Sombreroman
I was playing on the dev build, with reduced missile damage, 2 tubes instead of 3, and reduced missile factory production rates. And it really hurts missile damage output quite a bit, I think that was a factor in the battle. Before, when all your PD was functional, you were insulated from crazy missile damage. But in large ship battles like this, well your PD gets shot away a lot, being a rather fragile system. That's when crazy missile damage really starts to take it's toll, when PD is sheered away.
Now, however, missiles are much more consistent trickle damage, and their impact is really not felt. So rare do I see a ship with that telltale hole pattern created by repeat missile strikes. Really not liking the missile change the more I experience it. They just feel less impactful in battle, more of a nuisance to be swatted at with nerfed PD and absorbed by shield coverage than any kind of serious threat that needs to be prioritized to be dealt with. But then the design of missiles and the way they work, they can't really be dealt with as a priority, you can't flank and rear shot a well protected, highly maneuverable ship to target the missile launch systems like you can target any other weapon firing directly at you.
It is a conundrum.
Relevant thoughts copied from my No Mod SD Thread.
