[SC] Ship Balance - A Spacetime Odyssey

The Vengeance Goliath Age
Since the dawn of Darkorbit, ship balance has been a hot topic throughout the game. Who remembers the good old days where you basically had two options? The Vengeance or the Goliath. On one hand, the Vengeance featured less HP and shields but more speed while the Goliath had the exact opposite perks. Apart from sidegrades (+10% shield, +5% damage etc.) there wasn't much to choose from.


The Skill Designs
Then, in 2011 the first ability ship designs came along: the Skill Designs. These were 6 mighty designs which added not only a passive bonus but also a powerful unique ability. Each Skill Design seemed to counter another. The Diminisher's 'Shield Leech' ability was great for overwhelming the Venom and Solace but was countered by the Spectrum's 'Prismatic Shielding'. In turn, the Venom's 'Singularity' ability could pierce this damage reduction without any trouble, but it wasn't very effective against the Solace's 'Instant Repair'. And then there was the Sentinel with a great 'overall' ability: an ability that not only provided some protection against the Diminisher, but due to its long duration also functioned great against NPCs.

Last but not least, there was the Lightning, which featured an ability that gave you an insane speedboost. Luckily it was somewhat balanced by the Venom and Diminisher but the infamous 'banana combo' (two Lightning ships) became very powerful. And it still is to this day.


The Aegis Goliath Age
For a brief moment, things remained quiet but then in 2012, Darkorbit's first attempt to introduce 'class based gameplay' was released. The result was hilarious. For the first time in gamers history the Medic became one of the most powerful classes in a game. While the Tank and especially the Scout were extremely situational, the Medic, in this case being the Aegis, became the best allround ship with decent damage and speed, excellent HP and shield but above all: excellent abilities. Apart from side- (read up) grades, for a while no other ships or designs were made and the Aegis became arguably the best ship ever released. It wasn't until the Skill Designs had their cooldowns reduced that the dust settled and the Aegis Elite and the Goliath Skill Designs took their place on top of the food chain where they would remain for years to come.


The Birth of the Surgeon
Once, there was a lonely Goliath, flying through the dark space, beyond the edges of the known universe. While the Goliath was equipped with best equipment available at that time it still felt like something was missing. Then, out of nowhere a green asteroid came scraping by, severely damaging the Goliath's right wing. A crash landing was inevitable. The ship set itself to the landing position, forced to touch down on a green planet nearby. The terrain was rough but the Goliath managed to reach the ground safely. With barely any fuel left it was bound to the ground. The first days went by quickly but after weeks without any signs of other ships, the Goliath started to go insane. It started to change. It was somewhere in May 2015 on that lonesome planet, that the first Surgeon was born.

Featuring more damage, honour and experience but above all, an additional generator slot, the Surgeon managed to return home safely, where its infectious design was introduced to the world. And infecting it did. For the first time a ship with more speed than a Goliath was released. The legendary boundary of 540 was broken. Nothing stopped people from outrunning other Goliath designs and keeping up with Vengeances and Spearheads for a longer amount of time. The only thing that helt it back was the lack of an ability...


Collision of the Fates
After the success of the Surgeon, it wasn't long before another boundary was crossed. For the first time in Darkorbit history, speed was combined with firepower. The result was a ship with the speed of a Spearhead and the damage of a Goliath. A ship, with a menacing 16 lasers and a whopping 588 max speed. Despite its lower HP, the combination of firepower and speed was devastating, you no longer needed to sacrifice firepower for speed in order to catch up with fast ships. And as a result the Pusat, along with the Surgeon, saw a huge amount of play. Spearheads and Vengeances were nearing extinction.


The Age of Acceleration
With both the Surgeon and Pusat released, you may think the Darkorbit developers would come up with another ship concept. You couldn't be more wrong. In June 2016, the biggest troll ship ever was released: the Tartarus, with an insane max speed of 621.

You may feel like you're missing a ship when it comes to the speed limit: the Lightning. However the big difference is that the Lightning could only reach its highest speed for a short amount of time as it was ability based. The Tartarus speed boost was also ability based but this time it did not feature a set duration. Instead you could choose when to toggle it on or off.

Because the penalties for keeping the ability turned on were negligible, nothing stopped you from constantly maintaining the highest base speed in the game. And as such, the Tartarus was a huge success. It wasn't just a fast ship with high damage, but because of its huge HP and decent amount of shield generators, it became the perfect counter for all types of ships.
The Pusat, Surgeon and even Lightning, quickly lost their popularity and were left behind in darkness. From that darkness, a long forgotten ship made its return: the Spearhead, with a great counter for both the Spectrum and Tartarus: JAMX. It wasn't until the Tartarus nerf, that this Age of Acceleration came to an abrupt end.


The Cyborg Syndrome
So far, the speed limit had been crossed three times, once with the Surgeon, once with the Pusat and once with the Tartarus. But apparently that wasn't enough. In 2017, three new ships were released: the Cyborg, Mimesis and Hammerclaw. Two of these ships, were almost direct upgrades from other ones. The Cyborg did not only feature a more powerful variant of the Venom's Singularity ability, but also much more damage, more HP and more speed. In the end, it crushed not only the Venom but also the Surgeon. And because of its raw damage and more powerful ability, even the other ships had to fear this mighty monster.

While the Cyborg crushed all of the other ships in terms of damage, the Hammerclaw crushed the Aegis and Solace in terms of support. Featuring much more powerful healing abilities that were better suited to keep up with the maximum damage. Especially after the balance patch, where its speed was increased to match that of a regular Goliath, it became a great support ship.

And then there was the Mimesis. One of the strangest ships ever to be released with the potential to be extremely weak at one moment, and super over powered the next. Some argue that it requires skill while others call it overpowered due to its potential to take out entire CBS or come out victorious even when heavily outnumbered. The question is however how it will hold up in time. As for now, most people who got 450 oil and the hybrid processors, seem to have played it safe which could explain the huge amount of Cyborgs running around. The question is however is if this is a good thing. Do we really want the choice for a ships to be fixed? Or is it perhaps better to introduce side grades, rather than upgrades?


Looking Forward
In the end, only time will tell how ships will develop further. Will there be new ships? Almost certainly yes. But the stats of these ships, apart from the developers can also be decided by us, the players.

Note: only some of you will get this reference

 

I would like to correct your early timeline as the Skill designs were introduced in 2011, before the Aegis or that group of ships. The Surgeon was born with the "Parasite Tide" of May 2015.

 

Ahh I had it right in the beginning but then I messed up anyway. Thanks!