1) Point taken, although this would prevent power levelling in the future, although you could always create a new "Remote Control" skill with the new cost, while creating an AI station that reimburses old RC level SP, while of course nullifying the current RC skill. Kind of like what you did with AT -> IT for the rebalance.

2) Collision code takes care of it, I assure you. Ever see resists on the tech 0-4~ slaves? Theres a reason so many people give up on it, it can become hideously expensive. One failed run for me personally can cost me a few billion to reset slaves to what they were previously.

Regardless of costs of gear glue the DPS of slave swarms has to go down. If you think about it, outfitting a slave with a weapon that does 100 DPS and an energy that gives 150 regen, would still net you 1.6k DPS and 2.4k energy regeneration with RC 16. Easily achievable with basic AI base gear at level 100. Which is really broken.

And that is without taking into an account Slave Mastery bonuses or aug effects.

With limiting the tech of gear you can use on your ships we've solved the high end of the problem, at least.

If you'd have actually read the suggestions, at level 100 you *could* get RC 10 IF you only used your SP on RC. Oh wait you couldnt. That means no Warp Navi, Piloting, Weapon levels, etc etc etc.

If you disregard costs in how you look at things, no wonder SS is as fucked up as it currently is with balance. I do extreme burst DPS. I'll be the first to admit it. My slaves energy bank is also gone in about 10 seconds of firing.

Have you actually, you know, tried a high end FC swarmer, or are you just basing your judgement on hearsay? *point to comment of blindfold and chainsaw balancing*

Hmmm....Excuse me but doesnt RC cost only 3 SP per level? So RC 10 is only 30 SP...Or am I confusing it with some other skill?

I was pointing to my suggestions. I did not say either was mutually exclusive. If you read back a bit, you'll see my point. I'm trying to figure out ways we can get some sort of balance for this without destroying what in my opinion, should be a viable, high risky/high reward class.

I believe Sodomy replied with his suggestion of increasing RC in mind.

Problem is, we don't want to make RC unachievable for low level players.

And in any case, even if we've made RC cost 50 skill points a level, that would still not solve the global problem with slave swarms.

The problem is of course the fact that the cheaper your slaves are, the more damage you do. To the point that 2 tech 18 slaves with end game gear cannot compete with a swarm of 18 volcom+s.

If you use a swarm though, that's more GG, more management and higher risk of things gone wrong, I think. I think both should be pretty competitive, just right now one is way too good.

You don't need high tech gear glue to make a broken slave swarm though.

I would prefer if slave swarms did may be 25% more damage compared to a character not using slave swarms of the same level, to justify the difficulty of maintaining them.

If gear glue for them is still too expensive, I would rather nerf the damage they do and reduce the cost of gear glue, than leave them as they are.

We have tech 18 ships ingame?

You say cheaper but infact, you were more correct in your first post, addressing total slaves instead of individual slaves. 18 Slaves with the same tier gear as 2 slaves is far more expensive, let me assure you.

As for not being able to compete, Jey can solo Lion miniboss, I cannot. Jey can solo UZ ubers, he can do any DG ingame solo. How is it again he cannot compete? Because I do burst DPS instead of his sustained, and can kill most people in PvP due to it?

Please, refine your argument to something valid and not just hearsay. I happen to agree that low level players using volcom+ fleets is both annoying and quite possibly broken. But do you know how many have made the move to high end swarms like me? None, that I have seen. Helga+s were a fad with deadbeats setup too, and those faded away quite quickly when people realized just how expensive it is to keep up with.

Jey also has a battlesphere and 2 EFBCs with 4 ukukuu ku's. Jey also struggles with UZ bosses, while you farm them easily. You can also kill plattie and MF reaver DGs with ease.

You do enough damage to solo lion miniboss easily, it's just the collision code makes your slaves die too much.

And looking at the cost of your slaves, I honestly don't see anything that would justify the amount of damage they do. Most expensive thing you have on them is OS neutronia?

So please, let's just agree that you broke the game (though in order to give credit, where credit is due I would have to mention deadbeat as the original high-end swarmer). We'd prefer to fix it, while screwing over the least amount of people possible, but the last thing we want is everyone respecializing to FC and using swarms

Yes, I use a burst DPS setup to kill the first couple UZ ubers, while generally losing about 500m-1b in gg, volitile diffs, and titan OLs per boss. SDs can kite them with N Bombs and solo them without losing a credit.

I actually lose money doing DGs and collecting credit drops on Reavers and Omegas, for your information, since I will often lose at minimum 2 gg on my way down the DG, sometimes up to 8+, and I use gear glue 16s.

Zerkers do enough damage to solo Emperor, too bad a silly thing like lack of shielding stops them. They need to be heavily nerfed too.

Now, I love Jey, and think he is an awesome player who follows how he enjoys playing, however, in my opinion, his BS setup is terrible. Using Ukukuu's on a class that gets slaves with +100% Rad damage instead of say Giga Nuetronias? And yes, my costs from gear glue in a week exceed his costs for gear on any of his EFBCs. I assure you.

Let's stick to valid points, not rumors you hear in All chat before you actually try to pass changes. Admins like you are the reason SS is so fucked up.

Q.E.D.

Rebalance EFBattleship then. It's virtually the exact same thing as the tech 20 version.

What happened to a nice conversation?