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Weapons Overhaul Mod

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AposDio

AposDio

Corporal
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May 15, 2016
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What is Weapons Overhaul?

Weapons Overhaul is a mod that attempts to rebalance the properties of the weapons in the game in order to provide more uniqueness and diversity, on top of a more solid sense of progression when upgrading your weapons.

Even though changes are now limited to the already available weapons of the game, there are plans to expand on them and provide more viable options for situations that each tech path might find itself in.

Steam Workshop Link

What are some of the changes you will find in this mod?

  • Range increased across the table for main tech weapons
  • Accuracy increased across the table for main tech weapons
  • Energy Weapons are now effective against shields instead of armor
  • Kinetic weapons bypass shields by a small margin
  • Are you feeling lucky? Try missiles. Their damage margin starts huge and decreases with each tech upgrade. Get ready to roll that dice.
  • Armor penetration exclusive to alien technology and the arc emmiters
  • Disruptors tweaked to almost exclusively damage shields.

And more within the mod and to come.



Please do provide feedback for the betterment and balance of the mod. Numbers alone can't fully predict actual gameplay.

Latest Version Change Log:

  • Version 1.2b

  • 1.1.0 compatibility.
  • Adjusted Chance to Hit Values for the modules that use them in accordance to 1.1.0 fixes.
  • Wormhole Modulator Mineral Cost reduced back to 0. Power cost Reduced to 10 from 15.

Older Versions:
  • Version 1.0:

Energy Weapons
  • Laser Weapons
Laser weapons attack fairly fast, with a medium amount of damage spread, while providing extra damage against shields. They start at 3% damage against shields when at Tech 1 and reach 15% when at Tech 5. They do slightly less dps than the main kinetic weapons when attacking hull, but more when attacking shields.
  • Plasma Throwers/Accelerators/Cannons
Plasma Accelerators changed to bigger, meaner guns that their laser counterparts. They fire more slowly and have horrid accuracy, but a shot finding its target will lead to some serious damage. As part of the energy line, they also do 20% more damage to shields at all ranks.
  • Particle/Tachyon Lance
Changed to inflict 25/50% more shield damage respectively. Armor penetration removed.
  • Disruptors
Damage changed to as low as possible. Shield damage scaled accordingly. They should be doing a little more damage per second to shields than before, but after shields are down their damage is practically negligible.
  • Arc Emitters
The only weapon belonging in the non-salvaged tech tree that possesses armor penetration. Damage scaled upwards and shield penetration removed. Shield damage penalty still applies.

Kinetic Weapons

  • Mass Drivers
Mass Driver damage attack slower than their laser counterparts, but their damage margin is much more tight. In addition, the slugs penetrate shields, scaling upwards as the tech progresses, starting at 3% when at Tech 1 and reaching 15% when at Tech 5. They do more damage than lasers when not attacking shields.
  • Autocannons
Are now actual rapid firing weapons. They have much limited range than all other weapons, but their DPS is now on par with Lances/Artirelly. They will tear ships to shreds within that range.
  • Kinetic Battery/Artillery
Fires slower than the Lance, but hits harder when not attacking shields. In addition, they bypass shields by 25/50% each.

Rocketry

  • Missiles
It was hard finding a niche for missiles, so instead I went with a quirk. Missiles now consume less power to use, have the biggest cooldown, but also the highest dps. The catch is that they also posses an extreme damage margin at early levels, which gets toned down as the tech progresses.
Additionally, missiles reach their target faster than in the default game.
  • Torpedoes
Stats unchanged, but they reach their target slower than in the default game. Removed the unnecessary shield damage modifier from Proton/Neutron torpedoes since they didn't damage shields anyway.
  • Swarmer Missiles
Cooldown and damage reduced, has more dps and range than the Lances and Artillery modules, but has no modifiers.

Point Defense
  • Small
Damage standardized across all levels. Levels now increase accuracy instead.
  • Large (Flak Battery/Artillery)
Damage decreased, but fire rate increased.

Hangar Planes

  • Fighter Wings
Health increased to potentially compensate for PD/Flak changes. Now does 100% extra damage to shields. Deployment Range increased to 20.
  • Bomber Wings
Health increased to compensate for PD/Flak changes. Has more health than fighter wings. Deployment Range increased to 10.

