Kol and other battleships

So we're talking about the Kol, Radiance, and Kortul.  I think they're all pretty indicative of different problems faced by many different capital ships.  The Kol is an antimatter hog; it needs WAY too much antimatter just to fuel one of its abilities, forget about two.  Many other capital ships that lack a passive ability suffer the same weakness; they just don't have enough antimatter to put all their abilities to use.  I also agree that GRG is too weak and needs to do more damage.  This ability just his shield mitigation and fizzles.  Even if it gets an antimatter cost reduction, it still will need to deal more damage (I suggested 550/1000/1400 in a thread prior to the last patch.  Maybe 500/900/1300 now that it has its slow effect).

Now, Radiance is a one-trick-pony.  It is defined by a single ability, even moreso than flak-burst Kol (which I think will be fine once it gets a GRG buff).  I want to see a rework to animosity to make the Radiance have a more distinct role.  Currently animosity is only useful as part of the vengeance combo.  I want something standalone, not an ability that's only useful in a single circumstance.

The Kortul is an odd capital ship.  It comes across as very balanced stand-alone, and yet it's overshadowed by the carrier cap.  I think it shows that the battleship class caps need something to compete with the new and improved carriers in direct combat.  Increased damage and survivability would be nice.  As much as I still think jam weapons is one the weak, I think it's within reason and no ability changes are necessary on the Kortul.

I have always loved animosity but hated it because all the other player has to do is give the ships a command and animosity is nullified.It just makes this ability useless.Other than that the radiance needs a shield,hull,armor buff along with dps and it would be good.

I suggest for the kortul a dps buff along with hull shield and armor.Prob is with ps this ship might become op so I would suggest take away its damage bonus from ps and just leave its shield regen.

Imo the kol should be the toughest of the 3 hull and armor wise.Total hp should be better then others.Give the GRG a buff like u mentioned.Give it a dps buff but it should have the least in dps.Make its adaptive forcefield ability better to go along with its survivability theme.Reduce am cost of GRG and flak burst.

I would think with the addition of these and the dunov changes all caps would be highly useful in mp games and balanced much better.

i agree with everyone here. when you here the term battleship, you think of something thats big, bad, and is going to kick some serious ass. also, you think of a special weapon on board that ship that, when used, is gonna tear huge holes in enemy fleets. imo, they got the right idea with the GRG, but like darvin said, with all the power it uses, you would expect some serious firepower. but it barely does anything.. maybe set it where it bypasses shield mitigation? (i dont understand shield mitigation AT ALL so idk if thats a feasible thing though.)

i think they need to make the battleships stronger, in all aspects. raise dps, hull, shields, and give them all a better end-all ability.

Kortuls and radiance level 6 abilities are actually pretty good.So is the kols but it doesnt destroy stuff like the other 2.Its more to help the kol survive better.Basically the GRG and the radiance 6 shouldnt get hit by miti imo.

The Kortul and Radiance are fine ability-wise. All they really need are some sta boosts, and they'll be played more again. The Kortul's Power Surge; already a pretty good ability, will become so much more powerful if battleships had a DPS boost.

Now the Kol, I've stated multiple times that it's utterly atrocious. I honestly think it's by far, the worst capital ship in the game. It's mediocre offensively, uses too much antimatter, and has little purpose now that the Sova Carrier can ably handle SC threats. Everything about this ship needs to be improved. I propose that for GRG, give it either a severe AM reduction (From 75 to possibly 55 or 35), or make the ability nulify shield migitation. With the latter, GRG would actually be quite powerful, dealing a flat 800 damage or so every six seconds. Flak Burst needs antimatter reduction and possibly a range increase. Adaptive Forcefield is essentially fine. And Finest Hour is a decent level 6. I'd like to see the splash damage removed and replaced with a large weapon cooldown reduction; possibly 175% or so? Currently, there's virtually no reason to build a Kol, so drastic changes are really needed.

i definitly think the radience is the best. it starts out somewhat weak but if you resarch lasers, plasma, and beams it is extremly effective. the abilities are fairly good and i like the radinece beam thing.but the kol....... no i tried the fully upgraded flak burst against several disciples and not one of them lost thier sheilds. i havent played as the vasari very much but based on the limited experience ive had facing the kortul id say its a worthy enemy.

Flak Burst only works on strike craft zenophin...

Yes, that's feasible, but it would make it too powerful since that would more than double its effective damage AND make it damage the hull even if the target still had shields left.

Anyways, I think we're mostly in agreement:  Kol needs serious work.  The Radiance might need a rework to animosity but otherwise its abilities are fine, and ability-wise the Kortul is fine.  All battleships could use an overall boost to their combat performance.  Seems like a solid premise.

People have been saying this from day one. The caps are not impressive enough, and it sucks that huge battleships can be destroyed so quickly by a handful of frigs. It sucks even more that a level 10 battleship needs like a full minute to destroy a single light frig fighting 1:1. I totally agree, but this is just never going to change. 

Simply Put:

Kol: Increase the power of GRG, but do not make it bypass shields.  If any ability in this game deserves to do that, its Disintegration on the Vorkulus.  I would recommend up to a maximum damage of 1600, but leave the AM cost the same.  That way the FF+GRG combo still has value.  

Flak Burst: It once was the best thing the TEC had against SC.  Now though, a Sova can do just fine.  That means that this thing needs a buff.  I recommend a damage buff of 40% and a range buff of 20%.

Adaptive Forcefield: Dead on.  This ability is perfect.

