Dreads, are dreaded (duh). They own all they see, its how they work, they arem eant to be feared.

Nothing but another dread or 2-3 cruisers should be able to take a lone dread. Fullstop.

On 2005-07-19 12:04, Southpark wrote:
uhm, the technical background of the word:

Dreadnaught

is two wrods

Dread - Naught

meaning Dread( or fear) Naught (nothing)

it classfied a series of ships that feared nothing due to their impressive(for the time period) armor and guns, they weren't battleship class really, but super-cruiser moreso, later battleship-class ships i believe outsized and outgunned dreadnaughts by a fair margin, dreadnaughts are more pocket-battleships.

so in actuality, he is using the reverse of the meaning dreadnaught, the dreadnaught should "fear nothing" in theory, but in reality a large, slow moving, heavily armored target.. makes it a tempting target for everyone else..

on to the real topic:
i do like the weakened aft arcs of the current series of dreadnaughts and
cruisers, this represents a real weakness that clever pilots will take advantage of, ships shouldn't be the 360 degree fortress they were before, that would be reserved for a battle station of sorts

classic space sims and science fiction have given capital ships weak rear arcs by tradition as it follows actual modern/classic naval ship construction, and many capital ships had rear facing cannon/guns/weapons but in limited number, its just a physical limitation, with the engines and whatnot in the rear, you have limited space and line of sight out the back end, unless u have everything mounted on a big rotating turret .. yeah..

anyhow.. i like the change to firing arcs and whatnot, the space bar - alpha in my opinion shoud be removed completely, people woud focus less on how many of their guns they can hit someone with without having to worry about actual piloting and instead concentrate more on getting in positions where they can quickly unmask additional weapons to fire on a moving target, even in a dreadnaught i find ways to avoid people getting into my rear arc, speed changes, e-jumps, use of obstacles or friendly ships etc..

if you're alone, against 2 opponents in decent ships, you deserve to be bushwhacked, the odds are against you for not taking advantage of teammates, situation, maneuvering and obstacles..

i find the QST/etc weapons to be invaluable(i don't get to use them) but they have a definite impact on players who are planet camping or otherwise, you FA's may not appreciate it, but the rest of us fear the core weapon for good reason