Skills & related:
- Missile Specialization:
- Reduced bonus rate of fire to 25% (was: 50%)
- Reduced bonus missile hitpoints to 25% (was: 50%)
Weapons:
- Squall: reduced missile hitpoints to 150 (was: 300)
The changes to Missile Spec and Squall were needed and are good changes, but it is important to be aware of ship hulls that are disproportionately impacted by such balance changes and also address them in the same patch. Otherwise, you can easily end up with ships that are functionally useless (i.e. a player trying to play optimally, rather than for challenge or role-playing reasons, would never use said ship in their fleet.)
With that in mind, I would like to suggest 3 ships whose power levels have likely dropped farther than intended with these changes, in order of severity:
Astral - CriticalWith the changes to Missile Spec and Squall, the combat value it brings to the battlefield is so much lower than its DP cost. For the price of 2 Astrals, you could field 5 Herons, which also empower their 15 wings of fighters. Or, for 10 less DP than an Astral, you could have access to the Legion, which doesn't depend on Missiles for range, suppression or armour shredding. The Astral already didn't bring enough to the table to justify 50 DP, now, with its primary weapon against shields nerfed so heavily, it effectively depends on fighters to deal with the shields, leaving the Large Missile slots for strike capabilities. Being so low on the power list already, the Astral does not need to have even less flexibility weighing it down even further.
Apogee - ModerateI realize that this is not meant to be a combat ship. That being said, if the Squall ends up being a less desirable option for the Large Missile slot, this is going to severely limit how the Apogee can be built, due to the off-center orientation of the slot. The most logical alternatives are MIRV and Dragonfire, but both of these are HE damage, and the Apogee, whose primary weapon is a Large Energy slot, is not going to have many practical options to deal with shields. In turn, this weakness means that the Apogee will likely require escorts that shore up its weaknesses, but that eliminates one of the main reasons why people would put an Apogee in their fleet in the first place.
Champion - LowThis is nowhere near as severe as the first two, but worth mentioning, because the changes to Missile Spec and Squall will likely result in a decrease in the effective combat range of the Champion. And given its shield profile, this will force it into much more dangerous situations to bring its full firepower to bear, but there are going to be ships far better suited to those closer ranges than the Champion. (Dominator and Eagle come to mind).
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I bring this up in the hopes that Alex will consider the impact of the upcoming changes to the power levels of these ships, and make any adjustments he deems necessary to ensure that these ships can perform in a manner consistent with their DP cost and intended role within a fleet without being dominated by other ships who can perform that role better and/or cheaper, with little to no trade-offs.