Evasive Fighters

[cloaked2222]

Fear: "evasive hw2 fighters are ruining most of the balance designed for this unit class - emp is also ruined by this, and was a skilled ability we've lost now"

Potential nerfs: -Lower separation distance in each formation file, and tweak other formation variables as desired. -Lower attack damage -Lower speed -Etc

[Novaras]

We can lower acceleration, this will make them less agile in fights and more difficult to dock, but will still be a good choice for sprinting to objectives or fleeing a fight.

Lowering the seperation distance is a really good idea in my opinion.

The damage can go down I guess, although I don't think its actually that high anyhow.

[cloaked2222]

+1 +1 +1

[SirBattlestar]

I would like to ad that i agree with fear in this. emp is already a weak and costly upgrade. defencive strat has become way to "safe" and it ruins alot of the point. fighters should be dangerous. in any stage of the game. It needs to counter gready strategies. Lowering damage output might deter the apponent from mirroring, and focusing a target.

[Novaras]

https://github.com/HW-PlayersPatch/Development/pull/303

[cloaked2222]

Fighters/Corvs:

• Evasive multipliers:
  • Weapon damage: 1.0 -> 0.8 (-20%)
  • Damage applied: 0.9 -> 1.0 (+11%) (under 1.0 is like additional armor)

Should be good enough now. We can lower separation distance later if needed, but its more work.

[cloaked2222]

Lowering damage was a good first step, but this still needs much work. We could lower separation distance, but I think the best approach is to eliminate separation for most hw2 squads. In hw2c, most squads did not separate, other than vaygr corvettes (possibly some others that I'm forgetting).

Proposal:

1. Change all swarm units from +20% ENGINEACCEL/THRUSTERACCEL in evasive, to +10%.
2. Prevent most hw2 squads from splitting up in evasive, while allowing hw1 swarm to split up. Current->Desired H scouts: 2,1->3 H ints: 2,2,1->5 H bombs: 3,2->5 H gunship: 3 good H pulsar: 3 good V scouts: 3 good V ints: 2,2,2,1->7 V bombs: 2,2,2->6 V lance: 2,2,1->5 V missiles: 2,2 good V laser: 2,2 good

To do this change StanceGroupingEv from "Subs" to "Batch" for every strike groups, except for sg_2x2wall.lua which is only used by Vaygr corvettes. Potential list of files: https://github.com/HW-PlayersPatch/Development/commit/e17f5424082a4096176f8a1f91f7750b31a10732

If Needed Lets start with the above, can eventually maybe try this too: Lower MS hull defense guns closer to carriers (may need to split some weapons). We have current baseline test data already. Make a separate issue if desired.

HW1 Note, hw1 swarm rushes will be stronger without hw2 evasive. So hw1 early swarm rushes might need a nerf.