winston wrote:As for extra laser cooling, I'm entirely with aegidian on this one - it would break an important area of gameplay tactics and make combat FAR too easy. The laser heat/cool cycles of the military laser I think are absolutely spot-on. People complaining about it need to learn how to use their rear laser, or develop tactics to avoid lasers overheating (such as, say, using missiles - perhaps actually spend the money on hardheads). Increasing the cooling rate would remove much of Oolite's tactical play (especially when there are multiple bandits).
Gameplay tactics and strategies are one of the reasons that Elite and all it's derivatives (Oolite is way out in front know) is still so popular it combines shoot em up and strategic open ended gameplay brilliantly, allowing each commander to go in whatever direction he wants.
It's all a question of balance, from reading old posts about the 1.3-1.4 ish versions, killing seemed to be fairly easy, and of course it shouldn't be, and Giles rightly upped the ante to become Elite.
I totally agree that you should not become invincible and that a too powerful ML would upset the game balance. I also think that energy bombs and QCM's are a bit of a cop out too, I would much rather dogfight
EDIT - Oops clicked submit instead of preview while talking on the phone.
My most treasured memory of Elite years ago was a 2 hour plus adrenilin pumping journey, being attacked non stop by Vipers and pirates, not in droves but small groups and individuals continually. I had to nurse my shields, use front and rear lasers, act docile, conserve laser temperature try and run etc etc. What a buzz when I hit C to autodock when my energy banks were clanking and almost entirely gone.
Oolite now has ECM hardened missiles, or even up to 4 QCM's, with witchdrive injectors you can now run for cover, but on the other hand some of the new OXP ships like the Iguana are also tooled up and really tough, so you need the better equipment, and they come at you in greater numbers.
So as far as gameplay is concerned you have more tactical options, stronger offensive and defensive weapons, but fighting tougher opponents in greater numbers. I am still however of the opinion that the ML power is still not quite right to fit the balance. Nic's windows build OXP has made it a little too strong, and IMHO it's current power level is a tad too low, I would think that a 10 or 20% increase would be about right.
Nevertheless AFIC Giles walks on water and can shape Oolite whichever way he thinks best, and will always get my total support, he and the other wizards have done an incredible job and have just made this old man very happy.
Hmm I've never used that line to blokes before!
The commit I did yesterday was all that I dared to do (and I still c*cked that up a bit 
). So it's still not as easy as it might be to get a windows build built. I'll have to work on that.
')
