SE4 Stock Balance Mod

Fyron · #1 July 25th, 2003, 05:04 AM

Mac, the random miss modifier would be lowering its inate to hit bonus.

Taera · #2 July 25th, 2003, 05:05 AM

where is the thread at right now? i am not realy going to read through the whole 11 pages, but i myself had been considering such a mod for some time. if theres one being made, i'll give a hand.

What do you have so far? what is being discussed now?

Taera · #3 July 25th, 2003, 05:06 AM

would you guys like my personal list of What To Do To Balance Everything?

macjimmy · #4 July 25th, 2003, 05:17 AM

One topic for balancing that I've not seen is shields vs armor. Armor has less hp/kt than shields at a moderate level and has to be repaired too. Armor I,II,III is 3, 3.5, 4 hp/kt, IIRC, and the shields far outstrip this. Making armor more worthwhile might balance PPB without having to make large changes there as well.

deccan · #5 July 25th, 2003, 05:30 AM

I like PvK's ideas on the APB/MB/PPB. I also agree with upping the damage of torpedoes or adding to-hit for them. On the WMG, I agree with SJ. I like the idea of a long-range sniping, but bulky, expensive and slow-firing, DR weapon.

Can't really say much about the other weapons since I haven't played with them.

The PD nerf seems a bit much though, considering the defensive bonuses PvK suggests to fighters and seekers. I do agree that PD to-hit should be reduced, but not to Proportions-levels

I think the nerf should be to fleet / ship training since that is where it is really unbalancing. It should be way harder to build and research those facilities. And of course, PvK's ideas about making racial combat bonuses way more expensive are good too.

And oh, I'd really like an increased range for Tractor Beams too, please. I want to be able to pull the pesky hard-to-hit, always stay at max-range ships in close to bLast them.

Finally, as SJ keeps reminding us, there other things besides combat in SEIV that need rebalancing too. Climate Control Facilities do need to work faster, facilities that improve production of one specific resource should be better than those that improve all three resources etc.

BTW, I take it that fighters / drones receive racial / cultural combat bonuses, but do seekers receive defensive bonuses from these factors?

Fyron · #6 July 25th, 2003, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Finally, as SJ keeps reminding us, there other things besides combat in SEIV that need rebalancing too. Climate Control Facilities do need to work faster, facilities that improve production of one specific resource should be better than those that improve all three resources etc.

Those have been discussed already. The thing is that they are very, very simple compared to weapons, and so they generate a lot less debate.

Ed Kolis · #7 July 25th, 2003, 06:46 AM

Just some thoughts on other neglected tech areas...

Biology - Nobody researches this one, maybe they would if it gave some facilities that increased population growth rate and happiness (like the Organic races have), or smaller and cheaper life support components for ships?

Planetary Weapons - A lot of the weapons in here are really cool (Planetary Napalm does massive damage, but only to planets, Smartbombs seek out spaceports and resupply depots, Neutron Bombs kill population even quicker than plagues, Radiation Bombs prevent population from growing - why isn't there any "Only Planet Value" damage type???

now THAT would be useful!

) but nobody seems to use them much... wonder what could be done? The tech's pretty cheap already...

Also, there are a bunch of techs that are way too cheap - once you research their often arduous prerequisites (if they have prerequisites), you can blow through each level of the techs in one turn - this goes for things like Point Defense, Advanced Military Science, Warp Weapons, Gravitational Weapons, Phased Energy Weapons, Ship Capture, Explosive Warheads, Smaller Weapons, Tractor/Repulser Weapons, etc. - just doubling the cost of these fields would make the game more interesting, with a more diverse spread of technology (one empire might have PPB II, another might have PPB IV)

Oh, and maybe more levels of progression for the fighter/troop weapons would help - as it is, there's a BIG jump from, say, DUC I to DUC II - the damage and range both double!

Not to mention the fact that you need to research Fighters to get Small DUC's while all other Small weapons come from the Smaller Weapons tech area... did someone change his mind while designing the tech tree?

One more thing with smaller weapons... the Ground Cannon is nice, but does it HAVE to be the uber troop weapon so you don't even think of putting other weapons on your troops? Maybe if it were 4kT instead of 3 then you'd think twice about it... or if it cost a whole lot compared to other troop weapons...