Suggestion: Ship Role Bonuses

[Zeeman]

Hello FDev!
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So as the title says I have a suggestion for adding Ship Role Bonuses to the game. Not for every ship mind you as not every ship fits a particular role. The fact is the game is basically a grind/rush to get that sweet sweet Anaconda. Everyone wants it, it is the biggest, best, and premiere multi-role ship for doing anything and everything in the game.
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As a long time player, and Anaconda owner (several, actually), I personally prefer the smaller ships, and for me, the AspX is probably "the ship to rule them all". It's basically capable of doing everything to an excellent standard, short of combat, for which, honestly, it's still capable if you learn to take advantage of it's drifting and FA off abilities.

I use my Anaconda's for exploration, mining, and trade (which I no longer do since I hit Elite trading).

For smuggling and generally mucking about, I prefer my AspX - it gets me where I want to go fast, and can do just about anything with it when I get there. For combat I prefer the Vulture, it's super nimble, and with two large hard points, it hits very hard, and is super fun.

Prior to that, the Cobra MK III was my ship of choice, and I still take it out every so often for gits and shiggles, and is arguably, pound for pound, the best ship in the game.

Don't be in too much of a rush to get out of the small ships, they have their place, and many long time players end up going back to them because they are fun.

Ah ha!

Now we have the crux of the matter.

It isn't that ships need a role bonus it is simply that the Annie is such a bloody good ship.

This to isn't an issue as I'll probably never own an annie. And for the people who do nothing but grind credits just to get one ASAP then tough. Thats their problem.

Generally I find ship balance is ED to be much better than other games of similar nature. Sure there can be some tweaks but role bonuses I feel isn't one of them.

I agree with ship balance, though there are a few little areas I wish they'd address, but overall, agreed.

My only beef is that engineers went and ruined a lot of that carefully worked out balance...

Z...

 

[Unbreakable]

lets talk numbers, which i intentionally left blank because i didn't want to deal with the specifics, that is FDevs place to decide whats fair without unbalancing the game. Lets say you take the asp explorer - and give it a role bonus of +10% to jump range. That makes its jump range go from 32.19 to 35.41. Hardly a game breaking bonus that makes it the best ship in the game and turns ED into EVE. What it does is gives it a competitive edge to the anaconda (which sits at a modest 30ly range) as an exploration ship and helps get that asp into the dark unexplored regions of space you cannot reach normally without superior luck with engineers.

Now lets look at the type 9 heavy (even though i think this should apply to all hauler classed ships) - even fitter with all cargo racks, a 10% bonus to cargo capacity puts you at 585 tons when fully outfitted with cargo racks in every slot. Again hardly a game breaker but at that point it is almost 100 tons more then the anaconda but the anaconda has a larger jump range when fully loaded then the type 9 making it more ideal for long range hauling. This gives people a choice, do i want more goods per haul, or do i want faster runs with better handling?

No idea how you would fix belugas but as of right now the anaconda hauls more business class bulk passengers then the beluga and has a larger jump range at just under 23ly fully loaded compared to the belugas 22.4. More passengers and a longer jump range? I think the anaconda wins this one, because even boosting passenger capacity by 10% will not make it surpass the anaconda. The few and far between luxury passenger missions don't nearly pay enough to make up for the limited capacity of passenger liners.

Perhaps if there was a way to stack passengers going long distances at a particular station, for instance sol to colonia or sag A so you didnt have to fly willy nilly all over space looking for them, then all over space returning them after. I am a huge fan of the tourist missions and I am sure people would be more inclined to take several 20-25m passenger missions out to colonia or sag A and back if they could find these missions in a timely manner. Perhaps a Galnet bulletin that says there are a large number of passengers looking for a tour of colonia from x station, or sag a from y station. Although I am sure if you just filter the map for tourist stations and went jumping from one to the other on your way out you may find a few headed to the same place.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

+1 from me.

Mainly because some ships get ignored quite a bit.

I just came from MechWarrior Online, and all of their mechs have different little buffs, like +5% projectile speed, or -10% heat buildup, etc.

It'd be nice to have something similar in ED.

Things like passive PD range/damage/ammo buffs, Chaff spread, duration, Heatsink ammo/effectiveness. Sensors, engines, etc etc.

I'd be against any +% damage buffs though, too hard to balance.
Maybe things like "-5% heat generation from pulse lasers" or something.

 

[StiTch]

Na not into this idea. I don't think people should be forced into ships they might not like because they have a Bonus.

Unfortunately something is needed to prevent multirole ships dominating all roles.

Otherwise not only are players "forced" into a ship but not even forced into different ships.

On the other hand, magic stat bonuses are lame.

 

[Chrystoph]

On the other hand, magic stat bonuses are lame.

Magic stats defines the game pretty succinctly, since the stats have no rhyme or reason except a "more is better" mindset typical of credit-walls.