Question - Crystalline Torpedo
 

This is a seeker. Yes.
Missile damage - 120
plasma - 150-40
Crystalline Torpedo - 45 (!)

Why does it have such small amount of damage?
Is there any use for it?
It takes as much space as the Missile, has less damage resistance, though does cost less minerals but almost the same amount of radioactives instead.

Is there any use for it?
Yes, i know, it does skip armor. But still?

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Emperor Klis't of the Taera Republic.
Proud member of the League of Empires.

E-Mail -
Ora Planet - Taera Republic - League of Empires

Re: Question - Crystalline Torpedo
 

People used to ask the same thing about Shard Cannons when the reload rate was 2. Now the rate is one and they are great weapons (IMO),. The torp really needs to be looked at again, either double the damage or make the reload rate 1 will 'fix' it as far as I'm concerned (and a reload rate 1 missile would be neat).

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

Re: Question - Crystalline Torpedo
 

A firing rate of two would probably be better. Else it would fire faster than the CSM, swamping defenses, do more damage overall, AND skip armor. Putting it to two drops the overall damage and the swamp effect while still making it more useful.

Phoenix-D

Re: Question - Crystalline Torpedo
 

The biggest problem is that sure, it skips armor, but it HAS to get through the shields first. It dosn't do enough damage to get though the shields in time to damage the ship, esp in the later stages of the game when ships are running around with 1200+ shields. And with the strength of pdc and the mass use of pdc IMO a rate of fire of 1 would be justifiable. Remember, you can always still do the 'missile dance'.

The Devnull mod has missiles dropped to 25 weight instead of 50, this provides the 'massive firing' that Phoenix describes but still it makes the weapons 'almost' equal to direct fire weapons. PDC still usually wins out. Esp in human players with cruisers etc filled with just pdc V's.

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

Re: Question - Crystalline Torpedo
 

Yes, the Crystalline Torpedo has a very low damage potential. It was originally set that low to compensate (over-compensate, I think) for the ability to ignore armor. The simplest thing to do is to increase the damage it does. HOWEVER... this simply makes it another Seeking Parasite. In order to encourage variety in this game I suggest a different approach to the problem. Yes, increase the damage a bit, but increase the seekers DAMAGE RESISTANCE dramatically. This thing goes with the racial trait that gives crystalline armor, remember. So rather than forcing it to be just like the other seekers in the game make it different. With a damage resistance of 90 or so these cannot be destroyed by a single PDC hit. This completely changes the effect they have in combat, so I recommend that you do not increase the damage they do TOO much! I've set them this way in my games and a Crystal tech ship filled with these can be a real hairy opponent if you're not outfitted with very large numbers of PDCs. It makes yet another DIFFERENT hazard to be coped with in the game. Good stuff!

Re: Question - Crystalline Torpedo
 

My idea is similar:
The damage should be left 45, thats low for the high-tech, the speed should be left as it is too, but anyone actually looked at the name of it? HARDENED crystal projectile(something like that). Take a note at the HARDENED. What is the damage of PDC V? 65? then, make the damage resistance to ~100.
Also, the low damage does not make it for 50kT of space. 40kT would be best.

Then my proposal is that 45 damage, rate 2, range as it is, same speed, increased damage resistance and lowered space taken.

Should i send this to MM as a suggestion?

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Emperor Klis't of the Taera Republic.
Proud member of the League of Empires.

E-Mail -
Ora Planet - Taera Republic - League of Empires

Re: Question - Crystalline Torpedo
 

I'd say so.

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Assume you have a 1kg squirrel
E=mc^2
E=1kg(3x10^8m/s)^2=9x10^16J
which, if I'm not mistaken, is equivilent to roughly a 50 megaton nuclear bomb.
Fear the squirrel.

Re: Question - Crystalline Torpedo
 

No, I disagree. I think all you guys are missing the point http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

It's a balance issue. It's a specialized weapon for use in armor-heavy games.

And don't tell me those don't happen, because I'm in one right now, in Geo's PBW tourney http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

The crystal torpedo is just fine as it is.