Federation

Game Discussion Balance
#1

Most likely going to be alone on this but what do you guys think about the federation ships? How do they stack up vs the other faction, specifically the special abilities?

 

To me I love the cloak, lots of utility and potential but when it lasts 18 or 23 secs but recharge is 60s I feel its a bit gimped compared to the active utility of overcharge giving 60+% rate of fire along with speed, handling, energy recharge etc that costs 15 more energy on ships with 100s of energy regen a sec and 700-1000+ energy pools by t2 alone and lasts for nearly as long as the cloak 16 secs yet has the same recharge time.

 

Same with the Jericho shield boost. Its actively making you tankier with potential damage or energy boosts vs a set type of damage with a recharge of 1 sec. A 40 point resist boost is I think around 40% more hp vs that damage type…Am I alone here in thinking the cloak, while tactically awesome is far too limited with its cant take damage, cant be with in 20 meters of a ship, direct counter in the nanobot mod, with its duration vs recharge, cant use weapons/active mods, etc?

 

Id just like to suggest that it last a bit longer or recharge a bit faster. A base 20 sec cloak( 30 sec for armada) imo would even it out vs the other twos more active and direct power. or a simple + 2 sec duration with a 50sec recharge instead of 60.

 

Never played a interceptor yet but I mostly see Empire and Jericho ones out there. Maybe its perception bias as my sample size is very small( only my games) but the web…seems to be a lot less usefull then cacoon or the micro warp drive at least on paper. Is there a tactical trick im overlooking?

 

I never used it so I cant suggest anything for it. Others could Im sure if people think its an issue.

 

Fed frigs…I know im not alone here. Despite the sniper and torp abilties trailing off from what I hear in t3 ( even t2 is a lot easier) leaves the drones looking like the lame duck. To me personally I would buff the damage of the sniper laser but jack its recharge way up. It should be able to 1 shot interceptors and 2 shot everything else in its tier imo but have like a 40+ sec CD so its used as a finisher/sniper instead of just a alt button longer range attack. A 3, ot 3.5 sec Cooldown is just silly for that and a longer cooldown would stop a lot of the T1 issues imo and with added damage as it scales up it could be more usefull later too, who knows.

 

Anyway back to Fed frigs, I only play them for fun when I do regular mode over arcade and I just started outfighting my new t2 frig( using a Fox M as my main T2 ship) but the drones seem very…well weak. Mostly imo its the very small hp pool they have and you could fix that or add more drones, say 4 instead of 2 which wouldnt stop the missile taking them all out thing but would pump up the damage/repair/anti missile utility. ANyway, people better then I could/have talked about frigs a lot so not going to really say much.

 

Mostly THe specials seem interesting if lacking in equal power compared to the other factions and thats a shame. After about 22+ hours as a fed fighter( nearly 100% of it) I honestly feel the cloak changes would help a lot to balance the power out but I could be alone in all of this.

#2

Federation does seem to have drawn the short straw when it comes to ship abilities.

 

Fed. frigates are really inferior to the other factions. Drones go down to a single missile and the ship itself is less tanky than the other factions. They should increase the attack range of the drones or their HP (or a combination of both). Also, maybe buff the Fed. frigates Hull/Shields a bit as they need to be up front to be effective.

 

Fed. fighters have the neat cloak ability but that also needs some tweaking. Cloaking for 20 seconds means 20 seconds that you’re not helping your team. This can be reduced to 10 or 15, while maybe decreasing energy cost or cooldown. Also, if it was meant to be used offensively then they should add a damage buff on de-cloaking. 

 

Fed. interceptors feel pretty good. Not as good a Jericho interceptors (AoE stun is invaluable) but still ok.

#3

The tactical utility of the cloak is pretty amazing.  

 

I’m really unimpressed by the Frigate but they the Jericko’s missiles don’t scale well even in T2.  

 

Haven’t tried their Interceptor, too in love with my Empire’s teleport.  

#4

Fed fighter camo: You should be guaranteed at least 5 seconds of invis before you can be pulled back out (even if you can still take damage). It’s also kind of a downer you can’t camo as captain, but I can see how that would be annoying. Honestly, it’s not that camo is that bad…it’s that Overdrive needs a nerf. Although, I think it would be cool if you could toggle camo on/off at will and it would just drain your energy. Then it would be really useful I think.

Fed frig drones: You HAVE to equip a missile defense system, it saves your drones so much IMO…which means there’s no point in playing them before T3 if you don’t want the headaches. I would like to see the Fed frig get something like 10k hull/12k shield base. I would also bring down empire hull/jericho shield for frigs a bit as well. They should be a little squishier compared to the Fed frig.

#5

Agreed about the frigs. Federation frigates are the only frigates that don’t have long-range fighting capabilities. Yet they are the least tanky of all the frigates.

 

An empire Frigate need only have modules to improve hull. A Jericho Frigate; only shields. The fed is stuck with either splitting his modules to have watered down protection for both or putting all the eggs in a single basket that is half as strong as the other factions.

 

It can be quite frustrating at times.

