RNG and time-of-battle issues aside, there's another aspect of Ships 2.0 that is quite concerning - both in the short term and the long term if this becomes the MO moving forward.
The nerf of several hard to farm ships is much worse than simply nerfing a single character. People were up in arms when Barris was nerfed (both times, for you "old school" players). Players lost their minds when certain zet abilities were either "fixed" or "reworded to match their functionality" - but nerfing ships is far more disconcerting for players for a few reasons:
1) Multiple ships were nerfed (both actively and "passively").
2) A nerfed ship, in effect, nerfs not only the ship, but the pilots who were geared to pilot that ship - sometimes 2 or even 3. That makes nerfing a ship 3 to 4 times worse - at least as far as fleet is concerned.
3) Making other, less utilized ships suddenly more "necessary" or better means gearing and leveling not just a ship, but the requisite pilots as well (i.e. the inverse of point 2). Meaning it will take 2-3 times longer to bring a ship up to max levels compared to a character.
4) This all is exacerbated by the gear crunch. Pilots need gear. Sometimes 2-3 pilots for a single ship. This just makes the shortage of gear all that much worse.
5) The bigger concern is whether or not this intentional "meta-flipping" through direct manipulation is going to keep occurring, as it basically nullifies months of time and resources and intentionally forces players to re-invest in a game area they had already invested in.
Honestly, I completely understand the need for game balance and reworking aspects of a game that don't "work". But Ships 2.0 didn't do any of that. It simply manipulated the meta. Most players (at least the many I am in contact with via guild chat, shard chat, fleet chat, etc.) don't seem to enjoy Ships 2.0 more - most, far less. Fleet is not suddenly balanced (many rightly argue that Vader and Biggs are more important/powerful now than they were.) Which ships are OP and which ones are useless simply shifted.
I also understand the need for a business model that brings in income. But making players buy again what they have in effect already paid for is generally not a way to do so and keep your playerbase happy. Telling people "Thank for spending time/resources on Tie Reaper/DT/Shore or ITF/TFP - now they are useless....do it again, this time for Geonosians" is not exactly filling whales, dolphins and even minnows with confidence regarding the soundness of future investments.
EA Staff (Retired)
