Carrier Pets: A Tactical Proposal

gulberat · November 2014

An idea recently came to mind regarding carrier pets. While without hard data for all pet types I cannot simply accept the premise that they are all ridiculously scaled, I did have an idea for them. As a Vesta pilot who is not comfortable with investing in any other game resources in the current business environment, it is critical to me to see that our carriers will not simply be rendered useless by the possible incoming nerf.

So, if things REALLY, truly are badly out of whack (show proof, please), this might be a way to address some of the problem while also introducing a tactical element to challenge carrier pilots.

We know that it is possible to heal NPC's, such as if I click a runabout in my HUD and send it a heal, so a mechanic of some sort is there to allow our actions to affect our pets in that manner.

My thought is, when I hit a heal power, that should affect my pets to some extent. This would lead on some occasions to making a tactical call as to when I hit my heals and buffs: is it most important to hit this power now to save my pets, or is the risk of my main hull blowing up while that particular buff is on cooldown too high at the time and I should sacrifice one or more pets to prevent my main hull from dying?

This would give us some power to affect what happens with our pets. The key to remember though is, the buff must be reasonably scaled when applied to the carrier pets. Getting only a few percentage points of hull from Engineering Team, for instance, is pretty useless. The buff applied should be more than a mere pittance. Not a magical "erase all damage" button, but really and truly useful.

aramasu1 · November 2014

Fly an Advanced Obelisk with the 3 piece Ancients set. That one grants a 'EPTX also buffs your pets with it at a reduced rate' power.

gulberat · November 2014

aramasu1 wrote: »

Fly an Advanced Obelisk with the 3 piece Ancients set. That one grants a 'EPTX also buffs your pets with it at a reduced rate' power.

Which demonstrates that the groundwork for a mechanic like this exists already in game, and could serve as a basic framework for implementing the proposal I am describing.

(So as not to take the "specialness" out of your ship, perhaps you should still be given the best pet-buffing...raise your threshold up higher than where it currently is.)

rosetyler51 · November 2014

Proof that pets scaling is out of control

Now on to the other part. Mirror Hakeev turns HE into a AoE heal with good timing and what aramasu1 said too. There was also the deal with Tholian pets and APB.

Maybe there should be more.

gulberat · November 2014

I am strongly in favor of more such abilities--and NOT as a pay or grind feature, but as standard. Having our pets nerfed back into uselessness is not a good option for carrier pilots.

And in many cases I think with current game economics and sentiments, the choice Cryptic needs to make is between forcing carrier pilots to shut down all carrier alts and potentially even leave the game because we cannot trust what will happen with any investments we make to try to "fix" this or start fresh, or reconsider the nerf or offer something decent to us in recompense so *an entire ship class* remains viable.

This is NOT all about supertank-super DPS fortresses like the Scimitar and Obelisk. That is huge for Cryptic to keep in mind. This hits nimbler, lighter ships like the Vesta, too.

wen1503 · November 2014

Long time carrier advocate...

Suggestions;

1) Pets stop "healing" after 5 stars. Keep the mechanic happening. They don't need new stars after 5 - just the heals.

2) Greatly increase (i mean a huge amount) regeneration for pets. They can still be destroyed but if they are not killed out right...come back fairly quickly. The dock them repair mechanic is extremely slow.

3) Alternate dock mechanic...Dock much faster (currently they seem to wander around before deciding to dock), and increase the heal inside the hangar bay.

4) Allow the advanced obelisk console by itself to heal the hull of pets and to work across all carriers - rather expensive since it's a lobi store ship but nets Cryptic some cash. Or make a new console.

Mission Suggestions;

1) Have full bays when you spawn into a mission. Then regular mechanic to launch replacements.

2) In missions where there is a screen change...allow current pets to still be there - in or outside hangar.

3) Allow pets to retain their stars - after they have been earned. Only log out or pet destruction clearing the stars.

Fixes;

1) Fighters often get destroyed in both the upper and lower part of a bay, and the remainder dont fill in the upper line. When new pets are summoned - only the upper vacancy spot is filled not the lower - requiring a second summon to replace.

2) Give fighters a bit more speed to avoid hull breaches.

3) Give Frigates emergency (down graded version) to use when the engage a target. Current only fighters speed up and go ahead of the carrier - if the target is outside of 10km.

4) Open the engagement range to 20km, not 15km. (I personally would like an engagement range on anything I can target)

[Deleted User] · November 2014

Here's my suggestion for carrier pet balance:

Determine which is the most "OP" pet (LOL)

Bring all other pets into line with those.

My allegedly "OP" advanced drones still pop like fireworks, and I really don't notice any damage reduction when they're dead.

In some extreme cases, its the "carrier" not the pets, which are "OP"... Which tells us there are some carriers that need buffing.

If hanger pets are supposed to assist the carrier in a meaningful way...then either the pets aren't holding up their end, or the carriers need more assistance than hangers can provide.

My personal experience with true carriers was disappointing, and frankly, my drones on my Falcheon are just another mole to whack with little perceived benefit. I'd rather have another wep mount or console in that hole...which says a lot about pets I'd think.

onerats · November 2014

That screenshot doesn't really prove anything you know. Who really cares if your rather weak and insignificant pet that costs you a bloody console slot (and should NEVER be used) actually has ALMOST as much health as my T6 cruiser? Does it make sense that it has more health than your escort itself does? No.. but it's also not getting any heals, has far lower damage resistance than you, and does next to nothing in a fight. Seriously, I clocked two of these things (a galaxy and an oddy chevron seperation) as doing something like 50,000 damage TOTAL.. over an entire run.. PUT TOGETHER. They tended to just fly around doing god only knows what before eventually just dying.

Pets like this have never made much sense to be honest. If you really want them to make sense, then they need to gain similar resistances to the ship they came from, and splitting the ship should give the pet your fore weapons while your aft section can now only fire aft weapons. Except, that'd suck.. so it's not made that way. Course, they still suck - and people still use them. For some reason. God only knows why.

gulberat · November 2014

It depends on what you are using your pets for and how they fit with your build as to whether they will "suck." Mine work just fine as they are, as little fighting tractor mines that pin the enemy down and harass them while I rough them up from my Vesta.

Carrier Pets: A Tactical Proposal

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