I just started playing this recently (last week) and I'm a bit confused about the beta changes. I just went to 1.09 and I wonder what all this flak/sc talk is about. Did they reduce the flaks effectiveness or are there just more fighters in play now? I only ask because since upgrading to 1.09, i've noticed that the advent have been hitting me with very odd fleets than what I was used to before. An advent fleet invaded me with a halcyon (sorry bad spelling) carrier and about 10 light carriers with no additional frigate protection and I got dominated because of the sheer amount of fighters. After seeing some glancing talk about how 1.09 changes how important strike craft and carriers are I've come here for answers but I can't understand what the changelog means.
-Carrier frigates rebalanced to have 2-3 squadrons and be relatively less expensive per squadron.
My memory of the game is hazy but didn't the light carriers only have 1 flight group before and now they have far more with this beta patch.
-All anti-strike craft frigates' base DPS reduced by 43%.
Does this mean that the defensive flak type craft have reduced damage again strike craft now? Are these two changes what everyone is talking about here as being unbalanced? I apologize for being so new but from the sound of it they made strike craft much more numerous and the counter for them being flak ships have been reduced in effectiveness. I'm only curious because i've been getting swarmed in single player by fighters for the 10 hours i played after I updated and I just can't counter it. I've read as much as I can about it here in these forums but I'm at a loss as to how to counter it except for running with heavy carrier usage as well. Does anyone know if this is going to be rebalanced when the beta goes toward actual release? Will my 25 flak frigates consistently fail to destroy the fighter groups of 10 light carriers? I'm just looking for any info that anyone has to help. Strategies, hints, helpful words of encouragement?
All i've played is single player battles and although i just started playing, has the computer always used heavy strike group oriented fleets? It seems like all i've fought off in 1.09 is carrier fleets.