"Boring" (high defense, low offense) enemies

[gunship256]

That's only really workable if you have a good shield and armor, and the power/missile/repair costs make it less effective than just sniping them right now. It's certainly faster and more fun your way, which is why I think something should be done to add a bit more challenge to sniping them, given how easy it is to just dodge their only means of shooting back.

It would become easier and more fun to kill Earth Slavers if CW Fortresses sold Reapers and if fortresses' missile supplies automatically regenerated. CW Fortresses could also sell MAGs and Rasiermesser missiles; it be would be a lot easier to justify getting something other than the NAMI launcher if all missiles in midgame, not just Lucifers, could be bought at half price.

That said, they can just be tagged every so often with a missile or omni shot if someone's dead set on keeping the station alive to farm them and can't readjust their aim in time to keep them chasing.

It's pretty frustrating for me to try to snipe ships that won't chase me. If they won't chase me, it's easiest for me to snipe them and avoid their shots at the same time if I'm flying in a circle, but howitzer recoil prevents me from being able to apply a constant centripetal thrust and still face the target at the same time.

But the most fun way to fight is definitely to come in close. We need a greater variety of mid and especially advanced weapons that provide a wall of shots to hide behind, complemented with the availability of different types of missiles that can be fired from behind that wall of shots. The Moskva weapons are really good, but there's nothing like them after level 5.

[Atarlost]

It's the same as the Mark III you decry as overpowered apart from ammo issues that don't effect the AI because they spawn with enough nandao bolts for their expected in-game lifespan.

The Mark III is overpowered in the hands of the player for several reasons...

So you demand that the player not be allowed to have weapons similar to what NPCs have.

If you can't see why this is contrary to the whole paradigm of Transcendence I don't know what to say to you.

[gunship256]

The Mark III is overpowered in the hands of the player for several reasons...

So you demand that the player not be allowed to have weapons similar to what NPCs have.

If you can't see why this is contrary to the whole paradigm of Transcendence I don't know what to say to you.

The AI doesn't know how to use howitzers effectively, so at the moment, they're overpowered for the player relative to NPCs.

(EDIT: NPC's that mount long-ranged weapons on swivel mounts should be using standoff tactics, not running toward player-friendly bases like lemmings. The Pirate Valk IV in EV Nova was deadly because it was faster than the player, so it could choose to use standoff tactics and scratch you to death, but if you could accelerate fast enough to catch up to it, had enough missiles and short-range weapons to defend itself. The weak long-range weapons and lack of midrange weapons weren't a problem because the AI knew how to use its equipment.)

The laser cannon is overpowered in the player's hands against bases that use lasers as defense weapons because of an unfair exploit.

Hopefully, these problems will be fixed in 1.7... ?

[sun1404]

As far as I'm concerned, I don't think the player having advantage in their use of weaponry or equipment is a problem at all. The point of the game is that you're some kind of a unique hero. If you make every NPC as capable as the player with anything they've got equipped, it will be quite impossible to do things like destroying an Ares shipyard. Even Urak fortresses would be very hard.

[JohnBWatson]

It would become easier and more fun to kill Earth Slavers if CW Fortresses sold Reapers and if fortresses' missile supplies automatically regenerated. CW Fortresses could also sell MAGs and Rasiermesser missiles; it be would be a lot easier to justify getting something other than the NAMI launcher if all missiles in midgame, not just Lucifers, could be bought at half price.

Good idea. Definitely something you should note on George's ministry tag for increasing ammo availability; I've noticed that a lot of people seem to face the same issue around that point in the game.

This is doubly important, given that the only missiles likely to be looted in the Ungoverned Territories are also for the NAMI launcher.

---

So you demand that the player not be allowed to have weapons similar to what NPCs have.

If you can't see why this is contrary to the whole paradigm of Transcendence I don't know what to say to you.

That is an extreme strawman argument - it's very disconnected from what I actually said.

