POLARIS first look!

[Richard Bong]

View the IAE videos they have been putting out. They have been walking back/clarifying a little of the PvP and group focus they put on a CitizenCon, but they also have been talking about how capitol ships are best used with other ships, not as ships out by themselves. From what they said, you will need to use tactics to scan a target, identify the shield emitters under the hull, soften the shield face covering a particular shield emitters, clear the turrets and PDS, destroy the shield emitters, then other board or destroy the thrusters so they can’t roll/pitch/yaw to put a fresh shield face against your fire so you can destroy it…all,while the other crew is making repairs.

The vision they have is quite different from how it is today. If they can pull it off is another thing

They also marketed the Eclipse as a First Strike weapon, to soften up a Capital Ship, and the Polaris as a Capital Combat ship that could go toe to toe with the Idris.

If you are using capital ship weapons, Size 7, 8, 9 and 10, to weaken the shields why not just keep using those to finish the job?
Why bother bringing all those torpedo bombers and their required crews?
The only small craft needed are scouts and something to defend the scouts from enemy fighters hunting the scouts.

 

[Thalstan]

They also marketed the Eclipse as a First Strike weapon, to soften up a Capital Ship, and the Polaris as a Capital Combat ship that could go toe to toe with the Idris.

If you are using capital ship weapons, Size 7, 8, 9 and 10, to weaken the shields why not just keep using those to finish the job?
Why bother bringing all those torpedo bombers and their required crews?
The only small craft needed are scouts and something to defend the scouts from enemy fighters hunting the scouts.

Just reporting what they said.

They also mentioned that "size matters" in that a S1 weapon won't be doing much, if anything against a capital ship. The same might go for S2, S3, and S4 weapons. The ships they called out specifically are the Ares and the Ion being able to punch through the hull armor in order to do damage to things like shield emitters, while heavy fighters like the vanguard and maybe mediums can go after PDS and turrets.

It all falls under...they really don't know what they are/were doing and as always, things are subject to change.

PS, dumbfired missiles/torps will NOT be targeted by PDS, but fighters can be targeted by PDS as well as missiles.

 

[Richard Bong]

Just reporting what they said.

They also mentioned that "size matters" in that a S1 weapon won't be doing much, if anything against a capital ship. The same might go for S2, S3, and S4 weapons. The ships they called out specifically are the Ares and the Ion being able to punch through the hull armor in order to do damage to things like shield emitters, while heavy fighters like the vanguard and maybe mediums can go after PDS and turrets.

It all falls under...they really don't know what they are/were doing and as always, things are subject to change.

PS, dumbfired missiles/torps will NOT be targeted by PDS, but fighters can be targeted by PDS as well as missiles.

The dumbfire is, apparently, no longer the case in the PTU.

The key is that if you are already bringing down the shields and shooting up the ship with Size 7, 8, 9, and 10 weapons, why bother using torpedoes at all. Just keep shooting with the big guns and save the crew, expense and space needed to bring the torpedoes.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

After seven years of the Tally and Eclipse using torps as first strike weapons, and millions of dollars in sales of them and the Polaris, it is really lame to introduce a foil and make it overwhelming. It makes me feel once more that CIG has been less than forthright with us.

I’m all for ship boarding and all that, but we can’t board Vanduul ships. So is CIG going to force completely different gameplay on us for PC v NPC enemies?

I guess I just don’t see the payoff. Torps are already easy for fighters to shoot down. Why even have PDWs? Torps are CIG’s perfect way to make players cooperate and man the turrets.

 

[Richard Bong]

Now Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and I going to do with my Eclipse?

 

[Raven_King]

IF they end up making multiple types of S10 torps, I'd be hoping that 1 of those would be an EMP torp, which could be fired as a 1st strike weapon, followed up by a high explosive torp shortly behind it. The 1st knocks out the shields & systems, the 2nd takes advantage of the opening to either finish off the target or critically cripple the target if it survives.

Well in the IAE show ep2 they pretty much say this is not what they want. If you can do it to someone else, they can do it to you too. I am warming to the idea that you need a big ship plus a bunch of smaller more specialized ships to crack a big enemy ship's defenses. That would prolong fights, and give you a sense of making progress in the fight. "Phase 1 complete, our cap guns have weakened their shields enough that our heavy fighters can start applying damage to their shield emitters and PDCs in phase 2, but you boarding craft need to hold back until they're down, we'll call phase 3 when it's safe to commence your attack run".

Two special S10 torps and it's target confetti is not as much fun in comparison.

Equally if you're running box missions in your Polaris and someone in theirs pops off a couple of torps at you, you can say "oh yeah, you and whose army?" while letting your org know it's game time.

 

[Raven_King]

We've also all got to get past the idea that we bought a Polaris/Idris/Javelin/whatever, so we're the captain and everyone will come crew for us. Maybe once, but not as a regular thing. Captain of a big team is a leadership and organizational role requiring skill, experience, rep with real people and a lot of time commitment. Relatively few of us will be willing or able to do that. It's a bit like deciding one day you're bored and would like to join your local football team, then expecting you can be its captain.

BUT, claim times for big ships will be long. Repairing damaged ships may take similarly long. if we put a decent squad together, know our roles, work well as a team and then lose the ship, we're going to want another one quick. I think that's where crew members who OWN another copy of the cap ship come in. If a crew of 12 own six Polarises between them, they can effectively field one of them, crew it well in battle until it's down and then come back to the fight five more times. Everyone has a role, everyone contributes, nobody's skills or hangar inventory goes to waste.

 

[Talonsbane]

CIG has been thinking about our TESTifying ...

 

[Montoya]

Official video is out

 

[LurchLord]

Feel like I got to share this, I actually had my very first "cool emergent gameplay moment" in 5 years with that ship.
Was doing "Marketing Event Stanton" phase 3 (I have yet to finish phase 1 enough times, but whatever) in a medium fighter.
After a while, there was only the Idris left. Got myself soft deaded by the fucker. Watched the fight from the sidelines for a bit.
Decided fuck it, I am dead anyways, no one will ever find my frozen corpse. Got out of my dead fighter and started drifting towards the battle. Saw a Polaris dancing around the Idris.
Several medium sized ships, too, but they were too fast for me. Driftet for about 15 minutes until I managed to get to the Polaris. Hangar was open.
Got in, got lost for a few minutes. Found a turret. There was no one in that turret, because the ship was "manned" by 2 people. Got in the turret. Spend the next hour pumping energy into the Idris until it finally exploded.
That thing is huge, that thing can take one hell of a beating (one hour knife fight with an Idris), and that thing needs a full crew, otherwise it is utterly miserable ;)

 

[Thugari]

CIG has been thinking about our TESTifying ...

View attachment 26121

I couldn't resist, i just bought the paint for my little behemoth.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

One of the things that disturbs me about the vid is they said the “ late game” or “end game” is cap ship combat. I don’t think they’re thinking straight about this. There is nothing late or end related about cap ship combat. What they mean to say is they don’t want pretty cap ships destroyed by torps.

Well shit, that’s what turrets and fighter escorts are designed to prevent. If someone is flying a big ship solo it ought to be easy to kill. WTF are they thinking?