Dear CIG (and citizens of Spectrum!), Some time has passed since the introduction of the Ares Starfighter platform and it looks like we have seen decisions made about the current implementation in the PU, after the hefty changes up and down during PTU. (Particularly for the Ion) (Going to tag @YogiKlatt-CIG just to get possible internal feedback, maybe these changes would be cool, maybe useless given future plans, who knows! Yogi has such a wealth of information that it might be worth hearing any direct feedback) NOTE: This post is less of a suggestion for any “nerf” and more of a suggestion for “depth” within the ships, to make them unique and also keep them balanced, while making their weaponry and functionality more unique. Overall, the Ares is in a good spot and it can deliver the punch it is meant to have. But during the past few days, we hear more and more calls for a larger nerf, many of which call for an agility nerf of the ship because the Ares currently can perform well against big slow targets AND fighters, with relative ease. I disagree with the idea to nerf it's agility for the most part, because a decent pilot in a light fighter CAN counter it pretty easily. BUT it clearly performs too well against NPC in PVE bounty missions. (This may change as AI improves, but still). Nerfing the ship’s agility is not the right move, IMO. So the question is, how to approach any changes to it? We really have two main options: 1 - Nerf the agility (I don’t think this is ideal) 2 - Adjust the weapon(s) to keep them unique and powerful against larger targets, but to balance their potential against smaller craft in some situations Option 1 would make the ship LESS fun to fly. It is already pretty slow in rotations and strafes. Forward acceleration MIGHT be a bit much, but that’s balanceable. Option 2 offers many possibilities to ADD uniqueness to the ship by introducing additional mechanics, instead of just nerfing damage. This adds a “skill” and “familiarity” component to the ships, rather than simply “making the ship worse” directly. So I would like to elaborate on Option 2 and suggest possible changes/additions for Ion and Inferno, as both would need different approaches. Ares Ion The Ion is clearly the bigger problem of the two ships. That being said, we must not forget that it benefits from 2 issues in the PU: desync and the high-speed backstrafe problem. Once these problems are solved (one day), The problems with the Ion, especially in PVP, should be naturally somewhat mitigated. Nevertheless, I think a small charge mechanic added to the gun would reduce the native effectiveness against small targets, yet allow it to still have that effectiveness with pilot skill (timing the shots correctly would still result in hits). The overall rate-of-fire would stay the same, but once triggered, the gun charges 0.5 - 0.75 seconds, and then the shot would release. Pretty much like the FPS-railgun works, but with auto-release (and a much faster charge). This would increase the required skill of timing and/or holding aim for 0.5 seconds, instead of just pulling the trigger at the right moment. The ability of continuous fire would not be changed. Just keep holding down the trigger for the shot every 1.57 seconds as it is now. This keeps the “sustain” damage of the weapon the same as before, while actually giving the pilot more feedback as to when the weapon will fire, with a visual charge-up, so you can know exactly when the weapon will release. NOTE: This change could actually increase overall sustained DPS by a small amount for a competent pilot, because instead of releasing the trigger and “timing” each shot, you could use the visual charge indicator to know when each shot will release, and timing your aim with that. This change creates a much more “unique” and in-depth experience for the weapon, for both the pilot and the opponent, while retaining all of the Ion weapon’s effectiveness against it’s “ideal” targets, which are typically large ships and large-ship subsystems. To give the target a visual clue that a shot is about to release, the gun could also start to brightly “glow” until the shot. This would give the enemy a chance for evasive action (given less visual lag in the future, of course). Ares Inferno This version is less of a native problem. The current spin-up time already provides pretty much the same effect as the suggestion for the Ion. On the other hand, the Inferno struggles a lot from the spread it has, that is, IMHO, a bit too large. But the following possible additions could make the Inferno also more skill-based as already is, AND add additional fun while reducing the spread problem: - Add a recoil / torque in yaw, which the pilot has to compensate for. The gun is off-axis and ballistic. It would make some logical sense. - Make the gun very accurate at the start for long-range snipe, but increase the spread over time you hold down the trigger as the gun will get hotter and hotter. A Gatling weapon in space would not cool as effectively as in an atmosphere. - So maybe also add an overheat mechanic? (This may be coming in the future already) - In order to deliver longer bursts of fire on bigger targets, a mechanic could be added to “boost” the ship to stabilize (to counter the recoil) while firing long bursts. This would drain the boost and lower the agility against fighters in a long-term dogfight. I hope these suggestions show that there are more creative ways to balance this ship, instead of nerfing agility and thus the fun to fly it, the ship SHOULD be fun to fly. Whether you agree with the above or not, the most important piece is to make the Ion/Inferno, and their respective weapons, more INTERESTING and UNIQUE, adding depth to their gameplay. It is still a fighter and not a RAFT with an S7 gun! :wink: Feel free to post up your thoughts - I know “balance” can be a polarizing topic, but I would love to hear your thoughts on the above! - Xero