I like the idea of faction relationships, though I would suggest the possibility to actually go beyond vengeful. You can in fact go further - suppressed relationship. That is you have brought down such wrath, destroyed all of their protection fleets, defence fleets, patrol fleets, attack fleets - etc. and they're all dead - then you enter a status of having 'suppressed' the faction to the point where they will trade with you if you have a significant and overwhelming fleet (or possibly performed a base station attack).
While the faction is suppressed they will sell you everything they have at cost price, but their economy will also be in ruin. The 'suppressed' status has a limited time span like an event, and when the event is over all of their fleets will respawn and your status will be back to 'vengeful' until you suppress them again.
While a faction is suppressed bounty hunter fleets are very likely to come after you, paid for by the suppressed faction. This makes suppressing a faction possible - but very expensive and impossible to maintain.
Equally speaking, one faction can suppress another, but there may be an open bounty to destroy the oppressing fleets - which is where you come in. Destroying an oppressing fleet raises would raise your status with the faction significantly.
Anyway...just one suggestion.
Hmm. I think that type of thing might fit in better along with more dedicated mechanics for, well, that type of thing. This feels a little tacked on, since your relationship level doesn't necessarily reflect how "beaten down" the faction is.
I know you recognized missile pods are a bit "insane" a while back, Alex, but I just thought I'd mention that a single volley of harpoons can do 3000 damage. If you wanna nullify their massive alpha potential, maybe they could fire their missiles very slowly, as in one missile launched every 3/4 a second?
Other than that, that's a might fine patch-notes to go along with my chicken dinner. The sweetest dessert, hands down.
Ah, I just meant the Annihilator Pod, with its flux-free continuous stream of HE pressure. The harpoons, well, their point
is an alpha strike! Not to say that they're, ah, perfectly balanced, but at least their presence is something you're forced to respect. The Venture has some bite now.
Removed speed penalty after winning battle
Wasn't the point of the penalty so that you can't jump a small fleet next to a big one, pummel it, then get away scot-free?
Yes, it was. After some playtesting, I've made the executive decision that - at least for the time being - I'm ok with that being something you can do, as long as that mechanic is gone. It's an unfortunate combination of "initially unclear", "aggravating", and "likely to get you killed".
Unstable injector: removed burn level bonus
Y u make Unstable Injector useless
I think it needs to have a lower OP cost now (especially if it still has the quad engine damage effect).
Still useful in my experience so far. With the ship AI improvements, slapping it on allied ships doesn't seem suicidal anymore, either - it actually lets them do a better job of managing their fights and not getting hit in the first place.
Ox-class tug: now limited to a maximum of one per ship
Hmm, Augmented Engines are probably mandatory for capitals now (well I always felt they already were...)
Could be. Capital ships are going to be a bit of "solution without a problem" until there are proper stationary targets. On the other hand, trade fleets around planes *are* that, and they don't tend to run nearly as much while they're loading/unloading.
Oh God, 0.65 is gonna be known as "Revenge of the Missiles" now isn't it? (and now everyone is going to be absolutely terrified of Buffalo Mk.IIs )
Is low-level PD still viable? I'm thinking in particular of (LR) PD Laser and (Dual) Light Machine Gun here.
Muahahahha! I can see it now: "Revenge of the Space Pinatas". Especially with Lasher/Wolf having frontal shields now *and* the Salamander getting a huge buff.
It depends on what you mean by viable. Is it going to shoot down everything reliably? No. But if it stops even half the incoming missiles, that's already something, and for many ships, you couldn't really use those slots for meaningful offense due to flux issues, anyway. As far as better PD, Flak is still incredibly reliable.
Not to say that the various PD weapons might not need some tweaks; this is a pretty big balance change.
Hmm, I don't see the "doubled crew supply usage" change in there, did you decide not to implement it?
Sharp eye
Yeah, at least for the moment.