No more useless ships! How to fix internal balance on the ship tree

Ships
1

One thing I have noticed in Star Conflict is that there is absolutely no reason to fly over half the ships in the game.  The problem with this is how the tiers are set up.  Each tier has three ranks of ships, and they get progressively better with more slots and higher synergy.  It only makes sense to fly the best ranked ship in each tier because extra slots really is a huge advantage.  Money is fairly easy to get so the idea that people will need to fly each ship in the line to get the next one really doesn’t make any sense.  I have always waited until i had the highest ranked ship in a tier before I even started playing in it. I think it would be much more fun if there was more variety in the ships to choose from.

 

In the long run, Choice is a much better development concept as opposed to Progression.  Progression is the concept of giving people better and better rewards for doing a task and is much better suited to the MMORPG genre where they need to trick players into doing boring crap.  The game play in Star Conflict is actually fun so I don’t believe that players need to be tricked.  They will still seek to get more money and experience to get ships that are different and those ships do not need to be statistically better than the previous ones.  

 

The solution:    Ships in a given tier all need to have the same number of slots and same maximum synergy.  Ship bonuses and number of missiles can and should be different among ships but they should be balanced.  For example, a ship with a less useful bonus may have a better missile layout.  I would propose that all Tier 1 ships get a number of slots and synergy level equal to rank 3 ships, all Tier 2 ships get a number of slots and synergy equal to rank 6 ships, all Tier 3 ships get a number of slots and synergy equal to rank 9 ships, and all Tier 4 ships get a number of slots and synergy equal to rank 12 ships.  This change would create a lot more variety in the ships people choose to fly and variety adds to the overall fun factor.  I fail to see a downside.  Make it so.  

 

thanks for reading.  

2

i really do not think you are right. i play without any money injections, so i progress on the ship ladder step by step, and I do not have any feeling that it should not be managed that way.

 

i played several rounds, i was able to buy better stuff. after another, i can buy another ship. i was always excited when i buy new equipment, and i do not have any feelings that i’m cut in some way because someone else have better ship (= acquire more creds from playing or support devs by buying them).

3

I do like your idea, and have thought that my self as well, that every ship in same tier should be equally powerfull. But that is no longer going to happen, because devs have removed solid borders between tiers, and have mixed matchmaking. Now you just have to deal with the fact, that there are stronger and weaker ships in the same match, and just have to addapt to it.

4

i really do not think you are right. i play without any money injections, so i progress on the ship ladder step by step, and I do not have any feeling that it should not be managed that way.

 

i played several rounds, i was able to buy better stuff. after another, i can buy another ship. i was always excited when i buy new equipment, and i do not have any feelings that i’m cut in some way because someone else have better ship (= acquire more creds from playing or support devs by buying them).

 

So what happens once you have bought a better ship within the tier?  The answer is you will never fly the previous ships in tier again, unless you like to handicap yourself.  Maybe you do, but the majority goes for every advantage and will only fly the top ranked ships in each tier in the long term.  You will still get the excitement of getting a new ship in tier whether or not it is straight up better.  The game would much better serve itself if it considers the long term.  Please explain to me what advantage the current system has over what i am proposing because I just don’t get it.  People will be able to have top ranked tier 3 ships in a month, so having ships soley for progression just doesn’t make sense to me.

5

So what happens once you have bought a better ship within the tier?  The answer is you will never fly the previous ships in tier again, unless you like to handicap yourself.  Maybe you do, but the majority goes for every advantage and will only fly the top ranked ships in each tier in the long term.  You will still get the excitement of getting a new ship in tier whether or not it is straight up better.  The game would much better serve itself if it considers the long term.  Please explain to me what advantage the current system has over what i am proposing because I just don’t get it.  People will be able to have top ranked tier 3 ships in a month, so having ships soley for progression just doesn’t make sense to me.

 

its seems that we do not understand each other :) 

 

why would you fly with lower synergy ship? you fight for right to buy _better one. _even in your solution you will take one ship that is the best for your playstyle and forget the rest…

 

i understand your concept, but i do not think its allright. maybe for the hardcore players, who would love to make tabs and graphs to determine which ship combo is the best, but for the mass game (and it is mass game) this solution does not work - because you have to run the game for most players, and admit it, most players are… to be politically correct, not that intelligent and dont want to think about the game - they just want to hit engage button.

 

if I may ask you, what advantage have your solution? that i can choose between faster or more shielded ship? i can do it either now, dont i? by choosing what way in the tree i go. i really do not see so many advantages of “parallel” ship tree than than current “serial” that would overbalance scales.

 

/edit - i reread your post and just one more question - where is the diversity between ships? lets say - in T1 you will be able to choose between 3 intercepts - A,B,C. all of them have same synergy, missile slots etc. (i know, you wrote something different, but it doesnt make any change - in fact, if all ships would have same synergy, it means that their slots are “balanced”.)

 

Why would you buy A and not C? cause of color? the oddly shape? there is absolutely no need to buy another ship that you buy as first, and there will be no diversity in them! and diversity makes this game fun, its not about flying always the same ship. this is kinda communistic, sorry… (i do not meant to offend you, just liken)

6

what i had in mind with [proposed ship tree](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/20252-ship-tree-ver666/?hl=ver.666) reformat

 

all ships of the same role in the same tier

  1. have same hull + shield

  2. have same slots

  3. different ship bonus allowing them to perform the same job in different ways

 

for eg. tier 3 Guards

 

rank 7 = 60k survivability 4 actives 3 passives - bonus to speed and guard modules - ie frontline guard

rank 8 = no Guards for eg.

rank 9 = 60k survivability 4 actives 3 passives - bonus to main weapon spread and projectile speed - ie. defensive guard

7

The solution:    Ships in a given tier all need to have the same number of slots and same maximum synergy.  Ship bonuses and number of missiles can and should be different among ships but they should be balanced.  For example, a ship with a less useful bonus may have a better missile layout.  I would propose that all Tier 1 ships get a number of slots and synergy level equal to rank 3 ships, all Tier 2 ships get a number of slots and synergy equal to rank 6 ships, all Tier 3 ships get a number of slots and synergy equal to rank 9 ships, and all Tier 4 ships get a number of slots and synergy equal to rank 12 ships.  This change would create a lot more variety in the ships people choose to fly and variety adds to the overall fun factor.  I fail to see a downside.  Make it so.  

We had that before this tree. And things were great. The only kind of people that actually like this new tree are the Empire Engi pilots. Which, if the tree ever does get tweaked, they will be EXTREMELY butthurt because their Engis are now 1 rank below the max.

 

My idea follows along the lines of JQ’s tree, except it won’t break too much of the current ship role scheme…