Alien Technologies*
  • Shard Throwers
Shard Throwers now have identical stats to laser level of Tech 1-4 in order of Blue/Green/Yellow/Red. Contrary to lasers though, these offers armor penetration instead of shield damage, starting at 35% for Blue and reaching 50% for Red, in increments of 5%.
  • Energy Siphon
Thought you didn't have a reason to kill the Grazers? Well, now you do; their salvage weapon now bypasses shields completely. Armor penetration removed.
  • Mining Drone Laser
The Mining Drone laser comes with superior range, accuracy, 100% armor penetration and damage for its tier, but comes at the cost of doing 50% less damage against shields.
  • Cloud Lightning
Accuracy increased to 100%, providing an early accurate weapon to use against corvette fleet spams.
  • Scourge Missile
Damage, cooldown and flight speed changed accordingly to Missile standards.
  • Matter Disintegrator
Has increased accuracy and now ignores both armor and shields completely.
  • Amoeba Flagella
Reproduction rate increased to 1/day from 0.03. Deployment range increased to 10.
  • Swarm Strikers
Reproduction rate increased to 0.2/day from 0.03. Deployment range increased to 10. Armor penetration increased to 100%.

*Alien technologies will be used by their sources as well. The unbidden and the swarn, will probably be harder as a result, but the reward will be much higher.
  • Version 1.0a
  • Autocannons dps tonned down, range decreased to 5/7.5/10. Rate of fire decreased so that missiles/torpedoes potentially have a chance to actually go through.
  • Point Defense range increased to 10 so that they edge out autocannons.
  • All hangar ranges increased to 25. Armor penetration removed from bombers to uphold the thematic that only alien technologies posses the trait. Bonus damage to shield decreased to 50% for fighters.
  • Disruptor damage to shield further increased so that they fit their niche better.
  • Proton/Neutron Torpedoes now actually do more dps than Devastator Torpedoes.
  • Version 1.0b
  • Laser and shard damage tweaked. No dps loss.
  • Rocketry weaponry speed diversified among variants in order to allow the creation of barrages going through autocannons. Swarmer missiles now reach targets first, followed by missiles, followed by torpedoes.
  • Arc Emmiter damage reduced slightly to compensate for being the most efficient weapon against bigger ships.
  • Version 1.0c
  • Applied fixes so that upgraded Sensors, Navigator's Guild and Fleet Academy did not result in ships with 100% accuracy.
  • Sensors will now provide 3.3/6.6/10% extra accuracy respectively for each higher tech level.
  • Fleet Academy will now provide an extra 5% accuracy.
  • Navigator's Guild will now provide an extra 10% accuracy.
  • Fleet Academy Evasion bonus decreased to 3 from 5.
  • Pitharan Refinery Evasion bonus decreased to 3 from 5.

