Posts by Jimilux

Merry Chris Mas from me too (although a little late)

I havent watched this before. Its a good animation, thanks

yes

I’d really like to hear your own thoughts and ideas about ship balance and stat changes too.

So far I’ve pretty much been the only one throwing suggestions out there for this topic, but I’m sure there are more people who care about it just as much.

Different opinions and perspectives would really help round out the discussion — and show that this isn’t just me nitpicking, but something that many players want to see improved for the good of the game.

I mean yeah but whats the point on counting threads i never understood it

SWAT Portal Ship Entries — Often Inaccurate or Outdated

The ship entries listed on the SWAT Portal are often not correct or simply outdated. Some ships have wrong stats, model pictures, missing details, or incorrect purchase locations.

For new players, or even experienced ones looking to compare ships or plan purchases, this can be really confusing.

An overhaul of the ship data on the Portal would help a lot in making it a more reliable and up-to-date reference.

Ship Infocards — Frequently Wrong or Misleading

A lot of the in-game ship infocards are either wrong or misleading.

The Dark Angel is a perfect example: its infocard says it’s “a very small fighter with very good power usage and heavy guns,” but as already established, it has poor power usage and fewer guns than most VHFs.

This isn’t an isolated case — many ships are described as “agile” when they’re really not, or “fast” when almost all ships share identical impulse and cruise speeds.

Correcting the infocards to better reflect the actual ship stats would make the game feel more consistent and grounded.

If help is needed in gathering correct data, verifying ship stats, or rewriting infocards and Portal entries, I’d be more than happy to assist with the process entirely.

Dark Angel & Hammerhead — Possibly the Weakest VHFs in the Game

Both the Dark Angel and Hammerhead stand out — unfortunately, for the wrong reasons. Stat- and perhaps role-wise, they are arguably currently the two least viable VHFs in Crossfire, and in their current state, they could make more sense as heavy fighters rather than very heavy fighters.

Dark Angel

The Dark Angel is described in its infocard as a “beginner-friendly” VHF, but even for a starter ship, it falls short. Compared to other entry-level VHFs like the Black Eagle, which costs about the same, the Dark Angel is simply outclassed in nearly every area.

• Only 4 guns/missile mounts (plus 1 turret slot, which doesn’t help much)

• Around 8400 armor, similar to lighter VHFs such as the Cayman

• Just 43 bots & bats, lowest for any VHF

• It does however have an above average agility - better than the Black Eagle - which is its only redeeming quality

Given these stats, it feels too weak to be a proper VHF yet still has too much to be a heavy fighter — it’s caught awkwardly in between. With small adjustments it could either be reclassified as a heavy fighter or reworked into a true, better VHF.

Hammerhead

The Hammerhead isn’t much better off. Despite being labeled as a VHF, its numbers fit more with heavy fighters than with other VHFs.

• 7900 armor — the second lowest among VHFs (only the Azan has less)

• 49 bots & bats — well below the usual range for its class, second lowest among VHFs again

• Class 9 weapons max, which limits its offensive capability (fun fact, this is the only VHF with max class 9 guns/missiles)

The Hammerhead lacks any defining advantage — no notable agility, armor, or power output to justify its classification. It could benefit from either being reworked into a fast, lightly armored heavy fighter, or buffed to meet VHF expectations.

Why do you guys do this?

Im back! Had a small break from the game

Anyway back to the suggestions:

More “Scout”-Type Ships Like the Dragonfly

If the Azan were to receive the proposed changes, it could easily become another “one-ship meta.” To prevent that, the game could benefit from adding 1–3 more scout-style ships, or adjusting existing ones across ship classes (light, heavy, very heavy) to create more variety in playstyles.

Right now, the Dragonfly — a heavy fighter with 600 cruise speed — sets a great foundation for what a scout ship could be. This concept could be expanded further:

• A Light Fighter scout could have around 650 cruise speed, but be very weak offensively (e.g., limited to class 5 guns and shield).

• A Very Heavy Fighter scout could have around 550 cruise speed, while maintaining some disadvantages (lower armor, reduced power output, smaller cargo hold) to stay balanced.

These kinds of ships could be visually less appealing or underused designs, giving new purpose to models that players usually overlook. Turning the “ugly” or forgotten ships into specialized scout or experimental types would encourage players to try new things and diversify gameplay.

