XC04

NightRychune · Post by **NightRychune** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:05 am

HEY YOU YOU SHOULD READ THIS POST IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT

Shipyard: It has possessed many long-standing gameplay issues, swinging on a pendulum between "too easy to stop" and "too difficult to stop," between "too slow and boring" and "omg that was gay we got raped and couldn't do anything about it." It has long been a bastard child; a fourth wheel on an otherwise really badass tricycle.

I'm turning this tricycle into a monster truck.

Shipyard has been redesigned to function as its own stand-alone tech path. Yeah, I $#@!in' did it.

Here are the details:

Where other tech paths revolve around one main ship type (Fighters, Stealth Fighters, and Interceptors), Shipyard provides a team with a number of different ship types, as well as their corresponding tech upgrades. It no longer can be built on a standard asteroid - instead, it can be build on any tech rock.

The Tech:

Skycap turret AoE damage is gone. Yep, gone. Their base range has been reduced to 1200m, while their rate of fire has doubled - leaving them effective only as point-defense weapons, forcing a fleet that wishes to engage targets at longer range to rely on destroyers.

Large shields have been drastically reduced in strength.

Ship agility has been moved from Supremacy to Shipyard, providing a greater benefit to sluggish capital ships than it does to nimble fighters. Ship speed upgrade costs have been brought in line with other attribute upgrades.

Several other items have been changed or removed: Killer Swarm is gone. Torpedo damage has been reduced, the range of XRM Hunter-Killer and PW Lancer have been reduced, and PW Lancer's damage has been converted from 100% area of effect to 100% direct damage.

Gunships have been removed from Starbase and moved to Shipyard. These function as the basic escort and combat ships, with two point-defense Skycap turrets and medium shields. Corvettes follow these at the advanced tech level, mounting medium shields, medium hull, and more durability than Gunships. The former, however, are not rendered obsolete by Corvettes: Gunships are the only ship that Shipyard has that can be launched at a base aside from the Shipyard. Corvettes are, however, way more badass.

Attack Carriers are superior to their non-piloted counterparts. They have more energy, they mount shields, and they're tougher. They do not, however, have their own point defense weaponry: They must rely on escort from other ships.

At advanced level, Assault Ships remain the penultimate support ship. It has point defenses. It can cloak, and it can support the distant deployment of any other capital ship.

Frigates are the first level of dedicated base-killing ship available to shipyard. Their durability has been drastically reduced. However, they cost significantly less to deploy now, and should be deployed in large numbers in order to cover one another and provide the greatest chance possible at destroying a base. They cannot ripcord, but they can mount heavy cloak, which can prove very useful. Gigacorp still deploys the inexpensive, frail light cruiser at this level, and the hive uses a downgraded cruiser and the Omega Cannon.

Cruisers are the advanced tech level of base-killing ship available for research once a shipyard has been upgraded into a Drydock. They're tougher than frigates, have four turrets instead of three, and can ripcord. They are not as durable as they used to be, though, and have been redesigned in favor of cheaper deployment costs.

Finally, destroyers: These are the ultimate combat support ships. They can engage and destroy targets at a greater range than point-defense turrets can manage, but they are vulnerable and cannot destroy targets that engage them at close range, requiring escort from other ships in order to minimize their key weakness. Not only can destroyers provide long-range killing power, but they also are the backbone of total annihilation and scorched sky tactics, capable of mounting aleph resonators and very powerful seismic missiles, which can be used to simply destroy enemy resources. Again, reduction in deployment costs have taken their toll: these have been downgraded to carrying medium shields, and the long-range missiles and weapons they deploy have reduced range. They remain extremely lethal and can act as the backbone of many fleet operations.

Devastators have been phased out by most factions. The Omicron Fleet still deploys a redesigned version: the ultimate escort and scorched-sky ship, retaining four skycap turrets, aleph resonator capability, and the incredibly powerful seismic cannon.

The Technoflux fleet continues to deploy its flagship designs, but have condensed them down to three tiers. The first level, attack frigates, have been adjusted to match other faction frigates, as have the second level - what amount to cruisers. Both of these retain smallrip capabilities. They can purchase further upgrades in Shipyard that unlock the infamous "Flagship 4" - a massive capital ship with incredible defenses that can provide ripcord capabilities to all ships in the TF fleet.

