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

[keith.lamothe]

Nominations from this thread.

So, who's next?

Thanks for the feedback

[TechSY730]

Now that the polarizer minimum damage thing on things with 0 armor has been fixed, polarizers are at least worthwhile to consider using now. Can't say the same for IREs.

Want me to repost my average energy use stats?

I still think that vampire claws and infiltrators could use some love, they just don't need it as much.

A simple change to the armor boosters would be enough to keep them useful until the armor rebalance is done, the minimum armor to boost to suggestion by Spikey00 that I posted to Mantis (and credited him for) (http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=6054)

[chemical_art]

I want this to be true!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9t5ZqeHcYk

It should be all of our masters.

[Kittens]

IRE's are at least very good against BIG THINGS.

I once started off with space planes because their thing was 'hard to kill' or at least 'hard to target' and they had a polycrystal multiplier iirc. So yay, dodgy stuff that kills bomber waves, I'll have 200 please.

Found out their damage per shot was so low, even with the multiplier, that they hardly tickled the bombers because of their armor. We... started a new game after we found that out. So... I dunno, more damage per shot, slower reload, more armor piercing?

[TechSY730]

Oh dang. We may wind up with an effective three way tie.

[keith.lamothe]

I don't mind buffing more than one ship if the results are very close, though it is promising that we're getting to the point where there are no outliers so incredibly obviously bad that they run away with the poll.

[TechSY730]

I don't mind buffing more than one ship if the results are very close, though it is promising that we're getting to the point where there are no outliers so incredibly obviously bad that they run away with the poll.

As I have said, despite our tendency to whine, the game is in very good shape balance wise.
Of course, improvements should be made, but these balance issues are very minor compared to the overall game balance.

[TechSY730]

Although it looks like the IREs are probably going to win at this point, claws and planes are not too far behind, and all three of them pretty desperate need a rebalance.

You don't mind do you? Or is AVWW work making it such that you can only afford to balance one ship this week?

[zoutzakje]

IRE's are winning this topic? Meh, they were pretty useful to me a while back. Ah well, a buff is always welcome I suppose

[keith.lamothe]

Calling this one for the IRE; will probably do something for the space plane and vampire claw too, since feedback has been fairly consistent there.

[chemical_art]

Is the claw as it is reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V2ylVXLgcQ

[keith.lamothe]

FYI, cross-posting from the 5.028 patch notes (aiming for a monday release) since (hopefully) people don't check those very often between releases :

* Impulse Reaction Emitter, in recognition of winning the 3rd "worst ship" award:
** Effective Range from 4200 => 6000.
** Base Move Speed from 20 => 30.  This makes it slightly faster than a fighter.
** Base Metal+Crystal cost from 300+300 => 250+250.  That's mkI; other marks use normal progression.
** Minimum multiplier from 5 => 8.
*** The base-cap-dps was already high at 73k and is now in the top 10 among fleet ships (including self-destructing ships and ships with no bonuses) at 117k, but this helps counterbalance the fact that it doesn't get more than the minimum multiplier against most fleet-ship targets.
** Multiplier from (target energy use)/1024 => (target energy use)/256.  So it starts getting a higher-than-minimum bonus against ships using 2049+ energy, up to the max multiplier of 30 against targets using 7680+ energy (note that the IRE is not any better damage-wise against max-multiplier targets, since it was already very powerful there).
** Thanks to the poll voters for bestowing this dubious honor, and for more specific feedback on what the unit actually was lacking.

* Space Plane, in recognition of doing really well in the 3rd "worst ship" poll:
** Vs-Hull multipliers from 2.4 => 3.2.
*** For reference, that's against Light (Fighter), Polycrystal (Bomber), Heavy (... a lot of things), and UltraHeavy.
*** Eyebots have 3.2, and a somewhat lower base-dps, but can shoot through forcefields.
** Seconds-per-salvo from 3 => 9.
** Base Attack Power from 600*mk => 1800*mk. 
*** So that's the same dps as before (aside from the multiplier increase), but higher alpha capacity for hit-and-run using their radar dampening, etc.
** Base Energy Use from 100 => 50, because with the 1.75x ship cap the default energy use (100) was kind of excessive.
** Base Metal+Crystal cost from 90+90 => 75+75 (that's mkI).  More in keeping with the dies-due-to-light-breeze-when-it-can-catch-them nature of the ship.
** And the AI is really happy about this part: the Space Plane is now immune to AoE damage.  That's bargained down from immune-to-gravity, so be happy.
** Thanks to the poll voters for their feedback on this unit.

* Vampire Claw, also in recognition of runner-up-for-worst-ship:
** Base Health from 5000*mk => 10000*mk. 
*** Previously they only had 4M cap-health, which was below even stuff like eyebots.  Kind of rough for a melee ship even with self-regen.  Now at 8M they're still really low compared to most fleet ships.
** Now have cloaking.  Be afraid.  Bring tachyons.  And garlic.
** Base Energy Use from 200 => 160.
** Base Attack Power from 650 => 850.
** Added Artillery to the hull types this has a bonus against (om nom missile frigate tasty).
** Thanks to the poll voters for their feedback on this unit.

[chemical_art]

* Vampire Claw, also in recognition of runner-up-for-worst-ship:
** Base Health from 5000*mk => 10000*mk. 
*** Previously they only had 4M cap-health, which was below even stuff like eyebots.  Kind of rough for a melee ship even with self-regen.  Now at 8M they're still really low compared to most fleet ships.
** Now have cloaking.  Be afraid.  Bring tachyons.  And garlic.
** Base Energy Use from 200 => 160.
** Base Attack Power from 650 => 850.
** Added Artillery to the hull types this has a bonus against (om nom missile frigate tasty).
** Thanks to the poll voters for their feedback on this unit.

Oh god my sides. So good. Very happy.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, maybe someone had already suggested it and I just forgot, but as I was poking at the numbers and I realized it had less health even than the cloaking units... hey, it fits the name

Seeing melee cloaking gains-health-when-attacking stuff in action was pretty funny   You could now also put the words "Vampire Claw vs Missile Frigate" in the dictionary for the phrase "Hard Counter".

[Diazo]

Just saw the changes to the 3 ships posted in the patch notes.

Vampire claw is looking scary. Really really scary. Cloaking + Tractor Beam Immunity + force field immunity = owies. Add in the missile immunity for additional fun and I think these just became one of the most threatening ships in the hands of the AI.

The last time I was playing against an AI with these unlocked I had them essentially walk right through my defenses while my fleet was out of range on the offense and could not get back. My two turret unlocks being both missile ammo did not help this mind you.

Could these get a 0.3 modifier against command stations? (Or are command stations immune to fusion cutters now?)

D.