A Generic Adventure

[Optec]

posted on March 10th, 2012, 11:51 pm

Last edited by Optec on March 11th, 2012, 1:51 am, edited 4 times in total.

While we are developing the next big Fleet Operations version, we are about to change a lot of things in order to bring you the best of the whole Fleet Ops experience, including visual, gameplay and community features. While all of them are progressing well, I want to talk a bit about one of the gameplay aspects today. Namely, a Romulan vessel that also helps to introduce the Romulan game mechanics a bit further: the Generix. A brief introduction of the Romulan Gameplay goals was already given in an earlier newspost.

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posted on March 10th, 2012, 11:59 pm

ooo, i love the idea of the singularity gen becoming a tank while the shield dome is on, that special was kinda wasted if nobody wanted to shoot at your fancy dome.

i also love the idea of each gen only getting a fixed number of mines. mines sound like they'll be a lot of fun.

posted on March 11th, 2012, 12:17 am

Awesome! why do I have this sudden fear of mines raping my federation fleet....

posted on March 11th, 2012, 12:29 am

Awesome! why do I have this sudden fear of mines raping my federation fleet....

irrational phobia if ever i heard one.

if the cloak detect stays the same as current (that's a massive if) then feds can just use ventures to decloak mines and shoot the mines. roms can use talons.

klink mobile cloak detect is a little more expensive, requiring the vutpa and its refit. i'm sure the devs will have a solution for this.

posted on March 11th, 2012, 1:18 am

yes but those sneaky romulans may put mines where I think they would, but didnt and then catch me thinking they didnt when they did. ya get me?

Im seriously joking both times. Oxymoron

[Tryptic]

posted on March 11th, 2012, 6:09 am

Last edited by Tryptic on March 11th, 2012, 7:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

Very nice.  One thing though, I hope that the Singularity and Minelayer Gens will have some firepower, and perhaps the Spectre should lose its FTC passive.  I love the variability, but I'm worried that if 2 of the refits are support vessels and the third can be countered easily, it will be nearly impossible to build a solid fleet out of these ships.

By the way, are any of these refits going to have increased speed?  I know it would be a complete paradigm shift from the normal Generix, but it sounds like that's what you're going with for these new refits.  A fast refit could allow a player to break a few ships off from their fleet to go raid when an opportunity presents itself and they otherwise wouldn't be able to build new raiding ships in time to take advantage of it.  The current Gen is about as much of a "raid vessel" as the Excelsior II.

On another note, having the D'Deridex be the only Defensive profile ship with special abilities on smaller ships filling the role is genius, I love it!  That should result in a very nice paradigm.  I do hope the big D won't be too expensive though. 

posted on March 11th, 2012, 7:29 am

Very cool! Release the patch!!!!

posted on March 11th, 2012, 9:49 am

Very cool! Release the patch!!!!

motion seconded

[Andre27]

posted on March 11th, 2012, 10:37 am

Last edited by Andre27 on March 11th, 2012, 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

How will the mines do against the Borg?
Right now the Romulans are at a bit of a disadvantage against the Borg because they use a lot of pulse based weapons.

Edit: Will be get to see a mixed tech Borg-Romulan Minelayer? Assimilation mines!

posted on March 11th, 2012, 3:26 pm

Really nice.  I like how Romulan ships will be able to control the enemy, and that they have options besides brute force.  Can you imagine how team games will be?  Romulan player sets up some mines near an expansion and leave.  Then your dominion buddy does harassment in that area, and when he gets chased, boom goes the dynamite.   People will be yelling at each other to retreat in big battles so you can rake the chasing fleet over the coals of a big minefield.  Instead of 3v3 triple warp ins, we'll have triple minelayer fields!

How will the mines do against the Borg?
Right now the Romulans are at a bit of a disadvantage against the Borg because they use a lot of pulse based weapons.

The stock generix fires torpedoes and will do well vs defensive vessels.  The generix spectre does good damage all around.

My question is:  Can the minelayer lay mines while cloaked, or must it be uncloaked to lay mines?
Thanks for the update, Optec!!! It all looks pretty cool!

posted on March 11th, 2012, 3:32 pm

i'm hoping that it will have to be decloaked to lay mines.

maybe a late game/expensive thing could be to lay while cloaked, as that's a powerful ability.

posted on March 11th, 2012, 3:33 pm

I suspect that the Borg will also have very few defensive vessels, due to the fact that their ships are fewer in number and a defensive ship would have less effect because it's easier to switch targets against them.

...on the other hand, it makes sense for Borg vessels to remain strong against pulses and weak to torpedoes.  Perhaps they will have defensive vessels with good offense values as well.

posted on March 11th, 2012, 3:49 pm

maybe borg modules will decide ship type.

ie regen gives you def and intercept/torpedo gives you off. and a balance of multiple modules gives you all round.

posted on March 11th, 2012, 3:53 pm

The stock generix fires torpedoes and will do well vs defensive vessels.  The generix spectre does good damage all around.

My question is:  Can the minelayer lay mines while cloaked, or must it be uncloaked to lay mines?
Thanks for the update, Optec!!! It all looks pretty cool!

Going by the assumption that the weaponry will not be changed in the next patch. The Generix is currently not a common sight. It's Rhiens and Leh'val.

Despite the Generix promise to be a good all round, i don't see a single shiptype measuring up to the Borg Bulk so the question remains: how will the mines do against those especially bulky Borg.

[Anonymous]

posted on March 11th, 2012, 7:33 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on March 11th, 2012, 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The Generix will certainly be a more common sight with the change to defensive, offensive, and all-round specs.  With the game no longer targeting the weakest vessel first, ships that weren't the choicest before are much more useful. 

For example:  The K'beajq is a small vessel that takes more damage from pulses.  After patch it will be the generix's torpedoes that you'll want vs a defensive vessel like the KBQ.  And you'll want the spectres, because you'll want a staryard tank.

Leahvals are ubiquitous right now because they are fast, can heal, and become tougher for a limited time.  It's hard not to like them.   But they lose some of those abilities in favor of other ones.

As far as the Borg goes, they'll have to have defensive and offensive ships (or modules) to make the system work.  I'm not active anymore (stupid real life  ), so I'm not privy to how tough these mines will be.  But consider this:  If the Dode remains a support vessel, then imagine a dode spammer running into a bunch of mines that just happen to shut down a ship's engines and drain energy.  A dode that doesn't move is a dead dode, and your romulan ships can pick the stragglers off one by one.

Also, if memory serves, the spectre special heavily reduces small units of damage, which is exactly the kind used on interception modules.  So having that spectre tank will really come in handy.

The Borg will have to mix their fleet against a romulan player, or end up controlled.

The defensive unit completely changes the game in ways we'll only understand once we play it.  It's gonna be sweet!