Since 5.1 released to the public two weeks ago I've been exclusively playing Cruisers, and I've analyzed their performance both in controlled and uncontrolled environments: Conn fights, group fights and events. I also took both extremities to take a better conclusion: I flew the Q-ship, the lightest and least energetic cruiser, and the Praefect, the most energetic cruiser and second heaviest.

I concluded:

1. Cruisers shine brighter the bigger the fight.
   • With the new shield regen drain, cruisers are particularly strong when not being shot at. They're great at supporting larger ships in a battle where they are not the enemy's focus.
     
2. They're terrible one-to-one or one-to-N.
   • Cruisers have around 40k energy per second recharge, while battlecruisers have around 52k if you take into account the power distributor. When being shot at, their regen speed drastically falls to around 17500, gunboat levels of recharge. When dueling or fighting multiple smaller enemies, the cruiser effectively only has a single bar of shield health. On duels, I straight up just disable my shield for the entirety of the fight and this gave me much success, as my enemy is crippled with no DPS.
     
3. Loadouts...
   • I've talked about the issue with the cruiser loadouts here and unfortunately they still persist. I've already found the cookie cutter loadout of the Wraith cannon followed by Impacts or Shards. It's such a versatile loadout there's no point in using anything else, unless I want to meme around.
     
   • Missiles have disappeared from cruiser loadouts. I haven't seen a single cruiser use a missile for the 15 days 5.1 has been out.
     

Now, a review of every cruiser weapon I got to try out:


How to make cruisers better? Well, my suggestions concerning loadouts are the same: Move the "old" weapons like the storm, shard and impacts back to the front, add NEW weapons exclusive for defensive slots, kinda like how battlecruisers got their new heavy weapons. Additionally, Re-add 360 weapons that can be placed in either slot, heavy or defensive. They would have efficiency ranging from light mortar (lowest) to tachyon (highest).

I'd also like to see an option for cruiser shields like the gunboats have. A "Duelist" cruiser shield which regenerates significantly slower (900-1000e/s vs 1600 current) but without regen power drain would be ideal for my play style.

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My feedback is mostly from a duel perspective, like, 90%.
Some videos are just links because there is a limit on the embedded videos in a single message.

Things I liked:
Thruster and it’s recharge feels fine
Cruiser Primaries are now viable not only for shooting down the missiles, but also good for component sniping
Broadside feels fine - it is now much safer to deal cheap damage with big guns.
Guns turn rates are fine

Things I disliked:
No guides or hints.
Too many mechanics and they are completely unintuitive. While the duel against a good player may last up to 12 minutes, the beginners perish at around 3 minutes without being able to deal you significant / any damage. It is just too complicated to start without having read the patch notes and several dev diaries. It’s a frustrating experience. Make a good guide asap.

Scanning weapons
It would be nice to sort the weapons in groups while you scan a target. Because currently it is all over the place
Mixed feelings:
Engine Component
The Engine is a logical addition in order to solve The Inter-Class Balance Puzzle. I liked the idea of having another way of defeating the opponent, although it is a much harder one than just dealing raw hull damage.
On paper it looks like a win-win, but after testing it in-game I believe it is poorly balanced:

1. The HP of the component is too low to ignore it as a #1 priority target. One of the most effective strategies I found is to deshield, subtarget while approaching, stop after joust and make 2-3 precise Impact shots point-blank. Congratulations, your opponent is now quarter-dead. Repeat once or twice more and he’s half-dead after receiving the damage for component loss. There is nothing an opponent can do in this situation, except wasting bats. I believe it is not fair.
   
   https://youtu.be/p23Ch7z_gSw?si=MyzZfd7YmoaV3iwv&t=95
   Not the best example, but the only one I found
   
   
   
2. Inconsistent component size and/or visibility across all cruisers.
   • Example 1: Donau’s component is seemingly open to be shot from any direction, but it’s so short in length that any wiggle prevents you from hitting it consistently, while also being relatively small.
     
   • Example 2: Resheph’s component is everything after the antenna, it’s about ⅕ of a ship. It is so long and unprotected that shots directed to the center mass actually hit the engine if Resheph breaks the distance.
     
     https://youtu.be/UxrE15x4duE
   • Example 3: I lost on my Vidar to an Agincourt by losing the engines while the opponent was in front of me and I was facing directly at him. He used those new Bretonia spread guns. It’s either their projectile size, or Agincourt has an ability to abuse its height against flat ships.
     
