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[Wyvern]

So right now the Tempest is a bit too good, and, as Alex has said, likely to meet with a nerf bat soon.

My suggestion would be: drop the terminator drones, replace the HEF system with something like the Apogee's Active Flare Launcher.

This keeps the Tempest's current ability to get away with not always needing to mount a PD weapon, but drastically cuts down on its offensive abilities, and leaves it far more vulnerable to fighters. It'd still be a top-tier frigate with these changes, and worth its current eight deployment cost.

...And then consider moving the terminator drones to some other high-tech ship. The Medusa, perhaps - it could use the help. Or even a pair of wings on a Paragon; that wouldn't add much to the Paragon's actual power, but it'd be thematic for the ship being something of an over-engineered white elephant.

[Amoebka]

Drones are the iconic thing that makes the ship unique, they have to stay. Just remove HEF and replace it with something support-oriented. But NOT the flares, please stop using flares as the cookie-cutter "I don't want to decide on a system" filler.

Edit: as an idea - keep it as HEF... for the drones, not the Tempest. So instead of an offensive button it becomes a defensive one.

[intrinsic_parity]

Losing drones and HEF is too much. One or the other can get weakened, not both.

[Igncom1]

I'm kinda all right with it being OP.

[SCC]

I think I would rather lose HEF than drones. Losing both means Tempest is both vulnerable to fighters and missiles and not that punchy. At its DP, it also has to be compared against Shrike, which is tougher.
If we are looking at high-tech frigates, it would be nice to bump Omen's DP to 6 or 7.

[Harmful Mechanic]

I'd cut the drones down to a single one instead of total removal, but active flares are a better system than HEF, I agree. The current Tempest has too many ways to compete with destroyers for raw firepower right now.

Drones on phase-skimming ships tend to get lost; I'd say if there's another ship that would be a good candidate for Terminator drones, it would be a hypothetical high-tech destroyer carrier.

[Igncom1]

I mean, how many steps away is a Tempest from just BEING a destroyer anyway?

[Wyvern]

Drones are the iconic thing that makes the ship unique, they have to stay.

I mean, for reference here, I remember playing with the Tempest back in a time where ship systems didn't exist - the Tempest back than didn't have its drones or HEF, so to me, they're not really iconic.

And yes, I found it useful back then to actually install a burst pd laser in one of the Tempest's medium energy slots.

[SCC]

I mean, how many steps away is a Tempest from just BEING a destroyer anyway?

You guys don't already consider it to be a destroyer?

[FooF]

Well, if it has to be done (which I'm sort of on the fence on), I think there are a few ways to do it. Since I don't tend to play with Wolfpack Tactics, your "standard" Tempest doesn't seem to be massive outlier but I can agree that if you really gear for it, a Tempest is terrifying.

1.) Replace HEF (as has been mentioned). The Active Flare Launcher makes some sense but it feels...lame. What about Reserve Deployment? Toss another Drone out to temporarily increase its anti-Fighter/Missile power with a tiny bump in overall firepower against a harder target. I really don't want to lose the Terminator Drones because they are one of the most unique additions to a ship in the game.

2.) Reduce overall firepower. Make one of the Medium Energy Mounts a Small. Part of the issue is that SO Tempest can double Heavy Blaster for some truly terrifying firepower (especially with HEF). If you take the 2nd Medium away, it simply can't match the firepower of a Destroyer.

3.) Tweak the flux stats down, or reduce its overall speed. I guess this is the most straight-forward.

4.) Increase DP/maintenance costs to 10. If it's going to have the firepower of a Destroyer, make it cost like one, too. It's still no Hyperion but if my choices are "Tempest or Hammerhead," that's a bit of a decision to make. In general, I think Tempests need to be much rarer to find, too (no matter what changes are made).

[Igncom1]

I mean, how many steps away is a Tempest from just BEING a destroyer anyway?

You guys don't already consider it to be a destroyer?

Frankly it's nebulous that anything is anything in SS.

The hard ship size categories we have right now are almost a little constricting.

[TaLaR]

Tempest is good, but so are Scarab and Hyperion. If nerfed, Tempest will just be replaced by these in my fleet.

[Linnis]

Tempest is good, but so are Scarab and Hyperion. If nerfed, Tempest will just be replaced by these in my fleet.

Both of these alterates are better than tempest in my tests.

But HEF is the most boring systems ever. Maybe if it made all energy weapon shoot at twice the damage and twice the flux cost it might be cool. Affects gameplay more and load out builds.

[Retry]

I'm of a similar opinion to TaLaR.  A big reason that I'm using Tempests is because frigates are powerful this patch, and they can achieve respectable PPT through skills, and Tempests are fairly high yield frigates per ship.

Tempests currently cost as much as 2 mid-level frigates (ex: Lasher) or a light Destroyer (ex: Shrike).  The ship is intrinsically an outlier as the highest-performing (and costing) of frigates, while not being a true superfrigate like the Hyperion, which seems to sometimes be forgotten when comparisons between Tempests and other frigates are made.  I fully expect it to perform as well as similar-DP'd warships (given the Shrike's recent buffs to the ship, general weapon buffs and AI revision, that's a high bar).  If the reworked Tempest does not perform as well as similar-DP'd warships, I'll simply switch to something that does.

[AcaMetis]

Too good compared to what? A Lasher? A Scarab? A Hammerhead? Tempests don't have much in the way of proper competition seeing as how it shares a weight class with the Scarab and little else. And the Scarab is a whole can of high-tech shenaniganry in it's own right.

I'd prefer the Tempest to get a rival over a broken knee. It's good, yes, but it's a frigate that's two DP short of a Hammerhead. It better be good.