That's fine but it's much easier to argue gameplay in this matter.
Indeed.
I'm not necessarily pro-SCB as I am anti-poor-arguments-against-SCBs-often-by-people-who-don't-have-much-experience-with-what-they-are-criticizing.
There is little doubt that SCBs can dramatically increase time-to-kill unless tactics that would not otherwise be necessary are used to work around them. This is not necessarily the case, and SCBs aren't the only thing that can do this, but if this increased TTK is a problem from one's perspective, it is a vastly better platform to base one's arguments on than something like 'balance'.
Still, even increased TTK isn't universal. SCBs didn't really increase my endurance in combat against other CMDRs either. Without SCBs, I tended to make quick hit-and-run attacks, kite my opponents to bore them into leaving or making mistakes, or force them to expend all of their ammo at ranges they weren't likely to land hits.
I can recall several occasions where I was in very protracted combats against people before SCBs were commonly used. The reason for this are my goals in combat, not the tools at my disposal. I'm fighting to destroy my opponent's ship, or failing that make sure my own ship is not destroyed. I do not care about dogfighting and I do not cater to the desires of my foes.
Some examples...
Kiting a Viper CMDR that interdicted me until he tries to leave, at which point I shoot him in the back:
[video=youtube;tY3xuv54s3o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY3xuv54s3o[/video]
Pulling the reverski on a suspiciously durable stealth Sidewinder for several minutes:
[video=youtube;aNeGXLsKGqc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNeGXLsKGqc[/video]
The last three minutes of a
twelve minute fight where I mostly fly around another CMDR till he does something excessively stupid and gets himself blown up:
[video=youtube;4_VQkRQzPaU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_VQkRQzPaU[/video]
My opponent did have SCBs in this last one, but I not, nor were my opponent's SBCs a significant factor.
SCBs allow me a little more margin for error, and my typical encounter length, at least against comparable ships, has actually decreased since they started to become prevalent. My tactics and skills have evolved to where I am more confident in my abilities, and more willing to dive into the fray, but if SCBs disappeared, I would probably adopt a much more cautious approach to combat which would result in vastly slower paced battles...or I'd just use a stealth ship that can take at least as much of a beating as most SCB "tanks".
SCBs cause people to give up on dogfighting! Reversing and firing is boring as hell and should not be a valid strategy, SCBs are one of the things that make it valid.
Reversing and firing is a way to keep a firing solution on faster or more nimble enemy, and/or force that enemy to move pips to ENG in order to overtake you. If something is susceptible to the reverski, it's susceptible with or without SCBs.
SCBs didn't really change how much I 'dogfight'. I tend to do whatever will, in my judgement, result in me taking the least amount of damage possible in exchange for the damage I am able to deliver.
What issue are Shield Cell Banks solving?
Morbad being an obnoxious opponent who won't hold still to let you shoot him.
Why are they in the game?
I don't really know why they were added and I strongly opposed their introduction at the time.
Combat ships facing each other shouldn't be about who has the most SCBs, right?
Unless both pilots are idiots, it almost never is.
What was wrong with the game when they weren't there?
Nothing. Well, nothing that was solved by SCBs.
If we all woke up tomorrow and Thebraben has pressed his magic button and deleted them, how would the gameplay suffer?
Everything since late Beta 2 has been introduced and balanced under the assumption of SCBs.
Just remove SCBs and my stealth clipper will single-handedly destroy whole wings of CMDR Pythons until everyone slaps on reflective armor and fills every internal compartment with hull reinforcers and every utility slot with nothing but heatsinks.
Downtime between combat encounters with large vessels will become more extreme as the only way to recharge shields faster than 1MJ/s is to burn through SCBs.
Basically, a large chunk of combat and outfitting would need to be reworked because the game has been operating under the assumption of SCB = true since October 2014.
One day they will remove or change them and then you'll thank me, trust me. It was fantastic dogfighting among the beta.
In Beta 1 I had a quad cannon Viper that would zoom in, pop off a few hits, boost, fa off and empty nigh unlimited shells while flying 500m/s backwards...if my opponent survived the first pass.
Or, I'd slap on four missile racks, leave FA off, and spam seekers at people from 5km away ensuring I'd almost never be subject to counter attack.
I'm not sure the sort of 'dogfighting' you seem to long for was ever a wise thing to do.
