Support Ship Mechanic Concept
Idea for new mechanic: Fleet “enhancer” Support Ships
So… as per the usual with me, I just finished one concept and thought of 3 more… however, 2 of them were too big to be ships that aren’t Capitals, and too small to be Capital ships (the Arquitens/ Imperial Heavy Cruiser and Tantive IV)
And it brought me back to an idea I had at least a year ago by now… a ship that would fit this role and provide the bonuses of a Capital ship while not being a Capital ship lol… the Idea is a Crovette or Cruiser size (nothing bigger than the Arquitens… there are plenty of ships within this size range) and I think that I have a couple of… cool ideas…
So: I’m going to just call these “Support ships”… seeing as they will either not attack, or do minimal damage and instead act as an outside force to consider, nothing that would be insane (such as a capital destroy ability), but also nothing like Endurance where it does nothing and is outclasses by the starter ships altogether… another thing is that every support ship’s crew will be a combat ability, so if the entire ship is just a booster ship (such as the equivalent of C3 or Mon Mothma is fleets… don’t worry, I already thought of it, I’ll post that concept tmrw) it will STILL have at least 1 combat ability, so it won’t be useless… but that does give me an idea for the GR-75… hm…
The “basic” ships for this type are as follows:
Tantive IV (PRINCESS leia crew)
Imperial Light Cruiser/Arquitens light cruiser (Moff Gideon crew)
Immobilizer Cruiser (I have no idea who would crew…)
Quasar Carrier (Captian Rex crew)
Munificent Frigate (B1 crew… idk who else besides Grevious would work honestly… besides an entirely new unit 😉)
Consular Corvette (Qui-gon crew)
So let’s give a basic idea of what these ships will do to assist/annoy the player
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Tantive IV
Light Side, Support ship, Rebel, Cargo Ship
(Basic) H9 turbo-laser barrage - deal phycial damage to all enemies and remove 15% turn meter from them.
Target lock: remove an additional 15% turn meter
(Special; Cooldown: 3) Plans and Hope - all rebel allies recover 20% health and protection, and gain Offense up and evasion up for 2 turns. If the allied capital ship is rebel, dispel all debuffs on all rebel allies.
(Unique) Only hope - at the start of battle, all active allies have +10% defense and +5 speed. If all allies are rebels (including the capital ship), this bonus is granted for each active rebel ally at the start of battle, and that value is given to all reinforcing allies. Allies are immune to daze while the Tantive IV is active.
(Crew Ability; Cooldown: 3) Out of time: Reduce the cooldowns on the allied capital ship by 1. If the allied capital ship is Rebel, reduce the cooldowns on all rebel allies by 1 also.
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So… some basic ground rules for these ships:
Act like a capital ship in that they cannot be targeted or damaged, but are NOT immune to capital ship destroy effects (or malev’s capital stun)…
Can be used with other capital ships, although generally gain more from being in same-faction fleets…
Can be acquired in the same way every other ship is acquired… the starter ships (Consular, Tantive IV, and Immobilizer) from events, and the other more “advanced” ships from Journey guide and other events
CANNOT CALL REINFORCEMENTS (they are NOT a capital ship, only an addition to the fleet’s overall usage)
And are present at the start of battle… there can only be ONE of these ships, just like a capital ship, but they are optional… some fleets (such as First Order) would not be able to get them in the roster, seeing as they literally have no ships of this size, but they would not need them…
These ships cannot be like the capital ships, so they can’t be able to just one-shot entire units, destroy the enemy capital ship, or anything similar, but are simply just there to boost the actual ships while the capitals can just duke it out in the overall battle…
Basically: how I see this working is by having one of these ships, you effectively have that one guy in the back that tells everyone “hey, look out for this!” And doesn’t actually do anything important… they will have unique mechanics, such as the immobilizer which will impede the call reinforcement ability until it takes another turn (which is how I did the whole “oh yeah, so hyperspace? Nah… not for you” ability), but will not do anything major like full on blowing up an entire fleet…
However: this does add some… “fun” options for fleet battles… in order to turn separatist fleets into a block of cheese for all to enjoy, I made the munificent just a *tad* bit funny…
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Munificent Frigate
Dark side, Support ship, Separatist, Droid
(Basic) Heavy Turbolaser Blast - deal special damage to target enemy, which cannot be evaded. This attack has a 50% chance to ignore the target’s defense, and calls a random droid ally to assist.
