Drako Slyith wrote:Amariithynar:
The Urak are different. For one thing, they rely heavily on their gunship, not their dreadnought. The Ranx, however, at least in the later systems, rely on their dreadnought. (also, have you noticed how pathetic a urak destroyer is, because it focuses on short range weaponry?)
yes, the Urak are different. but they are to their systems what the Ranx are to theirs, effectively. Their destroyers usually hover around their bases which DO have offensive capabilities as well as squadrons of tough (defensively for the system level) gunships, meaning that it's actually a risk to take one out early on. The only risk when fighting a Ranx DN is that it catches you blind and eats away your shields entirely- and if you have ANY sort of shield appropriate for the system, you take one hit, then move away. Clean up the escort that ranges WAY too far from the DN, then move in for an easy kill.
Take a look at the Aquila (Thanks to RPC for pointing out the easter egg codes on the opening screen so i could actually see one); It has much better turn rates, speed is much better, and it has two omnidirectional Katana Star Cannons (though each only fires within about a 210 degree arc) which are deadly -at any range-. Yes, the Ranx DN doesn't have to be as good as the Aquila, but at least having the -only- weapon it uses actually be viable if it hits within the prox trigger range still would be nice.
And besides, in the urak part of space there are a lot of minor factions that use light gunships to fight, and the tactics are flyby or chase in most circumstances. In the later game, the tactics are mostly standoff. Different tactics require differently built ships. The sung are terrible at defending, because they can't shoot omnidirectionally, but are unparalleled at that level in attacking. Factions fight differently and thus require different weapons and configurations. The Huari are mostly defensive, so they use heavy cannons that can shoot in any direction, and they are large and good for blocking shots. The ranx use a seek and destroy tactic, so they need heavy, long range cannons. This is what they have. The ranx are very aggressive, and so they have long range cannons to devastate ships before they can come into range.
While I will agree that in the Urak systems there are a lot of lighter craft (freighters, charon Mk II's, Sung Wind slavers) there are also a decent number of heavier forces (Huari, Charon anything-but-Mk-II's, ESPECIALLY any Charon hammerheads or frigates) that the lighter Urak craft help bolster against- and they actually stay relatively close to their stations/accompanying ships. As for the "standoff" that you mentioned, I've found it to be completely the opposite. Rogue Fleet ships, for example, use the same tactics that Centauri and Sung have both used- Swirl around the base until you attack it, then chase far far away until the base is out of radar range (and usually end up dead in that time too). It seems to be that most of the ships follow a basic AI algorithm that is functionally equivilent for every faction but a small handful (And even that could simply be perspective). It makes them too easy.
To cover your other points; The sung are masters at defense. Firstly, their bases are surrounded by defense satellites that are omnidirectional, plus the main station which is also omnidirectional, cobined with a layer of slave coffins suspended in the space between the base and the satellites- insuring that anyone attempting to attack in a rescue/raid would either destroy the slaves themselves or would end up having a lot of them die due to being in the way of the defenses. The only way this is trumped is by a rush in on top of the base with a heavy station damage weapon to blow it up before too many slave coffins are destroyed, then loot one for a quick evacuation, and dispose of the remainder at leisure. This is only maintainable due to the 2D nature of the game, allowing you to simply fly over defenses (realistically it would be far more to scale as a orbiting cloud of coffins and satellites) that would otherwise physically hinder you. Secondly and thirdly, later on you get the quadra-barricades of the Sung Citadel that each have a weapon, which is only 'easily' doable thanks to an exploitable gap between sections; and then the round weird Slavers and the more elongated slaver (can't remember which is the Earth and what the other is called, or if they're both Earth), and the Dragon Slaver; able to disable your weapons and shields and EMP you, etc. etc. etc. while that may seem to translate better to a more offensive play, it really is good at defending what they have while obtaining additional resources at minimal risk.
The Huari, while being big ships relatively easy to hit, have shields that even with a kytyrn blaster are annoyingly powerful and irritating to take down, and their ammo blocks a lot of shots if you don't fire from oblique angles- The first means that you have trouble even damaging their ship, while the second means that you have trouble having your ammunition even lliving to the point it can reach the Hurin. I won't disagree that they aren't defensive, but at the same time they excell at offense; Had a Sung Citadel spring up beside a Fortress, and the lone Hurin destroyed the entire thing and all the Sung reinforcements (there was a gate nearby and they just kept spawning without end). There was no replacement ever called in. Just the one Hurin floating around his fortress, circling lazily like they always do, getting into range of the Sung and then blasting at it full force, swinging backa round and coming back for another round. There were easily half a hundred ship wrecks laying around, not to mention how many ships it must have just utterly destroyed.
The ranx, however, are little more than souped-up Urak. Swap the short range of their mass drivers for longer-reaching Slam and Flenser Cannons, and you basically have the Ranx. their Dn is the only relatively unique ship, with the Kiloton Cannon, and it's only unique in its inability to be effective. Any ships that they stumble upon are of the usual AI behaviour of "get close and circle while firing" which is the only reason it is effective at all- because AI Is Dumb.
They are very good at the task they are designed to do. You are trying to give them weapons which they weren't designed to have and do not accomplish their task, and then trying to rationalize your decision. The ranx dreadnoughts are effectively artillery. In all artillery design, the focus is on heavy cannons hitting far away, not on protecting itself. They rely on other defenses. The ranx dreadnought uses gunships to protect itself from the light ships that slip through.
In all artillery design, where the purpose of the artillery was ONLY to be artillery (ie; mortar launcher, cannonade, modern artillery pieces) then it isnt a ship. however, a look at any cruiser or higher class of military ship shows that while every ship has some form of heavy weaponry (usually in the form of a heavy cannon, emulating the aspect of the ranx' Kiloton Cannon in such) and a smaller fleet of support vessels (the gunships), where they totally divert course is the utter lack of any sort of close-range weaponry that is standard on -any- craft. Even though fighter jet battles are almost always fought with missiles alone, guns are still installed in the case of having a lucky situation. Even though smaller craft can swarm a larger ship, they have AA guns and heavier anti-ship guns for defense against such tactics. This has held true in nearly every naval or space-based naval show, game, or other piece of fiction. The entire reason for such a thing is for if a craft slips through the escort, you don't leave the powerful superdreadnought so weak in its defenses that it is entirely incapable of defeating what amounts to a Nigerian gunboat plinking away at it with its machine guns. If the escort were smarter, or the DN had better defenses, either would make it more satisfactory and encounter. As it stands, they're loot pinatas.
According to your logic, because a hornet is pathetic, it should have a class V shield. The fact is, you are attempting to bring a ship that was never meant to devastate the system like a phobos into a position where it is not supposed to be.
I don't want it able to devestate a system. I want it so that a decent shield on said hornet won't mean that it can utterly annihilate the DN. And no, I'm not saying since it is a pathetic ship the Hornet should have a class V shield- It isn't the major basis for anything's defense; The groups that do use them use them in large numbers with plenty of other ships acting as support. They are more the shock troops of a large army than any real threat- an initial force sent to soften the target. Pretty much like a Sung Wind Slaver; In fact, i'd say the Wind Slaver is little more than an upgraded Hornet.
