The section may be a bit misleading, since it’s really a general suggestion, but in my opinion it affects PvP the most.
I’ve noticed that the “privileges” that come with each tier (like additional active module slots) tend to be given in the middle of a tier. I’m rather new to the game and have been focusing on Federation ships mostly (especially Recons), since they match my playstyle best and to be honest I find it a bit unfair that there is only one standard Fed Recon in T3 and, well, it’s noticeably worse than its T3 Empire counterparts.
The synergy upgrades aren’t that bad (although I still think the Swarm’s upgrades beat the Hawk-eye’s hands down), but the problem is that extra active module slot and implants.
So there are my two suggestions:
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Could you make tier upgrades begin right with the tier? Like in this example, so that a rank 7 ship would get as many active mods as a rank 8 ship?
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As much as I understand why there is a need for implants not to work for ships of lower rank than the implant is, could you restrict it by tiers, not ranks? E.g. once you’ve unlocked a rank 9 ship, your rank 8 and 9 implants would now work on a rank 7 ship, but not on a rank 6 one? The way it is now, it would make more sense if you could always have a ship of the next rank (so at least three of each role per tier), but there are often large gaps that make it less fun to play what you like, as some implants, I notice, tend to change the gameplay a lot.
That’s the most important thing to do in order to achieve balance within tier. It have the advantage to give open access to synergy bonus that could open more strategies. Truely a no-brainer to me, as it’s a win-win situation in all aspect. And it shouldn’t be really hard to implement, so even not a technical limitation here. It’s like an artifact of the old matchmaking system.