Idk..  If you nerfed AF to make it passive..  It would make the Kol much more viable as it would devote your AM elsewhere.  However the Kol would still need a buff to GRG or no one would ever use it as everyone would go for flak burst.  It still needs a boost.

But then Carriers lose their edge..  I want carriers to win SC matches.  However as I've said before, I don't want to buff GRG by an AM decrease.

Carriers should win in the SC category.  Battleships should be able to deal high damage with moderate DPS.  Currently that is not true of the Kol.  It needs a buff to GRG in the way of damage, or it needs some other effect.

Sorry, but do to the computer being commandeered, I couldn't write any more than that..

Now for the explanation...

Carriers deserve to have far more SC than other ships.  You look at the US's/UK's fleet.  Only carriers have fighters and bombers.  You then look at battleships.  These things are armed to the teeth.  Thou shalt not screw with a battleship.  It will blow you up and then proceed to blow up the pieces of debris it caused in the first volley.  Now, in the future, this will be mitigated somewhat as ships won't have to float and SC would be VToL, but it doesn't remove the concept.  It is generally more efficient to have multiple specialized things than it is to have one mediocre thing that does everything.  Also, take a look at the Sova.  It has how many individual hangars?  It looks to be able to field far more SC than it actually does.

Realism aside, Carriers deserve a significant SC presence.  That is what makes carrier rushes so devastating.  Early game, there are few counters to them.  However, carrier rushes will be a strategy that fade from the forefront as counters are being devised to stop them.  Once they can be effectively countered, carriers will likely no longer be a sure first choice and many players will go back to colonizer as a first choice.

That said, I want carriers to be powerful in their SC presence.  There is no reason that other ships should rival them.  None.  Capitals shouldn't be able to counter enemy SC numbers with capitals.  You use light carriers for that.  You use Carrier caps for their abilities and their SC early game.

Essentially, I see you as trying to solve a temporary problem due to bioware (our brains) by changing the software, which is a far more permanent solution.  Give it time.  We will adapt and carrier spam will become a thing of the past unless you do so to catch someone off guard.

The Kol needs a buff.  We all agree there, but a blanket SC buff is not going to do anyone any good.  You would be buffing everything else just as much (aside from carriers of course which would receive a relative nerf).  There are a few ideas which have ben put forward that have good support behind them.

1. Decrease AM Cost of GRG/FB significantly.

This would give the Kol more AM to work with and thus more uses of its abilities before running out.  The downside here is that it would destroy the GRG+FF synergy.  Some argue however that since it is a rare late game strategy that it is not needed.  I would also like to say though that TEC culture increases AM regen.  The max is very high and should give you plenty of AM. 

2. Change AF to passive to give more AM to GRG and FB.

Here, you remove all AM drained via AF to donate it to GRG and FB.  It seems a noble cause, but I see it as potentially making the Kol ridiculously powerful.  Even with a nerf, you still took a rock and made it harder.  Also, one of the key points of AF is that it neutralizes phase missiles.  The nerf needed to keep it mortal would get rid of that key bonus.  This is an option that could potentially work though.  Testing would be the key.

3. Increase the power of GRG.

Very generic way to fix a problem.  It would likely be increased to a max of 1400-1600.  This seems like quite a bit, but due to other super-weapons' abilities (such as synergies or healing), it isn't that much for something that still has to go through mitigation.  Even if you kicked it all the way up to 1200/1600/2000, it still wouldn't do that much as it would still have to go through mitigation.  GRG would never kill anything even though common sense dictates that getting hit with anything at relativistic speeds is going to hurt a lot.  Nano for instance deals far more damage and instagibs frigates.  For this reason, this solution is not perfect, but it could be worth a shot if none of the others pan out.

4. Give GRG some special that makes it worth the while such as mitigation depression.

This was attempted with the last patch with a speed redux.  However that was not enough.  I say a shield redux of 8/16/24% would be great, or perhaps 6/12/18% if the first proves too much.  IMO this should replace the speed redux.  The TEC have Ion Bolt which is a million times better at stopping enemy ships.  In all reality, no one gets GRG because of its slow ability.  Honestly, no one really gets GRG at all..  The Kol just isn't worth it.  If you gave it a unique effect such as killing enemy shields, then getting this ability (or the Kol for that matter) could be justified.  I'm not saying it needs this exact buff, but I think this one would work.

The Kol deserves to be the best warship the TEC have, and currently it is not.

