Race Roles/Niches

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Ok, so we all know Alskant are the trading race (no one can dispute that, and no I am not going to give them a warbird, they are a trading race, if you don't want to trade then don't play them!), but how about the other races? What roles do you feel they are/should be aimed at?

Just to start things off here are my (very rough) thoughts on this:

Alskant - Trading race, should be the best traders but fairly lackluster at everything else (but be able to make up for it to some degree by getting higher exp/more spare cash)

Creonti - Primarily raiders? Big bulky ships with quite a few weapons but pretty slow, not really hunters as such?

Human - Use JD and can get around fairly well, good miners/utility, don't particularly excel at hunting/raiding.

Ik'Thorne - Rely on CDs, weak to mines but generally good ship vs ship, can take quite a lot of damage but will then have to spend turns replenishing CDs.

Nijarin - Lower defence ships with more weapons, using the DCS to take down Ikkys and to survive in raids.

Salvene - Fairly all around race, although not really very good at mining.

Thevian - Fast race, good at scouting/hunting, could arguably give the TAC some forces and a little less defence so that they have a top racial that is more designed towards hunting than raiding (essentially having a race more geared towards hunting like Alskant are more geared towards trading)

WQ Human - Cloakers, can choose when to start a fight/not, maybe make their trader a bit better (a race that relies on exp would surely have put a bit of focus on being able to trade?), again could arguably make their top racial more of a hunter so there's a speed based hunting race and a cloak based hunting race.


The point of this is it would be nice to discuss what roles/niche each race should be better at?

[Beausoleil]

Ok, so we all know Alskant are the trading race (no one can dispute that, and no I am not going to give them a warbird, they are a trading race, if you don't want to trade then don't play them!), but how about the other races? What roles do you feel they are/should be aimed at?

Just to start things off here are my (very rough) thoughts on this:

Alskant - Trading race, should be the best traders but fairly lackluster at everything else (but be able to make up for it to some degree by getting higher exp/more spare cash)

Creonti - Primarily raiders? Big bulky ships with quite a few weapons but pretty slow, not really hunters as such?

Human - Use JD and can get around fairly well, good miners/utility, don't particularly excel at hunting/raiding.

Ik'Thorne - Rely on CDs, weak to mines but generally good ship vs ship, can take quite a lot of damage but will then have to spend turns replenishing CDs.

Nijarin - Lower defence ships with more weapons, using the DCS to take down Ikkys and to survive in raids.

Salvene - Fairly all around race, although not really very good at mining.

Thevian - Fast race, good at scouting/hunting, could arguably give the TAC some forces and a little less defence so that they have a top racial that is more designed towards hunting than raiding (essentially having a race more geared towards hunting like Alskant are more geared towards trading)

WQ Human - Cloakers, can choose when to start a fight/not, maybe make their trader a bit better (a race that relies on exp would surely have put a bit of focus on being able to trade?), again could arguably make their top racial more of a hunter so there's a speed based hunting race and a cloak based hunting race.


The point of this is it would be nice to discuss what roles/niche each race should be better at?

I think your write-ups are on the same page as mine. No pun intended.

Alskant: Traders - High cargo/speed ratio, no real combat ability. The merchants...
Creonti: Oppers - great defense, 8 HP, beastly in combat, but slow. The militants...
Human: Recon/Defense - JD and heavy mine support makes them good for checking on and defending galaxies. The explorers...
Ik'thorne: Leaders/Stockers - CD and mine support, plus high defense makes them great utility ships as well as combat. The generals...
Nijarin: Niche - usually not very populated racial routes, good defense against Ikky and Ports/Planets, decent speed, 7 HP in top racial. No one particular calling, but can be assets. The specialists...
Salvene: Fighters - high defense, standard HP, some mine support. Good for ops and hunting, but not the best in either. The soldiers...
Thevian: Killers - Fast speeds, though I agree they need something more - possibly even faster speeds, some force support, or both. The hunters...
WQ Human: Soloists - Fast speeds, CD and Mine support makes them dangerous. Standard 6 HP, but cloak allows first shot advantage if experience is high enough. The assassins...

[N.ator]

things i think that needed to be changed

nj = fury=sucks.. i feel it needs maybe 50 or 100 combat drones?
thevien = i think it shoudl still ahve no forces, but maybe more armor. a pretty weak ship
wq = i have always thought wq as a hunter! i remember sm they had a ship with 250 shield and 300 armor and 10 weapons. maybe give it a ship liek this. but make it 7 weapons. and make racial trade ship better

suggestion : what if we made the racial trade ships ALL better in general?

as it goes right now atm>psf>ist>deep spacer? and then just downfall from there. maybe make all racial trade ships, a little below the ist? might be bought more.

also there are alot of racial ships that are just pointless! what happens if we had for every race, a trader, a hunter, an opper, a scouter/miner ?

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N.ator, it would be perfectly possible to make all races essentially the same by giving them all even more similar ships/one of each ship, but then there's not much point having the different races, the idea is trying to figure out what does/should make each race unique. The thing about the TAC is that it has a high speed so it can do more with it's slightly weaker defense, bit of a trade off but that's what the races are about, whether it should have more speed is another matter though.

