Reflection

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Atarlost
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I'd suggest that in the pending ungoverned territories armor rework the reflective armors be removed.

The mechanic is inherently unbalanceable when it applies to a single damage type and should never be given to NPCs unless all relevant damage types are reflected and the HP are balanced to the tiny damage reflected shots still do.

Also, that minimum damage for reflected shots desperately needs to apply to shields as well as armor and override any resistance because it can cause a runaway memory usage crash for a passthrough weapon to hit a reflecting target that doesn't take damage.

Just the existence of ships and stations using Dwarg Catopric and Dwarg Holochroal armor makes a non-particle bombardment weapon and a non-particle anti-ship weapon mandatory and prevents the use of ion bombardment weapons. I would say these two armors do more to prevent the use of particle weapons than the actual resistance because they're so obvious even to players that don't do try to do the average damage math. Resistance just shouldn't be that extreme to non-obsolete damage types.
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Xephyr
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It doesn't bother me too much personally, because on runs where I'm using a particle-heavy loadout I'll just avoid the Dwarg altogether.
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Reflection alone is not a problem, but when combined with excessive number of enemies extra resistant to particle damage, less resistance/immunity to blast, and even lasers outperforming particle due to better support and no additional resistance beyond the level curve (and Luminous drones not adapting to tier 1 damage), that puts particle into inferiority.

Particle damage is only good in early game or in a midgame with lots of Outlaws and Marauders spawned instead of Sung and Dwarg.

That said, a few enemies in midgame can block laser damage very well, but they are not very common.
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Atarlost wrote:I'd suggest that in the pending ungoverned territories armor rework the reflective armors be removed.

The mechanic is inherently unbalanceable when it applies to a single damage type and should never be given to NPCs unless all relevant damage types are reflected and the HP are balanced to the tiny damage reflected shots still do.
I'd disagree. Reflective armor fielded by the player creates a strong incentive to approach situations differently than normal, enhancing replay value and making strategy more important.

Reflective armor fielded by the enemy makes complacency less of an issue, and rewards versatile loadouts. The entire point of different armor resistances is to make it desirable to change weapons when encountering a different variant of enemy, and this is a more solid extension of that principle.
Just the existence of ships and stations using Dwarg Catopric and Dwarg Holochroal armor makes a non-particle bombardment weapon and a non-particle anti-ship weapon mandatory and prevents the use of ion bombardment weapons. I would say these two armors do more to prevent the use of particle weapons than the actual resistance because they're so obvious even to players that don't do try to do the average damage math.
I've used the Lancer cannon in the half of games where I didn't use the dual flenser, and found it to be more than powerful enough. The issue with EP's ion/particle bombardment weapons is not the fact that they have a disadvantage against a single enemy faction, it is that they(with the exception of the Katana, which is good enough as - is) are almost universally just slightly weaker versions of their thermo counterparts.

The solution to this is not to reduce the uniqueness of the Dwarg - their ability to reflect makes them an interesting and engaging faction to fight against and provides a set of armor that is genuinely different than the other midgame sets(which tend to blend together) as well as a fun, non - kiting based counter to the otherwise devastating Earth Slaver - it is to improve ion weaponry designed for designed for attacking capital ships and stations in a way that makes it desirable to use.

I can think of a number of ways to do this - providing them with radius damage to hit multiple armor segments would provide an excellent tradeoff for their generally lower WMD and damage. Adding ionization is another possibility.

That said, a few enemies in midgame can block laser damage very well, but they are not very common.
That's very true. The resistance to laser/kinetic in the Ungoverned Territories should be comparable to the resistance to particle/blast in the Outer Realms.
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