Target lock: this attack ignores the target enemy’s defense.
(Special; cooldown: 2) Ion Cannon Blast - stun the target enemy for 1 turn, which cannot be evaded or resisted, and inflict Protection disruption for 2 turns, which cannot be dispelled. Increase target enemy’s cooldowns by 1.
(Here’s that “funny” ability)
(Special; Cooldown: 3) Supporting Salvo - inflict ability block on the enemy capital ship for 1 turn and all other enemies are inflicted with stagger and expose for 2 turns. Dispel stealth, taunt, outmaneuver, and chaff from all enemies, and inflict target lock for 2 turns on enemies that had these effects dispelled, which cannot be resisted or evaded.
(Crew Ability; No cooldown) Advancing order - grant target other ally a bonus turn, and a stack of overcharge for 3 turns, and offense up for 2 turns. If that ally already had overcharge, instead reset all their cooldowns and dispel all debuffs on them.
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You might have noticed this ship has no Unique ability… these ships are versatile in that they can either be offensive (like this one), defensive (like the Immobilizer), or both (like the Tantive). The ships will always always have 4 total abilities (meaning both attacks and uniques), but either may or may not have attacks, being either entirely booster units with no attacks or being attack heavy (as the munificent demonstrated perfectly). however, similar to capital ships, if the capital ship is not the same faction, then there is no real disadvantage for the overall function of that ship… you may have noticed the overcharge ability has no cooldown, yet grants overcharge for 3 turns… this is the perfect example of that
While yes this Support ship acts just fine without Malevolence as the capital ship, when you DO have malevolence, it makes it even stronger… that is the overall idea behind these ships… the Tantive is meant to have the Capital ship do most of the heavy lifting whereas it more or less just makes sure that your main fleet isn’t losing it’s battle. Here, the Munificent is going to be able to be used by ANY fleet, but pairs exceptionally well with Malevolence.
As I said when I put the ability I think is going to be quite powerful and funny to use (if timed well), these ships will have the ability to not only provide support to the main fleet, but also cause the player to now have to think about it doing something to the capital ships. Don’t worry: I might make unit concepts, but I won’t make a ship dedicated to that… which is why the immobilizer is the only one that does that lmao.
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Immobilizer Heavy Cruiser
Dark Side, Support ship, Empire
(Basic) Disruptive Action - Inflict Ability block for 1 turn and remove 30% turn meter from target enemy. If the allied capital ship is empire, also inflict target lock for 2 turns.
(Special; Cooldown: 3) Discharge Energy - inflict shock and daze on all enemies for 2 turns, and dispel all buffs on them. All empire allies gain Offense up and Advantage for 2 turns, and call a random empire ally to assist. If that ally critically hits the targeted enemy, remove 100% turn meter from them as well.
(Special; Cooldown: 4) Intercept Communications - increase the cooldowns on all enemies by 1, including the capital ship and their reinforcement ability. Inflict critical chance, offense, defense, and potency down for 2 turns. inflict ability block on all enemies for 2 turns, which cannot be resisted or evaded.
(Crew Ability; Cooldown: 6) Gravity Well Generator - block the enemy capital ship’s summon reinforcement ability until the end of this unit’s next turn, which cannot be prevented. This ability can be used at the start of battle. If this ship is destroyed before it takes another turn, this ability’s effect ends.
