The issues addressed in the Q&A are lunar in my eyes. It's a Q&A without the Q, because CIG invents the questions himself. They come out of nowhere and in no way reflect the issues most frequently raised by the community, whether in the Spectrum General, in the section dedicated to RSI ships, or in the Polaris Feeback thread. I'd like to make it clear, before we get into the eternal trolls and guys who think they're great admirals, that the aim isn't to whine about having an OP ship. I own other ships bigger than the Polaris, and I don't want to disappear at the first salvo of torpedoes. However, I feel that with a ship that is now in the $1000 range, we are entitled to a clear overview of the ship and what CIG is planning for it. Polaris: Good at nothing, bad at everything? My first question concerns the use of the Polaris itself and its place in the verse: initially announced as a First Responder, the Tip Of the Spear, this is in total contradiction with the statements made by the developers about torpedoes at the last IAE Show. In these videos, we learn that the aim of the torpedoes is to be a finisher on a ship that is already soft death or near soft death. Which means you need to have other capital ships that have done most of the work beforehand... A first responder that can only intervene after the opposing ship's defences have been destroyed? What they also mentionned during IAE Show was, in order : 1 - 'Light fighters will destroy cap ship point defense and other turrets' (= Torps can't hit the target before destroying PDCs. But what about CMs that are almost 100% effective, or the fact that the torp is so slow that you just need to strafe to dodge it ?) 2- 'Oh, I mean other cap ships have to soften the shields first so the light fighters can attack the external mounted components' How can a polaris do that against its natural target, which would be an idris? Its weaponry doesn't allow it to seriously dent the shields of an Idris, not without coming into close combat. But hand-to-hand combat is Idris' land. Heavy armour, big shields, numerous turrets (many of them S5), its railgun... 3- Once shield and defenses are down you can use torpedoes on hull 4- Once cap ship is disabled (mentioned taking out thrusters and mavs and also internal components) you can board it or finish it with torpedoes Regarding capital ship gameplay, to me, it's just a lot of words to say = Capital Ship gameplay = fighter gameplay to take down capital ships". But this also raises questions not just for the Polaris, but for all torpedo boats. Retaliator, Eclipse, Gladiator, Harbinger... How are they supposed to be able to do anything? To hit the ship with torpedoes, you have to destroy the PDCs, but to destroy the PDCs, the fighters have to take care of them, and for them to take care of them, the capital ship has to have damaged the target's shields first. But how is the Polaris supposed to do that with a 2xS6 bespoke ballistic gun (so not very effective at destroying shields) and no S5 turret? I don't expect My Polaris to be able to solo My Idris M, but it should still pose a serious threat... Which I don't think it is at the moment. As a result, it's no good for its natural targets, which are capital ships, but it's no better for smaller targets. Take the simple example of a Perseus. 4 S7 ballistic guns, a swarm of 20 S5 torpedoes. The ship will probably be too small and manoeuvrable to hit with a torpedo, and even if we're okto fire our torpedoes (which cost a fortune) at this large ship, given the announcement that it will be carrying Flak ammunition, torpedoes shouldn't worry it too much. Polaris statistics: something is wrong A major part of the ship is its engine and engineering room. However, this does not seem to be reflected in the ship's statistics. In its various speeds, it seems less lively and slower than a reclaimer or an 890. Here again, the narrative of the First Responder takes a hit. Despite its substantial engineering, its capacitors are anaemic. The turrets only have a few shots before the weapon runs dry, with a long reloading time. The Polaris is supposed to be "fast and lethal" if I believe the Q&A, because it has weak armor that it compensates for with large shields. I'm afraid that this relationship/characteristic will also crumble over time, and that we will just end up in low armor/low shield/low speed. Like the redeemer before his nerf Polaris Weaponry : he can't keep his promise like that The "promise" : "The Polaris is capable of single-handedly keeping your local star system safe and secure." https://youtu.be/wfCvtmiD9uA Also (can't remember exactly when, I think it was during Citcon) J. Crewe stated