It is worth noting that if you play on Admiral difficulty that the ai units are 20% stronger overall.I did not think of going on the offensive as the NR from Endor. I turtled Sullust, Fonder, Endor and pushed out of Mon Cal into the Corporate sector for cash and used mon cal to spam cheap assault frigates and Mon Cals.
I've spent all of my time in era 1 as NR so far. Can definitely say they feel a lot stronger than they used to.
- Love the changes to the assault frigate. Used to feel pretty useless in prior versions but now they actually pack a punch and the NR finally has a frigate with firepower in the bottom eras.
- Still not sold on MC40 being 3 pop. I would rather have an assault frigate for firepower or three Nebulons for X-Wing spam. I guess the ten missiles makes them more versatile than Assault Frigates and it is your cheapest ship to field B-Wings (other then straight building B-Wings). Idk, maybe it's fine. Maybe not. I don't think I would ever field more than two and even then it would probably be only because I like diversity in spite of practicality.
- Nebulon B-2's are horrible. They are more expensive than B-1's and have a very very tiny amount more firepower. Unlike the B-1 however, they don't give 2 X-Wings making them far worse.
- Corellian Gunships are horrible. I mentioned this in the bug thread, but they have problems actually shooting things. If you fix their shooting problem then they are still inferior to the regular Corvettes but at least would be useable.
- Dauntless might be too bulky. 10900 effective hp is only about 2000 behind an mc80b, 6000 ahead of an Assault Frigate, and 7000 ahead of MC40. Or maybe up the pop cost?
- The rest of NR space lineup in era 1 seems reasonable.
- No more infinite space shipyard spawns is a welcome change, mostly because it was way too easy to abuse as the player. Makes having defensive fleets more important and using Golans as massive stall walls isn't as broken. I like it.
- Empress station is too strong. Been mentioned multiple times already I know. Good that the hitboxes are being looked at but you also might want to either reduce the stations power or instill a global build limit or level 3 station restriction or all of those. Definitely should only be allowed one per planet if not already that way (see my bug report). I haven't gotten a chance to look at the other faction's space stations yet. Looking forward to that.
- Eriadu Authority starting forces could use a buff in era 1. Either that or give them some free Golan III's or something on their only level 3 shipyard planet (Sluis Van? I'm forgetting now). As it is now, it is really easy for a NR player to consolidate the fleets around Endor and just roll over the EA and kill their only level 3 shipyard in the first few days. Or you could nerf the NR starting forces in their Endor sector.
- Random question, does anybody know if when defending in space if you grab the upgrade on your shipyard to increase space station weapon damage, does it affect your Golans/Empress/XQ? Or is it buffing your shipyard's non-existent weapons?
Their health really isn't different from the last version, their firepower got a little bit more compressed than intended with the projectile changes, but they're generally on par with the MC80B (far higher damage, but proportionally lower shields/hull), and somewhat weaker than MC90 (which is definitely intended) and way better than MC80s. The biggest difference is now the space above ISD is a lot more populated than in previous versions (ie Secutor, Allegiance, Bellator, Home One Type).I actually got a chance to test an ISD vs. an MC80 earlier this afternoon. It was mostly a 1v1 fight with almost no fighters involved (one squadron of bombers on each side might've made a run or two, but that's it). The MC80 damaged the ISD's shields a lot faster than the ISD damaged the MC80's shields. Here's the ISD: its shields are not quite two-thirds gone. Tavira's ISD isn't in range to fire on the MC80; this is still 1v1. Here's the MC80: He's still got three quarters of his shield. Now, mind you, I think he just used his shield boost ability, which regenerated a bit of his shields and absorbed a few seconds' worth of damage from the ISD, but it didn't seem to be a drastic boost. Even before the MC80 used its ability, it was still doing considerably more damage to the ISD's shields than it was receiving. Now Tavira's gotten involved and the two ISDs have worked together to kill the MC80. Two against one with no support, the MC80 died fairly quickly. However, the MC80 turned and went after Tavira before he died, and look, he managed to get Tavira's shields two-thirds down, too, even whilst getting double-teamed to death by ISDs. Now, maybe that is as intended. I know the lore says MC80s have stronger shields than ISDs. I thought MC80s kinda sucked against ISDs in 2.1, so maybe you've buffed them to make them more effective. If so, I'm glad you did, that's good for the MC80s, but I was just surprised at how quickly the ISDs took damage.