The frigballs is a natural reaction against IntiSwarm.
Soon on your forum : The FightWaves !
Of course, since we never had “intiswarm”, it’s always been nothing but frigballs.
But hey, you’re half correct!
I’m experiencing more and more T3 matches where that happens: Team A is covering a beacon while Team B is 5k away, exchanging mortar/lazors/missiles like crazy and abusing a single asteroid in the middle to regenerate and latter pop-up to keep the exchange. I must say, it’s boring as hell.
Welcome to T4 and T5 since about 0.9.2 onwards.
At least we could do something about frigballs with concentrated squad attacks back then though, as guards weren’t quite as tough and singularity gunships weren’t quite as gimp against them. Now - nope. Dumbest of the dumb flying guard ball will break any attacking squad in half if it doesn’t have the same amount of meat.
I don’t know about T4 and T5 but in T3 inty swarm never left. it’s not about this class or this class is OP/underpowered. you need to think about the whole game.
People that want inties to be more powerful, go play a couple of T3 games. I have (counted) on 7 games yesterday, 5 were inties swarms…
But if it’s the same way about frigates in T4 and T5 (frigballs) , then dev must think about not nerfing/buffing a class, but modifying it to be more/less effective IN A GIVEN tier, not a simple buff in all tiers.
I don’t want to have inties conflict in T3. There is already more than enough out there.
Yeah, the game is boring because of some simple things
- Lack of progression - There is no " Yay! I got another ship! now I can fit it up and be slightly better!" mentality anymore. Basically, you are disgusted you have to fly a ship you dont want, a ship that stastically sucks, etc. besides, if they are only 20 people at any given time playing T5, whats the point of endgame if there Is NO endgame!
- MM balance for squads - the game destroyed corps and groups of friends when it punished those that want to squad together, booting them up 2 tiers in squads of four.
- A clear P2W “mentality” - With everything that WoT has but made it so that its “P2GL” (Pay to Grind Less) and its basically BEGGING you for GS for everything you do.
- Boring game modes
- A lack of training for newbies. The veterans cant even FLY with their New buddies cause the MM will punish them.
All thses things contribute to a boring game. I remember when I got to T3 without even REALISING it! Why? Cause it was fun, I didnt notice the progression because it was fun, hell every match was super close, and you needed friends and corps with comms to play with, now, EVERYTHING is about the team is gone. Boring as hell now.
Of course, since we never had “intiswarm”, it’s always been nothing but frigballs.
But hey, you’re half correct!
Basic Biology. Predator populations follow that of their prey. The rise of interceptor swarms in matches were followed shortly by a rise in the number of frigballs. This shouldn’t be surprising.
The reason frigballs are still prevalent, however, is because the developers keep trying to rectify the situation by either nerfing frigates or buffing interceptors, which both cause more players to gravitate towards interceptors. Hence, the prey population stays high which encourages players to revert again to the predator (frigates).
What the developers are completely missing is this: they should be looking to the third factor (fighters) to decrease the levels of frigballs. If they buffed the effectiveness of certain fighters that hunt frigates, it would bring things back into balance.
By all means, give interceptors their speed back, but the answer to counter frigballs does not lie in buffing interceptor effectiveness against them. It lies it encouraging more players to hunt frigates using gunships.
Also, one of the reasons there is so much trouble balancing this whole equation is because roles and classes are not black and white anymore.
Originally the design was to have Frigates hunt Fighters hunt Interceptors hunt Frigates.
But then when they came out with specialized roles for each class, things got muddled.
Now Guards hunt Interceptors, when Frigates were originally supposed to be weak against them.
Gunships hunt Frigates, when Fighters were supposed to be weak against Frigates.
Recon and Covert Ops hunt Tacklers, because they are more maneuverable and can counter chameleon cloak, which is completely backwards.
Basically, the whole system is now full of exceptions to the rule. So when an entire class of ship is nerfed or buffed, these roles that are exceptions to the status-quo become either OP or UP; thus leaving the impression that the game as a whole is unbalanced.
The game needs to be balanced on a per-ship basis. That means narrowing a ship down from Nation/Tier/Class/Role and balancing them individually. Broad, sweeping changes are not going to cut it anymore. There’s just too much variation and exceptions for that to work.
Basic Biology. Predator populations follow that of their prey. The rise of interceptor swarms in matches were followed shortly by a rise in the number of frigballs. This shouldn’t be surprising.
Basic logic failure. This is not a natural self-evolving environment. This is a game. A controlled habitat. Like a petri dish in a lab.
And it doesn’t matter how well your interceptor bacteria functions if I ensure that the conditions in petri dish are optimal for the frigate bacteria in the same petri dish while adding antibiotics that work on the former while latter is largely immune to their effects. Which is what we have now. Even if interceptor bacteria was a natural predator of frigate bacteria, it would still lose in that petri dish.
Also, one of the reasons there is so much trouble balancing this whole equation is because roles and classes are not black and white anymore.
Originally the design was to have Frigates hunt Fighters hunt Interceptors hunt Frigates.
But then when they came out with specialized roles for each class, things got muddled.
Now Guards hunt Interceptors, when Frigates were originally supposed to be weak against them.
Gunships hunt Frigates, when Fighters were supposed to be weak against Frigates.
Recon and Covert Ops hunt Tacklers, because they are more maneuverable and can counter chameleon cloak, which is completely backwards.
Basically, the whole system is now full of exceptions to the rule. So when an entire class of ship is nerfed or buffed, these roles that are exceptions to the status-quo become either OP or UP; thus leaving the impression that the game as a whole is unbalanced.
