Buff Chomper Please!

[DumbMarine]

Even if the chomper had the grappling hook you should still escort it, because it can't return minerals on its own.

I don't like the chomper being mostly defenseless with no escape mechanism. Escort by the BC is one thing, reliance is another. This would allow good pilots to threaten careless attackers with it's chomp ability, rather than relying on them flying too close. Plus, it would help the chomper eat up sparse asteroid fields.

Miners have no reliance, with upgrades they are very efficient at mining, and with a cloak they are nigh unfindable. There needs to be more opportunity cost to using a miner mid and late game.

[DumbMarine]

Having tried these abilities out, I have to say that they make the chomper pretty awesome and fun to use. Without these upgrades, the chomper is pretty boring.

I think the chomper needs more tweaking:

The limiting factor on the chomper's mining speed is the cooldown, not the magnetic pulse. I think the magpulse upgrades should become standard for the chomper because it's a ton of fun, in fact I think the magnetic pulse cooldown should be 6 seconds, and the default pull should be what the upgraded one currently is. The unupgraded radius is kinda silly. Also note that with the cooldown at 6 seconds, the chomper now has to watch its power usage, because it becomes possible to use it faster than it generates now.

IMO the upgrades should be changed to:

Core Overdrive: Reduces magnetic pulse cooldown to 0.5s. Making this ability spammable doesn't speed up mining (because of the chomp cooldown) but now the chomper can more effectively defend itself against ships that are harassing it. Note that it's energy level means that you can't cast this more than 3 times in a row anyway.

Gravitic Pulse: Make this the "grappling hook" projectile ability

And, finally, a semi-related change, reduce the chomper's power by 3 GW. It does NOT ever need 13 GW (upgraded to 19 GW). Either that or increase the amount of energy it takes to move the chomper. I assume right now it takes 5 GW like all the other ships to move at maximum speed.

[Red-Rocket]

no, the new chomper is fine, it would be to hard for what you are suggesting for ships to get out of chomper range, it would be like a black hole. there is no need to reduce the CD

[DumbMarine]

Too hard to get out of range of the slowest ship in the game? Really?

[Corinthian]

I love the idea of the Black Hole Chomper. It would be easy to counter, but an absolute death trap to unskilled wraiths, corvettes, and enemy miners.

Please implement.

[LordDragon]

Just want to say that I've seen a lot of chomper use since the buff - personal experience says we went in the right direction.

[Red-Rocket]

my poor new players have good intentions as corvettes and wraiths to kill a chomper but they dont relize that 1 *chomp* can kill em =( good thing is that i see alot more chompers earlier on but can be not as effective until you get it those upgrades. That is a very good thing

[DumbMarine]

The reason I suggested making the current upgrades standard is because they're pretty necessary to make the chomper worthwhile. I personally don't like upgrades you MUST buy before buying the actual unit.

The new upgrades would add utility and 'fun factor' to the chompers without significantly improving their primary purpose: eating all the rocks.

If the worry is chompers becoming newbie killing powerhouses, I've heard of two suggestions for nerfing that. One is to halve their power regen. Their current power regen is ridiculous, seriously. The other suggestion is to make the chomper not a one hit kill, but instead make it's chomp do like 400 damage per bite. With this route, the chomper can be changed to eat destroyers again, and possibly even battlecruisers (an embarrassing way to lose a BC for sure).

[Red-Rocket]

no you dont need them, the chomper does just fine without them, yes they make them more effeicient but thats the point! nobody buys a minelayer without the heal upgrade and nobody just gets an unupgraded and no itemz destroyer. The chomper is even less needful of upgrades then those.

[DumbMarine]

no you dont need them, the chomper does just fine without them, yes they make them more effeicient but thats the point! nobody buys a minelayer without the heal upgrade and nobody just gets an unupgraded and no itemz destroyer. The chomper is even less needful of upgrades then those.

Sorry, I had to highlight the hilarity of needing to upgrade a MINElayer with a heal upgrade. Nobody uses it to lay mines anymore do they?

You see itemless destroyers all the time if you do mass destroyers.