Federation Commander

Which Race do you think is the most over Balanced, not including the LDR or Orions.

The Organians, of course.

Obvisously not the Gron... they're so weak most people have never even heard of them.

Actually I haven't found that any one race is particularly overpowered. Some races do better against others, but against what would be considered "natural" enemies they seem fairly evenly balanced.

The ISC. Chuffin' massive starships with mega weapons, designed with the benefit of hindsight, against the tattered remnants of the Alpha Octant war fleets.

That's overpowered.

Similar to all the other ships that were designed to be 'just a little better than' the Fed CA - design creep, is it called?

In general, I agree with Scoutdad that any one race is generally not over-powered (or even under-powered), though myself I always seem to miss with photon torpedoes and so dislike playing the Federation - despite this, I have found them to be dangerous indeed when on the receiving end of these weapons and the ship handled competently. I think that some races are much better against others, but worse in other situations or against other races, and so overall I don't think any one race is particularly better than another.

Kang wrote:The ISC. Chuffin' massive starships with mega weapons, designed with the benefit of hindsight, against the tattered remnants of the Alpha Octant war fleets.

That's overpowered.

Similar to all the other ships that were designed to be 'just a little better than' the Fed CA - design creep, is it called?

The ISC aren't overpowered in the sense that point-for-point they are balanced. It's just that what they call a "heavy cruiser" is really quite a bit larger than what everyone else does, and so on. I think this is, as you say, because the ISC had the benefit of watching everyone massacre each other and then learned from their mistakes before making their own mistakes. The superiority of the ISC on a class-for-class basis is an "historical" reason rather than a "design creep" effect, I think.

The design creep thing in general isn't as bad in FC as it was in SFB, because all of the refits have been selected and standardised to make the ships reasonably well balanced with each other, at least as well balanced as it is possible to be with some races being naturally better against others and trying to be in keeping with the ships from SFB at the same time - some ships of a certain class are just smaller, and so not quite as good, as some from other races (for example Hydran frigates are smaller than most others).

The fact that Tholian Cast Web lasts 8 impulses (rather than 1/2 the turn as in SFB) makes them unbalanced. So far, in my experience, the Tholians do not lose. Whether I was playing as a Tholian or against the Tholians, the Tholians came out on top if using web casters. (The only exceptions that I can remember are when someone is playing the Tholians for the first time and haven't figured out how to use the Caster properly.)

If the Web caster were changed so that they lasted 4 impulses, I believe the problem would be eliminated. Rules that balanced Star Fleet Battles also work to balance Federation Commander.

I've played with and against most of the races and have not found any particurly over/under balanced.

It has been my expereieance that the races are balanced. Even Web Caster do not bother me much. But... the fact that a Snare Generated can literally eat a Type R Plasma casue me some minor discomfort sometimes when I am not playing the Rockheads.

Of course noone can crawl in a hole and pull a ROC over the top of it like a Tholian can.

In general, the Seltorians are the c@#$piest. They are lumbering vessels with very limited frontal arcs and weapons that lack one turn crunch potential in favor of more rapid fire. Basically you have to perform the sabre dance with a barge.

I agree that all the races have strengths and weaknesses against each other. More important is scenario choice. Closed map games give the edge to seaking weapons with definable corners. Open maps give the disruptor races room to weaken shields before seeking a closing engagement.

I enjoy playing most races, except the stupid Andros, and Steve seems to have done a reasonably good job of balancing.

The Romulans and their dishonorable cloaking device. The federation knows honor as much as the klinks.

Does dishonour make a race overpowered though (assuming cloaking brings dishonour, which arguably it does in the eyes of the enemy)? The Romulans seem quite weak point-for-point in FC, probably because they have the cloaking device, which of course costs points.

Davec_24 wrote:assuming cloaking brings dishonour, which arguably it does in the eyes of the enemy?

How? 'In the eyes of the enemy'? They can't see you!

But they do know you are there somewhere, and by not coming out and "fighting honourably" then you are being dishonourable. This is at least how one who wished to argue that cloaking is dishonourable could go about it - you could say that in certain circumstances, it is simply sensible (rather than dishonourable) to cloak...