I had this idea while at work about how to revamp the frigates.
First, remove healing from engineers. Heresy!
Give it to the long range frigates.
Sounds insane, right? Now the details. Part of the frigate problem is engineers are strong vital ships sitting in the middle of the battle. They’ll get targeted a lot so they need more survivability. LRF’s suck on survivability. Normally the pilot’s a loner going solo, easily a victim of attacks. Adding healing to LRF’s isn’t really in the role, so it would need renamed. Command would fit if it wasn’t taken by a fighter. Battleship would work if it weren’t for the survivability, maybe warship. Someone else can work on that. Then, the LRF would turn into the captain of combat recon, far away and safe, nearby and guarded, or in the battle with a death wish. The LRF would heal similar to the engineer now, with frigball tweaks. It could still snipe, which would help encourage it to be out of the battle. Players damaged in a battlefield can run to an LRF to heal and get back in.
Engineers could no longer do remote heals. Combat drones turn into attack drones. They can build stations to increase damage resistance, but not heal others. Then the engineer can actually be a builder on the field instead of a medic. It would still be a target, but with engineers swapping healing modules for building modules it can have a better support role. The LRF would have an actual support role instead of a loner role which is typical.
I would want combat drones on a guard instead, just because combat drones are good at defending a nearby area without intervention. Then I’d have no idea what to do for engineers.
Compare it to current gameplay. Currently, LRF’s are a niche class. It seems it’s mostly cheap shots and luck of the draw, not teamwork. NASA’s realistic rush is an exception of course. If you move the healing ability, LRF’s become strategic just as the other features of Engineers are strategic without healing.
No-one would ever fly LR if you did this; they would, without exception, die within 30 seconds of spawning.
A big part of why Engineers work in T3, and no-longer work in T2, is survivability. T3 engineers can stay alive and keep others alive. T2 Engineers die very fast even to lone Recon or ECM inty attacks, and so they have all but vanished from play.
Engineers don’t want to be glass medkits. T2 Engi’s especially.
No-one would ever fly LR if you did this; they would, without exception, die within 30 seconds of spawning.
A big part of why Engineers work in T3, and no-longer work in T2, is survivability. T3 engineers can stay alive and keep others alive. T2 Engineers die very fast even to lone Recon or ECM inty attacks, and so they have all but vanished from play.
Engineers don’t want to be glass medkits. T2 Engi’s especially.
The margin for error is getting smaller and smaller for T2 engies. One wrong move on your part, and you’re gone. Your team might be able to save you, but that’s something you can’t count on.
The idea sounds nice, but if you would use LRFs as healers most players would go back for healing -> less fighting and more flying between spawn and battle field or they would die before they get any heals.
The idea of guard fring flying 30 sec to get in LRF healing range, then sit there for next 30 sec and then fly back sound ridiculous… I would rather just hold backspace. and respawn, that would take less time. When I’m engy, I see enemies fly through battlefield, just to kill me and only reason (if) I happen to stay alive, is that ~60k Cerberus survivability. I already feel sorry for LRF who would have to feel the pain of boored CovOps.
CovOp1: See that fat LRF bro?
CovOp2: Yeah, what about it?
CovOp1: I bet 5 bucks that I can make it disapear in less than 5 sec.
Before 0.8 patch I actually tried out frigate when they had active modules free of choice. And it was Federation one. I really loved the go in (There were no guard frgs back then) and wreck havoc with Pulsar and my drones. They died way too fast back then thou, but still I found it interesting.
Making the frigate with the drones engi one has left bitter taste in me and I haven’t played frigates since 0.8 with the occasional Guard once in a while.
I really like the fighter like style of play frigate, BUT drones dieing so easily (not that I complain they make engi even more scary) and fixed 3 permanent active modules + 1 of choice is making that kind of play to be for guards. And they do not have the drones I liked.
The idea sounds nice, but if you would use LRFs as healers most players would go back for healing -> less fighting and more flying between spawn and battle field or they would die before they get any heals.
Their shields would still heal. It’s people making a choice between flying careful and going for a siege mentality, or giving them an option to attack but get out if it’s too hot. Engineers change it by making ships in a battlefield heal so fast there’s no risk sometimes. I can get a bullet sponge and never lose my shields. I don’t equip healing modules because they’re useless compared to a 5 second engineer heal. That changes the battlefield more.
