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« on: March 12, 2013, 02:22:07 am »
So I've brought up improving the junker casually to players over the past few months, and it seems that there are pretty divided opinions on the strength of the Junker. However after substantial flight time in all ships, I've come to the conclusion that the Junker; though certainly not terrible, doesn't stand out enough in any role or contain superiority in any capability to truly be a competitive ship.
Now if you'll please forgive me for the wall of text, allow me to present my case.
Junker strengths:
Small hull area - The Junker has the second smallest hull in the game, making the slender profile tough to hit at range for gunners not accustomed to the projectile drop of their weapons.
Good Armor - Though only slightly greater than the Pyramidion, at 700, the Junker has the second highest armor in the game
Weaponry - The Junker has 5 light weapons, one more than the Pyra and second only to the Galleon in overall weapon mounts
Blind spots - As far as weapon blind spots go, due to the large number of guns and the short hull, the Junker has one of the smallest, with only a small area behind the ship that isn't in fire arc of a gun.
The trifecta - This is the single greatest advantage of the junker. With a very well crewed and piloted ship loaded with wide swinging weapons, the Junker can get three light weapons on target. This however can be very risky since you'll either be taking a man off the helm or the hull, either of which can quickly prove fatal to a Junker.
Large balloon - With a large balloon and a small hull, a crafty pilot can drop below his opponent in close quarters to block potentially fatal shots from shattering him to pieces
Junker weaknesses:
Large balloon - The Junker has a giant balloon. Any time I'm gunning against a Junker with a carronade or lumberjack, a smile quickly comes to my lips. The giant target ensures that my opponent will spend the entire match without an inflated balloon. Furthermore, that small hull beneath the large balloon makes it really difficult for the Junker to shoot at targets above it. The Junker is too slow to run away, and incapable of shooting up at something close by and above it. Unless their teammate saves them, the Junker will have a hell of a time escaping a balloon popping death.
Hull health - The Junker only has 500 hull?! This is the least in the game. This means that if the armor goes down, which inevitably happens in any fight, the Junker only needs to be sneezed at to die. For example, a charged heavy flak shot will nearly one shot a Junker without armor. Furthermore, since the Junker has 700 armor, it takes longer for it to be rebuilt, making the probability of it's demise even greater.
Junker speed - The Junker is the slowest ship in the game. This really can make a huge difference in a fight. When capping points, or rejoining a fight after a death (something that happens often in a Junker) seconds can mean the difference between saving a teammate or arriving just after his death into a two on one.
Difficult to crew - I will never take a junker into combat with an AI engineer. Never. For a ship with a small hull, the components are spread out everywhere. To even have a chance against a skilled opponent requires some really high level crew tricks including maintaining the hull from the front ramp of the ship, and the captain maintaining his own balloon. God forbid the turning engines break. Since you can't ever afford to have someone off the hull (500 hull health...) you'll need you're gungineer or captain to go up and fix them. This either leaves you a gun down, or no one to turn the ship to bring weapons to bear on your opponent for quite a while, keeping the Junker debilitated far longer than other ships.
Difficult to crew - This is worth mentioning twice, since I spend the beginning of most of my Junker matches training players (even experienced ones) the ins and outs. This still doesn't always keep my engineers off all the shiny guns, and in position. Successful flying of the Junker requires constant and complicated crew movements, which in the heat of combat often fall apart, leaving guns unmanned or even more commonly our fragile hull not being looked after.
Broadside weapon mounts - This is probably the biggest weakness of the Junker. Though it might not seem to be a large disadvantage having the primary weapons on the broadside of the ship, it makes a huge difference in combat. This is due to the fact that a ship with forward facing weapons is able to dictate the range at which combat takes place. Every weapon has its optimal range. When sparring in a ship like a Pyra, you can keep your guns in a more favorable range than your opponents, you can skirt at the edge of combat to initiate, close in to increase accuracy if you gain an advantage, or increase distance if it seems your opponent has gotten the upper hand. Furthermore you can fly into a fight guns blazing and run away with your bullets flying and generally travel to any location while keeping your opponent under fire. The Junker however can only fire one light weapon at an opponent when traveling, furthermore when engaged in a broadside engagement you cannot flee. The Junker is far to slow to go anywhere, and if it turns to move, it will lose half of its firepower. You're more or less forced to duke it out, on an opponents terms and range, against ships with equal or greater firepower, and greater health; likely leading to that wimpy hull exploding. The other disadvantage of engaging in a broadside engagement is that it exposes your engines. When facing against a manticore in most ships, I can confidently eat a volley or two head on, knowing that at worst I'll lose my guns and some armor, however the Junker, due to the small hull, large balloon and broadside engagement. will be completely disabled, losing all engines, guns and eventually even the balloon from the weapons AOE.
