Off-Topic is fixated upon this. I'd appreciate input from Genari and Sol pilots. I'd prefer fair fights, so I can feel honorable. Maintaining/increasing the playerbase and moving to ALL FOUR Factions are my two main goals. BASE VIc3, Hull 171 Crew 359 Engines 57, 7 laser max, 24 missle max Merc 3, Hull 122, Crew 212, Engines 62, 9 x 4 =32 max laser, 5 fusion warhead max Proposition: Reduce energy cost on plasma from GGYYYR to GGGGYR or GGGYYR your resident jerk and advocate, fox
The only problem I've seen with the victory III is that high officer ships are able to one turn kill or cripple tier 4 sol ships. We had a nice group with a tier 7 Montana leading some new players in a large sector. I was there first in a tier 3 orchis IV then came back in a tier 5 Lenin IV. Both times the victory III came in killed a tier 4 and some of the tier 3's *I was in fog of war and jumped safely out with my orchi*. There was no counter play for these players losing their ship. They were spotted by ai when the Victory III came into the sector and the Victory III moved first. The presence of a high tier human ships was no deterrent because there is no way to cripple genari ships wihout lucky engine hits. The questions is fair would the situation be the same with the mercury III vs genari tier 4 ships? I don't think it could power to weapons, lower hull and no marines. The risk factor for human ships vs genari feels much higher having played both factions. I always felt safe fighting human ships in genari ships when I was faster and they were not in large numbers. As a human ship it's harder but rewarding when you don't have to just run. There are a lot of fights I would have taken as a genari just to see how they'd go, that in a sol ship I cannot try because one mistake and I'm crippled. As a sol ship you have a lot more decisions powering shields, weapons, and scanners creates a lot of choices that effect the outcome of the fight and can be very rewarding or saddening when you power the wrong shields or leave power in scanners when the fight has come to close range or don't power scanners and the genari ship hits and runs. The reality is though that most of the time I'm just over powered by the genari ship or ships and just have to run and take my beating, hoping I escape. Where I'm having trouble is getting capture points to level my officers when Genari are over defending. This maybe the same for late starter genari players as well I don't know, but if you cannot get officers your ship will always be under powered. One concern I have to the game balance is the power difference between genari ai and sol ai. I believe genari can kill and clear ai much quicker and safer than sol players can. I'd be curious to see the clear speed differences between the two sides.
This is my Main issue, they can run in no planning using movement to advantage and superior hull to take some hits and completely disable ships with impunity. If I'm in my Exeter or my Kumano 2 fighting a victory I have to make 100 different predictions a turn for shield facing scanners positioning and one mistake and thats it my ship is done. I think it definitely takes more skill to play SOL in the current state. Some good technique I learned for dealing with victories is if you can calculate or ball-park their movement potential you can sort of force them into positions where if they attack you and try and hit and run they are still within your movement range but it takes lots of effort and planing, especially when you are dealing with two of them. So just power engine shields low weapons and counter-fire on all front facings and leave 10-14 movement making sure you either know were they are or how much movement they are going to spend attacking you, if they pass outside of range of you or you don't want to engage simply pull back to a further point in the map if applicable and force them to use more movement to reach you giving you more time to react to their positioning next round. Some of the tactics I employ in the Exeter but I think this is the only ship that can take on two victories, maybe a b3 but it doesn't have the engine shielding to really stop it being crippled immediately so you rely more on out initing the victories and 2 turning them at that point. Anyway you should not be able to nuke people off the field with impunity in SOL ships or Genari ships there has to be some kind of linear balance that makes for certain higher tier upgraded ships aren't going to be ridiculously fast in comparison. I always thought it was from Speed> Slow(with SOL ships slightly faster) as it got higher tier which I thought was a good idea keeping all tiers situationally viable, until I found out I can out init anything with my b3.
We have a hospital ship. It could have been maxed out by team work. We have a kumano. And we have swordfish that pound the missiles. We already have the answer against the victories but no-one plays the right set up. I'm working on it. But saw it too late. If we all had more players coming through the ranks we could train them up ..... careful people don't break the game because of single minded ship and captain advancements. Here... eat some sage... when your enemy is stronger. Defend. When you are stronger attack..... (not to be confused with I'll smash ever ship weaker than me because that's what they do.... smiles)
I feel that the issue with the Victory III is related to the issue with evasion which may be no issue at all. It seems like the vast majority of Gen captains specced their Victories offensively, i.e. extra movement instead of evasion. This is a two edged sword which makes the Vic's seem overly threatening on offense and also makes the evasion of the Sol cruisers seem overly strong. Sol pilots could have put movement on their cruisers and Gen could have taken evasion. If the Vic III needs an adjustment to be more in line with the Vic I and II, ok, but I hope that does not require an extreme adjustment. Since that is slated for next server cycle anyway, much of that adjustment could be in the form of increasing the price of the Vic III.
