Pilot Archive

Wanted to throw out some Ideas to offer more balance to the Droid programs that the Freelancers get.

1. Reactor Overload - This is a great droid command that really doesn't do anything but help you. It takes a small bit of armor which doesn't affect your ships performance in anyway. Problem is it makes most reactors more than enough to handle virtually every loadout imaginable.

Easiest solution is to nerf it, make the bonus's a lot less. Another solution is to hit Capacitor charge, Booster Charge. Both take a small hit. It's reasonable to assume that the extra juice has to come from somewhere...

2. Capcitor Overload - This is another great droid command that only helps you. Again takes a small bite of armor as before but in this case you get 2 things that help you. Increased Recharge and Increased capacity.

I'd like to see them handicap the shield hitpoints and recharge in this one. This may sound harsh but the extra capcitor performance should come from somewhere... Capacitor energy already charges really fast and with this program it doesn't matter if you have a 35.5 or 50.0 charging cap, with this program running you're never going to stop firing your blasters. The idea is that each increase in one area comes at the cost of performance in another.

3. Cap to Shield Shunt - This program transfers some or all of you cap to your shields on a 1 to 1 basis.

Problem is capacitors charge almost 4x faster than shields and I think a conversion ratio needs to be put into place. I have a 2500/2500 shield that when almost empty if I dump a full cap into it (2021 Overloaded) my shields jump to about 50% so I'm assuming that 1 cap energy = 1 Shield Energy. And in the time it takes that program to be ready to be used again my cap is full, so I can refill my entire shields with Cap2Shield4 in about 15 seconds.

These are some rough ideas that are primarily designed to bring balance into the picture. It should be noted that these changes will probably benefit the pvp side of combat (hopefully) and probably make PvE combat more difficult. But as it is now everything feels too easy when using these programs. You can fire non stop, recharge all your shields in seconds and overload all your components (thanx to reactor overload) so that even the biggest ships perform like light fighters (I'm not kidding here, my oppressor has no trouble keeping up with Player A-wings, it's pretty unfair...) I'm have no interest in making PvE play harder so if you have any ideas that would bring more balance and keep things fun and easy while doing PvE please let me know.

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Tumbler2002 wrote:
more balance

Freelancers

oppressor has no trouble keeping up with Player A-wings, it's pretty unfair

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Why do you want to balance freelancer programs while you're keeping up with A-wings thanks tothe Imperial program engine overload? And is the player a-wing flying in a well balanced fighter like yours and also running the same programs? Why no mention of the imperial weapon overload 3 which is known to be bugged?

The 65k mass a-wing would suffer more from your proposed changes then your 170k oppressor... You want to change the balance allright, in favor of the imperials.

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Washell wrote:

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Tumbler2002 wrote:
more balance

Freelancers

oppressor has no trouble keeping up with Player A-wings, it's pretty unfair

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Why do you want to balance freelancer programs while you're keeping up with A-wings thanks to the Imperial program engine overload? And is the player a-wing flying in a well balanced fighter like yours and also running the same programs? Why no mention of the imperial weapon overload 3 which is known to be bugged?

The 65k mass a-wing would suffer more from your proposed changes then your 170k oppressor... You want to change the balance allright, in favor of the imperials.

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I didn't mention the Imperial Programs because I called this thread Freelancer Droid Programs. I think everyone already knows that WO3 is bugged.

Reactor overload 4 is the reason we can overload everything atm and that is part of the fix I proposed.

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Kalano wrote:

So, let me get this straight. You want to nerf programs that are greatly helping out pilots and are level appropriate when the get them.Oh, and didn't you know that you don't have to use them if you want more of a challange? And, the level 4 ones do take a damage mod to your equipment that does cause decay.

Why are you calling for a nerf for something that is not hurting the game. If you want more of a challange, then think up some possilbe missions that are more challanging. Why not get a smaller or harder to fly ship. Take yourTIE (light duty)out for a few trips and take one high tier mobs.

Nerfing is the last resort we need in JTL. There has been way to many stupid and dumb nerfs already. We need bug fixes, un-nerfs, and more content.

I disagree with your thoughts. You don't even talk about these programs as a privateer, you are using them as a Imp against Rebels. Maybethe issue is that your imp programs are not doing you any good. Here is one thing to chew on. The Imp ships are ment for speed and firepower, but lack protection. The privateer ships are big and bulky. they need the programs to compensate for the power they can use. Heck, the shields and weapons i put in usually use up all the space, mass, and more energy than my reactor can produce. Yeah, could limit thing but i fly the medium and heavy fighters, we are not ment to be nimble and avoid being shot, we are suppose to take hits and dish out more.

I use my reactor overload 3 so my weapons will work, i use capacitor overload 3 to keep my guns firing for a long time before i run out of ammo, or otherwise, i have to recharge every ship i kill. And that can truely mean life or death, and many times, a failed mission for taking to long. I use shield shunt a lot because i am in a bulky ship, again, i don't have nimble flight, so i take a lot of hits and my shields is my salvation. I don't have to constantly use it, and when i do, i have to wait for my capacitor to recharge again. Its a life saving program.

So, go back to your imp programs and stop nerfing another profession cause you can keep up with the big boys and got bored.

NERFING IS NOT THE SOLUTION!!!!!!

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/agree completely

you know what nvm

Message Edited by DarkBShadow on 03-10-2005 08:36 PM

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Tumbler2002 wrote:
Wanted to throw out some Ideas to offer more balance to the Droid programs that the Freelancers get.

1. Reactor Overload - This is a great droid command that really doesn't do anything but help you. It takes a small bit of armor which doesn't affect your ships performance in anyway. Problem is it makes most reactors more than enough to handle virtually every loadout imaginable.

