SE4 Stock Balance Mod

[Fyron]

I go away for a couple of days and look what happens...

Time for some reading!

[Asmala]

If PPB is weakened, then normal shields are usefull also in the later part of game. Would it confuse the AI if normal and phased shields has different family numbers?

Does anybody find out a way to make other scanners than hyper optics usefull without big modifications? Perhaps those with higher research cost would be cheaper/smaller?

And finally I'd like to modify the order of components in components.txt. It won't affect the AI for sure I know there are the comp type Groups but I still like all armors one after another (normal, scattering, stealth, emissive, perhaps even racial armories). Also I'd like the solar sail after engines. I think there are more improvements but I have to check them out.

[Fyron]

How about making PPBs 75% as effective as APB 4-8 (IE: 75% as much damage)? This sticks with 5 levels, and makes them start at about the same point as if the player had reasearched APBs instead of Physics 2. Stopping with APB level 8 means they won't be anywhere near as powerful as late-game APBs.

Hmm, I'm a newbie so I acknowledge that my opinions don't carry too much weight, but here they are anyway

Your opinion is as valid and useful as everyone else's.

I agree that organizing the comps better is a good idea. It looks like everything was just thrown on the end of the list when Aaron thought of them. Check Adamant Mod for a reorganizing possibility.

[ July 24, 2003, 21:32: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Suicide Junkie]

A -5 damage to the APB would result in the MB being slightly better at ranges 4-6.

A moderate increase in PPB cost
The smoothing out of the PPB damage improvements at levels 2&3 as suggested before.
A 5% to 10% negative to the to-hit would be enough to make it a fair choice IMO.



What would be a good change for the Hellbore?
Changing Graviton Hellbore to skip all shields, perhaps?

[ July 24, 2003, 21:35: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Fyron]

We should add 3 more levels of Armor components, with increasing HPs. Armor should always be a viable alternative to shields, with each having their own uses.

In fact, it would IMO be a good idea to make Armor come in 1 kT chunks, and have more HPs than Shield Generators make. This allows the Armor ships to win the first battle, but have lots less defense left for the next ones. The shield ships have fewer HPs to start with, but get their defenses for every battle. Sort of like in P&N mod.

Of course, that system is very different from stock SE4, so we may not want it for a balance mod. But, having 3 more levels of the Armor comps (no new tech areas) would be a great idea.

[Fyron]

What would be a good change for the Hellbore?
Changing Graviton Hellbore to skip all shields, perhaps?

Probably doubling its damage and making it skip all shields would be good. It does a lot less damage than MBs, PPBs, APBs, etc. at short ranges, and almost nothing at long ones. Make it killer at short range, but get really weak at long ranges (same rate of damage attenuation it has now works nicely for this). Ofc, the Ripper Beam should do even more damage than the GHB (a lot more, maybe 50% more), as it has very short range. This creates vastly different combat options for these weapons (esp. with the different ROF).

[ July 24, 2003, 21:58: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Fyron]

I think we should make the first 2-3 levels of phased shields be a little better. All that it does is screw the AIs, who will use them as soon as they get Shields 6, thus creating ships with far fewer HPs (even less than if they used Armor), as well as just making you wait longer with some useless intermediate techs.