SCB's in CQC are one thing, SCB's in Open and PVE are another. CQC is about equal footing, fast paced action... So you need to have a much more balance approach. In Open and PVE you have different careers requiring different setups and loadouts. Balance is going to be completely different. Open should not be an equal playing fields. I mean you wouldnt want a Learjet being able to down an F-22 would you.. of course not.. it would be utterly ridiculous.. hilarious for sure, but ridiculous... And you can apply the same logic here. Its like the learjet complaining the F-22 has chaff and flares while the learjet has... umm... coffee cups and towels...
Open and PVE is more about learning to pick your fights you can win, and avoiding the ones you cant. It should never be a place where everyone has equal footing.. it just wouldnt work.
That being said, sometimes certain ships and systems have a distinct advantage that makes them OP, in which case an adjustment should be made. But SCB staking, personally, is not making the Ship OP.. it is making it combat specific compromising cargo space, and power management. It is a tactical decision.
With the greatest respect (and I do respect who I'm talking to, I've seen your guides on the tube and they are very informative with a concise approach), but my refering to shield cell banks was not in CQC (something the Sidewinder needs incidently in CQC, being the tank of CQC, with little maneuverability and power issues compared to the others), but I was refereing to the use of SCBs in the main game (Open). The problem becomes apparent in PvP (PvE you do indeed have an argument, not sure how this can be addressed individually), but in PvP with the ability to stack these cell banks has massively favoured the larger vessels capable of doing it.
My argument was concerning the "balance" of each ship's capability compared to each other. Before we had SCBs (back in beta when the developers were presumably making the difference between all the craft as "balanced" as possible), these smaller variety at least had a small chance, perhaps slim yes but a chance none the less of at least doing
some damage to a larger craft
if you used your ship's agility advantage to the maximum. Now with the advent of SCB stacking, this original balance has been lost to the point the smaller craft (and like I say, perhaps even something as capable as a Vulture for instance) even this now has little to no chance of even scratching the surface of the big tanky vessels with all their internals filled with many a shield cell.
We can use comparisons with real life aircraft and whatnot all day, and with respect again, it's a little pointless though I do understand why you are, and.. I would never suggest under normal circumtances a Sidewinder or Eagle should be able to take out a large Anaconda for instance, but.. it shouldn't be absolutely impossible (like it wasn't back in beta, it was extremely hard but with a bit (perhaps lots) of luck and skill it was at least possible). Perhaps players, the community or even Frontier now believe it should be impossible, but this "Sidey/Eagle vs" is the most extreme example, perhaps a Sidey or Eagle taking out a Conda is a bit ludicrous, but... even such capable crafts like a Vulture or Courier still has little to no chance of even scratching the surface of a craft such as the Python/Anaconda with all these shield potions on-board.
Perhaps this is what the balance of the game has become now and is/was Frontier's intention all along, but I'm simply going on the fundamental mechanics that seemed quite well balanced back in beta before these SCBs were introduced.
Shield cell banks per se are a welcome addition, but unfortunately a consequence of their implementation as an internal slot module has favoured the larger combat vessel over the smaller one that has absolutely no chance now and can't keep up, thus the resulting mechanics are far from what they used to be back in beta.
I'm not sure what the answer is, I'm simply worried that ALL small vessels (Vulture again included in this bracket really) are going to become stepping stones and superfluos to requirements as they are simply incapable of taking on the super tanks at all with all these shield potions fitted. Are the ships just going to get bigger and bigger, with little combat use of even the mid range with few internals? A concerning thought in my opinion if something isn't adjusted to reclaim
some of the original beta balance.
