I'd really love to see more capital ships in combat...

[aws357]

I've recently watched videos of combat where capital ships warp in the zone.

I really think we need more of this in game.

I have been playing for months and been to some combat zones but never saw a capital ship in game yet. At least not in combat.

They could add ships with sizes between the anaconda and the current capital ships that could be deployed more often.

It would do wonder for excitement to see huge beams and projectiles flying by an inch of your ship.

Right now, we mostly have small skirmish that feels (for me) a tad pointless. And unexciting.


"just mentally erase all the capital ships there and contemplate the vacuity of the current warzones..."

 

[COOPER TTE]

Maybe you've just been unlucky? I've been in several CZs with the capital ship 'entrance' and I'm not even primarily a fighter. Keep looking!

 

[bossbrigand]

I made a post to this effect recently and it was well-received but not exactly on topic in the thread I posted it.

Combat zones should be made more exciting instead. Right now they're RES sites without asteroids and with lower pay per kill. One way to do this would be to considerably expand the scale of the fights by designing and introducing a few new subcapital classes for NPCs (frigates, etc) to be mobile and enrich the fights. Allow (or encourage) them to take place around stations and in asteroid fields. What's so special about a particular bit of empty space that there's a high intensity combat zone there?

The space battles should be occurring in strategically important locations. Space stations, rich asteroid fields, space elevators/skyhooks, shipyards (fighting amongst the ribs of an unfinished, half-alive Farragut? (and seriously, shipyards!)), orbital refineries...

I also hope to eventually see capital-sized civilian bulk freighters. Just more stuff. And I still think the demand for this could be met by contracting with content developers in the community.

Half the reason space battles are so exciting in sci-fi films is the amount of close, visceral combat taking place between ships larger than those owned by protagonists. Scenes in Star Wars where big boats are popping shots off at each other with our protags caught in between are really exciting. I'd like to see the capital ships have some REALLY BIG GUNS to use strictly on opposing factions' subcapital classes.

I won't normally praise the prequels, but the bit from the beginning of Episode 3 where the Venator fires a SPHA-T from its ventral docking port and absolutely destroys that CIS ship was pretty awesome. Stuff like that wouldn't be able to hit your smaller ships, but it'd be utterly hair-raising to be near one when it takes out a ship three times your size.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWoGkrt5Upg

@1:05. This scene was great until Hayden Christensens face got on the screen.

I don't even feel like player ships should be able to do much to capitals. The objective should be escorting subcapitals to the capitals to damage their bits.

 

[aws357]

I hope we will see more of them with the new power play...

But I was involved in the Lugh war recently and did a lot of high intensity conflict zones and saw no big ships.

Hell. I must be unlucky I guess...

 

[EdzUp]

I would like to see Gunboats, Frigates, Destroyers, Battleships and Dreadnoughts the lower sizes could be sent to deal with problematic pirates and pilots with excessive bounties. Bigger ships could be for combat zones

 

[Sentience]

I wouldn't.
Cap ships steal all the bounty kills in a CZ, and I go out of my way to avoid them.

 

[Cargobane]

But you really don't want Cap Ships with the last patch because now they tag every ship in the zone and you get zero bounties.

I agree with all points though, need more.

 

[Sayne]

I would just like to add that I could listen to them jump in all day.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT

 

[aws357]

I wouldn't.
Cap ships steal all the bounty kills in a CZ, and I go out of my way to avoid them.

Forgot about this detail.

 

[Twelvefield]

Yeah, there's a big thread somewhere about people demonstrating that capital ships steal bounties. Search engine is not 100% reliable, so it's fair that you missed that.

With CS's, you're essentially trading in-game currency for a light show.

Still, there are such things as Order Of Battle. In the Napoleonic era, that meant that ships of the line did not normally fire upon smaller ship unless the smaller ship fires at them first. So capital ships would tend to engage only capital ships.

So how chivalric is space war in the 4th Millenium? The imperialists among us perhaps would think that there is honour in combat and would fight thusly. More barbaric, guerilla-style combat would be the typical of their foes. Seeing as (in my opinion) the developers seem to be currently leaning towards imperialism over federalism, i would expect to see a more rigid order of battle. Yet, there isn't.

 

[bsnaylor]

If you want one now, there is one at the High Int Zone in Kui Hsien, where you can also earn bonds for the Community Goal at BV Phoenicis.
Shame it's an Empire one, it seems to have pants lasers compared to the Fed ones I've fought with. My Python alone deals far more damage
Still fun to fight along with any Cap Ship tho. (and at least its weak guns means it doesn't take any kills from you)