Buffing Capital Ships
Sins Forums
I hate that when I play this game we look at some of the Capital ships in this game most are just niche or just unviable in general. I've been going on a thought process to buffing the unviable and making the niche more practical in an actual fight. So I decided to go class by class with ideas on what to do with the Capital Ships and im sure stardock won't take notice of this thread but you never know.
Battleships: These are supposed to be the Flagships of every navy they lead the others into battle. This would be a great idea if they werent so niche like the Radiance(good for stopping a sova embargo as I learned). Or as useless as the Kol(one of the most awesomely designed Caps in game yet its basically a noob trap). I did some analysis of the other capital ships to see what made them useful and for the most part its what makes them akin to their frigate/cruiser counterpart. For example the Progenitor is akin to the Missionary. As the Sova is Akin to the Percheron.
To me it seems like battleships were meant to be like the Light Frigates or Destra(and its equivalents). But the problem is this is just tanky firepower which has almost no place in this game because alone they are vulnerable. The Kortul can handle itself as it was well designed and made for battle. Weapons Jam is great for denying SC powersurge is a great utility spell. I wont even go on because the Kortul* is viable in my opinion.
But lets look at the Kol, its bulky and supposed to do tons of damage. But to do this large amount of damage requires a large amount of Anti-matter. First the Kol needs a Quality of Life buff to its antimatter cost. Then something needs to be done to make the Gauss Rail Gun better than Ion Bolt, Ion Bolt is superior in almost every way. My recommendation maybe have the Gauss Rail Gun recieve the phase jump disabled ability and have that ability removed from the Ion Bolt. Across the Board I think its AM cost could be reduced and it would make it a more viable opener against Carriers.
Then their is the Radiance, its current niche is through micro it can stop a sovas embargo. But it is left with no way of actually defending itself from strike craft like the other battleships. For some reason this ability was given to the Halcyon I dont think that a change of abilities is needed because the Radiance abilities synergize VERY well with each other. I think that the Radiance should recieve small AA guns not enough to where it would replace the need for defense vessels but just enough to keep it protected. This buff could also be applied to the Kol and Kortul if needed. Personally I like the idea of giving small AA guns to this ship it would give a capital ship equivalent to the Defense vessel and make for more viable openers.
Support Ships: These ships are supposed to buff your allied ships but disrupt enemy forces but in my opinion I just don't really see it happening to often multiplayer from my experience has generally been a carrier or mothership opener. Although I have heard the Dunov is viable so I don't believe I will need to go over this one. And as for the Antorak I think its a great Cap and is underappreciated its general incentive is it makes for great assaults and would make a great second Cap as its ability to ignore phase jump inhibitors is great*.
So lets take a look at the Rapture for starters. Man this ship is a mess its firepower pales in comparison to the Dunov. Most of its abilities have no synergy and are just a mess. If you actually look at the description of this ability it is "Crewed by the Advent's most gifted Psintegrat, it has many psionic combat abilities. ". But most combat spells on this ship are either meh or just bad. The Concentration Aura is GREAT and Vertigo is ok but its still not good enough to actually build the Rapture. My problem comes with the Vengeance ability to early its very bad and most likely you wont really make it into the late game for it to matter. I personally think this ability should be removed and Domination should be moved to replace it. Domination is the ultimate for the ship but its not even THAT great a single target ability that takes over a ship. In a 1v1 this would be a good ability but in 5's and 3's this ability pales because of the size of the enemy fleets. Making domination an early game ability will give a reason to build this Capital ship. Now of course it would need cooldown nerfs to balance it out.
And give it a new ultimate something that will make this a TRUE support ship. I think something that would work like reanimate dead from warcraft 3 would be awesome. Imagine it ghost advent ships wrecking your fleet for a short period! It wouldent be to far fetched either I mean hell look at the description for the Progenitors ultimate. These changes would keep the rapture true to the role of Psionic Combat Abilities and hopefully allow it to be built more often.
Heavy Assault Ships: Are kind of supposed to be related to the Siege ships. Its not that these are bad ships at all there is just no real incentive to build them. The Marza. It hits really hard. It does its job very well for what it was build to do I personally don't think this needs to be buffed.
Then their is the Revelation its supposed to work as a massive Purge Vessel and at level 6 it does this. I understand it was never meant to be a pure assault vessel but its ultimate is the only thing aside from Clairvoyance that is relevant to siegeing a planet. "A support ship that trades off firepower for the ability to manipulate enemy populations." Im not going to say its a horrible ship just that its awkward Reverie is a good ability. But Guidance makes no sense at all the the description of the Revelation its also not even a truely good ability. I think Guidance should be removed for another ability that is more oriented towards doing something to the enemies logistics**. Something like a debuff to the amount of credits/crystal/metal gained from the gravity well. Or something that would disable planetary upgrades or frigate production.
The Vulkoras pesonally I think the Jarassul and the Vulkoras should trade ultimates. But the Jarassul makes sense with the Drain Planet ability lore wise. So perhaps the damage output of Drain Planet should be nerfed if the original idea doesent want to be put to play.
Fin: And this is pretty much the end of my rant on Capital ships these are just ideas and not something I think MUST be done to the game. But I hope the devs take the time to look at the old capital ships before they release the new ones with rebellion. I have some side notes at the bottom explaining the reason why I said some things in this post I hope you enjoyed your read:D
*I really do not have much experience with races other than the Advent so forgive me for any arrogance I may have towards the viability of any of these ships.
**I wanted to go into explaining this because it may confuse others. What I mean is that the Rapture was meant to directly effect the flow of battle that was the whole purpose of my rework of the Rapture. The Revelation was supposed to effect the enemy population which is why it needs to effect the logistical aspect of the enemy. Its ultimate reduces a planet to nothing lowering the credits amount. Clairvoyance allows you to see the enemy territory not directly effecting combat. Im ok with the Reverie ability as it is just one ability.
