What's new?

[Lanliss]

I have been pretty much out of the skies since the pyra nerf. Anyone able to catch up an old pilot on the new tricks? I played the other day(and actually saw GeoRmr, who I remembered from here) and seemed to handle everything fine in my faithful junker, The Infallible I, despite my time on the ground. What changes have been made, aside from the UI changes, that I should know about?

[Daft Loon]

Pyra regained its previous hull health and had its mass increased to just shy of the galleon, the use of the extra mass for ramming out balloons is becoming a plague of sorts.

Mobula had its side guns turned further outwards, breaking many/ most fun builds.

Muse have outlined a new approach to balance with the mobula being the first thing that will be looked at, the first balance patch from the new approach is still in the future though.

Squid gained acceleration and had its rear gun turned towards the side gun.

Minotaur got changed and overall buffed but lost arcs, rate of fire and turning speed making it almost as annoying for the user as the target, its still barely used.

Lochnagar changed, now deals 100% self damage over the gun's full clip size (after applying -60% clip size), its now better on the lumberjack, invalid on heavy flak and heavy carronade and exactly the same on the minelauncher. Hades, light mortar and gatling all gained some utility from lochnagar though the latter 2 being stupidly OP with it resuled in the original change being rapidly patched.

Heavy flak changed from 2 to 4 shots retaining roughly the same rate of damage. Greased, burst and lesmok rounds are now standard on it. (lesmok notably going from 1/2 shots to 3/4)

If you missed it the patch right after the pyra nerf introduced stamina and nerfed both the carronades, heavy clip and the flamer and was much more significant than any of the above.

[Lanliss]

Thanks for all that. I did miss the stamina patch, but remember that being the next big thing before I dropped off. How does loch work on Mercury? I remember running that combo every now and then, though I don't remember my reasoning. The squid change sounds interesting. Any good combos with the back and side I should watch out for? And how does burst work out on the flamer now? Does it help mitigate the change to fire mechanics?

[Daft Loon]

Loch Mercury is still the same, the main effect was for guns with 4 or more shots (and the heavy carronade which suffered because of the change from a fixed self damage to 100% self damage per clip). Aside from the minelauncher its best on guns that get more than 1 shot after modifiers, allowing the gun to be repaired before it breaks itself ex hades gets 3 shots, fire 2 reducing the gun to 33% health, hop off and quickly wrench or mallet it, then fire the last shot and top off the health during the reload.

Squid is rather fun to do drive-bys with now, the gatling + banshee/flak/mortar combo now gets a solid overlap on gun arcs (when placed on the rear slot flak can turn to point sideways, banshee 10 degrees past sideways and mortar 10 short). Most of the people who are actually good at squid still go for front gatling, side banshee though.

Not sure about the flamer, it seems largely ineffective these days however its used. When people bring the old carronade + flamethrower squid against me I mostly just ignore them and kill thier ally, which only really backfires if they are a better pilot than me with a probably better crew. Extinguisher got buffed in the same patch so even the AI can cope now.

[Mr.Bando]

The hwatcha got a significant nerf with projectile speed reduction. Makes quad hwatcha galleons less popular tho doesn't affect the hwatchafish as much. In other words, its effective range has been reduced.

[VomAct]

Hwacha got buffed incredibly, CoF tightened considerably to compensate for nerfing heavy clip.  Effectively, burst is now a solid mid-range ammo type in hwacha.

The hwatcha got a significant nerf with projectile speed reduction.

Not so much a nerf as a skill increase, if you can lead it still works out to mid range.

[MightyKeb]

Hwacha got buffed incredibly, CoF tightened considerably to compensate for nerfing heavy clip.  Effectively, burst is now a solid mid-range ammo type in hwacha.

The hwatcha got a significant nerf with projectile speed reduction.

Not so much a nerf as a skill increase, if you can lead it still works out to mid range.

I have yet to encounter a hwacha that could hit midrange shots as effectively as a pre-nerf hwacha could. Though, I see a clear gap between mid and high level players on how well they can lead a hwacha at range. That is good.

Oh and, in some sense, the hwacha now effectivelyhas more arcs up close, because of the ship movement affecting the shot direction, the ship can now essentially influence it to drift 3 times the direction before it hits the same target. Granted, moving hwachas throw your gunner off anyway.

[Atruejedi]

Hwacha got buffed incredibly, CoF tightened considerably to compensate for nerfing heavy clip.  Effectively, burst is now a solid mid-range ammo type in hwacha.

The hwatcha got a significant nerf with projectile speed reduction.

Not so much a nerf as a skill increase, if you can lead it still works out to mid range.

I have yet to encounter a hwacha that could hit midrange shots as effectively as a pre-nerf hwacha could. Though, I see a clear gap between mid and high level players on how well they can lead a hwacha at range. That is good.

Absolutely agree with Keb. I haven't had to complain (or heard a single complaint) since the hwacha change. It's perfect.