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[Zaizai]

About the storm needler, how about making it deal frag damage instead, and extending the range & reducing the flux?  it's niche could be a flux efficient way for capitals to shred hulls of ships with their armor already stripped down, or even as support role for smaller ships.  Kinda like a heavier thumper that's actually good and doesn't need to reload and can put some pressure on the enemies.

Complete trash, a 28 OP frag is.

 
Then reduce the OP as well :p, I feel like there are enough anti shield weapons, and a low flux cost frag weapon there to use on exposed hull or frigates, or to put pressure, is something that we kinda need. 
Also just because it's frag, doesn't mean it has to be ***, higher caliber and with the fast firing speed, means that it could shred smaller targets and seriously pressure the shields of bigger ships, while still having other anti shield weapons being better in pure anti shield situations

[Cyan Leader]

I think there are ways to make the Storm Needler more appealing without completely changing the weapon.

[Grievous69]

There's a dedicated thread for Storm Needler so we don't suffocate this thread with all the ideas and thoughts: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=19904.0

[Retry]

If you removed the anti-shield role from the Storm Needler, we'd have exactly one large ballistic anti-shield weapon (Mk.IX).  It'd also bug me to no end if one of the Needler variants was a frag weapon while the rest were kinetics, so if it's absolutely necessary to have a large frag gun in the roster I'd rather it be something entirely new.

[Megas]

If you removed the anti-shield role from the Storm Needler, we'd have exactly one large ballistic anti-shield weapon (Mk.IX).  It'd also bug me to no end if one of the Needler variants was a frag weapon while the rest were kinetics, so if it's absolutely necessary to have a large frag gun in the roster I'd rather it be something entirely new.

Also Mjolnir.  Maybe not as dedicated, but it can work as anti-...everything if paired with more anti-shield weapons like Mark IX and/or Heavy AC/Needler.

Frag weapon can work if the damage is overwhelming like Locusts are.  I agree that the idea is better on a new large weapon.

[Alex]

Not sure what you mean.

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=19634.msg304978#msg304978
[/quote]

It's in the notes!

I would go the opposite direction and just make it a buckshot/scatter type weapon using a script; then it could fire bursts of scattering flechette clouds relatively rapidly, making it absolutely devastating to shields and a little better at sandblasting bare hull or weak armor, but useless for overloading or damaging armor.

That could work, yeah. It also sounds like a bigger version of the other two needlers. And, I mean, some weapon lines are like that! But if possible I prefer to mix it up so that there aren't too many things that are just "X but bigger". Also: for a re-work at this point to be viable, the current sprite and sfx would need to "work" with it, too; imo the current sprite in particular feels like a fairly accurate weapon...

"onExplosionEffect":"com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.combat.RiftLanceMineExplosion"
Added "onFireEffect" to projectile and missile specs; see OnFireEffectPlugin

So I could make a class implement both onFireEffect and onHitEffect right?
And in the project spec, I could just duplicate the class path like

Code

"onHitEffect":"data.scripts.xxxxWeaponPlugin",
"onFireEffect":"data.scripts.xxxxWeaponPlugin"

Yes, that's exactly right. In fact some of the new vanilla weapons use this approach, too.

Assault Chaingun: reduced damage/shot to 75 (was: 90)

Why?
Its short ranged and high flux demanded weapon with not that good flux exchange ratio?
Why its nerfed and why so much?

Because it was really, really, really OP It's still pretty great where it's at now.

Was Onslaught really underperforming that much? The amount of buffs it receives seems a bit absurd.

I feel like the buffs it got are fairly modest. Basically boils down to a bit more OP and a more usable built-in weapon. (Along with an arc reduction, which is neither nerf nor buff, really.)

I'm curious about this, will there be a setting to move slowly automatically when entering a dangerous area? Autopilot will happily fly you right down the asteroid field if that's the shortest path...

No, but you can hold S without cancelling a laid-in course. I don't like calling that feature "autopilot" (lost cause, probably) because that implies a level of intelligence beyond "go in a straight line towards destination", which is all it's intended to be.

About the Hyperion: 
I really want to like this ship, and I'm fine with a capital size supply cost, however unless the peak active performance timer gets on the same level as bigger ships, I don't see myself using it as a flagship, even though I really want to...and since it's pretty rare or with limited ship numbers, having a spare one is unreasonable. 
flagships should only get some minor debuff to speed or something else when out of time imho, having a cool little ship that you like and knowing that you can only use it for a very limited time is not fun imho 
Heck maybe even an ability that doubles or triples the minimum crew but makes it so you could keep using the ship past the peak performance timer would be good, just make it so it increases the cooldown on phase and teleporting ships, lowers the speed etc, so you could keep using the same flagship, but at a lower performance...feels kinda weird for a commander to abandon its flagship mid fight and go pilot another ship lol, the flagship should be something that's always there as a morale booster for the army imho, something that costs more in supply, but has to keep on fighting, not the first one to retreat.

