Balance

[Smivs]

Indeed I did tone-down the equipment upgrades in TG4 in favour of more variable pilot skill for this very reason. Having said that, it is very nice never quite knowing what it will take to kill an opponent, and with some NPCs (of the same type) near-standard and others really quite durable, you never really know what you are tackling till it dies (or you do )

[Norby]

Re-inventing the wheel?

I like ToughGuys (as others, I installed more than 300 OXP, simply I do not wanted to list all of them in the previous post) and read over the whole js code of the previous version before I started to work on ShipVersion in march, so it is planned to an extension, but I will check the changes in TG4 before publishing (currently unreleased but placed into the Betatest folder).

[Smivs]

That's cool.
I was mostly concerned that you might be putting a lot of effort into something that more or less already existed.

[Norby]

With the new abilities of the AI in version 1.77, I find it somewhat unnecessary to load up NPCs with tons of shields and boosters and whatever hardware in order to make them more challenging. Just up the average NPC accuracy to 9 or 10 and you will soon find out that even a pair of Sidewinders can become very, very lethal against the player's iron ass ship.

I like NPCs with accuracy=10, but the victory is more sweet if the race is more fair, so I give all equipments what I can get at least a part of them and try to beat acc10.

Of course less healthy to fight against a group alone than before, so need to play in more cautious style, but it is more fun to me than the original almost fearless playstyle.

[Cody]

... need to play in more cautious style

This is the great thing about a finely balanced game - over-confidence gets punished. It should be harsh out there!

[Norby]

it is very nice never quite knowing what it will take to kill an opponent

You given an idea to the new Detectors OXP to do not reveal the exact strength of the target: an element of uncertainty added to make surprises. Thank you!

[Commander McLane]

Is it possible to destroy any of the Space Stations in the game?

Yes, all space stations—with the notable exception of the system main stations—are fully destructible. In most cases it'll take more punch than a single laser—even a military one—can deliver. But with switching between four military lasers you can wear any station down. Just be prepared for spinning around and pressing your fire button for a considerable amount of time. And you have to completely ignore the station defenses. If you stop directing your fire at the station for even a couple of seconds, it will replenish its energy in no time.

Other than by means of certain rather extreme OXP-added missiles, no.

Insofar this reply is, strictly speaking, not true.

[Diziet Sma]

I stand corrected.. thanks!

Is it possible to destroy any of the Space Stations in the game?

Yes, all space stations—with the notable exception of the system main stations—are fully destructible. In most cases it'll take more punch than a single laser—even a military one—can deliver. But with switching between four military lasers you can wear any station down. Just be prepared for spinning around and pressing your fire button for a considerable amount of time. And you have to completely ignore the station defenses. If you stop directing your fire at the station for even a couple of seconds, it will replenish its energy in no time.

Hmm.. you'd need a pretty tough ship to survive long enough to destroy the station, I'd imagine.. especially now that ships in 1.77 pack the same punch as the player ship.

[Commander McLane]

Hmm.. you'd need a pretty tough ship to survive long enough to destroy the station, I'd imagine.. especially now that ships in 1.77 pack the same punch as the player ship.

Yep. Thus it's practically impossible for the player alone.

However, any currently existing non-main station would eventually succumb to a coordinated attack by a couple of iron ass ships. Thus it's a blessing for stations that Oolite isn't multiplayer.

If you want to see secondary stations destroyed by NPCs only through laser fire, you can install  Thargoid carrier OXP. Unleashing a couple of well-armed attackers on secondary stations is exactly the purpose of Thargoid Carriers.

[Norby]

I was mostly concerned that you might be putting a lot of effort into something that more or less already existed.

Now I published the ShipVersion OXP, I think it can fit well along with the existing similar OXPs.