I said this the very day that the patch notes were released.  This ability is just so weak and needs serious help to be useful.  In my opinion this is the worst capital ship ability in the game, even after the buff it received.

Personally I think that abililty has two issues.  First, its cooldown (even at level 3) is just WAY too long.  It takes virtually forever to actually launch a second squad, by which time the first squad is likely dead.  Adept Drone Anima basically gives you an extra squad at the start of battle, and it's replaced gradually as units are killed.  In a realistic scenario it's actually producing bombers faster (and at no antimatter-cost) then scramble.  The second issue is antimatter cost.  This ability is worse than many passive abilities to begin with, and yet its antimatter cost is actually fairly high for the effect you're getting. 

Now, with that said, repair cloud is one of the most powerful abilities in the game.  The only ability on the other carrier caps that's in the same league is telekinetic push.  The Skirantra is still a very powerful capital ship, but I will agree it got the shaft in terms of buffs to carrier caps.

maybe it should scrable 3/4/5 bobmer squads per rank but have the duration of bombers shorter than cooldown?

While I don't have much love for those two abilities, I think both are definitely a cut above scramble.

By level 3, the antimatter cost isn't that substantial, but I'd still conserve for repair cloud.  The problem, however, is that blasted cooldown.  Twenty seconds?  Give me a break!  I've drawn up timelines and basically it takes 80 or 100 seconds before scramble builds any real advantage over an ADA Halcyon, and this presumes your enemy has no fighter support to kill your bombers as you build them up.

By the time you've brought this ability to a high enough level that its antimatter cost is low and the Skirantra can support it without having a major impact on repair cloud, one or two extra bomber squads doesn't mean that much to the battle anymore.  This ability needs a serious buff; it needs further antimatter cost reduction and an aggressive reduction in cooldown.

If you want to give Microphasing Aura a boost, here's an idea: make it give all friendly strike craft in the area of effect a small chance to evade attack damage against them.

OMG its too OP, either the antimatter cost is reduced or the ability cd reduced how bout increase its repair power or make it STACK with other skitantra's repair cloud?

Unlike the rest of the game, the caps seem to have become more evenly matched, with just a few tweaks needed to achieve balance.  Most of these suggestions are boosts to weaker abilities:

Gauss Rail Gun- lower the antimatter cost further, maybe 50?

Heavy Strike Craft- for this to be in line with the Halcyon how about 20/35/50 bonus?

Target Uplink- add a damage bonus 5/10/15?

Magnetize- the max targets seems odd, decrease the target area but infinite targets?

Incendiary Shells- the chance element seems unnecessarily complicated, and the only 'shells' are autocannon not missiles? 

Missile Barrage- the ability is silly as it is and the complaints about it are legitimate, no crew could attack infinite targets with missiles, either implement a target maximum or restrict to a smaller area saturated with non-homing missiles- a proper 'barrage'.

Vertigo- expand area affected.

Guidance and Clairvoyance- antimatter cost, and shouldn't the Revelation have at least one passive ability, how about allowing it to spy at no cost, as it is called the 'Revelation'?

Shield Regeneration- nerf this to at most Skirantra levels of healing, 20/30/40.  The Skirantra is a dedicated repair/assembly capital, and shouldn't have inferior repair to a colony ship.

Jam Weapons- revert nerf, increase duration.

Microphasing Aura- effect should level more 4/3/2 20/30/40?

Scramble Bombers- to be more nearly equivalent to the other caps you'd need to double the lifetime, especially as it costs antimatter?

Subversion- add a penalty to the planet, trade/refinery and extractors production

Phase Out- why a shield boost/damage if it affects the structure?  Move to ship health, perhaps double the boost/penalty on return- then the Marauder is far more of a combat threat to fleeing caps.  The Marauder still needs a heavy boost.

Also- why allow the Egg 'heavy' plasma cannons?  If 'heavy' weapons does mean +dps, I'd swap these for the ones on the Devastator and Marauder, and allow the Kol and Radiance heavier pulse and plasma weapons as well.   

There may be more than one glaring error in my suggestions, but it might also be an improvement to balance the caps as a set in one thread, rather than several separate threads? 

Yeah, the Skirantra has too many competive demands for its antimatter.  The Advent Carrier cap (the Halcyon) has a definite advantage in less antimatter demands.   In some instances, the TEC Sova also runs into problems with antimatter demands - when you want to use both Embargo & Missile Batteries at the same time.

But making scramble bombers a passive ability would be too much!  But I could see where reducing its antimatter cost would be helpful.

Since a Scrambled Bomber's duration is 120 seconds, and the abilities cooldown is 40/30/20 by level, it means that (if antimatter provides): you can have 3/4/6 extra bombers for each of the 3 levels.  The total antimatter use in each case is: 150/160/180 (derived from 3X50/4x40/6x30).  Theoretically, you should have that much antimatter generally available.  But Repair Cloud is the antimatter hog.  Maybe you should turn off it's autocast, or pick Microphasing Aura before it.

Even as the ability currently stands, a level 1 Skirantra will beat a level 1 Halcyon!  I tested it - the Skirantra with Scramble Bombers won with 280 hull remaining.  Surprisingly, a Sova with Missile Batteries was the ONLY other level 1 Cap ship that could beat a Skirantra with Scramble bombers (with 300 hull remaining for the Sova)! 

