Jesters fulfill a particular niche of a defensive and reliable T1 air unit. They can also be used for raiding but due to their low hp they are pretty easy to snipe and die to T1 MAA quickly, that is by design. You can't compare its DPS/mass cost to the bomber's because A) The DPS of a bomber is greatly exaggerated and no, when it's min 4 and you are dealing with some raids nobody is going to micro their bombers. B) Bombers tend to miss a lot (but they deal AoE so they are better vs armies). Basically, Jester is designed to be a defensive unit that kills single/small groups of units on your side of the map with its secondary purpose being sniping engies/raiding mexes. Bombers are better on the offensive (killing engies) and attacking armies.
Both units have different roles and are better at them than their counterparts.
Make Jesters Cost Less Mass
I only see mass Jesters made for com snipes in teamgames and maybe one or two are made for raiding in 1v1 games (and they usually are just a nuisance)
They're definitely not a very strong unit. If that's by design then okay, but they are pretty mediocre as stands
put the xbox units in the game pls u_u
What about a small HP buff from 350hp to 400hp? It makes them slightly better as a defensive unit for if the enemy has a very small number of MAA (compared with a bomber), without making their com snipe abilities that much better (compared to a dps or mass cost buff).
It'd also still keep them weaker than ghetto gunships which I think is a good thing since ghetto gunships require a lot more apm (and 2 factories dedicated to getting the 1 unit) to build.
M27AI and M28AI developer; Devlogs and more general AI development guide:
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/2373/ai-development-guide-and-m27ai-v71-devlog
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/5331/m28ai-devlog-v112
How about let people who actually use them and know how and when to use them to make the decision.
Ras Boi's save lives.
When people try to raid mexes they typically send more than 170 mass at them. You can't justify a raid only on mass of meces killed but by time and apm to replace said mexes
Ever seen a zlo bomber? I wonder how well a zlo jester would work out in comparison.
Bomber - 90/2.05k 500bt
Jester - 170/4.25k 850bt
Jester also kills shit way faster than bomber ever will unless you are capable of babysitting it all the time.