So, I've been thinking about weapon balance.
Right now, factions are balanced using their own weaponry - so, for example, RSF ships have lower flux dissipation than ISA ships, but the RSF's (ballistic) weapons are vastly more flux-efficient than the ISA's (ballistic) weapons, so it mostly works out.
(Energy weapon efficiency is the other way around, though. Seems odd, especially when the description for the RSF's Barnaul Cruiser claims the RSF's guns are more efficient...)
Now, this is fine... until the player comes into the picture. The player can (and generally will) grab the best weapons they can find from any faction. So, pick up a high-dissipation ISA ship, load it up with flux-efficient RSF cannons... Yeah. Not exactly balanced anymore.
Now, one way to deal with this is to balance weapons purely by size and type - as the base game does - but that's kinda boring; you lose all the flavor.
So the thing I've started working on is faction-specific hull mods. At the moment, I've only got one notion for these, but I think it's a good one:
RSF Munition Stores: an upgraded version of expanded magazines that can only be installed on RSF (or RSF-based, including some pirate or merchant) ships - for any other hull it'll just be grayed out and unavailable, like the dedicated targeting core on a frigate. Not sure exactly how strong this should be - my first inclination is to have it triple the ammunition capacity of guns, but it could get adjusted up or down from there.
And once you have such a hull mod, you can balance ballistic weapons by ammo capacity - this will probably entail reducing the base capacity of the RSF's guns, and increasing the capacity of the ISA's guns. At which point, yes, you could use flux-efficient RSF weapons on an ISA hull... at the cost of engagement duration; if you're just fighting a quick one-off battle, it'll be stronger - but it won't have the staying power to participate in a full fleet engagement.
Okim, does this sound like a good idea to you? Any ideas for other faction-specific hull mods that could be worth implementing?