Under the current Matchmaking… where R7-R9 are thrown together ( which is the way it should be) ?
In fact I usually have 3 Frigates in lineup Phoenix ( Long range reach) Styx ( tankablity) Valor ( Speed\quickness)
I favor the Phoenix over my Styx simply because of the additional CPU slot which gives me the ability to “reach out” a bit further. I may lose at bit in the tankablity (around 7K)
Styx… well it speaks for itself .
Valor - a wannabe gunship ! Good for laughes when your chasing the fighters and tacklers… ( as long as they do not have the Bubble gun)
In all of your screenshots, you are queued for a battle rank 7-9. It should be okay.
You appear to be in queue when the playerbase is down through the floor, which is probably screwing with your findings.
I am not exactly sure, what you guys saying here, but purpose of my screenshots is that Pirate ships ARE rank 7 for the matchmaking, regular prems/dlc and sai are R8s and free R9s well are R9s. Queue r7-9 (similar to T2, and T4) have 5 “separate” pools and 2 border pools T2-T3 border and T3-T4 border.
There are multiple factors affecting in what pool you get when you click “launch”, obviously the major one is ships in hangar, than extra checks for rating, amount of people online and so on. From my screenshots you can clearly see that pirates are lower in rating than regular prems and much lower than “free r9s”. With low population as it is right now it is somewhat “expected” to see mix of R7 players with R9 players in the same games, but, again it has nothing to do with Pirate Ships Balance.
P.S. Phenix is R7 and not R8 (it is can be seen on the screen shot too)
Do we have enough population to “properly” separate and balance matches? No we don’t, but mechanics are there and lets not start about population here, everyone said enough about that already and it has nothing to do with balance of pirate ships.
And i believe there are still more checks out there affecting rating and some other “newer player” would have its queue reduced a bit further, or better say not increased like mine (for example pirate line up easily could be queue 29 and 27 for “extra specials”, while it is 31 for me)
South Asia servers? Are you trolling the devs?
You appear to be in queue when the playerbase is down through the floor, which is probably screwing with your findings.
That’s the America’s evening timezone. It’s down some, not through the floor. We don’t see over 600 players.
The first thing that pops in my mind and that i didn’t see around here…
Already you have the majority of miss informed people that doesn’t bother to actually check stats…and that spread the word that this is a P2W game because you can buy imba premium ships. ATM there is the other side of the camp that tells them that premiums are actually worse. Because they are(with a few exceptions). If you buff them more…if you make them all top rank for their tier…it becomes indeed a premium ships battle. With people getting killed by premium ships all day and complaining about P2W.
IMO premium ships should always be max rank/tier - 1. Not only the pirate ones, the others too. I mostly play premium ships anyway in t3/t4 (Desert Eagle + i forgot it’s name)…don’t give me an extra reason to play MOAR premium ships.
I feel i missed some other good points…maybe later.
The reason Premiums are Pay to Win is Tier 3. This was doubly true back when Rank 9 squads were ALWAYS put in T4 matches, but Premium squads got T3.
Case in point: No F2P Empire Gunship. What do all the killsquads use? Premium Empire Gunships.
No F2P R9 Tacklers, meaning Premium are stronger again.
No F2P Recons.
The only place F2P wins is the Styx, but that’s a recent development. Previously, the Phoenix or Valour were the go-to Engineers because, again, they are Premium and got more favourable matchmaking.
The reason Premiums are Pay to Win is Tier 3. This was doubly true back when Rank 9 squads were ALWAYS put in T4 matches, but Premium squads got T3.
Case in point: No F2P Empire Gunship. What do all the killsquads use? Premium Empire Gunships.
No F2P R9 Tacklers, meaning Premium are stronger again.
No F2P Recons.
The only place F2P wins is the Styx, but that’s a recent development. Previously, the Phoenix or Valour were the go-to Engineers because, again, they are Premium and got more favourable matchmaking.
Well, T3 is a weird tier, because almost all main lines don’t have a top rank free ship, so the premium counterparts are just better (one more passive) In fact, I think Swarm is better than the Deimos, but the later give you more income.
But saying that premiums are P2W is just ridiculous. The only reason I use premiums in T3 is because of the 20% synergy bonus. And since I got the mauler in the last sales, I’m not even playing that, since now i can farm creds and synergy much better in PvE.
If you want a proof that premium ships are not OP or P2W, look at tier 4. There all the main lines have a top ran ship, and all of them are equal if not a slight better than their premium counterpart, not considering the 20% free syn bonus and the lack or repair cost for premiums.
What about Shark (R6 Pirate) vs Machete type S (R6 F2P)? I don’t see anything the Machete does that the Shark can’t do better.
The Machete S has range bonus to command modules. So basically you can just stay from behind a rock and give all your team buffs. And it is faster.
But seriously, T2 balance is broken, because you don’t have enough modules and slots to properly fit a ship. For example I find Joker more powerful than shark, just because it is almost the only fighter in the tier capable of perma afterburner.
But saying that premiums are P2W is just ridiculous. The only reason I use premiums in T3 is because of the 20% synergy bonus. And since I got the mauler in the last sales, I’m not even playing that, since now i can farm creds and synergy much better in PvE.
Not saying the contrary, but to stick with the OP’s subject, if you were to buff pirates, more people would play premium ships, then all the new/not very informed people would complain about P2W just because. And that’s bad image.