Special thanks to the community who figured out about the bugged accuracy modifiers.
  • Version 1.1
  • Reduced Evasion bonuses of thrusters from 10/20/30/40 to 5/10/15/20
  • Reduced Evasion bonuses of Defensive Computers from 10/20 to 5/10, Combat Computer from 15 to 5 and Precognitive Computer from 20 to 10.
  • Rebalanced Precognitive Computer. It now offers +10% Weapon Damage and +10% Fire rate, in contrast to Sentient Combat Computer providing double the offensive stats but half the evasion.
NEW ADDITIONS:
  • Marksman Combat Computer (Basic+Advanced) : Provides 10%/20% Chance to hit and weapon damage.
  • Bulwark Combat Computer (Basic+Advanced): Provides +10%/20% shield hit points and +10/+20 shield regeneration.
  • Version 1.1b
  • Tachyon Lance bonus damage to shields reduced from 50% to 30%. Dps lowered from 17.7 to 17.5
  • Kinetic Artillery shield penetration reduced from 50% to 30%. Dps lowered from 20.1 to 19.
  • Increased Point Defenses' rate of fire from 0.9 to 0.6.
  • Increased Scourge Missile's DPS from 17 to 18, so that it functions like a Tech Level 6 missile.
  • Fixed Shard Throwers to have Armor Penetration again, increased to 20/40/60/80%.
  • Fixed Proton/Neutron Torpedoes range to 60 like normal Torpedoes.
  • Version 1.1c
  • Reverted some of the autocannon range nerf. Autocannons now have 10/12.5/15 range per mount size.
  • Fixed some of the missile techs missing their new default ranges.
  • Tweaked ship behavior for each computer role in order to fix bigger ships getting stuck in the back.
  • Slightly increased default ships' speed.
  • Slightly rebuffed thrusters evasion. They now provide 10/15/20/25 Evasion respectively.
  • Polished basic marksman computer icon so that it feels more stockalike.
  • Added advanced marksman computer icon.
  • Version 1.2
  • Reduced Sensors extra accuracy from +0/3.3/6.6/10% to +0/1/3/5%.
  • Wormhole Modulator is no longer free. Now costs 15 power and 15 minerals like all other Techs at level 3.
  • Fighter and Bomber Hangars now have a deployment range of 30.
NEW ADDITIONS:
  • Interceptor Hangars: These ships function similarly to fighters in that they do extra damage to shields. However, they do only half (+25% instead of +50%) of it and have less dps (13/16/19 instead of 16/19/22). Instead, they deploy at a range of 60 and have more speed than their fighter counterparts.
 
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InfinityArts said:
Seems to be a buff to armor across the board. Brb, firing up my neutronium forges and living metal armories.
Click to expand...

Armor did seem to struggle within the context of the game. It didn't help that one of the very starting weapons enters the board with 50% ARP on the get go.

Hopefully corvette spam will also be less effective with the accuracy changes.

Damage is also slightly higher, so ship hull might need some tweaking eventually, assuming people don't enjoy the new pace of battle more.
 
About 4 hours into a game, and I've noticed that disruptors are terribly weak. Even with the shield damage bonus factored in, their DPS against shields is lower than most other weapons. For a weapon that's only good at one thing, I expected it to be the best in that category. Autocannons are absurdly strong in nearly all situations. I don't ever see a reason to field PD guns given autocannons are more accurate, fire almost 3 times faster, and has longer range. Haven't gotten to the higher-tier missile techs yet, but I'd expect them to be equally useless given how ridiculously powerful autocannons are.
 
InfinityArts said:
About 4 hours into a game, and I've noticed that disruptors are terribly weak. Even with the shield damage bonus factored in, their DPS against shields is lower than most other weapons. For a weapon that's only good at one thing, I expected it to be the best in that category. Autocannons are absurdly strong in nearly all situations. I don't ever see a reason to field PD guns given autocannons are more accurate, fire almost 3 times faster, and has longer range. Haven't gotten to the higher-tier missile techs yet, but I'd expect them to be equally useless given how ridiculously powerful autocannons are.
Click to expand...

I was hoping someone would get to test the disruptors properly. The change was really drastic and I didn't know how the game would actually react to it. I'll further buff the shield damage value and see how it plays out.

Regarding the autocannons, I have noticed their power myself. I really want to keep their firerate high (because that's what they are supposed to be), however it is indeed a problem if they make PDs obsolete. It would make sense to tone them down in some areas. This might be a case of the way the game works in that it wasn't meant to have such rapid firing weapons other than the PD, but a longer term solution should be possible in the future. A further decrease of the travel time of missiles/torpedoes might also do the trick, but I'll hold it back for now.

Will have an update up soon with some changes.

This looks pretty good but why are Carrier Deployment ranges so low?
Click to expand...

I was initially hesitant to increase that on top of their health increase, but seeing testing that the higher weapons speed works well against nullifying such threats, it should be fine now.
 
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That's a lot better, but I'm still leaning more heavily than I should towards autocannons as opposed to PD. The reason PD works in the vanilla game, despite its piss-poor accuracy, is that it shoots much MUCH faster than any other gun.

