Constellations have S3 shields!?

[Esctasy]

Just curious if anyone knows why CIG put S3 shield on a ship that costs $150?
Even it's physical size doesn't support such a big shield. If anything the Valk or Tali should get it first?

Also the Sabre got 1 shield removed, but not the Nomad? Some loose wires going on at CIG.

 

[Cugino83]

Well yes, all the Connny move from 2xS2 to a single S3 shield... questionable choice but I suspect is also to push the sell of the Taurus especially since, as you pinted out, other ship that are tecnically more suitable to receive a shield boost do to size and role. Future will tell us if that is a good move when phisicalized damge will came into play: no redundancy could be a big withdrow that overcomes the bigger shield... time will tell.

The Tally is a story a side: since is currently on rework I expect it will get a stat change once the new edition will be released both ion components and on the turrets weapons.

The Sable reduction is strange but my impression is they do that to push the stealth nature more "forcing" players to use the Sabre for what it is, a stealth fighter, instead of useing it like flying tank do to the 3xS1 shield. In that scenario the Nomads find his spot as a small tanky starter ship... a rugh one, suitable for the "pickup truck" role it has.
This move could be a bit out of place considering the lack of enviromental emission to cover your signature, but I can see the idea behind it.

 

[Ayeteeone]

The changes were largely made during playtesting before the patch hit PTU. Another example is the Terriblepin picking up a second shield.

With the changes that were made, some ships needed more shield. The Sabre's losing a shield was *loudly* protested, and the public response was that it will be good at a thing that's not in the game yet. Even now, it's lower signature makes it somewhat technical to use but still fun.

3.14 is a re-base of the math involved in combat, starting with light fighters as the fundamental unit. Expect a LOT more adjustments as they move up in size, and out with different niche gameplay.

 

[Thalstan]

As stated above, there is a MAJOR rebalancing currently taking place over the next few patches. This is the start, not the end. Expect to see continued major changes as they do this rebalance pass. Expect things to get yet another MAJOR rebalance pass when armor and physicalized damage come into play.

combat is going to be in a major state of flux over the next 2, if not 4 or more patches as things get changed around. This is one of the reasons it took so long to go live.

specifically, the Connie got the large shield because it needed it, the change in shield tech is forcing the issue for large craft. I would expect the Tali to get a large shield as well as other ships that size. I do not expect the Vanguard to get a S3. A few of the ships like the 600i that had an existing single S3 also got an additional S3 shield IIRC.

they are trying to make it so that having a person crew that turret, or join you on your ship is more beneficial to the Party than bringing a second ship.

this is needed, but will come with the usual growing pains. Expect things to get worse before they get better.

 

[Montoya]

Expect things to get yet another MAJOR rebalance pass when armor and physicalized damage come into play.

Yep, there is so much coming down the pipe that they simply want a clean slate.

They will start increasing range, ammo counts, shield and armor dmg stats and more as we move forward now.

 

[vahadar]

Increasing range will be very interesting indeed. For biggest guns soon available, the S7, range will probably be around 10km according to old q&a. I really wish the range of those guns will double in the future, and we have some sort of proper zoom-in view for big ships long range battle.
Imagine the range of the S9 guns on a Javelin without a good zooming UI for the gunner.

 

[Talonsbane]

Just curious if anyone knows why CIG put S3 shield on a ship that costs $150?
Even it's physical size doesn't support such a big shield. If anything the Valk or Tali should get it first?

Also the Sabre got 1 shield removed, but not the Nomad? Some loose wires going on at CIG.

In short, the last of the Connies just entered the game & that series has always been 1 of CR's favorites.

In this & the next couple major patches, we should be seeing a LOT of tweaks on how things balance out between weapons, shields, power management, etc.

Finally, in the words from CIG, "DISCLAIMER: These are our current vehicle specifications. Some of this may change during the 3D design and game balancing process. "

 

[Bambooza]

Expect things to get yet another MAJOR rebalance pass when armor and physicalized damage come into play.

Yep, and I wonder what the holdup is. It's, after all, a very much-needed feature of SQ42 and as far as I can tell is not impacted by unimplemented server features so it should be a mostly standalone code path. The only other thing I can see them doing a major rework of all ships is if combat is not falling into their desire of fighters engaged in close-quarter combat.

