Walt Can you elaborate on this? I don't understand why you don't like that they start fires or don't think they'd be fun to play with/against.
I don't like the fires solely because that's not what one expects when they think of mines. I think of a great big explosion and a hole in a ship. But obviously a great big explosion would be a bit OP if you can put out mines as numerously as you can now. Fires are fine, but I feel like the main damaging component of mine impact should be the initial explosion. They felt really weak in that regard. I had to pump out 10-20 to do any decent damage to a ship that I ran through it.
I thought that mines wouldn't be fun because I forsee them being used almost exclusively by kiters. They won't be effective in fights that are largely stationary or long range.
I think if mines are going to be added, they should have an explosion similar to the nuclear missiles and the same requirements of difficulty of production and loading. They would be an area denial weapon to discourage linear pursuit or closing to laser/EB range, but they could be avoided if the player is mobile enough. Releasing a mine would be a decision that is considerate of timing and position - you want drop it when and where it is most likely to cause maneuvering problems for the enemy.
Walt harder to justify why shredder rounds and flak rounds have different arc.
I think that flak should be a separate weapon. When I think of flak, I think of a single large explosion, not tons of little ones. A flak turret could have an offensive and defensive mode. In defensive mode, it shoots at missiles, shells, and lasers. Give it a larger explosion (maybe 6 tiles in diameter?) so that it can take down multiple missiles. That would make PD good for single-target sustained missile fire, and flak good for large salvos of missiles. In offensive mode, it can be fired at ships and produces an explosion that has significant knockback (like a railgun hit) and moderate aoe damage, weaker than a missile. That's my take on flak. It can be an interesting addition with its own unique role.
This would free up minigun to be its own unique weapon.
I'm having a really hard time imagining a minigun without a very high projectile speed.
Oh fast is fine. I too can't imagine them working any other way. It would be bad on performance to actually put out tons of slower projectiles, wouldn't it? I just thought it seemed weird for them to be faster than lasers. But I guess lasers are 'blasters' meaning they are a projectile of contained energy that travels at sublight speeds.
Walt Tobi-wan_Kenobi Also, if they're going to be able to shoot down missiles, I would prefer it not be with flak.
Can you elaborate on why this is?
I just thought flak from a minigun didn't seem fitting. My view is that if minigun can shoot down missiles, it should have a defensive mode that functions in the same way as 14.4 PD - short range and continuously firing to destroy many missiles, but with slower traverse than PD, so it might have trouble tracking missiles if they have too high a lateral velocity. I don't think this would be overpowered versus missiles, as the minigun would be a larger and more costly part than current PD, and with a more narrow field of fire. If a player is willing to devote that much cost and surface area to shooting down missiles, I don't see a problem. It will be less likely for players to fit miniguns with defensive intentions (most will be forward facing).
I think a key to making missiles effective - but not too effective - is to have multiple ways to defeat them, but no one single way to shoot them all down. To fully defeat missile fire, one would need PD, flak, miniguns, and shields combined. This would be an unlikely setup. So most fights would see at least a portion of missiles hitting the enemy, but not all of the missiles, since people would be likely to fit the new hybrid offensive/defensive weapons of flak and minigun.
Walt I'm going to try doubling their damage across the board, though I suspect that will be too high.
Yeah that will probably be a bit extreme. O_O
If they can damage shields, I think they should be fine at 1.5x current part damage. I think less damage to shields, more damage to parts sounds fitting. They would harmonize well with EBs and make for some interesting short-range brawler gunboats.
Walt Ideally flak would be the best counter against missiles but a worse counter than shields against everything else, but still not useless against everything else so that it's not a total waste of money if the enemy doesn't have missiles.
If you implement a standalone flak with a single shot and larger explosion radius, I would indeed like to see it be more effective versus cannon and missile fire. Against cannons, the larger explosion could have much more energy to divert multiple cannon shots at once. Against lasers, you could have the smoke cloud linger longer, making it more effective against sustained laser fire, and not just against the initial lasers that it shot at.