HS Basing Balance

[omnomnom]

Basing has its quirks and appeals but one thing is certain: its balance is in question (by me). I, the fantasic omnomnom of the omnomnom citadel, will help try to solve this lumbering problem that omnomnoms me day and night.

 

The Ship Balance: Rushing

 

A problem of omnomnomity is a somewhat slight but noticeable disbalance of ships, particularly in rushing. In Large Ships Lancasters face various advantages: they got summon, the got the most HP, and they're the only one who can hold Resonance Sphere, too. This makes them have significant HP and tactical advantages over other ships. The other large ships are rendered inferior in rushing, by not only this and recharge, but all movement stats besides rotation (a bit). This makes it a joke to rep spam in any other large ship.

 

For medium ships the weasel has a small but significant advantage over the terrier in stats, like the lancaster for rushing purposes. I'd say this is not so bad, I would say the lancaster outclasses other ships of its own movement/hp range by a significantly larger and more important margin.

 

Warbird and Javelin have the most variation. You could say the WB is better, but the Javelin at least has more HP.

 

The Shark has a special rank in the attaching hierarchy. Only to lancs (for attaching purposes), slashed on reps (count), its saving grace is basically cloak. I dont think cloak is enough to warrant the usefulness of a ship, but against unprepared opponents it works fine. Against a priv however I'd expect it to fail miserably in usefulness, assuming the priv in question knows what they're doing. The Warbird and Javelin fare better roles in terms of equipment (in this case).

 

Ship Usefulness

 

Ships 1, 2, 6, and 7 have a generally strong usefulness. 7 in particular, its Summon rush and summon itself is a very good asset.

 

Ships 3, 4, and 5 are ok. They have some, but with rushing they fall. I would not recommend these to newer players (as their only main ship), unless you just plan to not rush. But they are good at what they can do, so they're not bad for that.

 

Ship 8 is starved. 2 reps, lowest max hp, 1 barrel, no sigs, low atk power... with almost nothing that it alone is good at, it resorts to whats left: being a small ship that has cloak. Surely it could use more than this.

 

Changes

 

I suggest possible changes:

 

-Combo Mount counts as a repel mount

We don't need 4 rep 3 burst, right? With this no extra mount shenanigans to almost completely outclass the shark, the shark also gets a little help. I would think this was sort of forgotten anyway, but if not than at least it would help even the odds, and maybe even promote the use of other sigs. (Not saying everyone uses combo mount ofc, but maybe more people use it than other sigs for rushing thanks to extra mount, if/when they can afford it or think of it)

 

-Terrier's thrust and rushing

We can keep its speed the same, but modifying its thrust so that it has more than the weasel (by adding +2 so that it has 36 or whatever that works) is what I'm thinking.

 

-Limited Summoners for the large ships

To help them out how about a summon for the 4 ships can attach to them normally: Terrier, Weasel, Warbird, and Javelin? Its not self-sustaining like Lancasters, but at least their rushing will

be a little better. Of course it'd be nice if there was no turret involved, they are not lancasters after all.

 

-Sharks attaching changes

For one idea how about they can attach to every larger ship (so all besides their self)? The balance of the shark seems to be a careful thing, but this would just give more attaching opportunities. That of course changes the balance, but not only would I think this might be interesting, it does not affect their core, numerical stats. Maybe this kind of style to balance the shark would help make them more useful.

Another idea I had was Sharks attaching to other sharks, (only can attach to lanc otherwise). Sharks would be full fledged turreters in this case, so you could have a shark turret in center! =D They could even have a Shark-only Summon (for other sharks only)! Shark Deployment! Yeeeeessssssssssssssssss!!!!!!

 

 

Ok thats my ideas for basing. It works now (its not overly lacking fun or something), but I was trying to find some ways to deal with some of the other things without just plain nerfing as every change. I personally like the second idea for a shark attach change a lot, although its probably crazy. At any rate, thats what I think for now.

Edited March 29, 2011 by omnomnom

[Unix]

I would argue about your ship rusher variances.

 

Lancaster:

Biggest advantage is summoner, but it's biggest drawback is that they dont tend to be as maneuverable, also they get hit ... A lot. Even if they have a lot of energy, if they constantly get hit, they're not going to do much. I would also say that summon isnt as valuable of an asset as you make it out to be when it comes to rushing. I'm not saying it's not an asset, but to make it sound like some all amazing factor isnt true neither.

 

Mediums:

Back in the day, terrier had all the stats to be superior to weasel in every way except bombspeed. Even then, some would say terrier bombs are more useful, merely because of the amount of damage they do in comparison to weasel. I would say right now, there are probably more terrier rushers than wzl rushers even though the weasel stats tend to say that terriers shouldnt be used over weasel. The reason? Weasels are more the EMP/thor ship over the rusher. Also because most tend to use WBs as their rush ship.

 

Terrier has their role as the ultimate "jack of all trades" ship. It's perfectly fine as is, it can gun like a spider, rush like a weasel, bomb similar to a levi, and at the same time can move like a small in base while having wide double barrel guns.

 

Smalls:

If anything, they're overpowered. Just because they dont have the energy to tank doesnt mean anything. They're more maneuverable and can recover from enemy repels faster. If anything, they should be nerfed for basing purposes.

 

Large ships having some form of summon wouldnt be a horrible idea, but even now it's kind of a pain. There are some who will just stall game more than anything. Only thing I would change is the 0 energy when you attach, I'd rather have it where you have like 1/3 of your energy from a normal F7 attach, samething for a lanc without summon.

[spidernl]

I'm not saying it's not an asset, but to make it sound like some all amazing factor isnt true neither.

 

I disagree. Ever see 3 or 4 Lancasters "lanc chain"? If they do it well, one big rush can easily take down an enemy team.

 

Large ships having some form of summon wouldnt be a horrible idea, but even now it's kind of a pain. There are some who will just stall game more than anything. Only thing I would change is the 0 energy when you attach, I'd rather have it where you have like 1/3 of your energy from a normal F7 attach, samething for a lanc without summon.

 

Guess how possible that last idea is..

[Unix]

Anything in excess is bad. One trip thor ship isnt horrible, but when 3-4 players do it together or in succession, yeah it can be bad. In regard to just one singular lancaster with AD rushing, it's not nearly as bad. And how often do 3-4 lancs ever do a successful chain like that? Not too often, and lately there hasnt been that many lancs to even worry about. In any game with that many lancs it usually is around 15v15 range.

[Cheese]

you need to change the title to HS Rushing

[Gar]

Yeah, Sharks are just irritating griefer ships. They pose literally no threat for any reason other than silly cloak leaking... meanwhile their team is annoyed the shark player is doing nothing, and the enemy team is annoyed that they have to keep x on and chase this stupid little ship all over.

 

I think they need a total concept overhaul. Personally, I'd give them a very high bombspeed and take away cloaking. I can see them as tactical EMP deliverers, whereas weasels try to bounce EMPs in, sharks can get up close due to their small size and fire directly.

[kevinz000]

i agree with this too