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Frontier Development is very fond of the traditions of Elite, if I am not mistaken. So many things we see in ED are based on its ancestors: the ships (naming and shape), the Corriolis starport, now the upcoming timed assassination missions and many, many other things as well.
However, there is one thing we haven't heard from till now, which has indeed a very long tradition in Elite as well: military grade components.
I was just wondering, when they will make their reappearance. And if they finally do, will they solve one of the big issues I have with one specific area of the game: the balance between pure fighters and multi-role ships?
Let's be honest: Currently, dedicated fighters leave a lot to be desired:
- Their jump range and fuel storage is usually way worse than the range of multi-role (m-r) ships.
- They tend to have power issues - in contrast to their m-r counterparts.
- Their speed and maneuverability is often not so much better than the characteristics of m-r ships.
- And of course the biggest elephant in the room: the m-r ship's capacity to store way more SCBs than fighters, increasing their defensive potential way over the fighter's protection - despite their usually better armor.
Sure, fighters are able to equip larger weapons and their placement is usually better. But is this really all that excels?
I already proposed some ideas how to approach this issue:
- Damage bleeding through chipped shields (to a certain, not too high extend), making the better armor of fighters more important.
- The introduction of new modules than can be outfitted only by special ships; for example speed enhancing modules for the Viper or special ECM modules for Eagles that increase the wobble of gimbaled weapons (and thus make it harder to land hits on these small and nimble fighters).
But what, if FD already has plans to do exactly this: Introduce special upgrades for fighters with the re-invention of military grade components?
It would make perfect sense, wouldn't it?
- The initial (civilian!) characteristics of military ships would have to be lower in order to not making them OP when finally equipped with military spec modules.
- Those components would be developed only for ships in military use! Why burn money to enhance ships mainly used by civilians?
- Their proliferation would be restricted to military personal and not commonly available. Military ranks might be the entrance door for this equipment; but those ranks already are used to gate ship accessibility. I would prefer (the upcoming) chained missions - and very long and military based as such - to get permission to buy such an expensive ship upgrade.
- There might be several military components: foremost military power plants, but also thrusters, FSDs and shields - in short equipment for all the fields, fighters currently fall short in comparison to m-r ships.
- I am pretty sure that something like this might happen. Why else would FD be so adamant in their denial to balance dedicated fighters in comparison to the currently superior m-r ships? They might have something up their sleeves. Something secret we currently don't (and mustn't) know about!
M-r ships will still be very worthwhile; they won't loose their potentially very high shield capacity and still will be able to carry way more cargo (and other desirable equipment!) than those fighters - so, don't worry, you Cobra pilots, Python owners and Anaconda captains! Your beloved ships won't be dumped down! The field would just be leveled a little bit in respect of what fighters are all about: Gaining dominance over their opponents in the battlefield!
P.S.:
I know, that Cobras and Anacondas can be currently found in CZs. However, this could be due to two facts:
1) In the early days of ED, there simply weren't enough ships in the game to fill those CZs with dedicated military ships. This might change in the future.
2) Many of those CZs are from civil wars. In such wars, every available ship will be used. We definitely will see Cobras and 'Condas in those, even in the future.
But honestly, I wouldn't mind to see different ship compositions in the future, depending if those CZs are created by "official" navies or rebelling forces.
However, there is one thing we haven't heard from till now, which has indeed a very long tradition in Elite as well: military grade components.
I was just wondering, when they will make their reappearance. And if they finally do, will they solve one of the big issues I have with one specific area of the game: the balance between pure fighters and multi-role ships?
Let's be honest: Currently, dedicated fighters leave a lot to be desired:
- Their jump range and fuel storage is usually way worse than the range of multi-role (m-r) ships.
- They tend to have power issues - in contrast to their m-r counterparts.
- Their speed and maneuverability is often not so much better than the characteristics of m-r ships.
- And of course the biggest elephant in the room: the m-r ship's capacity to store way more SCBs than fighters, increasing their defensive potential way over the fighter's protection - despite their usually better armor.
Sure, fighters are able to equip larger weapons and their placement is usually better. But is this really all that excels?
I already proposed some ideas how to approach this issue:
- Damage bleeding through chipped shields (to a certain, not too high extend), making the better armor of fighters more important.
- The introduction of new modules than can be outfitted only by special ships; for example speed enhancing modules for the Viper or special ECM modules for Eagles that increase the wobble of gimbaled weapons (and thus make it harder to land hits on these small and nimble fighters).
But what, if FD already has plans to do exactly this: Introduce special upgrades for fighters with the re-invention of military grade components?
It would make perfect sense, wouldn't it?
- The initial (civilian!) characteristics of military ships would have to be lower in order to not making them OP when finally equipped with military spec modules.
- Those components would be developed only for ships in military use! Why burn money to enhance ships mainly used by civilians?
- Their proliferation would be restricted to military personal and not commonly available. Military ranks might be the entrance door for this equipment; but those ranks already are used to gate ship accessibility. I would prefer (the upcoming) chained missions - and very long and military based as such - to get permission to buy such an expensive ship upgrade.
- There might be several military components: foremost military power plants, but also thrusters, FSDs and shields - in short equipment for all the fields, fighters currently fall short in comparison to m-r ships.
- I am pretty sure that something like this might happen. Why else would FD be so adamant in their denial to balance dedicated fighters in comparison to the currently superior m-r ships? They might have something up their sleeves. Something secret we currently don't (and mustn't) know about!
M-r ships will still be very worthwhile; they won't loose their potentially very high shield capacity and still will be able to carry way more cargo (and other desirable equipment!) than those fighters - so, don't worry, you Cobra pilots, Python owners and Anaconda captains! Your beloved ships won't be dumped down! The field would just be leveled a little bit in respect of what fighters are all about: Gaining dominance over their opponents in the battlefield!
P.S.:
I know, that Cobras and Anacondas can be currently found in CZs. However, this could be due to two facts:
1) In the early days of ED, there simply weren't enough ships in the game to fill those CZs with dedicated military ships. This might change in the future.
2) Many of those CZs are from civil wars. In such wars, every available ship will be used. We definitely will see Cobras and 'Condas in those, even in the future.
But honestly, I wouldn't mind to see different ship compositions in the future, depending if those CZs are created by "official" navies or rebelling forces.