SE4 Stock Balance Mod

[spoon]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
Torpedoes should have a greater range, not an increase to hit modifier.

I think there should be a weapon to counter the max-def/bezerker combo, and torpedoes seemed a good choice. However, having low-tech, long-range weapon might be neat as well. What kind of range were you thinking? Would maybe Meson BLasters be a better choice for this niche?

[Andrés]

I guess we'd all fix things differnt ways.
I'd increase damage in torpedoes.

[Captain Kwok]

Beam and bolt weapons are short to mid range since you'd expect them to decrease in energy the further they travelled.

I think a torpedo is like a missile - except that it travels much faster and hence cannot be targeted by point-defense, but lacks the accuracy you'd get with the missile - also why they are listed as direct fire weapons. I'd just like to see their range boosted to a max of about 10. This allows them to be a great secondary weapon although their damage ratio (damage/kT/fire rate)is less than APB etc, their extended range helps to overcome this shortfall.

[spoon]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:

Regarding niche weapons - I think those are fine. In a real life situtation not all weapons are going to be equally effective in all situations..

I agree completely - I think every weapon should have its role - and that is where the problem comes in for SE4 - too few weapons fill up too many roles. The APB has both great range and a great damage ratio. The PPB both skips shields and has a great damage ratio.

Might be a valid approach for this mod to seperate each weapon into its own niche, and then balance it from that perspective.

Here is a list of some niches, and which weapons might best fit in that niche:
- long range (Meson BLasters)
- close range only, high damage (rippers)
- skips shields (PPB)
- bonus to hit (torps)
- versatile (APB)
- high damage, low reload (WMG)
- cheap (DUC)

[tesco samoa]

increase cost of advanced military science to 50000....

increase cost of advanced storage ( trait ) to 1500

Decrease speed of missles to 2 and size by 10kt to 20 kt

APB's have damage decrease by range

Same with PPB's , SD's ( And the engine one )

For fighters increase the storage and launch rate of the launchers

[PvK]

Sure, but most of these things go way beyond the simple balance mod proposed in this thread, and could be done in many different ways.

Personally, I like SEIV Meson BLasters at range 6. I guess it'd be ok to extend the tech tree some levels to give range-8 Versions, but you'd need to mod some AI files to get the AI to research them. Again, way beyond the scope of a simple balance mod.

Which isn't to say that more comprehensive balance mods wouldn't be good to have, for their own sake...

PvK

[spoon]

Originally posted by PvK:
Sure, but most of these things go way beyond the simple balance mod proposed in this thread, and could be done in many different ways.

I think they can be attainable by tweaking some combination of the following:
- cost
- range
- damage
- reload
- "to hit" (Weapon Modifier)

I think that will keep the mod within the range of "simple".

The Meson BLaster, for example, has a range (per tech level) of:
3,4,5,5,6,6

Changing that to:
3,4,5,6,7,8
wouldn't be much of a change at all.