Scorpion is a joke.

[Ian Skippy]

Not really fair comparisons.

What I meant was that a Scarab can already drop foot soldiers within 1-3s. Giving the Scorpion the same capability wouldn't really change the game that much.

Right now the balance is this:

Scorpion: stronger, can easily take out heavier targets like goliaths but struggles against infantry at long range.
Scarab: fragile, cannot easily deal with heavy targets but can take out infantry at range.

Your question is basically:"Is it a good idea to remove the only drawback of the Scorpion?". Well, not really. I would assume that to most people "sit outside of a settlement and slaughter everyone and everything with impunity" isn't very good design anyway. Right now the Scarab and Scorpion complement each other, both have weaknesses and uses. An 'excellent at everything' vehicle is going to be problematic at best and frustrating at worst.

 

[PureEvilPie]

The scarab is quicker and has more cargo space AND it has a materials scanner. You talk as if combat is the only thing in the game. It'd be like making the type 9 better at combat than the corvette lmao.

 

[zimms]

Right now the balance is this:

Scorpion: stronger, can easily take out heavier targets like goliaths but struggles against infantry at long range.
Scarab: fragile, cannot easily deal with heavy targets but can take out infantry at range.

Your question is basically:"Is it a good idea to remove the only drawback of the Scorpion?". Well, not really. I would assume that to most people "sit outside of a settlement and slaughter everyone and everything with impunity" isn't very good design anyway. Right now the Scarab and Scorpion complement each other, both have weaknesses and uses. An 'excellent at everything' vehicle is going to be problematic at best and frustrating at worst.

Combat isn't the only aspect of the game.

And Elite is not Halo. We don't necessarily need some rock/paper/scissors balancing approach. That's your preference, mine would be closer to Arma.

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

Right now the balance is this:

Scorpion: stronger, can easily take out heavier targets like goliaths but struggles against infantry at long range.
Scarab: fragile, cannot easily deal with heavy targets but can take out infantry at range.

One thing I don't see anyone discussing is the fact that the Scorpion finally gives you a ground vehicle that can fight back and easily down ships!

No more racing away from that Military Installation (with it's flying ship patrols) in a Scarab dodging fire and just wishing they would go away (and they never do). No, now you can switch to your turret and shoot them down! You actually have a tool now to clear the LZ before you recall your ship! I love it.

 

[Drebin Omega]

One thing I don't see anyone discussing is the fact that the Scorpion finally gives you a ground vehicle that can fight back and easily down ships!

That was one thing that really surprised me, earlier today I was able to destroy an un-shielded Keelback that was surface-docked during a pirate extermination mission. While I would still appreciate a bit more accuracy against ground troops, that ship nuking really was impressive!

 

[Winterdyne]

Your question is basically:"Is it a good idea to remove the only drawback of the Scorpion?". Well, not really. I would assume that to most people "sit outside of a settlement and slaughter everyone and everything with impunity" isn't very good design anyway. Right now the Scarab and Scorpion complement each other, both have weaknesses and uses. An 'excellent at everything' vehicle is going to be problematic at best and frustrating at worst.

You're being deliberately awkward here. The question isn't 'is it a good idea to remove the only drawback' it's 'who thought it was a good idea to implement this as the drawback?'. As you and I discussed previously, a hard-hitting anti armour weapon and masking infantry signatures somehow is the sensible counter. It's both what works in a multitude of other mixed combat games from FPS to RTS and happens to be pretty much an analogue to 'realism'.

Putting what feels like a 15-20 degree fire cone on is very much a half-arsed approach to increasing the roles in combat. In something like SC's iterative alpha process I might expect it as a 'shake bugs loose' drop, but even then such things rarely make it to the public test servers, instead being er, tested in the private tests.

Edit: Should probably hold my hands up and say that I'm annoyed at the way FDev have handled things with Odyssey. It is, completely objectively, an iterative alpha that's being pushed out as a series of live updates, which don't seem to have been build-tested particularly well. It doesn't feel like it's been thought out fully either - each build seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to the previous.

 

[Ian Skippy]

You're being deliberately awkward here. The question isn't 'is it a good idea to remove the only drawback' it's 'who thought it was a good idea to implement this as the drawback?'.