I get where you're coming from - it can feel more... comfortable, maybe is the word? to know that your flagship will never "go bad". But that's just fundamentally not how the game works. That said, you can increase frigate PPT by 4+ minutes if you stack everything, so it you'll have considerably more options there than in the current release.

On a second note, does this update mean the release is imminent? or do you expect to make more patch notes updates before that? either way good job man, I can't wait to get my hands on the steamy new version

I wouldn't expect any substantial patch notes prior to the release A few items, sure, but nothing major.

[Amoebka]

When talking about Onslaught I meant indirect buffs as well. Devastator and Mark 9 are both buffed, heavy armor hullmod is buffed, shield removal hullmod is added, that kind of stuff.

Then again, looking at those new phase AI gifs, I don't want to even try anything without 360 shields. 

[Alex]

Ah, gotcha. I think both of those needed the buffs, but that's a fair point; we'll see how it all combines with the Onslaught.

[huhn]

just to be sure i'm pretty alone with that the SN it is just fine as it is.

very high DPS highest tied with plasma cannon.
comparable short range.
good flux efficiency better than Mjolnir pretty much free compared to the PC.
comparable low range.

the kinetic part is a bonus for it thanks to the high fire rate armour is not that big of a deal.
high flux cost sorry i don't see it the stats say something different.
just to be absolutely clear here this thing does more dmg than two mark IX(i'm taking live numbers here) for less flux.
that leaves the totally justified OP cost combined with the lowest range of large kinetics.
the SN is also relative useful as a PD.
i really like that it is so unique.

if you can get in range this is all you need to kill the target.
i would argue that it is way to strong against stations too.

[Concrete]

I guess it remains to be seen what is on offer with the new skills but I felt that player Onslaught only reached critical mass of absurdity with the Impact Mitigation skills. So maybe if whatever armor specific bonuses aren't as good then Onslaught/Heavy Armor isn't either? Although I guess it could be better. Should be fun either way. I also generally like lowering the flux cost on TPCs though for AI pilots. Like all low-tech boys it does feel like it isn't too hard to flux bully them. Onslaught is a treat in player hands but it would be nice to be a little bit more scared of facing them.

On the topic of the Storm Needler it always stood out to me that it has a different individual shot value than the other two needlers despite the projectile looking about the same and sitting in around the same range category. Maybe dropping that back in line for consistency, giving it a limited burst as with its smaller cousins but then just making it the mother of all bursts might work out. Celebrate the excesses of high rate of fire above all else.
I empathize with the desire to not just make every weapon size step bigger and adding in no additional nuance, but it is a fairly fun platform to just make exponentially bigger. And at the moment it sorta just feels like it's a longer range kinetic version of the Assault Chaingun, so I feel its individuality isn't being achieved right now either. I do like the thing a lot though and hope it ends up in a nice place.

Thanks for the extra weapon groups by the way! Was rubbing up against 5 a bit too uncomfortably in some mod ship setups.

[Megas]

Thanks for the extra weapon groups by the way! Was rubbing up against 5 a bit too uncomfortably in some mod ship setups.

Even five was too few for some standard ships, namely Onslaught and Apogee.

In case of Onslaught, I need one group per TPC, to prevent AI from killing itself by wasting TPC shots.  Then I have assault weapons, missiles, and PD.  Three groups remaining after TPCs is not really enough for Onslaught.

[Goumindong]

Ah, gotcha. I think both of those needed the buffs, but that's a fair point; we'll see how it all combines with the Onslaught.

I wouldn't worry about those too much. Neither the devastator or Mark IX are that good on an onslaught. It has too many medium slots for it to need KN in its large and too many small to need PD in its large either. The extra armor could be an issue but a full armor'd up Onslaught isn't going to have much of an effect on heavy armor anyway since the thing that matters for it is mainly whether or not you get hit with a reaper than whether or not you get chipped to death. And no amount of HA buff is going to make your armor survive a reaper.

[Histidine]

Moddable CreateFleetPlugin? That's something I have a few ideas for messing with.
Does it use a PluginPick, or does only one mod get to modify it at a time?

Improved variety of weapons available for AI faction fleets

    Not changing the blueprints a faction has, rather individual ships have better access to all that the faction theoretically has available

Great! Hopefully no more NPC ships with... we'll call it badly misconfigured armament.

VisualPanelAPI.showCustomPanel() now returns a CustomPanelAPI

Didn't say it at the time, but thanks for this!

[SonnaBanana]

How well does AI perform on a ship with shield shunt?

[Warnoise]

When talking about Onslaught I meant indirect buffs as well. Devastator and Mark 9 are both buffed, heavy armor hullmod is buffed, shield removal hullmod is added, that kind of stuff.

Then again, looking at those new phase AI gifs, I don't want to even try anything without 360 shields. 

Shield removal hullmods in general should not cost op. Removing shield is a huge debuff already that forces the player to use tons of expensive hullmods.