Nominations for Worst Ship Ever (VII)

[keith.lamothe]

The changes from poll VI were just today pushed out in a beta, but I figured we could get the ball rolling on nominations for another poll.  If you've actually had play experience in 5.043+ with the winners of the last poll and still think they're in the running then feel free to nominate them again

So: what most needs a buff?  Anything human-usable is fair-game this time around, though the poll will probably only have 2-3 votes per person.

For reference, previous winners (in the sense that they got buffs as a result) :
I - Vorticular Cutlass
II - Acid Sprayer
III - IRE, Space Plane, Vampire Claw
IV - Harvester Exo-Shield, Harvester, Warp Jammer Command Station, Mobile Repair Station
V - Neinzul Enclave Starship (buffs, can now build drones), Armored Warhead, Manufactories, Teleport Battlestation, Riot MkIII (new modules)
VI - Zenith Reserve, Decloaker, Captive Human Settlement, Spire Armor Rotter

[TechSY730]

Hmm,

the other experimental units (especially the rarely seen ones like translocators)
Teleport raiders (too little cap HP for too little damage)
Spirecraft Ion blaster (their auto-targeting glitch makes them basically worthless)
Zenith viral shredders (right now their reproduce penalty per ship cap is too high IMO, http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=6716)

[Wingflier]

I think you should put up the same poll as last time, minus the 4. There were a lot of high scoring options in there.

[Varone]

Core lightning post on AI Homeworlds, sorry but they are quite pathetic and i breathe a sigh of relief when the homeworld has a few on these on it.

I'm still thinking the Zenith and Spire Starship for a buff of somesorts.

[TechSY730]

Oh, another nomination:

Spirecraft implosion artillery: Aside from low marks being near worthless in damage even though high marks can do crazy damage, their cap HP seems to be too low.

EDIT:
I would also like to give a honorable mention to the bomber starship. I think that leaving their stats as is (but maybe a 2x or so multiplier to structural), but increasing their HP a bit and increasing their ship cap to 5 would put them about on par with the plasma seiges.

And finally, I would like to renominate my Mk. II military starship (Zenith starship and higher for the fleet starship line) nomination, for the sole reason of knowledge costs.

[TechSY730]

I'm still thinking the Zenith and Spire Starship for a buff of somesorts.

If the Zenith and the Spire starships get a buff, I'd rather see them split into their own lines.
However, if that isn't feasible in the current timescale, then perhaps they could get some of the things that made them more unique from before their last rebalance, but in a more balanced fashion of course.

Core lightning post on AI Homeworlds, sorry but they are quite pathetic and i breathe a sigh of relief when the homeworld has a few on these on it.

Most of the core guard posts are rather sad. In fact, guard posts in general seem rather sad.

[Minotaar]

Nominating the Spire Archive for this one. The structure is really interesting, as it provides a reason to kill the AIs separately, but right now it is just not worth it at really any difficulty. It is basically a 120 AIP investment with a risk of taking 80 more, it needs to provide a suitable reward.

Also re-nominate the Infiltator.

[Kahuna]

Grenade Launcher (Cannon fodder yay)
Zenith Mirror (Absolutely worthless  )
Deflector Drone (Meh)
Zenith Electric Bomber (No reason to pick over any other ship)
EtherJet Tracktor (Poor man's Space Plane?)
Electric Shuttle (No damage + rush towards enemy just to get insta killed)
Infiltrator (Mosquito without proboscis O_o ?)
Neinzul Youngling Vulture
Zenith Chameleon (Meh)
Raider (Meh)
Starships (Star Wrecks? )

[Ricca]

I think the reason why the Mirrors are fairly useless is that I haven't actually seen their shots do 10x damage to any ship they hit, only the normal amount.

And I'd also nominate Infiltrators.

[Varone]

Most of the core guard posts are rather sad. In fact, guard posts in general seem rather sad.

I think guardposts on normal planets are acceptable, not sure we want those very deadly do we?

Some of the homeworld posts just don't live up to the hype though.

[PokerChen]

Most of the core guard posts are rather sad. In fact, guard posts in general seem rather sad.

I think guardposts on normal planets are acceptable, not sure we want those very deadly do we?

Some of the homeworld posts just don't live up to the hype though.

It's mostly the heavy beam guardpost vastly outshning (literally) almost every other guardpost. Perhaps if the others could be increased by 80%~200% and the beam brought down... btw Zenith Bombard Guard Posts needs more bullets. It doesn't feel core unless it's firing a cap of anti-matter bombs, just like the Heavy Beam is firing with the power of 240 core-beam frigates...

[Hearteater]

Well, if we want to buff Core Guard Posts, I've got a few thoughts .

[TechSY730]

Ooh, the Golemite AI golems. 1/10 HP is WAY too much of an HP penalty. 1/2 maybe? (With 1/4 for the armored golem, I guess)

And speaking of golems,

I'm not sure I feel all the Golems need so much of a nerf (except Botnet...he's insane) as I'd like the Exo waves to really be a bit more meaningful to counteract them.  If Exos got noticeable tougher each time you activated a Golem, and kept that bonus even if you lost the golem, that might help.  But even base Exo strength might need to go up.  And/or, maybe Golems - Hard should merge in some of the Golems - Medium energy cost.

Although base exo-strength could use a buff, I feel the issue is more that "centralization" chances need to be tweaked some. Generally, tweak the chances such that the AI will centralize its exo-wave more should go up some.

Also, I suggested elsewhere, that an exo-waves can take a cue from the recent wave computation changes and alter the "centralization" chance should be tied to how many in-points it can copute. Now of course, computing the number of in-points for a exo-wave is a bit trickier, as they can spawn from any warp gate, not just from ones adjacent to a player world. However, this would help them deal with chokepoint style setups better, as more centralized exo-waves tend to do better at hurting well defended choke points, while spreading out is often better technique if there are many ways to get to your "juicy home command station" (or whatever they will try to go for)

I do like the idea of adding some relation between the strength and/or recharge time to their respective activating minor faction usage.

However, as this is a "buff" request for a mechanic, this should probably go into the other nomination thread.

[Hearteater]

I'd like to throw out the Armored Golem.  Compared to the other Golems he is just so weak.  500 million health sounds like a lot...but it never seems to be enough.  Maybe he just needs to be made immune to Armor Piercing.

[laughingman]

I'd like the knowledge costs of Mark III starships to come into line with what a Mark III fleet ship costs.
Splitting the Alien starships into its own line and reducing their knowledge costs seems like a good idea.
Experimental fleet ships ships need a look, too. The decoy has such a low cap that I've found it to be pretty much worthless.