   I would suggest the following:
   Buff the HP and make the damage to cruiser engine class-specific, like it was with the bomber guns multiplier. Smaller classes will retain the opportunity to take out the big guy, but other cruisers won’t be going for the engines in duels right away.
   Remodel / edit the hitboxes of all cruisers to some standard values. The current state of it makes me think it was done in a rush. I am not saying each ship should have it protected like in a Q-Ship, but at least balance it in some way so that by exposing the engine the ship has gained some other major advantage.
   In general, leave it as an opportunity in cruiser duels to deal some bonus damage for outmaneuvering the opponent exactly from behind.
   

Shields mechanic
It turned out to be a nice feature that doesn’t break the timings we are all used to, adding depth to the gameplay. Unfortunately, it incites kiting. Previously, my attack abilities were not affected in any way, and all I had to do was to remember the timing when the shield comes up. Now, after every trade when the opponent is deshielded and I’m not, there are little reasons not to break off and regen some more shield to amplify your advantage even further. The use of bats turned from a defense action to a fight prolonging button. As soon as an opponent hits it defensively - you are breaking off and kite him until your own shield is at 100%, equalizing the chances. If the opponent chases and wastes his energy trying to hit - he’s doomed. If it is used offensively - the most effective way to play around it is to just do the same right away. Increasing the duration of the fight was one of your goals as far as I remember, but I wish it wouldn’t have been at the cost of somewhat tactical use of regens and the necessity to kite. I don’t know how to fix this since you took away some weapon slots that were used to punish kiting.
Obvious downside is another button to press.
At the beginning, it was hard for me to track the current mode of my shields. Maybe some little indicator on the screen, close to the ship's doll, would be useful.
Overall, I like it more than dislike it.

Defense and Heavy turrets
New cruiser guns
It’s just the same default guns with their stats redistributed, hidden by PVE grind. I fail to understand what’s good and fun about it. The only intriguing thing is a Defense Mortar, but oh wait: you cannot obtain it normally. Considering the lowered amount of unique weapon choices for the forward slots, it looks like a scam. The argument for not making smaller copies of the back guns for the front slots because of the distinctiveness of guns looks questionable now.

Loadout variety and weapon balance
While I am also not happy about the reduced number of weapon choices for each slot, I feel that the whole balance was built around it, so the players won’t be standing and hugging each other, trying to outDPS an opponent, like it was in the previous patch. I am generally ok about it, because fights are more interesting now. At the same time, even with the given weapons, I believe there are just 1-2 guns that you should use, because the rest are just simply weaker or don't meet the intended goal.

• Example 1: Solaris gatlings. You have to come very close to hit consistently, which is an invitation to be mined by a GB or kited by a cruiser. I can’t see any situations at which this weapon excells or suprasses other options. The use of Tachyons is most of the time safer and more effective. I suggest you make it less energy-consuming, so it could hold the opponent at a distance with sustained energy-efficient volleys, retaining the DPM for anything that chose to stay close to it.
  
• Example 2: In comparison with Impacts, the small damage bonus of Shards are not that good-looking considering higher energy consumption and dispersion. Although it’s a unique weapon type, there is no reason to specifically bring Shards. It even has the same turn rate as Impacts. Make it rewarding again to come close and stay close: boost the damage a bit.
  
• Example 3: Except the code guns, we are in a situation when there is nothing else to use but Tachyons. They are just too good for everything and there are no alternatives. You can snipe GBs, components, deal damage, poke from distance, dance in close range - it does all.
  
• Example 4: Storms. Good concept, but current amount of the energy damage is not enough to make the gun competitive with the rest. I am not sure the concept is viable itself because of the “shield off” regen of the opponent. He’ll just over-burst-DPS you and then kite to regain shield and energy, repeat.

Please tweak.

