damn straight, agree with this 100%

My only wish in regards to the caps is that there is a level of ship above them because despite their reputation cap ships are not all too impressive in battle. Although their skills and comparitvely large amount of shield and hull points are generally quite great and useful but it just doesn't live up to expection.

In addition to cap ships I would love Behemoths or something along that nature. 2 or 3 times as big and many more times the firepower. Pretty much a starbase being a ship instead of an immobile structure (with exception to the Orkalus). So you could organise your fleet thusly;

1 Behemoth

10 Caps

A hundred or more frigates

Now that's the kind of thing I would like to see fielded. Hell, I might as well make that itself. I'm going to go download the mod tools.

I just tested the level 3 GRG which deals 975 damage.  This was enough to kill a fresh LRM or severly damage a assailant or Illum every 6 seconds. Way way too strong to start out with 800 damage and bypassing shield mitigation. 

Face it, the GRG is the strongest inital contact weapon in game since at level 3 it can severaly deplete the shields of an Advent capship before the Guardian activates or leave a TEC/Vasari capship in a bad situation.  Even at level 2, the GRG can destroy a Orkulus in early stage of contruction.

So?  Level ONE nanos will do this.  Not instantly, but fast enough.

We have only four single-target damage abilities in the game:  detonate antimatter, GRG, nanos, and disintegration.  Since detonate antimatter is first and foremost a disabler, and disintegration is an ultimate, the only ability we have to compare with GRG is nanos.  Fact is that you will run out of antimatter before you deal critical damage, whereas nanos just keeps racking more and more damage.

Half your fleet could be destroyed before you could even get the maximum effect out of nano dissaemblers.   In 18 seconds, I could fire a shot of GRG in three of your assailants or cruisers and destroy them easily with counters.  That could be several shots in battle unfired that you could have used earlier.

Having played and helped build the Distant Stars mod which does incorporate a lot of the ideas we are talking about (we are considering buffing the GRG) I can honestly say that the battleship caps need this boost, and it wont make them OP. We gave the battleships a 60% increase of DPS and they are now very effective. You need a stong balanced fleet or another strong cap to take them down now. No spam for these guys, its like steriods to them. Flipside a strong use of bombers can still bring these guys down (though it can take longer), but when you consider that this is true in real life I don't have an issue with that.

If fleets have this much firepower, then both of these abilities are just a drop in the barrel.  If anything, nanos is now better because it reduces armour count and lets me do extra damage to your capital ship.

Adaptive Forcefield should be a passive ability on the Kol. AM problems solved, more useful cap available.

Passive?  Do you want the Kol to be?  Wait...  That might...  I don't know...  Isn't AF an always on anyways?  If you turned it to passive, that is a huge amount of AM you could devote to GRG or FB.  All the same though, I don't think that passive is the way to go..  That would be a little too much...

I would rather have af be pretty good and cost am.If you made it passive you might have to reduce its stats.35% damage reduction passive would be hardcore.Anyways when I use a kol I run out of am without even using af so it wouldnt make much diff.You only get 2-3 shots from either fb or grg and its poor after that.The problem lies with grg and fb not af.Its a good ability for the cost the other 2 arent.

You don't want to overbuff it, either <_<

Are you crazy?  The Kol with GRG level 2 will be able to destroy two to three research stations early on before the fleet can get there in time. 

Yeah...  And I know its rare, but I still want FF+GRG to work and be worth while.  I want to keep the AM cost high, so I will say again the solution to the Kol is a damage increase.  

If want something other than that, I would say something that degrades the shield mitigation cap of the target by 8/16/24% for say, 10/12/14 seconds.  That would make the Kol suddenly worth while.  Such a devastating attack could mark an enemy ship for death.  Forget the damage boost or making AF passive.  That sort of an ability late game would be a death sentence.  Essentially doubling the damage you can deal to an enemy capital or starbase.  That is huge boost.  

And in all reality, firing a slug that size would disrupt the onboard computers attempting to  neutralize damage, and you would also be destroying much of the shield so suddenly the computer would have a fraction of its shield mass to work with.  That would degrade mitigation quite a bit.

Also, if anyone says you can't do this as there is no buff, there is a buff that you can apply.  It is in the research tab.  The Advent can research higher mitigation via this tool.  Also, in a mod I am working on, there is a ship called the Eyron which specializes in shields.  Whether its draining them, destroying them, or sacrificing its own to blast another ship out of existence (the level 6 ability btw), it still deals with shields.  Its other ability is a passive similar to the Halcyon's AEA.  Only in this case it amplifies shield mitigation slightly.  Not much, but a bit.  So my point is, the devs would not have to create an entirely new buff.  And honestly, if they don't put something in in the next patch, I'm sticking this in my mod unless I see an idea I like more.

