Poll: Worst Ship Of The (time interval) Award (II)

[keith.lamothe]

It's that time again...

List came from nominations here, if you're curious.  Since the cutlass didn't get re-nominated, the last poll was at least something of a success

Anyway, which one needs a positive rebalance the most?  Some creativity in applying the buff will be used if it seems appropriate, but in general we aren't looking to add crazy new mechanics or overhaul existing ones during this timeframe.  Definitely thinking about the armor discussion, for example, but for now armor as a mechanic is unlikely to see sweeping changes because that's better suited to a time when we're working full-bore on AIW.

Thanks for the feedback!

[TechSY730]

I'm voting the Armor booster this time around. IMO, the need a minimum armor to boost to. Also, they need to stop boosting non FF modules, as those are invincible now.

[Coppermantis]

It's tricky. There are lots of ships that aren't too useful for humans but devilish in the hands of the AI. Teleport battle stations fall under this category, they tend to die pretty easily and don't do too much damage, but when the AI gets them it's a nightmare to defend against. At least for me. I'm going to have to go with Space Tank, not tanky enough last time I played with them. Unless they've been changed recently, I haven't seen them in a while.

[Cyborg]

I voted for the acid sprayer, but that system is going to be rebalanced eventually, anyways.

[chemical_art]

I want all melee ships to be feared.

Then I do a three homeworld start and

Just. Burn. Everything.

[Kittens]

I voted Sentinel Frigate because it sounds like it's a ship that should be particularly awesome but isn't.

[zoutzakje]

am I allowed to vote for ships I actually already like, but wouldn't mind to see them buffed even more?

[Eternaly_Lost]

I voted for the spider again, but I know that Acid Sprayer, Armor Booster and Armor Rotter all need work, just a lot more then you are willing to do as the whole Armor system likely need an overhaul to make them work. I flat out laughed at AI in the the 4 homeworld 10/10 game that just started when I saw their bonus ships were: Acid Sprayer, Armor Rotter, and Armor Booster. I don't know if they could get a worse set of ships to use, and it makes me hopeful this is the time that I will get the double godlike achievement. I know it would likely be a lot easier with only 1 or 2 worlds, but I really like the cap size of ships on 4 homeworlds. 1 just feels too small of a game to me.

[TechSY730]

I voted for the spider again, but I know that Acid Sprayer, Armor Booster and Armor Rotter all need work, just a lot more then you are willing to do as the whole Armor system likely need an overhaul to make them work. I flat out laughed at AI in the the 4 homeworld 10/10 game that just started when I saw their bonus ships were: Acid Sprayer, Armor Rotter, and Armor Booster. I don't know if they could get a worse set of ships to use

Although those ships definitely need work in their "average case" usefulness, you'll find them to be very annoying at times. Those armor rotters will wreak havoc with your hardened forcefields, raid starships, and golems. (some of the few cases where armor is noticeable currently)
And armor boosters + starships (particularly raid) is actually pretty good. If you have a source of exos, you may even get armor boosters + spirecraft or golems.

Acid sprayers...their ferocity depends on what you chose for your bonus ship(s). EDIT: Though be on the lookout for their heavy bonus (they have heavy bonus, right?).
They actually have a polycyrstal bonus, which actually is rather annoying.

[Eternaly_Lost]

I voted for the spider again, but I know that Acid Sprayer, Armor Booster and Armor Rotter all need work, just a lot more then you are willing to do as the whole Armor system likely need an overhaul to make them work. I flat out laughed at AI in the the 4 homeworld 10/10 game that just started when I saw their bonus ships were: Acid Sprayer, Armor Rotter, and Armor Booster. I don't know if they could get a worse set of ships to use

Although those ships definitely need work in their "average case" usefulness, you'll find them to be very annoying at times. Those armor rotters will wreak havoc with your hardened forcefields, raid starships, and golems. (the few cases where armor is noticeable currently)
And armor boosters + starships (particularly raid) is actually pretty good. If you have a source of exos, you may even get armor boosters + spirecraft or golems.

Acid sprayers...their ferocity depends on what you chose for your bonus ship(s). Though be on the lookout for their heavy bonus (they have heavy bonus, right?).

My bonus ships have been Maws, snipers and whatever is needed to have those two connected in a nice line. I normally do play with both Spire Hard and Golem hard, but I dropped those down to easy for the 10/10 game, I am still however doing the full Fallen Spire Campaign so I will be seeing Exo waves.

I don't normally use hardened forcefields outside of an extended cap of forcefields, so I don't know how how that will go over, my raiders are almost always deep striking into the AI worlds to clear up guardposts, so maybe the Raid Starships are dying faster then they normally would. But given that I am using them to pop guard posts to draw AI units to the wormhole just outside my whipping boy so that my Maws can hop in, grab a bunch then hop out and drop them off next to the botnet, I don't care that much that they die, so long as they sent a few dozen to several hundred ships my way.

That works quite wonderfully at keeping the AI from getting massive blocks of threat, and a few Spire Frigates work wonderful with the Maws to take out anything that is immune to them. The only real problem with it, is that there is no way to unloaded everything but Mk. V ships, so I do have to be careful that I don't just unload a few hundred ships next to the botnet that it can't hurt, I had an accident unload kill that botnet more times that I would care to count. The number of ships a full cap of Mk 1-4 Maws on high caps with four homeworlds can hold is scary in a way.

[TechSY730]

The interesting thing is that I don't see any ship on that list that is totally useless. Almost all of them can be somewhat threatening in the right circumstances. Sure, many of them are too specialized for their "niches", and thus not good enough "on average", but at least they can do something well.

Oh, and another shameless plug about armor boosters. 
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=6028

EDIT: Yes, armor boosters, not armor ships. Fixed

[chemical_art]

If spiders win, are they getting double buffed?

[keith.lamothe]

If spiders win, are they getting double buffed?

Maybe

[Orelius]

You're talking about armor boosters, and not armor ships, right?

The armor booster definitely needs some way to benefit unarmored ships; they're generally useless since there is little difference between the defensive value of each mark.

Speaking of which, how many ships max can a single armor booster/munitions booster boost, anyway?  There is no information in-game about it.

Either way, I still think acid sprayers really need a rework.  Their role is simply too niche for both the player and the AI, since its effectiveness banks entirely on what kinds of bonus ships that the player or the AI get.  The only nasty thing I can think of them doing is chewing up spire shards, but that's about all.

If spiders win, are they getting double buffed?

That's sort of why I ended up voting for acid sprayers, since spiders are going to get buffed anyway.

[TechSY730]

I changed my vote to Acid Sprayers.
Although they are amazing when up against what they have a bonus against, they are pretty underwhelming otherwise.
Sadly, in the VAST majority of cases, they won't be up against what they have a bonus against.

Though their polycyrstal bonus does make them nice bomber counters.