Opinions wanted on new tech (Pirate Mod)

[Trachmyr]

Ok, comments and suggestions....

1) Shield generators are a good idea, however I think you might be overpowering the upper levels... after all they still use only 1 fac spot.

2) I'll get to that at the end

3) I agree that if you make a better mount type for sats it should improve range not damage so much... personally I don't use sats, so I'm not sure how they'll play out, but remeber that the AI will always use the biggest mount (or the one further down the list) available.

4) Even though the hull is strengthened, the struts/thicker wall/ect. will still use some space... perhaps 1-5KT, Also now that "One per ship" restriction is active, perhaps you can utilize that feature for "Heavy/Very Heavy/Extremely Heavy" reinforcement. I'm planning on adding something very similiar to the Crystalline tech (Crystalline Structure... LOTS of hits, uses 20 tons and a lot of radioactives, one per ship)

Now for PD weapons...

I think you set the range for PD lasers too high... I have had PD GUNS (5 Ton, 2 range, 1/2 damage) in my mod for a while.... at first their range was 3, but I found myself never using the cannons. Why? Because at range 3, a few ships could easily protect the fleet from incoming missiles/fighters...
But by dropping range to 2, these guns really only protect their own ship and sometimes their neighbor (the way it should be), thus I still mounted cannons on the larger ships to protect the fleet. I have had a lot of time tweaking theese, so believe me... at range 3, Half damage and only 5 tons... your PD lasers are very unbalanced!

Additionally, as an additional reason for big ships to mount PD Cannons, I added the tag to make PD GUNS be treated as armor... these small, lightly armored turrets get picked off easy by weapons fire, furthermore this gives fighters a chance against these smaller guns/lasers. I also added the "External Missiles" and made the be treated as armor as well.

Here is a list of PD weapons in my mod, if you see anything you like... feel free to borrow it:

PD Cannons: Basically the std PD's from MM, but with a range of 3-6.

PD Guns: As described above, 5Tons, 1/2 damage, range 1-2, deystroyed with armor.

PD Rockets: 40 tons, 50% better damage, range 8-10, reload rate 2. (these are still being tweaked, they are not seekers, this way distant fighters have a chance to get in)

RAP Armor: "Reactive Armor Plating", each 10 ton piece of armor (as good as std armor), has a PD weapon with a range of 1, hits only seekers, reload rate 30, does enough damage to kill any seeker. Ever wonder what the Last few tons should be, PD or armor? Well now you can have your cake and eat it too!

Well that's my 2 cents.

Opps, sorry misunderstood what your PDC/PDL were... I thought you made a smaller Version, (that's what I get for skimming through).... I'm not sure about your arangement, Tell me how they do, I might add analogs to my own mod!

[This message has been edited by Trachmyr (edited 22 April 2001).]