The Manticore *sucks*. It dies very easily, accelerates very slowly, is extremely fragile in sustained combat and generally has the combat ability of a lukewarm bowl of soup. While ultimately I think it needs many things, the key with this ship is that it's an offensively-spec'd ship....without any offensive boosts to counter the crippling penalty it gets from the lack of a shield (or the 25% penalty).
To counter this, I suggest that a virtual autoloader be fitted to the Manticore on startup, or be fitted as an actual item that can't be removed.
There are two options I can think of for this. The first is a Makayev Autoloader. This will boost the rate of fire on all installed Makayev-Energia non-launcher weapons by...let's say 30% or so. This gives an offensive boost to the heaviest weapons in the game, and makes it a heck of a lot more competitive. But it has some issues with high ROF weapons.
The alternative would be a missile autoloader, that boosts the rate of fire of any missile launcher.....or maybe just any ammo-using weapon. This would make the Burak a lot more powerful (.....once you add the Uzon scanner) and also make the Manticore a great fighter with the MAG launcher. It might not be as competitive though because this would make fights rather expensive....but if you want to encourage missile use, this might be a good way to do it.
Alternative suggestion (and useful test case): Give Manticore a linked-fire weapon slot for the other arm, so it can use two primary weapons at the same time.
I like the idea of an autoloader for any Makayev weapon, or even just their launchers. I'd also like to see the player Manticore and the NPC variant set up to be more similar, or(if George doesn't want to add the CC - based modifications to vanilla) split into different variants to explain the difference.
Perhaps we can improve the stock armor? Need to think about this.
An armor improvement won't help: that just makes it better for every *other* ship in the game to use it. You need something that balances out the lack of HP....and extra offensive power is the best way to do that, given that this is supposed to be a ship focused on aggressive combat.
With George recently doing CC permadeath playthroughs and acknowledging that the concept of the manticore has some issues, I am commenting to bring this ticket back to the top of the ministry as it's become relevant again as a possibility.
I wouldn’t normally put up a completely different idea on a ticket like this, but in this case there’s an idea Shrike and I have discussed from time to time which could be a possible alternative to the autoloader suggestion: Swap the gimmick on the Manticore and the Freyr, giving the Freyr the armor repair device and shield penalty and giving the Manticore the weapon swivel. Some of our reasoning:
» The Manticore is slow. If it gets in trouble, it’s not fast enough to get back out of trouble. Automated armor repair is too gradual to be helpful, whereas non-crippled shields might save it.
» The Manticore has fairly sluggish maneuverability. Giving it the swivel for Makayev weapons would let it get its guns on-target faster, better fitting the offensive juggernaut role it’s supposed to fill.
» The Manticore is heavier, meaning less effect from Makayev howitzer recoil. This synergizes well with the swivel gimmick, since more people would be apt to put the howitzer on it.
» The Freyr is fast enough and maneuverable enough that it can (usually) get itself back out of trouble.
» Unlike Makayev, Rassiermesser doesn’t make shields, which makes them a more logical choice for an armor repair device — particularly considering they make the powered armor line.
(As an aside, I made a playership back in 1.1 — well before Corporate Command came out — which I can cite as an example of sorts: The Cormorant from my playership mod. It runs a gimmick very similar to the Manticore’s, with major differences being a minor primary weapon buff, the inability install shields at all due to the armor repairer, and that it’s a decently fast and maneuverable middleweight gunship. It’s the speed and maneuverability that makes it a lot less likely to get swarmed to death, since most of what will outpace it has tissue paper for armor. Anything can catch up to a Manticore, including gunships that don’t have tissue paper for armor. The Freyr would at least have a more sporting chance if it was running shieldless.)
EDIT: …Interesting; I came back and read over this again, caught and fixed a typo, and the ticket got popped back up to the top of the list…
Yeah, this is a ticket I wrote quickly while annoyed back in 2015, knock yourself out with the comments by all means. ;)
As I mentioned on the stream a couple weeks ago, swivel would also compensate for the Manticore's primary and launcher positions being so far apart.
Of course, the Novaya armors and Valjor/Sabel weapons would have to have their manufacturers switched, or be redesigned.
Edit: On the other hand, it might make sense for the ship with extra armor segments to be the one with the armor repairer.
Only if it actually helps. It usually doesn’t, and especially not for the “brute force” tactics its ship selection screen flavor text suggests.
For the Freyr and Manticore swap to work, Manticore would need more low-level Makayev weapons, if the swivel is limited to Makayev weapons. Manticore's starter weapons are not Makayev brand. The lowest level Makayev weapon is the Moskva 11, which is level 3 and omni. Makayev weapons start to appear around Ungoverned Territories or beyond.