that they were upgunning the Polaris so it can "sort of hold its ground against other capital ships with it's turrets" (with emphasis on "with it's turrets") I find that at the moment, on the armament of the turrets, the account is not there. The 2xS6 nose is a salutary, but "disappointing" upgrade. The Javelins and Idris (who were also in S5 before, when it was the norm for Ship To Ship, like the Polaris) have received an upgrade of their turret to S7. Even if I understand the presence and the desire for a main cannon in ballistics (to reach weapons/components/shield emitters etc), I think that the 2XS6 lacks punch especially considering that it is the only big cannon on the Polaris and that there is nothing bigger than the S4 next to it... The bespoke solution is also a problem in my opinion for a ship that has to operate alone in the face of many threats, you should be able to configure it as you wish, especially on its main turret. Either the bespoke must be really VERY powerful to compensate for the lack of versatility/flexibility Or you have to switch to a 2xS7, which is not excessive in my opinion for a capital ship. Another solution if you want to stay in S6 would also be to switch some turrets to 2xS5. The side turrets in 4xS3 are also ridiculous for Capital Ship, knowing that in the ISC North Star, we were shown large side turrets. I think a 4xS4 is a great minimum. We also need clarification on the rear missile turret: will it be rechargeable in combat from inside the ship? Because a turret that carries 12 S2 missiles... It's a joke. Especially given the size of the turret, launchers like on the Andromeda or the Nova AA carry many more missiles and would be more worthy of a capital ship. I can't in good conscience ask a mate to play as a 'missile operator' when he functionally gets 6 - 24 mouse clicks per trip from a space station (even assuming a single missile or small volley could even significantly damage a ship and the enemy pilots didnt know what their CM binding was). And now in a verse with PDCs (thank god roberts finally), its an even less enticing offer. If it remains as it is and is not rechargeable in combat, it is not even worth the man who will be assigned to its use. We might as well remove it and give us a new 4XS3 or 4XS4 instead which will be much more efficient Torpedo gameplay/officer: are you planning to play your own game? I had already asked myself this question when I saw the Antares and the role reserved for the co-pilot... I put it down again in front of the torpedo gameplay. The prospect of spending an evening in the turret is already not fantastic for a player. But what is it? it's the ultimate. The heart of the Polaris, the role that can be the most decisive and exciting, consists of standing in front of a console on which you have to press a button to fire the torpedoes. The torpedo officer is not even on deck with the Captain or the pilot to coordinate and see what is going on, he has nothing to do except press T and fire the torpedoes. I knew that the Multicrew was in bad shape, but not to this point. It is absolutely necessary to enrich the gameplay of the torpedo officer. That he can act actively, for example, directing torpedoes fired in dumb fire / unguided and taking control of them. For guided/locked torpedoes, that they can act actively for example to prevent them from being decoy (or reduce the probability of success of decoys), to make them move to complicate the work of the PDCs etc... It also seems to me urgent to propose greater diversity in armaments, particularly torpedoes. For example rattler torpedoes that contain a swarm of missiles and help saturate PDcs, etc etc there is no shortage of ideas (EMP torpedoes, plasma torpedoes, hacking, distortion, HE for ground attacks, etc) The Operator-Guided Mode for torpedoes (vs classic T locking) should be able to reward the time he spends there (and where he can't control other salvos) for example by making the torpedo appear on the radar/lock alert only late (vs. locked torpedoes from the start) Btw if you want to put torpedoes at 300/400k as is currently the case in 4.0, you better give us real torpedoes, not dungdumb just good for dumb fire. "Capital ship killers" when it takes 18 to destroy an idris... At this price, they must resist a bit vs countermeasures, go at least 50% faster and carry a shield to resist the first salvos of PDCs Interior : feel like the ship is small I'm not going to go back to the Med Bay etc which are clearly not up to standard. But on the other hand, I have the impression that a ton of space is wasted. We have a Brig (great for RP...) but no briefing room like any proper capital ship?