The Akkan is garbage and we need to stop pretending it isn't.

[Frostiken]

UPDATE: To summarize what we've concluded in this thread:

1) The Akkan is criminally undergunned. Its guns are distributed poorly, and those guns themselves are so weak as to be completely worthless. In terms of guns and defenses, the Akkan brings absolutely nothing to the fight. While the Akkan's firepower in SOASE 1 was not ideal, it DID put nearly all the guns on one side, which is why it had the entire 'broadside' thing going on. In SOASE 2 the guns are evenly distributed, and the guns are nearly the weakest in the game. It can only bring half its weapons to bear on a single target, and those weapons are literally equivalent to two Cobalts and ONE PD gun.

2) The Colonize ability is incredibly weak. By the time you hit midgame you don't really care about "saving" 5 supply and resources spent on a colony ship. However, because the Akkan gives you free Logistics slots, it's also worthless early-game, because you frankly don't have anything to use in those slots. As near I can tell, it was intended to just give you space to build a trade port, but in the early expansion, trade ports are gated behind research (that you probably won't make top priority) and trade ports are VERY expensive. SOASE 1 the Colonize ability gave you free orbital extractors with a big production bonus. Right now, the Vasari Expansion Minor Faction gives EVERY capital ship a colonize ability and you don't even have to pay money for it. AND IT GIVES YOU BOTH FREE LOGISTICS AND FREE MINING SLOTS. It is straight up superior to the Akkan, and it's available right from the beginning of the game with just the first level of Influence Points, and it can be put on anything. Congratulations, your Marza is now better than the Akkan at the only thing you'd pull an Akkan early to do.

3) Inspiring Broadcast only becomes useful when applied to sufficiently large deathballs. In the early game or even midgame if you haven't been able to pump up the Akkan levels, your fleets probably aren't big enough to really make this matter.

4) Some people will defend Armistice by saying "one time they did something". I'm sorry, Armistice is the stupidest ability I've ever heard of and I thought it was stupid in SOASE 1 too. You will find a use for it maybe one time in ten dozen games. It's mostly used for running away and losing. Who the hell wants an ability to help them lose? The only other real use is stalling an enemy fleet in a system with an inhibitor. How often does that happen? You have to not only have the Akkan in the right place and the right time, but you also need the ability, and you have to just plain have a reason to do it. The only other tactic I can imagine for it is skirting around a line of defenses to the opposite side of a planet. Again, this is ridiculously situational.

5) The Trade Port is... well, it exists. Yes, it can be a big economic boost. And yet, this is a capital ship feature that is gated behind the tech tree. Oh my god, really? It literally does nothing on its own, minor faction trade ports aside. And while it can be a good boost, it may or may not really be needed, and in my opinion, it's entirely up for debate if it's worth a capital ship slot and level investment for it. I don't think it is.

6) Ion Bolt. Oh right, literally the only reason to use the Akkan in SOASE 1 was removed and functionally given to the Marza, which basically was already good enough without it.

7) Akkan start will slow your early game so much that you'll die.

8) Akkan start for the AI is so difficult to hard to use that they'll die.

9) It's the only ship that requires incessant micromanagement to get it to use its weapons to their fullest.

10) Although the Insipiring Broadcast suggests the Akkan should be in the middle of the fleet, it literally brings nothing else to the fight. It has fewer point defenses than even a single Garda. This is just baffling.

The Akkan is just four Cobalts glued to half a Garda. And it can only bring half of its firepower to bear on any single target at once.

While there's always smartasses who will pretend everything is always the best and 'git gud', realistically the Akkan is by far the most worthless capital. You *can* live without it. The other TEC capitals all synergize with each other very well, while the Akkan would be missed the least if you were to skip it.

The Kol soaks damage and can dish out a ton to a single target. The Marza wipes fleets, and excels at taking down capital ships with its stun ability and missile damage. The Dunov brings a whole big mix of abilities including fighters and most importantly keeps the other ships healthy. The Sova protects everyone and brings a lot of fighters augmented with missile batteries. And the Akkan... gives them all a bit of buff that really could just be accomplished with items.

The Akkan just brings very little to the fight. It has exactly only one ability that's any use in battle. Two of them are accomplished by other ships and structures, and its special ability is the opposite of useful in battle. Yes, it has a use, but it's the most situational ability in the entire game.

In SOASE 1, the Akkan had the ion bolt, which actually made it very clutch in combat. But now the Marza has it, which makes the Marza even better than it was in SOASE 1 and it was pretty damn good then. And the Marza lost the radiation bomb because it was now given to everybody.

Thematically, the Akkan is supposed to be undergunned, it's practically a cruise liner converted into a warship. That's fine. But at the very least, it needs a ton of point defense

The reason is, the Akkan is supposed to be in the MIDDLE of your fleet to use Inspiring Broadcast. And what's the best place for a point defense cruiser? In the middle of the fleet.

