(This is an Idea in progress, so please give me your idea’s and inputs)
The game as it is right now is very balanced. All ship classes are working beautifully, and there is real skill and knowledge that goes into the game, and virtually unlimited ways to play.
I feel adding Destroyers and Cruisers to the mix, would not unbalance things. (Or Perhaps Battleships/Carriers as well?).
Basically put, this is how I envision it working.
Ships higher than Frigates would be… quite tanky… and very powerfull, So whats stopping everyone from just loading up all 3(4) slots with them? Not much. Despite Fighters, and smaller ships being super fast, and work well against any larger ship, the sheer size of larger ships definetly attracts players.
So why not make the larger ships take up more slots?
Destroyers:
Destroyers would be the next step up in size to Frigates. They would be heavier in armor/shields of course, and would take up 2 ship slots, instead of 1. They would also have the special ability across all factions to carry 2 different types of weapons, but can only fire 1 type at a time on a single target.
Cruisers:
Cruisers would be even larger than Destroyers, boasting even larger defenses. They would take up 3 ship slots due to their size, and would be the Command and Control style ships, boasting extra module slots than usual.
Battleships/Carriers:
Battleships and Carriers of course, would be the power house of ships. For this reason They take up 4 slots, and of course, cannot be purchased or used until 4 slots are acquired because of their sheer power and unparrelleled defenses.
Battleships would boast multiple large scale guns which are very slow to fire, and hard to aim that would be primarily anti-capital , style guns. These guns would be best against other Battleships, Cruisers, and Destroyers, however difficulty in aiming and hitting these ships would drop relatively speaking. Frigates and Fighters would be nearly impossible to hit, unless very lucky due to how slow the guns turn. Multiple small ships can prick a battleship to death, or a few frigates due to how slow Battleships are. Battleships main guns however, would have a big turning radius.
Carriers would also be massive, and take up 4 slots. They would excell in drone control, and area control, being able to lock down an area for the team, unless ganged up on by multiple larger ships. Unlike the Battleship which is weak against things smaller than it, the Carrier would be weaker against things larger, and excel against fighters/frigates, but would become harder pressed to win a fight as the ship its fighting becomes larger.
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So how is this balanced?
I feel this is balanced because
- They take up more slots than just fighters or frigates. Even smaller ships, or alternative ships can excell against it if you use the right tactics.
- It allows for more team work. At the start of every battle you can see what your team has, and what the enemy team has. This allows you to choose your ship accordingly. Do you see the enemy ship pulling out numerous large ships? Pull out smaller ships to counter them.
Lets say the enemy even pulls a fast one, and pulls out 2 Battleships, and a Carrier. Those players have ONLY those ships. In a Normal game, once they die once, their done completely. While Battleships will take alot of firepower to bring down, it also means you never have to worry about that player again.
While Arcade will allow him to respawn again (perhaps with a larger timer on death due to his ship size), you can still counter him even easier due to always being able to pull out your smaller ship.
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