Squid Love

[Queso]

You know, that would just encourage me to fly the squid backwards more than I already do

[Crafeksterty]

Skrim has a point, even me coming from the same team.

Think about it, all ships use pheonix claw. It has almost become a default thing, and pheonix claw is the only thing that helps ships combat the squid and many other things because it does not punish the ship for pheonix claw use.

Guys, i dont think its Squid that is underpowered in itself, it is what is outside the box that makes the squid underpowered. :I

[HamsterIV]

The buff the squid needs is an increased turn arc for the Mortar. My "Kill Configuration" on a squid is gat banshee because they are the only close range pierce/explosive light weapons that I can get decent overlap. The mortar is supposed to be the close range finisher, and the squid is supposed to be the close range ship, yet it is impractical to use the best weapon for the job due to its poor lateral field of fire.

[Mod Josie]

I prefer to consider a squid as a lightning strike ship that pops a balloon or destroys all the engines. It darts in, does crazy component downage, then goes and hides again. Using squids to kill is certainly very viable but I tend to shy away from it. It means sticking around for longer and that makes you a target for ships with more armour and firepower than you.

I'd probably like to see a little buff to its engines, particularly acceleration. I love going fast!

[Queso]

I prefer to consider a squid as a lightning strike ship that pops a balloon or destroys all the engines. It darts in, does crazy component downage, then goes and hides again. Using squids to kill is certainly very viable but I tend to shy away from it. It means sticking around for longer and that makes you a target for ships with more armour and firepower than you.

I'd probably like to see a little buff to its engines, particularly acceleration. I love going fast!

That's why I wish there was a gun that did exactly that really well only at close range. Carronade used to. Flame used to. Squid got a little left by the wayside because other ships were using it's signatures too well.

[Spud Nick]

I think we all want the gun arcs tweaked a bit so we can use more weapon combos.

[Captain Smollett]

I wouldmt mind seeing an overall increase in engine power.  Squid engines get abused so much by the pilot and his opponents that it doesn't take that much time in the engage before the squid loses all of it's mobility advantages due to damaged and destroyed engines.

Making it easier to jump hit engines would help but you're still always left with the problem where the hull engineer can't leave the paper thin hulll mid combat to grab the far engines without risking loss to the entire ship.   Having your gungineer make the trek there leaves you without a gun for a long time

Switching the hull and balloon positions would make it easier for the hull engi to maintain engines.

Fire buffs (or fire tool nerfs) carronade buffs and mortar turning arc increases would certainly help, so would phoenix claw nerfs.

[Spud Nick]

Would it be possible to increase the HP of the engines? It would let pilots use engine tools more than other ships and give engineers time to repair or shoot.

[Crafeksterty]

That would also result in higher rebuild time on those engines. Having better baloon verticality gives a new option for the squid in terms of speed.
"How about we chute vent under this heavy fire?"

[RearAdmiralZill]

You can increase engine health without messing with rebuild time. I don't see it going up only for squid though.

[N-Sunderland]

You can increase engine health without messing with rebuild time.

Very true. Back when Muse wanted to buff disabling, they increased rebuild time on engines and guns without touching the actual health. There isn't strictly the same connection that we see with armour and hull rebuild time.

[The Djinn]

Crazy thought: what if the Squid had a second light gun on the starboard pontoon, but both were rotated with, say, a 45 degree angle towards fore and aft, respectively? This would allow for more weapon combinations, but still never more than 2 guns on a target unless you were brushing up directly next to them and could afford to pull engineers away from repair duty.

It would definitely be a huge (and unusual) change, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw some crazy ideas into the mix. The addition of a seperate aft bifecta might also encourage the crazy reverse piloting and crazy positioning that I love about the Squid.

Thoughts? And yes...I am aware this idea might be ridiculous and have no actual merit. I just feel balance discussions can sometimes benefit from highly unusual suggestions and the insights discussions about those suggestions can bring to the table.

[Serenum]

More vertical acceleration is all the Squid needs.

[Dementio]

I don't like the idea of changing gun arcs or changing gun positions on the Squid. It's a fast ship and with the constant damage on armor and engines you can't always use two guns at the same time during combat anyway.
I fear, if this were to happen, people would just sit in front of their target and use the most boring combinations the game has to offer (e.g.: gat/mortar). If you wanna use gat/mortar just turn and have an engi ready, if not, go away and come again another day. The Squid is no brawler, the low hull armor makes sure of that.

However, since it's so low it's armor is that low, I do believe that increasing the maneuverability, may it be verticle or horizontal, is good way to increase the number of squids on the battlefield, especially with all that phoenix clawing...

[Coldcurse]

More vertical acceleration is all the Squid needs.

What's next? the speed of Light Squid?