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So as you can see, not only does this ship prevent you from doing really anything, but it is also a COMPLETE NUISANCE to fight against… how do you counter something besides destroying the capital ship? There’s two ways…
The first is to destroy it… “but I thought you said it could only be destroyed by destroy capital ship effects?” I said it could be destroyed by destroy capital ship effects, not that it could ONLY be destroyed from them… I’ll get to that later
The other is by having a very tenacity-heavy fleet… the only effect that cannot be resisted is the ability block, the others can all be pretty much negated without any real consequence, and seeing as a lot of late game fleets will naturally have good crew units with high-stats, this is only really an issue early game… which the immobilizer will also be really good, but can still be countered by the other two starter ships, promoting learning play-styles while also showing the effectiveness of a good fleet…
The other thing with the immobilizer that promotes good play-styles is the effects that it gives Empire ships, giving another set towards having balanced and faction specific fleets. This is also a ship that benefits more from full-empire fleets, so Executor is while yes going to be a good choice non-the less, there a ship that both benefits more and also counteracts the immobilizer…
But before that: the support ships can also be boosters for the allied capital ship! The Consular is not just a support ship for the main fleet, but also a fleet booster for the Endurance (as I said before, basically any NORMAL ship can do what this CAPITAL ship does, and even better… it’s useless, and I think this is a better form of a booster ship than any other ship could be)
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Consular class Corvette
Light Side, Support ship, Galactic republic, Jedi
(Basic) Diplomatic Assistance - reduce the cooldowns on target ally by 1, and they recover 10% of their max health and protection, doubled if they have critical hit immunity.
(Unique) Jedi Business - if the allied capital ship is Endurance, whenever any ally inflicts target lock the endurance gains 15% turn meter. Whenever the endurance grants an ally critical hit immunity, all other allies gain critical hit immunity for 2 turns, and recover 50% of their max protection.
Whenever Endurance inflicts target lock on an enemy, it calls a random Galactic Republic ally to assist. If Endurance uses it’s basic ability on a target locked enemy instead, dispel all buffs on them and inflict critical chance down and daze for 2 turns, and ignore their protection.
(Unique) Envoy of the Republic - All Galactic Republic allies have +30 speed, +20% tenacity, +15% max health, +10% defense, and are immune to turn meter manipulation while they have Valor.
Whenever an ally damages an enemy while they have Valor, they also gain 15% turn meter and grant Valor to a random other ally that does not have it for 2 turns. If the allied capital ship is Endurance, whenever it uses Fortune Favors the Bold, it deals 20% more damage for each ally with valor, and whenever it uses Convergence all Galactic Republic allies gain 50% tenacity for the rest of the encounter.
(Crew ability; Cooldown: 3) Mission of Peace - Dispel the debuffs on all galactic republic allies and they recover 35% health and protection. Grant all galactic republic allies Valor for 2 turns, and if any ally already had Valor, they gain Offense up, accuracy up, and Protection up (20%) for 2 turns instead.
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If it wasn’t already clear, endurance is going to be quite a bit better with Consular… but even without it, Negotiator gains a slight few bonuses as well… this is one of those ships that is only really effective in the fleet it was designed for, which is endurance, showcasing a good example of what these support ships could also be (and what I think many who clicked on this post thought of as a “support ship”)
But… remember how I said that they WOULDN’T be able to call in reinforcements? Well… what if I said that the latest of late-game support ships (the Quasar) is the ONLY ship that can?
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Quasar Carrier
Light Side, Support Ship, Rebel, Rebel Fighter, Phoenix, Cargo ship
(Basic) Resupply - grant all allies accuracy up and speed up for 1 turn, and reduce target ally’s cooldown’s by 1. If the allied capital ship is active, also reduce it’s cooldowns by 1 (excluding the ultimate and reinforcement abilities)
(Special; Cooldown: 3) Combat Support - all allies recover 25% health, gain 50% turn meter, and gain defense up, tenacity up, and critical hit immunity for 1 turn. All allies gain the Resupply unique buff for 2 turns.
Resupply: Gain 100% turn meter, critical damage up, and advantage whenever this ship uses a Special ability. While this ship has this buff, it is immune to cooldown manipulation, and has +75% potency.
(Unique) Stolen Imperial Carrier - this unit has +40 speed, and reduces the cooldown’s of each ally with Resupply by 1 whenever it uses it’s basic ability. While any ally has Resupply, the active capital ship has +20 speed and +25% potency. Whenever an enemy loses resupply, the Quasar gains 15% turn meter.
