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[Megas]

The TL was just that a few versions ago. If you stacked some, EG on a Odyssey or some Sunders, you could insta-kill any enemy frigate as soon as you saw it. That was fun but way to OP.

I think that was before 0.53.  I got the game in late 2011 when version was 0.53 or so.  Tachyon Lance was the same as it is now without the chain-EMP (i.e., useless).

In that case, Tachyon Lance really needs to be restored to its original glory (at least the damage part), plus the chain EMP.

Before 0.65, Tachyon Lance was viable because the ships that could use Tachyon Lance had unlimited peak performance and flux supercharge to make it stronger.  It was possible to kite with a Tachyon Lance even if it took all day to kill things and win the fight.  That is not possible anymore.

No, I do not think frying frigates with long-range Tachyon Lance would be overpowered.  I already kill small-ships very quickly with stacked long-range or medium-range firepower of other weapons.

[Thaago]

Well back then it also had 10000 range. It got hit with the nerf stick a little too hard, I agree.

New weapons, hmmm.... Large missile and a mid tier medium HE ballistic sound like the obvious ones to me.

[Gothars]

Oh, and a small energy assault weapon somewhere between the AM-Blaster and the IR Laser would be nice. A small equivalent to the Phase Lance.

[Wyvern]

The TL was OP back before we had CR, in an age where you could just deploy your entire fleet at no cost.  Back then, well, if you had three Odysseys with Tachyon Lances, then you'd deploy all three in every fight.

Now?  Okay, you technically still can do that, but it'd be expensive & reduce your ability to fight multiple battles.  Plus with active time limits on all ships, there's no forever-kiting.  The things that made the Tachyon Lance absurd have other limits now, so it should be safe to bring its damage back up closer to where it used to be.

Of course, then the HIL would need a bit of a buff, too, but it needed that anyway.

As for new weapons... like others here, I'm hoping that one of those is a new large missile system.

[MesoTroniK]

You cannot have beams with excessive burst damage, the AI does not understand how to deal with them.

[Megas]

You cannot have beams with excessive burst damage, the AI does not understand how to deal with them.

AI is not good at dealing with high burst damage, period.  This is why AM blaster is good despite having inferior stats (worse range, worse DPS, high OP cost, limited ammo) to IR pulse laser on paper.  This is why Reapers boosted by Missile Specialization 10 are lethal.

Currently, Phase Lance has better burst damage than Tachyon Lance.  This is why I consider Phase Lance better than Tachyon Lance (and worse than Heavy Blaster without Advanced Optics).  All Tachyon Lance is good for is mass EMP.  If I want EMP, I will mount Ion Cannons or bring a Shade.  Then again, I prefer more DPS over EMP and just kill the enemy, because death is a better status effect than EMP.  Also, the most powerful enemy ships are mostly immune to EMP.

Only small ships have trouble taking hits from two or three Phase Lances.  Of course, they also have trouble taking hits from other powerful weapons.  I doubt doubling Tachyon Lance damage or so will be a problem.

P.S.:  With removal of flux supercharge, Tachyon Lance lost damage since 0.65.

[MesoTroniK]

If the Tachyon Lance did double the damage, it would break the game. The AI would feather its shield to try and deal with the extreme damage and get EMP'd like crazy, and small ships would just get overloaded extremely easily.

Having this much power on a long range hitscan weapon just makes the AI issue 10x worse.

[Tartiflette]

How about doubling the damage and halving the range then? 1250 is already pretty reasonable and the damage would be quite interesting...

[Schwartz]

Yea, I always felt that the TL range was a bit extravagant and made it difficult to be handled well by a player. Until we're able to zoom more and have more freedom with the camera, it would be way better to make the TL simply a weapon with the longest range, but well within 1500 points. Reduce its OP to compensate - I wouldn't make it any stronger yet.

[Alex]

Without commenting on the speculation about new weapons, from the as-yet-unpublished dev changelog:

Tachyon Lance: range reduced to 1000, damage increased by 200%, flux use increased by 100%

Several other weapons have undergone some balance changes, too.

[Dri]

200% dmg boost... 

[Schwartz]

And yeah, second the notion of some more Large Missile variety, particularly because the Aurora is my favourite cruiser and it could use a bit of love.

The TL changes sound alright tbh, we'll see how it plays out. I really can't wait for 0.7 to come around.

[Histidine]

I predict that by v0.8 every beam weapon will have 1000 range.

*except LR PD Laser with 1050 range

[Cycerin]

Without commenting on the speculation about new weapons, from the as-yet-unpublished dev changelog:

Tachyon Lance: range reduced to 1000, damage increased by 200%, flux use increased by 100%

Several other weapons have undergone some balance changes, too.

Interesting. I hope you finally gutted the Mauler and buffed the Chaingun.

[Megas]

If the Tachyon Lance did double the damage, it would break the game. The AI would feather its shield to try and deal with the extreme damage and get EMP'd like crazy, and small ships would just get overloaded extremely easily.

Having this much power on a long range hitscan weapon just makes the AI issue 10x worse.

Good!  That makes Tachyon Lance useful (yet not gamebreaking) for its exorbitant price, not weak, especially against those mostly immune to EMP.  Shields would still defend against that unless target is a low-tech frigate or Enforcer, or the rare no shields ship.  Remember, beams deal soft flux.  Most targets can shield tank one, maybe two, no problem.

Remember that double damage after the loss of flux supercharge is not really double damage.  Assume +25% average, that is about +60% damage.  Tachyon Lance was weak back when we had flux supercharge, and has become even weaker in 0.65.

Of course, this is all moot given the upcoming changes given by Alex.

Without commenting on the speculation about new weapons, from the as-yet-unpublished dev changelog:

Tachyon Lance: range reduced to 1000, damage increased by 200%, flux use increased by 100%

Several other weapons have undergone some balance changes, too.

So... Tachyon Lance range will be gutted, and all it gets is about 300 DPS (about 50% more than Phase Lance) and +400 range more than Phase Lance?  The change to 1000 range would seem okay if all beams had 1000.  However, PD beams and Phase Lance have less range (unless they will gain more range).  1000 range is not the most range in the game... unless other long-range ballistics have lost their long range.  It would be nice to see a list of balance changes in the patch notes.