Frustration (balance)

[Mephisto]

quote:

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It does make sense. Your 'new' weapon in SE is almost always weaker than the old one. Less damage per hit and less range. What sort of 'technological advance' is that?

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Pardon me? What weapons gets less effective with higher classes?

[Baron Munchausen]

quote:

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Originally posted by [K126]Mephisto:


Pardon me? What weapons gets less effective with higher classes?

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Nearly all of them. APB and MB I are much less powerful than DUC V in both damage and range. PPB I is much less powerful than APB level for level, though it has a special ability. The racial tech weapons are the same. ED and PB start out less powerful than the weapons that get abandoned.

So, if you are concerned about combat effectiveness you have to sit on your 'new' technology for several levels until it is up to the level of your old technology. This is a bit silly. I think the MOO system that gives each weapon a fixed performance level and varies the size/cost of the component is more logical.

[Mephisto]

Ah, now I see what you mean. Personally, I think that this is ok. It is new technology after all and you have to do some research before it comes to be as effective as your established systems.

[Andrés]

That’s the point of having a complex tech tree. You can choose to research DUCs and have a good weapon early or research APBs and have a better weapon later.
If you want every new weapon better than the previous and worth using in a new design, you’d have to put all of them in the same technology and get one after the other.
And stop with that. You don’t have to compare damage per hit, compare damage ratios. A bigger weapon is a way to hide it’s worse. You’ll be forced to put less weapons in you ship and your firepower will be REDUCED. You still have to wait to get a smaller one.

There is a balance problem in research, some weapons are really hard to research but are not so good (IPM), and some are very good and too easy to get (PPB). Some others are well balanced and worth every research point you put on them (APB).

I made a XLS file to compare weapon usefulness with its cost. I’ll post it later.

[thubar2000]

I think that balance should be a very high priority. Total Annihilation and Starcraft are two excellent RTS games. The TA community did an amazing job modifying the game for more variety. Starcraft was tweaked for balance differences. I think that in the end, Starcraft was the more enduring game because of the attention paid to balance.

I would be interested in helping out an effort to create a balanced tech tree. Such an effort would most likely be finished if it only included the original techs.

Thu

[Andrés]

http://se4kdy.cyberwars.com/text/balance.htm

I just posted the XLS I made and the one I had been sent.
It should be a good source to balance different weapons.

[thubar2000]

I took a look at the html file and I understand how damage rating and balance, but I'm not sure about the other factors ot the right of the damage rating.

The table looks like it would be very helpful to any balancing effort.

Thu