<sigh>. Look, we nerfed several areas, not just turbo (not even all the factors are visible in the client). However, turbo is important to combat, because not all combat is two freakin' people. Ie:

Over the network we can update a person's computer at a rate of N. With each update, the client can predictively analyze the trajectory of the given object, and plot its likely new position based on previously received data. However, this begins to break down over a certain in-game speed. The divergence possible between two paths when still only updating at a rate of N results in misprediction, and people suddenly vanishing and appearing somewhere else. This is particularly problematic when the latency of the connection is sufficiently large that the client is running well behind anyway. As the rate-of-change (movement speeds and general delta) and the client latency increase, the "world picture" of the client become more and more distorted, and predictive interpolation ceases to be useful (and becomes counterproductive, even).

This is particularly an issue if a person is watching another pilot turbo from a little ways away. After a brief interval, the individual turboing will start having major updates in position, essentially "jumping" to new locations. The fact that turbo limits trajectory (by mostly negating steering) isn't that important, as simply turboing fast in a direction, and then stopping, would cause a latent client to mispredict a person's location. Even in a case where one ship is following the other, the fact that their velocities are relatively similar can be irrelevant: if one in front simply "brakes", the high-ping person behind him will likely not notice until he has overshot, because his world is delayed significantly, and because the differences in velocity-per-update are great enough that prediction is ineffective. Assuming we "nerfed" the hell out of braking rates, that still wouldn't alter the prospects of someone traveling at high speed and making a small course correction.. that correction would become a much bigger one in a short period of time, still giving the same disparity to a third party.

There is a line to walk with supporting higher latencies; and while our game may always promote people with better pings, as I said previously, we don't want it to be the only factor, nor do we wish to exclude everyone outside of North America.

In any case, this was well demonstrated, it was a freakin' problem, and I don't particularly care whether people "remember" the issue or not: we empirically demonstrated it and chose to take action. I take responsibility for my action not, perhaps, being the best choice, however..

Changes in the way some numbers were used also happened around the same time, which further complicates things, to the point where I needed help in trying to re-work the nerf. The data displayed on the client (or in VO-wiki) is not necessarily at all the same as what we have in our data files (some of it is, some of it isn't). Additionally, figuring out exactly what version of the numbers were considered "good" may also prove a bit interesting, as I recall there was a nerf and then a bunch of "tweaks". Ugh.

Anyway, I will try to look in this again when I have a chance, and get ray to help me reverse-engineer the thing. The last time I tried, there was some major.. blocking issue, but it was long enough ago (a year or two) that I don't remember what it was, and perhaps we can work around it now.

The raptor handles like a hog, loads out like a vulture and flies with the profile of an IDF valk.

Honestly this thing costs 28k and its ridiculously outmatched by a vult mkIII with a pair of N-2's

the boost drain/speed is good.
This ship just needs at least a 3% increase in thrust and a shit ton of spin torque like 5% (this would make it really usefull with light weapons)

turn the cargo down to 4 on the MkII as well if more combat oriented changes are made.

*Edit well i just flew in one a few minutes ago again and it seemed fine that's odd because i'm a bit high right now anywho its still ridiculously large and needs a tad bit more speed to make up for it so i'll tune things down 50%

I see, thank you for the response Inc, and sorry for doubting you. (this is why Guild is the best btw)

I once suggested that we turn the Raptor into a highly-maneuverable weapons platform. Of course, the topic was swiftly derailed and the thread likewise forgotten.

It occurs to me that we actually could use a combat platform with two large ports. If the armor was boosted to about 12k and the spin bumped up it might make a very good heavy weapons fighter. Cargo and the radar could be dropped as well.

unless anything has changed recently strat, the x1 out accelerates the hound, has WAY more armor, maneuvers better, and can carry more weapons. All that considered, the hound ain't really that great. Honestly I'd like to see it's turbo acceleration be improved and it's armor cut down more. Maybe a 25% boost in turbo acceleration, and cut it's armor down to 6k, just enough to survive one pair of prox mines.

As a pirate, I have found quite a few creative usages for the raptor. It has a pretty good outfitting for chasing and the storm radar is pretty useful for using Nation space ion storms. I suggest that the storm radar never be dropped from the raptor, as that is the central feature of it. Turbo is fine as of the moment, but I'm not denying that the raptor can use large improvements. The model is very large and easy to hit for a light weapons fighter and just seems out of place, but it's the perfect outfit for a heavy weapons fighter. Try putting two heavy weapon ports on it instead of two light weapons.

Why not go the opposite direction and add more scanners to the Raptor, turning it into a survey ship? Give it a built in mineral scanner and a fog scanner (if they ever become available) and any other scanner that comes along. Perhaps it could be one of the few ships with fog scanners at all, making it the “king” of nasty weather.

All of its scanners should be "top of the line," just a little bit better than the ones that can be bought separately. This would help make it the ship of choice for prospecting in bot country.

That's kind of... boring... I must admit. Could just be a pirate biased speaking, but I don't want the raptor's buff to be to turn it into a prospecting ship. The fact that it has extended radar range is cool and comes in handy in a very select few rare situations, but something built only for such very rare situations (considering that ion storm fighting or pirating is more fun than it is at all efficient or common) is silly. The Raptor needs a new distinguishing feature, and considering the backround, easy-to-hit bulky looking model design, and average but pretty good maneuverability; it seems like the perfect test platform for the first heavy weapons fighter.

There are a few other ships that work better as prospectors anyway... greyhound and the vulture top the list.

True, they are both good but both require giving up weapons ports for scanners and radars. A survey version of the Raptor would have all that built in and still have its two weapons ports for weapons.

Also it would still be able to do what it does now, as far as pirating and fighting go, but it could do that in nasty weather. If fog becomes as common as I believe the devs would like then a fighter then an all weather fighter would be very useful.

And why do you really need weapons when scanning?

Given that its label is an "all-weather fighter" I do agree with the fog scanner/visual extender since that is pretty much a given, but the mineral scanner just seems unnecessary. But in a straight fight, as of the moment, the raptor cannot hold its own at all; partly due to the combination of light firepower and a bulky model that is incredibly easy to hit at close range. It needs room for some suppressing fire that will fend any other fighter from just turboing up close, much like what good warthog pilots do to make up for their lack of evasive ability when a fight gets too close. So I stand by my idea to change the raptor's small ports into large ports.