SpaceCat But IF you nerf thrusters that would nerf almost all ships proportionally and thus would have zero effect ?
I don't think so. Fleet, in particular, would get buffed by a thrust nerf. Brawling/tank ships like laser triangles and railgun barges would also be buffed, since they couldn't be circle kited as easily. At least I think that's what would happen - if you disagree I'd love to hear why
nop It's a tricky thing, reducing all thrust across the board by N% would affect the skill ceiling by making it harder for any ship to use thrusters to get an advantage.
I more or less agree, but there's definitely something to be said for ship design vs ship piloting. After all, the focus of cosmoteer is on building spaceships, not just flying them. That being said, a moderate thruster nerf would buff fleets, which IMO is the biggest way to take advantage of piloting skill. I would love to see fleets being a common strategy in tournaments.
nop Also, it's possible that increasing shot velocities across the board could compensate for the thruster "power creep" from boosters.
I don't think this would be a good solution. Aside from being a big change with possible side effects, it wouldn't significantly help railguns/missile barges or fleet play.
Basically, I think that thrust was in an ok spot before boost thrusters got added, so boost thrusters are probably the first place we should look at for solutions.
Also, did I miss a big patch? Both @nop and @Lafiel mentioned a laser nerf. While the cannon hp buff and railgun changes/buffs were indirect laser nerfs, I don't think lasers themselves have been changed at all (aside from getting the new heavy laser).
SpaceCat because: less thrust would mean it would be harder to counteract, especially rails, knockback.
Agreed. Though worst case you can always use multiple ships to get in close, or make a really thin ship that allows railgun shots to pass straight through (railgun shots can only kill 1 structure block each, so there's 0 chance of getting split).
nop I think boosters being so strong and cost-effective are a thing that makes walls a dominant "geometry" now. It's really easy to fit forward boosters on a modular wall.
On a side note - I really like the large exclusion zone on boosters. Walt could never do this because it would break everyone's designs, but I wish all thrusters got larger exclusion zones, because IMO it makes ship design a lot more interesting. Just from a fun perspective, not a balance comment.