When I compare the mod's 0.9 FR and 60% accuracy versus the Autocannon's 1.0 FR and 70% accuracy, it's harder to make a decision, that's not to mention I don't know if missiles die in one hit, or if they have HP, in which case the autocannon's superior damage wins out. The difference between 5 and 10 range is miniscule if my ship is flying back away from the missile (and given how they like to spin around like tadpoles in combat, it happens quite frequently). Arguably, the lower range means the ship often cannot find a suitable enemy ship in combat, and is more likely to target missiles instead (I could be wrong, it may always prioritize missiles first). Finally, the fact that you made the autocannon one of the best weapons in the game for DPS makes it much more appealing to use than the PD. In most situations, it can serve as both PD and damage dealer admirably, and even as a superior PD in certain cases.

Phew. So, in short, I think either PD needs a buff, dropping its fire rate to ~0.6-7 or increasing its accuracy beyond the autocannon's. I do not think this is the approach, because then missiles become nigh-useless (they're already dying en masse against autocannons anyways). Alternatively, you can bump up the Autocannon's FR to ~1.8-2.0, and increase its per-shot damage to compensate. This maintains the cannon's status as the best neutral DPS, but gives the PD its niche in swatting nukes.

That's my thought process, hopefully I've articulated them as well as I think I have at 4 in the morning. it's just one person's feedback though, and this is ultimately your mod. Make changes as you see fit.

Cheers.

By the by, I've a battleship decked out in Swarmer Missiles and another one decked out in Focused Arc Emitters. The FAE does absurdly more damage than the Swarmers in all battles I've been in, somewhere in the 12000 to 300 ballpark. Could just be my imagination, though. All the numbers look right, or maybe PD's too strong. I'll do a couple more checks tomorrow.
 
InfinityArts said:
That's a lot better, but I'm still leaning more heavily than I should towards autocannons as opposed to PD. The reason PD works in the vanilla game, despite its piss-poor accuracy, is that it shoots much MUCH faster than any other gun.

When I compare the mod's 0.9 FR and 60% accuracy versus the Autocannon's 1.0 FR and 70% accuracy, it's harder to make a decision, that's not to mention I don't know if missiles die in one hit, or if they have HP, in which case the autocannon's superior damage wins out. The difference between 5 and 10 range is miniscule if my ship is flying back away from the missile (and given how they like to spin around like tadpoles in combat, it happens quite frequently). Arguably, the lower range means the ship often cannot find a suitable enemy ship in combat, and is more likely to target missiles instead (I could be wrong, it may always prioritize missiles first). Finally, the fact that you made the autocannon one of the best weapons in the game for DPS makes it much more appealing to use than the PD. In most situations, it can serve as both PD and damage dealer admirably, and even as a superior PD in certain cases.

Phew. So, in short, I think either PD needs a buff, dropping its fire rate to ~0.6-7 or increasing its accuracy beyond the autocannon's. I do not think this is the approach, because then missiles become nigh-useless (they're already dying en masse against autocannons anyways). Alternatively, you can bump up the Autocannon's FR to ~1.8-2.0, and increase its per-shot damage to compensate. This maintains the cannon's status as the best neutral DPS, but gives the PD its niche in swatting nukes.

That's my thought process, hopefully I've articulated them as well as I think I have at 4 in the morning. it's just one person's feedback though, and this is ultimately your mod. Make changes as you see fit.

Cheers.

By the by, I've a battleship decked out in Swarmer Missiles and another one decked out in Focused Arc Emitters. The FAE does absurdly more damage than the Swarmers in all battles I've been in, somewhere in the 12000 to 300 ballpark. Could just be my imagination, though. All the numbers look right, or maybe PD's too strong. I'll do a couple more checks tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Swarm missiles would definitely be suffering from the autocannon being a new form of PD as well, despite its higher number of missiles. Of course, this means that PD is obsolete in itself and might as well be removed and change the auto cannon to be the de facto PD as well. The auto-cannon wasn't much of a choice on its default form anyway, since it was mostly worth it on a large slot, but there were better large slot alternatives.

This is potentially a good change for the energy path as well, because having 3 different technologies (main weapon/shields/PD) tied into the same technology group is a bit heavy. Kinetics and Missiles get to improve their shields simultaneously with their main path of weapons, so it would be expected for the energy path to be able to develop a form of defense at the same time with their tech and armor really didn't cut it until now and probably still doesn't even with the mod allowing it to be more efficient.

