Enemies that need rebalancing

[Aury]

There's a good number of enemies we discussed on IRC* that really need some rebalancing.

*Ttech wanted IRC to get some extra publicity... so... yeah.

Gaians: They've pretty much been demoted to late-game fuel depots; they are insanely weak, provide only fuel & ammo nobody uses, use outdated anti-missile systems, and sport the most useless weapon in the whole game! (The demo-cannon is even worse than the centuari dual recoilless; it really is a 'demo' with just 8 charges, uses ridiculous power, and deals only rather mediocre damage)

Xenophobe Defenders: Also fall into the insanely weak category; while it is acceptable for the fighters to be dinky by this stage in the game, and for the worldships to be godly (I've seen one kill two tiakons and come out still alive, even after the enforcers & guards were sent to deal with it), but the defenders are imposing looking yet fail to put up any respectable fight; they are big, but can't deal much damage, and are easily killed.

Death Drugs Cartel: They start out alright, but then they get rather weak. Not much else to say.

Himal: What can we say? They start weak, end weak, having weighty, low-value loot, weapons that almost always drop damaged and arn't useful by the time you can get to them in the sapphire (and arn't useful to the wolfen or freighter at all), and don't have any avaliable fluff-text; not even out of the game!

Abbassids: Due to the nature of their firing point & tendancy to spawn in asteroid fields, they are exploitable in that one can easily hide behind a rock and blast away at them. Having a couple firing points at a lowered rate of fire would greatly help.

--- I may add some more later, based on IRC discussions , but I amr eally sleepy rirght now, snd andso can't do so right now. Good night guys. BBL ---

[Song]

The biggest problem with the gaians is their armor. It doesn't fit in, unless the Xenos are trading with them. It also makes them hard to kill with anything except the few things that damage them, and very easy to kill with those. Maybe some heavier armor that takes damage from more things, but can take a lot of it...might be better.

The second biggest problem is their tendency, like the Xenophobe ark, to not shoot at the player. This means that 1. You don't have any risk. and 2. You get an assured 175 thermo cannon shells. Not that most people wnat said shells.

And third, as Wolfy has said, is the fact they have utterly useless weapons.


Xeno defenders.....geez....they need an armor upgrade, and probably a few more guns....another lancer in a forward position certainly wouldn't hurt....and replacing the Mk.3 might help. Or maybe.......a high-speed loader and a 5-10 degree firing arc on it?

The fighter is truly awful..particle stuff is well and truly obsolete by the time most of them turn up, and they're extremely fragile, but that's allowed, I suppose, as the agility balances them a bit better. It would probably do better with two lancers than the Defender does with 2+ a MK.3.....


Death drugs: Meh. They're terrible, and not worth bothering with usually.

Himal: They could do with a change or two..they're just a little too like the hornet, and a little too like the corsair. Yeah, in theory they do more damage than either, but in practice.....they die too fast. And the loot is so wretched the only real reason to kill them is XP.

[Atarlost]

Actually, Xenophobe defenders show up in Sung/Dwarg space where particle is typical. They're just too easy to kill. More HP would go farther than another gun.

[Aury]

I've only seen defenders with worldships, and by then, they look pretty pathetic in contrast to the worldships awe-inspiring power.

I think there should be a lighter version of worldship armor (so maybe the wolfen or even sapphire can get in on the fun, seeing as normal worldship is too heavy for either) they could use... like an equally creatively named 'defender armor' perhapse?

[Atarlost]

Defenders can show up with nothing but fighters a lot earlier than worldships appear. Worldship plate is not appropriate at that level because a lot of the time the player will have nothing that can even scratch it.

[Aury]

Ok then, heavier heavy meteorsteel

[Song]

Stand-off AI is the thing, as Atarlost has said on the IRC....

Although a little more HP, and possibly a few other tweaks would be nice

Gaians are a trickier thing to balance.....

[Aury]

On our IRC discussion today, we decided it would be best to make teh defenders a carrier-type ship.

[Aury]

As to the himal, it was suggested that an extra 5 lifetime could be added, and the annoyingly heavy and low-value ice-water be swapped for something lighter & slightly better value

[Song]

As to the himal, it was suggested that an extra 5 lifetime could be added, and the annoyingly heavy and low-value ice-water be swapped for something lighter & slightly better value

Possibly similar to the stuff you find in ice farms, albeit in MUCH lower quantities.

The extra 5 lifetime to the Bollide would also make it a more interesting/competitive weapon, and give the player an actual choice between it and the turbolaser, we thought.

[Atarlost]

As to the himal, it was suggested that an extra 5 lifetime could be added, and the annoyingly heavy and low-value ice-water be swapped for something lighter & slightly better value

Possibly similar to the stuff you find in ice farms, albeit in MUCH lower quantities.

The extra 5 lifetime to the Bollide would also make it a more interesting/competitive weapon, and give the player an actual choice between it and the turbolaser, we thought.

You mean dual laser. Turbolaser's a level higher and justly more powerful.

[Aury]

Oh, and we're still waiting to make a descision on what our suggestion for the gaians will be; if you've got suggestions, please visit us on IRC!

[digdug]

what about making the gaian a carrier ?
It's a giant slow ship, I suppose it could be fixed exactly like the Iocrym command ship, that releases the sentinels.

[Aury]

We've been trying to stay away from things that would make george have to do extra modeling

[Song]

As to the himal, it was suggested that an extra 5 lifetime could be added, and the annoyingly heavy and low-value ice-water be swapped for something lighter & slightly better value

Possibly similar to the stuff you find in ice farms, albeit in MUCH lower quantities.

The extra 5 lifetime to the Bollide would also make it a more interesting/competitive weapon, and give the player an actual choice between it and the turbolaser, we thought.

You mean dual laser. Turbolaser's a level higher and justly more powerful.

Yes, my bad.

I was thinking for gaians, give them a high HP medium-resistance armor (rather than a medium HP, super-high resistance armor), possibly a unique armor at that. Boost the damage to the Demo cannon (and give it a hiteffect, if it still doesn't have one) and give it more charges (say.....12-25)...
Thermo cannons are a liability for it, really..because the gaians can't recharge their demo cannons (which doesn't make much sense), and their primary weapon has only 175 shots. Ideally, they could do with something that uses neither charges nor ammo.....and possibly something to knock the player away (I've been doing some experiments over the last year, and in particular, particle-type shots have some rather great interference properties when given momentum values), but not in the same way as the Iocrym Repeller......