Oh wait. This isn't a real patch post.
Buffing the siege frigate while keeping it at tech level 1 very easily leads to problems.
No its not a real patch, those are my personnal suggestion to improve the core gameplay of Sins.
Siege Frigates are in need of some love. The buffs I recommand are necessary for making them a viable option. If I'm gonna invest ressources in Siege Frigates, I want them to actually do what they are suppose to do. They are very specialized, so they need to me good at taking out planets. Thats why I recommand increasing the damage. The increase in survivability would not be that much and they would still fall easily to the right counter. The 14 supply points is just plain ridiculous, dropping from 14 to 12 would make them more attractive to most players. I dont think they would cause a problem even if they are accessible at level 1 (or 2 for TEC). They are still very expensive and they are easy to take out (especially in Entrenchment with all the new defensive measures).
Wait a mintue we already have 1.02, and those changes were not in them. While I may agree with siege changes, I sure don't agree with other 2. 50% range icnrease? You know they alreadya re outside of weapon range for starbase! This range would make it ridiculous. And why increase deployment cost for starbase? Starbases now cost about as mucha s a cap ship to deploy. But unupgraded they die to a capship.
My recommandation for a 50% increase in the attack range of Assault Cruisers is two fold.
First, I recommended increasing the range of Advent/TEC starbases to give them a boost when protecting a gravity well or a planet, something they can barely do. Vasari dont have this problem, their starbase can defend the entire gravity well. Giving TEC/Advent a little bonus to range would not make them OP and it would not chnage the game that much.
Second, if the range of Advent/TEC starbases was to be increased, an increase in the range of Assault Cruisers would be necessary. I think Assault Cruisers should behave like artillery units, they must be capable of assaulting enemy starbases from far away. The attack range increase would also allow them to do more damage vs a Vasari starbase that is moving towards them. They could dish out more punishment before the Vasari starbase could goble them up. I know 50% increase is a lot, but I feel that if starbases were to have an increase of 25% to their weapon's range, Assault Cruisers would require much more to make them acceptable.
The increase in the deployment cost of starbases would limit their utility. Especially when is come down to Vasari starbases, they are available early (level 2) and they deploy from their colony ships (available at the start). This allows Vasari to have access to their starbases way too early in the game, increasing the deployment cost would put more pressure on the player trying to use them. I proposed this because I think Vasari have access to their starbases too early, thats all.
hmmm... I'm not sure.
I do agree that siege frigs should cost 12 supply at most. They're enough expensive anyway.
A little buff to their effectiveness might be good as well, but let's not allow too easy, uncounterable planet kills.
However, all the other changes aren't really necessary and would, as said, lead to lots of balance issues.
I believe, which I dedicated a thread to, that Vasari vs Vasari is the only no.1 most screwed matchup when we're talking about trying to flush an enemy starbase out of a gravwell. And, sorry to let you down, none of those changes would help.
I do agree that Siege Frigates can easily become OP if they are buff the wrong way. But I dont think my suggestions would make them OP, but it would make them fun to use again (can't remember the last time I use them on a small map, always using my Cap Ship to do the job).
Again, I agree with you that Vasari Starbase vs. Vasari starbase does not work. Thats why I recommended increasing the deployment upgrade to Vasari starbases from 25%/50% to 40%/80%. It doesn't solve the problem, but its would be a (baby foot) step in the right direction, up until something else is done to fix this problem. I agree that this is the most urgent problem to solve right now, so keep up the good fight, I wish you luck.
+20% bombing damage?, 50% range increase? Are you serious?
Remember that IC has to balance both for multi and singleplayer and the AI loves sieges. I agree with the supply changes and maybe the hull/shield changes are not bad either. And if you speak about attack ranges, try to make some realistic suggestions like 5 or 10%.
Like I said earlier, the 50% increase would only be necessary if they changed the range of starbases. If no changed are to be made to starbases, I would only have recommanded a 25% increase in attack range. I think a 25% increase in range is more then acceptible, after all, they are also very specialized cruisers, they fall easily to Fighters Squadrons and they could be more effective vs. Vasari starbases trying to take them out. To compensate for this increase, I recommanded a +2 supply points for the Ogrov Torpedo Cruiser. I dont feel like the Advent Solanus Adjudicator needs this increase because they already take up 18 supply points and are weaker vs starbases. Also a 20% damage increase for Siege Frigates would only increase their damage from 21 to 25 for TEC/Advent and 25 to 30 for Vasari, which is nothing when facing a 4500/6000 points planet.