The FLD in 2.0 does lag behind the Conda in combat capability. The lack of a class 4 primary weapon guts the FDL's DPS. Obviously that changes in a couple of days. Regardless, whoever thought jump range should be a balancing factor was dumb. The FDL can't do anything but fight. It wouldn't have the internals to lug cargo or explore. Even with a jump range of a billion light years it would only be good for fighting.
Does FD really think this is "healthy" balance?
- Thread starter Dave1029
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My FDL has 16t cargo space, enough to do most missions. And at 18LY jump range, it can be at Maia in 15 minutes. Anyway, a 5-railgun FDL rips through a conda in seconds, without it being able to do anything about it.
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Not entirely sure any opinion, no matter what it is, about the jump range of the FDL is more 'scientifically accurate' than any other anyway.
Personally I appreciate the differences in range. If my FDL had the range of the Viper MK4, I'd have no reason to use that ship as a long-range combat ship.
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Oh you know, mass and all of that.Not entirely sure any opinion, no matter what it is, about the jump range of the FDL is more 'scientifically accurate' than any other anyway.
and things in ED should have mass.
If you want to feel mass, try flying the Cutter.
Does FD really think this is "healthy" balance?
Imho if the combat ships had much higher jump abilities, it would be unhealthy and unbalanced. I think FD have it about right.
See, here's the thing I think personally people are missing or going "it is a game, so I should be able to do that"
You can jump around 13 ly, that is one heck of a distance covered, it is no small feat, FDL is a combat ship, yes, are you expecting an F16 or such to be able to fly for hours upon hours on end?, I think the fuel lasts generally around 4 hours, and if you go afterburner it tears through fuel in around 20 minutes. Then they even need maintenance too. My point, combat vessels are meant to be deployed where they are needed, in a reasonable radius, so an FDL say could easily cover 2-3 jump distance, that's a BIG area with little worry, but yes if you want to go to the other end of the civ space, it takes time. Seems perfectly in line with other combat orientated stuff we see.
An anaconda can fight very well, yes, but it has nowhere near the amount of advantages an FDL has.
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You may as well give up now. There have been a LOT of threads detailing the absurdity of using FSD range as a balancing tool - seriously, trading a players time for the privelidge of using the ship they feel is best suited for a task? But there appears to be as many masochists on the forums as there are honk-jump haters so we will never agree
"Space is big" seems to be the recurring theme. Except space is considerably bigger in some ships than others, for reasons unclear to me.
No it's perfectly clear to you because I've seen it explained to you at least 50 times in one of the many threads about it.
You just don't like it. That's fine, your life your opinions, but stop posting disingenuous comments like the one above and own it.
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I'd prefer mass to behave like it does in RL thanks and have the engines and thrusters and drives we buy affect the way a ship handles but that would mean making a complex flight model.
Some sort of automatic ship move wouldn't be that bad if it had a time element to it (based on distance). Pay a moving company to move your Eagle from Eravate to Fusang, but you have to wait 6 hours.
Which game is it you are talking about? Because it's not ED.
They do, don't they? That's what your shield's worked out on isn't it, mass of hull & modules * available power... or something like that?
Or did you mean mass as relates to momentum, which doesn't really exist in game?
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Ahh yes I see what you meant. Yeah momentum, conservation of energy, etc are all wrong. The ships don't behave in 3D space as they should. Annoying as hell if you know anything about it, but great if you're 12 years old and just want to play arcade games. *sigh* Don't get me started on this, Michael Brookes already yelled at me back in beta for complaining about the flight model.
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There has to be some balance, it isn't Rogue System or Kerbal Space.
But they do operate with some semblance of that if you turn flight assist off (which doesn't actually turn it -off- just down). The ships are like the ones in Space: Above and Beyond where they swish and zoom like atmospheric craft because they use positional thrusters to move the ship around, and as retrograde thrusters to prevent speeds too high to control safely for the given mass of the craft.
But they do operate with some semblance of that if you turn flight assist off (which doesn't actually turn it -off- just down). The ships are like the ones in Space: Above and Beyond where they swish and zoom like atmospheric craft because they use positional thrusters to move the ship around, and as retrograde thrusters to prevent speeds too high to control safely for the given mass of the craft.
Yep, like given the mass of the ship, how fast does it accelerate with X thrusters over Y thrusters (so between E and D say). You could get more technical by allowing control of how much power the thrusters can put out - so by pulling energy from the main engines you could divert to pitch or roll thrusts to give you tighter turns.
This would mean combat ships would want to be light to be maneuverable but, do you want armour which weighs more, bigger guns that weight more. If everything works towards constants rather than made up in FD's terms, it would make a lot more sense and ship configs would be more fun.
BTW everyone, nobody cares if your ship can do 10,20,30 or 50 LY's as it's useful only to you.
This is coming, FD has revealed such, 2.2 last I checked.
In real life combat vessels would be the quickest to arrive on scene. Meaning if ED were real life, the fighters would have the largest jump drives feasible. With the exception of the ones small enough to be carried by a Corvette or something. What's the point of having something that can fight, if it's late to the fight. I hate to tell you also, the FDL does not have many advantages over the Anaconda. The heat one is going away in two days, and the agility matters less the more skilled the pilot is. Fighting Eagles in my anaconda can be annoying. It can. But eventually they make a mistake and all my class 3 weapons tear into him at once. FDL doesn't have that kind of firepower. Time to kill is very high for the FDL.
Here's the flaw in this line of thinking in my mind, "arrive on destination" 'where'
They don't launch fighters from US to attack places in Syria, they have bases and such, and transport fighters with carriers as close to destination as possible.
Being able to go from one end of civ space to another, simply isn't comparable.
They would if you had aircraft that flew at 5000 kph on a thimble of fuel, or all you had to do to make a ship jump an enormous distance was making it light and put a larger FSD into it. Response times are absolutely critical for military that is the entire reason they have aircraft carriers in the first place, because they allow you to respond quickly and are themselves mobile.
Think of it this way, if the empire was going against the federation but the federation takes twice as long to get its forces anywhere, who do you thinks going to win? I mean didn't they have military fuel in the earlier Elites?