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VO 1.8.196

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Nov 07, 2011 Pizzasgood link
I like 'em. Bombing D-14 during a furball FTW, even if it cost me both my remaining Avalons. Especially with the UTAnnouncer plugin :P
Nov 07, 2011 calciumdeposit link
I don't know if that one post I made sounded really whiny, I have a habit of sounding whiny and bitchy on the internet when I don't really mean to. Was just suggesting a way to make them more useful in Deneb, which is the purpose of avalons right? They are pretty useful already as they are, but mostly for piracy, griefing, and causing general chaos.
Nov 07, 2011 yodaofborg link
John, you are not just agreeing with Genka here, you are also agreeing with me. Most the player base never had Avalons before, they were only a legend. Thank you very much for this first step.
Nov 07, 2011 Pizzasgood link
Aye, I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed when I saw their actual stats. The way people had talked about them I thought they'd pack a little more punch than that. But what I do really like is the 35 m/s unguided mechanics they use. Any fool can stack swarms. Using avalons effectively will actually require some skill and planning. And their low speed makes them very versatile - you can fly backwards at 35 m/s to use them as ghetto TU mines, or adjust your speed to e.g. -32 m/s before firing at an asteroid to create a time bomb.

Also, unlike the TU they aren't a royal pain in the ascii to obtain, so I'm willing to actually play around with them instead of just hoarding them for some perfect opportunity that will never happen.
Nov 07, 2011 Phaserlight link
Ditto to what Pizzasgood said, except I was not disappointed as I knew about Avalons from alpha and recognized their original stats. To me what makes Avalons so special and unique is their massive splash. (I don't have a photographic memory by the way, it's just that the most powerful "rocket" in game is hard to forget).

The splash basically means that the target you aim for is no longer the primary target, but a nearby solid object. Picture using this against a station defender who is repairing a turret. If they get a little too close they might not see the Avalons coming until it's too late. Repairing from a distance might work well, until you realize that it's harder to hit things from far away unless you are standing still, which makes you more of a target for swarms.

Using Avalons against a stationary target may mean braking to a halt, launching the torpedoes, then evading incoming fire. This is dramatically different than using swarms during station conquest, so I expect that bomber tactics will also see an evolution.

I also believe that Avalons may not be the right choice for taking down a cap ship's shields, but will be even more effective once a cap ship's shields are down. Consider the effect of the torpedo splash on a cap ship's turrets. Using Avalons against a deshielded cap ship may be an effective method to "turret strip" the cap, whereas swarm stacks will remain the preferred method to take down a cap ship's shields in the first place.

Also note that the Avalon torpedo launcher is relatively easy to obtain, as Pizzasgood pointed out, and that there are no license requirements. "Easy" is of course a relative term; I would not expect the newbie fresh out of his or her basic flight status test to be able to take down the 10 Arklan Guardians needed on average to get one launcher. However, a high level player may be able to turn a profit by collecting these launchers from the Guardians, and selling them to new players at say, 200,000 credits per unit.
Nov 08, 2011 davejohn link
Och, good update. Let's mess about with avalons for a few months, see how they work out in time.
Nov 10, 2011 Crusader8389 link
ty for getting to all the trouble to bring these backs! any disappointment in the stats is just because they were so legendary... I heard stories of a few avalons being able to take out a levis shields...
Nov 10, 2011 slime73 link
Regular Avalons were never around to see Leviathans. There was a bug once where people were able to get developer avalons though, which have completely different stats...
Nov 10, 2011 Lord~spidey link
yea just slightly better stats... >.>
Nov 10, 2011 Dr. Lecter link
I think you mean more useful stats.