However, this doesn't solve anything regarding missile efficiency, which is concerning and seems urgent. It will be my next priority to sort out.

Regarding the Arc Emitter: It doing more damage with 2 battleships duking it out seems working as intended and achieving it's niche, since it's now the only weapon with armor penetration and the bigger ships have a good chunk of that even by default, easilly reaching 50-60% after modules. So I'd say that this is possitive. The swarmers should be more effective against Cruisers and Destroyers and overkill against corvettes. The Arc Emitter is now practically what the Tachyon Lance is in the vanilla settings, only with a shield damage penalty. However, it might be fair for it to exchange some damage for that, will have it in mind, but it shouldn't be a make it or break it issue.
 
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Update 1.0b is up. Change log on main post.

A little insight on the missile changes and goals aimed with that change:

With the autocannon becoming an actual rapid firing weapon, it functioned excessively good at being a point defense system as well. Even though there's nothing wrong with that, since even in the vanilla game missiles were easily countered by PD, it made missiles largely lackluster. In order to remedy that, Swarmer Missiles were tweaked to act not only as a difficult to counter barrage, but also as a front line that will draw attention from autocannons/PD.
Swarmer Missiles are now the first group of missiles that will reach the line of fire of PD/autocannons, thus hogging attention to themselves, allowing the normal missiles and torpedoes to go through.
Missiles always have to pay the price of having convential weapons being able to negate them, however they should be able to go through with proper investment in a ship's arsenal. Hopefully this change brings that one step closer to fruition.
 
There's another reason why missiles and torpedoes are kinda shafted: Weapon hit formula tested.

Not sure if it's within the scope of this mod to change the ship_accuracy_add values (ship sensors, some spaceport modules), but it seems that they're adding 200/300% instead of 2/3% like they're supposed to.

Also, does one "shot" of swarmer missiles count as one missile for the purposes of PD attacks? Or are they fired as a volley of multiple distinct missiles?
 
InfinityArts said:
There's another reason why missiles and torpedoes are kinda shafted: Weapon hit formula tested.

Not sure if it's within the scope of this mod to change the ship_accuracy_add values (ship sensors, some spaceport modules), but it seems that they're adding 200/300% instead of 2/3% like they're supposed to.

Also, does one "shot" of swarmer missiles count as one missile for the purposes of PD attacks? Or are they fired as a volley of multiple distinct missiles?
Click to expand...

That's a file that I should indeed fiddle with if it has such dire consequences. It would also explain why NPCs are so happy (and effective) to use Plasma weapons with the changes in my mod, despite its 60-50% accuracy. Thanks for the notice.

Regarding how Swarmers behave, there is not indication of how they work in their respective file, but even if they aren't actual independent entities, they should still fulfill their niche of being shields for other missiles due to the much higher fire rate that they have.
 
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Aposdio, are you sure other guns apart from PD shoot to missiles? just had a whole fleet with only autocannons attack a fleet with missiles and torpedoes. Mine got obliterated and not even a missile got shot down.

Im starting to think that the autocannon thing was a bug that was corrected by the patches or something...
 
Alwar said:
Aposdio, are you sure other guns apart from PD shoot to missiles? just had a whole fleet with only autocannons attack a fleet with missiles and torpedoes. Mine got obliterated and not even a missile got shot down.

Im starting to think that the autocannon thing was a bug that was corrected by the patches or something...
Click to expand...

I don't think 1.3 fixed anything regarding that. I'm pretty sure I saw even my lasers attacking missiles just today. Was it normal missiles or swarmers?

Or, this could also mean that the latest changes to missile speeds actually worked into allowing missiles to be viable again. The barrage of missiles reaching first would have allowed the torpedoes to go through and do their serious, shield penetrating damage. A torpedoes only set up would probably not work.
If this requires actual flak cannons in order to properly counter, due to their range advantage, I think it would be a good position of balance regarding rocketry weapons.

However I will keep an eye out and adjust accordingly if I notice such a behavior.
 
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