Questions/Comments about 2.0

[Lord Xizer]

Here's the other thing about the Pentastar Alignment's impact on the dev process as far as art assets go. The development of the entire faction involved making only one more model than we were going to do otherwise. The rest is stuff we've had for a long time and just never used. The Praetor was already being done for the Remnant, and the other assets we've had for a long time. The only new asset there was the Vengeance, and Kalo and I probably spent more time complaining about it than we actually put into making it. The faction itself was also something Xizer had asked for, and considering how much money and personal effort he poured into getting us some stuff we'd never have been able to get otherwise, I'd say that was pretty worthy sacrifice.

I appreciate the Alignment and love it very much.

[Revanchist]

I could sit there staring at Davis while he works on the Lucrehulk, but Kalo and Ca3ba would probably just say my apparently dead-eyed stare was creeping him out.

We're getting a Licrehulk??

[Lord Xizer]

apparently

[Corey]

That's the idea.

[Eclipse]

well I guess it would be the equivalent of the Tector Star destroyer or something in between a Praetor II and the tector but a good addition. the PA needed some heavy ships

[tlmiller]

Not overly.  They have the Praetor-II, and 2 SSD's.  Although while I love the Praetor-II, it is honestly one of the most useless ships in the game.

[Eclipse]

I wouldn't say that Praetor II is a useless ship, maybe the IA doesn't know how to use it but it has a lot of fighter and bombers and an increidble long rage for attacking. Not to mention it's powerfull shields

[Corey]

Lucrehulks aren't "heavy ships" like the Praetor or the Tector. They're really lightly armed for their size.

[Eclipse]

Then why adding'em I mean for the size they should be quite expensive, if they are lightly armed I wouldn't build'em unless you are planning to use them as a heavy carrier.

[Corey]

Just like every other ship, their armament, use and capabilities will be designed to reflect the canon armament, use and capabilities. We're not going to just throw on a bunch of extra weapons just because big must = powerful.

[Eclipse]

I'm agree, but what I wanted to say was if the ship is goign to cost as much as a star destroyer and in fire power would be equivalent to a victory sd I don't bleive I'll be building'em.

[Senza]

The Lucrehulk has enormous hangar bays, so I would expect them to carry very large numbers of fighters. Sort of like the Venator, but with a lot more. Also, the Praetor I don't think is useless.... it's just a bit of an odd ship. It's between a regular Capital Ship and a Star Dreadnaught in terms of power, I rarely use more than 1, and I will use them to lead attacks on heavily fortified positions due to the fact that they can soak up lots of damage. I'll use them to take out lots of little stuff that hits hard. I've generally found it to be a bad idea to use more than one though, since their pop cap to power ratio is pretty bad, not to mention the pathfinding issues that occur with two or more ships that large trying to move about. The AI love to do it though and I've found the best way to deal with them is to use their sub-par pathfinding against them in order to separate them.

[Enceladus]

Nobody has even mentioned the costs let alone how the ship will be implemented. I wouldn't jump to conclusions about its tactical value in the mod before you use it ingame.

[Senza]

I'm agree, but what I wanted to say was if the ship is goign to cost as much as a star destroyer and in fire power would be equivalent to a victory sd I don't bleive I'll be building'em.

Given Corey's comments I think the most logical conclusion is that it will be a carrier of role similar to the Endurance, which is a very useful ship, so I wouldn't jump to conclusions.

[Eclipse]

Well guess we'll have to wait till 2.1 to make conclusions

[Corey]

Most Clone Wars hardware would be considered relatively weak in direct combat by this point, especially the carriers like the Lucrehulk, Venator and Acclamator. The Lucrehulk won't be great for direct combat, since it has a really low proportion of weapons to surface space, however it'll have quite a few fighters. Less than a Venator provides at any one time, but staggered release, and with a combat bonus to fighters being provided from itself. Also, we're going for the differences in availability based on where you are the PA. If we decide we want to go for another heavy hitter for them we've got another ship in mind.

[tlmiller]

So, a fleet of Venators + Lucerhulks you're saying would be the ultimate way to beat the Rebellion at it's own game (spamming fighters)? 

[Corey]

That sort of depends what kind of fighters you're talking about.

[Eclipse]

Yeah I've tried to defeat the rebels with fighter but the only one that gave me a good result was the TIE defender but as it consumes pop capacity for the battles I prefer using a few lancer frigates. Rebel fighters are just too strong

[Lavo]

While I admit I'm one to talk, as I've only been playing a single campaign (PA in the 6-7 ABY era), I'd say the Praetor-II is a pretty nifty ship. While it doesn't have the firepower of other ships, it makes up for this in it's weapons' range and heavy shielding. I also find it's pathfinding isn't that bad; it certainly has issues but it's no SSD. A fleet of 2 Praetor-IIs, 1 Immobilizer-418, and 13 IPVs can take on most AI fleets; though when facing a really large fleet be ready to lose 1-2 Praetors. I can't say I make good use of the Praetors' fighter compliments; I can't select all of them that well.

With the PA's superior position, if you're willing to limit yourself to very few factories/barracks early on, you can get a 6500-7000 credit/week economy going fairly quickly. They're a really solid faction, though they do have downsides, such as their rather poor amount of starting units, outside of their 2 SSDs, which at times are useless due to pathfinding.