Azan

The Azan is a unique VHF, as it has only 5200 armor — less than half of what most VHFs have — making it the weakest in terms of durability. Its only real strengths right now are its slightly above-average agility (which does not say much) and 98 bots & bats.

According to its info-card, the Azan is designed as a scout ship, which makes me think it should excel at speed rather than durability. It would make perfect sense for the Azan to have a much higher cruise speed, ideally on par with the Dragonfly, which is also classified as a scout ship. That change would help the Azan fill a unique role without becoming overpowered.

6x Class 10 Ships (Bullpup Mk ll, Ceptyr, Deimos, Hydra Mklll and Seething Fury) and the Redemption

The Redemption is the first ship that comes to mind when players think of 6x class 10missiles/guns — and for good reason. It has several advantages that the other 6x class 10 ships simply don’t:

• It comes with a Champion Shield by default (which also makes it more expensive, but that’s not really the issue).

• It has the highest armor among all 6x class 10 ships.

• It likely has one of the highest agility ratings among the other 6x 10s (I haven’t tested every single one yet).

• And most importantly, it has a strafe power that’s more than double what 95% of VHFs have, which gives it an easier time to fight against stronger NPCs while having a bulky hitbox.

All these combined make the Redemption vastly superior, leaving the rest of the 6x class 10 lineup almost irrelevant.

I think the other ships in this category should have their strafe power increased — ideally to match the Redemption’s — and/or receive an agility boost to bring them closer in performance.

This would make all 6x class 10 ships viable and help break up the current one-ship meta.

Additionally, I think the game could use more 6x class 10 ships in general. It’s an interesting ship category, and expanding it could add even more variety and excitement to gameplay.

Operator said that there should be separate thread(s) for suggestions and their details, so I’m making this one.

There have already been quite a few suggestions from me, and I want this thread to focus mainly on how ships (from my point of view) could be balanced and adjusted stat-wise to refresh the gameplay meta (short for “most effective tactics available”).

That said, this thread isn’t only about balancing — it’s also about adding new stat features and improving variety. Right now, things like strafe power, impulse speed, cruise speed, and power output are nearly identical across most VHFs, which makes them feel too similar. There should be more diversity in these areas to make ships feel unique and specialized.

My goal is to make most ships — if not every ship — worth flying. Currently, many are overlooked because of poor stats and/or agility, leaving a lot of Crossfire’s ship content unused and unnoticed.

At the moment, it’s usually just the same few ships that dominate: Cayman, Chimera, Quasar, Redemption, Saracen, and Dragonfly.

There are two ways to even out the playing field: either make the strong ships worse, or make the weak ships better. Personally, I definitely prefer the latter.

Thats more than enough for me OP 😎👍

Personally i think they are good suggestions, if i can help in any way please let me know!

Thank you.

- Jimilux / Flocky / Jami

Hey Operator, me again with a bunch of new suggestions

1. Two things: Introduce more Diversity in niche Ship stats (Speed, Strafe power, Power output) and make 80-90% of VHFs... better
   
   Right now, most VHFs feel too similar in stats, which creates a small ‘meta’ where only a few ships are viable. I think this is a major issue, so I want to emphasize it.
   • Bring other 6x class 10 ships closer in performance to the Redemption (strafe power, give them a champion shield on purchase but make them more expensive obviously).
   • Make more ships agile — the Saracen is a great example of well-rounded stats, but 80–90% of ships are unagile, have worse stats, or both, making them straight up worse
   • The Azan VHF (described as a scout ship) has only 5200 armor — half (or less) compared to other VHFs — and is unagile. It deserves far better agility (maybe even better than the Cayman), or alternatively, give it Dragonfly-level cruise speed. The way it is right now.. it is simply just bad
   • A few ships share Cayman/Quasar/Vulcain-like stats (armor, cargo, bots/bats) but are just straight up worse because they heavily lack the agility.
   These are just few of the ideas
   
   Im sure that im not the only one who is bored of flying the same couple of ships each time.
   
   And yeah, I think the ideas "Make ships more diverse in stats" and "Make bad ships not so bad especially in terms of agility" might be clashing, but I hope and think you get what I mean.
   