Which capship has the PDs? The Sova. The Sova also has no abilities that aid other ships, and except for the deployment range of the missile battery, has no reason to 'be' in the middle of the action. However, the Sova has a million PD cannons and the missile battery deploys even more.

Realistically, as a carrier, the Sova should be away from the action. There's also mixed opinions on how useful the Sova really is - the factory buff doesn't help at all on the offensive, and the Corvette bay just builds little ships that later in the game are just popped like balloons.

Right now it's just weird that I'm driving my aircraft carrier directly into combat full-steam like it's an Indian container ship in the Baltimore Harbor, while my ship with the ability best-served in the middle of battle has literally nothing else to do once its there.

So I say strip several PDs from the Sova. This wouldn't be as bad as you think, because if you think it needs those to protect itself, that's what the missile battery's PDs are for. Give the Sova a couple of medium missile racks instead, so it can chill at the back edge and do what an aircraft carrier is supposed to do.

Then, slap a lot more PDs on the Akkan. At the very least, put one on that fin over the engine, and two on the bottom ridge, bringing it up to 5. At LEAST.

Because right now the 2x PDs on the Akkan is criminal.

[Hellrazer - wvx]

Akkan is only useful to be build when you start having a larger fleet for the inspiration buff that at lvl 3 is very powerful if popped at the right point, the rest of it's abilities are USELESS.

[DM|Hachbubuch]

Messaggio originale di Hellrazer - wvx:

Akkan is only useful to be build when you start having a larger fleet for the inspiration buff that at lvl 3 is very powerful if popped at the right point, the rest of it's abilities are USELESS.

Why is everyone ignoring the fact Akkan gives a tonn of trade points? I don't get it.

[HappyCamperBubbleBelow]

Thats not true... its very useful if you wont get rushed for early Econ... and the slower low level research actually makes it REALLY good even on even medium maps...
At which point its trade ability it TOO GOOD.

It needs squadrons on level with the dunov and some more PD.
While the trade ability needs a nerf to only provide 1 point each level, but maybe also provide a trade slot point in Econ/metal/crystal at 1/2/3 levels.

Messaggio originale di Hellrazer - wvx:

Akkan is only useful to be build when you start having a larger fleet for the inspiration buff that at lvl 3 is very powerful if popped at the right point, the rest of it's abilities are USELESS.

[Bovril Brigadier]

Messaggio originale di DM|Hachbubuch:

Why is everyone ignoring the fact Akkan gives a tonn of trade points? I don't get it.

Because it doesn't offset that the Akkan will lose 2vs1 against most Capital Ships and frankly if you find yourself reliant on the economy bonus it gives then you have much bigger problems you need to worry about. It's neither a wise short or long term investment.

[DM|Hachbubuch]

Messaggio originale di Bovril Brigadier:

Because it doesn't offset that the Akkan will lose 2vs1 against most Capital Ships and frankly if you find yourself reliant on the economy bonus it gives then you have much bigger problems you need to worry about. It's neither a wise short or long term investment.

So, we've got 3 points of view here:
1. Akkan is a bad warship and does not provide enough economical bonuses to build him, so he needs to become a better warship.
2. Akkan is a bad warship, but he provides enough economical bonuses to build him, so he is ok.
3. Akkan is a bad warship, but he provides far too strong economical bonuses, so he needs to become a better warship and be nerfed in the terms of economics.

As for me, I am "2". Especially since early planet development got cheaper and weaker, so that TEC can now afford some tradeports (also got cheaper) at the beginning, while producing enough ships for defence.

[Brave Sir Robin]

The economy changes feel like that was the Akkan 'buff'. 6 free trade points and some free logistic upgrades became much more valuable early game, even as the Akkan's DPS actually got worse. I still feel like it's way overspecialized though, and a cap ship really shouldn't be that useless in actual battles. It's also still a massive stumbling block to the TEC AI, as their early game expansion just tanks when they start with Akkan.

[HappyCamperBubbleBelow]

Actually the population change with planets slowing growing population makes tradeports possibly broken and the Akkan can even work on smaller maps now... not confident in claiming you can survive rushes... but its trade port ability is now MORE POWERFUL then before the population change... when it was already kinda broken.

Edited:Saw Brave Sir Robins reply, he is 100% correct too about the AI TEC being unable to function with Akkan.

Messaggio originale di Bovril Brigadier:

Messaggio originale di DM|Hachbubuch:

Why is everyone ignoring the fact Akkan gives a tonn of trade points? I don't get it.

Because it doesn't offset that the Akkan will lose 2vs1 against most Capital Ships and frankly if you find yourself reliant on the economy bonus it gives then you have much bigger problems you need to worry about. It's neither a wise short or long term investment.