GSB alone is alright but with the Tribes getting advanced repair units, Order with nuclear cleansing lasers and the Swarm with Smart Bomb defense and Disruptor Lasers…I was hoping that some of original races getting some new equipment to counter these advantaged races.
Federation: Perhaps reinforced weapons? Super Tough Lasers that allow lasting battles?
Rebellion: I believe a Fighter specific weapon. Perhaps a low power laser or Fighter Missiles. Perhaps Afterburner engines for bigger ships. Maybe even a super reinforced hull for ‘RAMMING SPEED, MISTER JEFFERSON!!’ scenarios!
Alliance: Self-Regenerating Armor? I have yet to play as the Alliance, really. Maybe an Armor Leech Laser.
Empire: Clearly, they need some sort of super shield of some sort. Maybe a shield piercing laser as well?
I always thought Empire should have a revised screening cloak, since they tend to have a lot of room even on the frigates:
Cloak has a 50% (down from 75%) passive miss-rate
Cloak no longer has a duration, ships may enter permanent cloak within a few seconds after firing
Ships decloak when presented with firing opportunities they have orders for (presuming we don't get an 'ignore fighters' order)
Cloak module available for empire frigates
A screening module like that presumably favors shorter range or slower stuff. Empire could certainly use an edge there.
Alliance could probably use some sort of high-yield engine to keep their engine/module counts down. They already have several unique weapons (fusion torpedo, lightning cannon, alliance beam) all of which have a short-range armor-breaking flavor to them. They are of course nearly useless in a universe where fleet captains try to get away with using as little of that deadweight armor stuff as possible. The armor mechanic itself is just letting Alliance down, unfortunate for a race with an armor bonus on nearly every hull.
Rebels already have the most diverse fighter force of all the races, with an absolutely excellent hull selection across all classes. I don’t think they need much help.
Feds are bog-standard, but that’s okay to me. As a starter race they provide a solid foundation; In the hands of the experienced, the fed fusion beam is sick.
…much more than you realize, and to a much greater extent. See here for my “manifesto” on the subject. I’ve been slloooowwwwllly digging away at it since then, purely for my own personal enjoyment and nowhere near truly “balanced” yet. Due to other obligations it hasn’t been a top priority. It may or may not ever be complete enough for me to release, but it serves as a basis for addressing many of the same deficiencies you commented upon.
I’m definitely sympathetic to cliffski concerning the amount of work that a total solution would require (it really is nuts), but the fact that far too many of the modules are available to every last bloody race is pretty limiting. When you add that overarching blandness to the increasing usage of powerful and specialized new modules to the paid add-on races, that tends to aggravate the existing balance situation even further. In part, that’s fuelling the already large - and accelerating - trend of our modding community to take the game in other directions, within the limits of the current codebase. The debate is far from over.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one who sees this. I do like how you say it in the other thread (Reinforced Generator for Feds only, Engine 3 for Rebels only, Advanced Shields for Empire, Armor 3 for Alliance) and I feel it would be a completely new game of GSB.
Personally, I feel that the Swarm is only popular because its the easiest race to win with, currently.
Name: Rebel Railcannon (Cruiser)
Cost: 120
Weight: 80
Hit Points: 85
Power: 15
Crew: 20
Damage: 24
Armor Penetration: 16
Shield Penetration: N/A (Ignores shields)
Max Range: 1150
Min Range: 500
Tracking Speed: .50
Fire Interval: 3750
Description: Instead of going for damaging a shield, Rebels thought it would be better to simply ignore the shields with this long range rail cannon. The Empire best beware…
Name: Imperial Flak Cannon (Cruiser)
Cost: 76
Weight: 96
Hit Points: 95
Power: 6
Crew: 20
Damage: 12
Armor Penetration: 5
Shield Penetration: 5
Max Range: 400
Min Range: 200
Tracking Speed: 2.60
Fire Interval: 1450
Splash Damage Range: 50
Description: Those plucky fighters tend to come in swarms so why focus on one at a time when you can fire grenades that can hit a whole wing?
Name: Imperial Chaff Cannon (Cruiser)
Cost: 123
Weight: 108
Hit Points: 85
Power: 6
Crew: 32
Max Range: 350
Fire Interval: 3000
Splash Damage Range: 200
Special: Effects all missiles
Description: When even a full load of point defenses aren’t cutting it, take out a whole area of missiles with bits of flying metal!
Name: Rebel Portable Grenade Cannon (Frigate)
Cost: 49
Weight: 20
Hit Points: 20
Power: 4
Crew: 8
Damage: 12
Armor Penetration: 18
Shield Penetration: 27
Max Range: 600
Min Range: 400
Tracking Speed: .80
Fire Interval: 3800
Splash Damage Area: 250
Description: Sacrificing accuracy for sheer power, the Grenade Cannon deals damage to all ships caught within its blast.
Name: Rebel Megaton Grenade Cannon (Cruiser)
Cost: 156
Weight: 140
Hit Points: 85
Power: 8
Crew: 36
Damage: 32
Armor Penetration: 23
Shield Penetration: 36
Max Range: 600
Min Range: 400
Tracking Speed: .25
Splash Damage Area: 350
Description: It may be cumbersome but when it hits, your crew can enjoy their very own fireworks show.
