Proportions....

[Ed Kolis]

Maybe SE4 by Committee should have been a Proportions game, to enhance the realism feel of it... nah, it's slow enough as it is!

[PvK]

Originally posted by MacLeod:
Fighter have WAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too much defense, it's nearly impossible to hit 'em even with PDC.
I could kill a small squad of LCs easier than a stack of ten of them things.

If fighters are deployed early in the game, they can be fairly hard to hit with typical ships. They can still be hit with other fighters, or small ships with PDC and sensors and training, or weapon platforms or bases with Fire Control Centers. As Fryon said, energy pulse weapons combined with PD tech gives you some effective PS beam weapons against them too.

Typical anti-ship ships, especially larger ships, may have a hard time snagging fighters. That's intentional. However, there are several effective options for combatting them, besides other fighters. The smaller ships get to-hit bonuses, and there are Small and PD mounts, and lots of levels of sensors, and weapons with to-hit bonuses, etc etc.

If I get time to do 3.0, I may expand the fighter tech tree a bit, though, and adjust things a bit, so it takes more research to get the better fighters, and add other toys.

PvK

[PvK]

Originally posted by MacLeod:
And why is it set so AI's won't surrender except against the most absolutely absurd odds (10000 to 1). Means there nothing left to do with them but destroy them and that's just a boring waste

Because the hard-coded AI logic would otherwise have intact homeworlds surrendering to aliens who did something like:

1) Blockade their homeworld
2) Build many large ships, even unarmed colony ships, causing the score to tip extremely, even though the high-score empire doesn't really pose a particular threat to the AI.
3) or other silliness

Also, an AI surrender of an intact homeworld, particularly to a human player, is a major game event with major effects in Proportions. It also allows both homeworlds to directly add their research, multiplying research rate, which is something the rest of the mod tries to tone down.

So, the idea is if you want that massive prize, you may have to actually earn it and not take advantage of AI foolishness.

PvK

[PvK]

Oh, and of course, you can also try capturing the planet via invasion.

[PsychoTechFreak]

Originally posted by PvK:

If I get time to do 3.0, I may expand the fighter tech tree a bit, though, and adjust things a bit, so it takes more research to get the better fighters, and add other toys.

PvK

Race specific techs, like small organic armor, small talismen engines?

[oleg]

I like how fighters are handled in Proportions.

They are tough to hit by regular weapons (even PDC) and you must build dedicated anti-fighters ships. Even better way is to use fighters against fighters ! They have equal attack bonus !

I also like how PvK design fighter weapons. In short, there are two Groups: high accuracy, low damage weapons like small APB, DUC. They are optimal for interceptors but not very efficient against ships. Second group are less accurate, high damage anti-ship weapons like small rocket pods or antimatter torpedos. It really forces you to build both fighters and bombers, not just generic SE fighter !

In fact, fighters are my second most favorite aspect of Proportions after planet development.

[PvK]

Thanks oleg.

PTF, yes to racial fighter toys, and probably something for Religious - I don't know exactly what a "talisman engine" would be.

Mainly I'd probably flesh out the fighter tech tree more, giving less capable early fighters, and requiring research into specific abilities. I'd probably add some anti-fighter seekers and some countermeasure components. I'd probably make engine variants too which more closely associate speed and maneuverability with defensive and offensive bonuses. Also might revisit the to-hit advantages for the heavy weapons, damage done by PD, and damage resistance of fighters, to further accentuate the differences between anti-fighter, anti-ship, and PD weapons.

I do think it seems to work pretty well as is, though. In Fryon's Adamant PBW game, I have been having some fun massive multi-turn battles with the Druschocka involving fighters and a wide range of ship sizes on both sides, and lots of missile boats slowly wearing through PDC.

PvK