Somehow you refuse to realize, that all the difference between situations you have presented lies with the ships behavior. Shield mechanics does not influence these situations in any way. If you're taking main ship's shields down to 50% first, turret shields doesnt go anywhere either way. The target shield capacity you need to strip-off to physically damage the turret remains the same, regardless of order in which it is subtracted. So all the difference here is whether you risk your own capital more than the supporting spacecraft, or vise versa.In this second example, small craft must hold back or risk certain annihilation while the capital ships do their damage. Once the ship's shields drop below 50%, smaller craft can swoop in and attack a turret directly with some hope that they can damage, and possibly even destroy it. The small-craft pilot will need to exercise patience at the beginning of a battle, but if the timing is right, they can then make a significant contribution to the battle. I think this would be more fun for those pilots who prefer smaller ships, and won't really effect capital combat in any significant way.
- Combat power of any number of ships mathematically rounds up to the total amount of weapon modules they carry. Ten ships each carrying 100 tons of weapons are just as powerful, as one ship carrying 1000 tons of weapons, by the virtue of linear weapon DPS scale.Okay, what about a fleet of small ships against one big one?
Like, 5-6 of them, say they bombers are squaring off against one 50k mass ship with no support.
Would/should having a half dozen 1k-2k mass bombers be able to damage a ship? Should they be able do damage a ship?
Currently, can they deal damage to a ship? I think this is a question for personal testing.
(I would define bombers as big attack craft with large alpha damage but low reload time. The Bomber is probably large enough to warent a few missile defense turrets as well.)
Could I have someone test this for us please?
- Combat indurance of larger ships is better, because they have a shared pool of shield capacity regenerated by the larger amount of rechargers, while also having less surface area, which requires less amount of armor to cover, that several smaller ships. Shield aspect is counterbalanced by the fact, that smaller ships can leave the area of combat separately to recover their shields. Armor aspect is counterbalanced by the fact, that smaller ships has smaller profiles and are harder to hit, especially with turrets, which possess a server-side accuracy limitations, while large ships in most cases is a sitting duck for any and every incoming fire.
- Larger ships has greatly weaker maneuverability compared to smaller ships. Diminishing returns from Thrusters ensure that a group of ships has much easier time avoiding primary weapons of a large ship, while being able to use their own. This is counterbalanced by the fact, that being unable to avoid primary weapons spells a certain doom for a small ship. That means, that destruction of one ship from a wing of smaller ships would instantly grants a combat advantage to the large ship.
- All in all, the only definite advantage of a large ship compared to smaller ships, is that it can be piloted by one player. When planned Fleet mechanics will be involved, combined arms tactics will always be superior against larger ships due to shield, power and thrust diminishing returns, that are placed upon larger ships.
I'm aware of that. It's all rounds up to the balance. You have a turret, which is an extension of your ship. It is a weapon module, that has the benefit of flexibility, which means it can shoot when and where your fixed-mount weapons cannot. To balance that bonus out, they cannot fully benefit from main ship's shields, as it would prioritize protecting internal structure over outer extensions, thus limiting shared shield capacity to 50%. You can as well have modular reactors and armor plating, and they will also give you benefits, which are balanced the same way.Turrets might not have the need for any other systems, but that is good and correct, as they act only as an EXTENSION of something else. Their power, shields (sadly just in half measure) and even movement (it is being transported) are absolutely dependent from the main ship. The assumption, that turrets are "more potent" is plain wrong. The power generators have to be there. The thrusters too (if it is a ship). The warp too. Shields too. They are just on the main ship. All the modules placed on the turret could also be placed on the ship directly, making no difference in power consumption and dps. There is no hidden secret bonus dropping magically off only because it is not the turret who is carrying its maintanance needs. They are an extension and not some kind of thing you randomly happened to put on your ship, which deserves only half protection.
It also tied to performance, as having multitude of entities conmplementing a ship will always be more memory hungry for all the movement, relative positions and separate parameters they have, than a ship that has no extensions. Bubble shields were denied and will not even be a thing for the same reasons.