Complex-Settings Review

[Manus Celer Dei]

Some of you will have seen the new ship settings for complex, and some of you may recognise them from my reef arena in 17th Parallel. Anyone who made the connection gets a free cookie, because you are right. For those who haven't already helped me test these while I was working on them, here's a rundown of the ships.

 

General:

 

There are 8 ships of course, 2 each of fighters, bombers, fighter-bombers and capital ships. Each capital ship will be restricted to 1 of each per team, chosen by the highest scoring player on that freq (or some other method as yet unknown). Each of the ships has a total of 2 extras and a special (stealth, rocket and burst in the case of the warbird for example). The special has the same energy drain on all the ships, but recharge rates differ on each ship making some specials more costly than others (the two ships with xradar, leviathan and weasel, have the slowest recharge, making xradar a big investment of effort on the part of those ships). Only 3 of the ships (warbird, weasel and shark) are attachable, with the 6 non-caps requiring 63 bty to attach. The capital ships, if they live long enough, are rewarded with the ability to attach when they reach 450 bty.

 

notes on multifire- because bullets with multifire can spam much more effectively in a zone with bounce as standard, multifire shots on the wb, jav, weasel and spider cost more to fire and shoot slower.

 

Warbird:

 

This ship is a heavy fighter, specialising in quick rush !@#$%^&*aults and defending chokepoints. It has an EMP mine that causes a great deal of pain if hit in an enclosed area, but no bombs, making the ships quite vulnerable to long ranged attackers unless it uses its stealth or rockets. The warbird also fills a valuable role as an attach anchor, rocket !@#$%^&*aults from stealthed warbirds can quickly overrun an unaware enemy team.

 

Javelin:

 

This ship is the other fighter-class ship, and is also the fastest of the set. With powerful guns combined with the fastest regeneration, it can deal a great deal of damage in a short period, but this power comes at a price, it also has the least energy of the 8 ships and a quite slow acceleration for its speed, making it somewhat more unwieldy than the others. If it fails in its first attack it may not survive to make another. The drifting bombs can also make an impromtu minefield if the jav is using its antiwarp to prevent portal attacks.

 

Spider:

 

This ship is the heavy bomber, and will probably feature prominently at the forefront of !@#$%^&*aults. very powerful EMP bombs (mmmm, Shrapnel Cannon) can decimate even groups of ships in short order, but the other ships will be at a decided advantage if they can exploit its slow speed and the minimum effective range of its bombs. It has a mine and repel though, so beware if it expects your attack, Stealth and a decoy can be used to draw the enemy into traps as well.

 

Leviathan:

 

This ship is more of a support bomber, with powerful l3 bouncing bombs that can find use in a variety of situations, and when things get too close for such a large blast, the leviathan can call on its energy reserves (it has more energy than all the other non-cap ships) and its multifire bullets can swamp an enemy in weak, level 1 bullets in short order. Portal and Burst also bring some sneakiness that can surprise an enemy on offence or defence.

 

Terrier:

 

The first of the fighter-bombers, the terr is also the only cloaking ship in the set. A combination of good guns, bombs and mines, along with its repel and rocket allow for a good all round ships that is jack of all trades yet master of none. Hampered by its slow firing rate, it cannot rely on continual use of its cloak to win battles (especially given the energy drain of specials in the settings), but if used properly, can surprise opponents, picking on fighters at range or bombers up close. mine-rep or rocket-gun for added fun.

 

Weasel:

 

The second fighter-bomber and attachable basic ship, the weasel initially seems the weakest armed of the ships, but a full salvo of super-bouncing-super shrapnel bombs can leave the enemy dead by a thousand tiny cuts, to be finished off by its guns if needed. The ship is slow but has a good acceleration and turning, which can often get it trapped in combats not of its choosing and given that it, like the leviathan has slow regeneration, it will be at a distinct disadvantage if things take a turn for the worse. Like the terrier it has a clutch of mines with which it can use alongside its brick and portal to its advantage to help command the situation.

 

note- some ships are much better than others at taking down capital ships

 

Lancaster:

 

This is the "cruiser" capital ship, it has 6000 energy and is designed to spearhead !@#$%^&*aults strongly held enemy positions. It has powerful guns and rapid-fire EMP bombs with shrapnel that can easily overpower groups of ships that get in its way. Expect !@#$%^&*aults to be led by this ship rocketing in stealthed or using its thors and bombs to batter at defences. It is weak, however to flank attacks once its support is out of the way, as it cannot be attached to, and its relatively slow recharge can result in it being worn down by enemy fire, so it must plan its attacks carefully. A big bonus to this ship is the addition of antiwarp for no energy drain.

 

Shark:

 

This is the "carrier" capital ship, and is even more resilient than the lancaster at 8000 energy, but this additional power comes at a cost. Like the lanc it has 2 repels and 2 powerful rockets, but it is slower at turning and acceleration, making it by far the most unwieldy ship in the setting. coupled with this, its offensive power lacks punch, while its l3 EMP bombs have a huge blast and can disable ship recharges in whole groups at once, the lack of shrapnel means this does insufficient damage to kill anything on its own (the bombs cost almost as much to fire than they do in damage). It's guns are more powerful versions of those on the leviathan, making it dangerous to attack in enclosed spaces. This ship was designed to be a defensive anchor for a freq, and the presence of a shark makes a CP a lot harder to capture.

[CreatiX]

i suggest to have the cap ships the only ships that are attachable, a bit like a mothership that would add another gameplay aspect..

 

Thanks alot for the review Manus!

Best regards

-CreatiX