I've played about 2-3 games ( Which considering this is an 'alpha' this is rather impressive in the ballpark of stability.) and I've noticed, mid to late game that most weapons are just... overpowered. While I absolutely love the battle system, it just seems that the battles I have with the AI end at the beginning of the battle before getting past phase one.Weapons in general need to be toned down in damage and defensive systems need to be buffed. One particular are the missiles/torpedos. I've been playing several battles with the AI and in several it ends in a draw because of missiles, rarely am I ever able to escape a battle allive because once missiles launch there is nothing that can stop them and they destroy everything in there path. Battles would be much more enjoyable if they were drawn out and actually made it to the second phase. Grant you however, this is still in alpha, and not in the phase of balancing... but I figured I'm bring up the topic sooner than later.

Exists already in the form of flak.



I think the main problem is that the computer goes for specialized designs whereas players tend to spread around their defense and offense options.

But I am far from done exploring the possibilities in combat.

LordOfLostSocks wrote:
I haven't played the alpha(yet, waiting to get some money), so I'm not sure if this is an actual problem, but I'm gonna assume you're correct.

One solution to this and it might already be in the game is a Battlestar Galactica-esque defense grid which shoots down incoming missiles.

It does. There is modules that provide defense against missile types, it just doesn't seem to me, that it does enough late game and that my dreadnaughts drop in 2-3 missiles from the first salvo. I wouldn't this however if say other ships provided a bonuss against missiles, maybe so you can have a designated flak ship of some kind, but as far as I can tell the ship defenses only count for that ship specifically. Also because how strong weapons get late game, Battles are normally decided in the first phase of battle ( There are three for those who haven't played the alpha) But again, hopefully this is a balance issue and is fixed in beta... Also. Different approaches for the fleets would be nice...

I have to agree here. A lot of battles end right after the very first salvo. Why that may not be entirely unrealistic (after all, many a naval battle ended with just a few well aimed barrages), it isn't very fun It's not so much that the offensive weapons need to be toned down I think, it's the defenses that need to be upgraded a bit.

a lot of battles are won (in my case) like kamikadze..in first part you will fire all torpedos you have (nothing more, just a LOT of torpedos)...a then just wait..alsmost every of your ships will be destroyed, but when missiles "arrives to final destination" , result si really nice :-)



but yeah, this is alpha version and still more awesome than i expected :-)

Sharidann wrote:
Exists already in the form of flak.



I think the main problem is that the computer goes for specialized designs whereas players tend to spread around their defense and offense options.

But I am far from done exploring the possibilities in combat.

I found it very effective to specialize on fleets for certain enemies. E.g. a pirate killer fleet full to the brim with missiles and having only kinetic and missile defenses did a lot of cleaning up for me.

Missiles are a tad over the top right now...over three games, I've tried focusing on one weapon type to see how it'd work against the escalating pirate swarms and inevitable Craver attacks.



Kinetics turned out to be completely underwhelming. Kinetics-based ships just don't do enough damage in the long- and medium-range phases to really push their advantage in melee. Even nominally balanced battles regularly ended with all my ships dead and not a single enemy down.



Beams were better, winning me a lot of fights. But then I tried missileboating...holy crap. Right now, I'm using plasma torpedoes on corvettes and destroyers, with a typical fleet size of 7. One volley from these kills 4-5 enemy ships, and I'm still able to fit enough 'tank' modules to survive what little return fire actually comes back after that first hit. Battles tend to end without losses against Cravers and with 1-2 ships lost against pirates...mainly due to them also relying heavily on missiles.

I messed with missiles today and found them very powerful aswell. I still love kinetic weapons however, even though they are weak.