I have but one complaint. (Weapons)

[Derakon]

You could fix the Burst Laser Mk 1 by reducing its cooldown by a few seconds. If it took 8s to reload instead of 11s, then it'd have similar FPS to the Mk 2 (.25 shots/sec vs. .27 shots/sec) while being slightly cheaper.

[hborrgg]

Burst laser 2 costs more and is a direct upgrade to the Mk 1. Having some weapons that are in every way better than others isn't necessarily bad design, it just adds more to the strategy.

[TJJ]

Burst 1 is fine; it's Burst 2 that's too good, and Burst 3 that needs improving.

[actionhero112]

I don't think you can even buy Dual Lasers, or the Artemis. I'm pretty sure they are unique to the ships that have them, for balancing reasons.

As for the Dual Laser's description, I have no idea. Maybe it's a commonly underestimated weapon in the federation.

[Vost]

...for balancing reasons.

I think that's pretty much it. On the Slug ship, the dual lasers are your primary offensive option early on. One thing burst lasers of all types are extremely useful for is to temporarily drop shields to let your beam weapons/other burst lasers work. I have found that, if the stars align, having several decent burst lasers is the surest way to victory, as you can tear right through shields and it won't even matter that half of your shots miss because of that delicious laser volley. There's nothing in this game quite like firing a bunch of burst lasers at the same time.

Based on performance, it's likely that the description was just an oversight that didn't get caught during testing. There are several such errors, such as one event which implies that you could originally use scrap to fix your ship directly (which might have been a nice option, especially if it was based on crew repair skills, but it's easy to see how that could be unbalanced - it would probably render the hull repair drone redundant, for one).

[Lurkily]

My opinion is that dual lasers are about the best weapons in the game. Two shots for one energy, and their cooldown is actually shorter than their two-shot burst laser counterparts.

That said, with FTL's comparison to roguelikes, I don't mind. Everything is not meant to be balanced and manageable in a roguelike. Random, unpredictable, as capable of making you an incredibly powerful force as it is of bringing you an early grave.

I really don't think certain unbalances are actually detrimental in some cases - it's okay, in a game that depends so much on chance, for some things to just be plain better than others.

[nfiea2]

IMHO
they didn't do any testing

[Cpt Earb]

Forget everything you have read here.


The slug empire invented the Dual Laser stardate minus 120 years.

The federation uses the "in" technologie of burst lasers.


Slugs are even too dumb to install a camera while floating throw space, so why are you caring about their crappy dual laser.

[Fredchuckdave]

As stated above Burst Laser 3 is one of the worst "endgame" weapons damage/power wise, Burst 1 is not that bad. Dual laser is a starting weapon that you can only get one of afaik, it's not like someone is running around with 4 of them in sector 1. Of course since enemies ignore weapon power limitations if you buff Burst Laser 3 the wrong way you could wind up screwing over the player.