First of all thanks a ton for putting out such a great game! You really did an awesome job creating this game especially one in the 40k universe that is more than just another pile of code licensed by GW. It really shows that you guys put a lot of effort, passion and love into the development and improvement of the game and the latest patch shows that you actually care about the community and the players which is rare in modern times of gaming and sets you apart from other studios, so thanks again and please keep up the good work!

I want to use this post to adress some issues concerning the latest patch and the impact on the metagame as I experience/see it, if this is the wrong thread, please move this post to where it is applicable.

I am an orc player and thusfar maybe biased when it comes to short range fighting because thats what orcs are all about, getting close and personal, right? While some people really seem to appreciate the "nerf" to boarding (I put the term in quotes, since it doesnt feel like boarding became weaker but more on that below) and others complain about Space Marines "beeing useless now" the overall consequences fall short in my opinion.

I think the best way for me to explain the issue is by using my most succesful fleet as an example.

It consists of: BS Deadnot OrdzGargDaka 3x Big Roks and 3x Escorts (I vary sometimes with the escorts but mostly I stick to the onslaughts since they are tankier than brutes).

I played it with the kommando training and shockin zzapp perks and stasis bomb + traktor beam as skills.

It should be obvious that my fleet lacks one major attribute which is essential to survive and dish out damage, which is speed, BUT (and thats what I love about this game) it was still possible to dominate the majority of my foes by outplaying them with strategic decissions. As soon as I would catch up on the enemy fleet there was almost no escape from teh Dakka, meaning my playstyle was the opposite of kiting, it was more about luring, deceiving and ambushing an unexpecting foe by getting into short weapons range and staying (!) in it.

The lack of speed was evened out by the superior firepower of the orc ships in close range, which made them quite uniqe compared to any other race. The Stasis bomb worked as a trap for torpedos and squadrons as well as a barricade which I used as cover and in combination with the trakktor beam and the slow from the shoking zzapp to close the gap which proved very efficent if done right. I still lost a fair amount of games to the Eldar and Space Marines, to the prior due to the excessive kiting and the latter due to the instant scuttling, but every fleet has a weakness and I accepted that there will be some strategies which are just superior to mine.

Now, some of you might think "So what? nothing changed about the ships and skills you mentioned and even the Eldar and SM are nerfed now". True, but the meta shifted even further to squadron and torpedo spaming (it was a problem before the patch already and is even worse now) and away from close range combat. As mentioned before, orcs have a significant disadvantage due to their lack of fast ships and the Big Red Button is more for ramming enemy ships, evading bombs and ramming from the enemy, meaning it already takes a lot longer to conquer points if you dont want to get identified. Because if you do, there will be even more spam. The only way I see to deal with squadrons is by spamming them yourself (and ironically becoming a part of the problem) because if you have less bays than your enemy, he will come out on top sooner or later, since you cant even micro manage them, he just throws them at you until your bays are empty and than the bombing starts.

Of course, you can switch to brace for impact, stick together and sacrifice one or two stasis bombs to catch a few torpedos or squadrons, but this still only prolongs the inevitable.

Pre patch I would still survive long enough to catch up with the enemy fleet, most of the time even when Ive lost a rok or two on the way, but now it becomes almost impossible. The boarding now requires immediate response by activating the call to arms, which means even LESS speed for my already slow fleet and less attack speed, which is vital to slow down the enemy with my zzapp, my ships practically become a drifting (at 50% speed) hulk after the first boarding action. The second thing that makes the boarding so dangerous for orcs is the fire due to critical damage (and every good admiral who focuses on boarding, takes a perk to increase crit damage as well). I mean the switch from 4 possible fires to 10 is an icrease of 150% and orc ships already have the looted ship penalty which makes fires twice as dangerous for them, so go figure what this change means to orcs alone. Further an untreated fire does not only damage the health of the ship severly but also adds another peril to the list, the morale loss. Again, orcs have a natural penalty for morale due to the disorganized attribute and guess what, all the beforementioned countermessures share the same cooldown! So basically a game goes like this now: The enemy reaches the middle of the map/or 3 capture points before I do, mostly because of the speed disadvantage on my side, so far so good, nothing new. In the best case I stay hidden with my kommando skill, evade a probe or a scouting squadron and reach the fighting zone without being detected. Now the enemy however is waiting far behind and only has a few escorts at the front line to capture the points and as soon as I make a move or he becomes suspicious I get pinged and hell breaks lose. Normally I would charge as far and fast onto them but now, they sit in the first third of their side and start the squadrons. So far, this is just business as usual but the major difference now is, that I wont catch up with them before all my ships are burning and have 15-20 troop damage incoming which I cant treat since I have to extinguish the fires, which is pointless because if you have 15 troop damage on a ship with a 10% crit chance theres gonna be a lot more fire soon and if the ship doesnt burn out before all troops are dead (fire kills troops as well) theres gonna be a mutinity faster than you are a able to spell the word.

In conclusion: It appears to me, that the current meta is all about kiting and hit and run tactics while spamming as much as possible. There are not enough ways to counter squadron spam by not participating in it yourself, only the necrons with their starpulse have the privilege to hold an effective counter messure. The boarding is even stronger now, measured over time, since the penaltys of ignoring it are even more severe now due to the increased danger of fire on board. Another thing concerning fire effects is the fact that ramming might inflict fire on your ship as well, so on top of everything I mentioned before, this makes a playstyle of close range combat ever more inferior. I am aware, that there will always be a strategy which is less efficient than others but so far it feels like there is no purpose in getting close to the enemy anymore and that renders every ship with a spur or thick armor kind of obsolete, even the Tyranids, which I used to play similar to the orcs before, seem to rely on kiting now (at least the ones I encountered so far since the update). However, I feel it should be honoured more to bring a knife (or a Rok haha) to a gunfight especially if said fight takes place in space in the grimdark future!

My suggestions concerning the balance are the following:

For orc alone:

nerf the severity of fire effects/make some ships (like roks/big roks/mega roks) immune to fire -> this would shift the focus more onto the flagship (which can still burn) and open up a greater need to engage or deal with orcs directly instead of just outrunning them

*buff the speed of ships (so far the weakest escort (200hp) is the fastest (200speed) which makes fighting and scouting without losing the ship one way or another impossible)

In general:

add more countermeasures to squadrons, either as a standard skill on ships like starpuls, or as a perk/command skill

limit the detection range of squadrons (right now you can almost "scan" the whole map by just sending 5-6 next to each other in the direction of the enemy, which is almost as efficient as the augur probe)

make the flagship able to equip adaptive skills like launchbays or long/short range weapons at the start of battle just like the perks (which is an awesome improvement to the game now, on a side note!)

implement a veto function to enable the player to choose one race (or more) which he cant be matched with -> this would automatically lead to the decline of abusing/exploiting imbalanced tactics and would give you more time to look into any balance issues

make close range combat great again! -> the game is only half the fun, if only half the ships are useful

PS: If anyone has any improvements or tactics relating to the green skins to share, I am happy to hear about em!