New Naval Boss: Sovereign Super Carrier

[mighty plume]

We have battleships, big deadly fish, and a literal Kraken, but why not any carriers?

Unlocked at level 60 at the end of a new quest line, the sovereign super carrier would be a new naval boss, serving as a naval equivalent to a Goliath tank in terms of functionality. The super carrier should be facing horizontally on the field and be separated into 3 parts, each with their own attacks, HP pools, resistances, and immunities/weaknesses. Each part should use one of 3 plane types: fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers. If the central part of the carrier (where the island and bridge are located) is destroyed, you win. Otherwise, the battle will continue, similarly to the ancient sentinel or Goliath tank. The HP pool for each individual part would not be higher than a mission dreadnought (so probably no more than 2000 combined HP and armor), with the central body being closer to 3000-3500 HP and armor. Resistances should overall be similar to the dreadnought, but with a higher HP to armor ratio and worse resistances to torpedo and explosive attacks. Damage should be comparable to other naval bosses at this level, but using various different attack patterns, damage types, and DoTs.

Boss drops: the sovereign super carrier should drop a higher amount of steel, gears, and bars than the dreadnought.
The boss drops unit should be a fleet carrier, which would serve as a combination of all 3 parts of the super carrier, having all 3 plane types and many different attack options. In exchange, it should only have 3 attack slots (one for each plane if you want to balance it, or multiple for one type if you are okay with ignoring the others), and should have relatively low resistances and overall survivability, being more of a backline damage dealer.

Credit to @mellow tusk for the base concept.

[flint blade]

A common problem with navy is that most attacks of significance are indirect so backline squishy units aren’t very useful

For the rest i agree as long as the boss isn’t an RNGfest line the kraken

[mighty plume]

Agreed. I think the squishiness should be when it’s compared to a battleship. It should have more HP + armor than a destroyer, but the armor should not be significant. The resistances can be the same as a battleship, but a bit weaker to fire and explosive damage.
In short, it isn’t meant to be a frontline unit, but it also won’t be that easy to kill.

[flint blade]

i suppose somewhere between an R-1 and an M-10

[mighty plume]

That could work too, especially if the armor is reduced and the resistances are weaker, since this thing isn’t meant to take significantly amounts of damage.
That said, the damage it can dish out should make it useful against the naval bosses, especially if it has a torpedo bomber attack that functions like the pelican’s torpedo, just x3 or x4 instead of just 1 (so there won’t be any RNG involved. In exchange, it should have a prep time and a something lengthy reload/cooldown).

I think an R1 should be able to take more hits than a carrier since it’s a proper battleship, but the carrier shouldn’t be far behind.

[echo grove]

Resistances should overall be similar to the dreadnought, but with a higher HP to armor ratio and worse resistances to torpedo and explosive attacks.
this would make sense if naval was balanced, but as it stands, almost everything besides groupers and depth charges (minelayer, navy trooper) is either explosive or torpedo though lol

i assume this is meant as a post-balancing idea cuz that's a whole other can of worms. regardless, i still like the concept

[remote violet]

I made a post suggesting something similar not too long ago…I think it’s a great idea! The game needs a carrier of some sort.

[mighty plume]

Agreed. The game is missing carriers and cruiser types of ships for naval. While cruisers would probably feel like a hybrid of a destroyer and a R1, the carrier is unique enough to warrant further development. Also, super carriers are a real thing, so having one as a boss fight seems fitting.
If cruisers are introduced, they should first rework existing ships to let it fill a role. There could also be specific types of cruisers (torpedo cruiser, minelayer cruiser, battlecruiser, etc.) that would expand the number of naval units available to train quite significantly.

[remote violet]

Yeah I was thinking that it would be a super carrier type boss that drops a player unit carrier-like the dreadnaught dropping the clad. Not only would a boss like that change naval, but it could also go a long way to making aerial combat more interesting in the game.

I imagine it as a sort of support unit

[dusty dome]

We already have a respawn mechanic in the form of the kracken. Give the spawned aircraft a few turns of prep time each time they revive and you have the "carrier" aspect nice and easy.

[tacit harness]

I’m all for more bosses & boss drops in the game. This is an awesome idea

Murph has a great video detailing more naval boss ideas

[stuck echo]

Link?

I’d love just more naval reworks or things to make it more interesting/into the late game

[misty flax]

My concept for this would be that each part respawns/repairs “its” spawned plane (as it cycles its CAP and repairs) on a timer - every five rounds, destroyed planes respawn and damaged planes heal to full, with a deployment ‘prep time’ to offset the turns.

Piece A: Forward catapult. Launches a fighter.

Piece B: Midships + angled catapult. Launches a naval bomber.

Piece C: Helipad and arresting wires. Launches attack heli.

If piece C is killed, the carrier becomes unable to heal its planes and can only respawn their aircraft after x turns. The helicopter can no longer be respawned

If piece A is killed, the fighter becomes unable to respawn, but can still heal if C is still in play (that one aircraft is recovered and relaunched with the wing catapult)

Destroying piece B ends the fight with a victory.

Carrier should occupy the back row, with aircraft lining the front row (one non respawnable fighters and the respawning craft) (and a whirlpool to lock moving). Two submarines and two destroyers should be escorting in the middle row.

Itd take a bit to work out the balance, and is more complex than existing boss fights.

• A B C -
  S D [] D S
  F N W H F

Parts ABC
Submarine
Destroyer
[] empty
Whirlpool
Fighter (one starts empty)
Naval bomber (starts empty)
Helicopter (starts empty)

[mighty plume]

Definitely an interesting concept and would make the boss fight very entertaining. Main issue I see with this is the difficulty it would be to implement. I don’t know how hard it would be to code respawn mechanics with a set timer and to be disabled when a certain unit is destroyed, but I imagine it would take a lot of work and possibly need to rework how battles are coded. Also, balancing could be an issue, as the aircraft carrier itself would need to be relatively weak if it can respawn planes infinitely (at least until it’s destroyed). If it gets similar health and resistances as the dreadnought, it could become too difficult to take down with what we currently have, especially since it’s in the back row.
All that being said, if Madrona manages to implement this version of a carrier boss fight, I’d be happy with it.

The escorts are also a good idea. I think a carrier boss fight should have some form of escort fleet.