Proposal for 1.82: equipment balancing and choices

[Venator Dha]

Military lasers ... they can't require the NEU, since you "need" the military laser to fight the Constrictor, and you don't get the NEU until a long time after that mission. Requiring any sort of energy unit would be inconvenient, since you'd be in even more trouble than usual if it got damaged.

Got Constrictor & Thargoid plans rewards mixed up

[Zireael]

^^ That sparked a thought: make the Constrictor mission give NEU?
Or port another mission from old Elite (or make a completely new one) which would give NEU before Constrictor?

Because I like the mil laser requiring NEU idea.

[Cody]

Quite simply - no!

[Redspear]

Historical note: as far as balance goes, scanner range in Elite was much reduced compared with ship speed than it is in Oolite. In BBC Elite you can take a stationary target from the edge of scanner to adjacent in 30 seconds - that implies a scanner range of only 9km (weapons ranged at ~5km/10km) in Oolite scale - which would be a very different fighting environment.

And presumably less time-consuming mass-locks...

I did try a spectrum emulation of elite a while ago; Lave to Zaonce was a very short trip compared to that in Oolite.

[cim]

And presumably less time-consuming mass-locks...

Especially since almost every ship you met was hostile - very little of this "slowly crawl past a trader going the same way".

[Redspear]

And presumably less time-consuming mass-locks...

Especially since almost every ship you met was hostile - very little of this "slowly crawl past a trader going the same way".

On the plus side, we've got injectors though ...once we can afford 'em

[Redspear]

Any merit in seperating ship to ship mass-lock from the scanner range?
Maybe to just outside beam laser range? (tries to remember how far that is ...)

[Thargoid]

Why not have the damage inflicted by the laser (of whatever flavour) be range-dependent? So at point-blank range it gives 100% of its damage level, but at maximum range it only gives 50% (for example).

Percentages and damage levels could be tweaked, but it perhaps offers a way to maintain the long range of the mil laser without making it unbalanced to NPCs.

[Norby]

Maybe to just outside beam laser range? (tries to remember how far that is ...)

15km, but I do not want to stop nearer to the bad guys than before.

at maximum range it only gives 50% (for example)

Good idea! In addition this value can be lower without EU (0%?) and higher with NEU (100%?).

[Switeck]

Why not have the damage inflicted by the laser (of whatever flavour) be range-dependent? So at point-blank range it gives 100% of its damage level, but at maximum range it only gives 50% (for example).

Percentages and damage levels could be tweaked, but it perhaps offers a way to maintain the long range of the mil laser without making it unbalanced to NPCs.

Yeah, but the damage has to drop off to nil at some point because it's rather unrealistic to go from hitting for even 50% damage to hitting for 0 damage.

A laser might do 100% of its max damage out to 50% range, only 50% damage at ~75% max range, and reducing to 0 damage at max range.

For a Pulse Laser, that's ~6.25 km range for its max damage, ~9.375 km for 50% damage, and 0 damage beyond 12.5 km.
For a Beam Laser, that's ~7.5 km range for its max damage, ~11.25 km for 50% damage, and 0 damage beyond 15 km.
For a Military Laser, that's ~15 km range for its max damage, ~22.5 km for 50% damage, and 0 damage beyond 30 km.

[Falcon777]

Why not have the damage inflicted by the laser (of whatever flavour) be range-dependent? So at point-blank range it gives 100% of its damage level, but at maximum range it only gives 50% (for example).

Percentages and damage levels could be tweaked, but it perhaps offers a way to maintain the long range of the mil laser without making it unbalanced to NPCs.

Yeah, but the damage has to drop off to nil at some point because it's rather unrealistic to go from hitting for even 50% damage to hitting for 0 damage.

A laser might do 100% of its max damage out to 50% range, only 50% damage at ~75% max range, and reducing to 0 damage at max range.

For a Pulse Laser, that's ~6.25 km range for its max damage, ~9.375 km for 50% damage, and 0 damage beyond 12.5 km.
For a Beam Laser, that's ~7.5 km range for its max damage, ~11.25 km for 50% damage, and 0 damage beyond 15 km.
For a Military Laser, that's ~15 km range for its max damage, ~22.5 km for 50% damage, and 0 damage beyond 30 km.

I would imagine that if that were implemented a lot of things would have to be tweaked so as to make sure the game wasn't too hard or too easy.

[Wildeblood]

Why not have the damage inflicted by the laser (of whatever flavour) be range-dependent? So at point-blank range it gives 100% of its damage level, but at maximum range it only gives 50% (for example).

That's the first suggestion I've seen in this whole discussion that I like. It's always been wrong, and obviously so, that the laser beams have a definite end-point where their energy drops from 100% to 0 immediately. And the exact shape of the distance to power curve would give us something new to endlessly debate.

[maik]

Why not have the damage inflicted by the laser (of whatever flavour) be range-dependent? So at point-blank range it gives 100% of its damage level, but at maximum range it only gives 50% (for example).

Percentages and damage levels could be tweaked, but it perhaps offers a way to maintain the long range of the mil laser without making it unbalanced to NPCs.

Yep, this is something I could live with.

[cim]

I would imagine that if that were implemented a lot of things would have to be tweaked so as to make sure the game wasn't too hard or too easy.

Definitely. The Constrictor Hunt mission would need a lot of testing, since a lot of the fighting in that is spent at long range.

[Zireael]

Why not have the damage inflicted by the laser (of whatever flavour) be range-dependent? So at point-blank range it gives 100% of its damage level, but at maximum range it only gives 50% (for example).

Percentages and damage levels could be tweaked, but it perhaps offers a way to maintain the long range of the mil laser without making it unbalanced to NPCs.

Like the idea.