Don't know why ppl invest so much into replying this thread lol.

The entire premise of original post is basically thus:

Heals promotes camping.

This assumption is objectively wrong.

Without heals, good teams cannot attack like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj9xrJlXv_0

In-fact the opposite is more likely to happen. Without heals ppl will play 'safer' more often thus camping even harder until the final moments when they go in for the kill.

Timed (and well read) aggression will beat passive turtle camps almost always.

The issue isn't healers doing their jobs well.

The issue is Dreadnought players not doing theirs.

AdmrHackett#4464 posted (#post-108962)

Why take the risk of dying to push forward when you can take cover,

.

Because the reward is a match win and not having to pay maintenance

@Rinzen

Imagine close range Frigate vs Frigate only matches. That's pretty much Dreadnought.

wut

Wasted a month's elite status

Compensated for less than a week's worth ?

I also would like an lock-on function to healing beams.

eg. hold LMB for 3 seconds on same ally will lock heal beams on him until I LMB something else.

Nyxborn#5578 posted (#post-107868)

My blame falls on the individual pilots that refuse to place a T-1 in their fleet to "lock" them into a T1-T2 match. If the system looks through your selected fleet and SEES a T1 ship, based off the information given, it shouldn't place you with a fleet that has a T4.

T1 ship in recruit fleet still drops me in Veteran matches. Not as backfill but at match start. Tested and confirmed.

My recruit fleet had (1 x Elite T2) + (1 x Stock T1) ... ended up in a T3/4 match. Twice in a row.

@ Dreadnought Devs

Matchmaker Fleet Rating 'buckets' tweak

FR 0-2

FR 2-3

FR 4-5

Implementation Pro's and Con's

Pro's =

Tier 5 will see constant use

Tier 3 is only under-powered against T4's but are balanced against T2's.

Better monetization sense (Hero ships, Elite status, relevant demographic)

Con's=

No overlap for T4

Economy requires tweaking for Legendary fleet

Match distribution of 16 players

Semi random distribution of 16 players into 2 teams based on 'fleet rating' has limited success in balancing. There needs to be another set of index to sort 16 players better. Squad and Win (Lose) Streak multiplier needs to be introduced or be weighted more accurately.

Case Study:

I played ~8 matches as solo queue

Had to play against a very strong squad

Played AGAINST this same squad 7 times in 8 matches

Lost 6 times

Sure, based on probability over long term sorting players by fleet rating might trend towards balanced near infinite. But that cannot be your best effort surely ?

Recommendation:

1. Use better individual rating (hidden stat) to sort players once 16 players are found


2. Track win-loss streak and use this as multiplier to inflate / deflate individual rating


3. Calculate individual ratings of players in a squad separately but add weight to their 3-man total

This way strong players in a squad are fairly handicapped without punishing average players who may or may not squad.

Hope this gets consideration. R.ape squads are harvesting randoms unabated by matchmaker.

While I was grinding Dola I made up my mind on two things about it.

1. It absolutely needs Warp Drive


2. It is niche

About 1 in 5 matches I'd have a great game playing it.

The niche role it fills is the initiator. Those who play MOBAs will appreciate what this role does. Specifically in Dreadnought, Dola is good at starting a move against an enemy healer in the middle of their huddle.

Typically (from my perspective) this job is supposed to be for tanks but Dola is perhaps the only non Dreadnought ship that can do it reliably.

Problem is:

1. If Dola's niche is to do one of Dreadnought's job, why not pick a Dreadnought in the first place ?


2. Dola's limited scope makes the ship OK sometimes but irrelevant most other times.

From a ship design standpoint, the Dola needs to be made viable in more situations than it currently is. Equipping Warp Drive opens up some extra possibilities to how you can play that ship but even then the problem of something else being able to do what Dola does but better argument is still there.

I'm doubtful 'fixing' its' primary weapon DPS will make the ship any more desirable. It'd lessen the suffering but still undesirable.

If I had to take a gander on what would make the most impact - I'd have to go with Dola unique modules. Primary, Secondary and Perimeter don't offer much in either strengthening Dola nor do they shore up weaknesses.

-

The other option and one that is also high impact is a suggestion by someone (here or on Discord can't remember) - and that is to make Dola's power to shield work like the Dreadnought's where energy aren't drained by damage absorbed.

That would be a big deal.

Couple that with a module re-think, I feel that is enough to Make Dola Great Again.

Put four tier twos in your fleet with only one tier 4. This will drop maintenance for positive net income.

When they fix credit bonuses you should be able to run two T4's in a fleet without going negative too much.