Is flak the only option now?

from Sins Forums

Been away from the game for a year and looking to possibly play online again. Just before I left, they nerfed carriers so that even they were susceptible to the almighty LRF. Just before that, they boosted the hell out of flak to essentially make fighters a joke. The only decent counter to the LRF's were scouts (thank you for the discovery RagingAmish).

NOW I see that they've nerfed even the scouts. I find myself wondering if the devs have some sort of fetish for making the LRF the "easy button".

Has anything been done to bring back fighters as a viable counter?

strategy
11,578 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, I stopped playing multiplayer back when you did (or a little bit before that, I got tired of fighter spams), but the game is quite a bit different now from what I understand. For one, Carrier Capitalships (yes, you heard right) are now easily the most potent in the game, in fact it seems quite common to get rushed with a pair of them. In particular, the Scinantra with scramble bombers (it got a big buff) is the favorite game abuse mechanic right now, with the Vasari in general as the most played faction now. While LRFs are indeed still powerful, in many ways bombers now share the most used unit title thanks to flak not being that effective against them and fighters still get annihilated by flak.

There is a community balance patch in the works (whose debate topics you've probably seen in the strategy forum), if you are interested in trying to make the game a lot more balanced than it is now. Otherwise, I suppose its possible we might get another patch after Stardock releases Elemental, but don't get your hopes up.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I haven't played SOASE in a while now, but fighters aren't very useful at all. Usually you'll have a carrier cap with fighters if the opponent has carrier caps with bombers, but otherwise, they were getting phased out very early in the game.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

I've not got much experience with it, but the way I've been dealing with heavy amounts of bombers is not to have flak ships but rather just destroy whatever is fielding them, then the bombers eventually take care of themselves without using fighters or flak.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Indeed; fighters are very difficult to use, and often it comes down to a big chunk of flaks to beat bombers (coupled with capital ship abilities, of course).  Knocking out the carriers is definitely your best, and really the only permanent, option. 

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, Im considering quitting the game until the flak frigate is nerfed.