ICS repellers as PD

[JohnBWatson]

The Commonwealth uses a lot of missiles, but for all that they're flashy they're not very good, particularly in an anti-capital role. The primary anti-capital weapon of the Commonwealth is the Katana Starcannon, used by the Aquila, Britannia, Aeries monitor, and the newer CSCs. Changes to internal structure have shifted the balance somewhat, but Ares ships have at least as much armor as structure and resist thermo while vulnerable to ion.

I'd agree on the role of the KSC, but the M2 is said to be specifically designed for an anti - capship role. In game, it's more effective as a swarmbuster, but canonically it's supposed to be decent against capital ships, and it is what the Aquilae field when attacking the Antarctica.

The internal structure implementation is almost universally considered broken. Not everyone has expressed an opinion, but everyone who has that I've seen dislikes it. Since it will probably change to reduce the impact of WMD the current mechanics should not be used for planning.

It's definitely broken, but WMD has always been, in some form, a modifier that makes heavy weaponry effective against large ships and stations in a way that light weaponry isn't.

OT: Is there a thread for planning alterations to internal structure yet?

Even if the Ares are not at war with the Ranx they would consider the Ranx a potential enemy. China is not at war with the U.S. and to a substantial degree relies on us as a market for their manufacturies, but we are the primary enemy they prepare for war against because we exist and aren't their bosom buddies.

China(along with Russia) is considered the major military threat to America, and they aren't currently using their higher - end weaponry against any other nation, so they can afford to spec it out against what those nations are fielding. That analogy is more relevant for the ED and APD, who are not actively waging war against an equal force, and thus can afford to design their forces specifically for the purposes of countering each other's fleet. In addition, the Ares, at least from what is in game, appear to be vastly more powerful than the Ranx, such that one of their dreadnoughts could easily destroy several belonging to the Ranx. I don't see them altering their forces in a way that would make them less efficient against their current foes in order to counter a currently neutral faction that they can already beat handily.

[sun1404]

I'd say the Ranx Dreadnought isn't as weak as it once was. Once it was laughable, dealing almost zero damage and not that hard to crack despite fielding one of best armors seen around there, and multiple spiders. Now though, it actually hurts if you can't dodge the shells, and is much more durable. I'd guess a Ranx Dreadnought could at least stand against a Deimos reasonably well, though I have never tested or seen this.

[JohnBWatson]

I'd say the Ranx Dreadnought isn't as weak as it once was. Once it was laughable, dealing almost zero damage and not that hard to crack despite fielding one of best armors seen around there, and multiple spiders. Now though, it actually hurts if you can't dodge the shells, and is much more durable. I'd guess a Ranx Dreadnought could at least stand against a Deimos reasonably well, though I have never tested or seen this.

Oddly enough, I've always heard that the other way around(RDNs used to be incredibly dangerous, but are weaksauce now), which has been my experience. While I've not tested this(anyone have G.O.D. installed?), I think a Deimos is well defended enough to tank an RDN's hits long enough to kill it.

[NMS]

I'd say the Ranx Dreadnought isn't as weak as it once was. Once it was laughable, dealing almost zero damage and not that hard to crack despite fielding one of best armors seen around there, and multiple spiders. Now though, it actually hurts if you can't dodge the shells, and is much more durable. I'd guess a Ranx Dreadnought could at least stand against a Deimos reasonably well, though I have never tested or seen this.

This kind of thing is easy to test on the intro screen. Press shift-1 (!) to bring up a text box and type enough of a ship's name to uniquely identify it. The RDN does beat one Deimos, but not two.

OT: Is there a thread for planning alterations to internal structure yet?

This seems to be the most relevent thread. I just pasted in my proposed solution from another thread.

[sun1404]

As I know it, the RDN was once very powerful, then the fragmentation glitch made it almost powerless. But then when compartments were added, the RDN became a menace again. I think its weaponry was updated at about the same time as compartments, too.

[JohnBWatson]

As I know it, the RDN was once very powerful, then the fragmentation glitch made it almost powerless. But then when compartments were added, the RDN became a menace again. I think its weaponry was updated at about the same time as compartments, too.

Huh, I've never had much trouble with it since the old one was altered. How long has the weapon range bug been around? I think that might have been what did it in.

[Song]

Ok, somewhat-incomplete history lesson time.


The kiloton cannon was an endgame gun when introduced. A looooong time ago (years before I started playing). As in, we're probably talking about eight to ten years ago at least. George actually made a thing about it in one of the patch notes from then, so it shouldn't be too hard to nail down the exact time. Regardless: it was supposed to be a really powerful gun.

The kiloton was the main weapon of the RDN (which may have had an akan, but then got nerfed to remove it, or may have just had the gun). It was also the weapon of Ranx Fortresses, which promptly got nerfed into oblivion after they killed the hell out of everything.

When I started playing in 0.99c, the RDN was still extremely dangerous: It had non-critical armor segments, and that cannon would do a heck of a lot of damage if it hit you (if it didn't hit you it usually wouldn't detonate, because 0.99c had bugged fragmentation). This was because armor was less of a thing..if your shield went down it was very easy to die. However, it also had a weakness that made the ship absurdly easy to kill: that very same failsafe timer. Standard practice was to fly directly at it, possibly trying to dodge the shots but mostly just trying to get in before your shield failed (because, again, armor sucked even more back then). Once inside the failsafe range, you took next to no damage. And because shields had really good regen and damage absorption, you usually wouldn't lose the shield unless you were under attack by something else as well.


.....then 1.0RC2 nerfed the hell out of shields. But didn't buff armor. So the RND became absurdly good again because you couldn't get close to it before your shield went down.

Then RC4 or 5 bumped up armor (and possibly slightly buffed shields), and it became a joke again. At some point since then, the ship gained an Akan 30 to stop tail-sitting....but it doesn't help much.

Right now it has the issue of being too good against shields (and possibly internals) but generally very poor against the armors it tends to face. It evens out at around the ".....eh" level.


The iocrym repeller on the other hand was introduced with the 'Doorstop' Iocrym Command Ship, and has changed very little since then. It has always been completely terrible.