CORVETTE: most OP class of ANY Space Shooter!
There is perhaps no class more controversial than the corvette class. As an avid space pilot coming from other games (Fractured Space, Star Wars Battlefront, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, EVE Online) having only started playing Dreadnought over the past month, I can say that this class would qualify as overpowered in ANY of those games while also violating certain aspects of sci-if immersion.
As someone who has thousands of hours in other space shooters, and without bias or loyalty for one class or another given I have no previous attachment to the game or any of its previous iterations, I will try to convey these points objectively from an outsiders perspective.
Let's look at the key advantages the ship has over others:
- Corvette class is the fastest ship in the game (Highest Speed)
- Corvette class is the most maneuverable in the game (Most Agility)
- Corvette class has the smallest hotbox in the game (Best Avoidance)
- Corvette class is the only class with 100% shield absorption ability (Best Shields)
- Corvette class is the highest DPS class in the game by far (Best DPS)
- Corvette class can kill much larger ships before they can fire back (lowest Time to Kill)
If you just look at the BASELINE stats of the class, you can see already 6 key advantages over every other class in the game. That's not including any special modules to boost speed, jump, defense or offense we're talking about just the baseline stats of the class.
In no other sci-fi shooter does the smallest, fastest and most maneuverable ship also have the benefit of being the most powerful, with the best shields and best weapons. Not even the Dreadnought class at 3x the size, 5x the armor, with 10x the guns can compare to the damage output of the smallest ship in the game!?!
Something's is fundamentally wrong in the approach and implementation of this class on many levels, but I fear too many of the long time (corvette) players or devs on the inside simply can't see this absurdity as one can coming from the outside.
Obviously, those who love the class and enjoy the clear advantage offered by it will fight tooth-and-nail to defend it, this is true in ANY space shooter, but no space shooter I've ever played has had one ship class be so drastically over powered as the Corvette class is today.
There have been occasions in other games where ships would come out with bugs, glitches or stats that were too high upon release but those were quickly patched out, whereas the corvette class seems to have it's advantages by design. There are some pay-2-win ships in other games that do have some stats that are better than most freely accessible ships, but nowhere near the
speed/maneuvering/avoidance/shield/power available from the entire corvette class by default.
.
IMMERSION BREAKING
From an immersion breaking perspective, we are suppose to believe that the most powerful weapons that exist in the Dreadnought universe aren't even on the Dreadnought class, it's on the smallest ship in the game!?! Ships that are designed to carry bigger guns and hit harder than smaller ships are actually being over powered by ships a fraction of it's size.
In every other space shooter, the bigger ships Generally have more armor, hp, stronger weapons and better shields. The corvette class is the first I've seen which breaks this by being smaller, faster, more maneuverable, with the best shields and the most powerful main weapon in the game by an order of magnitude. There's a reason no other game has a ship/vehicle like this.
Imagine an X-Wing (star wars) taking on an imperial star destroyer, the blasters wouldn't even penetrate the shields much less the armor which is the whole point of building a massive heavily shielded and armored ship class in the first place! You build bigger ships to pack bigger guns and more of them so you can do much more damage, except in the Dreadnought universe, the 4 guns on a much smaller corvette outputs more damage than 30 guns on a Destroyer. It's nonsensical!
Furthermore, these are suppose to be big capital ships, 1 on 1 battles should last longer than 5 seconds and the engagements should feel worthwhile, not be over before the other ship has a chance to fire back. To illustrate this point further, the main weapons on the corvettes can output more damage per volley than a nuclear missile, and fires 20x faster, basically you are firing a nuclear weapon every few seconds (reload).
.
COMPARED TO FRACTURED SPACE
For a more direct analogy let's take some ships Fractured Space as an example.
One of the smallest, fastest ships in that game (used to sneak behind lines and takeout snipers/capture points) would be the USR ghost: Stealth Ship, very powerful burst missile attack, fast and light.
Compare that to a much larger ship the USR Destroyer: it's slow, super armored, has lots of HP, and boasts one of the most powerful weapon arsenals in the game.
Under no circumstance would the ghost be able to over power, tank harder (100% shields), or so easily just blink/boost out of danger while under fire from the USR Destroyer. It can only win by out positioning, or strategic use of invisibility and maneuvering to avoid getting hit.
