[1.2b3] Balance issues?

[kay.py]

These are kind of subjective, but I thought I'd throw them out and see if its just me or if others are seeing the same thing but haven't spoken up yet:

The new ship damage model seems to make capital ships insanely tough. Also, having them pretty much completely obscured by smoke before they finally go down seems to me that maybe something is out of whack there...



On the flip side, is anyone else thinking that micronukes are currently a bit overpowered? I'm pretty sure I just saw one 1-hit-kill one of those fortified outer system colonies...

Hmm. I might have to set up a game that starts with one installed and see just what it will do...

...

CW Fortress 2 hits
Outer Systems Station (either type) 2
Ares Outpost 3(barely)
Ares Commune 2
Luminous Assembler 3
Makayev Manufacturing 2
Ranx Fort 4
Ventari Colony 2
Dwarg Fort 1
BlackMarket Shipyard 1
Kobol Warlord 1
Rogue Fleet Settlement 3 (barely)

[PM]

Ares nukes' damage were tripled, and they were among the best missiles in the game before the boost.

[sun1404]

Now, the only problem about them is that you can't buy them. Still, the Ares have tons of them anyway. Next game it'll be my choice launcher.

[PM]

Sometimes, Black Market and Teraton stations sell Ares hardware. If not, and you want Ares launcher, you either need to fabricate one or do without.

[Deltax]

If a micronuke does that much damage now, i'm guessing warhammers will 1 shot KO every station in the game?

While I agree that some of the later game capital ships are definitely a little too powerful now most of them needed a boost badly. Drake missileships and urak destroyers in particular were a piece of cake to fight against, just dodge the missiles and those laser cannons wont put a dent even in level 1 shields, and I don't need to explain why urak destroyers are STILL a laughing stock of a capital ship.

Sometimes, Black Market and Teraton stations sell Ares hardware. If not, and you want Ares launcher, you either need to fabricate one or do without.

You can also get one from the cometfall's that appear during the point juno missions, though there is a decent chance that none of them will drop an intact launcher. And micronukes can still easily be obtained by farming the tundra gunships that come as reinforcements to ares communes.

[Atarlost]

Ares nukes' damage were tripled, and they were among the best missiles in the game before the boost.

Looks like sextupled to me. The area fragment was 1d12 in 1.1 and it's 6d12 now.

I'd say it's now far too powerful for something seen in missions where you defend one or more superfreighters. Those things were excessively fragile compared to the weapons firing at them before. It's pretty ridiculous now.

[Deltax]

The ares positron cannon has also been boosted, it now does nearly as much damage as lamplighter along with more range and ludicrous shield damage. The only thing it does not have over lamplighter is the WMD, but its still a better weapon now IMO.

Did I mention you have to go through far less hassle to get it, too?

[kay.py]

I think the old positron cannon, if maximally longzhu'd, actually does more than the new version (with the nerfed enhancement limits)

2.5x18 =45
vs
1.3x31.5=40.95

If you are really really lucky, you might get a +50% out of domina, which is a small improvement, but you have to be really lucky
1.5x31.5=47.25

[PM]

Domina gives +40% max for weapons. In case of Ares positron cannon, weapon optimizer ROM increases fire rate from 3.75 shots/sec. to 5 shots/sec -- an effective +33% increase of DPS.

Lamplighter is sub-par. Its only advantage is relatively low powerUse. Rewards for saving Antarctica look more attractive than before.

[sun1404]

I changed my mind. Lower the ares micronuke damage. It just one-shot-killed my Constellation with an Octocarbide and a Plasma Shield generator. That's way too much for a level seven weapon, and for any weapons actually. It's more powerful than the Plasma Archcannon! Lower the damage to one fifth, or at most one third, I think. Any more than that is unbalanced.

[Atarlost]

The area fragment can multi-hit even gunships so it can do 6d12, 12d12, 18d12, or even 24d12. It needs to go back to 1d12 or maybe 2d12 so it caps at 4d12 or 8d12.

[FourFire]

A tundra can 1 hit a military freighter...

I am not happy with this

[kay.py]

What might be better is if a shockwave could only hit something once.

"Something" might not necessarily be a ship- it might hit each armor segment for 6d12, but not do more to any single piece of armor.

[sun1404]

I think shockwaves should still retain their ability to multi-hit. It adds that much feeling. Still, all shockwave weapons should have much less damage than other of the same level. Maybe five to eight times lower.

[PM]

Ares' nukes were powerful enough before the boost, although most other nukes aside from those used by the NAMI heavy launcher were boosted too, but only by about x1.5 (less than Ares' nukes). If any nuke needed to be boosted, it would those usable by the NAMI heavy launcher because their missiles are so heavy, but they did not receive any boost, aside from fragmentation bug getting fixed.

All that needs to be done to bring Ares' nukes back in line is to restore their original damage values or lower the boost to be comparable to most other thermo ammo/weapons that were boosted (while still being more powerful than before).