Hi all. Personally, I find the missiles rather redundant in this game, as you can still fire at long range effectively with energy and kinetic weaponry. My suggestion would be to have only missiles able to fire during the long range portion of the combat. If neither side has missiles, then they have to close to fire. And have it that missiles cannot be fired at close range. Or if that's not feasible, then give energy and kinetic weaponry a penalty at long range.



I like your combat system, but I have to admit I was hoping for a turn based tactical system like Masters of Orion 2 had.

CanBatMan wrote:
... give energy and kinetic weaponry a penalty at long range.

That's how it IS. Missiles are most to least effective from long to short range while Kinetics are the reverse. Lasers are strongest at mid range, but I forget how much weaker they are at long and short, however, it is less then at mid range.

Really? Hmmm, In the games I've played, I'm doing some serious damage at long range with kinetics and energy. I've built ships with no missiles at all, and haven't had a problem. And usually, by the time missiles hit, your at medium range. Ships should not outfly their missiles.

CanBatMan wrote:
Really? Hmmm, In the games I've played, I'm doing some serious damage at long range with kinetics and energy. I've built ships with no missiles at all, and haven't had a problem. And usually, by the time missiles hit, your at medium range. Ships should not outfly their missiles.

May I suggest you hold off on making suggestions for changes until you fully understand the combat system? It seems like you are severely jumping the gun by asking things to be changed when you seem to have only a tenuous grasp of how things work. There are some really good discussions on it's mechanics, strengths, weaknesses, and some existing proposed changes all over the boards that you can use to get informed.

Personally, I've found that missiles and kinetics are both underwhelming compared to beam weapons... kinetics because they're too short in range, and missiles because beams have passable accuracy at long range and put out nearly twice the damage per phase of missiles.



I put together a post about problems I've observed with missiles here, under the following title: Fix Missiles



Notably, I have never, ever needed to use more than basic flack cannons to defend against missiles if I have an admiral in the fleet. Using higher-tech ones is, in fact, counterproductive.

The accuracy of beams make me feel like missiles should be medium range, and beams long range....

Milaha wrote:
May I suggest you hold off on making suggestions for changes until you fully understand the combat system? It seems like you are severely jumping the gun by asking things to be changed when you seem to have only a tenuous grasp of how things work. There are some really good discussions on it's mechanics, strengths, weaknesses, and some existing proposed changes all over the boards that you can use to get informed.

Ok, a whole lot of patronizing, but I get your point.



Thanks rickynumber 24 for the link to your other post. It was a good read. And Milaha? Take note of how to constructively get your point across.

The second point may be moot, but noone suggested giving missiles a free shot, before.

I'm not sure this would be beneficial at all, rather I'm convinced that this doesn't solve the problem, but generates a new one (missile-firstshot armadas). It's not my part to judge the content of a suggestion, though.

Yeah you have a point. My thought comes along the lines of designing ships that have defenses for everything. Usually in science fiction, fleet defensive fire can be combined at some points if necessary. And yes, you will lose ships to an initial missile strike. But that becomes part of a races tactical doctrine. A race that relies solely on all out missile strikes will have troubleat closer ranges. A good example of a game with different racial doctrines was the old Starfleet Battles board game. In that, the Kzinti relied on massive amounts of drone launches (missiles) to attack their foes. Overwhelming at first, but most ships had point defense systems, along with wild weasels to decoy the missiles. The battle would inevitably end up in medium to close range, where the Kzinti were then at a distinct disadvantage. They relied on that initial strike to do the major amount of damage. The Hydrans were the opposite. They relied on high damage close range weaponry and fighter swarms, but suffered at long range. The battles were extremely interesting, and generally balanced. It all came down to tactics. Now in this game, I realize that is not going to happen, as it is primarily a strategy game. But I think they can improve their existing system with a few tweaks. I appreciate the nightmare it can be to deliver a balanced combat system, because you are never going to make everyone happy. I just throw out suggestions, not because I expect to see them implemented, but rather to give the Devs a different perspective, and maybe spark some ideas for them.