Ship to ship comparisons - A junker fairs pretty well against a squid, a goldfish is too different to really be compared and anything can kill a Spire, however I think the case for buffing the Junker really can be made by comparing it to two of the most popular ships; the Galleon and the Pyramidion.
Junker vs Galleon - When it comes down to it, these are similar ships in concept, both with high armor, and a lot of guns on the broadsides, but the Junker is outmatched in almost every way. The Galleon is faster, has more guns, has bigger guns, is easier to engineer, has more armor and more hull. The Galleon excels at ranged combat, and the Junker is extremely poor at closing in on an opponent. In a one on one engagement, the Galleon simply needs to point and shoot. It will destroy the Junker often before it is in range to fight. The Junker's best chance is to engage at mercury range, however the galleon can simply bring it's own mercury. If it's brought a lumberjack as well, the Junker will not be mercing for long. If the Junker manages to close, it's likely to find itself in the aforementioned manticore death.
Junker vs Pyramidion - This I think is the ultimate argument for why the Junker needs to be buffed. Though both ships are designed to fight with two light weapons firing at an opponent, the Pyramidion in my opinion, is superior in almost every way. The Pyramidion only has a hair less armor than the Junker at 650 however it has 800 hull. The Pyra is significantly faster. The Pyra has an armored balloon, difficult to hit head on. The Pyra is easy to engineer, with it's protected engines nearby the hull all being able to be repaired in seconds and it's balloon a quick turn away from a secondary engineer. The Pyra has two forward facing guns and two broadside guns giving it a wide range of combat options. The Pyra excels at ramming with it's hardy hull and forward facing weapons while the Junker excels at dying to rams. All this taken into consideration, an equally crewed Pyra and Junker is a huge mismatch. If a Pyra charges head on at a Junker, and both crews hit all their shots and make all their repairs. The Pyra will win simply due to having greater health, this is ridiculous considering all of its other advantages.
The Junker is capable of filling a few roles relatively well. It can bring a variety of weapons with each side purposed for different types of combat but a Pyra and a Galleon can do it better. It can snipe, but a Galleon and a Pyra do it better. It can bring 3 guns to bear, but a Galleon does it much better. It can tank, but a Pyra and a Galleon do it better. The Junker may have a small hull but when facing broadside, the target is about the same size as a the bow of a Pyra.
Now, I know what you're going to say. "I fly a Junker all the time and I dominate with it." This I'm sure is true. I consider myself a capable captain, and I've killed every ship and every level of pilot with a Junker. However at the end of the day you really have to ask yourself, why not just bring a Pyra/Galleon, because, although capable, there is nothing that a Junker is superior at. If you watched the Fjords tournament, you likely saw a lot of Pyras, Goldfish and Galleons in use. I'd love to see the day when every ship is considered competitive and high level play includes every ship in use equally.
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So that's my argument, here's my proposal:
Increase speed and maneuverability - As a small ship, the Junker should be faster than the Galleon and have quick acceleration. Give it at least a 25% boost to speed and acceleration so it can quickly join the fight and have a chance at pursuing fleeing opponents.
Increase it's hull - The Junker is a broadside fighting ship. It can't choose it's engagements so it needs to be able to tank in order to at least have a chance to win the ones it's in. Option A - Increase armor by 100 and increase hull by 200. This will make the Junker at least have a fighting chance in a 1v1 against a Pyra giving it 800/700 vs the Pyras 650/800. Option B - This I think is the more interesting option but a bit tougher to balance. Make the Junker the reverse Goldfish by keeping it's hull low but giving it plus 250 Armor. The Junker would then have 950/500 making it important for opponents to keep fire focused on the Junker so that it doesn't simply repair and return unscathed. It would still be a quick kill without armor though and would make the game really interesting tactically since a team may be forced to make a decision between taking more armor breaking weapons to kill the Junker or more explosive weapons to kill it's teammate.
If you've made it this far into this post, let me sincerely thank you for reading it, since a lot of thought and time went into it.
I encourage you to please comment on this. I know we have a lot of active forum members with strong and informed opinions and I'd honestly like to hear all of them. I don't claim to know everything there is about the Junker and I'd love to hear some other opinions on this matter.
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