Lt ints - standard opening ship

Post by **TheBored** » Wed May 14, 2008 10:20 pm

Starting ships are supposed to be borderline useless, right? Well, only certain factions have starting light ints... meaning we can specifically nerf THAT ship pretty easily. You don't need to nerf ints in general or exp in general, just that ship. I don't know what variation of nerf you want to apply... but it can be done easily.

Benefits:
-Variation is still there (no square core)
-Opening ship is weak for all factions
-Opening figs were not buffed (game opening stays slow)
-Changes are extremely easy to apply since they only change 2 ships

Win/win?

TB

cashto · Post by **cashto** » Wed May 14, 2008 11:40 pm

The lt. int. is not so powerful that it absolutely stomps on a non-int faction's ability to plant their first op. Not even remotely. At most you can say that IC and Dreg are strong starting factions and that, if all factors were held equal, IC and Dreg kill a somewhat higher proportion of opening ops. But there's nothing wrong with having strong opening factions (as long as they have other nerfs which balance out their initial strengths).

aarmstrong · Post by **aarmstrong** » Thu May 15, 2008 12:58 am

While it may be fun, I don't support giving lt ints to all factions; for the reasons already mentioned. Most of all it creates that core that feels too mundane and lacks variety. Starting fighters have their place, and in certain situations I would rather take one than a lt int.

Are lt ints too strong? If they are, then the factions with them should have a huge win percentage compared to the factions that do not. That simply isn't happening. I blame this in part to minigun1 - it sucks, really bad. Unless you have a lot of pilots, you don't even have a prayer of stopping a bomb run. Ever flown a hvy int with mini1? It's almost like you castrate that ship - and that's what lt ints have to start the game.

Oh and I would much rather fly a Rix fig than a Dreg lt int. Any competent pilot will be able to pod the int, guaranteed.

Grim_Reaper_4u · Post by **Grim_Reaper_4u** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:36 am

nerfing lt ints fuel will go a long way towards making them less dangerous during the opening minutes of the game. Currently it's too easy to boost 2 sectors to the enemies opening con and/or miners and nail them. Ints should basically be used to defend their own con and prevent an enemies con from building next to their home (unless they plan ahead and wait for it in ambush). Having them rape cons and miners 3 sectors from their nearest base is not what they are made for IMHO. Ints should be a short range offensive/defensive weapon. If you want to kill miners 3 sectors away then push an op to the adjacent sector with int escort or fly there for 2 minutes without boosting so you have fuel left to nail the d and miners. Currently ints are too long legged and that causes all the balance problems.

Vlymoxyd · Post by **Vlymoxyd** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:24 pm

I completely agree with grim, the real problem with light ints isn't their strenght, it's their boost power.

Picobozo · Post by **Picobozo** » Tue May 20, 2008 5:38 am

aarmstrong wrote:QUOTE (aarmstrong @ May 14 2008, 08:58 PM) Oh and I would much rather fly a Rix fig than a Dreg lt int. Any competent pilot will be able to pod the int, guaranteed.

Aarmstrong vs Aarmstrong. Rix Fig vs Dreg Lt Int? Hmmm, I don't know about that. Boost in close and circle on the Y axis above or below the fig and I'm not sure that fig stands a chance.

No thoughts on giving everybody(except giga) starting fighters?

As far as the relative strength of the IC/Dreg Light Int versus regular fighters, what happens when pilots of equal skill meet up in the same sector with their opening op cons? How often does the Light int faction mop up the fig faction?

I hear what people are saying about variety, but can't the "variety" in balance occur after opening tech is researched? I would love to see really really crappy useless tech in the beginning of the game. Scouts and regular Figs only (or patties if Giga so chooses to invest in).

Light ints were created late in the game and almost none of the vets on the AZ thought it was a good idea. Yeah, it was fun because now they could whore, but everybody agreed at the time that it was unnecessary. IC was considered weak because their economy was ultra slow and their bases were very expensive. Ripping miners brought in later brought their economy inline somewhat. The light interceptors were kind of a "wish list" item that they decided to implement. Dreg got Light Ints because, well, lets face it, Veggie and Spliff are whores /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Post by **TheBored** » Tue May 20, 2008 8:09 pm

TheBored wrote:QUOTE (TheBored @ May 14 2008, 03:20 PM) Starting ships are supposed to be borderline useless, right? Well, only certain factions have starting light ints... meaning we can specifically nerf THAT ship pretty easily. You don't need to nerf ints in general or exp in general, just that ship. I don't know what variation of nerf you want to apply... but it can be done easily.

Benefits:
-Variation is still there (no square core)
-Opening ship is weak for all factions
-Opening figs were not buffed (game opening stays slow)
-Changes are extremely easy to apply since they only change 2 ships

Win/win?

TB

TB

spideycw · Post by **spideycw** » Tue May 20, 2008 8:28 pm

Picobozo wrote:QUOTE (Picobozo @ May 20 2008, 01:38 AM) Aarmstrong vs Aarmstrong. Rix Fig vs Dreg Lt Int? Hmmm, I don't know about that. Boost in close and circle on the Y axis above or below the fig and I'm not sure that fig stands a chance.

Rix Fig. Just rotate on the z axis and turn on the x. I'll never forget one time Aarm and I were in a one v one dm and both start rotating at the same time to throw each other off and it looked like neither of us were moving (then we podded each other)

Rix fig is far better at killing things that matter like cons and miners. Dreg lt ints are much better are killing things that dont matter like noob rix figs and clueless scouts. At least thats my interpretation

apochboi · Post by **apochboi** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:49 pm

As you can probably imagine, I love rix. But damn the rixian fig is for me the best starting ship in the game. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> its soo damn nimble and powerful.

Your_Persona · Post by **Your_Persona** » Wed May 21, 2008 6:05 am

Poochyboy wrote:QUOTE (Poochyboy @ May 20 2008, 03:49 PM) As you can probably imagine, I love rix. But damn the rixian fig is for me the best starting ship in the game. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> its soo damn nimble and powerful.

I would like to see every faction start with figs, and the ones that have lt ints now could buy them for 250. /wub.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":iluv:" border="0" alt="wub.gif" />