I think the most important change to the Kol specifically, would probably be buffing Flak Burst.  A range (and possibly damage) increase and a decrease in AM cost (100/90/80 perhaps?) sounds ideal - if it's going to be a starting option (tbh I don't find the Kol an impressive start either) to compare with the Sova, it has to eat those Advent SC!  GRG also needs a nice boost.  A large AM cost decrease  sounds good, although with the slowing effect, won't that make it a little too like Ion Bolt?  I prefer a small AM cost decrease and a large damage increase.  The opponent's response to GRG needs to be "Oh fluffy bunnies" and the like, not "Pfft.  Illums focus fire." and such.

The general HP/Shields increase is also an excellent idea.  What about boosting the amount of shields and HP gained per level to make those rare lv10 caps slighty more durable late game (if they haven't been destroyed already) or are they good enough?

@ Fuzzy:  Siege and Battleship caps need more differentiation.  I.e.

Battleship:  Heavily armed and armoured, with multile weapon types and banks firing in different directions to allow the capship to engage many different hostile targets around it at once.  This is the sort of ship you fly into the middle of the enemy fleet to draw fire and shoot at everything.

Siege:  Heavily armed but more fragile than Battleships with multiple weapon banks all firing forward allowing the capship to engage single or multiple targets infront of it.  While the Battleship is your fleet killing cap, the seige cap is your cap killing cap due to its superior ability to engage a single target.  In a melee it suffers however, as its greater fragility and small firing arc leave it vunerable to being overwhelmed by fleets which can get behind/above/left/right of the siege cap and dodge its fire.

CE

Bomber-laden Sova with heavy strike craft can already do this, plus it's using embargo while it's there.  Egg with level 2 nanos can solo an unupgraded starbase.  Marza with level 2 raze planet can bring down a 1500 HP planet before help arrives all on its own.  Any colony capital ship can lazily roam across the solar system, colonizing planets as it goes all on its own (Akkan and Egg are really good at this).

An ability on this level is hardly out of place at all.

If anything, but buffs to flak burst should focus on the lower levels, since it's low-level Kols that are weak.  Once you're in the 6+ range, the Kol is fine; any buffs should focus on GRG and low-level Kols.

I still like the idea of knocking down mitigation.  Why is it that I seem to be the only person supporting GRG+FF?  I like the TEC at least having one synergy.  I've said before and will say again, that I am not in any way in favor of any buff to GRG that reduces its AM cost.  I want to either give it some unique special or have it deal significantly more damage.

Also, this is rather random, but is still battleship related.  The minimum DPS it takes to deal damage to a maximized Kortul happens to be 666...  Random, but it is an odd coincidence that that is the damage needed to actually punch through healing and mitigation.

Aiieee!  The Kortol can only be destroyed by the power of Satan!

Seriously though I see where you are coming from Volt.  The TEC having a synergy is good, but that only pops up with at least one high level cap, but here we are trying to improve the Kol's performance at low level/early game (although some late game boosts wouldn't hurt) so it becomes a viable first/second choice cap to compete with the revived carriers.  I suppose a mitigation dampening effect would definately help the Kol hurt other early cap ships among other things, however GRG still needs a cost decrease otherwise FB will always be the first choice ability due to the lethality of carrier caps, and the fact the Kol doesn't really have enough antimatter to make both work for their cost.

That might not make sense.

Hit it with a disabling ability, you can break it easier than that.

I love the Kortul, but I've had a lot of trouble getting a high level one out on the field.  If you start close to the enemy, you're too vulnerable to a carrier-cap rush.  If you start far away, you'll get faster colonization out of the egg.  Kinda leaves Kortul in no-man's land, but I've been meaning to see if I can get the Kortul start to beat a carrier-cap rush.  If I can do that, I'm gunna go back to Kortul openers.

Of course that is the bear minimum to deal anything to it...  All the same, xenocidal alien battleship that happens to be destroyed by 666(.6666666666) DPS..  Coincidence?  I think not!  Seriously though I just thought it was odd...

@Crazy: I understand it..  I still don't support buffing it through AM reductions.  I still say buff its damage or give it some special.  I know AM on the Kol is in short supply, but I like it that way...

ive beaten carrier cap openers with a kortul, you just need to get about 15 flack in your fleet then you are good. usually with vasari you will have flack and assiletns in your early game fleet so it isnt much of a burden. Ive taken out dual halocryns with bombers doing this.

_|~Uber

The problem I have with 15 flaks early is that if the enemy disciple or cobalt spams I'm in trouble.  Assailants are easier said than due because any competent enemy will have scouts on standby (and he will just keep them in reserve until the assailants show up).  As I said, I intend to give the Kortul another chance, but the challenge is to make a battleship work in what is clearly (at least for capital ships as of this version) a carrier's world.

The Kortul I do not believe can defeat a competent opponent by itself, but with the aid of a Skirantra, I believe it can be done...

It all comes down to whether or not you can kill his scouts...  If the answer is yes, you win.  If not, he wins.

you know, the manual says the Kol is "a pure bred battleship with many direct combat abilities"...

um... GRG is one and Flak Burst is only half because it only affects SC... AF and Finest Hour only apply to the ship itself (sure, slightly higher dps and splash damage but meh...)