Idea on how to counter Cap Ships

And Its a soft counter

from Sins Forums
Ok, I think a nice soft counter for Cap Ships. And that it would fit nicely into the game.

Gauss Ships

Think of medium tech frigates with a single gauss cannon. It would be slow and weak but have a single powerful cannon that fires slowly and upgrades with gauss capicators upgrade. It would bypass shields so it would be good against cap ships. However bombers and close range fighting would take them down. It would require some research and be expensive to mass produce. This would hopefully eliminate cap ships being taken out too early. It would have low dps but be good against strong slow targets.

Any ideas on my idea would be appreciated.

P.S. SOSE is looking to be one of my most wanted games next year. It looks awesome and plays fun even with much of the content stripped. Stardock has a reputation in making awesome 4X games so I have a lot of faith.
9,824 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Well, since you asked for feedback

Firstly, the devs said at this point no new ships would be added because it's too late in the development cycle.

Secondly, the way you have it set up would make this ship pretty unnecessary. LRMs more or less accomplish the same thing. Yeah missiles don't go through shields, but enough of them can drop shields very fast to make that part of it a minor issue. They have long range and can fire out of the engagement range of most capitals. They are weak and can be chewed up quickly by Cobalts/Kodiaks that get up close. They aren't quite expensive to mass produce, but you would need more of them to match the firepower of the ship you propose, so you would maintain the same relative balance.

Thirdly, the ship you propose is more of a hard counter than a soft one. At least, when I make the assumption that when you talk about it only being good against strong slow targets you mean some sort of accuracy system where it wouldn't really be able to hit anything fast. Because if that gauss gun would hit anything at long range, going through shields, and inflicting heavy damage on hull, well, it would be more of a supership. A good portion of ship survivability comes from the fact that as shields drop they mitigate more damage, while armor is a flat mitigation no matter what the hull hp is. So any weapon going through shields would drastically reduce the lifespan of any ship, even if the weapon itself did damage comparable to, say, a Kodiak. But anyway, if it would only be good against slow moving capitals, then it would be a hard counter because it would excel at taking out capitals and capitals only, while everything else would excel at taking it out
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Hey Kmanooch, don't despair. You can simply make a mod of your dream ship and test it out yourself.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
This is true
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Take a look at Therax' Kin of the Stars Mod. It's gauss cannons bypass shields and he uses those for some other ships, making them very good against capital ships. (Since base shield mitigation is also 40% in his mod, shields are even more powerful.)
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I'm pretty sure the Vasari get weapons that can bypass shields (look at the Kol's shield boost - bonus phase missile block)