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[David]

Blog post here.

[Megas]

Looks like Aurora will be useful for something besides being a high-tech Gryphon without the nanoforge.  I would like to see a high-tech energy version of Dominator or Eagle, and perhaps the changes to the Aurora might do it.

New weapon... built for so-called "support".  At least I can say it will be something new to try.

P.S.  Just noticed what appears to be a new destroyer-sized phase ship.

[SafariJohn]

An exciting and fun read, David!

I note that new ship seems to be firing while phased.

So everyone, how long are we betting before Alex creates a Ballistic/Missile type slot to round things out?

[Sy]

yay, finally a medium sized ion weapon! and a phase destroyer! \o/
and new phase mechanics to go along with it. and a new frigate. already can't wait to play around with all that. is it coming out soon™? ._.

[Cycerin]

the .2 releases continue to be the best ones

[Dri]

Very nice! The hype levels have just received a massive injection!

Tad bummed you didn't decide to go with the higher frames rotary barrel animations (the little details do matter!) but everything else is gravy! I see art for a new phase destroyer, The Ion Pulser (of course) and in the last screenshot it appears to be the new Ion Beam! :O

Also phase ships firing while phased? Wicked! >8D

[Tartiflette]

I was a bit skeptical when I saw the first three frames animation... But then I noticed the second one that is far far better indeed ^^

[Dri]

New weapon... built for so-called "support".  At least I can say it will be something new to try.

I think there are two new weapons now: the Ion Pulser is an energy version of the Assault Chaingun (so massive damage, massive flux cost) and then there is the new Ion Beam that can send EMP arcs through even shields provided the victim is high on flux. Ion Pulser isn't support but rather assault/strike due to its high burst.

[SpacePoliticianAndaZealot]

More Ion weaponry? I am very pleased <3

[Megas]

It does seem two new weapons: the burst cannon and the beam.

[HELMUT]

The new 6 AM blasters Aurora with high energy focus is going to be fun.

I hope you won't keep that idea of knocking down engines through shields, i'm afraid it'll feel quite unfair playing against this, especially when the player is outnumbered. A normal ion beam without that effect would still be pretty handy against the Hegemony's flying bricks which regularly lower their shields to tank with their armour. Not a really good flagship weapon, but pretty interesting for a wingman in its Vigilance, or maybe that Tri-Tach Brawler you talked about? However, it shares the graviton beam colour, which could make it confusing. Especially when one is harmless to armour and the other will kill engines.

The Pulser looks pretty good. I'm a bit worried it'll directly compete (and lose) to the heavy blaster for a place in the medium mount. The limited ammo clip, shorter range and (i assume) lower damage per shot doesn't seems like a good trade-off for the bonus EMP effect and burst dps.

Oh, and that destroyer...

[Dri]

@ HELMUT: Well, the Ion Beam can't do that unless the target is already high on flux. Just watch your flux level around a ship equipped with one; seems both fair and interesting to me! Don't wait until your at 75% flux before you attempt to disengage!

Another thing of note is that there are now fewer ships that can mount large missiles; obviously this calls for another new ship with at least 1 large missile mount! With this change only 4 in the game can and 2 of those are capitals so perhaps a destroyer built around a large missile mount? Call it the Cyclops!

[HELMUT]

Assuming you can disengage, yes, it's not that big deal. But with a lumbering Paragon that regularly stay at high flux, flickering its fortress shield to survive? No fun allowed, especially if the enemy stacked 2 or 3 ion beams at your shield.

And to answer your note about large missiles. The Gryphon is already a very mean beast with missile spam, an even cheaper large missile weapon platform would be unfair. Just imagine a dozen "Cyclops" with those monstrous Hurricane MIRVs wrecking anything that move...



It's the main reason there's no such ship in mods too (as far as i know), it's pretty much impossible to balance that.

[Alex]

The Ion Beam's chance to arc through shields is based on the hard flux level (with 0% chance up to 10% hard flux, going up to 90% chance at 100%), and it's very expensive both in terms of OP and flux. "Unfair to play against" is definitely a concern, but hopefully that'll be enough to balance it out; it's really not meant to be something you can easily jam onto direct-combat ship. That, and there's some counter-play available in terms of managing your hard flux. Could tweak the probabilities at some point, too.

The Pulser looks pretty good. I'm a bit worried it'll directly compete (and lose) to the heavy blaster for a place in the medium mount. The limited ammo clip, shorter range and (i assume) lower damage per shot doesn't seems like a good trade-off for the bonus EMP effect and burst dps.

Your guesses re: stats are correct. In addition, it's a bit less OP, a bit more flux-efficient, has a significantly lower sustained flux cost, and can really lock down a target if a full burst gets through shields. I think that should be enough to carve out a niche, but yeah, again it's something to watch out for.

[Achataeon]

Hmm. This is all well and good, but I'm still waiting for those patch notes to come out soon^TM. Then we'll REALLY have the hype.