I know it’s been a while since I have played the game but after returning for a bit I think it would be great to modernize some of the game experience with higher end ships having more built in capabilities, it would make sense that a nations highest end ships would have a lot more onboard tech than common base model ships. Specifically I would argue that the prom, valk, and raptor UDV get built in storm radars and cargo scanners since they are their nations premier defense ships

I get it, but I think that is what sets the UDV apart from the other two nation top tier ships. It would ultimately be a nerf to the UDV.

As Inevitable mentions, the concept of the UDV originally was that it would give a meaningful advantage under reduced-visibility scenarios, where the flexibility outweighed its other potential areas of tactical inferiority, when compared against the other top-tier Nation ships.

I think the overall balance of storm and radar extenders is going to become more interesting once the universe starts to change a bit more, and we encounter more permanently fogged regions.

I'm not against adding more capabilities to more types of ships, but I'm not sure it's justified yet (or how that would play out once it becomes more important).

Way I see it you could grant the rune an addon scanner and the prom mkII a cargo scanner, giving all of them the same shit across the board isn't too interesting - that way the UDV remains the best scouting/pirating spaceboat out there.

Even without all the telemetry shit the UDV does a lot of stuff the skyprom and the valk can't do with it's two large ports and absurd turbo thrust/efficient drain/high top speed.

And yeah the UIT are a bunch of sly negotiating two faced cowards why the hell they need to have good fightin' gear is beyond me!

Way I see it you could grant the rune an addon scanner and the prom mkII a cargo scanner, giving all of them the same shit across the board isn't too interesting - that way the UDV remains the best scouting/pirating spaceboat out there.

Unless I'm mistaken, the addon and cargo scanners are both small port addons, so the valk and and prom can both equip those addons. No need to build them into the ships.

And the UDV can't do a lot that the x-1 can do with its slim profile, 3 small ports, thrust, and turn rate. Or the prom with its umm... armor.

Uhh jak I've messed around with the UDV and there's loads of stuff it can do that neither the skyprom or the calk can come close to.

The biggest one being the sensor suite and turbo thrust on top of two large ports it lets you pick your engagements - camping a wormhole with an IHDPC UDV will have an easier time deshielding capships than either the prom or the valk, that's a huge advantage, getting a valk or a prom to do the same and you'll be sacrificing a lot of damage output something that that thr UDV doesn't suffer from.

Dual megaposi for a total loadout of 1100kg on an 3800kg with 300N of turbo oomf is something neither the skyprom or the valk can match, hell even thy hallowed tri-hive positron valk runs ~20% less efficient and weighs in an additional ~20% at 1300kg on a spaceboat that doesn't handle heavier loadouts in a chase as well. That and the UDV turns on a dime, and that's without touching the fact that hive posis are a pain in the ass to aquire whereas the udv is a matter of just clicking on a single button...

Both the rune and the prom mkII are pratically never flown much like the raptor mk2 is relegated to the dustbin as soon as soon as the UDV is unlocked, this change wouldn't hurt...

I had to buff the living hell out of the UDV (several times) to make it relevant, it was the butt of every joke for quite a long time, when compared against the better Valks/Proms. It's interesting to see anyone take the opposite side, now.

Introducing the IHDPC changed a *lot* about what ships and loadouts are viable for what roles.

Introducing the IHDPC changed a *lot* about what ships and loadouts are viable for what roles.

Can you expand on what you mean by this? The UDV was released in Vendetta 1.8.278(in 2014). The Improved high drain was added into the game in late 2013; the power cell predates the UDV. So the IHDPC didn't change what loadouts were used for the UDV.

Unless you were not responding to Inc, then I apologize for the misunderstanding.

The biggest one being the sensor suite and turbo thrust on top of two large ports it lets you pick your engagements - camping a wormhole with an IHDPC UDV will have an easier time deshielding capships than either the prom or the valk, that's a huge advantage, getting a valk or a prom to do the same and you'll be sacrificing a lot of damage output something that that thr UDV doesn't suffer from.

I think you are over-estimating the advantages of sensor suites. If a UDV is camping a wormhole a Prom or Valk has the the firepower, armor, and/or profile(and the valk speed) to make the sensors useless as you can chase them away. A Ragnorak will have an easier time deshielding capships than any of the aforementioned ships. Being able to see addons/roids doesn't change that fact.

