In the future, why would a player use anything besides a cruiser?

Battlescape
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Currently, it seems most players who are playing with the objective of winning and being effective spend as much time as possible in cruisers. I know a lot of changes are coming though, so I want to ask about the long term design goals of the game.

In the future, why would a player use anything other than a cruiser?

Is it only cost that will deter cruiser use? Will cruisers be made more expensive? I know upgrades are planned for cruisers, this will presumably make them both more expensive, and buff them? Depending on the details that will encourage more or less cruiser play. Do you intend for an average skilled player to be able to afford a cruiser in perpetuity, as is currently the case?

Will there be counters to cruisers in the future? IMO there are currently no counters to cruisers. Yes, the coordinated actions of multiple players can defeat a single player in a cruiser, but this doesn’t seem like a “counter” to me. Saying “just have 3 times as many players and be more coordinated” is not a counter.

It is fun to work together to bring down a cruiser, but cruisers will need to become much harder to obtain for this to work. Consider a cruiser versus a corvette and bombers, that is a fun battle, I would enjoy being on either side of that fight. However, if cruisers remain as accessible as they currently are, the best counter to an enemy cruiser is 3 friendly cruisers.

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Virgin Cruiser Spammer vs Chad Destroyer Rammer

But yeah, the devs have said they are going to rework the economy to make cruisers harder to get. Ideally in the future cruisers will need a fleet supporting them because otherwise a few bombers will wreck them and set the player who bought it back significantly.

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I rather have the devs make smaller ships more fun etc. And not have the cruiser be a ship that can do everything.

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Is it really so wrong that someone wants to play something, anything, other then a fighter or bomber? Like myself? I for instance, abhor playing small craft.

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I don’t know man. Have you been in a cruiser and had (IDK)ACrazedGunman fly right up close to you and surgically remove your all your guns? :open_mouth: In all seriousness though, I do think there are counters to cruisers such as bombers hanging out at a distance and torpedo spamming, or very skilled interceptor pilots, or like you said, other cruisers.

I don’t think that changes your point though. Right now unless you just love flying an Interceptor, the game feels very much like it pushes you to get a cruiser. It’s very arguably the best ship in the game. There’s no point in buying anything higher than that because carriers aren’t really worth it without a larger player base. I would love to see some smaller ships like frigates make an appearance and maybe even bigger ships battleships, so that there wasn’t a sort of obvious “dead end” that everyone sprints to in the game.

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