Easiest solution is to nerf it, make the bonus's a lot less. Another solution is to hit Capacitor charge, Booster Charge. Both take a small hit. It's reasonable to assume that the extra juice has to come from somewhere...

2. Capcitor Overload - This is another great droid command that only helps you. Again takes a small bite of armor as before but in this case you get 2 things that help you. Increased Recharge and Increased capacity.

I'd like to see them handicap the shield hitpoints and recharge in this one. This may sound harsh but the extra capcitor performance should come from somewhere... Capacitor energy already charges really fast and with this program it doesn't matter if you have a 35.5 or 50.0 charging cap, with this program running you're never going to stop firing your blasters. The idea is that each increase in one area comes at the cost of performance in another.

3. Cap to Shield Shunt - This program transfers some or all of you cap to your shields on a 1 to 1 basis.

Problem is capacitors charge almost 4x faster than shields and I think a conversion ratio needs to be put into place. I have a 2500/2500 shield that when almost empty if I dump a full cap into it (2021 Overloaded) my shields jump to about 50% so I'm assuming that 1 cap energy = 1 Shield Energy. And in the time it takes that program to be ready to be used again my cap is full, so I can refill my entire shields with Cap2Shield4 in about 15 seconds.

These are some rough ideas that are primarily designed to bring balance into the picture. It should be noted that these changes will probably benefit the pvp side of combat (hopefully) and probably make PvE combat more difficult. But as it is now everything feels too easy when using these programs. You can fire non stop, recharge all your shields in seconds and overload all your components (thanx to reactor overload) so that even the biggest ships perform like light fighters (I'm not kidding here, my oppressor has no trouble keeping up with Player A-wings, it's pretty unfair...) I'm have no interest in making PvE play harder so if you have any ideas that would bring more balance and keep things fun and easy while doing PvE please let me know.

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and with all this it's still 1-3 shot kills in PvP that's less than a second of actual damage GL finding the 15 secs to recharge your sheilds in that time.

oh and I run 2 lvl 8 reward guns one RE'd so far and a lvl 10 in a rihk for PvE I can take down 2 tier 5 decimators straight up in DS without losing much sheild at all

No matter how I think about approaching this issue, I always end up at the same conclusion: This is another area of play balancing that should not be dealt with until after Weapon Overload 3 is fixed.

Shona

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SheenaBrelya wrote:
No matter how I think about approaching this issue, I always end up at the same conclusion: This is another area of play balancing that should not be dealt with until after Weapon Overload 3 is fixed.

Shona

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I just think that it's an area of balance that shouldn't be addressed by aiming at a specific profession and crying nerf.

I'm a Bounty Hunter on the ground and even *I'm* not crying for Jedi nerfs.

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DarthKaelan wrote:
I just think that it's an area of balance that shouldn't be addressed by aiming at a specific profession and crying nerf.

I'm a Bounty Hunter on the ground and even *I'm* not crying for Jedi nerfs.

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I agree. There are, in fact, other areas of droid programs I think would be better tweaked one way or the other (and Freelancer programs are a part of that), but it seems every time I try to write down what I think should change, I always end up relating the bad parts of the current system back to WO3. Once it is fixed, a lot of usage of other programs will change, and until that happens I don't think it is possible to properly determine the balances required of other programs. Just my opinion.

Shona

Wow I don't even know where to begin.

I'm suggesting that the game would benefit from there being a cost for these bonus's on other ship systems.

Engine & Weapon Overload/Tuning both do this. You gain something at the cost of something else.
Rebel Shield programs do this. You gain shields in one area and lose them in another.
Freelancer programs don't. You just gain. RO - More reactor juice, CO - More recharge & Cap, CTSS - Faster shield recharge.

If everyone likes the system fine. Why even fix WO3 then? It's just giving a bonus at not cost, no additional cap per shot, no additional reactor energy. Everyone seems to agree that should be fixed. But if none of the Freelancer programs need to be fixed why fix wo3? Why not take out all negatives.

I use my reactor overload 3 so my weapons will work, i use capacitor overload 3 to keep my guns firing for a long time before i run out of ammo, or otherwise, i have to recharge every ship i kill. And that can truely mean life or death, and many times, a failed mission for taking to long. I use shield shunt a lot because i am in a bulky ship, again, i don't have nimble flight, so i take a lot of hits and my shields is my salvation. I don't have to constantly use it, and when i do, i have to wait for my capacitor to recharge again. Its a life saving program.

This is exactly what I don't want to change. I think the PvE side is actually working very well. I just completed my second Ace and it would have been A LOT harder without the freelancer programs and WO3. I was throwing out ideas. If you don't like them just propose some different ones...

I have no ideas to propose about balancing droid programs, because posts that reflect my thoughts abound: Fix WO3 and then let's see how the use of droid programs changes.

There are tweaks I would like made to the programs from all three factions, but I am completely unable to try to pin down what exactly needs to change or by exactly how much. I can not do that because I don't know how the system will work when WO3 isn't throwing everything else off.

Will the Cap Overloads mean unlimited fire once WO3 no longer lowers weapon energy per shot when it should be raising it? Will Reactor Overloads work out to 'balanced and useful' once WO3 stops lower weapons reactor drain when it should be raising it? When Cap energy is needed to keep weapons going, will Cap to Shield Shunt still be as harmless a program to run? (as in... if I am unable to have my Cap still recharge despite holding down the trigger on all my weapons, will I be as willing to strip all the power away from my Cap every 15 seconds?)

You are proposing to try to tweak programs that are being largely affected by the blatant bug in another program, without knowing exactly how the fix of that bug will affect the programs in the first place.

Well, it's just my opinion. Feel free to continue to design your Freelance droid program ..... 'nerfs.'

Shona