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Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:55 pm
by nfiea
[quote="Warhawx"]Don't complain if you're not lucky enough to have adequate...]


that is it right here

1/4 of the people on here want the game to be impossible to win through skill(what type of person wants more luck and less kill in their games?(people with little skill)) and the other people really like many of the mechanics, but can't stand that 3/4 of play throughs end with an impossible situation brought on by average luck(not bad, average)

my soultion

fix the luck elements and add a hard mode

the lucker (rougelikes) can play on hard mode where one still needs luck to make it to final boss and normal people can play on normal until they get really good and want an extra challenge

Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 6:09 pm
by Kestral B
Beams are all about timing, but it's true they are 100% useless on their own. I love the Voltan ship that starts with a power 2 beam (Halberd?) - you just need to find *any* other weapon to pair with it before enemies start running with 2 shields. If you don't find a second weapon by end of sector 2, just restart.

Pairing it with a simple burst laser is my favorite. Even if their shields are only knocked down for 1/2 of a second after the laser volley, it's long enough. Beam cuts in, does 2 damage each to 4 rooms. Most enemies don't survive the 2nd volley. :)

My only winning game so far, I was using a Halberd beam and burst laser III. I also had a heavy laser that I tacked on near the end, but the Halberd did most of my damage.

Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:50 pm
by UltraMantis
nukularpower wrote:Ion bomb is ridiculously OP, especially for 1 power slot.

Ion bomb + glaive = ezmode boss


Ion Bomb can still miss, and can't be used against energy shields. 2 Ion Bombs are ungodly though.

Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:00 pm
by Unlucky Scarecrow
UltraMantis wrote:
nukularpower wrote:Ion bomb is ridiculously OP, especially for 1 power slot.

Ion bomb + glaive = ezmode boss


Ion Bomb can still miss, and can't be used against energy shields. 2 Ion Bombs are ungodly though.


Actually that's not quite correct. Ion bombs can't teleport directly into the ship, but they can teleport onto the energy shield and damage it. I only know this because enemy ion bombs like to do that to me when I play the Zoltan ship :I

But really, any type of weapon used without support is pretty useless in certain scenarios. Beams and lasers kind of suck against high shields, missles suck against defense drones, bombs and ion weapons can't usually do damage by themselves. Granted, Beam weapons and Ion weapons are the only ones that can't overcome their weakness with enough brute force, but they make up for it by being incredibly strong when paired with another type. (Ion weapons, in sufficient quantity, could probably O2 starve an enemy crew, but you can't win vs AI ships)

Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:04 pm
by Kruztee
Autoclave wrote:Glaive beam is a total menace. If you get you hands on it and weapon pre-ignoter mod its GG.


To a certain extent, yes. Obviously, it still needs to be paired with something that can deal with shields/drones. Having it fully charged at the start of battle gives you pretty much a free pass to the 3 shield enemies though. :D

One other thing about beams is that they are just so fun to use. I love deciding the line of best carnage through the enemy ships :twisted:

Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:46 pm
by Twinge
A Glaive can do up to fifteen damage to an unshielded ship. FIFTEEN. The only reason these weapons are balanced at all is because you need something else to pair them with - since that something else includes half of the content in the game, they're still very strong :P

Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:12 am
by Char;y
I sort of agree. Its hard to find a use for them, as early on you will need a laser weapon to bring shields down, and if you have a burst/hull laser, these will give you multiple hits anyway, so I prefer a second laser to a beam. And the an ion cannon and perhaps a missile.

But thats my style of play, and the randomness of the weapon drops can easily leave you with little choices in the weapons you have at your disposal.

Its true that you cant get an effective autotarget usage out of them, you have to taget them yourself because of the timing or the shield regeneration.

Apart from that, they make a good alternative, and stay unqiue as a weapon class. I dont think its any different to drones or boarding as a viable strategy, its just more tricky to micromanage than hulk-smash laser and missiles

Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:30 am
by UltraMantis
Well beams may not be autofire friendly but manual timing has its advantages. They hit instantly. And rarley if ever miss. Bursts still have to travel towards the enemy and shields recharge with frightening speed.

Re: BEAM balance discussion

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:10 am
by Eji1700
First off someone mentioned how if you don't have another weapon on a volton by the end of sector 2, you should just restart. Rougelike or not this is not good gameplay for a stock ship. Granted i'm pretty certain that's not true(i took a pure glaive+cloak to sector 4, then again at that point I guess i'm a heavily armored stealth ship), but that sort of gameplay really is quite poor.

Second, beams really are rather inefficient. yeah they can do absrud damage, but when do you need to? The final boss maybe? Almost anything strong enough to get you through an opponents shields is strong enough to wipe the hull off the map.

Your only real options are 1. Missiles(and hope you don't run into a defense bot, another issue) 2. Bombs, which in a lot of ways are borderline broken.

In both cases missiles with blasters or bombs with blasters works almost as well, and in some ways better because the lower refire rate means you can adapt better to the situation at hand.

tl;dr i'm not totally sure beams are broken, but there's at least a chance they're sorta of "win more" weapon at certain phases. I'd love to see an augment added that gave lower level beams a chance to pierce 1 damage.