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[Vandala]

The range is definitely the issue, because it lets X ships concentrate fire on one ship, where X is however many you can field at once. Four Odysseys is twelve lances which means a burst of up to 18000. Nothing can shrug that off, and of stock variants only the Paragon can return fire. And yes, lances easily have the range to let all three fire arcs on the Odyssey overlap.

As a bonus, the lance counters the current bug where ships will back off from ships that vent, instead of closing for the kill, as it won't ever back out of lance range.

That's absolutely true, if you could ever field 4 paragons, which is a little difficulty to accomplish.

Even so, 2 or 3 paragons are pretty much the same problem. Especially if you all equip them with four lances each.

[Thaago]

If you have more than 1 lance on the field fighters and frigates are dead - it completely changes game combat. Maybe make the weapon not a beam - make it a pulse shot with a very high speed. It would actually make it more dangerous to big ships but not able to snipe fighters.

[Vandala]

If you have more than 1 lance on the field fighters and frigates are dead - it completely changes game combat. Maybe make the weapon not a beam - make it a pulse shot with a very high speed. It would actually make it more dangerous to big ships but not able to snipe fighters.

That's a pretty cool idea actually.

Might be problematic with the lore though, Tachyon Lances are basically Faster-Then-Light technology, its pretty much an instant hit weapon hence it being a beam. You'll have to ask Alex about that.

EDIT: Keep in mind that, as its no longer a beam it will no longer deal beam-type damage, meaning it will deal hard shield damage. That might just make it absolute murder on anything that is not a fighter wing.

[enigma74]

Perhaps the Tachyon Lance could have it's own equivalent beam category.  Like, functions just like a beam, has only a small chance of hitting fighter-size targets.

[Dreyven]

Make it a 5 second shot

3 second where it does 1 dmg per second and then 2 second with the real damage
the lance can`t move while it`s shooting

this gives enough reaction time for anything to realiye that they are being targeted and raise shield
also, fighters and fast frigates can try to avoid it by flying away fast enough

[Mattk50]

It would allow you to disable more weapons on enemy ships by dragging it across their hull. It seems like a good idea though, making the beam take longer to deliver its damage is a good balancing factor, worked well for MWLL.

[Dreyven]

It would allow you to disable more weapons on enemy ships by dragging it across their hull. It seems like a good idea though, making the beam take longer to deliver its damage is a good balancing factor, worked well for MWLL.

nah... the time where you actually deal damage stays similiar
basically we add a 3 second "targeting beam" so that fast moving targets know whats coming and can try to avoid
also we disable the ability to move the turret while shooting so you can`t sweep anymore

[IIE16 Yoshi]

If you have more than 1 lance on the field fighters and frigates are dead - it completely changes game combat. Maybe make the weapon not a beam - make it a pulse shot with a very high speed. It would actually make it more dangerous to big ships but not able to snipe fighters.

That's a pretty cool idea actually.

Might be problematic with the lore though, Tachyon Lances are basically Faster-Then-Light technology, its pretty much an instant hit weapon hence it being a beam. You'll have to ask Alex about that.

EDIT: Keep in mind that, as its no longer a beam it will no longer deal beam-type damage, meaning it will deal hard shield damage. That might just make it absolute murder on anything that is not a fighter wing.

The Nomad Maser, on steroids, with, what, 3 times the range? I think the Maser has 1200 range and the Lance has 5000. And much more power.
That's a pretty awesome prospect....

[Vandala]

this gives enough reaction time for anything to realiye that they are being targeted and raise shield
also, fighters and fast frigates can try to avoid it by flying away fast enough

Ships already shield automatically if the Lance so much as looks in their direction. Very useful for forcing the computer to raise shields to deny them the speed boost and prevents them from venting.

[IIE16 Yoshi]

I think the AI is also smart enough to know when a Lance is cooling down, which gives me the impression that they're mocking me when they DO have enough venting power to stave off the Lance's attacks and casually drop shields to allow passive venting.

[StahnAileron]

Ships already shield automatically if the Lance so much as looks in their direction. Very useful for forcing the computer to raise shields to deny them the speed boost and prevents them from venting.

That only works if the Tachyon Lance(s) are within THEIR line of sight or field of view/detection. If I send a scout out ahead of my Paragons and spot the enemy ships first, they don't raise their shields against the incoming TL shots. Once some of their ships can detect my Paragons, then they keep their shields up against it. The enemy ships one seems to use their shields when they can both see the weapon and are within its firing range/arc. If they don't detect the weapon, they can't know if they are within its range or not to raise shields, it seems. It makes sense given the AI and gameplay mechanics.

They will usually raise the shields after the initial hit to deflect some of damage, but they drop the shields immediately after the shot. Repeat until they can see your TL ships or they die. Keeping your TL-armed ships of their detection range is the best way to fully exploit the TLs against the AI, IMHO.

[IIE16 Yoshi]

Hm...that's probably why my Judgements seem so OP. Their main weapon, which is like a souped-up version of the TachLance has around 8k range, so even though they move up with my own ship to find enemies, once they do, they tend to drift backwards to the edges of the map and continue sniping with their projectors from back there. Which results in a horribly confused AI getting wrecked over and over as they try to vector their shields properly against me or either of the two Judgements. It's allowing me to kill fleets far bigger than mine. Which I have no real issue with....

[hadesian]

The range is definitely the issue, because it lets X ships concentrate fire on one ship, where X is however many you can field at once. Four Odysseys is twelve lances which means a burst of up to 18000. Nothing can shrug that off, and of stock variants only the Paragon can return fire. And yes, lances easily have the range to let all three fire arcs on the Odyssey overlap.

As a bonus, the lance counters the current bug where ships will back off from ships that vent, instead of closing for the kill, as it won't ever back out of lance range.

That's absolutely true, if you could ever field 4 paragons, which is a little difficulty to accomplish.

Even so, 2 or 3 paragons are pretty much the same problem. Especially if you all equip them with four lances each.

I did that, it's useless because the're so slow and they always knock into each other....

[Vandala]

That's why I use Odysseys, still room for three lances, with better aim, are a lot faster and only cost 18 fleet points instead of 25.

[StahnAileron]

The problem with the Ody is the fact you can only ever train 2 TLs at on one target. The 3rd kinda gets wasted unless ther happens to be something else for it to shot within it's arc. Depending on the situation, you gte a Firepower efficieny of 6 or 9 OP per TL. You do make up for it in speed and easier targetting (since they are all turrets).

Paragon with 4 TLs is 6.25 OP per TL and can concentrate all 4 on one target or attack up to 3 targets at once. It also doubles as a meatshield if it becomes the focus of attention. You lose out on flexibility though, since 2 of the TLs are hardpoints. With the Paragon's low speed and agility, bringing the 2 hardpointed TLs can be a chore. You also concentrate more of the first from one point insetad of spreading it out more with the Ody's.

Well, either method is valid. I prefer the Paragon path since I can still plack plenty of firepower on it just in case it needs close range defense. The biggest problem I have is making sure my Paragons always have a clear line of fire, especially after the first wave of kills. Having a pack of Buffalo mk2s or freighters carcasses blocking the line of fire sucks when I still need/want to kill stuff behind them. I do space out my Paragons though, so usually at least one of them has a clear shot. (Otherwise I need to play bumperships with the dead ones and push them out of the way.)