Fighters and Missiles

[henk brouwer]

I posted a different idea to fix figter/missile-pd balance some time ago, I'm not sure if it's possible to mod this right now though.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...=005762#000000

[Baron Munchausen]

With a little modding fighters are quite survivable into the late game. I've added small phased shields to go with the small standard shields. Apparently 'phased' shields have no effect on units but the higher shield points are still effective. I've also increased the size/range of fighter weapons slightly. They do suffer losses unless you completely out-class your opponent(s). That's the nature of fighters. If it were like Battlestar Galactica where none of the 'good guys' get killed that would be unbalanced, too.

And fighters are supposed to operate in Groups, remember. MM has changed the default group size to 10, up from 5, but I don't think even that is large enough. I use a default group size of 20 and find Groups of 20 fighters to be fairly dangerous. Boosting that a bit higher would start to reduce flexibility because you'd have so few Groups in any given tactical situation but it might be appropriate depending on what you are up against.

[ June 17, 2002, 21:47: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
That's the nature of fighters. If it were like Battlestar Galactica where none of the 'good guys' get killed that would be unbalanced, too.

I seem to recall more than a few colonial fighters getting zapped, just never one of the main three guys. It was like the red shirts in Star Trek. If a fighter jockey you had never seen before all of a sudden had a central role in the plot at the begining of the episode, you knew he was in trouble.

Didn't happen as often as on Trek though. They didn't really have all that many fighter battles after the pilot. But when they did they usually lost a couple guys that you had never seen before IIRC.

Geoschmo

[Phoenix-D]

You have to look at fighters as more or less expendable. Like missiles that get to come back if the pilot brought his rabbit's foot

Phoenix-D

[Baron Munchausen]

Well, of course there is the 'redshirt effect' on TV shows. Someone has to die once in a while for dramatic effect. But if you think about the situation being depicted they could not afford even the occasional loss of trained pilots, so the 'real' situation being depicted there is a bunch of super-hotshots who can each bLast legions of 'stoopid' robotic attackers while not getting hit.

I would say this is completely unrealistic but the recent US combat record indicates it might not be so crazy as it sounds, given a good technological advantage. Without that technological advantage, be prepared to replace losses.

[Deathstalker]

Decoy Missiles:

Name := Decoy Missile I
Description := Missile fired to 'soak up' point-defense so the real missiles get through. Causes minimal damage itself.
Pic Num := 156
Tonnage Space Taken := 10
Tonnage Structure := 10
Cost Minerals := 75
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 75
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat\Drone
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Weapons
Family := 7034
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 2
Tech Area Req 1 := Missile Weapons
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Tech Area Req 2 := Military Science
Tech Level Req 2 := 2
Number of Abilities := 0
Weapon Type := Seeking
Weapon Target := Ships\Planets
Weapon Damage At Rng := 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Weapon Damage Type := Normal
Weapon Reload Rate := 1
Weapon Display Type := Seeker
Weapon Display := 1
Weapon Modifier := 0
Weapon Sound := capshpms.wav
Weapon Family := 87
Weapon Seeker Speed := 12
Weapon Seeker Dmg Res := 25

From my 'D-Mod', gold Version. To get the desired effect you want just mess with the rate of fire and damage resistance to make them less/more powerful. Also range (less or more) can be a good 'leveler' of power. Speed of the seeker is also a good way to make them more/less powerful in that they can be slower/faster than the normal missiles depending on their level of tech. To get an idea of where these fit in my modd the rest of the missiles were changed as well.

Short Range Missiles- Rate of Fire of 1, range of 6.

External Mount Missiles: Rate of Fire of 30, range varied with tech.

Normal Missiles: ROF reduced to 2

Plasma Missiles: ROF of 2, Skipped Normal Shields.

GodHammer Missiles: ROF of 4, 100-500 damage depending on level.

Armor Skipping Missiles: ROF of 2.

[ June 17, 2002, 23:49: Message edited by: Deathstalker ]

[Marvin Kosh]

Hey guys,

As well as point-defence cannons, what about some sort of anti-missile missile? You could balance them up so you would still need PD cannons (e.g. they need to reload just like regular missiles) but you'd be able to pick off a couple of missiles at range too.

I wouldn't mind seeing some modded PD cannons with pre-requisites from other tech e.g. a bank of meson PD, or graviton PD, or psychic PD, with their own particular strengths and weaknesses.