Well, while the devs are hard at work at AVWW, maybe we can start a discussion about fleet ship types that seem to be underwhelming currently. This way, we can get get one part of a "high priority" list of balance concerns for when AI War development starts up again.
Notice, this is only about fleet ships. Starship types, spirecraft, golems, and the like are for another discussion.
When making a post, please not only say the ship type name that seems underwhelming to you, but a explanation about why you are underwhelmed by them. Ideas for fixing them are optional.
Keep in mind, there is more than one way for a ship to be underwhelming. The top two ways are being underpowered, and being not worth the cost.
Here is my list.
Spire Teleporting Parasite:
This is a not worth the cost ship. They can do their job OK. Their HP is a bit on the low side for their ship cap, but not terrible. Their weapon is weak, but that is to be expected for a reclaiming ship type. Thanks to the fancy reclaiming damage logic, they can reclaim stuff decently.
The problem is that a below average HP (for their ship cap) combined with teleportation and a weak weapon means they don't have very good survivability. That would be fine, if their cost wasn't so dang high. I tried using them once for defense, but they died so much that I had to rebuild almost all of them after every wave. This really killed my crystal supplies so much I just stopped using them. I would recommend reducing their cost by a decent amount.
Zenith Autocannon Minipod:
These things are nice and cheap, but have a weak DPS even considering their ship cap. This is counteracted somewhat by their armor rotting properties. This would be nice, but there are two problems. One, armor is not a big factor. Average armor ratings on ships are a good 1 to 1.5 a magnitude LOWER than average weapon power. Even among (non giant) ship types specializing in armor, their armor value is a good half a magnitude lower than average weapon power. This means that armor rotting is not a valuable property, which makes the job of minipods, weakening ship durability, not do very much. Most ships won't take that much more damage at 0 armor than they do at full armor in the current balance of the game. The armor issue will not be easy to fix, as it will basically require a balance sweep.
Second, their targeting logic seems off. They seem to try to maximize DPS. That is fine. The problem is that due to their weak weapon, armor does matter to them. So to maximize DPS, they tend to seek out targets with the lowest armor. Well that's good for their DPS, but poor for their gimmick. One of their big jobs is to wear down the armor of the few things that have enough armor to make a difference in battle, which their current targeting logic causes them to avoid. Maybe adjusting their targetting logic (and the targeting logic of armor rotters in general) is to seek out maximal DPS assuming armor is 0, whether it currently is or not, because it soon will be.
Spire Armor Rotters:
Same issue with their gimmick as the minipod. But at least they have decent damage to make up for it. Similar targeting issues, but not as big of a deal because their attack is high enough to not automatically exclude armor when seeking out how to maximize DPS.
Armored Ships:
On the fence about this one, but it seems like their durability is not quite high enough to live up to their name.
Space Tanks:
Same thing with the armored ships.
Vampire Blades:
Their damage doesn't seem high enough to make their vampirism make much of a difference. At their current average health gain from vampirism, its almost as if they didn't have it at all.
EDIT: An increase to the percentage life regained with damage inflicted seems less likely to overpower them than a simple increase in damage.
Any thoughts or additions?