Name: Imperial Death Beam Laser
Cost: 266
Weight: 135
Hit Points: 50
Power: 23
Crew: 45
Damage: 176
Armor Penetration: 89
Shield Penetration: 56
Max Range: 1250
Min Range: 850
Tracking Speed: .75
Fire Interval: 6500
Description: The Empire once thought of spherical floating battle stations which were too over the budge. However, their planet busting lasers could be fit onto their cruisers.
Name: Federation Fighter Mines (Fighter)
Cost: 21
Weight: 6
Hit Points: 20
Power: .1
Crew: 0
Damage: 22
Armor Penetration: 12
Shield Penetration: 8
Max Range: 100
Min Range: 10
Tracking Speed: 3.40
Fire Interval: 2500
Limit: 3
Description: Those fighters are already going pretty fast. Do you really need a bomb with a rocket on it to damage those slow moving cruisers?
Name: Federation Advanced Fusion Beam (Cruiser)
Cost: 134
Weight: 90
Hitpoints: 250
Power: 20
Crew: 12
Damage: 65
Armor Penetration: 76
Shield Penetration: 26
Max Range: 650
Min Range: 300
Tracking Speed: 1.20
Fire Interval: 3000
Description: As the costs of war goes up, the implementation of a more powerful and sturdier Fusion Beam was needed.
Federation Supertough Armor (Cruiser)
Cost: 289
Weight: 150
Hit Points: 30
Damage Absorbable: 132
Description: Loss of a ship can be a pretty hefty blow to your budget…with armor like this, you can protect your wallet.
Rebel Ultralight Weight Armor (Cruiser)
Cost: 224
Weight: 40
Hit Points: 0
Damage Absorbable: 115
Description: When you want to be not only tough but fast as a Fighter, this is the armor for you
Alliance Regenerating Armor (Cruiser)
Cost: 354
Weight: 98
Hit Points: 0
Damage Absorbable: 134
Repair Supplies: 600
Repair Rate: .1
Description: Using a special biological agent hardened into a shell, this armor slowly pulls itself back together.
Imperial Solar Panel
Cost: 112
Weight: 12
Hit Points: 0
Damage Absorbable: 34
Power Produced: 20
Description: All that solar energy in space goes to waste…why not use it to power your already power draining shields?
I’ve already added a solar panel for fighters in the mod called 3xper1ment4l I’m working in lol.
And like Hybrinoid said you need to put Power Consumed: -20 to get the idea working. For now armours are unable to produce power D:
Name: Federation Precision Cannon (Frigate)
Cost: 12
Weight: 13
Hit Points: 12
Power: 4
Crew: 6
Damage: 6
Armor Penetration: 14
Shield Penetration: 38
Max Range: 900
Min Range: 400
Tracking Speed: 50.00
Fire Interval: 4000
Description: With every shot billed, some captains decide to cut back on costs by using this highly accurate Precision Cannon.
Name: Rebel Frost Missiles (Frigate)
Cost: 78
Weight: 45
Hit Points: 8
Power: 4
Crew: 12
Damage: 0
Max Range: 900
Min Range: 300
Tracking Speed: 1.80
Fire Interval: 3500
Speed: .36
Fuel: 1200
Has Decoys: No
Extra: Shuts down engines for 10 seconds and increases weight by 200 for 20.
Description: Those fast annoying cruisers and frigates with lasers are so annoying. Shut them down with these freezing missiles which snap freeze enemy engines.
Name: Imperial Crazy Ivan Engines (Frigate)
Cost: 120
Weight: 35
Hit Points: 25
Power: 5
Crew: 10
Thrust: 20
Damage: 76
Armor Penetration: 45
Shield Penetration: 67
Max Range: 800
Min Range: 200
Tracking Speed: 1.30
Fire Interval: 0
Fuel: 850
Speed: .80
Decoys: No
Extra: Fires when the ship is destroyed.
Description: Seemingly designed by a mad doctor, these engines act like hyper volatile missiles when the ship is destroyed. Not surprisingly, Imperial Starship Crew recruitment has dropped.
It would be great if each race had a plethora of race-specific weapons to choose from; each race having a weapon for every engagement type, and range.
In a campaign, there could be a ‘salvage factor’ for each race; Rebels would have the best salvage factor. After each battle, by employing your salvage factor, you’d get to see how many hulls, and what tech you’d salvaged.
This way, various ship components and hulls could spread between the races. By studying captured components and hulls, a player could add these to your own manufacturing base. The game could even be set up so that older, more common components would be cheaper to produce; rather than starting up completely new assembly lines for mass producing copies of the salvaged alien tech.
The way things are now though; the Alliance Lightning Beam needs a big upgrade. Alliance would be so much cooler if that weapon were more formidable than it already is. As it is now, few people bother with the Lightning Beam. If this weapon were made competitive; somewhere between the tribe cruiser howitzer and the cruiser laser; I’d play more often as Alliance. As it is, Alliance has a tough row to hoe.
Maybe Alliance should have a ‘stinger’ weapon, where they drive up to within 50 meters, and plunge some huge projectile into another ship from close-by?
