I've been using this for the past week, and I consider it a new staple. I think it's pretty balanced- I find that I can still do a little more with a Doom than I can with a capital of higher DP cost, but it takes investment and some thought. Seems about right. Also, your videos were interesting to watch, so thanks for that.
However, I've been wondering if you'd be willing to release your source code so we can putz around with range values ourselves. I've gone from hesitant about the range at first sight, to accepting once I actually played it, to a little chafed by it after a while. I want to stress that this is strictly a comfort and gameplay flow issue; it doesn't need to be any better from a balance perspective. My points of contention are:
- with the Doom needing to be in normal weapons range to use its mines, I often find them redundant. The way you use it in your video on overloaded targets with a high-alpha AMB loadout looks great, but when I'm doing the same, it seems just as effective to pop into phase to keep flux down and quickly get a second salvo off, rather than spend that flux on mines that might get shot down or evaded. Using them to exploit AI shield management is still alive and well, but at close range and especially with allied support, I'd often rather force an overload on the shield than bypass it. I feel like giving some range back would make the mines more distinct as a weapon, at the cost of being objectively overpowered and exploitable.
- friendly AI Dooms seem hardest hit by the change, because they don't know how to manage the AoE, or their own flux. Doom fleets have always been kinda no-chill towards friendly frigates, but now they seem to be cracking their own armor a lot more. I don't notice it much on enemy Dooms, since they have a shorter lifespan in the first place, and don't have to worry about post-battle repairs. It makes all-phase or majority-phase fleets kind of a meme, I think. And maybe they should be, but eh, I'd like to have it as a viable option.
So, I'd like the option to have a just little cheese, as a treat. But I don't want to go back to Dooms dropping mines from phase, which I think is the most important balance change here, for both enemies and the player. Enemy Dooms being able to flee in phase while insta-dropping whole stacks of mines on the frigates fast enough to pursue them is insane, and so is the player being able to deploy artillery from complete safety.