Hey there Dak here, local Covenant Fan.
Well its great to see the Infinity well on its way into space with the cute Thomas Lasky impression
But I'd like to suggest some options for the Covenant, if that is alright.
First thing I'd like to address is the Pious class vessel.
- Personally I think the Pious should NOT be the colony vessel.
- It should INSTEAD be similar to the UNSC's Hesphaesus ACU craft. That way both the UNSC and Covenant have as I called it, a "Space Station Plopper"
This would then result in the Pious class not being able to be built until its RESEARCHED in the Covenant Salvation tree; just like how the UNSC has to do it for their ACU ship.
That this leaves the DDS vessel as the Colony ship like the Phoenix Assault ship, except the DDS is is both ships in one like it is normally it has teeth. So the Covenant would have a combat-colony ship since they ARE supposed to have the early game advantage, but the DDS still sort of stinks, so its not like it'd be over powered; heck the Phoenix assault ship can have a nuke launcher installed instead, so that's pretty well balanced for early game to me.
Now Another big problem: The Covenant lacks enough ships to do a glassing maneuver.
All they get are:
- SDV Heavy Corvette
- DDS Cruiser
- Salvation class or "CAS Assault Carrier"
Well lets phase it kids, the SDV as cool as it looks, sucks. BAAAAD. You cannot get enough DDS cruisers and the Salvation class will cost you an arm and a leg until late game.
But what is really the problem? The CCS Cruiser (Truth and Reconciliation looking vessel) according to lore, the books and the games even, depict this bad boy being able to glass planets; packs a wallop too.
So in my opinion, the CCS should be given its glassing ability. PLUS its not overpowered, because you have to work at your military facilities, have enough logic slots to even think of plopping that many facilities down somewhere, researched past the other ships, THEN have the money to build the CCS when you actually have enough military facilities to do that research. So the CCS doesn't even appear as fast for the Covenant to begin with. So that wouldn't even be overpowered at all.
So with that, the Covenant would have:
- SDV Heavy Corvette for glassing (which is about as crappy as the Charon, except the SDV has fighters)
- DDS Cruiser (which would be the almost near equivalent of the Phoenix Assault ship)
- CCS battle cruiser
- CAS Salvation class (late game unit)
I do understand that the ai files in Sins are kinda...topsy turvy in coding but if it could be done the CCS should be allowed to bombard.
For the UNSC I personally think they should get a fighter upgrade. By upgrade I mean they NEED their Saber Fighers.
BUT before you get your Captain Keyes in a twist, the Saber would not be replacing the Long sword fighter on every fighter carrier type vessel. The Athens would be left alone (it spams enough fighters as it is) But the Saber woudl be reserved for the crem of the crop ships:
- Thermopylae would get them
- Valiant Class would get them.
Why just these two you ask? Well the Prophets wiki even says it: These tow are THE elite ships. They put the Orion to shame and working back in the kitchen (little woman joke there har har).
Plus the UNSC is of course a late game faction so you'd have these bad-boys later in the game, thus not making it OP because SMART players will eradicate the humans, or try to eradicate them before they get to the late game. Unless you're like a masochist or something. That way the UNSC gets a small edge because Sabers hurt a lot if used correctly.
Now for the Covenant again I really really really personally think the Covenant in the newer version of the game you guys and gals are making should make the C-S-O (the site calls it Plot Device abbreviation as a plot device) Super Carrier, the Titan for the Covenant. you obviously only get one but it would be kicking some tail and taking names. It might even be able to take on Infinity, maybe.
But also the Plot Device should get the bombard ability if possible, since it was recorded to be able to house an entire Army and take a planet by its lonesome if it wanted to (and AI willing of course) because that Redemption class? that thing is worthless pile of junk. It is NOT scary at all. I've played the UNSC and I've squashed several like bugs.
Plus the Infinity is the UNSC's "Big-Bad-Wolf". That big ship is supposed to be big, bad and blow your house down.
The Covenant needs a Big Bad Wolf as well, because the Redemption "super" destroyer, is like the Big Bad Puppy. It'll bark its annoying little whimpers at you, but is not the least threatening.
Its like walking down the street and you see Mickey Mouse with a gun. That is freaking hilarious. Because its like, "Honey I have have some Rat Poison, with your name on it and nothin you got, is gonna stop me."
But that's just my opinion.
Last but certainly the least, is the Covenant need a space defense weapon, because fighter Hangars is like England putting up their flood gates, hoping the water doesn't rise high enough to flood the town.
Heck why not give them glassing cannons? They had it in Halo 4: Escalation
Bu to make it fair, have their glassing cannon cost a lott of build space or "slots" so Covenant players could maybe build at least one to two depending on the location. Because as we all know, their Energy Projectors are even worse than the humans's SMAC guns, and even have better range too. So one or two tops would be a bit fair; just use fighters to blow them up or something. Because I do that to destroy SMACs. I have my fleet jump in, deploy fighters THEN I move my ships away as far as possible and have my fighters destroy the enemy guns, then my fleet turns around and mops up everything else; even back when I played as the UNSC. Just thought it'd be nice because did you want to play the Covenant and be about as stupid as Warhammer's Tau in Dawn of War?
"Oh look at us, we're blue hoofed aliens with bad Asian accents who excel at long range battle but we DON'T HAVE DEFENSE TURRETS" and those crisis suit guys cost a bundle so you're handicapping yourself. I played as the Imperial Guard and could basically walking into a Tau base, piss all over the place and no one could stop me. Then you'd have the Tau freaking the hell out and trying to scramble back to their base like the ai do in Company of Heroes. Its disgustingly funny.
Other than that, I think what you guys and gals are doing is great so far
What do you think?