Metagame ship too powerful?

Normandy · Post by **Normandy** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:49 am

Speaking of which, in stock game beams are not meant to be kings of battle; they are meant to wear down opponents, which is why they sweep in the first place. The actual damage is supposed to be dealt by blasters and other projectile weapons, which have far better DPS ratings than beams. Point defense then comes in as an equalizer, sort of like a rock-paper-scissors thing.

As well, take the design of stock ships into mind. They are very beam-light but projectile weapon-heavy. This stresses out point defense quite a great deal.

This post says nothing of the metagame, take note. What Arc wishes to balance the metagame by is his decision. I haven't read enough into it to make an informed judgement.

Post by **Arcalane** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:12 am

Beams are lethally effective in stock en masse though...

I did retain the beam sweeping functionality on all but certain fixed mounts (the Dauntless for obvious reasons) to ensure that their damage was at least somewhat distributed over a target.

DarchZero · Post by **DarchZero** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 12:47 am

Oh, for the previous post, IMO and maybe, all ships are AI controlled right? If strikecrafts are meant to be en massed and stupid, yep their dead alright.

And yes, kinetic weapons have range advantage, definitely. And they're TC free!

Water_and_Wind · Post by **Water_and_Wind** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:12 am

Beams need to have their deviation and initial deviation modified to reflect their greatly increased duration. The megabeam-based weapons (HBEs and SBEs) look ridiculous (just play with any of the big battleships which use those weapons). Of course, pin-point precision would be OP so some sort of standard is required if we want our beams nicely balanced yet actually hitting the target.

AllStarZ · Post by **AllStarZ** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:20 pm

Beams hit instantly and cannot be intercepted.

Projectiles on the other hand, take their time, and can easily be intercepted.

So maybe stock weapons can be rebalanced. But the primary characteristics of the weapons will mean that with equal stats, beams will always overshadow projectile weapons.

Swamp Fox · Post by **Swamp Fox** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:34 pm

AllStarZ wrote:But the primary characteristics of the weapons will mean that with equal stats, beams will always overshadow projectile weapons.

That's a good point, except that in any semblance of balancing beams and projectiles do not have the same stats. That is, quite frankly, a ridiculous idea which was dropped long ago.

AllStarZ · Post by **AllStarZ** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:06 pm

I know, but I'm simply saying that beams are inherently better weapons.

Normandy · Post by **Normandy** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:41 am

That's why projectile weapons are given far better DPS than beam weapons are in stock game. So they don't overshadow projectile weapons, as you suggest.

Droid · Post by **Droid** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:33 am

Metagame beams spend a ridiculous amount of their firing time missing.
They don't do anywhere near their advertised damage potential.

Water_and_Wind · Post by **Water_and_Wind** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:37 am

My point exactly. Plus it looks stupid.

Post by **Arcalane** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:49 am

Droid wrote:Metagame beams spend a ridiculous amount of their firing time missing.
They don't do anywhere near their advertised damage potential.

Welcome to the "and this is why TerSlash beams aren't as good as they could be" channel.

Though that's actually unintentional, I'll look into tweaking it later.

Droid · Post by **Droid** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:00 am

Yeah, well, the TerSlash debate is where I pulled that second line from.

If the slash cycle was faster and more frequent like in the TerSlash, it'd probably be more useful. In fact, maybe having slash-type beams and direct fire beams with different threat costs/stats might be interesting...(though ultimately more work).

Right now, it sweeps very slowly and looks like it's making a half-assed attempt to track the enemy ship (and failing hard).

AllStarZ · Post by **AllStarZ** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:09 pm

Beam weapons dominate Freespace 2 for a reason you know. But in Freespace, ships have dozens of secondary projectile weapons in addition to the big powerful beam weapons that slice capitals apart or rock fighters about like silly flies.

Squishy · Post by **Squishy** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:38 pm

The beams have just been updated with a modified raking deviation and double the reload time.

Their DPS is more in line with higher-end projectile weapons (Twin heavy laser cannon deals more damage over time than a medium beam emitter, all other stats balancing out).

Though, I think the threat costs for the beams (except super) can stand to get knocked down accordingly.

Slashing beams you say? Like sweeping stock scatter beams? Fund it.

Post by **Arcalane** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:39 pm

AllStarZ wrote:Beam weapons dominate Freespace 2 for a reason you know. But in Freespace, ships have dozens of secondary projectile weapons in addition to the big powerful beam weapons that slice capitals apart or rock fighters about like silly flies.

Hey, guess what? So do ours. Shut up.

Ed: Also, dozens? Hahahahaha. Not really unless they're the really big ones. A dozen, maybe. Not dozens plural.