Sorry for not posting, I'm out of the country and have a very intermittent internet connection. I haven't had much time for cosmoteer either, so most things in this post are just theorycrafting and first impressions. I know it's very late in the rc cycle to make suggestions, and on very little evidence too!
Walt Reverted Laser Blaster range nerf. (Both the Laser Blaster and Heavy Laser Blaster now have a range of 150, up from 125.)
I personally don't agree with this. I think that on 0.14.1 lasers are abmornally strong, rather than all the other weapons being too weak (except non-magic-length railguns, and possibly cannons). So I would like to see at least some nerfs to the basic laser, and range seems like a reasonable one.
As for the heavy blaster, I still suggest differentiating it a little more from the regular laser. Whenever players have two weapons filling the same role, either one is a tiny bit better and always gets picked (which is bad), or both are equally good and it never matters which one you pick (which is boring). Even the two cannons fill very different roles, despite having a similar feel.
One idea would be to give the heavy laser longer range and higher projectile speed than the basic laser, but less dps per $. I also saw a suggestion that the two firing modes be given different properties (e.g. pinpoint accuracy vs rapid-fire with spread), which I think would be really cool. Probably not something worth trying this late in the rc cycle though.
That being said, the heavy laser does seem reasonably balanced as-is, trading projectile speed and $ for less surface area.
Walt Increased Ion Beam range from 180 to 200.
I also disagree with this. If ion beams need a buff (personally I don't think they do), then range is probably not the best one. In the last couple of tournaments, ion beams have been mostly used for kiting. While I don't necessarily mind this (small-ring kiting is pretty engaging), it's probably not a strategy that should be encouraged with extra range.
Instead, if they need a buff it might be worth trying a minor damage increase or even some kind of QOL change (shooting through allied structure?). I've also seen ion beam dmg falloff mentioned a couple of times on the discord, which could be interested combined with a damage buff (slightly higher damage at close range, identical damage at max range?).
Walt
Dalas120 Penetration Bug? + Suggestion: yet another thing related to penetration - railgun shots can penetrate shields without destroying them if they impact a part/armor before hitting the shield. This is actually fairly common with laser triangles (laser turrets often stick out from the shield a little), depending on the railgun length. To fix this, I would suggest calculating shield damage like penetration damage (scaling with penetration), which would make a lot of sense to do anyway if impact damage is removed.
Could I get a saved game that shows this? I'm a little unclear about what you're describing, and as the old saying goes, a saved game is worth a thousand words. 😉
Walt
Dalas120 It seems like ships don't want to turn until they're stationary, which can be extremely annoying.
I'm not seeing this, can I get a saved game?
Looks like these are already fixed in rc4. I'm looking forward to the new controls, and I'm excited to figure out how to use the boost thruster!
