Just wanted to drop in and say that this is probably the coolest mod that has come out in a long time. I've been playing since the first mods were released, and I really love that you've made ships that are truly unique. Strange and perhaps unrealistic they may be, the ascetic and scripted sections are show stoppers. I've been hoping for something like the Quetzelcoatl a long time, and its great to see it alive and well. I actually think the Basilisk might actually be my favorite though, the tail is simple but perfect.
I really appreciate it
And even more so I appreciate this criticism. It's super valuable to get someone else's perspective on this stuff and you're the first to give a comprehensive balance check and breakdown. So, kudos! Now let's dive in...
I haven't extensively tested everything very well, but there's a few things I'd like to bring up. The Snaggletooth and the Queen feel like they could use a bit of help. They're both extremely fragile, and don't really have enough to justify it imo. The queen in particular has devastatingly low hull, which I'm sure is the intention, but I think it probably needs nearly 360 shields that are maybe a bit tougher to do with that. Also I think the nest bomb could do with regenerating some ammo very slowly as a reward for actually keeping the Queen alive that long. I think the Snaggletooth's missiles could do a bit more damage or reload a bit faster as well.
You're clearly right about the Queen - in the past patch, I removed it as a starting option, and lowered its cost, both because I saw it underperform. But there's still something missing and I'm not satisfied with it. I think your ideas are great, particularly a 360 shield, with some more flux capacity to give it a bit of play in hairy situations. Just enough for a human or AI to react, cause right now it gets snuffed out from full hull in a split second with no leeway. And the nest bomb being a generative-over-time effect is a cool concept; a design problem I've been having with the Queen (as a player vessel in partic.) is it's too one-note. It's not rewarding to play. But making the bomb slowly build up additional drones until you release it, and then allow you to start growing more, would add a whole new layer of play and is thematic to boot. So, I will probably do both those things
The Snaggletooth. Truth be told, the ship is
supposed to be weak - kind of a hound-plus in a way. A fodder ship. But what you're saying rings true as well. I've been underwhelmed by the Carcharos in general, both on the Snag and in weapon form. So I will probably kick it up to 100 kinetic per missile or something. And then perhaps I can also lower the Snag's DP cost or increase its logistics stats in some way. The ship was on the short list for a graphical rework anyway.
The Basilisk tail impacts just a bit too hard, as lighter ships totally spin out of the control when hit, and only the heaviest of cruisers can typically maintain their position vaguely, if its only a glancing blow. Its easily able to spin an Onslaught several times off one hit. I've thought about this a lot, and I'm not sure how much of it is more about poor thruster control on ships rather than mass of the Basilisk, as it seems like faster cruisers fare better than capitals. That being said, its far too easy to get a ship spinning and keep it spinning forever. I think it should be somewhere in the range of a good hit knocking lighter cruisers 180 or more degrees around, heavier not quite as much, and knocking capitals face away from you. It would still be an amazing defensive tool for front loaded ships, but not comical like it is now.
I'll see what I can do, there are a lot of knobs to play with. I'm glad you identified this as a problem, my initial worry was that the tail strike would be too anemic given the risk involved in landing it. But maybe I overbalanced in the other direction.
Also, the Basilisk AI tends to be unwilling to close in and USE the tail in most cases, preferring to launch the barbs for harassment and stay at a distance. Maybe if the barbs could be individually made into a strike weapon, so the AI would use the tail but HOLD the barbs until an opportune moment. I know a lot of that is extremely finicky, and I'm sure doing much about it beyond fiddling with numbers would be very difficult, but keep up the good work.
I'm in the process of improving the AI of all the melee ships. The Basilisk was less of a concern than the Monster for example, because it did have a good ranged game too, but it's true the AI doesn't bring it near its potential. Right now the spikes are on a very simple "fire if you got em" trigger which can definitely be more sophisticated. I'll put this one on the list for future development.
The Quetzalcoatl also tends to go one of two ways. Either the head gets quickly sniped and it dies fruitlessly, or it uses the ship system to devastating effect, mostly ending fights before they start. The ship system is a serious problem I think. Harpoons alone are able to overload the shields of most capitals, and this is not counting the sabots that are also in most loadouts. If the sabots land first, its usually an instakill. What I personally would really like to see is the head being much tougher, and the ship overall doing much less damage, or at least less burst. Typically its very hard to actually level its firepower against a single target because of the rapid movement, but that sort of fits into its role I think. Maybe the system could fire only a single missile from each rack (still for free) but keep a reasonably low cooldown. Part of me worries even that might still be too much, but its really hard to say without more testing. That aside, I think the segments are good. they tend to stay alive with the tightly packed narrow shields taking most of the damage, which I like. I would really like to see maybe an alternate version that relies only on weapons rather than missiles, maybe another custom bounty?
I'll admit, the system was a lazy solution to begin with. I already toned it down a couple updates ago, but what I really need is a new, more interesting system, ideally, one that plays with the unique movement of the Quetz. So I probably won't mess with the system too much until I can come up with a replacement altogether, but it is within my notice for sure.
The reason for so many missiles is the difficulty of aiming anything from its body that doesn't have an obscenely big firing arc. And there is only so much room on each segment to put wide-angle turrets; hardpoints are easier to squeeze in. But maybe I could make an exception to the stiff hardpoint convention. Swiveling hardpoints/side-mounted turrets? Why not? Would it even solve the problem? I'll consider & test some stuff
And the head - too weak? I can certainly bulk it up a bit. (Honestly though, in all my testing it was the second "neck" segment and not the head that got sniped first most times. With the exception being vs Paragons and other heavy beam play.)
For these reasons, Terra also tends to completely wreck face in AI vs AI fleets. I THINK this is mostly the aforementioned missile storm, but the AI doesn't know what to do with Basilisks very well either. This is a minor complaint, I think its more of a symptom than a problem.
In your opinion, is the missile storm oppressive enough in these situations to warrant a stopgap measure? I play on very small battle sizes for lack of hardware, so you must know more about large-scale fleet vs fleet than I do.
Lastly, this is seriously into the nitpicky area, but I think the front mount on the Quetzalcoatl should be concealed, or maybe back into the head some so it can have a meaner looking nose. Seeing the missile hardpoint is a huge let down any time its not covered by a weapon, especially compared to the tail segment which is great.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. is the hardpoint too far forward? Is the metal part too wide that it doesn't get covered up by the sprite?
That all probably looks more negative than I intend it too, so I want to reiterate that I love this mod, and I wish there were more like it. Maybe one day you could have actual space monsters to beat the crap out of with Monsters and Basilisks. Either way, I eagerly await any updates you make!
I want to reiterate how great it is to hear this stuff! Thanks again