combat balance pass:
Removed energy weapon bonus damage from high flux level
Increased damage values for non-beam energy weapons by roughly 25% to compensate
Beam weapons:
Standardized range to 1000 for most non-PD, from Tactical Laser to HIL
Increased range for PD Laser and LR PD Laser
Slightly reduced OP cost for all beam weapons
Tactical Laser, Graviton Beam, and Phase Beam are no longer interrupted by missiles (they damage missiles, but pass through them and can hit other things)
Greatly reduced fade in/out time for most beams
Missiles:
Salamander: both versions have unlimited ammo and require 20 seconds to reload
Hurricane MIRV: regenerates 1 ammo every 20 seconds
Pilum LRM: regenerates 1 ammo every 10 seconds
Ballistic weapons:
Now have unlimited ammo, except for Bomb Bay
Reduced OP cost of Light Dual MG
Ships
Destroyers and cruisers now have a peak effectiveness timer like frigates
Roughly 5-7 minutes for destroyers and 7-9 for cruisers
High-tech/faster ships have shorter timers
Sunder: increased top speed, acceleration, and flux capacity. Reduced shield efficiency.
Brawler/Shepherd: increased burn level by 1 (to 6)
Condor: reduced supplies/day by 1 (to 4)
I have to jump on the 'bring back ammo' band wagon, mostly because it offsets the power level of ballistics. IMO balistics should be super cheep in terms of flux generation, and SOME are, but I wish more were.. it would make Low Tier ships significantly more difficult to tangle with as opposed to - it fires twice, it's at 1/2 flux, I fire 1 reaper torp, it overloads, I empty missiles into its guts. GG.
Ballistics... wtf?I like that low tier ships generally have high armor values but crap shields, and wish you guys played that up more than 'energy weapons and missiles are the ***.' I dont believe nurfing-buffing energy weapons is a good idea IMO - the 'high flux = bonus damage' is really cool factor for energy weapons and it DOES (as has been said) push you to potentially over extend yourself, which is good for a high tech ship, they are crazy risk-reward ships and quite brutally effective, and this just makes it easier to play them, which shouldnt be the case.
I say this because it again creates a heavy disparity between high-tech and low-tech ships. High tech ships have awesome hardpoints, speed, flux cap, shields, OP, abilities, (consider, if you will, ANY of the high tech frigates, and the Medusa) where as the low tech ships, like the enforcer are very very type cast, neutered by a crap tonne of ballistic hardpoints, that, if you want semi sustainable direct fire, they are hideously inaccurate, low damage (ish), and MONSTEROUS on the flux generation - and its HARD flux!
Beam RangeI like the different ranges as they are on the various mentioned beams, it makes each feel unique and even if it doesnt make much sense (lazors in space and all) uniqueness in weapons is a GOOD THING - there is actually a reason to take the Graviton Beam over the Phase Beam aside from just the OP difference. this is GOOD!
[tl:dr]
THE POINT...Personally, I am all about leaving energy alone and just buffing ballistics by giving at least most of them positive dps:flux generation ratios and leaving ammo on them, or even buffing the ammo on them by +10-20%.
Missiles, these arent too bad, as they arent overly powerful, though the buff to the MIRV makes the Onslaught more disgusting.
more...
Buffalo..
..why?
I like the changes to destroyers and cruisers loosing combat efficiency, the downside is it hurts destroyers more, and they arent a super-powerful ship niche, at least tech level matters, as the ultra low-tier Buffalo missile support destroyer is in NO way comparable to any other destroyer. changing its ability from 'flares' (honestly, the last thing that is gonna kill it is missiles) to 'fast missile racks,' 'burn drive,' or even 'point defense drones' would be a gigantic step up for a ship who's only reason to be played, EVER, over ANY frigate, was its immunity to CR degradation.
Aurora..
is too good. especially late. it solo's fleets. Onslaught fleets..
The beam change is both good and bad for it, good in that all those tactical lasers I like to use just got a +400range buff and will hit the same stuff as the Phase Beams, bad in that those very very few times when I have a gigantic buildup of flux, they dont do a lot more damage when compounded with its 'high energy focus' ability (hint: only happens against Onslaughts, and usually doesnt matter).
-Something in terms of its maneuverability, speed, or durability (shield) should probably change.
-Aside, but related: increasing the reload time of ALL Torpedoes as a trade-off to the colossal damage bonus they get from the lv10 buff in the 'Missile Specialization' skill tree.
ALL Cloaking Ships..
more flux generation when activating cloak, or more flux generation while cloaked, or slower. they are death to anything that isnt tweaked to crap, simply due to the twitch factor of the AI.