Is the AI even using the extra OP? I don't know whether AI variants will fill up OP or if its all just wasted.
Not yet; rebal on that has to await a general feeling that the balance is reasonable. That said, some of the AI ships in high-end Bounties probably aren't actually "fair" in any real sense, plus they're being flown by maxed-skills Captains.
The starter wolf is still powerful (mostly the phase lance and the fact that your fighting (D) ships), but has been reigned in by the beam range changes. The only thing is that Advanced Optics doesn't feel worth it with a 100 flat range increase. Maybe change it back to 200 and make beams generate more flux?
I'm actually looking at another way to equalize it, by making ITU / DTC apply to Beam ranges. This appears to work pretty well, but the issue is what it's doing to Destroyer / Frigate range bands; right now, DTC means 35/50% more range for the biggest ships; it might be healthier if ITU gives a flat 25% and DTC gives only 30/35%, giving Cruisers and capital ships a small, but not overwhelming, range advantage, especially as they're mounting more Medium / Large weapons that really push it out. I'm still testing these ideas, but it appears to me that this keeps Beams in the game as meaningful players. Advanced Optics might come down in OP cost a little, or Beam efficiency might go up a little, too; those ideas are on the table. I'm finding Beams are, at the high end, playing an important, but not dominant, role with this change thus far; they're support and they can kill, but they aren't primary assault, but are pressure weapons that can put a foe in a position where they have to drop shields to free up enough Flux to survive missile strikes, which is an interesting dynamic. Anyhow, not done evaluating that yet.
This was played with version 1.2a so some of this may not be relevant.
Yeah, I nerfed the Annihilators, changed the Harpoon mechanics and a bunch of other nerf / buff in Alpha 3; I think that fixed a lot of the worst suck there. That said, I don't think it's a done deal; if Annihilators still need to be peeled back, I'm open to it; I just think that it's much closer to reasonable atm- missiles feel like they're dangerous, but not overwhelming, and Harpoons are definitely in the mix.
Despite all this, I recommend people try out the mod! Diverse feedback will only make it better.
Agreed, that's the whole point
One thing with the missile changes in this version, is that it makes playing with a non-phase ship seem impossible. Enemies would release their harpoons as soon as they were in range / the cooldown was up. This was especially noticeable in larger bounties, where cruisers could have 3 harpoon pods, and there could be multiple destroyers with harpoon racks.
Well, most of the changes Alex has been making are aimed, to some degree, at pushing people out of soloing whole fleets; I'm generally running with an early-game fleet of 2-3 Frigates and a Destroyer, then I transitioned to Destroyers with a Cruiser and a couple of Frigates to cap points; now I'm running a battleship with a Cruiser escort.
One thing that is a little messed up, from where I sit, is how much you have to give up, in terms of Logistics costs, to get a single battleship with a single escort that matters. Even though battleships are all quite awesome, I think Thaago's points about relative costs are important there, in terms of final adjustments. For example, I can look hard at the relative efficiency / DPS of Large weapons, where they're primarily operating in ranges smaller vessels can't touch, but are Battleships a buy, vs. just smacking out tons of missiles from a Frigate swarm? I don't have a firm answer on that atm.
Anyhow, I'll go look at a new start and make sure it's still feeling reasonable.
I think it'll work, so long as you aren't biting off more than you can chew; the Wolf, in human hands, ought to be able to take on at least two-three AI Frigates (more, if they're crap, like (D) Hounds, etc.) without much trouble. The issue here may be largely that the so-called "easy" start is actually not working terribly well right now; that is a fixable issue, though. I've been thinking about that but I want to solve the core issues first.
I'm pretty much at the late midgame stage in my current playthrough, so I've seen everything up to AI Onslaughts with max buffs; things like the rocket launchers don't look terribly scary then, compared to the other scary things. One thing that definitely occurs to me over and over again with the current changes, though, is that I really miss the Hephag from Vacuum, where it was a high-end Dual Flak, rather than being just another HE gun that has always seemed a bit lost in the shuffle. I don't think changing its role that dramatically would be within the goals of this project, though.
