I was just wondering if anyone had some suggestions on whether I should make some of the more powerful missiles weigh 1 or more tons like the earlier Escape Velocity games? I just wanted to know if I should use that for balancing on stronger ones, so you can't buy 50 hellhound missiles and a launcher and destroy anything you don't like without half trying, maybe add limits to how many missiles you can get per launcher as well.

I'm exactly sure what your referring to but I hate it when missiles actually weigh something, unless it is in a plug where every shot counts. I prefer using a max ammo per launcher if it is in an EVN type universe to balance all that stuff. That way even if you completely strip your tiny fighter and buy 1 launcher for heavy weapon (A) you can still only buy as many projectiles as the launcher can hold(i.e. not very many, at least not enough to do much damage with your tiny fighter).

This post has been edited by Sp3cies : 06 October 2009 - 08:19 PM

Unhelpful advice: Well, it depends on how powerful you want the missile to be!
It's tough when Hellhounds are massless. In the Anathema teaser while flying a very big ship I found the 1-ton Charon torpedoes to be good. Archon changed the Hellhounds to be 1-ton as well, though; otherwise, I might not have gone for them.

Personally, I miss the every-shot-counts feel in the earlier games, and it made rarities like EVO's needle missiles that much cooler. And frankly, fighters aren't meant to spam heavy rockets and the like. It's hard to factor that into EVN. If you want "massiles", I'd make them significantly better, and "market" them to bigger ships with a couple tons to spare.

This post has been edited by n64mon : 06 October 2009 - 10:56 PM

I agree with n64mon (again). My personal preference is diversity; not only does it allow people to tool their ship more to their desires/needs, it also helps differentiate ships beyond "how fast is it?" and "how much can it carry?" For example:

You have you Nova-esque massless missiles, but, as you said, they can only hold a certain number per launcher. If you wanted to explain this, you could give them a high rate of fire and say that they achieve said ROF because they're housed directly in the rack rather than in the ship's ammo bays.

Then, you have a few missiles that do more damage but weigh one ton per. However, they are much more powerful, and their launcher is massless. To limit the number one can purchase, each takes up one gun mount. Also, you may or may not want to make them exclusive to fighters. They will probably have a much lower ROF because they have to be stored in the ammo bays.

Along with these, you have a few "cluster fire" missiles. These would take up space both on the launcher and ammo side, but you give it burst fire mechanic and check the "only consume ammo at end of burst" flag. That way you can make one missile count for two shots, or five, or a hundred. Totally up to you. You could even make the burst reload and shot reload the same if you didn't want them to fire in bursts but still only wanted them to take one ammo per X shots.

On top of that, you have your standard EVC missiles, torpedoes, and rockets: launcher takes space, missile takes space. They'd be the most powerful, either in speed, reload, hitting power, or tracking (or several or all if you feel like it). These will probably be too large for most small ships to house, but make up for it with the above attributes.

Overall, you end up with flexibility and with a feeling of "hey ship X is considerably different in loadout options than ship Y." Obviously this isn't the only way to induce variety, but it's certainly a fun one!

(As an aside, I hope people like these ideas, because they're exactly what I'm doing in the hypothetical TC.)

QUOTE (Archon @ Oct 7 2009, 02:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You have you Nova-esque massless missiles, but, as you said, they can only hold a certain number per launcher. If you wanted to explain this, you could give them a high rate of fire and say that they achieve said ROF because they're housed directly in the rack rather than in the ship's ammo bays.

Nova doesn't make use of the certain number per launcher feature... All missiles have an upper limit so you can buy as many as you want no matter how many launchers you have...

QUOTE (n64mon @ Oct 7 2009, 12:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you want "massiles", I'd make them significantly better, and "market" them to bigger ships with a couple tons to spare.

That's pretty much what I intended, very powerful missiles that weigh 1 maybe 2 tons at most and they'll be meant for medium or capitol ships (not warships they'll have something much more powerful ). Maybe a heavy fighter might mount a few, literally a few, no more then 2 or 4.

QUOTE (Archon @ Oct 7 2009, 12:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You have you Nova-esque massless missiles, but, as you said, they can only hold a certain number per launcher. If you wanted to explain this, you could give them a high rate of fire and say that they achieve said ROF because they're housed directly in the rack rather than in the ship's ammo bays.

Then, you have a few missiles that do more damage but weigh one ton per. However, they are much more powerful, and their launcher is massless. To limit the number one can purchase, each takes up one gun mount. Also, you may or may not want to make them exclusive to fighters. They will probably have a much lower ROF because they have to be stored in the ammo bays.

Along with these, you have a few "cluster fire" missiles. These would take up space both on the launcher and ammo side, but you give it burst fire mechanic and check the "only consume ammo at end of burst" flag. That way you can make one missile count for two shots, or five, or a hundred. Totally up to you. You could even make the burst reload and shot reload the same if you didn't want them to fire in bursts but still only wanted them to take one ammo per X shots.

On top of that, you have your standard EVC missiles, torpedoes, and rockets: launcher takes space, missile takes space. They'd be the most powerful, either in speed, reload, hitting power, or tracking (or several or all if you feel like it). These will probably be too large for most small ships to house, but make up for it with the above attributes.

Yeah I was thinking I would do something like that. For example you have your sparrow missiles the fly fast, have good turning, nice amount of damage, and they're mass-less; the only downside is they're easily jammed, they can only hold 20 per launcher, and can only do significant amounts of damage to large ships if fired in large quantities. Then you have hellfire missiles which have a large payload, are long range, it flys faster then the sparrow, and can hold 30 per launcher (at one ton per missile it might not make much difference) again the downsides are it can't turn as well, easily jammed, weighs one ton.

yes it does how do you think they make it so that if you buy fighter bays you can only buy a certain number of ships per bay not however many you want. You just do the same thing but with weapon ammunition not carried ships.

yes it does how do you think they make it so that if you buy fighter bays you can only buy a certain number of ships per bay not however many you want. You just do the same thing but with weapon ammunition not carried ships.

I know; the point was that they're Nova-esque in that they are massless, but on top of that you add a per launcher restriction.

QUOTE (TheReclusiveOne @ Oct 7 2009, 03:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yes it does how do you think they make it so that if you buy fighter bays you can only buy a certain number of ships per bay not however many you want. You just do the same thing but with weapon ammunition not carried ships.

yes it does how do you think they make it so that if you buy fighter bays you can only buy a certain number of ships per bay not however many you want. You just do the same thing but with weapon ammunition not carried ships.

I was talking about missiles.

QUOTE (Archon @ Oct 7 2009, 03:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know; the point was that they're Nova-esque in that they are massless, but on top of that you add a per launcher restriction.

Heh, alright. I got you. Sorry bout that.

No problem. It was ambiguously worded. As a communication studies major, I should know better.

I don't understand why Nova didn't do this in the first place. It just seems like common sense game balance to me. Would any of the ships in EV Nova/Arpia 2 become unbalanced if I made a balanced missiles plug-in?