That and IDF are pretty OP, I took down a damaged Apocalypse just using the Jerusalem's Exorcist's and Jericho launcher. Took a fair while but it was VERY clear - the shield and flux dissipation handled everything it threw at me, I finished up with a good 99% on my hull C:
Yes, balance is still a little problem.
If you are Hierarchy it will be balanced out by AI stupidity:
AI pilots will, for some reason, sometimes get into your range and die horribly even though they easily outrange, outspeed, outmanuever and outlast you (
Shields are infinite, armor isn't, their ammunition is infinite even for rockets, Hierarchy ammunition is not, also the long-range artillery cannons can never get through shields).
However, if you play the IDF you can completely abuse the ridiculous speed and agility of all their ships (
Their huge Capital Ship has a higher combat speed than the Hierarchy Destroyer), as well as the long range of all of their weapons and the infinite HighExplosive missiles and easily defeat any Hierarchy fleet of equal strength and even some way stronger fleets.
So, while the Hierarchy ships will always win a straight-up fight against IDF ships (
and only thanks to the newly introduced beam weapon, they had no chance without that), such a straight-up fight rarely happens and Hierarchy ships are usually taken apart by an infinite stream of missiles or run out of ammunition.
Also IDF ships can mix in Hierarchy weapons (
which cost less OP and 0 flux/second) into their builds to allow them to perma-fire all their weapons without danger of overloading, but Hierarchy cannot make use of IDF weaponry.
Also what will happen if we see TimCorp/Scourge/ISA ships with 0-flux Hierarchy weaponry or infinite-ammo missile launchers?HOWEVER - we have to keep in mind that it will not remain like this (with only Hierarchy and IDF) and that a bunch of other factions will join in, and that development time should not be wasted on balancing now because this two-faction-business is only a temporary state and everything has to be rebalanced completely anyway once all the factions are put in.
Anyway, WarStalkeR should not be too concerned about balance for now as balance right now with these two factions is not as important as getting all the factions in (and then balancing those).
Oh, and btw:
May I suggest adding in 1 extra frigate and destroyer for both Hierarchy and IDF at some point somewhere down the road?
It feels weird that they have diversity in large ships, but not in small ones.
