Tech Tree Progression Illogical

The tech tree progression is now illogical for the following reasons

 

  • The lack of choices of frigates at various ranks and tech levels (no Engi Frigate for Federation at Rank 9, forcing us to use a Rank 8)

  • Mismash of ships in various techs (one Fox at T2, another one at T3?)

  • Narrowing of tech progression, forcing players to go through redundant ships (Wolf Mk2 at Rank 10)

 

A quick fix I would recommend would be to make Implants work via Tech level not for Rank level. 

 

EDIT1: No hull modifier for T2?

I admit I am quite disappointed in how the ship progression looks right now. When I heard about this patch I was expecting them to pretty much keep the ship tree as is, but with more variation. For example, the Hercules is a Tier 0 Gunship. The Hercules 2 would then be the “proper” Tier 1 Empire Gunship, whilst the Hercules Arrow would be the Tier 1 Command ship, or vice versa.

 

Instead, the Empire has no Command ships at Tier 1. It has two Gunships (rank 1 and 3), two Recon Interceptors (rank 2 and 3) and a lone Long-Range Frigate (tier 3).

 

The progression in later tiers is equally nonsensical. The original progression of “ship x, ship x-2 and/or ship x-special” was a good one; you could either get a better version of your entry level ship, or get one that worked in a slightly different way. I don’t understand why they felt the need to abandon that concept.

As someone who’s got all 3 factions leveled up to T3-4, while I can understand for a single faction the ship choices are maybe not great, once you cross-train, you have very nice options available, and I think overall there is now better choice and variety to taking ships of specific roles. Just that you shouldn’t focus only on one faction all the time…

It’s fine, it’ll force people to experiment with different factions which is the whole point of being a mercenary and not stuck with a firm choice of sides, right?

I have good ranks with all factions (T3) and actually struggle to find the variety of ships to fulfill the roles I used to be able to use under the old system.

Oh I am not saying one faction should offer everything, but each faction has two niches per category that they fill, and it seems odd that they, frankly, don’t.

 

Just to use my example again, because I happen to like Empire… Empire seem to be primarily about Gunships in their fighter lineup, so I think the progression should be something like…

 

Tier 1:

Rank 1 - Hercules [Gunship].

Rank 3 - Hercules 2 [Gunship].

Rank 2/3 - Hercules Arrow [Command].

 

Tier 2:

Rank 4 - Deimos [Gunship]

Rank 6 - Deimos 2 [Gunship]

Rank 5/6 - Phobos [Command].

 

You can apply similar things to other vehicle classes and factions; most Jericho Fighters would likely be Command with the Tackler being the “odd” Fighter, whilst Federation get primarily Tackler Fighters with the “odd” ship being a Gunship.

 

Actually… now this is how I would do it, and how it would apply across every tier:

 

Entry Rank:

Empire Fighter = Gunship.

Federation Fighter = Tackler.

Jericho Fighter = Command.

 

Mid Rank:

Empire Fighter = Better Command.

Federation Fighter = Better Gunship.

Jericho Fighter = Better Tackler.

 

End Rank:

Empire Fighter = Best Gunship.

Federation Fighter = Best Tackler.

Jericho Fighter = Best Command.

 

So, if you’re flying, say, Tier 3, here’s how it would pan out:

 

If you want a Gunship as quickly and cheaply as possible, you fly the Empire. They have the cheapest, easiest to acquire Gunship in every tier, and so you can get the ship you want quickly.

 

If you want the best Gunship in your Tier, you also fly Empire; their end-game Fighter is the best Gunship you’ll find in your weight class, but it takes the longest to acquire and is the most expensive.

 

If you want something in between, you have to fly Federation. Their Gunship is better than the entry level Empire one, but not as good as the endgame model. However, the primary appeal of a Fed Gunship is likely that it works quite differently to its Empire counterparts, so it is a very different beast to them.

 

 

Applying that across all tiers would, in my opinion, be the way to go.

I got screw over badly leveling just one faction I lost all my command and ecm ships and can’t even play the roles till I start over with the other factions.

Yep, another progression nerf. There’s more ships between techlevels you are forced to buy now.

 

Before you could go from Cerberus 2 to Centaur, now there’s 2 additional ships between that, forcing you to cough up another 10.4m.

Not that it matters much because the Ginger Centaur I bought is now fairly useless for PvE anyway because it lost the bonus I bought it for.

 

This is what gaijin is looking like to me now:

31072988.jpg

 

 

Edit; Seriously when they make sweeping changes like this they should REFUND ALL THE SHIPS SO PEOPLE CAN GET THE ONES THEY WANT