#6

Federation ships are so gimped compared to other 2 races it’s not even funny. I’ve been basically saying this since day 1 I started playing this (I started as Fed, am flying Empire ships now and they can’t even be compared). ALL Federation ships need to have their tanks increased by 20-30% before we can even start talking of anything even remotely resembling a balance between the 3 factions.

#7

Hmmmmmm , still i find myself and other Fed frigs Most Times in the Heat of battle , frontline . While Jerry and empy lean back with massively huge … w/e xD. And no , i dont feel that i have a disadvantage with my Anaconda . Even without my drones !!! Sometimes i fortgebt to activate them at the start of Battle , but mostly they are on cd after being destroyed by several reasons xD. My 2 cents to a so called problem :wink:

#8

Fed Frigates and Intys are far from useless, Fighters could maybe use a little something but they arent useless either in proper hands.

#9

Searching the page for ‘useless’, yours is the only post (including mine now) that mentions it. I don’t think the contention is that Fed ships have no use.

 

My post was pointing out the difficulties of having neither hull nor shields as a primary defense. It makes you doubly vulnerable, rather than well-rounded.

#10

Been running Fed frig for a little while now and I’ve noticed a lot of things about them compared to playing the other factions.

 

It wouldn’t bother me that Empire can get more resistance if my Fed ship could have more flat health. But unfortunately Fed ships have lower health and lower resists than Empire frigs. Not to mention all Empire boats get 10% increase in weapon damage.

 

That being said I wreck a good amount of faces as a Fed frig. I think that’s mostly due to my luck, mods, and weapon choices and not because the ship itself has anything better than other frigs.

 

Drones are shot down easily enough so half the time I don’t have them and there is no reason to sit in the back so I’m right in the middle of everything. You know…where frigs should be.

#11

Searching the page for ‘useless’, yours is the only post (including mine now) that mentions it. I don’t think the contention is that Fed ships have no use.

 

My post was pointing out the difficulties of having neither hull nor shields as a primary defense. It makes you doubly vulnerable, rather than well-rounded.

 

Free tip: Speed.

#12

Alligator M best t2 frigate hands down. At least in regular, where it actually matters to stay alive and be mobile.

#13

confirming alligator m for awesome.

#14

Eh, speed has its uses but given how easy it is to hit stuff in this game it isn’t that strong. Arguably Fed shields should be higher than Empire shields but lower than Jericho ones, supposedly being the in between group. Cloak could probably stand a shorter CD or better duration for the non damage breaking cloaks. I know I made damn use out of my Silent Fox cloak being no damage break, great for escaping. The other with its duration was more of an approaching cloak. Problem is the benefit of stealth is hard to really gauge when a fight is long enough to outweigh the opening. 

#15

Fed Interceptors have the speed advantage, and that can make all the difference. 

 

Fed ships also seem to take a balanced approach to shield/armor tanking, and I like this too. 

#16

I can last for ages in my hull buffed Empire Fighter.  

 

Yep.  Always alive.  

 

While Interceptors score and Federation Fighters have a remote chance ot catching them.  

I’m always a few kilometres away, waiting for my class skill to time in.  

 

I have Fed unlocked solely for Fighters for a reason and Fed Interceptors’ class skill makes them the best for dishing out damage.  

#17

Federation are definitely for players who know what they are doing.  

 

My entire group of Friends have Fed unlocked specifically for the Fighters.  

No other Fighter can disengage and vanish like them or are as fast.  

 

They also have the fastest Interceptors which is what Interceptors are for.  

They can also apply the most DPS from an Interceptor with their class ability.  

 

The Frigates don’t appeal to me but they kill me a lot.  

Someone is using them well.  

#18

Free tip: Speed.

 

Speed is no defense at all in a frigate. I’m not going to be dodging missiles and zipping away from my enemies.

 

The things that I do like about the fed frigate (durability, special modules, more weapons) is just as true of Empire and Jericho frigates - only they are also more survivable due to concentration of defenses.

 

I’ll keep playing my fed frigates, but I don’t think they are particularly spectacular compared to their counterparts. Mostly I just like the look of those orbiting drones.

#19

Speed is no defense at all in a frigate. I’m not going to be dodging missiles and zipping away from my enemies.

 

The things that I do like about the fed frigate (durability, special modules, more weapons) is just as true of Empire and Jericho frigates - only they are also more survivable due to concentration of defenses.

 

I’ll keep playing my fed frigates, but I don’t think they are particularly spectacular compared to their counterparts. Mostly I just like the look of those orbiting drones.

 

Our squads support exclusively flies Fed Frigates because they really are just THAT GOOD if flown properly.

If you say speed doesn’t work then you obviously don’t know how to fly them properly.

#20

Our squads support exclusively flies Fed Frigates because they really are just THAT GOOD if flown properly.

If you say speed doesn’t work then you obviously don’t know how to fly them properly.

 

I’m curious as to how the extra speed of a Fed Frigate is of assistance against an interceptor or fighter on a tight orbit around the ship.

 

Speed 150 against 600 is not much different than speed 110 against 600.