Revising Rock, Paper, Scissors

Suggestions Balance
1

"Now this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack." -Rudyard Kipling

 

Currently Star Conflict has been having a host of issues  with every update and I believe there might be an underlying reason.

At present, the system the game has been built on is as follows:

 

Frigates kill Fighters, Fighters kill Interceptors, Interceptors kill Frigates

 

But what if we flipped this system on it’s head?

 

Interceptors kill Fighters, Fighters kill Frigates, Frigates kill Interceptors

 

Suddenly the roles actually make sense!

 

Interceptors should be weak enough that the active defensive modules of Frigates pose a real threat, yet strong enough that they can survive a few shots from Assault Fighters. They should also be fast enough to out-maneuver fighters. Since they only have 2 turrets, it makes more sense that they are meant for Fighter interdiction rather than Frigate killing. Interceptors should have their heavy missile slots removed and replaced with medium slots so they cannot carry minefields, nukes, or cruise missiles, as their primary role is destroying Fighters.

 

Assault Fighters should be strong enough that they can survive a direct hit by a Frigate, but slow enough that Interceptors pose a real problem. They should have only small and large missile slots, so they can carry cruise missiles, nukes, and rockets for anti-Frigate duty; but not medium slots, so that homing missiles can’t be used to easily dispatch Interceptors.

 

Frigates should be powerful enough to kill most Interceptors within two direct shots, but not so strong that they can wipe out Fighters as easily. Frigates should be slow enough that they cannot easily escape or out maneuver Fighters, and their active modules should be weak enough that Fighters can shrug off some of the damage if properly equipped. They should have medium and large missile slots for mining objectives, shooting cruise missiles at other frigates, and homing missiles at interceptors.

 

 

So to summarize:

 

Interceptors: Strong against Fighters; Average against Interceptors; Weak against Frigates

Fighters: Strong against Frigates; Average against Fighters; Weak against Interceptors

Frigates: Strong against Interceptors; Average against Frigates; Weak against Fighters

 

Going back to the quote by Rudyard Kipling; the pack is only as strong as the individual Wolf. If one ship class is unable to defend itself the whole pack suffers; which is what has been happening lately. If the whole mentality of this game is flipped, I believe we will begin to see some useful patches come our way.

 

EDIT: Struck out some of the more confusing bits. What remains is the meat of my suggestion. The developers can balance it however they see fit, I’d just like to see the roles reconsidered in this light.

2

currently:

 

the ships themselves follow the first rock-paper-scissors

but ship specials / modules go the other way (except tackler and cov ops) following the second rock-paper-scissors

 

for some reason I find that cool

3

Sorry I didn’t do such a good job breaking my suggestion down better.

 

My primary suggestion is simply that the developers reverse their thinking and start balancing the game with the mentality that Interceptors are Fighter hunters, Fighters are Frigate bombers, and Frigates are an Interceptor’s worst nightmare.

 

My suggestions as to specifically how this could be done were more theoretical and, as I see now, just confused things.

4

I think this is how it is right now, with gunship’s dmg output tearing frigates

5

No, currently we have a problem because Interceptors are strong enough to kill Frigates, and are faster , more maneuverable than

Fighters, and more than strong enough to kill them too. Which means they really don’t have a downside. Certain interceptors can stasis fighters and other interceptors, while the fighters designed to counter interceptors only slow them down (not disable them completely for several seconds).

 

Fighters can kill Frigates and other Fighters, but they really suck against interceptors because it is next to impossible to land primary weapons fire on them. A fighter either has to have homing missiles or lasers to even hope of hitting an inty. That’s the class they are supposed to be good against at present.

 

Frigates really don’t have anything they can kill reliably if the pilot knows what they are doing. Intys that fly smart can stay out of range of Frigate’s modules and take them apart from range while dodging their primary fire. Fighters also can easily destroy Frigates if they use Overdrive or Nukes.

 

 

In short, because the developers have tried to balance Interceptors to kill Frigates, they have effectively made them the new “kill everything” class.

 

They need to re-think the game in terms of having Interceptors kill Fighters, rather than Frigates.