[PvK]

Originally posted by se5a:
you mean they might balance things in the next patch? I hope they do!!!

We were hoping. Last I heard, SJ had sent in a suggestion buy not heard back.

From what I can see looking at the afterburners they are not giving any defencive bonus at all...
adding some there would be an excelent idea though.
what if I add a small deffencive bonus to the higher tech small engines also?

I agree those would be good places to add some defense bonuses. My thoughts are that they should be able to get an additional +70 to +30 defense compared to what's currently possible, but it should require more research than you currently have to do to get what you can get now. The existing stuff's balance doesn't need to change up to CS/ECM III and Ion Engine, but there should be higher levels of research available which can keep up better with the things that ships can pile on (ship/fleet training, PDC 5, and Combat Sensors +30 better than fighters). Off the cuff numbers might be:
+10 defense for afterburners
+10 defense for CT engines
+20 defense for JP engines
+30 defense for Q engines
+40 defense for small ECM IV (requires another level of research)
+50 defense for small ECM V (requires another level of research)
+60 defense for small ECM VI (requires another level of research)
+40 attack for small Combat Sensors IV (requires another level of research)
+50 attack for small Combat Sensors V (requires another level of research)
+60 attack for small Combat Sensors VI (requires another level of research)

So the hardest-to-hit fighter would have ABs, Q engines, and ECM VI, and would be 70% harder to hit than current fighters, but would take 3 more levels of research and require use of ABs. Since currently, late-game ships have no great difficulty hitting fighters with regular weapons, this should make it so that they now may have some difficulty, while PDC V at +65% will still be able to hit them pretty well.

That'd be my first shot, to be tested out and tweaked if necessary.

...
I havent played round with the small rocket pods, havent even looked at the math on those, do they need adjusting?

I think they're pretty reasonable. Main problem is they have reload 30, and the AI will have them sit around to die after they fire all their weapons - hopefully MM will fix that.

also, in the game no wepons are showing up at all, and some other small items are not eather. what have I done???

If you edit the files so that the component order is changed and then reload an existing game, the existing game will have components shuffled on existing ships. If they don't appear in the design window, then it could be from a typo or a tech requirement.

PvK