The game needs to be balanced on a per-ship basis. That means narrowing a ship down from Nation/Tier/Class/Role and balancing them individually. Broad, sweeping changes are not going to cut it anymore. There’s just too much variation and exceptions for that to work.
You and two people who upvoted need to install star conflict and try playing it. You just stated that rock counters paper, paper counterd scissors and scissor counter rocks. I’m utterly stumped as to why you’re even posting here.
In reality fighters were always the (gun)ship that had superior firepower to down frigates while having just enough speed to flank the frigate as to not eat the full barrage, frigates were the ships with AoE firepower and presence to push out or kill interceptors and interceptors were the ships that lacked the damage to kill frigates but had the turning ability and just enough firepower to counter fighters flanking the frigates.
You just stated that rock counters paper, paper counterd scissors and scissor counter rocks. I’m utterly stumped as to why you’re even posting here.
Maybe if you spent more time researching on the forums, and less time trying to come up with clever insults, you would realize that this game was built on the concept of backwards rock/paper/scissors.
The original concept (back before roles) was for interceptors to be too fast for frigates to shoot. Fighters had enough speed to keep up with interceptors, but were slow enough to be tracked and shot by Frigates. Why do you think the Covert Ops has a Plasma Sword specifically for Frigates? Why do you think Tacklers exist? Why do some Frigate weapons have slow rotating barrels?
Luckyo this isn’t intys vs fighters vs frigs (size vs size). This is cov ops vs recons vs ecm vs gunships vs tacklers vs commands vs guards vs LRFs vs engies (class vs class). And then you split them per faction, then per bonuses, then per slot layout. It’s not just a plain simple 3-way list, it’s a big network of pros and cons for every situation. Sol is right in what he says.
The game needs to be balanced on a per-ship basis. That means narrowing a ship down from Nation/Tier/Class/Role and balancing them individually. Broad, sweeping changes are not going to cut it anymore. There’s just too much variation and exceptions for that to work.
Luckyo this isn’t intys vs fighters vs frigs (size vs size). This is cov ops vs recons vs ecm vs gunships vs tacklers vs commands vs guards vs LRFs vs engies (class vs class). And then you split them per faction, then per bonuses, then per slot layout. It’s not just a plain simple 3-way list, it’s a big network of pros and cons for every situation.
This. ^^^
And how many people forgot that right now, the only really viable fighter is the gunship, and everything else is niche at best. Not to mention that basic layout of balance was born back when classes didn’t exists.
But gotta say, this thread is one hell of an echo chamber of clueless players.
And how many people forgot that right now, the only really viable fighter is the gunship, and everything else is niche at best. Not to mention that basic layout of balance was born back when classes didn’t exists.
But gotta say, this thread is one hell of an echo chamber of clueless players.
Can’t argue with that in upper tiers, but in T3 every Fighter is viable atm, ppl also play T3 dude.
But gotta say, this thread is one hell of an echo chamber of clueless players.
Fancy that. It wouldn’t be the first time everyone else in a thread was wrong and you were right. I’m detecting a life theme…
And how many people forgot that right now, the only really viable fighter is the gunship, and everything else is niche at best. Not to mention that basic layout of balance was born back when classes didn’t exists.
But gotta say, this thread is one hell of an echo chamber of clueless players.
Gunships are most viable in small engagements which are standard in T4/T5. In a 12v12 a command can have a major influence on a teams survival. Tackler’s seem almost like they’d be best as a covert ops type fighter but that can be difficult.
Can’t argue with that in upper tiers, but in T3 every Fighter is viable atm, ppl also play T3 dude.
Viable ? sure
But form min maxer stand point of view there are zero reasons to pick anything but a GunShip,
Viable ? sure
But form min maxer stand point of view there are zero reasons to pick anything but a GunShip,
Actually I find Commands damn useful in plant bomb games, when a friendly command uses his speed buff on my ceptor i can outrun almost anyone and plant the bomb, the resists are always welcome too, and gunships are stupidly overrated in t3. I’ve flown every single of them, Phobos, Nukem I, Desert Eagle, Wolf and Wolf-M, and I don’t think they’re any better than a command or a tackler, maybe the tacklers are the worst of them, although I still get great results with them.
Again dunno about t4 and 5, in t3 commands are good.
Common misconception: bubbles on tacklers.
Most tacklers i see use either that or Ion lasers. The lazers work, but the bubbles have an incredible missing rate. If you’re not using bullseye hitting guns on them, you’re doing it wrong.
If you however decide to fit it as an anti-frigate boat, then hunt frigates (and fighters), not inties.
Best anti interceptor fighter?
Gunship. Can chase, can outturn and outgun in short and medium range combat, can particle purge for finisher or opener. Can drop debuffs and immunize self for critical moments.
Best anti fighter fighter?
Gunship. Can chase, can run away, outturns and outguns everything but a wide margin, can do openers with particle purge and purge all debuffs.
Best anti frigate fighter?
Gunship. Can chase, can run away, the only ship with damage to drop a careless frigate that isn’t paying attention solo, by far the biggest alpha strike and DPS output. Can drop debuffs for critical moments.
The reason why I called this threat an echo chamber of clueless is because that’s what it is. Most good players don’t bother to come visit here and tell you just how hilariously wrong you are, because they don’t see it being worth the bother. So you get a whole lot of clueless people saying “yeah, scissor totally counters rock, I agree”.
Versatility is not the same with OP.
Fit to hunt intys? Made of paper.
Fit to hunt frigates? Slow for intys or another paper tank for frigs.
Fit to hunt fighters? You got an average ship.
Stop putting them all under one single title. They’re not the same. Wolf M will never be Wolf and vice versa. And it’s only 1 rank difference. And this applies to all of them, not just gunships.