Making All ARS Unlocks Attractive - Come Vote

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, before I started this balance run laser gatlings had the highest raw-dps-at-cap of any of the dps-focused ship types.  I've toned down the sheer bulk of the damage a bit but also given them a decent armor-piercing (thematically, the other laser units have armor piercing of some kind, etc).  As of 4.047 they should work very well for dealing damage against most things, though they themselves will also die pretty fast.

[lanstro]

Bulletproof Fighters - balanced/overpowered: generally better than normal fighters so it is at the least balanced, but not one of the super ship types

Tachyon MicroFighters - balanced: the 4.046 changes make them seem ok

Raiders - balanced/underpowered: haven't used these for a long time so this might be off, but these things are really fragile require some micromanagement to use properly to take advantage of their long range.  Given the current state of the game (where you just mass up a blob of death), proper micromanagement isn't going to happen, and their fragility makes them not that useful.

Parasites - Currently being discussed.

Vampire Claws - Underpowered.  When the patch that made command stations immune to vampire claws came in, these guys became close to useless.  If that has changed, then I will have to reassess.

Raptors - Underpowered.  Being blazing fast is useless if you do no damage.

Snipers - Dunno, haven't tried since latest balance changes.

Space Tanks - Balanced

Electric Shuttles - Balanced

Vorticular Cutlasses - Underpowered.  Just don't see much of a use for these.

Infiltrators - Dunno

Eye Bots - Underpowered.  Jack of a few trades, useless at all.

Spiders - Balanced.  And fun.

Laser Gatlings - Balanced/Overpowered.  Good solid ship.

Autocannon Minipods - Underpowered.  Don't seem to do enough damage.

Deflector Drones - Dunno

Space Planes -  Underpowered.  Like most cloaking specialist ships, they just can't compare to starships when it comes to sniping/raiding things. 

EtherJet Tractors - Underpowered.  Fun but ultimately not useful.

Force Field Bearers -  Overpowered.  No explanation needed.

Armor Ships - Balanced.  And boring.

Anti-Armor Ships - Balanced

MLRS - Dunno

Munitions Boosters - Balanced

Teleport Raiders - Balanced

Teleport Battle Stations -  Overpowered.  Defensive powerhouses.

Zenith Remnant Unlocks

Zenith Bombardment Ships - Balanced.

Zenith AutoBombs - Balanced

Grenade Launchers - Dunno, been too long

Zenith Electric Bombers - Overpowered.  Tough things that don't die are all very powerful (ie starships and things like starships)

Sentinel Frigates - Balanced

Zenith Mirrors - Dunno

Zenith Paralyzers -  Underpowered.  They always seem to die like flies.

Shield Boosters - Dunno

Zenith Beam Frigates - Balanced

Zenith Chameleons - Balanced/Overpowered - extra bombers are always good

Zenith Polarizers - Balanced/Overpowered - ships that take down big things are always good

Zenith Viral Shredders - Dunno how they work now.  Several patches ago they were definitely overpowered since you ended up with thousands of them.

Impulse Reaction Emitters - Dunno

Acid Sprayers - Underpowered.  Worst ship class in the game maybe?

Children of Neinzul Unlocks - all underpowered.  They all require way more planning and micromanagement to use properly than normal ships.  Don't see any proper reward for the effor of setting up regen chambers/transport chains/mobile ship factories.

[Fleet]

Raiders - balanced/underpowered: haven't used these for a long time so this might be off, but these things are really fragile require some micromanagement to use properly to take advantage of their long range.  Given the current state of the game (where you just mass up a blob of death), proper micromanagement isn't going to happen, and their fragility makes them not that useful.

The current state of the game is using blobs of death? Are you playing the latest betas? On a large map with decent AI diff? Blobbing should not be the uber-tactic it used to be.

[Suzera]

Blobs of death win.

[Lancefighter]

tbh, its 'kill eye, THEN blob of death' nowadays..

[Fleet]

tbh, its 'kill eye, THEN blob of death' nowadays..

Right you are.

[Suzera]

That's what I meant anyway. And you just kill the eye with a slightly smaller blob of death or MAYBE some starships.

[lanstro]

Raiding eyes, command stations and other high value targets goes without saying.  Blob of death is the clean-up operation.

The supposedly specialised ship types for raiding and whatnot are generally inferior to small starship fleets or just the good ol' blob of bombers and fighters in a transport.  Then when it comes to the blob o' death phase, they're less powerful than more 'normal' ships because they were designed for their specialised roles.

[Vinraith]

Raiding eyes, command stations and other high value targets goes without saying.  Blob of death is the clean-up operation.

The supposedly specialised ship types for raiding and whatnot are generally inferior to small starship fleets or just the good ol' blob of bombers and fighters in a transport.  Then when it comes to the blob o' death phase, they're less powerful than more 'normal' ships because they were designed for their specialised roles.

Generally true, though I've found that if you knock out the tachyon guardian at the entrance you're using space planes are the single best planet-neutering device in the entire game. A cap of them can wipe out every post in a system faster, cleaner, and with less blowback than anything else in the game.