Just got out of a match with a balanced space marine fleet, against 7-8 Dominator cruisers. Got hit by about 10 laser accurate Nova shots before I could close minimum distance and by then all but my Battlebarge was destroyed, and of course Dominators are also very strong at close range with their macro broadsides.

Never stood a chance...

Seems currently it only takes about 4-5 hits to destroy a strike cruiser, which seems like a lot, but when you can bring that many Novas and they have such a short cd its really not much at all. And even if it took twice as many shots, rolling in with half health strike cruisers against a bunch of dominators would be an instant lose anyway.

Seeing as Novas have been a balancing problem since the beginning of game 1 I figured I would throw in my two cents on balancing options.

1. Make Nova Cannons Weaker... I actually like that Nova cannons are strong right now, so although this would work, I feel it would make them far less enjoyable.

2. Make Nova Cannons Less Accurate... I would really rather not go back to the wildly inaccurate shotgun novas of game 1.

3. Longer Cooldown... Lowers overall damage potential in a given game, but doesn't remove the main problem which is in my opinion their ludicrous alpha strike potential.

4. More expensive(like 2x)... This seems like a potential winner to me, the Novas can remain the powerful long range weapon of mass destruction they are supposed to be in the lore, but by making ships that mount them much more expensive it means you can't stack 7-8 of them in one game. Also a lack of ships means that high alpha damage is a must for Nova Cannon fleets simply to be on par with your opponent once fleets clash.

5. Ineffective against shields?... As a more creative option you could make it so that Novas do dramatically less damage against shielded targets. This would require Novas to be combined with other offensive options, even just some escorts, in order to soften up the targets before unleashing a volley. It would help slower fleets to not be rofl stomped by massed volleys from across the map, and fleets without shields like eldar and necrons have maneuvers and stealth abilties that allow them to evade Novas effectively as it is.

I like the not effective against shields option, means nova spam has to be played smart and while it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense it does stop what you are describing. Problem with making them weaker is that it needs Adeptus Mechanicus into the ground since they rely on Nova cannons so much.

Hello Otterz,

My first round vs a Nova Cannon heavy team ended in me getting utterly crushed on one of my favorite streamers on a live stream. I thought they were over powered and even have a Imperial Navy fleet with them that I enjoy playing. After playing a few rounds with Nova Cannons and fighting vs them a few more times I don't believe they are over powered. Keep your fleet spread out and make sure to have good map awareness so you can boost your ships out of the Nova Cannon shot. Unlike in the first game Novas have a limited amount of ammo which I believe makes them far more balanced.

Spam in general seems to be an issue right now, with a bit of luck there will be a limit on how many ships of a type you can take

A couple points:

1. Space marines are the weakest faction in the game. Strikecruisers have low HP and all the ships are hilariously overpriced. It's not surprising novas can kill them.
2. If you spread out so only 1 or 2 ships will be in danger, and react instantly to the nova cannons with all ahead full / high energy turn, you can still dodge most of them.
3. Novas only have 3 charges

Novas did 200 damage in center 100 at edges in an earlier beta, and it was like hitting things with a rolled up newspaper. The new values seem good to me. Admech is finally in a good place.

Also, please no limits on ship types! That ruins the creativity of fleet design and is the laziest possible way to balance.

Fucks sake here we go again....

Some points here alright...

It takes 10 seconds before the player puts down the nova shot and it actually hitting. If you cant dodge it in the meantime thats more on you then on the NC player. Although granted with that many its hard to dodge ALL of them but still he should be wasting over half of his shots easily.

The NC has limited shots. Thats right its limited to the pitifull amount of 3 blasts per match per NC. Granted torpedoes have the same treatment but those arent that easy to avoid if you play your cards right. Those also dont stop your ship dead in their tracks when you want to fire. And IN at least also has melta torpedoes effectivly doubling the amount of shots that you get out of them.

SM ships are horribly overpriced. Jamodon also mentioned this but for what amounts to a light cruiser in the cruiser slot their ships are so god awfull overpriced it isent even funny. I think Orks have battleships that are cheaper then some strike cruisers.

Play your fleet to their strengths id say. Your opponent brought no carriers and you should have a few. BB at least. That means that you can take out 1 per cooldown on torpedo+thunderhawk attack. If you took the BB1 variant.

Makes for compelling gameplay? No, not really but nerfing the NC isent the anwser here. He brought a very 1 trick pony fleet. You can counter it no problem.

Heck. If you had the overcharged shields ability (dont know if you did) you could just let your commander's ship be bait. He focuses his NC on it, pop that cooldown and laugh as it does absolutely nothing.

Honestly i feel like that they are really easy to avoid. and are in a good place right now

you get a full 10 seconds to avoid a relatively small area, so just keep some movement gauge to dodge out. eldar and nids can practically ignore novas entirely. they are limited in use, and lock the ship firing down, making them a good target.

Only played a Nova spam against the AI so far and even the AI managed to dodge a few shots...so...maybe spread out your ships more and try to evade?

@demoulius On MP you can't really plan what to bring because you don't know what faction you are going up against. You can't really say "oh it's imperial navy or adMech, I'm gonna bring carriers then". You just don't know what you're going to fight. I agree that SM are a bit over priced, especially the battlebarges. Also, yes, orks have some very cheap battleship options.

You guys are kinda threadomancing an old thread from the previous beta

True that you cant adjust your ships to adjust for faction. That shouldnt be an option though if you bring a fleet that can handle multiple threats(ish). You can never counter EVERYTHING but in this case he had exactly what he needed...

Space marines are strong up close. NC cant be fired at you if you are up in his face. And generally thats where SM's want to be anyway. Cant board from half way acrros the map (unless you count boarding torps and/or assault boats....) so get in there! Most of your weapons are also short ranged so you want to be there anyway.

Marines have high armour. Ramming doesent do as much damage to yourself compared to what it does for other factions.

TL:DR what im saying is: play to their strengths. Which is get up close and knife fight.