I remember the WQ hunting ship too and it was definitely interesting and relied incredibly heavily on good use of the cloak, although I remember suiciding against a 2.7k defence ship that had a single weapon just because it took so long to kill it.

For traders I think the racial traders should definitely be better for what they're good at (ie human trader a better jump trader than IST and WQ trader a better cloak trader than the thief - it's what the races specialise in, surely they should be good at their speciality :P )

[N.ator]

I remember the WQ hunting ship too and it was definitely interesting and relied incredibly heavily on good use of the cloak, although I remember suiciding against a 2.7k defence ship that had a single weapon just because it took so long to kill it.

For traders I think the racial traders should definitely be better for what they're good at (ie human trader a better jump trader than IST and WQ trader a better cloak trader than the thief - it's what the races specialise in, surely they should be good at their speciality )

yeah i think the wq should definitely have an ultimate hunter, one with a ton of weapons and low defense! liek 50 scouts 50 mines and 10 combat drones. make it a /5 with like 7 weapons!

but i do agree that the human should have a better jump trader (but it should stil not be better then the deep spacer! because remember alskant is the trading race. and i like the idea of a wq having a thief like ship!

[silverx2]

things i think that needed to be changed

wq = i have always thought wq as a hunter! i remember sm they had a ship with 250 shield and 300 armor and 10 weapons. maybe give it a ship liek this. but make it 7 weapons. and make racial trade ship better

That wasn't sm that was SMR 2.0

I think that maybe we need to start rethinking the maneuverability(MR) stat, and have that affect things again, Make capital ships and larger trade vessals have lower MR. This will have hunting ships have an artificial higher ACC% against them. This SHOULD add that layer that required to really differentiate who is flying what, and for what purpose.

Alskants: will have all tradeships and their trade ships will have a higher MR then all other trade ships. Better to trade in, more survivability for them
Creonti: Will have Highest Defensive and offensive ships, but lowest MR. They are big, But they move slow making them easier to hit then most other Caps.
Theivan: the weaker of the Cap ships, but the highest MR. They are a hunting race, as a result their ships are meant for speed and dogfights.
Human and WQ Human: essentially middle of the pack both will have just about the Same MR major differences are cloak/jumpdrive. Better MR then Creo, Less MR then theivan.
Ikky: Lower MR than all but Creo, However Drones do not get affected by MR. Easier to hit, But they still hit the same as they do now.
Nij: Smaller faster ships, second highest MR of the Caps.
Salv: Right behind Human/Wq human in MR

I think another thing thats slightly off is Fleet battles, I think it would be more interesting if fleets had true capital ships, which were supported by smaller ships. Most other Space type games, If you have this huge honking Massive ship it was great for fighting big fights with other big ships, but it was so big and bulky you couldnt really fight smaller ships because they were too fast and were able to out maneuver them way to much.

[Page]

things i think that needed to be changed

wq = i have always thought wq as a hunter! i remember sm they had a ship with 250 shield and 300 armor and 10 weapons. maybe give it a ship liek this. but make it 7 weapons. and make racial trade ship better

That wasn't sm that was SMR 2.0

It was SM, but "new" SM (where it came back for a while a couple of years back before eventually being shut down again)

[silverx2]

really? hmm it seems that era all kind of blends together at this point

[Kard]

Page you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Those are basically what the races trend towards. Some small tweaks would be nice to further set them apart from each other. I think a lot of the neutral ships ruin the synergy and niches of the races. The IST and PSF make racial traders useless, so they never get touched. I think they should be modified, to make the races roles applicable to the game. I say strip all or most of the forces from them both, and weaken their trading ability. Or maybe remove the PSF all together and just have IST and PF be the best neutral traders. That would balance things a bit better. There are options, but i think those need tweaking in order to indirectly affect racial roles/niches. The FU and DC also imbalance the racial "Niches" a bit too. I would say weaken the DC a bit, take 100 or so shields off. The FU just doesnt fit IMO. Just because its super expensive, does not mean it doesn't affect racial roles. You could remove it all together. Also maybe add a neutral raider that sucks but gets the job done. Something not quite as expensive as top racials, or as fast, but will suvive some med-high level ports and planets. Something like /16 with 5 HP, speed of 7, priced at like 8 mil. The downgraded DC mentioned earlier gives Alskants a hunting option, and an upgrade from racial hunters. The FW and assasin are still options too. Im just throwing out ideas from no where right now. Again there are options to tweak things.

It seems sidetracked, talking about changes to neutral ships, but I think the Racial Roles/Niches would really standout and flavor the game better, if some of the neutrals were changed, so the post is on topic.

[Beausoleil]

Also maybe add a neutral raider that sucks but gets the job done. Something not quite as expensive as top racials, or as fast, but will suvive some med-high level ports and planets. Something like /16 with 5 HP, speed of 7, priced at like 8 mil..

Battle Cruiser comes close, if you up the defense and cost a little...