Why was Microwarp Engine nerfed to hell?

I was so excited to see that some of my Federation Interceptors now had the Microwarp Engine ability that had previously been Empire-exclusive. Then I hopped in game and tried to use it. After numerous failed attempts to warp anywhere, I thought perhaps it was bugged and not working properly. Then I read the tooltip. It now reads: “Accelerates the ship to a speed 28 faster that its default max speed for 2 sec. Preparing the microwarp takes 2.5 sec.”

 

What the heck is the point of this now? Oh wow, so my top speed goes from 334 to a whopping 362 for a whole 2 seconds. That’ll really help…

 

The ability went from being a highly versatile personal warp gate to perhaps the most useless ability in the entire game. I activate it and, if anything, my speed actually seems to decrease. My ship shakes around for a couple seconds, I lose all manueverability and then my engine cuts out and I have to reaccelerate up to afterburner speed again. It’s basically a “shoot me now” button.

 

What was the rationale behind taking one of the most versatile utility abilities and nerfing it into complete pointlessness?

It’s 28 times faster, not an extra 28 speed, and you’re using it wrong if it spurts out on you. I’ve microwarp drived just like I have before pre-0.8.0.

Aim where you want to go.

Don’t touch your keyboard.

Tap “F”

Wait 2.5 seconds.

Watch your ship fly!

 

You’re trying to hold Shift down or move foward and you’re disrupting your own warp. That’s what I did at the start too and I thought the ship was broken.

Dang, you’re right. Did they change the tooltip and alter the way it functioned? I remember it’s tooltip basically mirroring the tooltip for the Warp Gate, and not having to take my hands off the keyboard when I activated it.

Dang, you’re right. Did they change the tooltip and alter the way it functioned? I remember it’s tooltip basically mirroring the tooltip for the Warp Gate, and not having to take my hands off the keyboard when I activated it.

 

I don’t know if the tooltips changed but thats the way it was all the way back in alpha

Edit: Nvm

Just to clear up the problem. Boosting will stop the drive if you’re warping. This can actually be quite useful as it allows you fly a few thousands metres, boost and you’ll drop out of warp. It is however worth realising that you take time to decelerate so don’t press shift when you get to the point you want to stop. You’ll still travel a good 1000+ before dropping back to normal speed. Best of luck working it all out, it does take quite some time to get the hang of it.

Just to clear up the problem. Boosting will stop the drive if you’re warping. This can actually be quite useful as it allows you fly a few thousands metres, boost and you’ll drop out of warp. It is however worth realising that you take time to decelerate so don’t press shift when you get to the point you want to stop. You’ll still travel a good 1000+ before dropping back to normal speed. Best of luck working it all out, it does take quite some time to get the hang of it.

 

1000+ is an understatement.

 

For beacons I usually interrupt it around 5km as long as I’ve been warping for a while already.

The 2.5s delay is a nasty trap for newbies as demonstrated here.  

 

I played a Microwarp 75% of the time up until this patch and it is disorienting even when I know what is going on.  

 

The fun factor really goes down when you are wondering if your F key registered.  

I sometimes hit F but the warp does not seem to activate, the start up time of the warp feels longer than pre patch.

Its a basic interface issue, if you hit a button something should happen.  

 

Its irritating for experienced users but for Keichi it stopped him using Microwarp.  

I would not have stuck around and played the game if I hadn’t discovered Microwarp early.  

This is a real problem for new players. 

I sometimes hit F but the warp does not seem to activate, the start up time of the warp feels longer than pre patch.

 

That’s because you probably had a ship with the Wardens/Legion Microwarp. Can’t remember which one, but one of them reduced the warp preparation time down to 1.3 seconds.

Note that strafing also deactivates it. You can hold down throttle, but not strafe or afterburners.

That’s because you probably had a ship with the Wardens/Legion Microwarp. Can’t remember which one, but one of them reduced the warp preparation time down to 1.3 seconds.

 

Yup.  

 

I’d really love it back.  

 

Even if its a mod I have to pay for or locked behind a Loyalty requirement.  

Ship roles are lovely but losing customisation of class abilities is a bit sad on top of limited module selection.  

Thing that really sold me on SC over World of Tanks was being able to meaningfully modify my ships.  Less options now.