Proposal for 1.82: combat balance changes

[Cody]

The Wonder Worm has plasma turrets! <chortles>

[cim]

Virtually nothing has twin plasma cannon, because they don't have "available_to_all" set in equipment.plist, and they're not in the "optional_equipment" list of any core ship either, so most player ships can't equip them except those that went looking for them.

NPCs don't generally have them because they're pretty bad weapons at the best of times, and as a relatively slow projectile, need shots to be led to stand any chance of hitting ... which the NPCs aren't yet programmed to be able to do.

If you want to try them out, the Porcupine from the [wiki]Z-Ships[/wiki] OXP is cheap and available in most systems, and does allow fitting them. They have several major disadvantages:
- you have to lead your shots and they're relatively slow projectiles
- they're really short ranged (not that you'd hit anything moving at longer range anyway)
- they overheat fairly quickly (much faster than a pulse laser)
- they use a ridiculous amount of energy per shot: getting them to the overheated state will go through most of three energy banks
- they do about 40% of the damage per hit of a pulse laser (though the rate of fire is a bit better)


The plasma turret weapons fitted to capital ships and sometimes smaller OXP ships are quite different:
- automatic shot leading makes them reasonably accurate
- they're turrets, so you don't also have to point the ship more than vaguely in the right direction
- no overheating
- no energy use
- still low damage per hit, though
- still short range

Still only situationally useful: the best use in my opinion is for OXP capital ships to deal massive amounts of damage at short range in a fashion that looks like it might deal massive damage - pull up a frigate alongside a station and absolutely saturate it in plasma fire for a mission set piece, or a similar.

[ffutures]

OK, sounds like I can live without them.

[cim]

Okay, this is now in and should build tonight into the nightlies.

Combat will feel quite a bit different and may take a little bit of getting used to. Please try it out in the nightly builds and say what you think. This is probably going to the most controversial change, and it's possible that the laser settings might be rolled back to their original values if it doesn't work out. Even if it does work out, there may be some fine-tuning to be done.

NOTE: the format for storing weapon settings in the save game is changed. You will be able to load a 1.80 save game in 1.81 fine; if you try to load a 1.81 save game in 1.80 you will lose all your lasers and need to re-buy them.

[another_commander]

Further to what cim has written above and, due to the importance of the changes made, I just wanted to note that for this particular build, we are really interested in receiving lots of feedback - maybe more than what we normally receive. The more this is tested now, the better it will be for all in the long run.

[Cody]

First impression after a protracted, close-quarters, tussle with three heavy assassins: my military laser now acts like a single-shot weapon, not unlike how I occasionly use it - but it's not dealing as much damage, and eventually I got fragged because of that fact. However, that is only a first impression!

[cim]

my military laser now acts like a single-shot weapon

Unusual... Do you still have that custom equipment.plist installed? If so, you'll want to copy the new weapon_info blocks out of the core one into the appropriate places in yours, or every laser will act like a pulse laser.

(Easy diagnostic: what colour are the assassin's lasers? If the answer is "red" you probably have something interfering)

[Cody]

If so, you'll want to copy the new weapon_info blocks out of the core one into the appropriate places in yours, or every laser will act like a pulse laser.

Ahh, that would explain it - done that, and all is well now! My killing power has been restored, as two Viper pilots can testify! Thanks!

[Norby]

Combat will feel quite a bit different

I like the new feeling: the longer durability of the enemies and my ship also.
Additionally I must switch less often between the forward and aft lasers due to the slower overheat and the other laser cooled down more when I need to use it again. Nice.

[Diziet Sma]

Virtually nothing has twin plasma cannon, because they don't have "available_to_all" set in equipment.plist, and they're not in the "optional_equipment" list of any core ship either, so most player ships can't equip them except those that went looking for them.

NPCs don't generally have them because they're pretty bad weapons at the best of times, and as a relatively slow projectile, need shots to be led to stand any chance of hitting ... which the NPCs aren't yet programmed to be able to do.

If you want to try them out, the Porcupine from the [wiki]Z-Ships[/wiki] OXP is cheap and available in most systems, and does allow fitting them. They have several major disadvantages:
- you have to lead your shots and they're relatively slow projectiles
- they're really short ranged (not that you'd hit anything moving at longer range anyway)
- they overheat fairly quickly (much faster than a pulse laser)
- they use a ridiculous amount of energy per shot: getting them to the overheated state will go through most of three energy banks
- they do about 40% of the damage per hit of a pulse laser (though the rate of fire is a bit better)

The Twin Plasma Cannon are also the default aft weapon on the Falcon, both player and NPC versions.

[Cody]

Combat will feel quite a bit different and may take a little bit of getting used to.

I don't know about all that yet - but I've been the victim of some very tricksy behaviour from those heavy assassins today. <grins happily>

[Venator Dha]

Combat will feel quite a bit different

My first impressions are positive, but I feel I need to play it some more before giving full feedback.

However one thing I have noticed is that there seem to be quite a few ships with rear lasers. As I'm flying starters, current pilot mostly harmless (11), this seems a bit extreme Is this what would be expected from the changes?

[cim]

There are no more ships with rear lasers than previously. Ships which can get rear lasers (assuming that they don't get one as default):
- heavy hunters (sometimes)
- pirate interceptors/aegis raiders (sometimes)
- pirate heavy fighters / escort heavy fighters (but very rarely)
- pirate leaders (almost always)
- pirate traders (sometimes)
- medium and heavy assassins (usually)

Pirate leaders (accompanied by interceptors and heavy fighters) are relatively common in Multi-gov and tougher systems, and the smaller ones can be generated in Communist and Dictatorship systems. Of course, they may raid nearby safer systems from there, so very few systems are entirely safe from them. Still, if you stick to Confederacy and safer, you won't meet many.

You may be seeing more attacks from the smallest pirate leader ships, which are often hard to tell apart from an irregular pirate band, because of the odds changes. (Or you may be surviving long enough for them to bother using their aft lasers...)

[Venator Dha]

Thanks for the info Cim, good to know

Pirate leaders (accompanied by interceptors and heavy fighters) are relatively common in Multi-gov and tougher systems, and the smaller ones can be generated in Communist and Dictatorship systems.

That might be why, in order to test the combat more, I've been looking for fights, so have visited more dangerous systems that would be wise for a starter

You may be seeing more attacks from the smallest pirate leader ships, which are often hard to tell apart from an irregular pirate band, because of the odds changes. (Or you may be surviving long enough for them to bother using their aft lasers...)

Both of these are also probably the case, they would previously have killed me quickly, now I can survive (but not necessarily win) much longer against longer odds. I'm having much tighter (that is in close) dog-fights now, and am getting on the tail of ships more than before.

[pagroove]

Combat seems more doable. I destroyed a group of 5 pirates. Then another 5 came in which was too much. Because I had sustained heavy damage after the last fight.

However it seems better. You get indeed a lot of closer fights.