I commented to someone who is simply asking for the gun to be more accurate, without any other proposal or change. As I told you, I dont agree with such suggestions. If its part of a package of proposals, such as what you did, its a whole other story. Thats not me being awkward, thats me responding to different people differently when they say different things.

 

[Chaparral]

Normally with the Scarab, I get a message about the turret deploying at a certain distance from the ship. Do you get the same message for the Scorpion, I don't remember seeing it?

If the turret does not have deploy before the weapons are functional, that is a scorpion advantage.

I think there has to be some kind of accuracy / jitter balancing between the two vehicles. Multicannons have a spin up time, perhaps that could be applied here instead of the jitter?

I actually did enjoy the scorpion last night aside from some odd collision behavior when running into materials/canisters.

 

[Riverside]

Normally with the Scarab, I get a message about the turret deploying at a certain distance from the ship. Do you get the same message for the Scorpion, I don't remember seeing it?

If the turret does not have deploy before the weapons are functional, that is a scorpion advantage.

I think there has to be some kind of accuracy / jitter balancing between the two vehicles. Multicannons have a spin up time, perhaps that could be applied here instead of the jitter?

I actually did enjoy the scorpion last night aside from some odd collision behavior when running into materials/canisters.

It's the same for all the ships I've used it with. Smaller ships it's 50m, larger ships it's 150m.

 

[Lulzwhat]

It’s a lot better when you have 2 players in it.

The constant moving makes you practically immune to plasma hand weapons and the gunner is at their best if they just tape down the fire button.

You can target ship components if you select them in the left panel prior to going in the turret. If you could get the shields down on an NPC ship it could be funny when you target the thrusters and they crash to the ground.

Stats wise the guns look like they are anti vehicle\ship with the long range and the way the turret can almost point to vertical.

You can drive from turret view with yourself, and 2nd gunner no change gun spread.

 

[Lulzwhat]

*: The scarab needs a tone-down now to accomodate the Scorpion. As has been mentioned elsewhere if it's role is not combat, it probably shouldn't be quite so good at it. When you expand the gamespace, a rebalance is necessary.

Nefring old things to match crappy new things is worst way to make a balance.

 

[ZenonSeth]

Scorpion: stronger, can easily take out heavier targets like goliaths but struggles against infantry at long range.

Ok, this is a serious question. I've only really done ground CGs and a few raids of a small pirate settlement that had 1 small drone.

Is there ever a requirement to take on those larger settlements with Goliath drones? Other than for the glory/fun I mean?

 

[Ian Skippy]

Ok, this is a serious question. I've only really done ground CGs and a few raids of a small pirate settlement that had 1 small drone.

Is there ever a requirement to take on those larger settlements with Goliath drones? Other than for the glory/fun I mean?

Different settlements have different engineer material drops. Some stuff drops in military bases, for example.

 

[Sighman]

Ok, this is a serious question. I've only really done ground CGs and a few raids of a small pirate settlement that had 1 small drone.

Is there ever a requirement to take on those larger settlements with Goliath drones? Other than for the glory/fun I mean?

Yep - 'Massacre members of x at settlement y'

You turn up to Y and it's crawling with NPCs and there's a Goliath and Sys Def ships overhead. Scarab is useless. On foot you will die.

I failed maybe 2-3 of those several months ago, and eventually completed one sticking to a stealth approach. But for players who want to Rambo the place, the Scorpion will get rid of the Goliath and the ships.

 

[Christopher Roberto]

Is there ever a requirement to take on those larger settlements with Goliath drones? Other than for the glory/fun I mean?

No. If you're bored you can try killing Goliaths but there's never a need to. Just camp near some ammo and feed the sponge some bullets.

 

[NinjaClarinet]

I don't know if the Scorpion is useless, but its mere existence has made me appreciate the humble Scarab a great deal more. I pilot my Scarab with a joystick and have its thrusters on a thumb key. With full pips to engines I can fly the thing around like a hovercraft. My wheels are only occasionally on the ground. The Scorpion cannot do this. Mobility is always the greatest weapon.