SE4 Stock Balance Mod

[Sir Whiskers]

Just throwing in my two cents' worth...

Concerning the PPB, the Devnull Mod makes two changes which considerably reduce its effectiveness:

1. Normal/Phased shields alternate within the same tech tree. Shields I are normal, Shields II phased, Shields III normal, etc. This allows players to reach phased shields much more quickly. At the same time, reaching the largest shields (300/375) takes longer. This means that shields will not be quite as superior vs. armor.

2. Armor has been beefed up tremendously. Though it gets very expensive in terms of research, Armor level 9 is well worth it.

Neither of these changes nerfs the PPB - they just make it less overwhelming in the early/mid game. My question is would these changes be do-able within the constraints of this discussion? And how would they affect the AI, if at all?

A few other changes I'd suggest (again, within the constraints of the current discussion):

1. Remove Chemistry I as a prerequisite for armor. Armor would be available for research at the beginning of any game, even on the lowest tech start. While armor is less efficient than shields, it is effective against PPB's, and would give players some form of defense until phased shields are available.

2. Do not remove the shield piercing effect of PPB's (I agree with others who've posted that this ability is just too much a part of the flavor of the weapon). But certainly smooth out the damage/range as earlier suggested, and increase the research cost by 50% at each level.

3. Capital Ship Missiles - do NOT give them unlimited range, as was suggested earlier. If low-tech missiles can be fired from extremely long range, then defending planets with WP's will have to use missiles for defense (no ship would come within range of a direct-fire weapon). This would have the effect of making missiles the only weapon for planetary assault/defense - limiting our options, not expanding them. Also, fleets with sufficient PD would be able to assault all but the most overwhelming defenses with impunity. To make missiles a more effective choice in the early game, consider reducing the size from 50kt to 40kt, or even 30kt. Their high supply usage will ensure that any early fleet depending on them will be on a short leash, balancing the increase in launchers.

[Andrés]

No, it's a sci-fi-ish concept that makes the game look more futuristic, an advanced energy field we don't even understand how it works provides much better protection than a crude metallic plate.
I like Sir Whiskers' suggestion, removing the chemistry requirement, and maybe even make level 1 available from start, though that may screw current AI a little.
IMHO armor should be the cheap early protection, and not something that rivals with shields in late game.

I stand corrected on the EA thing, I guess I have not used them lately.
Though I still think it should be made a little stronger.
Also the description should be fixed to reflect the real effect of the ability.

[Taera]

im saying that there are only a handful of things that are unbalanced now - let me repeat the list:
PPB
Torpedoes
PDC
Talisman

Thats it.
Besides it, the techs available after [resource] extraction 3 are there supposedly by a mistake because there is no reason for researching them. So perharps planet-based ones should be on levels 1-3 and system-wide on 4-6, though 4-6 for a 50k RP base tech tree is difficult to get. Perharps they can be attached to a different tech tree, say, Resource Manipulation?

[Asmala]

Originally posted by oleg:
The very idea of this mod is to balance the stock SE, so yes, it must be compatible with old savegames. Just small tweaks here and there.

I think it wouldn't be sensible to maintain compatibility with existing savegames. Even if the patch technically supports older savegames it would be very unfair towards players to have the game Version changed in the middle of the game. For example if the PPB research cost is raised to 20k and one player has just researched it completely and other player is starting to research it, you can imagine how unfair it would be.

Originally posted by Andres:
Component family does not affect the AI at all. It is only used to determine what components are shown when you select "show only latest". Changing some would make for example normal shields be shown making design easier because you would not have to toggle that option all the time.

Changing different component families to normal and phased shields was exactly what was in my mind

Originally posted by Andres:
Changing weapon family may be interesting, allowing modders to make different designs using WMG and RB, but would screw current AI.

And that was the other thing which I'd have liked to change

Sir Whiskers: I think those all are great ideas if they won't screw up the AI.

[Fyron]

I think it wouldn't be sensible to maintain compatibility with existing savegames. Even if the patch technically supports older savegames it would be very unfair towards players to have the game Version changed in the middle of the game.

This is exactly why people should not fear making more than minor changes in the balance mod...

[Asmala]

I haven't yet got the answer to this question:

4. Trivial Changes:
Move Standard Armor to below Stealth, scattering and emissive for the benefit of AI.
How this'll benefit the AI?

[Krsqk]

What about making unphased shields have more points than phased ones? Then, you can choose normal shields (which work just fine against almost every other weapon in the game) for max protection, or phased shields, JustInCase (tm). IIRC, P&N has something similar with Massive Shielding or the like. I do think the difference should be more than the current 75 points at max tech, though--maybe 125? 150?