Weapon adjustments
 

I made some adjustments to make torpedo weapons usable in SEIV. I basically gave them a +15 to hit and increased their damage slightly.

What have others done to improve the standard game weapons?

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

A handy tool for fixing weapons mathematically is SJ's Weapon Stats.

The primary problem with stock weapon balance is that the damage ratios of high level APBs (and for their part MBs) are way too high in comparison to everything else. The special advantages of pretty much all of the non-mainline weapons (DUC/MB/APB) are overwhelmed. :-\ Features like high damage-per-hit for WMGs, Torpedos, etc. just don't have enough oomph compared to the massive damage loss suffered by not using these weapons. Part of the problem is lackluster defenses that don't really provide much necessity for high-damage shots, outside of Crystalline Armor. But even that is not a problem for the APB (esp. with some Shield Depleters..), when you factor in the insane stock mount setup that simply multiplies damage exorbitantly without any drawback.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

The simplest mod with the greatest benefit is:
- Remove all the mounts.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Pulse Power?

SJ, in your weaponstats program, what do the different values mean?

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

True power is damage/kt/turn
Pulse power is damage/kt
Punch is damage (per hit)

The first corresponds to overall effectiveness
The second relates to effectiveness in a warppoint assault type situation where round 1 is all-important
The third relates to effectiveness against leaky shields, emissive armor, crystalline effects, etc.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Personally, I've made quite a few adjustments to make things more balanced, especially since the APB was the only weapon that made real sense.

Some of my many adjustments:

-Shields naturally regen every round (10% of max)
-Shield Regen components are somewhat cheaper, smaller and more effective (regen 30% of max, for the shield it's paired with)
-Better armor, up to 80kt protection, plus (after-battle)regeneration
-Torps have a 10%-25% hit bonus, depending on level of torp research)
-Tweaked the damage of the ripper/incinerator/wave-motion line of weapons to make them more relevant vs the other weapons
-Added two levels to the DUC, max range of 7, max base damage of 50

Personally I find it makes the game much more fun and challenging and corrects several imbalances with the stock weapons/defenses.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Armor regenerating?

Personally, I'd make shields vs armor a tactical vs strategic tradeoff. Armor would have far more hitpoints, but be destroyed "permanently" in combat (lots of small plates or slow repair components or both).

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Well, the armor only regens after combat, the regen ability I put on it is minimal. Plus, while a human would have the sense to include one or more repair ships to repair armor, the AI isn't quite that bright. Since I want AI opponents that weren't basicly clones of each other, I altered a few to use armor over shields. With the armor regen they are reasonably tough, without it they'd just be cannon fodder. Also, the regen is only on about half of the armor (levels 4-7, max lvl 8), and I forgot to mention that I also added some extra emissive, it tops out at 40kt, at armor 8.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

The AI sends damaged ships home to repair.

But if you can include enough repair ships in your fleet to fix all the armor damage, that mostly defeats the purpose.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

StarShadow, could I see a copy of your components file? Do you also mod the mounts?

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Sure, no problem. I mostly leave the mounts alone, mainly because the adjustments I've made are balanced for the stock weapon mounts. I did add in the neo-standard ships though.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

True, they do send ships off for repair, however they don't research repair until very late (in the stock AI files). Repairing multiple ships at a rate of 3-5 components per turn, puts them at a severe disadvantage. Self-healing armor is still not as good as shielding, considering that shielding can actually regenerate during battle, especially with my altered shield generators (10% regen per generator per turn). Also, going with an all armor design has it's own drawbacks, such as vulnerability to anti-engine weapons and crystalline weapons. In my opinion, the self-healing armor is balanced within my personal game adjustments, and I find it makes the game more varied and more fun.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Here is a copy of my component and CompEnhancement.txt file. It's a combination of other mods including my own. Let me know what you think. <font color="red"> </font>

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Ha anyone else tried my files?

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Shouldn't the shield mount "for smaller ships" have a maximum hull size, not a minimum?

DUC and torpedo mounts... why? If the weapon is too weak, it makes more sense to fix the weapon itself.
Or, alternatively, why not similar custom mounts for the other guns?

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

I would make it a maximum hull size but that setting isn't available in the CompEnhancement.txt.

As for torpedoes I did make changes to their damage and percent to hit. Make them more Star Trek like. My overall aim was to try to make the weapons a bit different with the mounts. The stock weapons are just not well thought out.

Maybe it would be easier to limit the mounts a bit and focus more on the Components.txt. I'd really like to make the weapons have advantages and disadvantages.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

thorfrog said:
I would make it a maximum hull size but that setting isn't available in the CompEnhancement.txt.

It is available; it just isn't used in the stock game. You can add a new line that says "Vehicle Size Maximum" below the minimum line.

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

Cool. I'll try that. Are there any other undocumented settings?

Re: Weapon adjustments
 

They are documented at the top of the data file. There are 4 optional parameters for CompEnhancement.txt.