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Author Topic: SO nerf/rebalance  (Read 15009 times)

Anvel

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #45 on: April 04, 2021, 01:41:47 PM »

Make it as it should be, a junk modification, remove speed bonus from it, reduce max combat time -50%, nerf flux regen to +50%, reduce install cost, give it malfunction chance on high flux level.
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Hiruma Kai

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #46 on: April 04, 2021, 01:59:11 PM »

Stripping shields with story point S-mod arguably might be a buff to SO Dominators to be honest.  But it's also off in left field.  This particular mod, made permanent, removes shields, even though it has nothing to do with shields on the face of it?

A lot of these proposed changes strike me as non-intuitive, or kicking the payment down the road.  If the payment is kicked down the road, then there will be an incentive to pay now in story points for short lived power, at expense later.  If it is just extra D-mods, some player late game is just going to spend the X00,000 credits every time they come back to base simply because they can.  You don't need more than 1 SO Aurora for a player.  Or you could spend 3 story point every 3 end game fights.  Or if the payment is only when you "lose", that's not really a payment.  More power now means you are less likely to lose in the first place.

If the effect is too strong, I would either make it balanced and fair immediately upon choosing, or just say no.  Immediately adding a disadvantage, like ill-advised is closer to balancing - but, if the intent is to make it not worth it, that means using the story point for safety overrides is a potential trap.  An option you are intended not to pick but could still do so out of ignorance.

The problem is, it looks like a powerful option on the surface.  As a new player is likely to see the option as being good (most OP hull mod cost, SO makes the ship clearly stronger when tested, why wouldn't I want this?), and having no experience with the negatives.  You literally can do this with your very first story point if you want on your first wolf.  If you've just started the game, do you know what a malfunction is, or how bad ill-advised modifications actually makes your ship in combat?.

The pop-up warning is going to have to be extremely strong.  Like, "If you do this, your ship will be completely ruined and most likely will want to ditch it because this side effect is not intended to be balanced but instead make you not pick this option." strong.   I feel it has to make the point the disadvantage is not fair.  It should be absolutely clear to someone who has been playing for 5 minutes, since that's when some will encounter the option.
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intrinsic_parity

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #47 on: April 04, 2021, 02:14:24 PM »

I really feel like just tuning the stats of the SO hullmod could put it in a decent place without all these crazy reworks. 150% or 175% dissipation instead of 200% would already be a big step in the right direction IMO.
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Sly

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #48 on: April 04, 2021, 03:52:02 PM »

I'm of the same mind as intrinsic, though in my case I like the flux dissipation bonus. The level of firepower you can square up with at 200% is worth the hit to shields, I think. At 150% large weapons can only alpha for a longer period, instead of sustain fire.

High tech hardly needs SO as it is, being either naturally fast or featuring extreme burst mobility. Wolves/Medusas can dart in and out, Tempests don't even *need* SO, and Aurora balance could benefit from being significantly squishier on SO.

Early game you'd at least need to bob and weave. Late, you'd be able to sustain awesome firepower at a large increased risk.

As it stands, a single Wolf with a Pulse Laser and Ion cannon on SO can *easily* solo a Mule and accompanying escort, untouched. It probably still could with how flighty it is, but at least you'd be balancing on a razor's edge, which seems to me is the whole point.
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Volfgarix

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #49 on: April 05, 2021, 05:08:50 AM »

Adding Ill-Advised Modifications to SO hullmod would be a terrible idea, it practically makes the ship unusable UNLESS you nerf the penalty (like shorter malfunction time). I would argue that Mudskipper mk.2 could be actually useful without it (glass cannons, anyone?), but restoration is not worth it. It used to be common sense to restore Pather SO ships before using them because otherwise it broke down too much.
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Megas

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #50 on: April 05, 2021, 05:16:37 AM »

Critical malfunctions that cause damage and disable weapons for the rest of the fight is what kills ships with Ill-Advised Modifications.  Mudskipper is exempt since critical malfunctions caused by Ill-Advised Modifications do not apply to the last weapon.  However, the game does not tell you that.  If player sees one weapon disabled early for the rest of the fight, he will assume it will apply to all of them sooner or later.
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Anvel

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #51 on: April 05, 2021, 05:36:26 AM »

Critical malfunctions that cause damage and disable weapons for the rest of the fight is what kills ships with Ill-Advised Modifications.  Mudskipper is exempt since critical malfunctions caused by Ill-Advised Modifications do not apply to the last weapon.  However, the game does not tell you that.  If player sees one weapon disabled early for the rest of the fight, he will assume it will apply to all of them sooner or later.