If an enemy unit critically hits an ally with Resupply, that enemy is inflicted with target lock and buff immunity for 1 turn at the end of that turn, which cannot be resisted. If that enemy was Empire, this effect cannot be evaded and lasts an additional turn.
(Crew ability; Cooldown: 2) Summon Reinforcements - call in an allied reinforcement. This ability starts on cooldown.
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Sticking true to the Quasar’s “Combat Carrier” role in lore, it both provides boosts for the main fleet as well as for the capital ship, while being able to summon reinforcements as well… this is the ship I see running with exec. Quite often, and I see this ship being similar to exec in “I want it badly” being something in every player’s heads…
However: the Quasar does have it’s biggest weakness in that while yes it brings buffs and boosts to allies, it is a jack of all trades, so some fleets might be better off without it than with it (what I mean is that there might be better options than the Quasar… not that it is bad because of the jack of all trades thing…)
But… remember that “other ship” I mentioned? Well there’s only one left: the Arquitens… a fairly early game (but not starter) ship, the Arquitens is my final example of the Support ship role, and also the one that I think will be used the most often (if added)
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Arquitens Heavy Cruiser
Dark Side, Support ship, Empire, Imperial Remnant
(Basic) Crippling Strike - deal physical damage to target enemy and inflict stagger on all enemies for 1 turn.
Target lock: deal physical damage to all other enemies.
(Special; cooldown: 3) Tie Support - deal special damage to all enemies. Inflict Buff immunity and Target lock for 2 turns, which cannot be evaded. If the enemy Support ship is active, inflict ability block on it for 1 turn, which cannot be resisted.
Target lock: remove 30% turn meter, which cannot be resisted.
(Unique) Remnant of Order - All allies have +15% potency, +10% evasion, and gain speed up for 2 turns whenever the allied capital ship uses an ability. If the allied capital ship is active, all allies deal 20% more damage.
If the enemy fleet has a Support ship, at the start of its turn, all allies gain +30% tenacity and defense. Whenever the enemy support ship uses an ability, reduce the cooldowns on the Arquitens by 1, and if any ally resists an effect from the enemy support ship, they gain 5% turn meter.
(Crew Ability; Cooldown 5) Turbo-laser Salvo - Destroy the enemy support ship. Deal Physical damage to all other enemies twice, and inflict ability block, defense down, and potency down for 2 turns. If the enemy capital ship is active, also remove 40% turn meter, which cannot be resisted.
This ability starts on cooldown, and is immune to enemy cooldown manipulation.
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So, does the Arquitens have some punch? Yes… is it quite as strong as the Munificent? I have no idea… I don’t think so, since being able to just say “hey take this!” to the enemy capital ship before Malevolence can stun it, or even after it stuns it just sounds funny to me…
However: as I said after the Immobilizer’s Section, this is the ship that will basically directly counter the Immobilizer… but what can counter it? Well, seeing as there is only one ability that really causes issues for your fleet, this is one of those ships where going against it, not having a Support ship is actually beneficial rather than having one…
Yes you do lose out on what is basically a free booster unit, but at the end of the day, fleets like Finalizer will be just as effective as they would be otherwise, and if you’re facing an enemy fleet with Exec and Arquitens, you won’t have to worry about the Arquitens too much (or any more than you would the exec) with how strong FO is in fleets… not only that, but each support ship is by themselves just as good as the rest, only in different ways.