Isn’t that why ESB took out engineers en mass first, and for the final match said no healers? Personally I think if they wanted “skill” it should have all been R1 ships, but that’s just me. I would have died, but that’s what I would have voted on.
Their shields would still heal. It’s people making a choice between flying careful and going for a siege mentality, or giving them an option to attack but get out if it’s too hot. Engineers change it by making ships in a battlefield heal so fast there’s no risk sometimes. I can get a bullet sponge and never lose my shields. I don’t equip healing modules because they’re useless compared to a 5 second engineer heal. That changes the battlefield more.
Isn’t that why ESB took out engineers en mass first, and for the final match said no healers? Personally I think if they wanted “skill” it should have all been R1 ships, but that’s just me. I would have died, but that’s what I would have voted on.
HMMMM… how about just making LRF heals (Repair Kit L & Shield Booster L) more faster to cooldown rather than being a full healer for others and also giving the LRF’s “Multiphase Shield Adapter’s” & “Nanocomposite Coating’s” less cooldown for faster resistances and chances of survival.
And the Idea for switching to an engie buffing sounds interesting to have, either to buff or heal but only one type at a time (or provide in the ‘Active Module’ for different limited combos) or it will make other ships OP more than what they are.
HMMMM… how about just making LRF heals (Repair Kit L & Shield Booster L) more faster to cooldown rather than being a full healer for others and also giving the LRF’s “Multiphase Shield Adapter’s” & “Nanocomposite Coating’s” less cooldown for faster resistances and chances of survival.
And the Idea for switching to an engie buffing sounds interesting to have, either to buff or heal but only one type at a time (or provide in the ‘Active Module’ for different limited combos) or it will make other ships OP more than what they are.
Actually having a small slow hull healing aura, or working a bit like a healing beacon, which only works on other ships but not on yourself on LRF would be nice, but I fear, what would be the result, is, that LRF just group up and heal each other, still being absent of the main gameplay.
But it’s true: if I would know, the LRF in the back actually provides some healing, I might stop complaining a bit about their actual existence. I also would love to play LRF more, but on the other hand, I don’t want to drag my team down with it. Because it’s fairly clear by now I think to most of us, that some games are impossible to win, if you have too many snipers, sometimes two missing ships on the front can change everything, especially if your enemy is skilled.
I don’t see engineers as a problem. Lack of Engineers is. The simple fact, that people tend to take LRFs as frigates into their deck, but often skip the engi, speaks for itself. I want empire LRF survivability reduced, so they again have to fear counter attacks by ceptors again, like their jericho brothers, which are made of paper. Or something else. I can live with ECMs being powerful game-interrupting ships, but the LRF just still annoys the hell out of me.
I do have my own solution, in case of mass LRF, I try to take ships with good sight range, in the hope, they at least hit once or twice something; mostly only works in Team Battle.
uh i didnt see the necro. evil necro. please use the magic necro cards or other pictures, so “serious” commenters like me don’t fall into this trap, bro
Necro aside… I like this idea. Make engi more utility and LRF more healing. Imagine an ELRF than can heal any ship completely with a lucky shot. Or a JLRF that shoots out a party torpedo. Confetti out the back and nanodrones in the front. Of course though rate of fire would be very slow.
what’s up with all the bashing on People that necro? If you don’t want necro’s, then lock threads after a while and put them in an Archive.
If not, don’t complain about necros. For the matter, People who want to write something on the subject and found the old thread, did some searching. Often enough i hear mods complaining about People not searching for threads with the same Topic.
To get back on Topic. Hmm, i wouldn’t make the lrf a healer, I’d rather change their special module to something damage related that buffs their six guns. Would turn that thing into something like a frigate gunship. (Of course, the lrf modules would have to be changed as well)
I don’t like the idea of splitting up heals for a simple reason: if I’m low on both hull and shield, I don’t want to have to run around looking for both a guard and an engie. Furthermore, the proper role of a guard is aerial denial, not damage tanking (even though all guards can tank damage).
