A continuation of my previous thread: [http://forum.star-conflict.com/index.php?/topic/20688-fix-tiers/](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/20688-fix-tiers/)
Everyone knows Rank 4, 7 and 10 are terrible ships. Nobody I know wants to fly them, and a lot of the hatred of the new Synergy system boils down to “I’m being forced to fly crap ships!”. This is a genuine concern, and it’s disappointing that this has never been addressed.
First off, let’s look at why these ships are crap. I’m going to refer to T2 because this is where the issue first begins, but it applied across all tiers.
I believe the view Gaijin uses is that each ship must be better than the one before, which means Rank 4 must be inferior to Rank 5, which is in turn inferior to Rank 6. The idea is likely there to encourage people to rank up and not just squat at the bottom of a tier.
The flaw with that idea is that even if all ships in a tier had identical stats and module slots, higher ranked ships would always be better due to implants. You could never build a Rank 8 interceptor to be faster than its Rank 9 equivalent, nor could a Rank 5 ship ever match a Rank 6 for pure damage output.
So, even with equal ships there’s a reason to move forward.
What I propose is that Gaijin take a page out of one of the many, many, many threads about redesigning the ship tree, and do it. At the most basic level, the Tier 5 progression is what we want to see in Tiers 2, 3 and 4. A little more option to move between inty, fighter and frigate might be nice, but overall that T5 progression is solid - core ships at the start and end, secondary ships in the middle.
Now let’s talk modules. All ships should have the same number of modules within a tier. No exceptions. As I said, implants alone will encourage movement up the tree. Further encouragement can come from either giving the entry-level ship slightly weaker stats, or giving the mid and end tier ships better bonuses.
Example: Say we have the Machete - a Rank 4 Command Ship - with a +30% Command Module Range. The Machete type S - a Rank 6 Command Ship - has a +50% Command Module Range. Bam. Clear reason to fly the type S as soon as possible.
But by the same token, the default Machete is not outclassed. That bonus to module range doesn’t make the type S itself any harder to kill. Implants might, but there’s no reason that a Rank 4 Machete couldn’t beat down it’s Rank 6 counterpart.
tl;dr: Streamline the ship tree, give all ships in a tier the module slots of the top-tier ship, encourage upward movement through slight, but worthwhile changes to stats or bonuses.