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Gavan's Fantastic Thread o' Moth Nerfing

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Oct 11, 2005 who? me? link
yeah shpae pwns behemothe

so shaddup about it its all balanced and stuff.
Oct 11, 2005 Cunjo link
...which hog?
Oct 11, 2005 Shapenaji link
Nah its no great skill, the posihog deals an enormous amount of damage, 1 heavy battery down to empty deals 40000 damage in 4.5 seconds.
Oct 11, 2005 vIsitor link
A note on moths:

This has been said before, but the point is that a lone pilot shouldn't be able to kill a moth. However, a good pilot can come close and in so doing may want to call up a associate to help oust the said moth. After repeatedly being killed be double-teaming pirates, the trader gets swarms and/or mines, to compensate the pirates call for more assistance. Once the amount of pirates reaches a certain point, the moths cannot compensate with onboard weaponry, and begin to form convoys for safety. Convoys, however, are slower than a single moth, and although their numbers help to offset this weakness, it eventually runs into the same cap that a lone moth has: limited weapons capacity. So, instead, the convoy hires a group of exerienced mercinaries to defend them, and the moths equip repair guns instead of weapons to extend their lifespan. Instead of simple follow & shoot, the pirates have to come up with advanced strategies to draw off the escorts whilst a group of bombers close in for the moth-kills. In rresponse, the escorts develop advanced tactics, such as decoys, to keep the pirates occupied while the moths escape--and so on.

At least that is how it is supposed to work, but we have the crippling problem of a limited playerbase.
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A note on Hornets and Fighters:

As said earlier, hornets are the only craft capable of destroying a moth on their lonesome in a single run. However, despite being relitively fast at infiniboost speeds (220) its thrust permits little in the way of weapon's payload, a liablility when hunting moths. This is because the hornet is, by design, a support ship, not a loner. But, a fully-loaded hornet can catch a moth when assisted, all that is needed is a fast ship to slow the moth down a few m/s long enough for the hornet to accelerate (I think that conc. mines would do nicely). Once the hornet is up to speed, the moth is a proverbial sitting duck. On the flip side, it is also an ideal convoy gaurdian. The fact that its gaurding means that it doesn't need to move much faster than the moths at any given time, and their 4 s-port feature allows them to pack enough punch to deispose (or at least discourage) anyone with enough firepower to harm a moth. Heck, there is even a variant designed for the job. The plain truth is that all of your fancy-pantsy light fighters are designed for surgical strikes not to be heavy-hitters. They would be best used to sneak past the lubering convoy escorts, into the fray of moths. cause untold chaos, and attempt to break up the convoy (and thus their defensive advantage!). A variety of ships need to come into play, not just a bunch of Cents and Valks. As suggested, hogs are a good hybrid (as are Atlas-X's), but the role of so-called 'superiority fighters' is mere "bait & swithch", the heavy-hitters are "gunboats" soaking up all the kills , with Hybrids assisting with both roles (and returning with the loot). On the defending side light fighters take on the role of interccepter, the heavies as patrol boats, and the hybrids as fighter-bombers. Properly organised, a moth can be an easy target--or an imprengible fortress.

Sorry if this is a little long-winded,
-CNH
Oct 11, 2005 Beolach link
A lone pilot can fly a Moth; therefore a lone pilot SHOULD have a reasonable chance at killing it - it shouldn't be guaranteed, but it should be possible. It's a 1v1 conflict, both sides should ideally have close to a 50% of winning.

> Convoys, however, are slower than a single moth

Uh... no they're not... care to explain your thinking here?
Oct 11, 2005 vIsitor link
A lone pirate can put a moth at serious risk to storms, bots, and other pirates if they do enough damage. The moth might be slowed slightly and the armor decreased slightly to help balance, but in the long run will make little difference. The massive changes proposed are rather unbalancing, however, and would only serve to make moths extreemely vaunerable. On the other hand, I do agree that the moth has too much thrust for a ship of its size. a more reasonable speed:mass:thrust ration wouuld be appriciated.

My 0.2 cr,
-CNH