[Mod Theorizing] Weapon rebalance.

[ShadowDragon868]

Note: This is not a mod theorize for the intention of making choices more "equal," it's intended to make them more unequal, in different ways.

Here are my thoughts:

Energy weapons should be super long-range. They propagate at the speed of light, after all. Their damage should not be all that great, though, and they should bypass neither shields nor armor.

Kinetic weapons should be super-low range, highly inaccurate (because any ship, even a lumbering behemoth battleship, is going to have a lot of maneuverability compared to a mass driver round,) and really fast firing, but they should bypass 100% of shields and a lot of armor (50% for railguns firing AP slugs, with autocannon shells being HEAT rounds that bypass 100% of armor.) These are the "let's get into docking range and fuck them up good" option!

Missiles should be the super-long range weapons that never miss that they already are, but be incredibly vulnerable to point-defenses, of course. They should bypass shields and armor entirely, which is the reward you gain for the risk of being completely no-sold by enemy point-defense. Torpedoes should be, well, more of the same, really. I'd consider making them a Large Slot Only weapon; and conversely, making a Medium Swarmer Missile option.

Energy torpedoes should bypass neither shields nor armor, but should have redonkulously huge base damage, and should basically be the "fuck it, Mr. Worf, photon torpedoes, full spread" option.

 

[GrayCarlyle]

If you give pretty much everything a bonus to anything, you devalue shield and armor tech, because they don´t matter anymore, best would be to only fit HP+ modules.
And this should not be the reaction you want as result.

Improved Space Battles [Balance] changed the balance of weapons, too. Maybe take a look at the changes for inspiration.

 

[ShadowDragon868]

If you give pretty much everything a bonus to anything, you devalue shield and armor tech, because they don´t matter anymore, best would be to only fit HP+ modules.
And this should not be the reaction you want as result.

Improved Space Battles [Balance] changed the balance of weapons, too. Maybe take a look at the changes for inspiration.

Let me be clear: Don't get it twisted.

Between "game balance" and "verisimilitude," game balance is as unto a china vase, verisimilitude is as unto a freight train.

If shields can stop projectiles, they should be able to stop torpedoes. If they cannot stop torpedoes, they should not be able to stop any projectiles.

 

[GrayCarlyle]

For myself I reasoned with the torpedo shield piercieng ability that they have some kind of device fit into the torpedo that give it the piecing ability.

Between "game balance" and "verisimilitude," game balance is as unto a china vase, verisimilitude is as unto a freight train.

I don´t get what you want to say here...

 

[ShadowDragon868]

I don´t get what you want to say here...

When asked to choose between realism and balance, fuck balance, I go for what makes sense to me.

For myself I reasoned with the torpedo shield piercieng ability that they have some kind of device fit into the torpedo that give it the piecing ability.

I disagree; certainly, nothing implies that ability, and furthermore, if such a device existed, surely it would be possibly to fit that device to the business end of any projectile. It also fails wholly to explain how a torpedo made of energy can penetrate.

 

[FullMetalFox]

Energy weapons should be super long-range. They propagate at the speed of light, after all.

1: That would only be the case for Laser.
2: Plasma Weapons would move at the speed the plasma was accelerated too, which since its matter, is dependant on the accelerators power, the to accelerated medium, and the energy transfere between the two. And they would be like flamethrowers, as plasma is a gas which likes to expand.
3: Arc Emitters wouldnt even work without a gas medium to host the electron transfere. You might as well just use pure electron accelerators instead, would propably have poor ranges due to particle repulsion.
4: Particle Lances would also be rather poor in range, they would also need something to accelerate the 'particles', and suffer from particle repulsion too. The tachyon version would be beyond speed of light, as tachyons are a theorized superluminal particle.

Kinetic weapons should be super-low range, highly inaccurate (because any ship, even a lumbering behemoth battleship, is going to have a lot of maneuverability compared to a mass driver round,) and really fast firing, but they should bypass 100% of shields and a lot of armor (50% for railguns firing AP slugs, with autocannon shells being HEAT rounds that bypass 100% of armor.)

Depends on the Accelerations and at what C fraction the projectiles move. In the 90s, some scientist calculated ~0.6c as being the max achievable speed, above that any material known to us would vaporize from the energy transfere.
Oh an btw, drop the idea of HEAT charges, they form nothing more than kinetic penetrators. On anything that moves above 3000ms (rule of thumb) it would be more reasonable to to use the projectile as penetrator itself, instead of trying to fit a warhead on it that would not only withstand the acceleration, but also trigger at the right distance. And well, 3000ms is really slow in space. Newton is your friend, but also the deadliest son of a bitch in space.

Missiles should be the super-long range weapons that never miss that they already are, but be incredibly vulnerable to point-defenses, of course. They should bypass shields and armor entirely, which is the reward you gain for the risk of being completely no-sold by enemy point-defense.

The issues with missile weapons in space are so vast that i wont even begin to cover them, so on this i can only say: do whatever you want with space missiles, they are fantasy anyways XD

If shields can stop projectiles, they should be able to stop torpedoes. If they cannot stop torpedoes, they should not be able to stop any projectiles.

Action vs Reaction, Energy Transfere, Transfere Medium... i could go on about why this is a wrong assumption, but ill leave it at this: stuff reacts different to other stuff to say it laymans terms.
A shield capable of swatting away 5kg slugs moving at 0.1C, might be unable to stop photons, it might also be unable to stop that 10ton torpedo with 200G acceleration. It all depends on what tries to stop or absorb what, how, how powerful both are, and if there are any factors that disrupt the transfere between the two.

"These torpedoes are essentially very large, slow-moving missiles. They are equipped with more powerful warheads and shield modulators that let them slip unmolested through energy screens." <- would be possible if those 'modulators' are capably of disrupting the shields energy transfere to the torpedo.

 

[Qilue]

It might be possible to achieve some balance of cons and pros for weapons. But you must first make particle lances unavailable as these are just too overwhelming. Making them only available to fallen empires would introduce a danger element to going to war with one though.

As to balance, I would remove special abilities (armour penetration etc) for the baseline weapons (lasers, railguns, missles) and remove missiles as an available weapon type for starting ships.

Then set the baselines to the medium laser and medium railgun and reduce their accuracy. The lower accuracy can be offset by improved scanners and combat computers which have increased bonuses.

Railguns would have a higher rate of fire, but less damage per shot.
eg
laser - dam 10-20, rof 2
raingun - dam 5-10, rof 4

Small and Large versions are affected the same way.
eg
small laser - dam 5-10, rof 2.5
large laser - dam 20-40, rof 1.5
small railgun - dam 2.5-5, rof 5
large railgun - dam 10-20, rof 3

Then with other weapons, start adding special abilities, but adjusting their stats as a tradeoff.
eg
Disruptors with increased damage to shields but less damage overall.
Plasma does less damage against shielded targets, but increased damage overall.

Particle lances could be balanced by increasing their energy requirement and reducing their rate of fire. (remember the wave motion cannon from Space Battleship Yamato?)

edit - had some other ideas