Next mini-project after Olympus is balancing gunners.

Preliminary notes:

• Launchers hard capped to hulls - LF 3, HF - 4, Freighter 4, Capital Ship 5
• T20 Launchers put into appropriate drop tables - Battle Sphere Commod will be re-named, but kept the same (i.e. Any Broadsword Class Mark V Launchers in game will be changed to this commod, the Battle Sphere will still require a drop from Emporer)
• Tier 2 T20 launcher BPs added in game, small possibility of under T20 Tier 2 launchers
• New missile types - focusing on debuffs / effects
• AI / Player missiles split to allow balancing for lower / mid level
• PvE & PvP focused missile types
• Olympus T21 launchers are in already - missile types to be added
• Base missiles addressed - especially splash / speed issues
• Launch distances to be altered & increased: most likely variable on missile type
• Adding in tags onto missiles to alter the AI targeting of them and will most likely mean that AI no longer target missiles as decoys. This prevents the "pest drone" situation we have now.
• To counter this, most likely there will be a tech tree of "defensive" missiles, aka flares / decoys.

Feel free to comment here, although much of what needs to be said can be found in viewtopic.php?f=3&t=39913


[edit - fixed, I had something else on my mind]

I still think the maximum controlled missile amount should be removed, or at least raised to 20 or so, letting gunners do decent DPS at more than point-blank range. Since the farther missiles have to go, the more likely collision code is to kill them, I don't see how it could be OP.

Also, is there any chance of getting missile/fighter ops augs?

Shucks, you beat me to it.

I think this is the way to change it. Nerf the missile spamming a little to see how it affects the class, and yet add in different launchers and missiles and missile damage types. This is well done work Admins.

what happened to this?

We have more than one content dev - I'm outlining what my mini-project brief is. Gunners have been discussed, Jeff has clearly stated how he thinks they should be working, we've consulted with the player-base, and so we're good to go. 70% of the changes are already prepped to go live, so the ideal situation would be to finish Olympus & get this live at the same time. Added to this is the fact that Gunners aren't getting any real changes barring gear stuff - snipers might be a more involved discussion.

As the notes reveal, it's pretty clear what we wish to do with Gunner. When it comes to Sniper pretty much nothing is decided so the first step is for us to sit down and discuss it.
We might possibly make a similar post to this about Sniper when we have come up with something.

ahh my thanks for the quick responses. I was afraid we had been brushed off again >.<

As to the actual proposed changes i agree entirely.

I like the proposal, but isnt this just giving Gunner a slight DPS nerf and giving them a huge DPH beef?

Could you "unpack" this a little? In what way is it increasing DPH? (DPHour?)

Things to remember:

• Energy to launch will be scaled across missiles - with some costing more than others
• Effect modifying missiles are going to be the first push of the new missiles, not pure damage; balancing debuff times will be the hardest part of this
• The class focus in groups will be towards specific debuffing and mitigation of AI via an offensive tool set (Auras are a passive tool set); with these changes in place, AI can also have similar missiles, and also specific counter-measures of their own
• Some of the new missiles will be hull locked, most will not
• We're working at the moment on the ability to set individual range activations; this could mean short range "flak" missiles designed to scatter-shot the area around a ship versus long range base busting torpedoes
• As a class, gunner's overall skills are quite weak, barring missiles; they also are the only class reliant on ammunition at the moment, which both limits their durability and also adds cost to the class
• Capital ships will have some issues over increased ranges to make missiles go "live" - players will have to employ tractors and/or work out tactics to give themselves enough distance to launch; the days of sitting there passively relying on massive shield banks and spamming are disappearing

Low tech missiles?

Again, the lack of context here is a bit confusing.




When we say "types", this means types like Armor Piercing, Kinetic - which currently come in various Tech levels.

Lets talk about that.
While it is true Gunners are the only Ammo using class, Engineers with Drones

well their skills are weak compared to engi's which gives resists. not to mention that several of their augs give shield/regen bonuses.