thoughts - the source of all problems and disbalances

[geoschmo]

Yeah, I had basically this thought a while back as well. It's also the biggest change from a pure gameplay perspective from SEIII to SEIV.

It might be interesting as a test to simply play a game without the compenhancments.txt file and see how things work.

Geoschmo

[Erax]

In SEIV, big ships rule. I see this more as a premise than as an imbalance. But even if we agree that it is, in fact, an imbalance, I think the real source is the propulsion model, although the mounts are also an important factor.

In the unmodded game, a battle cruiser and an escort with the same speed will have the same tonnage set aside for engines. This obviously benefits larger ships and is the reason why QNP was developed.

Allowing larger ships to have larger, more efficient mounts seems reasonable to me; allowing them to have vastly more efficient engines does not.

That's my 2 cents.

[Fyron]

Both of those are equal culprits to the imbalance of larger ships.

[Taera]

im not talking about the imbalance of small vs big ships or whatever, but about the overpowering of certain weapons over others, plus the early bonus to whoever gets LC first (i see absolutely no reason to be able to put L mounts on it, its a LIGHT cruiser after all).

What i am talking about realy is that many parts of the game are ignored due to mounts. Think shield regenerators. think emmisive armor. think the new OA. think EVERYTHING.
This also would solve once and for all all issues with the overpowering of psychic races as 70---50 is a decent chance of conVersion, and if you fail, you're dead meat.

[Wardad]

I also experimented with cheaper Bridge, Crew Quarters, and Life Support. This expense + Engines + Mounts combine to kill the small ships.

[Suicide Junkie]

How about one sided battles?
Having weaker or leaky shields, and a greater dependence on armor which must be repaired after combat could also have a big effect. If combat were to generate lots of damaged or crippled ships on both sides, then a slight advantage wouldn't result in a routing.

[Krsqk]

In my experience, one-sided battles rarely result in great numbers of damaged ships. Many/most players use compact formations which allow concentrated fire on a few targets, rather than spread out fire. If one player concentrates fire and the other doesn't, the spread out player will die. He will constantly lose firepower, while the concentrated player stays consistent throughout the battle. The exception is if the spread out player has vast numerical superiority (which results in concentrated fire on a different scale).

Two reasons concentrated fire is so common on PBW are 1) it works , and 2) strategic combat tends to use concentrated fire.