Heavy-Medium-Light Cruisers.
Heavy Cruisers will have 2 Shield Upgrades and 2 Defense Turrets
Medium Cruisers will have 1 Shield Upgrade and either 1 or 2 Defense Turrets
Light Cruisers will have 0 Shield Upgrades and 1 Defense Turret

I think you wanted to make us choose what role we are going to do on the battlefield by limiting the offensive slots and it’s fine while in fleet battles. But outside them it is super inflexible.
Example: by switching one of the Tachyons on a Light Cruiser for a support weapon, like a missile or a mortar, you are effectively halving your DPS. If you encounter a Heavy Cruiser with 2xTachyons, it will have not only more DPS up-front than you, it also has a second back gun, which is also half more DPS than you have in the back. Also some minorities like most likely a bigger core and energy regen, as well as more armor.
I thought: “ok, I have better shape and more agility, I’ll outmaneuver it and destroy the engines”. But I got skilled issued:
1) he just blasts me with the back guns as soon as I try to approach and stay behind him
2) he is still able to hit me mid-range despite my strafes, because Tachyons velocity allows.
I thought: “ok, I can stay at maximum possible range and kite eternally”
But I got skilled issued:
1) An opponent also knows how to dodge
2) My 1 back gun cannot outdps his 2xTachyons, while he generally has an easier time avoiding my Impact shots.
3) If the above doesn’t happen, I still need 20+ minutes to win via kiting. Not a single duel worth such time investment imo. It also should be frustrating for the opponent and exhausting for the kiter. I don’t know how to win this in regular 5-12 minutes, show me please.

I doubt a lot of people would prefer to trade 2 Shield Upgrades and 2 Defense Turrets for 0 Shield Upgrades and 1 Defense Turret in the current state.
I also doubt a lot of people would be changing their loadouts constantly between 1v1 and fleet battle oriented.
More flexibility wouldn't hurt.

Utility
Little reasons to carry support weapons (missiles, mortars). Mortars are halving you DPS, like I said above. 2xTachyons are doing the job even better, you don’t need the rest, additionally because you can broadside now. Missiles are having a harder time after the introduction of Cruiser Flaks, but most importantly they just can’t hit small targets, like other cruisers. I failed to kill a newbie in conn purely with missiles, despite trying perfect trajectories. Arming time + slow acceleration makes it nearly impossible from the front, or he has plenty of time to shoot it down if I take more distance. From behind, the use of thrusters and turning by an opponent made my rocket turn away from him. I just saw a sharp ~15 degrees contrail turn, like it thinks the target is at the edge of the thruster’s flame FX. It happened at least two times during that duel.
Completely unreliable, both.

Pulses spam
I don’t know if it’s a problem, but I’ll leave it here. Power core is now bigger, that means there is no reason to save extra energy for a 3 second hullbusting joust. The faster you deshield, the more hullbusting time you'll get, because now standing still is a disadvantage (it's like how you could have extended the hullbusting time before = stand still). Spamming 4 pulses gives a big advantage on approach. I fail to see the reason not to carry them if you are not going to snipe components with primaries, which you might not have the opportunity for.

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Thoughts
Do I like the patch? No. Do I hate the patch? Also no. For now I am waiting for a balance pass, because as always we solved X but got Y because of Z. Then it would be safe to judge. Generally speaking, I'm sad that maneuvering doesn't matter much. In my opinion calculating how you are going to turn in the next few seconds and analyzing the same done by the opponent was very cap-like. Now we have a management game: distance management, shield management, core management, which is also interesting, but not that fun and engaging for me personally.

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As per my experience post-patch. Cruisers are highly in-flexible now. They only do good in fleet fights if you have a BS/BC covering you or something lel.

The loadouts are restrictive. Other than codeguns, Tachyons are the only viable option to mount on heavy turret, Unless you're flying Rheinland or Bretonia lawful, and impacts on the rear guns

The Engines are made of tissue paper. Even light fighters are a threat now. I'm okay with the idea that cruisers should be Hit and Run Style Glass Cannons, but in the current patch they are Paper Cannons

(06-24-2024, 01:14 PM)JadeTornado Wrote: -snip-

not that fun and engaging for me personally.

This is how I feel about cruisers currently. They aren't as fun as they used to be, and are by far the most punishing capital class to use.

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Well considering Red just thrashed me moments ago by blowing up my big engine, I should start shooting for engines...

I mainly agree with Jade's comment. I really wish there were more than 3 class 7 and class 8 options out there (and really only one or two viable defense and heavy turrets), not counting code weapons because not everyone has millions to spend on those.

Nothing changed since. I understand that pure PVP is a niche thing in a pure roleplay mod, but prolonged standstill is depressing. I thought you would appreciate to know one of the reasons people stop playing the mod. Cheers.

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