I agree that battleships could use a buff, but I feel that any buff to battleships must be accompanied by a buff to seige caps. The Marza and Desolator are very deadly seige ships, but if battleships get buffed they may get left for dead by battleships and become useless. Seige caps should have even greater DPS the battleships, but less durability. If there is a flaw in my logic, please point it out.

You dont have to increase the raw DPS for battleships to make them more viable when you throw them into a enemy fleet. If you just increase the targets per bank you let battleships to make a presence in the middle of fleet, while not making them any stronger against Caps and other key single targets.

It plays out well when I play localy. The Kol looks sweet shooting autocannons everywhere. If nothing else makes me feel like its doing more.

That's still a DPS buff in general terms.

There's a part of me that wants to see them be better cap ship killers, mainly because if you lead battleship-class against a carrier-class you'll get hit by three or four bomber squads, which can REALLY whittle you away.  Still, I don't want to see battleships pushed over the edge and become the next unstoppable rushing machine...

Its a increase only if you allow the battleship to fly right in the middle of your fleet. Its where they should be, in the middle of everything. So its natural IMHO, to increase its effectiveness while in the middle of everything.

Its hard to give a great way to buff Battleships. I know what we have done in a mod, and on top of that what Ive done on my computer personaly. Ive found that what I usually play with is much stronger that the current Battleships, yet still killable.

Both options are not fixing Kol problem with low antimatter. Kol just have not enough AM reserves to support 4 AM-draining abilities... Other Battleships are in better situation:

- both Kortul and Radiance have one passive ability

- Kortul and Radiance abilities have relatively long cooldown

- Radiance passive is increasing AM reserves....

I see three options for Kol:

1. Huge GRG damage buff + reload increase (to fix AM reserves)

2. AF become passive (with nerf) and GRG get significant cost decrease (to ~30)

3. GRG get huge cost decrease (to ~15)

IMO first option is easiest to balance.

So, what do you think of something like this:

Antimatter cost: 75 (not changed)

Cooldown: 30s (from 6s => 400% increase)

Range: 6000 (not changed)

Damage: 1000/2000/3000 (from 325/650/975, but overall DPS is lower - and don't forget it is still affected by shield mitigation and armor)

Targets maximum speed is reduced by 50% for 30s (from 10s)

What do you think?

Extremely overpowered as the TEC eco advantage helps them get 2 Kols early on and get them up to level 3.  THe combined firepower of this will kill any capships withen 10 seconds.

How? Even if you have 2 Kols with level 2 Railguns you have only extra 2x66DPS (until depleting antimnatter...)... which is affected by both armor and mitigation. I am suggesting both huge damage increase AND huge cooldown increase. Notice: total railguns DPS (damage/cooldown) after my changes will be reduced.

If you buff the damage of GRG to damage caps with migitation. You also allow GRG to obliterate stuctures easy. I think the main reason for GRG was to damage structures and not ships.

An Increase in pure damage will allow GRG to one shot kill Repair bays and such. Ive always thought GRG should reduce armor.

They just need to take out miti for grg and it would prolly be ok then.The 3rd level does 900 damage?It could prob use a small reduction in am cost about the same as nano.These 2 abilities would be nearly equal then except nano would be a bit better since it reduces armor.However when you hit level6 on kol and if you have a level 6 dunov the kol do massive damage.Since it is a battleship I would be ok with grg costing less than nao.

Problem with that is that it allows a first-strike mitigation abuse.  When a battle first begins, your enemies have a measly 15% mitigation.  Under normal circumstances, it takes a few seconds to cap out at around 65% for capital ships.  The catch is, the first strike is essentially a freebee at virtually full damage.  The current GRG is not so powerful that you can abuse this (it's a one-time thing), but for 3000?  You'd clear all the shields and take down half the hull with that!

Even after this "overbuff" Kols railgun cannot even negate Kortul Power Surge (don't forget of PS attack acceleration)... Kol is still the most mana depending Battleship by far. And only one battleship without ANY antimatter negating ability...

@Carbon: I like that idea..  I don't know how to code that (I'll have to check the researchable unless you explain it), but all the same, doing so would be quite interesting.  If that doesn't get used somewhere else, I'm sticking that on the TEC destroyer in my mod..

