Vastly overpowered rebel ships

I was just doing the same thing and looking at the interceptor differences, it's crazy how unbalanced it is.

Something I have been noticing on recaps and ingame is the tracking system when it comes to targeting, I've seen recaps where the other player isn't even aiming at my ship and their lasers are tracking me to take me down. I'm wondering if there's something to do with an aim assist that is making things unbalanced? I spent a few of my first games trying to line up my shots perfectly and it was taking me so long that I was just getting blasted, then on watching the playbacks I saw that other players weren't doing the same so I switched to what they were doing and got the enemy in my reticle without really having things lined up perfectly and I'm getting kills...it's counter intuitive to what you're expected to do. I'm aware that there's a weapon upgrade that allows for actual aim assist but does less damage, this isn't what's happening.

I'm seeing more losses to the rebels and the shields are the big issue for me along with this weird target tracking system that the game has. I get they have to stick closely to the canon of SW but I just think they could take some liberties here, either give all ships shields or give the Imps hull points equal to the Rebel shields and hull. Or just remove shield regen or increase the delay.

I'd also love to be able to spot my squad mates a lot easier on the field, I think they should be constant blips on the hud that flash when they're under attack etc. I just feel like I'm so much more aware of where the enemy is and not my squad.

All my dog fights last night were 50-50. The tie interceptor is pretty darn good. 

@Goivus wrote:

x-wing 1,200 shield AND 1,200 hull? 
tie fighter 1,550 hull only

A-wing 500 shield AND 500 hull

Tie interceptor 775 hull...

Damage:

Tie Fighter: standard: 480 dps, 6.7 shots/sec - 2 cannons

Xwing: standard: 450.1 dps, 7.5 shots/sec - 4 cannons

highly imbalanced..

There are 3 fundamental issues here which make Republic ships just plain superior.  The combined health and shield ratings of Republic ships far outweigh the relatively small increase in damage for Imperial ships.  Straight up, put a Republic and Imperial ship of the same class head-to-head, and the Republic ship will kill the Imperial ship every time.  The DPS of the TIE doesn't overcome the effective health of the Republic ship.  This is simple math.

The other 2 issues are related to the function of the shields themselves.  First, and most obviously, shields recharge.  And surprisingly quickly if you put full power to shields.  It is also possible to add shields beyond the max standard rating by overcharging them, giving them even more health.  TIEs have no equivalent recharging health system.  Whatever damage you take, is what you get.  The last issue is that Republic ships can shunt power over to shields in an emergency, pulling power from weapons and boost to add shield strength.  There are also shield types that give you brief invulnerability when the shield is broken.

Imperial ships simply have NO answer to this.  A republic ship can tank a number of hits that would kill an equivalent TIE, boost shields with conversion, and then quickly recharge when the heat is briefly off.  Small increases to damage output aren't enough.  The TIE gets a 7% damage increase for cripes sake.  That's it.

Like I said in my previous post, you can't simply just push the raw numbers up on the Imp side and hope for balance.  If you make faction ships balanced for Dogfights via raw number increases, Imps will dominate Fleet Battles.  So you have to look at ways to further differentiate the two factions.  I think my two suggestions to add increased aim assist to Imp ships (unshielded) would help a lot.  Highly maneuverable ships that can land more shots with hit-and-fade tactics would make them better differentiated.  Slowing down and reducing the tracking capability or Pub missiles helps too.  Maybe give Imp ships some light auto-repair?

All I know... there are only two game modes right how, and I refuse to play one of them as the Imps because of how lopsided it is.  I don't think it would take much to bring the two factions closer.

This is all just a salt mine for bad flyers.  If anything the imperial ships are better - they are WAY more maneuverable - making them both harder to hit and making it substantially easier for them to put hits on the slow, plodding rebel fighters.  

Add to this that the Tie Bomber is nearly indestructible and the Imperial ships are fine.  

Perhaps they should have made the battles asymmetrical like they're supposed to be.  More players on the Imperial side to make up for their less advanced ships.