This is my first time posting. I've been following Cosmoteer for a while and I love where the game is going. I've played this missile prototype for a while and I think it is a general improvement. Here is my feedback:
I like the new improved speed and range of EMP missiles.
HE missiles feel really good right now.
I can see why PD was changed to a long range defense. However, I think PD would make more lore sense as a short range defense. Also that makes sense intuitively. PD seems to be based on Phalanx type defense guns which have very short range. So I will echo others with my suggestion that PD and flak be flipped with PD as short range and flak as long range defense.
Regarding flak, I love the 4 barrel design. I don't like the narrow field of fire. I think it should be at least twice as wide. In my testing, the Flak works great as long as the enemy ship is out of the flak's range. As soon as the flak can hit an enemy ship, it ignores projectiles. One solution would be to take away the anti-ship capability entirely and make flak purely defensive system. Another solution would be to have it ignore ships if it is less than 3/4 full of ammo. That way flak would join your weapons in the first salvo, but then be defensive from then on. Once there are too few projectiles to keep it below 3/4 full, it would rejoin your weapons in attack, while maintaining a healthy reserve of ammo to do its main job. Defending you.
I really liked the interceptor missiles from a few prototypes ago and I was sorry to see them go. Any chance we can bring them back? They were very nostalgic for me. In the show SeaQuest DSV, the hero sub often used interceptor torpedoes to shoot down incoming torpedoes. I did not think they were boring at all. Maybe they could also shot down other projectiles like flak does. Or just leave them as a pure anti-missile. I think they could use the same ammo as HE so no need for another factory. Or maybe they could use cannon ammo?
I love how the new mines spread themselves out into a minefield automatically, however I think it takes far to long to deploy a decent sized minefield. I my testing I needed a large densely packed minefield to have a chance of doing any measurable amount of damage with mines. Below this critical mass, the mines were quickly swatted away with just a low number of PD turrets, and the density was so low the chance of one hitting was near zero.
Deploying this critical size and density of a minefield required several minutes. I suppose it is realistic for a minefield to take a while to deploy, but from a game-play perspective, it was just no fun to just sit there waiting. I recommend mine factories should be twice as fast or mines should require only less parts. Especially considering that a player could just replace the mine systems with any other weapon and charge in without waiting. If missile launchers could hold 2 or 3 mines that would also be a big help with getting that critical density and size in a timely manner.
The 16 large shell mine explosion looks really cool, and the damage seems just right. High speed collisions can cause all 16 shells to hit though. One idea to fix that is to make them homing again and use an HE missile style explosion. On the other hand, all 16 shells hitting might not be such a bad thing though. The main idea with a mine field is area denial and slowing down the enemy. So 16 shells hitting might be just the necessary deterrence.