@Arthanis: it depends.  It depends on what you say the problem is.  I say the problem is that the Kol and GRG are underused because of a lack of a purpose for them.  You say that they are UP because of high AM costs.  That is where we differ.  I think that it should remain more or less the same minus damage/an effect as that would still allow GRG+FF to work.  Honestly, the Kol is an AM hog.  We agree there completely.  However I believe that the TEC deserves a synergy which it really doesn't have at the moment.  Honestly, without a Kol, there is very little point to Flux Field.  FF is designed to increase ability usage, but if you increase cooldown or decrease AM cost, it makes this ability less valuable.  I can't think of anything the TEC use off the top of my head that I constantly find myself wishing had more AM other than the Kol.  That means that the Kol is the primary reason for FF.  Take that away and you are left with nothing..

Currently, the combo of GRG and FF is quite powerful, but incredibly rare.  That is your argument.  Its not common enough to be worth while.  But my point is, why don't you just buff GRG slightly so that you fix the problem of DPS per AM because now its worth the cost and you still don't kill the only synergy the TEC have.

I see where you are coming from, but I think it would be better to give GRG a buff to its damage or cause it to have an ability.  The devs have IMO made this clear.  They gave it insanely high AM, made it rapid fire, and then when we complained about its UP, gave it a boost via an ability.  I think that is a way of their saying that they want a first-strike weapon.  It is supposed to fire at multiple targets rapidly to give you an advantage at the beginning of a battle.  

Honestly, I am not a huge fan of a straight DPS buff.  I really want a special to give it a purpose midbattle.  Knocking down enemy mitigation would be a huge help to your fleet when it comes to destroying starbases or capitals.  And once again, it doesn't have to be that one, but an offensive special (other than the stupid speed debuff it has now) would be preferable in my opinion.

@Darvin: True...

FF is usefull to any ship that use AM. I dont understand why you say FF is only good for GRG...Have you seen Dunvo spam EMP? Or Hosik use Demo bots more than once? I could go on. If nothing else think of FF as an abililty that allows you use any ability even after your enemies start sapping your ships with AM. Since it reduce cost to almost nothing.

I know that it helps everything, but I'm just saying that currently, it provides a huge buff to GRG because it allows you to cast it almost indefinitely.  If the Kol has Finest Hour, you can use it every 6 seconds until FF wears off..  165 DPS is a pretty nice boost.

But I know that it does help other stuff, but I'm just saying that when I am playing as TEC (rare, but it happens) the only thing I ever find myself in extreme need of AM on is my Kol.  Idk, maybe its just me, but I see FF as having the largest effect on the Kol.

But for the record no, I have not seen an EMP spam.  Though that would not turn out well for any Advent I am sure of that.

So idk, it just seems that while other things were good to begin with, it takes the mediocre GRG and makes it great.  That is why I'm calling it the only synergy the TEC have.  Sure, FF helps other things, but you are just amplifying good abilities to make them better.  GRG on the other hand is not good by default.  It deals 800 damage at the start of a battle and then its worthless.

LOL... so true... that ability just saps antimatter like mad.

I say even if you give buff to GRG, but without reducing it's AM requirements, players will not use it just because AF is better ability and Kol don't have enough AM to support both (especially if is forced to use FB...). If you buff GRG to level making it better then AF, then AF will become useless (again - not enough AM to support both). Conclusion: GRG to become useful ability should be far less expensive in term of AM. There two ways to archive this goal: decrease it's cost or increase cooldown. Cost decrease will work only if will be drastic (to something like 15-20/shoot). Cooldown increase will work only if ability get huge buff, since even after this change GRG is not worth 75 AM... Thats why I suggest 1000/2000/3000 "overbuff" with 30s cooldown... Of course cost decrease to 15-20 AM (instead of any other change) will work too...

Unless of course we took the course of AF being passive...  That way, all AM would be devoted to offensive abilities.

Even if it happen, GRG are still underpowered, overpriced ability.

No, as in change AF to passive and buff GRG.

I've always seen the GRG as a higher level ability pick.  Combined with a Dunovs antimatter cost reducing ability and the antimatter recharge part of Finest Hour then the Kol can really go nuts with a GRG every 5 seconds (since FH reduces ability recharge) while keeping up Adaptive Forcefield and an occasional flakburst to boot.  A couple of those leading a fleet are quite impressive and effective - in SP anyway.

I'm not saying the Kol couldn't use a bit of a balancing for lower levels and multiplayer but don't go overboard.

In Diplomacy there's a pact that helps a lot (20% boost to antimatter max and regen) although that is mid game at earliest and only if good friends with an Advent.  Great help for TEC ability usage to say the least if you can get it though.