Not to mention that at the end of the day, these aren’t ships that are meant to be Capital ships, just things that are like those little sharks underneath the big ones. (you know… like in those shark documentaries?) Some boost and do more than others, but others are able to be used in more fleets than the rest… while these are just the basic ideas, I think I can get my point across just the same…
For a while now I’ve noticed how many people are saying again and again that fleet battles are either too identical or to powerful… with ships like Scythe being a “Capital ship” all by itself and others like Endurance being so weak they can’t really be used, the balance needs some help as I read it… I hope that this does two things: the first is change that balance in a good way, and the second is open up the roster for dozens of new and potentially exciting new players, units, and ideas…
As per usual, these ideas are up for grabs, conversations, or just in general thoughts… I want the best and if this is how I do it, by all means I will gladly! I don’t have many “Support ship” concepts YET, but given time I might just put a few here and there on the forums… just to see who is actually interested in them…
So… as per the usual with me, I just finished one concept and thought of 3 more… however, 2 of them were too big to be ships that aren’t Capitals, and too small to be Capital ships (the Arquitens/ Imperial Heavy Cruiser and Tantive IV)
And it brought me back to an idea I had at least a year ago by now… a ship that would fit this role and provide the bonuses of a Capital ship while not being a Capital ship lol… the Idea is a Crovette or Cruiser size (nothing bigger than the Arquitens… there are plenty of ships within this size range) and I think that I have a couple of… cool ideas…
So: I’m going to just call these “Support ships”… seeing as they will either not attack, or do minimal damage and instead act as an outside force to consider, nothing that would be insane (such as a capital destroy ability), but also nothing like Endurance where it does nothing and is outclasses by the starter ships altogether… another thing is that every support ship’s crew will be a combat ability, so if the entire ship is just a booster ship (such as the equivalent of C3 or Mon Mothma is fleets… don’t worry, I already thought of it, I’ll post that concept tmrw) it will STILL have at least 1 combat ability, so it won’t be useless… but that does give me an idea for the GR-75… hm…
The “basic” ships for this type are as follows:
Tantive IV (PRINCESS leia crew)
Imperial Light Cruiser/Arquitens light cruiser (Moff Gideon crew)
Immobilizer Cruiser (I have no idea who would crew…)
Quasar Carrier (Captian Rex crew)
Munificent Frigate (B1 crew… idk who else besides Grevious would work honestly… besides an entirely new unit 😉)
Consular Corvette (Qui-gon crew)
So let’s give a basic idea of what these ships will do to assist/annoy the player
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Tantive IV
Light Side, Support ship, Rebel, Cargo Ship
(Basic) H9 turbo-laser barrage - deal phycial damage to all enemies and remove 15% turn meter from them.
Target lock: remove an additional 15% turn meter
(Special; Cooldown: 3) Plans and Hope - all rebel allies recover 20% health and protection, and gain Offense up and evasion up for 2 turns. If the allied capital ship is rebel, dispel all debuffs on all rebel allies.
(Unique) Only hope - at the start of battle, all active allies have +10% defense and +5 speed. If all allies are rebels (including the capital ship), this bonus is granted for each active rebel ally at the start of battle, and that value is given to all reinforcing allies. Allies are immune to daze while the Tantive IV is active.
(Crew Ability; Cooldown: 3) Out of time: Reduce the cooldowns on the allied capital ship by 1. If the allied capital ship is Rebel, reduce the cooldowns on all rebel allies by 1 also.
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So… some basic ground rules for these ships:
Act like a capital ship in that they cannot be targeted or damaged, but are NOT immune to capital ship destroy effects (or malev’s capital stun)…
Can be used with other capital ships, although generally gain more from being in same-faction fleets…
Can be acquired in the same way every other ship is acquired… the starter ships (Consular, Tantive IV, and Immobilizer) from events, and the other more “advanced” ships from Journey guide and other events
CANNOT CALL REINFORCEMENTS (they are NOT a capital ship, only an addition to the fleet’s overall usage)
And are present at the start of battle… there can only be ONE of these ships, just like a capital ship, but they are optional… some fleets (such as First Order) would not be able to get them in the roster, seeing as they literally have no ships of this size, but they would not need them…
These ships cannot be like the capital ships, so they can’t be able to just one-shot entire units, destroy the enemy capital ship, or anything similar, but are simply just there to boost the actual ships while the capitals can just duke it out in the overall battle…
Basically: how I see this working is by having one of these ships, you effectively have that one guy in the back that tells everyone “hey, look out for this!” And doesn’t actually do anything important… they will have unique mechanics, such as the immobilizer which will impede the call reinforcement ability until it takes another turn (which is how I did the whole “oh yeah, so hyperspace? Nah… not for you” ability), but will not do anything major like full on blowing up an entire fleet…
However: this does add some… “fun” options for fleet battles… in order to turn separatist fleets into a block of cheese for all to enjoy, I made the munificent just a *tad* bit funny…
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Munificent Frigate
Dark side, Support ship, Separatist, Droid
(Basic) Heavy Turbolaser Blast - deal special damage to target enemy, which cannot be evaded. This attack has a 50% chance to ignore the target’s defense, and calls a random droid ally to assist.
