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[Amoebka]

Wouldn't really change much. Harbinger, Doom and Ziggurat are all oppressive precisely because they deny the ability to retaliate even when they attack themselves. Ion damage won't do anything because they don't even get shot to begin with.

The ability to attack while being completely invincible is inherently unbalanced and I have no idea how Alex could have ever thought it was a good idea.

[intrinsic_parity]

I think reducing or eliminating the skill that reduces phase cloak cooldown would make disabling cloaking easier as well. I don't find any of the phase ships excessively hard to deal with or overpowered when unskilled, it's just when they have crazy speed and reduced windows of vulnerability that they become oppressive IMO.

[Megas]

The ability to attack while being completely invincible is inherently unbalanced and I have no idea how Alex could have ever thought it was a good idea.

In case of Doom, it took damage whenever it decloaks.  Unable to attack without being in firing range of another ship (because energy weapons have terrible range, and light ballistics today are not much better) made Doom a punching bag.  Until it got Mine Strike, Doom was easier to kill than the phase frigates (because Doom could not run away and could not attack without taking damage).

Doom in recent releases was very strong, but not too powerful unskilled, or even with old Shield Modulation skill.  Today, new skills make it too powerful.

[Mordodrukow]

I want to make it clear (just in case): i m OK with Doom, or other phase ship be OP in player's hands. What i dont like is the general phase mechanics and how we CAN interact with it (hint: not so well).

In games like starcraft we have multiple layers: ground forces, flying units, invisible units, etc.. We need specific ways to interact on different layers. And it works well. But! It works well, because all those games are about how good and fast you can adapt. Starsector is not about that.

Yes, you can go and refit entire fleet to deal with phase ships (you cant carry those specific answers against them every time because of skill bonuses depending on your fleet size), but come on! I d better skip this fight then change my course.

I like the idea of increased cloak cooldown. In any form. It must not be very big time, like 10 seconds, but, as i said earlier, we can try to start with 3/3/4/5 depending on hull size (and keep -50% from skill). Crippling phase coils sounds good, but i m afraid it might be too much. Maybe we can simply cut flux stats a bit.

AND AGAIN: reasonable cooldown for Doom's mines and for Quantum disruptor. Or how about that: add soft cooldown. If ability used before the end of soft cd, it costs more flux.

[Embolism]

Originally Phase Lances (then called Phase Beams) and Proximity Charge Launchers (then called Phase Charge Launchers, hence why they have a phase-y look) were meant to be anti-phase weapons. The idea was discarded before phase ships were even added to the game.

Obviously phase cloak has changed since then, but notice in the original blogpost phase ships weren't supposed to be able to dissipate soft flux while phased (which really means that there's no difference between soft and hard flux for phase ships). There was also consideration for allowing phase ships to fire while phased, which would be balanced out by having zero flux dissipation in phase.

Perhaps it's time to revisit that old concept again? You could also re-add phase ship overload from maxed flux to add some further risk to firing while phased.

[bobucles]

Phase ships toe a very dangerous line against torpedoes. If they can phase quickly they can avoid the most lethal punches in the game. If they can't, they're easy pickings for missiles.

[Megas]

Obviously phase cloak has changed since then, but notice in the original blogpost phase ships weren't supposed to be able to dissipate soft flux while phased (which really means that there's no difference between soft and hard flux for phase ships). There was also consideration for allowing phase ships to fire while phased, which would be balanced out by having zero flux dissipation in phase.

Perhaps it's time to revisit that old concept again? You could also re-add phase ship overload from maxed flux to add some further risk to firing while phased.

No.  Phase ships were worthless during those days.  You fire weapons, cloak, and... oops, you overload and die.

[Sly]

Salamander Type-2: 9 OP. Only targets phased ships. Improved EMP Splash, doubled fuel, and marginally improved flight characteristics. 1.5x reload time, no MRM variant. Rebalance Phase Mastery and Doom a trifle and the result might just be enjoyable.

[IonDragonX]

The ability to attack while being completely invincible is inherently unbalanced and I have no idea how Alex could have ever thought it was a good idea.

Because he is emulating the submarines from WW naval battles.

[Sutopia]

The ability to attack while being completely invincible is inherently unbalanced and I have no idea how Alex could have ever thought it was a good idea.

Because he is emulating the submarines from WW naval battles.

That's FAR from what it is today, though. Submarines should've been hard to detect thus make them hard to hit, and they're notoriously slow. When they attack they want it deadly, and each consecutive attack is risking giving away their location. Once a submarine is pinpointed it's not far away from being sunk.

[Schwartz]

It just occured to me and I have no idea how this would shift balance, but it sounds cool anyway:

Make EMP arcs force ships out of phase.

[bobucles]

It just occured to me and I have no idea how this would shift balance, but it sounds cool anyway:

Make EMP arcs force ships out of phase.

It wouldn't do anything at all. EMP arcs spawn after a ship get hit, and phased ships can't be hit. So the effect will never happen.

[Helldiver]

Critical design failure of phase ships as far as I'm concerned is that there is no interaction between a phased ship and anything else (except for the Doom ship system). It's unfun both when playing a phase ship or facing them and impossible to balance.

I'm all for anti-phase weapons to allow for interaction between both sides, just like in submarine gameplay in naval games. Right now phase feels like a gimmick that attempts to simplify the concept of classic submarine combat and ends up being worse in every way.

[WeiTuLo]

A phase interdiction/destabilization field that causes enemy phased ships in the area to build flux a lot faster would be cool. They would have to run away or risk armor/hull damage. Or maybe it could slow them down to 2x/1x real speed so they would be easier to chase down.

It could be based on modified hyperdrive technology.