I personally think that comparing individual titans  is a bit pointless. Each of the titans is designed to fit in with the personality of its particular race while still maintaining usefulness. Saying that the Ankylon is worse than the Ragnarov is only based on perspective, the Ankylon is designed to be a moving fortress with support capabilities (due to the TEC loyalists wanting to bunker down and defend their terrotory), while the Ragnarov is essentially a giant gun with engines(due to the TEC rebels wanting to lash out against the aliens). I believe that each titan is supposed to perform one specific role based on how each race is in the lore of the series. 

As for my tests, I ran both sides at the same time on 2 different computers usiang a LAN connection.  And there were no reinforcements during the fleet battle.  So skill difference wasn't a factor.  I've given up on this whole thing anyway.  People already have their opinions set about Titans, so I'm not wasting my time on this anymore.

-Twi /)

In all honesty, I would think the best way to better the Ankylon would be to give it some sort of taunt. Like the one Advent capital ship (cant remember its name right now). The thing is there to take a massive beating, but as everyone keeps stating, no one targets it. They just ignore it until the fleet and the planet is gone and then move on to kill it or chase it to the next planet and repeat the process.

And the idea of making its group shield a passive is a wonderful idea and a terrible idea IMHO. It is a good idea because then the Ankylon would better fit a role of a supporting ship in the fact it would always be protecting its fleet from at least some of the oncoming damage. A smart player will save those hard hitting abilities until after your group shield wears off. Best example here is a Ragnarov's Overdrive Snipe shot. Ouch. Just ouch.  However, in that same process, it is a terrible idea due to the fact as someone mentioned before, if the Ankylon was to get the best out of its firepower and its Disruption Matrix, it would need to be mingled in with the enemy. If you tell the Ankylon to attack someone, it will actually just naturally keep the target just within the matrix, almost making it useless. Without a bit of micromanaging, the ability gets really blech. No synergy between them at all.

Here is my opinion as to how the Ankylon should work. Albeit I have other ideas as well, but we can get to those some other time if someone is curious enough to ask.

Group Shield: For group shield, the range should actually be changed to the gravity well. Yes, I know this is a HUGE range, but it greatly increases the effectiveness of the Ankylon (allowing its group shield to also help your poor carriers far in the back). However, because of this range, the ability would need a bit of a drop on its total number value, though I don't think it should be too much. Maybe it could almost stay as what it is currently (since its not all super effective right now as is).

Disruption Matrix: This ability needs to be tweaked quite a bit IMHO. The damage of it is nice, but not really enough to make ships later on really flinch. Maybe a little higher levels. But since the Ankylon is a defensive ship, I say the ability should do a bit less damage (if any at all) and work more on scrambling enemy systems. Like giving a large negative to range and to hit chance for a little while as well as the ability freeze that it gives.

Furious Defense: Okay. This is where my taunt thing comes in handy. I love what Furious Defense does already (has saved my titan a few times when it actually was getting focused, most likely by someone who doesn't know better than to not focus it). It should keep its base abilities as it is (though maybe a little bit smaller) but whenever you are in a friendly gravity well, on top of the increase to the ability, it should force enemy ships to shoot at it for the duration of its ability. This would make the Ankylon fit its defensive support role WONDERFULLY! It would give it a defensive ability that could suddenly change the battle. Enemy fleet jumps in, they start attacking. You activate your ability and while they are all focusing on your highly survivable Ankylon, your fleet has a little bit of time to fight at full effectiveness. If this ability was integrated though, the CD might have to change a bit. Im not quite sure. It would need some testing first probably to find out.

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Now someone mentioned earlier about the TL's economy not fairing as well with the TR's economy. I do have to agree. Me and my friends were playing a game and we both play generally the same way (lots of trade ports and such) and I just couldn't get past his economy. He always seemed to have more available then me. Income wise, I cant quite remember who was doing better, but he almost always seemed in a better position, never in a crunch for resources.

There are probably multiple ways beyond my ideas to solve this, but this is just a couple.

A) Okay, to keep following the guide lines of only so many new techs per alliance, I vote that the Novalith extra tech for the TL should be removed. Unless you are using a Novalith rush strategy, its not super great of a research. I guess it could also let you get a little bit more defenses out too, but thats about it. In exchange for that, the TL should gain something to the Vasari's tech that reduces the cost of defensive structures. This would allow the TL to spend less of their money on the defenses of their planets.

B ) You could also do this instead. Give the TL a research that basically says this. A planet with fully upgraded Tech and with maxed out tech slots gets a small boost to income.

C) Or better yet (to make their lovable starbases actually a bit of a threat economically) Make it to where each planet with a starbase gets like a 10% increase to their tax income. 20% if there is two of them there. I figure that the starbases is one of the major advantages the TL have so this would allow them to get a better return out of those starbases for how much they put into them. And players wouldn't want a TL to get too many starbases or else his economy can get pretty high. A note that I said tax income. Not ALL income (so not on trade or mining).

D) Lastly, you could give them something that gives the planet a large increase to tax income anytime the planet has been successfully defended from an enemy attack. This one would be a bit harder to really work into the game, because the game would have to know what is considered an 'attack'. Of course a full scale invasion is an attack, but would a capital ship with 100 supply worth of cruisers also be an attack or not? This option I don't personally like, but it could work.

Of all the three options above, I personally like C the best. Mainly because I do love having both of the starbases up whenever I can, though I could definitely see where A could also make a difference, but only really early game. I dont think it would have as much of an impact late game which is probably about where the economy boost is needed. At least I think so (my games tend to drag on since Im a turtling idiot).

If anyone has opinions to what I said, feel free to tell me. I wont be offended.

EDIT: Stupid B ). Putting those two together makes a smiley XP. An

EDIT 2: Seperated B into B and C.

EDIT 3: Changed race in A to alliance.

Yeah, but making this be considered an attack would almost mean (in AI games guaranteed) that your planets would almost ALWAYS be under the bonus which would make the ability too overpowered. Thats why I figure the game would have to actually learn a true definition of an attack and not just a random Light Frigate that jumped into and out of my gravity well. Maybe like a set number of Fleet Supply worth of ships or something along those lines.