade Spawners - As much as it pains me

[Huaojozu]

...I have to admit, these are seriously over the top right now for one simple reason - speed.

I have cleared close to 30 planets now with just a cap of Mark I, II, III Blade Spawners on Ultra Low Caps. That's 14 ships utterly decimating everything in their way with only occasionally needing to be replaced (like once per 3-5 planets). Mark II and III planets fall like nothing, only Mark IV put up any fight at all.

Simply fly your 14 ships into a system, immediately select them and fly them straight to the yellow edge, then SHIFT+Click their way twice or three times around the yellow perimeter and watch the show. The only problem are Gravity effects which seriously mess up your ability to do damage.

Unless you intend on Blade Spawners being this good, I suggest a mild decrese in speed (not enough to be annoying, just to let some faster things catch them), possibly only while actually spawning blades (so they would still travel at full speed in non-hostile territory).

[chemical_art]

Blade spawners are very unique and powerful, for sure, but they are not without weakness.

If you or the AI establish defenses at a wormhole, they go from being great to being expensive and fragile.

They are the ultimate long range weapon, I think, but there are few and pricy and only have mild close range defense.

[Huaojozu]

You don't need to care about their fragile defenses, nothing will get to shoot at them!

If you haven't alerted the planet (or rather it hasn't been on alert for long), you can easily jump them in and run to the edge with at least 12/14 intact on less than mark IV world. In all other cases, simply jump in a cap of fighters to eat the initial salvo, then jump the Spawners in and run to the edge. Nothing can catch them, since only a few things mildly outspeeds them and those things get killed while pursuing. I have just cleared a Mark IV 300+ Ships world on Ultra Low Caps with 14 Spawners. If that isn't overpowered, I'm not sure what is.

[Minotaar]

Definitely agreed. Even without abusing it (cloaker starships come to mind) the unit is insanely strong both for the humans and the AI.
It seems like we are going to have a "Best Ship" poll soon enough and I think Blade Spawner is an easy call for 1st place 
I don't think the speed is necessarily the problem, though. The mobility issues are pretty easily solvable with transports. And even if its speed gets cut severely it would probably still be the best artillery in the game.

[Nodor]

The counter to Blade Spawners is Riot Starships.

[TechSY730]

Blade spawners are most certainly OP right now, but they are not broken. They may be too strong right now, but there are practical ways to deal with them.
I'd say reduce the speed of the spawner and half the damage of the spawned blades (or as an alertnative, half the spawn rate of the blades). Even at half DPS, their DPS will be crazy good.
The insane speed of the spawned blades is to deal with the poor granularity of the targeting algorithm and the blade's short lifespan.

Incidentally, have you tried gravity to counter them?
Gravity pretty much shuts them down.
Of course, this doesn't very much when attacking an AI planet, due to the relative rarity of mobile gravity emitting ships.

[Huaojozu]

Just to make it clear, I'm referring to Blade Spawners being OP in the hands of the player, as the AI engages in a sort of kite chasing instead of circling around and attacking from multiple sides.

In the hands of the AI, they are annoying but not too bad.

[TechSY730]

Just to make it clear, I'm referring to Blade Spawners being OP in the hands of the player, as the AI engages in a sort of kite chasing instead of circling around and attacking from multiple sides.

In the hands of the AI, they are annoying but not too bad.

Oh.

Well, even in that case, I would have to say they are OP but not brokenly good. And what I suggested still stands (though thinking back, halfing the effective DPS of the blades seems a bit too harsh, maybe .75x it instead)
Plasma sieges are painfully slow for a good reason, and thus blade spawners should have a slow speed as well.

EDIT: oh yea, and the targeting logic of the AI should probably be double checked to not explicately target spawned blades (though it should still fire on then if they get too close via normal autotargeting), that way they don't get distracted from what should be their primary focus when fighting a blade spawner, taking out the actual spawner.

[zoutzakje]

blade spawners are good, but I wouldn't call them OP. Low caps, lame auto-targeting, expensive and fragile. They might be good for 7/7 games, but for any 9/9 game I prefer to rely on other ships. I started with blade spawners on a 9/9 crosshatch game and despite the fact that they are amazing for defense, I think I could have accomplished more with other ship types. Planets reinforce faster than I can kill enemy units or guard posts with blade spawners.

[Wanderer]

I find Blade Spawners to be a solid, effective unit.  However, I don't find them to be overpowered.  Yes, they can clear a 50-60 ship planet that's been non-alerted very easily, and can do the same to a 150 ship planet eventually.

I'd expect the same out of a full cap of Missile Frigates I/II/III.

There are ships immune to blade spawns which can make you crazy, but they're few and far between and I like it that way.

However, I've tried the tactic you're describing, in a few different formats, against significant defenses (200+ ships MK III+, 500 ships MK I+).  I've done kiting, cloaked transports, the works.  Eventually they just can't kill everything coming for them and ships that are 'cutting the corner' will eventually catch them, they're not THAT fast.  From a time-basis however, how LONG does it take them to kite the system for you?  If it's 30 minutes to clear a system, I don't find that overpowered.  I find it a waste of firepower.  I could build a fortress or two for the same price and same general effect.  Blade Spawners ain't cheap, and you've spent 8500 in Knowledge to get there.

I wouldn't mind if Blade Spawners were made more 'glass cannon' ish so that if anything was able to finally catch them they'd die in a puff of logic, but I'd hate to see them nerfed from a firepower perspective.  With the new reinforcement changes lowering the volume of AI reinforcement spawns of them, my largest concern (them in the hands of the AI during early game when you've only got MK I to work with) has been mostly removed.  Now, once their targetting gets cleaned up and they stop having issues against guardians/guardposts under glass and having an addiction to shooting at the forcefield itself, I might agree with you when I see that in action.

[chemical_art]

As implied on many posts.

In a sparse world, they dominate. However, you get no control over what they attack. So in larger battles they are not nearly as good. They are still good, but in larger battles the damage  is not so dramactic since you cannot focus at all.

[LintMan]

I'm with Wanderer - if they need to be nerfed, I'd rather it be in terms of fragility and maybe kiteability, rather than firepower.  Between the already mentioned lack of focus, severe vulnerability to gravity, small ship cap, and blade-immune ships and structures, I think it's not so OP that its firepower needs nerfing.