Discovery 4.87 Balance Log

[aerelm]

[Discovery 4.87 Balance Log]

Since there's been a lot of misinterpretation and false rumors going around lately, we've decided to open a public log regarding the balance changes in the new Discovery version. Purpose of this thread is to let the community know of the general line of ship and equipment balance present in 4.87 but note that no exact stats are or will be provided before the initial 4.87 release log.

Two points to note:

» Any balance changes mentioned anywhere outside this thread should be disregarded as rumors or concepts, as no changes are included into 4.87 until mentioned in this thread.
» Updates listed in this thread are subject to change, and this thread is for the purpose of providing an outline for 4.87 balance, not the specific results.

To voice your concerns and discuss the announced changes, visit this thread.

[aerelm]

Weapon classes in 4.87:

Gun classes:

• Class 1 (hp_gun_special_1) : Bomber torpedo
  
• Class 2 (hp_gun_special_2) : Bomber gun
  
• Class 3 (hp_gun_special_3) : Gunboat forward guns
  
• Class 4 (hp_gun_special_4) : Cruiser forward guns
  
• Class 5 (hp_gun_special_5) : Battleship forward guns
  
• Class 6 (hp_gun_special_6) : Fighter guns - Light (current class 7)
  
• Class 7 (hp_gun_special_7) : Fighter guns - Medium (current class 8)
  
• Class 8 (hp_gun_special_8) : Fighter guns - Heavy (current class 9)
  
• Class 9 (hp_gun_special_9) : Codename weapons / VHF guns (current class 10)
  
• Class 10 (hp_gun_special_10): Fighter Missiles
  

Turret classes:

• Class 1 (hp_turret_special_1) : Fighter Turret - Light
  
• Class 2 (hp_turret_special_2) : Fighter Turret - Heavy
  
• Class 3 (hp_turret_special_3) : Bomber Turret
  
• Class 4 (hp_turret_special_4) : Transport Turret
  
• Class 5 (hp_turret_special_5) : Gunboat Turret
  
• Class 6 (hp_turret_special_6) : Cruiser Turret - Heavy
  
• Class 7 (hp_turret_special_7) : Cruiser Turret - Standard
  
• Class 8 (hp_turret_special_8) : Battleship Turret - Heavy
  
• Class 9 (hp_turret_special_9) : Battleship Turret - Medium
  
• Class 10 (hp_turret_special_10): Battleship Turret - Light

Note that unless stated otherwise in this thread, these class changes do not effect the stats of guns and turrets and only act as a rearrangement.

[aerelm]

Fighter Weapons Rebalance:

Damage per second for class 8 fighter guns (current class 9 guns) is increased while keeping their energy per second range more or less the same. Class 7 fighter guns (curret class 8 guns) as well as respective turrets of both classes are adjusted accordingly.

Next on the list: Codenames adjustment

[aerelm]

Fighter Weapons Rebalance:

Codenames and rest of the class 9 fighter guns (current class 10 guns) adjusted with the changes to class 8 & 9 guns in mind.

Colada del Cid is a bomber EMP gun now (with altered stats to fit in as a proper bomber gun).

Next on the list: Weapon type adjustment

[aerelm]

Fighter Weapons Rebalance:

Projectile speed on Particle and Neutron guns (with a few exceptions) is now moved to 650ms.

All Laser and Photon guns (Except for Barragers*) are now 700/750ms (Yes, that includes Sunfrenzy).

Refire rate on certain guns changed, to give them a more effective performance and to add more diversity to the refire rate choice on fighters (Note: No new refire rates added).

Wild fighter guns added. The current prototypes will only be used by human factions as experimental weapons.

Next on the list: New house civilian guns

* Barrager is being rebalanced using aspects other than its projectile speed.

[aerelm]

Fighter Weapons Rebalance:

New House civilian guns added:

• 700ms Tachyon 4.00 for Liberty
  
• 600ms Plasma 3.03 for Rheinland
  
• 700ms Photon 6.67 for Kusari
  
• 700ms Particle 5.00 for Bretonia
  
• Ammo-based fighter EMP torpedo for Bretonia

Note: These guns aren't actually added to the game files yet and are more of a concept until the actual projectile effects and sell points are added before inserting the final stats into ini files, so if faction leaders of each house would like to put in suggestions, feel free to PM me on Skype within the next few days. See Post #8

Next on the list: Fine-tunning fighter gear balance

[aerelm]

Fighter Weapons Rebalance:

Missiles now have a considerably higher damage output and overall performance, but fighters are generally limited to only one missile per ship. Different ammo-based weapons now have varying ammo capacities as well.

Next on the list: Bomber gear

[aerelm]

Fighter Weapons Rebalance:

Update to Post #6: We decided to hold with the fighter EMP torp idea for now and see how would missile buffs work out in the next version (Especially with Paralyzer), so Bretonia will be getting a regular gun like rest of the houses.

Next on the list: Bomber gear

[aerelm]

Bomber Weapons Rebalance:

A rather time-consuming yet necessary task done - force_ori is set to true for all SNAC variations. This solves two problems:

• SNACs won't be firing in weird/unintended angles anymore.
  
• SNACs won't get stuck if their arc does not cover the direction crosshair is aiming at.

Though this is not an actual balance change and more of a technical fix. Rest of SNAC stats will be staying the same.

P.S: Yes, we realize that bomber torpedo slots would require an arc adjustments due to this change. It'll be taken care of during ship balance phase.

Next on the list: Bomber gear

[aerelm]

Bomber Weapons Rebalance:

Stats on Incapacitator Torpedo adjusted, it now has a higher shield damage than Nova but also uses more energy than before (Not as much as SNAC though).

Colada del Cid was given proper stats to fit in as a bomber gun. Higher damage than the standard EMP gun, at the cost of higher energy use.

Next on the list: Gunboat primary turrets