According to the game manual, the Antorak is supposed to be a raidier. I propose replacing one of its abilities with a passive ability that reduces enemy trade (maybe even stops trade) in the same grav-well that the antorak is in. Also, this ability should greatly increase the time it takes for destroyed enemy trade ships to be replaced.

This will mean that using the Antorak as a raider behind enemy lines will cause significant economic damage to the enemy which is the whole point of raiding. This change may be too big for a patch, but I stand by my idea. Any feedback on my proposed change?

As for the Skirantra, imo scramble bombers should spawn several squads all at once so that they actually have a chance to seal serious damage. Buff to repair cloud sounds good to me.

Thanks for maintaining the capship stats sticky  Sage, I've often referred to it.

After Sage's analysis, I'm not in favour of any improvement to the Skirantra, its already a powerful ship- as is the Sova as Darvin pointed out, so no improvement to heavy strikecraft. 

No to improved Vertigo as well then.

Yeah, the Marza was discussed at length and Missile Barrage is a Level 6 ability, and as soon as there were TEC alternatives they have been taken up.  I suppose doubters will have to suffer?

On Darvin's changes-

Yeah to battleship dps+, I suggested making the forward weapons heavy.  The Marza needs no other buff especially if incendaries are improved, and I wouldn't improve the Vulkoras either if it is to get better phase missile swarm.

No to support antimatter increase, alter the abilities themselves instead where necessary.  If you were going to reduce carrier caps bombardment I'd add in the colony caps as well.

Kol: all the Kol's abilities use antimatter, how about adaptive as a passive?

Dunov:yeah, I had improved magnetize.

Radiance: could you explain further why Animosity needs a rework?  I'm not sure that friendlies should be immune to special abilities- and wasn't the original supposed to ensure that enemies turned to face the Radiance as well?

Revelation: it might be enough to limit the range and cone of effect of Repulse and exclude capitals.  How about clairvoyance as an ability that cost no antimatter, and you could spy on 1/2/3 gravwells at the same time?

Egg: no buffs to the Egg, it's still one of the best capitals, and Vasari have a combat use for their colony ships.

Antorak: having the phase out ability directly affect health would be a buff, perhaps it should scale 200/300/400.  You could also allow Subversion to affect trade, perhaps to destroy any trade ships in the well through mutinies, that would be enough for a very strong power?

No to boosting Skirantra repair- the object should be to encourage diversity in capital choice, not to strengthen the existing stronger choices?

Also it heals the hull, when there are antimatter draining abilities you could be out of antimatter even before you can use it once. The motherships ability kicks in right after the battle has started.

Generic Changes:

• Battleship-class and Siege-class capital ships are generally performing sub-par currently; carrier-class caps have really been taking up the spotlight recently.  I propose that the Kol, Marza, Radiance, Kortul, and Vulkoras class capital ships all receive a substantial DPS buff (75%) so that they more seriously match carrier caps as early game rushers.  
  
• Support-class capital ships have always been on the weak side.  I propose doubling the base antimatter regeneration rates and adding 150 more antimatter to their base reserves.  This would apply to the Dunov, Rapture, Revelation, and Antorak.  I realize the Revelation is a siege cap, but it plays like a support cap so I'm going to treat it as such.
• Carrier caps are a little strong for rushing currently; I propose lowering their bombard damage by about 33%.  This would mean you'd probably have to use siege frigates with them when going on the offensive, but I think something needs to be done to deal with the dual-carrier homeworld rush.  This is just way too easy against an opponent who randoms an exposed homeworld (that is, he cannot colonize one of his lanes so it's easy for the attacker to send a stream of reinforcements) 

The Marza is a lot weaker than it used to be. It's not because of actually balancing the ship itself, but TEC and Vasari both have incredibly reliable ways to handle Missile Barrage; Ion Bolt and Disruptive Strikes. Missile Barrage just isn't as deadly as it used to be.

With cap balance, the only ones that need serious help are the Kol Battleship and Dunov Battlecruiser. The Antorak also needs some buffs (Though it's actually not nearly as bad as people make it out to be), and the Advent Battlecruisers could use some changes.

The Vulkoras and Marza are already scary at bombarding, they need no help in this category.  That's why I'd say add to their combat presence like the battleships.  For the Revelation, my recommendation was to treat it like a support capital ship.  Now, of the "siege" caps, I do agree it's the worst at bombardment, mainly because it doesn't get a special ability in this field until level 6.

The problem I've always had with MB is that if you can cancel it, it's positively worthless.  That long cooldown means that you'll be waiting positively forever to get a second shot.  On the other hand, if you can't stop it, it's completely overpowering.  I want to see the ability changed such that it's harder to completely negate but not so overpowering if you can't.

So your "help me" list is: Kol, Dunov, Revelation, Rapture, Antorak.  I mostly agree that this is the list of capital ships that need help.  There's one thing worth pointing out: you've listed all the support caps, reinforcing my point that the support caps as a group need help.

I disagree that it's outclassed by the mothership heal.  Honestly I think in many situations that repair cloud is the stronger of the two.  It's only when you combo it off with guardians that the Progenitor's outclasses it.