SE4 Stock Balance Mod

[Phoenix-D]

"This makes no sense! A beam weapon like APB is almost instantaneous to strike it's target which can't really evade it, while a torpedo is moving fairly fast and won't be able to make quick sharp turns if the target makes a sudden move, so is more likely to miss than the beam."

The torp may well have a proximity charge and/or a limited ability to seek. That, and why would a beam weapon be almost instant? These aren't lasers; the APB is just a stream of anti-particles, no difference from a DUC slug except that when it hits matter, it makes a bigger boom.

[Suicide Junkie]

Summary
Unsorted Issues

• One-resource bonus facilities have no advantage over All-three bonus facilities.
• Fighters & Missiles too weak / PDC to powerful
• Climate Control Facilities too weak
• Medical Lab plague prevention effect too low
• Talisman too powerful
• Quantum Reactors too powerful
• PDC, PPB too powerful
• Torpedoes, Graviton Hellbore, Incinerator, too weak.
• Ship Training too powerful
• Not enough room for Weapon Platforms
• High level Intel ops too effective
• All of the new damage types not used
• Fighter Rocket pods -> Seekers?
• Supply Storage should count as Cargo for ship restrictions.
  

Trivial Changes:

• Add range to Tractor Beam III so its full pull effect can be used.
  

Moderate Changes:

• Large increase of cargo value for Cargo Facilities {Suggest values}

[ July 23, 2003, 23:39: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[TerranC]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Supply Storage counts as Cargo for ship restrictions.

Since when?

[Suicide Junkie]

Ok, "should count as"

[spoon]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

High level Intel ops too effective

Since I have this handy, here are some proposed changes to intel projects I came up with a long time ago. Most changes are minor, so if you want to minimize change to stock files, you can safely ignore em. The major changes are in bold. I think the goal was to make intel more of an info-gathering and less of an empire-crippling endeavor. Since that's not really the goal of this mod, feel free to ignore...

General Espionage
Force Concentrations: Lower cost -- 2,000
Queue Concentrations: Lower cost -- 2,000
Ship Blueprints: Lower cost -- 5,000
Covert Recon: Lower cost -- 2,000
Census Thefts: Lower cost -- 2,000
Technological Espionage: no change (150k)
Embassy Taps: Lower cost -- 2,000
Empire Star Charts: Lower cost -- 5,000
Empire Archives: Lower cost -- 10,000
Unit Blueprints: Lower cost -- 5,000
Tech Reports: no change (20,000)

General Sabotage
Economic Disruption: Increase cost -- 30,000
Resource Procurment: Increase cost -- 30,000; Decrease effect to 5k of each resource (instead of 10k)
Technological Sabotage: Increase cost -- 50,000
Intelligence Sabotage: Lower Cost -- 15,000

Planet Sabotage
Weather Disruptions: Increase Cost -- 30,000
Ground Contamination: no change (20,000)
Food Contamination: Decrease effect to killing 5M population (instead of 100M). Or increase cost to 100,000.
Anarchy Groups: Increase Cost -- 20,000
Puppet Political Parties: Remove, or increase cost to 1,000,000
Cargo Maint. Trouble: (no change)
Industrial Sabotage: no change (25,000)

Political Disruption
Trade Distruption: Remove, or increase cost to 400k
Comm Taps no change (15,000)
Comm Mimic: Remove, or increase cost to 500k
Comm Interceptors: no change (10,000)

Ship Sabotage
Ship Bomb: no change (10,000)
Engine Damage: Lower cost -- 5000
Fuel Leak: no change (10,000)
Crew Insurrection: Remove, or increase cost to 100k
Crew Rotation: no change (5,000)
Cargo Bomb: Increase cost -- 7,500
Order Snafu: Lower Cost -- 5,000

[ July 23, 2003, 23:54: Message edited by: spoon ]

[PvK]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
PvK, there is logic to your post, but adding a weapon would either require rewriting all the AI research and design files, or we'd end up with a weapon that the AI never uses. I am not sure I like either of those.
...

My main point is that the Meson BLaster has value and fills a niche as is, and is not really one of the underpowered weapons of the game. So I don't think it should be changed for a simple balance mod.

If someone wants a range-8 weapon which competes with APB at max-tech, yet is slightly different (no range attenuation), then I think that niche should either be filled by some other weak weapon (torpedo? a new weapon?), or probably better, the APB should be made weaker (how about making APB a "half damage versus shields" weapon???). By reducing the all-around superiority of the APB, all the other weapons in the game would be more interesting in late-game, rather than just an improved MB.

PvK

[spoon]

Originally posted by PvK:

quote:

---

Originally posted by geoschmo:
[qb]PvK, there is logic to your post, but adding a weapon would either require rewriting all the AI research and design files, or we'd end up with a weapon that the AI never uses. I am not sure I like either of those.
...

My main point is that the Meson BLaster has value and fills a niche as is, and is not really one of the underpowered weapons of the game. So I don't think it should be changed for a simple balance mod.

---

Heh, for some reason, when PvK said "new weapon" I thought he meant one of the underpowered weapons we hadn't really addressed yet, like the hellbore or incinerator. But, yeah, we can't add any new weapons...

...or probably better, the APB should be made weaker (how about making APB a "half damage versus shields" weapon???).

That'd be too much, I think. Unless you mean to increase the base damage to compensate. But then you are changing the APB into something else entirely. Maybe half-dam-to-shields would be a great niche for the Incinerator???).

You can't really lower the APB too much - otherwise the MB and PPB overpowers it.