Plasma siege ship and bomber starship oddities.

[rabican]

Plasma siege description says its great vs forcefields, yet it does 0 damage vs them.

Bomber ships can't attack smallcrafts at all. Description should say this at least.  These seem kinda bad at the moment, they kinda share a role with raid starships but are worse at everything. Besides attacking fortresses. Or maybe as anti-starship defense.

Plasma siege name is bit misleading, as it is probably best defensive starship.

[TechSY730]

Plasma siege description says its great vs forcefields, yet it does 0 damage vs them.

Bomber ships can't attack smallcrafts at all. Description should say this at least.  These seem kinda bad at the moment, they kinda share a role with raid starships but are worse at everything. Besides attacking fortresses. Or maybe as anti-starship defense.

Plasma siege name is bit misleading, as it is probably best defensive starship.

The bomber starship does need a buff of some kind. Even if it is nothing but enough HP to work with their poor range and a slight damage buff would be enough (unlike the bomber fleetships, bomber starships have a great rate of fire).

Strange about the forcefield thing. In my games, plasma sieges have been able to hit forcefields just fine. They no longer use anti-matter shots, which standard forcefields are immune to.
Though I have noticed a couple of times the actual hit failing to register when targeting a forcefield, even though the bullet is shot. It's hard to reproduce though, and only happens sometimes. (See http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=5884)

[TechSY730]

Oh, and welcome to the forums. 

[rabican]

Yeah they can target FF's just fine, but a lot of times they just do no damage. Try hitting a 100% FF when there is nothing inside, from what i see it always ends up doing 0 damage.

[TechSY730]

Yeah they can target FF's just fine, but a lot of times they just do no damage. Try hitting a 100% FF when there is nothing inside, from what i see it always ends up doing 0 damage.

Hmm, that may be the key to the bug we encountered. Thanks.
Will add this piece of info to the bug report.

[keith.lamothe]

Welcome to the forums   If you have a save where you can reliably load it up do zero damage to an FF with a Plasma Siege, please attach it to a post here and I'll take a look

I've tried reproducing it in the past, to no avail

[Shrugging Khan]

I'd suggest giving Bomber Starships minor damage bonuses against Structural, Ultra-Heavy, Command-Grade etc.

[TechSY730]

I'd suggest giving Bomber Starships minor damage bonuses against Structural, Ultra-Heavy, Command-Grade etc.

That would work, and would reinforce their similar role to bomber fleetships.

However, as you mentioned, the bonus should be minor. Their unboosted DPS is already pretty good, even by star-ship standards.

If we want to get crazy, the unboosted DPS can go down a good chunk and make it allowed to hit non-large stuff (though favoring large stuff, like the plasma siege starship now), but I kind of like the role they got now. It just needs a bit of a buff to do its role well enough to be worth it.

[rabican]

OK. here is a save. Reloaded twice and it persisted. 2 Siege ships hitting standard forcefields for 0 damage, and one hitting ff guard post doing regular damage.

[keith.lamothe]

OK. here is a save. Reloaded twice and it persisted. 2 Siege ships hitting standard forcefields for 0 damage, and one hitting ff guard post doing regular damage.

Thanks, I put it on my AIW list

[LintMan]

Bomber ships can't attack smallcrafts at all. Description should say this at least.

Yes.  For some reason I can never remember this and have gotten burned by it a few times.  Fixing the description would be good.  Or if possible, maybe it should be allowed to hit smaller stuff, but prioritize bigger targets?

[Ranakastrasz]

Bomber ships can't attack smallcrafts at all. Description should say this at least.

Yes.  For some reason I can never remember this and have gotten burned by it a few times.  Fixing the description would be good.  Or if possible, maybe it should be allowed to hit smaller stuff, but prioritize bigger targets?

Especialyl when it says its good vs anything with high health.

Although, I've heard about how Armor fleet ships are not particularly durable, so maybe thats why they are not valid :p

[TechSY730]

Although, I've heard about how Armor fleet ships are not particularly durable, so maybe thats why they are not valid :p

They're durable by fleet ship standards.
Of course, that is like saying something is big by ant standards.

[keith.lamothe]

A cap of armor ships can take more damage than a cap of most kinds of starship

[TechSY730]

A cap of armor ships can take more damage than a cap of most kinds of starship

I was talking about an individual armor ship. At cap, yea, they can take some damage.

The debate about their usefulness is not as much about their durability but rather if their cap cost is worth it, especially considering their lackluster attack and move speeds.