test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Some thoughts on carriers, fighters, and usability
momaw
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
I'm a huge fan of carriers and I own a bunch of them. So it should go without saying that I was very attentive to the carrier command overhaul that went in and made some big changes to the way carriers handle their pets. And while I applaud efforts to make carriers less clunky which was a real problem and a turn off for many people that looked at them, I don't think we've reached the best possible solution yet. So here are some observations on how carriers are working out right now and some suggested improvements.
First I want to bring up two problems that can be addressed by the same fix.
"Wind up time". Or, That Awkward Stage At The Start Of The Fight. Because your pet cooldown only starts when you launch pets, you end up with an awkward first minute of any fight because your pets are not yet deployed. You have to wait for 2 full cycles of your cooldown time before your carrier has reached its full effectiveness. The current way to get around this is to stop at the edge of a battle before engaging, get all your fighters built, then have them dock with you and make a final hop into the battle where you can deploy everything. Which goes back to carriers being really clunky.
The second thing is "Partial Replacement Syndrome". You're using fighters that launch in wings of three, and the squadron is down one fighter. Do you send reinforcements? Sending only one replacement costs the same cooldown time as sending three, which means carriers are forced to either waste cooldowns or have their squadrons fight understrength.
The solution I propose to both of these problems is to make it so that carriers build ships continuously in the hangar whether in combat, out of combat, or flying through sector space. As long as there is any empty space in the squadron then carrier will start building replacements one at a time. Instead of 40 (base) seconds for a "wing" of 3 fighters, make it so a fighter takes 13 (base) seconds to build. This is shown on the UI as a fighter outline that fills up as the ship is constructed. Newly constructed fighters sit waiting in the hangar until you click the "Launch" button when they all take off together.
This solves Wind Up Time because carriers are now constantly replenishing their squadrons and can show up fully prepared and ready to go, and it also solves Partial Replacement Syndrome because your carrier is paying the same cooldown cost per fighter regardless of how many are lost.
The next major topic is fighter commands.
* Attack works fine and is what most carriers are using most of the time.
* Intercept doesn't see much use because large numbers of small targets are better addressed by Fire At Will or Gravity Well, and for small swarms it's better to knock out individual targets one at a time with the ship's main guns to reduce their threat more quickly. I'd like to see this one overhauled so that fighters on Intercept do not engage cruisers or battleships at all, but they get a large accuracy and damage buff against engaging other fighters, torpedoes and mines. A smaller buff is given versus enemy frigates. I know there's a doff related to Intercept mode... But the functionality needs to be rolled into the basic command because neither the command nor the doff are worth using as separate items.
* Escort is pointless. There's only one pet that can actually support an ally directly, and your pets die constantly so there's no point in having them be far away from you beyond the reach of replacements. End result: If you want to escort something you're infinitely more effective if you escort it with the carrier itself and send off your pets in Attack mode to engage whatever the threat is. Replace Escort with "Evasive". While Evasive, your pets select targets as if they were under Attack orders, but they do not use special offensive abilities like Beam Overload. Instead they gain a large bonus to their Dodge and Damage Resistance. This leads to a strategic decision by the player whether they want to have their pets do more damage but probably die faster, or be a less potent but more persistent harassing force. The "Escort" mode flight deck officer can simply be renamed and moved over, since his small damage bonus makes perfect sense here as a way to counteract some of the damage lost from abilities.
First I want to bring up two problems that can be addressed by the same fix.
"Wind up time". Or, That Awkward Stage At The Start Of The Fight. Because your pet cooldown only starts when you launch pets, you end up with an awkward first minute of any fight because your pets are not yet deployed. You have to wait for 2 full cycles of your cooldown time before your carrier has reached its full effectiveness. The current way to get around this is to stop at the edge of a battle before engaging, get all your fighters built, then have them dock with you and make a final hop into the battle where you can deploy everything. Which goes back to carriers being really clunky.
The second thing is "Partial Replacement Syndrome". You're using fighters that launch in wings of three, and the squadron is down one fighter. Do you send reinforcements? Sending only one replacement costs the same cooldown time as sending three, which means carriers are forced to either waste cooldowns or have their squadrons fight understrength.
The solution I propose to both of these problems is to make it so that carriers build ships continuously in the hangar whether in combat, out of combat, or flying through sector space. As long as there is any empty space in the squadron then carrier will start building replacements one at a time. Instead of 40 (base) seconds for a "wing" of 3 fighters, make it so a fighter takes 13 (base) seconds to build. This is shown on the UI as a fighter outline that fills up as the ship is constructed. Newly constructed fighters sit waiting in the hangar until you click the "Launch" button when they all take off together.
This solves Wind Up Time because carriers are now constantly replenishing their squadrons and can show up fully prepared and ready to go, and it also solves Partial Replacement Syndrome because your carrier is paying the same cooldown cost per fighter regardless of how many are lost.
The next major topic is fighter commands.
* Attack works fine and is what most carriers are using most of the time.
* Intercept doesn't see much use because large numbers of small targets are better addressed by Fire At Will or Gravity Well, and for small swarms it's better to knock out individual targets one at a time with the ship's main guns to reduce their threat more quickly. I'd like to see this one overhauled so that fighters on Intercept do not engage cruisers or battleships at all, but they get a large accuracy and damage buff against engaging other fighters, torpedoes and mines. A smaller buff is given versus enemy frigates. I know there's a doff related to Intercept mode... But the functionality needs to be rolled into the basic command because neither the command nor the doff are worth using as separate items.
* Escort is pointless. There's only one pet that can actually support an ally directly, and your pets die constantly so there's no point in having them be far away from you beyond the reach of replacements. End result: If you want to escort something you're infinitely more effective if you escort it with the carrier itself and send off your pets in Attack mode to engage whatever the threat is. Replace Escort with "Evasive". While Evasive, your pets select targets as if they were under Attack orders, but they do not use special offensive abilities like Beam Overload. Instead they gain a large bonus to their Dodge and Damage Resistance. This leads to a strategic decision by the player whether they want to have their pets do more damage but probably die faster, or be a less potent but more persistent harassing force. The "Escort" mode flight deck officer can simply be renamed and moved over, since his small damage bonus makes perfect sense here as a way to counteract some of the damage lost from abilities.
Post edited by momaw on
0
Comments