Dual megaposi for a total loadout of 1100kg on an 3800kg with 300N of turbo oomf is something neither the skyprom or the valk can match,

Good, why would you want a ship to do the same thing other ships can already do? A UDV can't tank/dodge the damage that a valk/prom can. A UDV also doesn't have the advantage to crowd control like a Prom(armor, flares, gats) or that a Valk can (Armor, Sunflares, speed, profile, precise low delay blasters like nuets/posi's)/

If you read my post I said that neither ship should get the sensor suite but that the less used variants of the prom and valk could get specific telemetry hell the skyprom could also get a build in addon scanner and the X1 a limited storm extender that only allows to see asteroids or something, the UDV has 300N of turbo thrust it leaves a valk with a sunflare or N2's fitted in the dust assuming when it's fit "properly" with megaposis which are by a large margin the best energy weapon in the game and are only limited by the fact they can only be fit to large ports.

And yes the sensor suite grants a big advantage, knowing what your opponent is packing and having the ability to disengage is pretty damn advantageous, the UDV is much more capable than people give it credit for.

Yes, honestly the built-in nature of these in so many ships already works against the idea that we should have to decide between equipping a scanner and a weapon. Make it so.

It's interesting to see anyone take the opposite side, now.

I think the praise of the UDV can be surprising because it takes people a while to come around to the thing in the first place. The first time I flew the UDV, I thought it was a joke, lazily flailing around and with only one really viable weapon for traditional combat. Given some time to get acclimated to it, however, I now think it is one of the top 5 ships in the game, almost regardless of situation.

That said, I think spidey is slightly overstating the benefits of the UDV - at least, when compared to its downsides (abysmal turn rate and huge hitbox). To take advantage of its benefits you have to work around its downsides in a way other ships don't really require of the pilot. I think its benefits are pretty well-balanced compared to the other top-tier ships. It's a top 5 ship, but it is not THE top ship.

That leads me to the suggestion proper: I'm against it if it's all the sensors on the X-1 and SkyProm. I'm lukewarm to okay with it if it's either a single sensor (say, an add-on scanner) on the top two ships, or relegated to one of the worse variants of the Prom and Valk. This would keep the UDV best-in-class for intel on your target, but give Serco and Itani players some choice (and encouragement to make said choice) regarding their nations' top ships.

I will say, noting my own bias, that the Valk with its three small ports is already in a position to mount a scanner without meaningfully affecting its overall DPS. Burst DPS would of course be lowered, but you can still quite easily bullet-hell your enemy to death with only two energy weapons vs three. Any other small ship would be very gimped if it sacrificed one of its small port weapons (including the marauder, given that you need as much damage as you can with its less than stellar movement) in a way the Valk simply isn't.

Lastly, if these scanners were present on the other top tier ships, it would lower the overall uniqueness of the UDV. It's still highly capable in its own right, but I think it could stand to see something changed to keep it special, especially given there's only one variant of it to the Serco's/Itani's four. Perhaps an additional variant of the UDV with small ports would increase its versatility in response to this change ;)

Camping a storm with a megaposi UDV is something nothing else can touch; the sheer DPS and the fact you only pop up on your target's radard 500m away barely giving them any time to react is huge, dual lenb/storm scanner X1 can't do this nearly as well, then there's fogged sectors which are probably going to become more common in the future.

IHDPC Megaposi UDV camping a storm with another pilot with a pcb and N2 can tear down a player capships in a few minutes no other ship can do this...

The ability to leg it when you see your opponent is packing heat you don't want to deal with is huge, adding this functionality to any other ship gimps DPS/versatility.

Finally the UDV's turn rate is far from abysmal it turns on a dime in short time like the vult but suffers from the same inertia swing which is probably what took you a long time to compensate for.

afaik (I'm probably wrong and if I am I don't see why this isn't implemented) the UDV also has a massless shared group radar extender, so yeah bringing just one of them in a storm when there's lotsa pewpew going on is a pretty significant force multiplier.

TL;DR: the public opinion of the UDV hasn't caught up with it's actual viability in pewpew; It's nice where it is (hell it's borderline overpowered in some contexts) and it won't get diluted by giving limited telemetry to ships that barely see any use but are technically good - just why would anyone bother using something slightly "less" good to save a few credits.

IHDPC Megaposi UDV camping a storm with another pilot with a pcb and N2 can tear down a player capships in a few minutes no other ship can do this...

Most two ship crews in a storm, as long one of them has a PCB, can do this. Two mauds can easily do it. And if you are in PCB range, you don't even need a storm range extender. This is not a UDV thing.

and the fact you only pop up on your target's radar 500m away barely giving them any time to react is huge,

UDVs are not stealth. If there other ship has an extender as well then the UDV will not just appear out of no where.

and it won't get diluted by giving limited telemetry to ships that barely see any use but are technically good

If those other ships get sensor suites, then they should lose ports.

I'm not arguing for the full sensor suite and yeah the UDV blows even a lenb valk out of the water for DPS, not to mention DPE