Not saying critical, let some random system become temporarily disabled (as overloaded) if your flux is near 90-99%
« Last Edit: April 05, 2021, 06:01:47 AM by Anvel »
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WeiTuLo

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #52 on: April 05, 2021, 09:31:43 AM »

Perhaps just nerf it for cruisers and above? The assault chaingun nerf and various enemy buffs have increased time to kill by a good amount already.
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bobucles

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #53 on: April 05, 2021, 09:51:54 AM »

SO ships bleed CR at the same rate as ordinary ships. What if the CR decay and low CR penalties were more severe? For example, a ship could be considered in danger of malfunctions at 50% CR. The ship is pushing itself over tolerances, so minor defects will hit sooner and more severely.  The CR related global penalties(damage/shields) could also be more severe, for example reducing damage by 25% or more at low levels.

I suppose a lot of the CR stuff can be absorbed into a single statistic. Reduce the ship's maximum CR by 20-30% (or 0.5x even), creating a normal limit of 40-50% and eliminating the possibility of CR global buffs. The SO ship will burn out more quickly, it'll struggle against strategic map hazards, and it limits strategies which rely on rapid SO redeployment.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2021, 10:18:54 AM by bobucles »
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SCC

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #54 on: April 05, 2021, 12:54:09 PM »

I feel that instead of all these charades, SO just straight up shouldn't be possible to build in.

Dex

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #55 on: April 05, 2021, 12:56:58 PM »

I feel that instead of all these charades, SO just straight up shouldn't be possible to build in.

...... come on guys, someone already suggested that... right? Yeah.....?

No.....?

Well now i feel dumb.

Seconded.
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Dread Pirate Robots

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #56 on: April 05, 2021, 01:11:56 PM »

I feel that instead of all these charades, SO just straight up shouldn't be possible to build in.

I agree, why put so much effort into making a choice so annoying that players "decide" not to take it? If it's too powerful, then just don't let the player use it, or make it less powerful. 

I'm also not necessarily convinced that it is too powerful? My experience with SO this patch has been more or less the same as previous patches, I used SO on my flagship in the early game, and stopped using it in the later game when fights started taking long enough that PPT issues become annoying, and when long ranged attacks from multiple enemies becomes a hassle to deal with (I still keep my SO ship around for smaller fights though!). The biggest difference is it's just nice to be able to actually have some decisions to make for a SO build instead of barely being able to fit weapons and vents, it didn't actually have a huge effect on me killing stuff.

Now that said, I haven't tried making a whole fleet of SO ships, which may be overtuned, but isn't that sort of balanced out by the huge story point cost? You could make that even less viable by, for example, just making SO take 2 story points to build in.
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Wyvern

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #57 on: April 05, 2021, 01:22:42 PM »

Now that said, I haven't tried making a whole fleet of SO ships, which may be overtuned, but isn't that sort of balanced out by the huge story point cost? You could make that even less viable by, for example, just making SO take 2 story points to build in.
Now that seems reasonable. We've got, on one side, story points for low-OP-cost mods granting bonus XP; it makes sense that, if you push past mods expensive enough to grant no bonus XP, you start getting into mods that cost more than one story point.

That said, I'd also prefer a "You can't integrate SO" over a "You can integrate SO but actually it's a bad idea because <unique mechanics>."
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Dex

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #58 on: April 05, 2021, 01:26:43 PM »

Its been suggested before, i even said something similar (make SO occupy more than 1 S-mod slot, maybe all three which would require the necessary skill to do so), but the problem with making SO cost more story points is that it doesnt actually change how OP it is.
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Linnis

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Re: SO nerf/rebalance
« Reply #59 on: April 05, 2021, 02:25:46 PM »

Lets have an lore-sensible nerf.

How about make it so every time you deploy an SO ship, there is a chance that it will get a D-Mod post battle. So the option is there, of powering through early game, but in turn it delays mid game because it will eat through ships that the player will have to replace.
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