The Ga'Taraan federation can still deploy the Harbinger of Doom in a last-ditch effort to destroy all hostile forces at very significant cost.

Many other factions are conducting research on the remnants of technology left behind in the ashes of a long-destroyed group, searching for a way to incorporate those design elements into their own fleets.

There's more happening here!

So, on top of the massive overhaul to Shipyard, many other improvements across the board are coming.

The cost of the starbase upgrade itself is being reduced (by 50%!), and many pieces of technology in Starbase are now protected from reverse-engineering: Nan 2, Small shield 2/3 (yes, 3 is going back into garrison), EWS 2/3 (yes these will be in garrison), and Medium shield 2 and 3.

The sensor global attribute has been moved from Supremacy to Garrison, and pulse probes are also going to be removed from the game, creating a completely level playing field among every tech path and every faction, accessible for everyone in Garrison. Bios is also getting a slap in the face: advanced scouts will not be available for research until a tech base has been built. This should provide a more ample opportunity earlier in games to crush them.

Sup and Tac are also receiving improvements. First, for both of them: all levels of small shield are being improved - straight 40 hitpoint gain for all three levels of them.

I made no secret of the fact that I was unhappy with the overall performance of cruise booster (although I was, and am, very pleased with the design), and it's been changed. The acceleration has been improved, and more importantly, so has the sound. Given that, of course they had to be renamed to something more appropriate: Heavy Booster. Quickfires will also be switched to DM04 - the superior damage class shared by dumbfires, seekers, and several other weapons, giving them a small damage increase against pretty much everything, and fighters will be able to pack large numbers of quickfires to engage all targets with - providing a much needed boost in terms of killing utility without too much damage. And, speaking of utility, the damage gat deals against utility hull has been increased by a fair amount (about 20%) from what it was in 03. Autocannon turrets? Dispersion is going to be cut in half, which will increase their ability to engage a target at longer ranges by a healthy amount.

Tac has been lackluster for a long time. It isn't far off from being in a good place at all - reduced costs help it operate to a great degree, but the biggest problem is that it just can't engage anything without being horribly punished for it. The shield signature reduction in 03 should help with this significantly, and more importantly, they are receiving a drastic increase to the damage that sniper 1 and 2 deal, creating greater incentive to close and engage a target in a stealth fighter, and this should also provide a sufficient boost to the traditionally weak TF and Rix tac.

All in all, I'm very excited about this release AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO GODDAMN IT. There are many other minor adjustments to things that will help bring everything together, and for those you'll have to wait until I post the full technical changelog!

Kumquat · Post by **Kumquat** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:30 am

Wow. You been a busy boy. I like a lot of it. Not sure about the adv scout nerf for Bios but it does give them more reason to buy a damn tech base. They also won't be getting gunships right off the bat.

Will be interesting to see how SY does with this redesign.

JimmyNighthawk · Post by **JimmyNighthawk** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:03 am

WHERE ARE THE TOWERS
TALK ABOUT TOWERS
GIVE ME NEW TOWERS TO DEPLOY

NightRychune · Post by **NightRychune** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:05 am

yes jimmy i have something special coming just for you

you'll have to wait for 05 though

JimmyNighthawk · Post by **JimmyNighthawk** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:07 am

NightRychune wrote:QUOTE (NightRychune @ Mar 25 2011, 11:05 AM) yes jimmy i have something special coming just for you

you'll have to wait for 05 though

Oh yeah! Yeah!

takingarms1 · Post by **takingarms1** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:09 pm

Removing PPs... bold, I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Should be a huge boost to tac and SBs in particular.

Drizzo · Post by **Drizzo** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:16 pm

But I thought this was expcore

p.s. $#@! that @#(! on the sup renames. Ints are heavier therefore their boosters should be called hvy boosters!

guitarism · Post by **guitarism** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:26 pm

Figs are fatter and need more boost to push them, hence you need a Heavy booster....

Can't wait!

Jimen · Post by **Jimen** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:32 pm

SY should be able to research Mass Driver towers as endgame tech

Broodwich · Post by **Broodwich** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 4:00 pm

i feel like this goes here ^^

Virulence: oh @#(!
Virulence: i just launched my devastator from an omicron garr