Tired of not having room on those escorts? =)

[Talenn]

Adding larger numbers of PD weapons to the AI's ships brings problems of its own. It then gives them a distinct disadvantage when dealing with players who dont use missile or fighters at all. I dont think there is a 'right' answer to this as long as the AI is going to be scripted and with no 'reaction' ability.

Personally, I would have no problem with an AI 'cheating' to see what ships a player has and then choosing some 'counter ships' to build. It would make the game far more challenging IMO, but would negate the 'AI doesnt cheat' aspect of the game altogther. So at this point, its pretty much deciding on which is the lesser of two evils. And I think MM is more inclined to go with the 'no cheating' option.

Barring that, its possible to insert a few 'PD ships' into the AI's queue and hope that it bothers to keep them close to the main ships. I havent experimented with things like that quite yet, though.

Talenn

[Tomgs]

Another problem with decreasing the accuracy of the point defence weapons is that the fighters have an inherent defence bonus and the point defence needs a bonus to make them better to fight fighters than beam weapons. Is it possible to give the missles and satelites defence bonuses in line with fighters to balance out the accuracy of point defence? This would have the bonus of making point defence the prefered method of taking out satelites and make them harder to fight with beams.

[Worgaus]

Well, over Christmas weekend I had the chance to test my mounts out. I hadn't realized the damage would be rounded up, so 50% ends up being too much. So I went with DirectorTsaarx's suggestion and reduced it to 40%. This seemed to work out better, and seemed more balanced/fair. Without the Standard Mounts I made put in, the AI, as a few have stated, would put these on their ships all the way up to the destroyer.

Messing with this has really given me some thoughts on custom mounts. Personally, I think if there is more than one type of mount available for the weight, the AI should compare the numbers rather than just sticking whatever on, you might be able to really screw the AI over by making some mount that has all penalties and does next to no damage, and it would mindlessly stuff its ships with them. Barring that, though, I like the idea of having a lower limit as well as an upper weight limit.