My Love/Hate Relationship With Twitch Surge

[lordscrod]

The subject says it all. When I need it, I love it. When I don't, I hate it. Both of these factors make me think it might need a look.

The love/hate comes from exactly the same place: Twitch Surge is a hard counter to any escape attempt.

TLDR: It's not fun when I'm using it, and it's not fun when it's used against me. I have ways around it, but they're restricting my choices in ship loadout and combat decisions.

The reasoning and possible solution:

ECCM Modules + Sig Veil Fields + Massive Navigation Pool + Insane Engine Speed + Captain Trait + Bolt Talent versus One Twitchy Boi = I'm still in this fight, and now must endure two more rounds of fire at ranges 4 and 5 to try escaping again, assuming he doesn't Twitch up on us once more.

This is why I almost never use an escape talent at range 5 anymore. I use a defensive talent to get ahead of his firing curve. I still hit the Escape button, just in case he doesn't Twitch, but if he does, then at least he may only hit me with his initial round of torpedoes, and I can pop more defensive talents until we get far enough ahead that he can't lay a finger on me. THEN we try to escape.

Vice-versa is also true. That sneaky smuggler or rogue merchant is not going to get away, no matter how tricked out their ship is. I don't need Targeting Lock or Tireless Pursuit. I just need Twitch, and I only need it at range 5. Similarly, Flash Charge lets me start the fight closer, and I need never lock him up or hope for some Void Contortions. If he hits range 5 somehow, just Twitch. Flash Charge isn't quite as big a thing, but again, any escape attempt is hard-countered by Twitch Surge.

My thought is for the escape talents to enable an escape possibility from Range 4. If you've fired off Fast Getaway or Bolt, it means you want to get the hell out of Dodge. It doesn't mean you want to move back to Range 5. So it turns the Back button into an Escape button while the talent is active. If you had hit the button at 5, but he Twitched to 4, you still get your Escape roll.

This makes me want to fire off my Escape talent immediately rather than something evasive. It'll depend on the fight, obviously. Does he have modules to boost accuracy, does he have a better Speed and Nav pool than me, etc... I might want to go evasive anyway, but now I have a decision to make, rather than always going Defensive. I'll also be able to build my ships differently rather than with the mandatory 2 or 3 Defense Pattern Matrices. I'll want to stack up on Navigation dice and Escape Dice.

It gives me more decisions as the attacker too. Do I want to hope for that range 3 Twitch? Do I want to roll those dice on getting to 3? Or should I play it safer and Lock On or put the Bear Trap on him? What modules does it look like he has? What's his engine speed? All of these factors go into my decision, and it's not simply a Twitch Up call every time.

I've lost more captains to Twitch Surge than any other talent. Catching Smugglers and Spies should be more difficult than a simple Nope. Similarly those faster engines on small ships should have more of a chance to get away from monsters like the Titan. A Longbolt can't take many torps from a Titan before some vital component blows out. He's already got a huge advantage, and Twitch almost guarantees I'm rolling a new captain soon.

I'd be curious to hear what y'all think.

--Scrod

[lordscrod]

Oh, an alternative might be to have Twitch Surge debuff your ship's accuracy. Or require an extra two Reactor Points. Or both. Basically, you're slamming everything into the engines at the cost of being able to shoot. That could work too, but I dunno. I'm still always going to build my ship for +defense rather than +nav/escape, just in case. It doesn't feel like an elegant solution.

--Scrod

[lordscrod]

Oh. Or maybe Twitch Surge doesn't work at range 5. You can't open with it, so it can't counter an escape roll. That's got positives and negatives though, obviously.

--Scrod

[fallen]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions! We're always working to improve the game's balance!

Your Escape bonuses are used if you are retreating from range 4, though they do not allow immediate escape.

[En1gma]

I like the idea of making it range 4, maybe a buff to -escape talents like Targeting Lock would help to balance... Would also help to place more emphasis on +range change comps and buffs.

Just my two cents, as TS has ended many of my careers at the hand of angry Bounty Hunters.

[resistor]

Hmm... what if TS simply doubled the range change dice of a ship using it at range 5. That way it is an almost-guaranteed forwards movement but could be overcome if the other ship had an enormous escape pool.

[contributor]

While reading the first post I had the same idea the good lord put in his second. A serious accuracy debuff would be an interesting balance to Twitch. For the player on the offense it would significantly up the cost, and stretch out the battle. On the defense it would also stretch out the battle meaning the player would have to win more retreat/escape rolls, but with a much lower chance of getting shredded in the meantime.

[lordscrod]

For me the current state of Twitch Surge boils down to three things:

1. It locks me into specific builds and tactics to counter.

2. It gives me an auto-win button on pursuits.

3. It's not fun in either case.

It's certainly not enough for me to stop playing the game, no no no, but it makes certain captain classes less enjoyable, knowing that all it takes to counter my hyper-stealthy spy ship is a level five piloting talent used tactically a couple of times.

Say, another thought: swap it with Acrobatic Dive in the Pirate tree. If it was much more rare, or much more likely to occur when facing Pirates, I wouldn't have nearly the same level of annoyance. It'd be like 'Oh man, a pirate! We need to be ready for cheeze-balling tactics and maneuvers!'.

--Scrod

[lordscrod]

Another thought:

Twitch Surge could require ALL reactor points. Alternately, you simply can't shoot in the same turn you use it. So, the guy could twitch up on me twice and end up at range one against my heavily nav-built escape specialist. YIKES! But at the same time, he's taken a couple of hits on the nose for his trouble, and my ship is still wholly intact. He's got me where he wants me, but I'm in a better position to deal with what's coming. I haven't got a couple of cripples on me from the incidental weapons he fired along the way. When it's a monster with 10RPs and a Chaser, he's had 7RPs to inflict damage the whole way up, and I've had no dice to roll against it.

The flipside is also true. If I want to get in his face guaranteed, then I'd better be ready to take some swats on the nose.

I'd say this is my 2 cents, but we're up to about tree-fiddy by now.

--Scrod

[fallen]

Thanks for the additional suggestions!

[lordscrod]

You bet! We'll keep discussing it on stream too. Maybe we'll get an idea that'll stick.

--Scrod