I feel very uncomfortable saying this, but it seems like you're focusing more on some issue with me as an individual than with the content of my posts ever since I disagreed with your defensive headcanon in that thread a few months back. We've already nearly derailed a thread with this conflict, so unless you believe we can put this aside(I'm open to talking this out in some off topic thread, but it's not fair to take over this one), I think for the good of the community we should stop replying to each other for the time being.

Of course, it's possible I'm just being paranoid here, and that this is all just a case of me misreading the tone of a post when there's no voice behind it to provide clarity of intention, which would be incredibly awkward but still quite useful to know.

[NMS]

Reapers are becoming illegal instead of military, so they'll only be sold at Black Market stations. But I usually loot more than I really need from Sapiens anyway.

Meanwhile, the availability of decent missiles in the mid to late game is improving in a number of ways. For instance, Commonwealth Fortresses will restock level 3-8 missiles, instead of 1-3.

[JohnBWatson]

Reapers are becoming illegal instead of military, so they'll only be sold at Black Market stations. But I usually loot more than I really need from Sapiens anyway.

The rate at which we'll be able to build them with tinkers will increase quite a bit as well, with fusion triggers showing up in groups of 24.

[NMS]

That's Lucifers, not Reapers. And the numberAppearing for fusion triggers is going down, so there'll be 12.57 times as many, effectively.

[gunship256]

Meanwhile, the availability of decent missiles in the mid to late game is improving in a number of ways. For instance, Commonwealth Fortresses will restock level 3-8 missiles, instead of 1-3.

That's good to hear and may go a long way toward solving the overpowered-howitzer problem by itself. Two Lucifers kills a Sapiens stronghold, and three kill an Ares outpost. In both cases, most of the guards are destroyed along with the bases. This is both faster and easier than using a Mark III. (The Mark III and Lucifers become cheaply available at about the same time, so that's why I'm comparing them.)

[JohnBWatson]

That's Lucifers, not Reapers. And the numberAppearing for fusion triggers is going down, so there'll be 12.57 times as many, effectively.

Didn't it used to be reapers? I guess I haven't used tinkers in a long time.

---

Meanwhile, the availability of decent missiles in the mid to late game is improving in a number of ways. For instance, Commonwealth Fortresses will restock level 3-8 missiles, instead of 1-3.

That's good to hear and may go a long way toward solving the overpowered-howitzer problem by itself. Two Lucifers kills a Sapiens stronghold, and three kill an Ares outpost. In both cases, most of the guards are destroyed along with the bases. This is both faster and easier than using a Mark III. (The Mark III and Lucifers become cheaply available at about the same time, so that's why I'm comparing them.)

Yeah, it's definitely good to see ammo weapons getting some attention.

[Atarlost]

I feel very uncomfortable saying this, but it seems like you're focusing more on some issue with me as an individual than with the content of my posts ever since I disagreed with your defensive headcanon in that thread a few months back. We've already nearly derailed a thread with this conflict, so unless you believe we can put this aside(I'm open to talking this out in some off topic thread, but it's not fair to take over this one), I think for the good of the community we should stop replying to each other for the time being.

You persistently push for changes that remove any non-twitch solutions to gameplay problems you become aware of, thereby destroying accessibility in the name of "balance." That's reason enough for me to object to your suggestions. When you have one that isn't an attack against the character of the game I won't need to defend against it.

[AssumedPseudonym]

 Atarlost and JohnBWatson: That conversation stops here and now. Feel free to pick it back up in PMs if you like — and I heartily recommend this, in fact. The two of you have been arguing back and forth for months with various degrees of hostility, and you really need to settle your differences. Also, if you want to reply to this post, please do so in PMs, not in this thread.

[gunship256]

As far as I'm concerned, I don't think the player having advantage in their use of weaponry or equipment is a problem at all. The point of the game is that you're some kind of a unique hero. If you make every NPC as capable as the player with anything they've got equipped, it will be quite impossible to do things like destroying an Ares shipyard. Even Urak fortresses would be very hard.

Yes - there was no fire rate adjust for NPCs in EV Nova, so that felt like a more dangerous universe than the current Transcendence universe. The player had an advantage in that NPCs were rarely fully equipped and left lots of linked-fire weapon slots empty or installed with ineffective guns.