[Smaggler]

If this is posted somewhere else I haven't seen it. Since I'm not currently flying in Jumpgate I'm curious as to how these changes that recently occurred affect gameplay. I realize the tag system has been fixed now but my questions are more related to ship balance.

It appears to me that the Octs got nerfed the Quants got proxy nerfed and the Sols were buffed.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but the Alpaa wasn't really changed in anyway and the Haven is less effecient and slightly less damage absorbed afaik. Obviously I don't have access to all the stats but I'll take more shield over more armor any day. Shield recharges armor does not.

And the Intensity still has five modx, which means it still engages and disengages the fight at will. I realize the light fighters can sometimes catch them now but not if it has all its modx.

This was a concern of mine for a long long time. Also the Sols have been able to equip all of their ships almost entirely from sol stock. Is this still true as well??

If there are combat changes of some sort please enlighten me.

Thanks,

-Smaggler

[king0815]

Before the patch was implemented, the Defier shield was really uber. The quick recharge made it superior to the alpaa and therefore made the Tensy more and maybe too difficult to fly. A fleet of SpiFi-Phoons with Defiers could win without much difficulty over a equal fleet of Tensys. Therefore the rebalancing of the shields is a good attemp to bring back the sols into the game (there wasnt a great Solrain-Squad for almost a year now)

[Reece]

Stolen from the guy I beat in the JSR arcade.

            Haven  Defier  | Canopy  Rocky  Resistr | Alpaa  Cascade  Shelter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mass     |  3500    3800   |  1300    1100   1000   | 4100   2500     2850
Recharge |  112K    165K   |  120K    92.0K  95.0K  | 148K   128K     133K
Max Cap. |  15.4M   8.5M   |  11.5M   15.2M  12.7M  | 20.4M  22.0M    20.0M
TT Rech. |  138s    51.5s  |  96s     161s   134s   | 137s   172s     150s
Eff.     |  0.55    0.60   |  0.90    0.95   0.80   | 0.75   0.85     0.95
Drain    |  204K    300K   |  138K    99.5K  113K   | 197K   151K     140K
2min.    |  28.8M   28.3M  |  25.9M   26.2M  24.1M  | 38.2M  37.4M    36.0M
5min.    |  49.0M   58.0M  |  47.5M   42.8M  41.2M  | 64.8M  60.4M    59.9M

            NewDefier OldDefier  
-------------------------------
Mass     |  3800      3500  
Recharge |  165K      174K   
Max Cap. |  8.5M      13.1M   
TT Rech. |  51.5s     75s 
Eff.     |  0.60      0.85   
Drain    |  204K      ?   
2min.    |  28.3M     34.0M  
5min.    |  58.0M     65.3M

The defier was uber, but they nerfed it too hard. I'm pretty sure everyone is using the haven now. Smaggler, the Intensity still has one less gun than the other fighters. We aren't at war with the quants at the moment, but the octs don't seem to have much trouble making us explode.

All in all, I hope they fix the defier, but since there is the haven it still seems pretty balanced.

[vorlon31]

Shield wise things do look far more ballanced than they were, definitely.

[Smaggler]

Perhaps I'm a bit too old then. But I remember packs of fighters (10 or so) vs 10 or so tensys and the tensys wiped the floor with everything that came against them.

[Reece]

That was probably before MS didn't fit on a tensy and before the nix-hitbox fix

[Algore]

I'd say it has a lot more to do with pilot skill.
Jim and Me can wipe the floor with equal or slightly more OV in sim while flying Tensys, and we're supposed to be Octs:/

[Smaggler]

Alot of it was Pilot skill. A lot of it was that missiles even after their targeting upgrade are relatively easy to dodge/avoid for the experienced Tensy Pilot. But the biggest part of it was that the Tensy is the ultimate pack fighter. You control the engagement because you have more flash fires than anyone else so long as you have equal numbers or greater than your opponent you can lead them around forever.

