Yup, Sector conquest is endgame and should stay as it. If you can get influence by doing a lower tier, with higher chance to face unprepared opponents, why would you go in the higher tougher tier?
@ xKostyan : Theoretical scenario become true when enough occurences happen. It’s pure statistical analysis.
But I agree you can’t buy nor grind skill, it only come with experience, and you learn more when you face difficulties. Good pilots don’t need mk4 to shine, but that could still help them.
By the way, I didn’t look after fairness as I said, just about balance. And don’t tell me that a rk 11 ship can be balanced with is rk15 equivalent… It just can’t be true in any scenario. Not due to the ship inherent stats, it only affects hull and shield and they’re not that far from each other (around 6 - 7%). It’s much more the synergy bonus and passive modules distribution that really make the difference (sometimes, it even favor lower ranked ships and that’s good for the game imo, higher lvl ships shouldn’t always be the way to go).
The true difference is due to the 4 more implants you get and the difference in weapon / active module.
Just look at numbers : mk4 plasma gun gain around 7,2% damage and 4,6% projectile speed beetween t4 and t5. If you factor it with gladius III implant it reach +10 % damage… For active modules, most of them just don’t change (maybe a higher energy cost in t5?). But when the value change, ie for parasite remodulator, the gain is around 8%. That start to be a lot just coz you don’t use a rk 15 ship.
imo, the gap beetween rk11 and rk15 is not enough to justify distinction in 2 different tiers (and putting them together in sec conquest seems like an agreement). They have same number of active and passive modules. They have same max synergy levels. Having all rank 11 and above ships sharing the same implants and module would be a better way to balance it. They’re pretty close and again, it would add true diversity in the games, hence increase the deapth of gameplay and simplify it by not having to think about what implants are active for each ship.
It still won’t be fair against better prepared opponents and I say it again, I don’t go after fairness, but it would be way better balanced…
The open space will be like this “old” sector conquest that I never experienced, where you can fight difficult battles against truly unfair opponents, but you might outnumber them too.
When I go for sector conquest, I know what I go into and that it would be tough battle, sometimes it even will be one sided and I’ll get stomped hard. But for the sake of the game, I think more balance and deapth in this endgame pvp won’t hurt.