Increasing Fighter speed to counter Corvette spam

From what I'm hearing, pros are having a problem with the ability of corvettes to jump from gravity well to gravity well and maraud planet structures...fighters aren't going to help in this regard, because hangar defenses take too long to become useful and carriers are too slow to purse....

The core of the issue here is the corvette itself....there are a million and one things that could be done, and the best solution probably would require many concurrent changes affecting many other things...

If you are looking for an easy fix, a slight DPS nerf to Corvettes and/or a range/speed increase to flak is your best bet....

Honestly I'd just like to see them get their own damage type.  They are perfect against LRF, a bit too strong vs LF(would be nice to drop their dmg % vs medium armor to maybe 110-15% instead of 125%).

The biggest things that need to be nerfed IMO are their damage to structures and heavy armor(flak & carriers should be a counter to corvettes but corvettes do 100% damage to heavy armor).  Also as a matter of form dmg to very heavy should drop to 75%.  No frigate/strike craft besides other heavy cruisers and bombers should do 100% to very heavy armor.

Also TEC corvettes shouldn't be as strong as the advent ones per cost.  There's a reason Advent low tier ships(namely seekers & disciples) give more benefit per cost then comparable ship of the same class on the other races.  Advent get these more efficient early ships because of their poor economy.  Not to mention the Corvette is basically the answer to the Advent's prayers...it gives them a reliable counter to the early game military strategy which they have lacked(namely counter to early LRFs & carrier rushes by races with better economies(which is to say earlier second carrier)).  My point is that while all corvettes need adjustment, the TEC one needs a larger nerf, it has no business being as strong per cost as the advent corvettes with the TEC's strong early economy.

@ seleucia

Decrease the speed of corvettes and you nerf them the simplest way possible. 

-Increases the damage they take, they have to be in the danger zone longer

-Decreases the dps they do, fewer flyby's, fewer hits

-Decreases their ability to be spammed at great distances and still support the fleet effectively.

-Makes it harder for them to run away from slower flak ships so that flak become a stronger counter, fighters likewise would be a stronger counter.

A small to moderate speed reduction would in theory render them balanced.  As to the amount of reduction, that is up to the devs.

@ bilun

Yes I agree with the TEC corvette needing a nerf...advent corvette rushes can be held at bay and over time the attrition always goes to the TEC.  At the same time, advent desperately needed a counter to the sova embargo spam at HW (a very debilitating ability in its heyday).  It was possible for a close TEC opponent to JUST SPAM SOVAS and there was literally nothing an advent player could do to counter this effectively CONSTANTLY spamming tier 0 and then flak a little bit later.  Flak didn't kill strike craft fast enough, and lF's couldn't kill sovas fast enough, they got retreated and their fighters would pick the LF apart, along with the missile platforms.

In rebellion i see the advent being completely balanced around having a very tough endgame fleet.  This is comforting, because in this fashion the developers have kept to their original design philosophy for the race(the vasari pretty much ended up replacing them in this way...very annoying).  Advent economy options are thin..although I really enjoy the culture options. 

Indeed, this would be the most flexible option, as it would allow the Devs to change their effectiveness to specific targets extremely easily both now and in the future. Take a bit more time now but would certainly be worth it.

Hmm i'd rather them cash in on this expansion and really "develop the shit" out of sins 2.

Planetary amphibious assault! come on you know you want it...in some form...nukes are so boring nowadays.  Planetary defenses were awesome in Distant Stars...Just think of the intricate fight it would require to take or hold a planet with having to defend the planet as well as the starbase...

I know i'm crazy, the technology is impossible...yadda yadda.  I'm still hoping a game will come along to satisfy this "insane" urge of mine. 

Double Post

Don't know how that's related to Corvettes or why they shouldn't do something to save them headaches later down the line, but...

A. I don't think you use the term amphibious. You're attacking from space, not water. Planetary Assault/Invasion is what you are looking for.

B. The only game I know of that tried to do both was Empire at War... and look how that turned out. Ground combat was terrible and space combat was a bit fun but greatly limited without mods.

C. Sins 2 will not get done any faster no matter how fast they abandon this expansion. Ironclad is already working on their next game and its not Sins 2. They'll need to have at least establish Sins of a Dark Age before working on Sins 2. And Rebellion will have stopped getting patch support by then most likely. So I think it will be a matter of years before we get confirmation of it.

Unless ships had weapon cooldowns in the fractions of seconds, being in the "danger zone" slightly longer isn't going to do anything...when your weapon cooldown is 4 or more seconds, either you can shoot the corvette when it flies by, or you can't....

Corvettes have both front and rear weapons, so increasing the length of a flyby by a marginal amount isn't going to make a difference in most cases....

This does not help in regards to the LRF problem, as LRFs are also countered by flak...

I still am going to stand by my original suggestion...a small DPS nerf (on the order of 10%) will keep these jack of all trades units from dominating...that's my "simple" suggestion, anyway...

To be honest, I hate the entire set up at this point...corvettes are strongest against LRFs, and are countered by flak which also counters LRFs...that pretty much defeats the entire point of a counter system right there...

We asked for this before Rebellion came out...the devs didn't do it, so I'm assuming it just isn't going to happen...on that assumption, I'm moving on to other solutions even though a new weapon and armor type is probably the best...

Preety sure early game balance is supposed to be the following square:

Lf-> flack -> corvettes -> lrm -> lf

problem is the diagonals, flack -> lrm, and corvettes -> lf.

gotta even out those diagonals. 

nerfing composite damage vs medium seems fair, not sure it would be enough.

also, anyone notice how little killing a corvette gives in exp, in relation to the other units? like what, 1/2 as much as killing a scout?  that seems wrong to me... its like they forgot to increase the exp given when the doubled the supply.

flack also need some sort of nerf.  they were very powerful before, but now? 

they give less exp than in diplomacy, and now they have something new to counter. 

I am so hesitant to change the Composite weaponry in the damage tables just because of the inadvertent affects on HCs...

true, but, in reality, heavies currently counter LF just as hard as LRM from my tests...  at a cheaper price tag.  while heavies should beat lights, i think they prolly beat them a little to hard at the moment. it wouldnt be much, of course, 125%-> ~115% or so.

but like i said, not sure if that would be enough. 

other options/alternatives/additions include

raising anti-heavy vs verylight,  (prolly bad idea, as it might cause support frigs to act so retarded it wouldnt even be funny)

blanket dps nerf on corvettes.

raise price of corvettes (currently cheapest way to fill fleet supply, replacing heavies as the cheap way to max out)

I think the exp change should happen regardless.

Agree....

I sympathize with this the most...I'm not going to claim that the damage tables are perfect, but those are more controversial and affect more things than focusing on a change that just affects CVs...

This is true....however, CV + LF fleets have a lot going for them, and with the marginalization of LRFs, not so sure LFs need a buff, even indirectly, just yet...