You also have the ability to close and kill anything or run and flee from anything because you have an extra flash fire. Which with the big Alpaa shield means you can wait until you're out of shields FF away and recharge back to 100 being a nearly completely new fighter coming back into the battle. Who cares if you're down all your missile slots and two guns you can still come back at 100% and rinse/repeat what you just did.

*shrug* If its not like that now it could be argued the Tensy pilots of today don't know what they are doing. The only way I can see that this has changed is you can no longer just dock at the nearest POS / Station to refill those flashfires. If that has affected combat to the degree I suspect than perhaps the above is no longer the issue it once was...

[Reece]

Originally Posted by Smaggler

You control the engagement because you have more flash fires than anyone else so long as you have equal numbers or greater than your opponent you can lead them around forever.

Well, the haven and the alpaa take about the same amount of time to recharge. The tensy does 3/4 the damage a nix or phoon does, and the haven takes 3/4 the damage an alpaa does. Neat how that works out.

If we're fighting in oct space there's no where to run (except for squad and invite POS and I wish to god they'd fix that).

It's pretty much knowing when to and when not to try and chase for the octs, and knowing when to and when not to FF for the tensies. We honestly could probably survive more fights, but we'd get less kills if we did. Besides, who wants to fight like a quant?

[Smaggler]

The difference is though Reece. You have the option of running. An Oct never does. So its fly to die. Which is always what I hated about combat in Jumpgate.

SOLs were always given the best of the best. Their Med Fighter was given the impossible to hit profile their bomber was the best for a long time until it was nerfed, they can nearly equip themselves in all SOL equipment and be far more competitive than any other faction can with all Quant or all Oct equipment.

I doubt I'll come back then, the imbalance is still there and will probably always be there. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the ship with the most modx slots should be the slowest. It controls the engagement but shouldn't be given the option to run away as well.

*shrug* Thanks for answering my questions guys I'll fade away now. :P

[ELPIRATA]

The fact that an Oct can't run is indisputable, but is also a true that what looks to be a big wall that u can't overcome... in reality is not. Even since the patch, I've been involved with Oct fleets and I have to say that there is a sense of acomplishment bigger than ever before, and that, even though we can't run... doesnt mean we'll always lose, Id dare to say that in even numbers or slightly less... if the octs know what they're doing... they can really kick ass.

Like last nite, the only oct taht really showed that had no clue on what was going on it was me. I could have taken out Reece, feldman and Zico, but because of poor choice of equipment (entirely my fault) and absence of enough FF's and duelist......

But in overall, I think is a good patch.

BTW, Not many of you noticed it, but the ROcky is actually a size 2 viable alternative, same cap damage as haven, a lot cheaper, lighters and a lot more efficient. Its inferior than the Haven, true, but is a good alternative.

ELP

[spork]

If you want to be an Oct and control the tempo of the fight, then you have to fly in a Raven pack with a few Chrips. The Nix will never be a pack fighter that can disengage at will. The Tensy will never be a good brawling ship. The Quants mostly fly the Tempest because it is a very strong pack fighter.

Packs of 10 are quite rare these days, though numbers are somewhat improving.Fleets of 3-5 are way more common. But it sounds to me a lot like you had your mind made up before you even posted.

[Algore]

I don't know u, nor can I remember you, assuming your username here is your ingame name.
Which faction were you, and which is the imbalance that seems to be discouraging you from coming back?
My main gripe with JumpGate is that sometimes people roll over and accept defeat because of their current situation. Adapting to the challenge is what makes JumpGate addictive for me.
I've spent many hundreds of hours in the sim, along with my wingmen, finding and practising ways to counter my adversaries tactics.
I would be lying if I said I could say the same for our adversaries, although obviously I cannot record their sim time.
Too many people these days think they can just log on, get a few wingman and fight, expecting to work out an tactic in RS to succeed.
Too many people these days look for shortcuts.
Some dude once said in a movie, "It's better to burn out than to fade away".

Your choice.

Regards
Al