 

[Cugino83]

Yep, and I wonder what the holdup is. It's, after all, a very much-needed feature of SQ42 and as far as I can tell is not impacted by unimplemented server features so it should be a mostly standalone code path. The only other thing I can see them doing a major rework of all ships is if combat is not falling into their desire of fighters engaged in close-quarter combat.

My guess is the sheer amount of data that need to be addressed.
Right now server start to whobble and fall if there whare too many player with to much item in the inventory, immagine having to load into a server every components state and damage status for every ship of every player...
Also some ship need a rework to bring them up to "golden standard" and they are the majority of the ships.

Before seeing phisicalised damage I'll expect to see more ship components came into play (like computer blade, radar etc), the ability to manually swap components and most important phisicalized inventory that should limit the players inventory (at least in the short term) and introduce an inventory management based on object containers that, as a conseguence, will allow data streaming in and out of the game server.

 

[vahadar]

@Esctasy This is what I noticed from PTU, it probably all carried over to PU release :

Saber minus one shield
Razor, 85x and Ares Ion also all loose 1 shield (same tier size)
Blade, 600i, Terrapin, Caterpillar all gain 1 more shield (same tier size)
Hurricane, Constellation (all of them) see their shields moving to the upper tier (2S1->1S2 and 2S2->1S3)

 

[Bambooza]

My guess is the sheer amount of data that need to be addressed.
Right now server start to whobble and fall if there whare too many player with to much item in the inventory, immagine having to load into a server every components state and damage status for every ship of every player...
Also some ship need a rework to bring them up to "golden standard" and they are the majority of the ships.

Before seeing phisicalised damage I'll expect to see more ship components came into play (like computer blade, radar etc), the ability to manually swap components and most important phisicalized inventory that should limit the players inventory (at least in the short term) and introduce an inventory management based on object containers that, as a conseguence, will allow data streaming in and out of the game server.

It really is not a lot of data. components are just serialized data that has an identifier and the ships already track what components are in the ship and their damage state. Armor and physicalized damage is more just an algorithm for calculating damage applied to already existing objects. While it has huge knock-on effects on ship balance its implementation seems trivial.

 

[Montoya]

You know the reason for all of this?

The Ares.

That S7 Inferno cannon was so overpowered on paper, they had to rebalance the entire game around it.

 

[Esctasy]

Ok I see what everyone is getting at, it's just the begining of a major change. That would explain the generic (similar) stats on all the components.
Let's wait and see how it goes, hopefully I won't have to change my fleet around too much.

 

[Bambooza]

Let's wait and see how it goes, hopefully I won't have to change my fleet around too much.

Lol, until beta the only sure thing is the silhouette of a ship and even that has the potential to be changed.

 

[Sky Captain]

Buff shields to Size 3 during the Taurus sale.

Then nerf shields back to Size 2 a few months after the sale during a shield design overhaul?

Nah, that won't happen.

 

[Ayeteeone]

Ok I see what everyone is getting at, it's just the begining of a major change. That would explain the generic (similar) stats on all the components.
Let's wait and see how it goes, hopefully I won't have to change my fleet around too much.

"Roles" aren't likely to change too much. Might be more accurate to say that the roles are getting better definition, leading to the ships being tuned closer to purpose as the game systems mature. This was ALWAYS planned, although perhaps not the method in which it's being accomplished.

#yogisfault

Bottom line is that the gameplay *in this patch* is a terrible, horrible, awful reason to change your fleet around. Unless turrets excite you.

 

[Radegast74]

Who needs reasons? CR woke up on the seventh day (year, actually) and decided to give the Constellation a S3 shield, and all was good...

Seriously, the mid-size ships with S2 ships have such a wide range...I can't get the Starship42.com Fleetview to work for me right now (for some reason), but the ships with S2 shields range quite a gamut...you have:
the Cutlass with 1 S2,
the Freelancer(s) with 2 S2's,
the Vanguard(s) with 2 S2's,
the Mercury Star Runner with 2 S2's
the Retaliator with 2 S2's...

...
and now the Connie with 1 S3. This gives them a bit more of a range/steps along the ladder to positions ships. And the Connie is a pretty big ship. Based on this, it would be nice if the other bigger ships with S2's got another look, like the MSR and Retaliator...they are similar in size to the Connie, and the Retaliator is supposed to carry 6/7 people, why not give that a S3 shield? Oh yeah, anybody with any brains melted their Retaliator long ago; nobody owns one any more /s