Finest Hour: Not the best final, but its good and just about makes the Kol immortal...

Stats: I'd say that a generic buff of 20% to all regular stats would be perfectly fine.

Kortul: Just standard stat boosts will do it.  No big changes are needed here, as they fixed most of the issues with it in the latest patch..

Stats: DPS boost of 25% (would come out to be a very nice buff with PS) and a shield/hull boost of 10%.

Radiance: Once again, just fine minus a couple things...

Animosity: I have no idea what to do here...  But it does need a purpose...

Stats: I'd say a 25% shield boost coupled by a 15% damage boost would be good.

I think flak burst should have its antimatter cost reduced.  I really don't care whether GRG gets a damage boost or antimatter cost reduction or a combination thereof.  I'd agree that adaptive forcefield is fine.

Now, as for Radiance, I'd agree animosity needs a rework.  My idea is to have it make all friendly units nearby the Radiance (except the Radiance itself) invulnerable to damage.  This would still fulfill the same effect: only the Radiance can be attacked.  However, it forces this effect on the enemy better and has more tactical applications.  This ability would need to exclude pairs of Radiances working together and have appropriate cooldown and range limitations to keep it from being too overpowering.

Its effect was changed last patch.  It now absorbs both shield and hull simultaneously.  It's quite deadly now, essentially missile barrage for single-targets.

I suppose FB would need an AM cost reduced...  It is going to be used much more commonly than GRG anyways, so yeah..  I guess I do agree with you there..

Your idea for Animosity sounds good to me...  Basically, all you have to do is apply a buff to all units within range that makes them invulnerable and immune to receiving it.  The usage of the ability also nullifies its use against the user.  That would account for multiple Radiances using it simultaneously.

They did change that?  I guess I never use the Vulk in battle, so I wouldn't have noticed...  But how does it do both?  Half goes to shield half goes to hull?  or what?

I disagree that GRG should be boosted.  The  couple of Kols at level 3 or above will become bad news as the GRG at level 2 can smash support cruisers and repair bays, forcing a withdrawal.

From the patch log:

CoBBQ: While it is good against things without shields, most things you will meet do have them...  It is for this reason that GRG doesn't work.  It just doesn't have enough oomph for something that sucks up 75 AM.

Darvin: Thanks, and yeah, that is a lot more effective than the way it was...

As far as the Kol and GRG goes, what about actually considering what a rail gun is SUPPOSED to do, and what depictions of it in science fiction do?  From what I gather, the warhead punches straight through whatever is in its way and keeps on going.  Thus, I propose that the GRG damage all ships in a single line.

As far as the hull on battleships, did you know that a level 1 sova has more hull than a level 2 kortul?  I know because I just finished testing these two ships against each other.  Does something seem a little weird about that?

TEC capital ships in general have more hull than their counterparts in other factions.  In fact, the TEC's five capital ships are the five with the highest hull points in the game.  It's very clear that there's a systematic approach.  Now, if you listen to this thread, most of as are calling for a systematic buff to the battleship and siege caps to make them more imposing in combat.

Ok I vote for a range increase for flak burstand am reduction.I dont like the damage buff as kol will be to powerful against sc.

That's the problem; you need multiple, high-leveled Kols just to do only a decent amount of damage. In comparison, a single level 1 Sova, Marza, or even a Dunov is already dealing a high amount of damage with their superior abilities (Everything on the Sova, weapons and Uranium Bomb for the Marza, and EMP Charge on Dunov). Why spend an enormous amount of resources to field a second Kol just to make it and the first equate to the power of a different capital ship? Instead, I could for example, get an Akkan first for free, and a Sova for the next cap, which is both extremely efficient and presents great offensive power with Ion Bolt, Missile Batteries, and numerous SC.

huh?a level 10 Kortul with pulse beam fully upgraded ,in ur territory with culture fully upgraded and with kinetic intensifier along with its 1st skill on edi get 500+pulse beam dmg.a dps buff u said ?

How many level 10 Kortuls will you ever see in MP?  And if you have one in SP, if you aren't guaranteed a win, you are trying to lose...  That ship is already arguably the best at that level.  A level 10 Kortul is the omni-counter in this game.  It has incredible DPS.  It can heal itself.  It nullifies SC amounts.  It wipes out AM.  It creates a nice big hole where all your frigates were.  The point is, that is an astoundingly powerful ship.  But!  You won't ever get it.  For this reason, I see no problem with a buff...

If you have a level 10 Kortul, I likely have 100 heavies.  Seems fair.

Kortul is really good. But its lvl 6 ability is too hard to use since most of the time. You wont have the antimatter to use it.

Kol needs help. Yes. It just do enough dmg, and it cant really take massive amounts of hits either.

Radiance......... It doesnt feel TOUGH enough to be called a battleship to match the kortul/kol

i have to say though... out of all the caps, the Kol certainly looks the best when its charging into battle if only looks were good enough to win battles... i agree that battleships need a boost, i was thinking the same when i saw some posts about how double halcyons are becoming the first 2 caps used anymore...

Seems to me there's been so much balancing going on that there's not much difference between any of the caps anymore. Caps should be:

Battleship (Battleship and Siege): Heavily armed and armoured, slow not very agile but very powerful
Battlecruiser (Colony and Support): Medium weapons and armour but fast and agile with lots of support capability
Carrier: Very lightly armed (swap planet damage for aa defence) but fast with plenty of strikecraft

Once caps are put back how they should be, any 'balancing' should be tactical in game by the player, not an adjustment to the ships.