Ship Rebalance: A few tweaks to make some ships great again!

[Adalphage]

How dare you suggest touching the majesticness of the Majestic Space Willy.

Imagine our beloved and majestic Willy being able to land in outpost to embrace that poor fellows tired of going to tourist places in an ugly, un-windowed and over-used Python. Are we talking now?

 

[GoldenSilver484]

Imagine our beloved and majestic Willy being able to land in outpost to embrace that poor fellows tired of going to tourist places in an ugly, un-windowed and over-used Python. Are we talking now?

Bah! The riff raff of the paltry outpost dwellings don't deserve to gaze upon the Majestic Space Willy, let alone set foot aboard such a beautiful and capable vessel.
They cannot fathom the long, sleek, profile, the fantasy of many star seeking individuals of the... endowed... persuasion. Monetarily of course.

Seriously though, the Orca is only a Cobra's length shorter than an Anaconda, or a Cobra's width longer than a Python. Attempting to make it smaller would drastically change it's appearance, which FD hasn't done to any ships, to a point where they may as well make it a new ship. Call it a narwhal or something.
It's the same problem whenever someone suggests shrinking the Clipper, it would lose what makes it the Clipper and would just end up looking like a smaller Cutter.

That's not even getting into the MTX that's been spent on a ship only for it to drastically change. Why would players spend time saving up or buying ARX for a paintjob or ship kit if FD now has a history of changing the ship's aesthetics, instead of the stats?

Stat changes? Go nuts.
Model/cosmetic changes? No, unless it's an quality update to textures or polygons.

 

[varonica]

they had passenger only slots for a long time in the Beluga and the Orca, the problem with that it killed their use for anything other then passengers. with the restriction lifted now they are decent exploration ships as well.

Ironically, with the passenger slot deresticted the Orca is now much, much better than a FAS in combat fit

Well that's exactly the point isn't it? The Beluga and Dolphin are purpose built passenger ships. It's like taking "The Princess Of The Sea" putting 6 inch guns on it and sending it into combat, it shouldn't really be possible to turn a passenger liner into a combat ship. Sure take the basic hull design and rebuild the thing from scratch and make it another ship altogether, but buying a passenger ship and retrofitting it for combat is silly. Now it's true there were some non-combat ships used in the WW2 but they were never designed to directly take part in major battles, more just sneak around and cause problems for the enemy.

Be that as it may, this is the game design we have, driven by players who can't take even a little bit of restrictions on what they can do with their ships.

 

[AdmiralXanos]

Well that's exactly the point isn't it? The Beluga and Dolphin are purpose built passenger ships. It's like taking "The Princess Of The Sea" putting 6 inch guns on it and sending it into combat, it shouldn't really be possible to turn a passenger liner into a combat ship. Sure take the basic hull design and rebuild the thing from scratch and make it another ship altogether, but buying a passenger ship and retrofitting it for combat is silly. Now it's true there were some non-combat ships used in the WW2 but they were never designed to directly take part in major battles, more just sneak around and cause problems for the enemy.

Be that as it may, this is the game design we have, driven by players who can't take even a little bit of restrictions on what they can do with their ships.

yes but dumping 100mil into armor alone on a boat should make it pretty d*** tough... its like pimp my ride, billionaires edition. Even today with enough upgrades the C130 turns into an AC130 that's turning a transport into combat fortress.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Well that's exactly the point isn't it? The Beluga and Dolphin are purpose built passenger ships. It's like taking "The Princess Of The Sea" putting 6 inch guns on it and sending it into combat, it shouldn't really be possible to turn a passenger liner into a combat ship. Sure take the basic hull design and rebuild the thing from scratch and make it another ship altogether, but buying a passenger ship and retrofitting it for combat is silly. Now it's true there were some non-combat ships used in the WW2 but they were never designed to directly take part in major battles, more just sneak around and cause problems for the enemy.

Be that as it may, this is the game design we have, driven by players who can't take even a little bit of restrictions on what they can do with their ships.

But the issue is that the Orca is miles better than the FAS which is a dedicated combat ship, faster, tankier (due to great unrestricted internals) all for the price of one L.

 

[theothersteve7]

Good suggestions.

I'd add these as a quick and dirty combat pass:

Increase the Mamba's maneuverability (past the FDL)
Increase the armor on the Crusader and Challenger
Increase the armor on the FDS and FGS
Increase the maneuverability of the FAS
Decrease the FDL's shields
Decrease the Cutter's shields
Make the Asp Scout and the DB Scout good at something (seriously)

Of course, if we're doing a combat pass, the real step one is to nerf shield boosters hard and then wait a month for things to shake out before making further adjustments.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

This has been a complaint for years now. Why would anyone buy one of the "specialised" ships, when the multirole can do it better. For Medium ships, the Python is better ate pretty much everything (mining, trading, combat) than eny of the specialists (except maybe the specialised killers like the FDL and the Mamba). The Anaconda was always better than the Type 9 or the Beluga, and then they introduced the Cutter, which even in a hard-asses combat fitting that is ridiculously hard to kill (I took one alone into a Class 6 non-Xeno pirate encounter and survived with basrely the loss of a shield ring) can still carry almost 400 tons of cargo...
There is no good reason to own a "specialist" now other than because you like the look of the cockpit, or it is a combat specialist, the others will always be out-done by the multipurpose ships.

Because a type 7 only costs 17 million and the python costs 56 million. That's the reason.

The type 9 costs 76 million and the anaconda costs around 150 million. That's why someone will get a type 9.

 

[Adalphage]

Good suggestions.

I'd add these as a quick and dirty combat pass:

Increase the Mamba's maneuverability (past the FDL)
Increase the armor on the Crusader and Challenger
Increase the armor on the FDS and FGS
Increase the maneuverability of the FAS
Decrease the FDL's shields
Decrease the Cutter's shields
Make the Asp Scout and the DB Scout good at something (seriously)

Of course, if we're doing a combat pass, the real step one is to nerf shield boosters hard and then wait a month for things to shake out before making further adjustments.

I like your points but I am not as proficient as I would like in combat ships to make a solid opinion about changes, that is why I didn't introduced them in the original post. But I strongly agree with you in that Asp Scout and DB Scout should be reviewed to make them usable in something.

Because a type 7 only costs 17 million and the python costs 56 million. That's the reason.

The type 9 costs 76 million and the anaconda costs around 150 million. That's why someone will get a type 9.

I underestand your point and in my opinion prices should be adjusted too with the changes. But the way is it right now, you end using 4-5 multipurpose ships of a pool of 37. I know not all ships should be awesome and efficient, but I strongly feel that making speacialized ships better would add diversity and ejoyment to the game. For example, if I choose a Cutter, I would have a bit less cargo than a type-9 but I also will have an awesome combat capable transport ship, so it will be worth choosing between them, a trade-off that allow players to choose their way. Same way to Type-7 / Python. Same way to Anaconda / Beluga and Orca / Python.