Am I right in noticing that the Parasite Flak Cannon has been nerfed quite a bit? I just realized that while playing some challenges the normally fighter-proof Parasite wall was not so fighter proof. I can see hits happening, but no where near as much as what was happening before.
So anyone now how it is working right now?
I am not complaining - I’ve discovered you can now have Parasite fighter fleets and not worry about fratriciding your fighters by accident. Or as much. It does require a complete Parasite rebuild now.
Berny
Enjoying a coconut water and frozen yoghurt smoothie.
In the latest build. The Parasite flak Cannon AoE effect will only occur if the bullet hits the intended target.
(In other words, there is no AoE effect on the intended target if the bullet misses and expires. It was this aspect which made it Over Powered.)
Which in my opinion is better than the previous version.
Not that it matters now, and I acknowledge that it’s too late anyway to change anything…
…but isn’t the whole point of flak to have an area of effect even if there is no hit? After all, it is to increase the chance of hitting a fast moving object. Because of this real life flak explodes anyway, not only when it hits something. It naturally follows that if if only explodes when it hits something, it makes more sense to use a high explosive with maximum damage concentrated in the small area, rather than it being disappated through area of effect.
My personal thought would have to put the armour piercing ability of flak way down - to something like 3 or 4, keeping the same old hit abilities as before. This would make people design armoured fighters if they wish to survive - which would cost more, making the fighter less of an option, and the flak would still have a decent kill rate with lucky hits ablating the armour.
The Flak cannon as it is now is less effective than a pulse laser… Unless it is tied to a tractor beam - then it still shines.
While the Flak Cannon might have been overpowered, detonating only on impact is completely contrary to the concept/purpose of flak, as jupiter6 noted. Reducing the armor penetration (to around 3) would have been a much more interesting solution, as it would incentivize the use of armor on fighters (whereas armored fighters are generally a bad idea) and make the flak cannon less of an unstoppable fighter-annihilator while still serving a useful, unique, and logical role. This solution would have the added benefit of allowing the Parasites to utilize fighters within their own fleets without them being destroyed by friendly fire, so long as the fighters are armored.
Anyway, I was hoping to make these changes by modding the necessary files myself. Unfortunately, I don’t see anything in “cruiser_flakcannon” that appears to be responsible for the change. Does anyone know how I can mod the flak cannon back to how it was before (detonate at target location regardless of impact)?
The “how” of the Flak cannon works is all written in the GSB excecutable which can not be touched by modders.
Personally i like the new version. In the previous setup the AoE effect to occur on the intended target when the bullet hit, or when the bullet expired after it missed. This made traking speed redundant. Now the modders have more of a free hand with the current AoE setup. (again personal preference)
If you wish to have a flak cannon that always hits then my suggestion for what its worth is to increase the tracking speed to a point where it will always hit your intended target. A bit of trial and error is required but you should get something akin to what you want.
You can’t have a 100% accuracy weapon because of how the size affect it.
A fighter have a minimal 51% evade chance, and there is nothing you can do to remove that…
Ah nuts, Sorry your right, I cant believe I forgot about that minimal evade chance.
Hmm, maybe salvo = 2 ?, there is still a chance you miss, but there is also an equal chance of double damage
Ah, that’s interesting, I didn’t realize that’s how they worked. I agree that was an undesirable method, as it made tracking speed and the speed and size of the fighter all irrelevant. I don’t want flak cannons to be an auto-hit weapon. Ideally, I think the best solution would be for flak cannon shells to detonate when they reach the point in space at which the cannon was aimed when the shell was fired (thus making misses possible if the target fighter manages to fly outside the AoE radius before the flak shell detonates). But it sounds like these mechanics can’t be modded. Oh well. Thanks for the info!