   
2. Alien Station Docking
   
   Since players can already get an alien affiliation, why not go further?
   • Make it possible for a human to dock on alien stations, there is a lot of them.
   (I realise the difficulty in this, how would Trent breathe? What would the aliens sell?)
3. Flyable Alien Ships
   
   This might sound wild...
   I know this was once considered impossible because alien ships are organic and designed for aliens — but there are workarounds:
   • Researchers seize an alien vessel and retrofit it for human use. (Heard that this is the story for Dom'Kavash Annihilators)
   • A captured alien ship is hollowed out, with human tech built inside — leaving the only an organic shell (maybe with visible mechanical parts showing through the organic shell).
   • With Dom’Kavash help, humans get access to alien ships modified for human use.
   • Dom’Kavash themselves provide adapted (Dom'Kavash) ships, this could give the Dom'Kavash Inner Core systems a much bigger purpose.
   • The Ancients were on a similar technological level to humans — so why not allow humans to fly ancient drones? or newly designed Ancient ships
   
   On a side note i just wanted to mention that some existing ships (like Yggdrasil and Ragnarok) already look very alien-like.
   
   Balancing would be key, it would be crazy to be able to fly a VHF with 40-80k armor. But the concept could add huge variety and excitement.
4. Give Purpose to Underused Systems
   
   Systems like Kandiris, Lost Paradise, and Procyon currently feel like dead ends.
   Suggestions:
   • Add unique ships, weapons, or rewards (for example, a powerful ship on Planet Lost Paradise).
   • Use the alien gate in Procyon as a one-way shortcut back to non-French systems — so players don’t have to fly back through the four long systems manually.
     
     
5. Tour-Exclusive Rewards
   
   Introduce special equipment that can only be obtained through the Tour.
   Ideas:
   • Mk3 class 10 guns (only slightly better than the Mk2 ones).
   • Other unique items that make the Tour feel like a rewarding, must-do event.
6. New Class 10 Missiles
   
   The only current class 10 missile pretty much only damages shields.
   • Add a new or multiple Class 10 missile(s) that deal hull damage as well, to make missile combat more interesting.
   Balancing would be important here as well
7. Fun Easter Egg Ships
   
   • Add a banana-shaped ship and a robot-themed ship to the Lower Unknown planets (maybe with quirky stats).
   Purely for fun — light-hearted easter eggs that players could love to discover.
8. Direct item destruction in inventory
   
   • Instead of having to jettison cargo, it should be possible to directly destroy items from your inventory.
   • This would be a huge quality-of-life improvement, making inventory management faster and less frustrating.

I grew up with Crossfire and i love it! Its great, but i feel like it can be so much greater!!

Cant wait for more C:

That event was fun 🫡 but im highly convinced that next we should do a dragonfly or freighter HIVE race to spice things up a bit

Hi Operator,

I’ve been thinking about a few ideas that could make Crossfire even more fun and give players more personalization and variety:

1. Ship Engine Color Customization

   • Add a way to change the color of the cruise speed trail.

   • This would let players personalize their ships without affecting gameplay balance.

2. Region-Specific Cruise Engines for All Ships

   • Some VHFs (like the Komodo Dragon or Cayman which are from Kusari or the Rapier VHF which is from Rheinland) don’t use the cruise engine flame style of their region.

   • Aligning each ship’s cruise engine visuals with its region would improve immersion.

3. Ship Color Customization (might be unrealistic)

   • Ability to choose ship hull colors for more personal flair.

4. Ship Skins (might be even more unrealistic)

   • Could preserve past content by offering “skins” that visually transform a ship without changing stats.

5. Expanded Colored Eagle Family

   • Since there is already a Black and Pink Eagle, adding more variants and scattering them throughout the galaxy could make for a fun discovery.

6. VHF Variety in Cruise Speed

   • Currently all ships (except for the Dragonfly and Battleships) cruise at 450.

   • Introduce variation in:

     • Cruise charge-up time

     • Time to reach cruise speed

     • Maximum cruise speed itself

     • These could differ by ship origin (region) or design philosophy.

7. "Starflier Very Heavy Fighter"

   • A humorous but fun idea — the Starblazer is currently the highest-class Starflier (class 5 weapons max).

   • A Starflier VHF would be a playful nod for veterans and could be a unique collectible.

8. More Ships for the Renaissance

   • Currently there are only three Renaissance ships, which feels limited.

   • Expanding the lineup would give the newest faction more diversity, even if this should already be on your roadmap (I didnt read through all of it).

I know some of these may be technically challenging, but I think they could add both fun and depth to the game.

Thanks for reading!

- Jimilux / Flocky / Jamil