There’s no denying that spaceship balance in CIU has a long way to go. From obscenely gigantic hitboxes like the one found in the BX-9 to the lack of improvements made over preceeding craft in the same lineup such as the M408 Cuisiner. And before I go further, I just wanted to state that the spaceships that need rebalancing are not only bombers, but Mullers and H&C’s as well, I don’t want all of the focus of the discussion going towards the bombers only, I want more ships to be rebalanced as well. With that being said, here’s some points regarding ships:
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Hitboxes: All of the H&C’s have the same hitbox, and so does the first two Mullers but then, there’s the M408, which has a larger hitbox. As we move on to the bombers, their hitbox keeps on getting bigger with each iteration. To help clarify the hitboxes of these ships, I’ll provide a picture of the hitboxes of all of the ships as of Version 34.1.
(Credit goes to @Sammarald)
It immediately becomes clear the the hitboxes of several ships, especially the bombers are too big. Now the solution I propose is that every family of spacecrafts will use the same hitbox size just like how the H&C’s spaceships share the same hitbox size.
The Muller M408 will have the same hitbox as the M400 and the M404-PI. This will greatly increase the viability of the ship.
As for the bombers, they all will share the hitbox of the current BX-6, thus making the larger bombers more viable. -
Speed: This applies solely to the bomber family since all of the spaceships follow the mouse cursor at near instant speed. With that being said, most people would agree on increasing the speed of the bombers. The exact amount for an increase is yet to be decided since I lack information regarding the bomber’s exact speed as well as the speed increase offered by Maneuvering Jets, so it’ll remain as a ballpark. It ranges from making it so that the BX-6 will all 10 jets is as fast as the regular ships to making the BX-6 move as fast as the current BX-6 with all 10 jets.
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Satellites: Despite being successors to preceding ships, some ships like the H&C 201 and the M408 have the same number of satellites over the previous ships.
As a result, both ships aren’t as popular as their predecessors.
My solution would be to grant the M400 a third satellite, the M408 would have a fifth satellite and the bombers would each have one more satellite more than they do now. Now, I’m going to do something very controversial and just remove the satellite slot for the HC101, meaning that it’ll be the only ship in CIU at the moment without any satellite slot. In my opinion, it would be a fair trade to the ship having the smallest hitbox as well as the cheapest price all while having the highest key bonus at 18%. The positioning of these satellites is a whole topic worth discussing about. -
Cost: With my new upgrades, there might be the unwanted side effect of the M408 and to a lesser extent, the H&C 301 would suddenly overshadow their predecessors. To help combat this, there would be an increase in difference between the prices of ships in the same family. The M400 would cost 3000 keys, the M404-PI would cost 3300 keys and the M408 would cost 3600 keys. The H&C prices remain the same and the bomber prices are yet to be determined due to the lack of info regarding speed.
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Features: Another measure to stop certain ships from being overused would be to give certain ships more features. The bombers don’t really require features since they have their firepower extender as well as satellites compensated by their improved but still slower than average speed. The H&C 101 doesn’t really need features since it already has the largest key bonus.
Now for the other ships, keep in mind that these are examples and thus aren’t concrete, with that being said:
The H&C 201 has 15% more efficiency when travelling.
The H&C 301 can give you 30% more visibility in Darkness missions.
The M400 has +15% attack power with all forms of weaponry including kamikaze.
The M404-PI has +20% score
The M408 has 33% more satellite ammo. -
Scoring: In my opinion as well as @anon27929001’s opinion, the points awarded to a player when they get a gift or a powerup as well as maximum power should be nullified in all periodic challenges like the Weekly Challenge, Space Race, Daily Challenge, etc.
Concluding my suggestions, I am here to remind you that I might not be aware of flaws in my idea. If you have problems with my idea then feel free to post them in a civilized and constructive manner.
Best wishes to everyone!