Anyone who played prior to 0.8.0 will remember each faction had a theme; a distinct look and feel to them that others did not have. Myself, I only really know the Empire’s factions - the Legion, which were “Default but better”, and the Wardens who not only had more inventive names and a far better taste in paint schemes, but also did things a little bit different. Warden Disintegrators caused lingering DPS; Warden Microwarps created sensor-scrambling interference when activated.
When 0.8.0 came out I thought this would continue. Each race has a “Primary” and “Secondary” ship type for all three classes, so I assumed that the Legion would be offering me superior Gunships, Recon Interceptors and LR Frigates, with the Wardens playing at the inventive, experimental stuff - the Command Fighters, ECM Interceptors and Engineering Frigates.
This didn’t happen, or where it did it happened by accident.
My suggestion is a simple one; give us back that theme. I’m afraid I didn’t know enough about Federation or Jericho to add them to this list, but I’m sure that someone can lend a hand and apply my thinking to those factions.
First, the ground rules:
1. Ships are not moved around the ship tree; their names and models are swapped.
This is primarily because physically moving the ships about would cause a lot of disruption, resulting in more aggression and frustration from players and potential resentment. The last thing we want or need is people coming in and crying “OMG I maxed my Tier 4 engineer and now you took it off me and gave me a 0xp Guard Frigate instead!” This is a palette swap.
For example:
Let’s assume you are a Rank 4 Federation player who owns a Raptor Mk II. The Raptor is renamed “Alligator-C” and its model is changed to that of the Alligator-C, which likewise swaps names and schemes with the Raptor Mk II.
Your ship retains its class, its xp and all equipment. In effect, you still own a Rank 4 Federation Engineer; it’s just the cosmetics that have changed.
2. Doing this now means more interesting changes later!
You know how we used to get Contracts like “Win a battle using ships of the Raid faction” and stuff like that? We could have them back! By establishing clear themes for the factions and allowing players to instantly recognise what a Vanguard Ship is, or a Raid ship, or a Legion Ship, etc. content can be put in place that takes advantage of faction-specific elements. It also means choosing a Faction can mean more to the player than just “I’m going to get Hail Plasmas at rank 6!”
So, here we go; the entire Empire ship tree reworked! If a ship is not mentioned it means no change is required.
Empire Interceptors
Dvergr Knight swaps with Dwarf.
Elf moves to Diamond Dwarf position (Rank 7).
Elf 2 moves to Elf position (Rank 8).
Diamond Dwarf moves to Elf 2 position (Rank 9).
Black Elf swaps with Nibelung.
Nibelung 2 swaps with King Nibelung.
Empire Fighters
Phobos Aura swaps with Prometheus
Prometheus Fire swaps with Prometheus 2
Kastor 2 swaps with King Kastor
Empire Frigates
Steel Harpy swaps with Hydra 2.
Cerberus moves to Acid Hydra position (rank 7).
Cerberus 2 moves to Cerberus position (rank 8).
Acid Hydra moves to Cerberus 2 position (rank 9).
Centaur 2 swaps with Ginger Centaur.