PPB Rebalance Poll

[Rich04]

I would also like to point out that in SE III. Phased Poloron beams had a counter in addition to Phased Shields.

Emissive Armor.
You pretty much slapped on at least one component of EA to counter Poloron Beams and reduce the effectiveness of several other weapons.
To get around EA you needed Heavier Weapons to rip through it. I rather enjoyed the dynamic.

However with weapon mounts in SE IV pretty much negate the effectiveness of EA with just about every weapon.

Just my thoughts.

[Taera]

Yes. Weapon mounts are fun but they take a big chunk out of balance and dynamic. OT.

[capnq]

This is looking more and more hopeless. Each faction looks at the same raw data, then interprets it as supporting their own position.

I'm beginning to think that whether PPBs are balanced mainly depends upon who's using them.

[Taera]

CapnQ: Why, the Emmisive Armor in SEIII was giving complete protection from PPB at a long distance (reduced damage then) and was absorbing the whole damage & destroying in point blank (full damage was the same as EA defense).

I might agree with the second statement, but not the "balancing" but how the players do view the "balance". I personaly tend to play the "hard" way and not use any the-best solutions in most games, first of all strategic/tactic which SEIV is so i tend to not use PPB at all in my games and then i can see their strength when attacked by three AIs all with PPB V when all i have is DUC5 and low armor. Same with ID - i was using it for a while, then indentified it as one of the most powerful weapons in the game, and ENgine Overloading Weapons are no longer on my research list.
Same with Null Space.
When you dont use it you can see how much powerful is it from a "side view".

[geoschmo]

Taera, I have faced opponents using PPB and lost, and faced opponents using PPB and won. It depended on the skill of the opponent, not his choice of weapons.

And as far as Null Space, not using them isn't exactly handicapping yourself. Their ROF makes them VERY weak compared to the other weapons. They are most definetly a secondary support type weapon. Good in certain circumstances, but not good for general use.

Geoschmo

[Baron Munchausen]

I think the obsession over this fairly trivial issue is a sign that we've become too familiar with the game as a whole. It's time for MM to add some new options. Either new damage types or weapon abilities or some other new feature that can be used to make the game less predictable and renew interest in the over-all game instead of people nit-picking at damage stats.

[Chardo Mon]

Hear Hear Barron. The style of play is important, as well as diplomacy. If a faction uses ultimate weapons, the rest of the community should side against them.

Please, this is only a thoughtfull, if uninformed, opinion. But what better way to get response?