Target lock: this attack ignores the target enemy’s defense.
(Special; cooldown: 2) Ion Cannon Blast - stun the target enemy for 1 turn, which cannot be evaded or resisted, and inflict Protection disruption for 2 turns, which cannot be dispelled. Increase target enemy’s cooldowns by 1.
(Here’s that “funny” ability)
(Special; Cooldown: 3) Supporting Salvo - inflict ability block on the enemy capital ship for 1 turn and all other enemies are inflicted with stagger and expose for 2 turns. Dispel stealth, taunt, outmaneuver, and chaff from all enemies, and inflict target lock for 2 turns on enemies that had these effects dispelled, which cannot be resisted or evaded.
(Crew Ability; No cooldown) Advancing order - grant target other ally a bonus turn, and a stack of overcharge for 3 turns, and offense up for 2 turns. If that ally already had overcharge, instead reset all their cooldowns and dispel all debuffs on them.
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You might have noticed this ship has no Unique ability… these ships are versatile in that they can either be offensive (like this one), defensive (like the Immobilizer), or both (like the Tantive). The ships will always always have 4 total abilities (meaning both attacks and uniques), but either may or may not have attacks, being either entirely booster units with no attacks or being attack heavy (as the munificent demonstrated perfectly). however, similar to capital ships, if the capital ship is not the same faction, then there is no real disadvantage for the overall function of that ship… you may have noticed the overcharge ability has no cooldown, yet grants overcharge for 3 turns… this is the perfect example of that
While yes this Support ship acts just fine without Malevolence as the capital ship, when you DO have malevolence, it makes it even stronger… that is the overall idea behind these ships… the Tantive is meant to have the Capital ship do most of the heavy lifting whereas it more or less just makes sure that your main fleet isn’t losing it’s battle. Here, the Munificent is going to be able to be used by ANY fleet, but pairs exceptionally well with Malevolence.
As I said when I put the ability I think is going to be quite powerful and funny to use (if timed well), these ships will have the ability to not only provide support to the main fleet, but also cause the player to now have to think about it doing something to the capital ships. Don’t worry: I might make unit concepts, but I won’t make a ship dedicated to that… which is why the immobilizer is the only one that does that lmao.
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Immobilizer Heavy Cruiser
Dark Side, Support ship, Empire
(Basic) Disruptive Action - Inflict Ability block for 1 turn and remove 30% turn meter from target enemy. If the allied capital ship is empire, also inflict target lock for 2 turns.
(Special; Cooldown: 3) Discharge Energy - inflict shock and daze on all enemies for 2 turns, and dispel all buffs on them. All empire allies gain Offense up and Advantage for 2 turns, and call a random empire ally to assist. If that ally critically hits the targeted enemy, remove 100% turn meter from them as well.
(Special; Cooldown: 4) Intercept Communications - increase the cooldowns on all enemies by 1, including the capital ship and their reinforcement ability. Inflict critical chance, offense, defense, and potency down for 2 turns. inflict ability block on all enemies for 2 turns, which cannot be resisted or evaded.
(Crew Ability; Cooldown: 6) Gravity Well Generator - block the enemy capital ship’s summon reinforcement ability until the end of this unit’s next turn, which cannot be prevented. This ability can be used at the start of battle. If this ship is destroyed before it takes another turn, this ability’s effect ends.
