Walt Very cool!
I've been trying to write up a nice post about my thoughts, but unfortunately I'm out of time and won't be able to write something detailed for a while. Instead of posting nothing, I've posted my personal-use notes. These are unfinished and very unpolished, so please take anything in them with a big grain of salt. I'm sorry I didn't have time to write up a nice post with well-reasoned points!
General:
. . all the missiles feel way too similar. As someone said, they're just vanilla missiles with different hit effects
. . different missiles should have drastically different missile parts needed, ranges, speeds etc.
. . some ideas for different, unique guidance types
. . . . missile launches like a dumbfire projectile, slows to a stop/near stop, then rapidly: pivots, aims precisely at a target, and accelerates quickly in a straight line?
. . . . drunken missiles? e.g. valkyrie from starcraft.
. . they should feel radically different in all aspects
. . question: is it correct that "speed" determines the initial movement speed, and "acceleration" determines the max movement speed?
. . . . no wait that isn't true, dumbfire has higher top speed than HE for some reason
. . . . . . do missiles accelerate forever then?
. . . . . . . . no that's not true either, dumbfire has lower acceleration than HE but still goes faster
HE:
. . unpopular opinion: what if the only direct damage missile was the dumbfire, and high explosives were replaced with incendiaries?
. . would avoid problems with missile-only spam, since EMP-only isn't going to kill an enemy ship
. . probably a lot easier to balance
. . to me: think this suggestion through more before posting
Incendiaries:
. . unsure about how their combat capability compares to HE or cluster.
. . probably only useful when stacked, and too useless when not stacked (bad bad bad)
. . unfortunately not very good at crew killing, because it just takes too long. by the time incendiaries disable a compartment you could have just blown up the weapons ten times over instead.
. . what are they supposed to do? what's the inteded role for these?
. . . . suggestion (to me: figure something out here)
. . . . . . maybe combine cluster+incendiary+HE, and give 1 or 1.5 penetration?
. . . . . . so vs armor or weapons (which have 3+ pen resist), incendiaries deal moderate damage and don't start fires (because they can't penetrate)
. . . . . . vs unprotected innards or engines, they deal moderate damage and start lots of fires
. . . . . . so they'd be weaker than HE vs weapons, shields, etc. but stronger than HE vs internals and engine clusters
. . . . . . . . and using hopefully improved missile guidance, they can reliably wrap around to hit those engine clusters
. . . . . . and maybe make it so that fire once again blocks part resupply, so hitting engines with incendiaries can disable them for a while
. . . . . . . . but if you hit weapons you won't start fires becasue of penetration, so you can't instantly disable a bunch of guns
. . . . think this suggestion through more please! what thing(ssssss) did I forget
. . bug (post this at the end instead of here maybe?): these can start fires on friendly ships by accident
EMP:
. . relatively too powerful vs laser+EB ships, too weak against cannon ships
. . EMP should be much better at draining shields - more like a long-range electrobolt than a laser+EB killer
. . suggest making EMP a super-missile, size of 3 missiles
. . . . higher range maybe?
. . . . big missile allows for a much larger AOE without feeling weird
. . . . tougher/easier for PD and interceptors to shoot down?
. . . . launcher can physically transform to accomodate the bigger missile, or maybe the missile sticks out in front of the launcher
. . should drain shields on impact like EB, shouldn't have to hit the shield generator
. . 50% power drain is really weird. really really weird.
. . maybe have some kind of max energy drain per missile?
. . . . this would probably help balance out effectiveness vs laser+EB and other weapon types
. . . . so if you hit a cannon ship you'll completely drain the factories
. . . . if you hit a laser+EB you'll drain only a few of the weapons
. . . . and if you hit shields you'll drain the shields and nothing else
Cluster:
. . cluster explosion looks weird. missile_cluster_mini should probably be unguided bomblets, like a space shotgun
. . not unique enough. I like the idea, but right now it's just HE missiles with worse damage and more HP.
. . . . probably combine cluster with a different missile type (incendiary clusters? dumbfire micro-rockets?)
. . . . . . come up with a specific proposal here please, don't just post vaugue ideas
Dumbfire:
. . way, way too much like HE. Right now the only interesting thing about dumbfire is that they're unguided.
. . the focus should be on the burst damage, not the dumbfire
. . . . reduce range by a lot
. . . . a single launcher should be able to fit tons and tons of damage
. . . . a single launcher shoudl be able to load very quickly
. . . . dumbfire factories should produce extremely slowly/be extremely expensive, and probably should be 2x2 or 2x3
. . this promotes two strategies:
. . . . hit and run - load up the launcher from the very slow-producing factory, fly in close for tons of damage, fly away and reload, etc etc.
. . . . emergency swap - normally your launcher fires different missile types,
. . . . . . but if an enemy flanks you, you can swap to dumbfire (which has been producing the whole game without firing),
. . . . . . load extremely quickly from dedicated storage/factory storage, and fire off a volley for high damage
. . random thought: why does dumbfire have 2x the HE shield damage, but 1.5x the HE part damage? seems random
Decoy:
. . probably not worth talking about until PD is settled
Interceptor:
. . feels very strange that range is still 250.
. . I'm very impressed with the guidance on these
. . probably not worth talking about in detail until other missiles are settled
ECM:
. . no idea what to think of these yet, but they look really cool
. . probably not worth talking about in detail until other missiles are settled
PD, oh PD
. . missiles should be balanced without PD, and PD should be balanced without missiles.
. . right now missiles and PD are way too dependent on eachother
. . I still believe in suggestions in my other post - make PD a wide-area defense able to help block all/almost all weapons
. . . . https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/7122-point-defense-some-thoughts/
. . . . post link to help people find the ideas
. . then balance missiles without needing super-effective, one-use-only PD