The baseline stats of the USR Destroyer simply don't allow for a similar skilled USR ghost player to outgun, outrun, out tank and outflank the Destroyer all at the same time. However the corvette class has all of these advantages built into its base stats, which if implemented in Fractured Space would completely break the game balance.
You can play a hit-and-run style in Fractured Space but it doesn't impose the ridiculous amount of stress or griefing that's possible with the corvette class in Dreadnought. More importantly, no class can take out any other in less than 5 seconds (unless that ship is in the middle of a jump which is a short window).
The USR ghost can't just fly in, uncloak, take out a ship several times larger than it in a single volley from behind, and then sprint/blink out of danger before the other ship has a chance to fire all the time. There is an opportunity for the other ship to retaliate, whereas in dreadnought the corvettes are literally invulnerable to damage while dealing the highest damage in the game and can escape and evade often before any damage is taken.
.
COMMUNITY SENTIMENT
Look at page 1 of the forums, we currently have no less than 5 threads discussing the Corvette class with a majority pointing out just how OP the class is. There are a minority of recurring playing that are in defense of the class, some even calling for more buffs, but the overall sentiment of the community is that the class is FRUSTRATING to play against and something needs to change.
The corvette class is obviously very controversial and for good reason. When viewed from the outside by someone who has actually played many many many other space shooters having no loyalties or class preferences with any previous versions of the game, it's very easy to see this class is over powered with respect to the others and warrants a re-balancing (something that happens in EVERY game).
I've read all the threads and detailed breakdowns on why the class isn't actually OP, and all you need is X module or Y strategy or Z ship to counter the class but the baseline stats of the class itself are already over powered which is why the community is reacting so negatively in the first place, because there is something wrong with corvettes on the most fundamental level as demonstrated above.
We can debate strategies, module load-outs and ship selections to counter corvettes in 50 threads but it doesn't change the fundamentals of the class; it's fundamentally over powered in comparison to every other. You want to have the fastest ship in the game fine, but your weapons shouldn't be the most powerful. You want to have the smallest hit box in the game fine, but you shouldn't get the best shields. You want to be more 4x more maneuverable than a destroyer fine, but you shouldn't be able to take out that destroyer in less than 4 seconds with a single volley.
There are very few compromises with the corvette class that aren't already countered by it's default abilities. Sure you have less HP than other ships but corvettes are also the only ships that can block 100% of the damage with their shields, have the smallest hitbox so are hardest to hit and when under fire have 2-3 options to burst out of danger at near lightspeed making you much more difficult to take out.
Only very specific modules can help slow corvettes down, drain their energy or hit them at close range effectively and those aren't available on all other classes by default. You need to spend a lot of time, energy and money to build a proper defense against a class that is inherently over powered at it's baseline. Even the standard issue flak cannons, which should be purpose built to take out small ships that are close range, don't even come into the effective weapon range that most corvette pilots attack at (800m is too short).
.
Rebalancing is Required
If you have to have 50 threads discussing why/why not a particular ship is OP, chances are that ship class is OP in some way otherwise there would be no need for discussion! Whatever your bias may be, there is no denying that the corvette ship class is highly controversial, extremely frustrating to play against (especially for new players) and causing a lot of grief for many players in the community.
We will not reach a unanimous consensus here on what needs to be done but what every other space shooter developer does when one class is causing a lot of issues with the player base isn't just to leave it, they re balance the class slightly so that it isn't causing so much of a headache as compared with the other classes. Inevitably you will get players who beg, plead and cry for you not to "nerf" their beloved class and instead just buff every other class, they don't understand it achieves the same effect but is much harder to change the values or attributes of every other class instead of just the one.
I hope the developers are listening to their community and see that no class should have so many advantages over every other class without the appropriate compromises in other areas that aren't offset by default. The low HP disadvantage of the corvette classs is offset _by default_ with it's advantages in speed, maneuverability, shields, and escape modules. 1 key disadvantage (HP) is overcome by 4 built-in advantages that no other classes have. Whenever such a disparity occurs, a re-balancing is necessary and I hope an outsiders perspective helps shed light on that.