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So as you can see, not only does this ship prevent you from doing really anything, but it is also a COMPLETE NUISANCE to fight against… how do you counter something besides destroying the capital ship? There’s two ways…
The first is to destroy it… “but I thought you said it could only be destroyed by destroy capital ship effects?” I said it could be destroyed by destroy capital ship effects, not that it could ONLY be destroyed from them… I’ll get to that later
The other is by having a very tenacity-heavy fleet… the only effect that cannot be resisted is the ability block, the others can all be pretty much negated without any real consequence, and seeing as a lot of late game fleets will naturally have good crew units with high-stats, this is only really an issue early game… which the immobilizer will also be really good, but can still be countered by the other two starter ships, promoting learning play-styles while also showing the effectiveness of a good fleet…
The other thing with the immobilizer that promotes good play-styles is the effects that it gives Empire ships, giving another set towards having balanced and faction specific fleets. This is also a ship that benefits more from full-empire fleets, so Executor is while yes going to be a good choice non-the less, there a ship that both benefits more and also counteracts the immobilizer…
But before that: the support ships can also be boosters for the allied capital ship! The Consular is not just a support ship for the main fleet, but also a fleet booster for the Endurance (as I said before, basically any NORMAL ship can do what this CAPITAL ship does, and even better… it’s useless, and I think this is a better form of a booster ship than any other ship could be)
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Consular class Corvette
Light Side, Support ship, Galactic republic, Jedi
(Basic) Diplomatic Assistance - reduce the cooldowns on target ally by 1, and they recover 10% of their max health and protection, doubled if they have critical hit immunity.
(Unique) Jedi Business - if the allied capital ship is Endurance, whenever any ally inflicts target lock the endurance gains 15% turn meter. Whenever the endurance grants an ally critical hit immunity, all other allies gain critical hit immunity for 2 turns, and recover 50% of their max protection.
Whenever Endurance inflicts target lock on an enemy, it calls a random Galactic Republic ally to assist. If Endurance uses it’s basic ability on a target locked enemy instead, dispel all buffs on them and inflict critical chance down and daze for 2 turns, and ignore their protection.
(Unique) Envoy of the Republic - All Galactic Republic allies have +30 speed, +20% tenacity, +15% max health, +10% defense, and are immune to turn meter manipulation while they have Valor.
Whenever an ally damages an enemy while they have Valor, they also gain 15% turn meter and grant Valor to a random other ally that does not have it for 2 turns. If the allied capital ship is Endurance, whenever it uses Fortune Favors the Bold, it deals 20% more damage for each ally with valor, and whenever it uses Convergence all Galactic Republic allies gain 50% tenacity for the rest of the encounter.
(Crew ability; Cooldown: 3) Mission of Peace - Dispel the debuffs on all galactic republic allies and they recover 35% health and protection. Grant all galactic republic allies Valor for 2 turns, and if any ally already had Valor, they gain Offense up, accuracy up, and Protection up (20%) for 2 turns instead.
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If it wasn’t already clear, endurance is going to be quite a bit better with Consular… but even without it, Negotiator gains a slight few bonuses as well… this is one of those ships that is only really effective in the fleet it was designed for, which is endurance, showcasing a good example of what these support ships could also be (and what I think many who clicked on this post thought of as a “support ship”)
But… remember how I said that they WOULDN’T be able to call in reinforcements? Well… what if I said that the latest of late-game support ships (the Quasar) is the ONLY ship that can?
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Quasar Carrier
Light Side, Support Ship, Rebel, Rebel Fighter, Phoenix, Cargo ship
(Basic) Resupply - grant all allies accuracy up and speed up for 1 turn, and reduce target ally’s cooldown’s by 1. If the allied capital ship is active, also reduce it’s cooldowns by 1 (excluding the ultimate and reinforcement abilities)
(Special; Cooldown: 3) Combat Support - all allies recover 25% health, gain 50% turn meter, and gain defense up, tenacity up, and critical hit immunity for 1 turn. All allies gain the Resupply unique buff for 2 turns.
Resupply: Gain 100% turn meter, critical damage up, and advantage whenever this ship uses a Special ability. While this ship has this buff, it is immune to cooldown manipulation, and has +75% potency.
(Unique) Stolen Imperial Carrier - this unit has +40 speed, and reduces the cooldown’s of each ally with Resupply by 1 whenever it uses it’s basic ability. While any ally has Resupply, the active capital ship has +20 speed and +25% potency. Whenever an enemy loses resupply, the Quasar gains 15% turn meter.
If an enemy unit critically hits an ally with Resupply, that enemy is inflicted with target lock and buff immunity for 1 turn at the end of that turn, which cannot be resisted. If that enemy was Empire, this effect cannot be evaded and lasts an additional turn.
