Point-Defense on fighters?

[StarShadow]

I'm thinking about modding in point-defense cannons for fighters, although I'm not sure it would be an improvement over stock, and might be too unbalancing.

[Ed Kolis]

PDC are already rather powerful, so I'd recommend toning them down before you do so - perhaps reduce the damage and/or hit chance?

[Fyron]

Fighters with anti-fighter weapons are great.

Removing the autofire from PDC is a huge step towards balance. You can still take out a lot of missiles and units, but it no longer creates an impenetrable wall of cheese around your forces...

[StarShadow]

I was considering reducing the range and/or hit chance. I don't think reducing the damage would be a good idea, PDC are an all-or-nothing weapon when it comes to seekers.

[Fyron]

Seekers are not all or nothing. You can kill them with 2+ hits of weaker PDC.

But to maintain the same seeker kill rates, you can just lower their damage resistance by the same ratio you lower the PDC damage. This will weaken the PDC againts units, but have no affect whatsoever against seekers.

[StarShadow]

Ah, my mistake then, I always thought it was all or nothing.

[Suicide Junkie]

The missile either does full damage when it hits, or is shot down.
But any damage taken by the missile adds up until the missile dies.

[Parasite]

Different tech levels of missles have different damage to destroy. Plus different PD levels do an increasing amount of damage. Most of the time it is a 1-1 hit destroy, but some of the smaller PD will take two (maaaaabe more) hits to destroy a bigger missle.

[StarShadow]

So far, what I'm thinking:

-Reduce the damage resistance of seekers to a max of 10.
-Reduce the PDC to 10kt size, reduce the hit bonus, allow it to only target seekers. Might reduce range.
-Add a new anti-fighter weapon 10kt in size, can only target fighters.
-Considering an anti-sat weapon, with mounts to increase range. Since sats tend to have a range advantage over PDC and normal weapons.

The main problem, from my perspective, is that the AI can't use any of the weapons I add, giving me an unfair advantage. Also wanted to add, that having separate anti-seeker/anti-fighter weapons, pretty much eliminates the ability mislead/fake-out the PDC.

Also, on a more general note, since to don't know if it would be a good idea to start a new thread every time something occurs to me...what's the deal with tractor/repulsor beams? They go up to level 9, but levels 7/8/9 give nothing. Plus the range on them seems too short to be useful.

[Suicide Junkie]

If it is different, go ahead.

I think the high levels usually give you wormhole guns which warp the target to a random location on the map.

[Wade]

"what's the deal with tractor/repulsor beams? They go up to level 9, but levels 7/8/9 give nothing. Plus the range on them seems too short to be useful. "

I'm not sure...some components sometimes decrease in size and cost instead of increasing other areas.

[StarShadow]

It might be nice if that were the case, however there are no entries in components.txt for levels 7/8/9.

[kalorrith]

Actually at one point there was a weapon at levels 7/8/9, though I don't remember if it was just SE 3, of if it was in the early version of se 4. The weapon employed alternating tractor and repulsor beams to rip the ship apart.

[Suicide Junkie]

That's the wave motion gun, and it is available at levels 8-10 of High energy discharge, since SE3.

[Fyron]

I think that weapon was just in some mod for SE3. It wasn't the WMG, but a "Tractor-Repulsor Beam." WMG is just a "high intensity fusion beam."

[Kana]

Imperator Fyron said:
I think that weapon was just in some mod for SE3. It wasn't the WMG, but a "Tractor-Repulsor Beam." WMG is just a "high intensity fusion beam."



The "TR Beam" is from the Star Fleet Battles Game. As for it being in any form or incarnation of SE, I don't know...maybe it was in a mod or something...

[Fyron]

I'm sure the concept has multiple origins.