(Crew ability; Cooldown: 2) Summon Reinforcements - call in an allied reinforcement. This ability starts on cooldown.
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Sticking true to the Quasar’s “Combat Carrier” role in lore, it both provides boosts for the main fleet as well as for the capital ship, while being able to summon reinforcements as well… this is the ship I see running with exec. Quite often, and I see this ship being similar to exec in “I want it badly” being something in every player’s heads…
However: the Quasar does have it’s biggest weakness in that while yes it brings buffs and boosts to allies, it is a jack of all trades, so some fleets might be better off without it than with it (what I mean is that there might be better options than the Quasar… not that it is bad because of the jack of all trades thing…)
But… remember that “other ship” I mentioned? Well there’s only one left: the Arquitens… a fairly early game (but not starter) ship, the Arquitens is my final example of the Support ship role, and also the one that I think will be used the most often (if added)
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Arquitens Heavy Cruiser
Dark Side, Support ship, Empire, Imperial Remnant
(Basic) Crippling Strike - deal physical damage to target enemy and inflict stagger on all enemies for 1 turn.
Target lock: deal physical damage to all other enemies.
(Special; cooldown: 3) Tie Support - deal special damage to all enemies. Inflict Buff immunity and Target lock for 2 turns, which cannot be evaded. If the enemy Support ship is active, inflict ability block on it for 1 turn, which cannot be resisted.
Target lock: remove 30% turn meter, which cannot be resisted.
(Unique) Remnant of Order - All allies have +15% potency, +10% evasion, and gain speed up for 2 turns whenever the allied capital ship uses an ability. If the allied capital ship is active, all allies deal 20% more damage.
If the enemy fleet has a Support ship, at the start of its turn, all allies gain +30% tenacity and defense. Whenever the enemy support ship uses an ability, reduce the cooldowns on the Arquitens by 1, and if any ally resists an effect from the enemy support ship, they gain 5% turn meter.
(Crew Ability; Cooldown 5) Turbo-laser Salvo - Destroy the enemy support ship. Deal Physical damage to all other enemies twice, and inflict ability block, defense down, and potency down for 2 turns. If the enemy capital ship is active, also remove 40% turn meter, which cannot be resisted.
This ability starts on cooldown, and is immune to enemy cooldown manipulation.
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So, does the Arquitens have some punch? Yes… is it quite as strong as the Munificent? I have no idea… I don’t think so, since being able to just say “hey take this!” to the enemy capital ship before Malevolence can stun it, or even after it stuns it just sounds funny to me…
However: as I said after the Immobilizer’s Section, this is the ship that will basically directly counter the Immobilizer… but what can counter it? Well, seeing as there is only one ability that really causes issues for your fleet, this is one of those ships where going against it, not having a Support ship is actually beneficial rather than having one…
Yes you do lose out on what is basically a free booster unit, but at the end of the day, fleets like Finalizer will be just as effective as they would be otherwise, and if you’re facing an enemy fleet with Exec and Arquitens, you won’t have to worry about the Arquitens too much (or any more than you would the exec) with how strong FO is in fleets… not only that, but each support ship is by themselves just as good as the rest, only in different ways.
Not to mention that at the end of the day, these aren’t ships that are meant to be Capital ships, just things that are like those little sharks underneath the big ones. (you know… like in those shark documentaries?) Some boost and do more than others, but others are able to be used in more fleets than the rest… while these are just the basic ideas, I think I can get my point across just the same…
For a while now I’ve noticed how many people are saying again and again that fleet battles are either too identical or to powerful… with ships like Scythe being a “Capital ship” all by itself and others like Endurance being so weak they can’t really be used, the balance needs some help as I read it… I hope that this does two things: the first is change that balance in a good way, and the second is open up the roster for dozens of new and potentially exciting new players, units, and ideas…
As per usual, these ideas are up for grabs, conversations, or just in general thoughts… I want the best and if this is how I do it, by all means I will gladly! I don’t have many “Support ship” concepts YET, but given time I might just put a few here and there on the forums… just to see who is actually interested in them…
