Re: [MOD] DronesPlus 0.7.7
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:52 pm
Fantastic imagery and implementation, karmos.
Nonetheless, I do have balance concerns – especially, as prior posters have commented, with the ion and missile drones. Given their relatively high rates of fire (in the case of the 4-power versions), low power consumption (in the case of the 2-power versions), and ability to either disable shields (in the case of ion drones) or bypass shields entirely (in the case of missile drones), it's hard not to feel both to be overpowered. (I can't imagine what these were like prior to the 0.7.6 nerf. Good FTL God.)
The 4-power ion and missile drones are the crux of the problem, though: the rates of fire are simply too high when used against the player. When used by the player, both might very well be well-balanced. When used against the player, however, the onslaught feels disproportionately more powerful than any other weapons wielded by stock enemies. I might be O.K. with even that, were there tangible rewards for defeating such "mini-bosses." But there aren't. You're left with a largely depleted hull and little to show for it beyond the ordinary scrap spoils.
Missile drones are especially problematic in early sectors, where the player is unlikely to have a high enough evasion to reliably dodge missiles. On Easy, this might not be a problem. Easy is, after all, too easy. On Normal (i.e., Insanely Stupidly Impossible), however, I've had numerous playthroughs abruptly curtailed by a chance encounter with a missile drone.
To compound matters, I've yet to see such drones available in shops or from events or enemies. In my playthroughs at least, this implies that enemy ships get to field the arguably most overpowered weapons in the game but I, the player, cannot. I'm largely O.K. with the Rebel Flagship breaking the FTL rules of engagement and fielding ridiculously overpowered weapons and systems. I'm not O.K. with random enemies on the road to the Rebel Flagship doing the same. It feels deeply unfair – to the point that I've recently removed DronesPlus from my mods list. (I should probably just edit out the missile drone and possibly the ion drone from the zipped XML files, but... that smells suspiciously like work.)
Ideally, I'd love to see both either rebalanced or (failing that) reworked from the ground up. It shouldn't be terribly hard to fairly balance the ion drones, for example: decreased rate of fire (for the 4-power version) and increased power consumption (for the 2-power version) should do it. In the case of missile drones, however, I question whether the core idea of a drone always bypassing all shields even can be fairly balanced.
In any case, thanks for your tremendous efforts in keeping the FTL journey alive.
Nonetheless, I do have balance concerns – especially, as prior posters have commented, with the ion and missile drones. Given their relatively high rates of fire (in the case of the 4-power versions), low power consumption (in the case of the 2-power versions), and ability to either disable shields (in the case of ion drones) or bypass shields entirely (in the case of missile drones), it's hard not to feel both to be overpowered. (I can't imagine what these were like prior to the 0.7.6 nerf. Good FTL God.)
The 4-power ion and missile drones are the crux of the problem, though: the rates of fire are simply too high when used against the player. When used by the player, both might very well be well-balanced. When used against the player, however, the onslaught feels disproportionately more powerful than any other weapons wielded by stock enemies. I might be O.K. with even that, were there tangible rewards for defeating such "mini-bosses." But there aren't. You're left with a largely depleted hull and little to show for it beyond the ordinary scrap spoils.
Missile drones are especially problematic in early sectors, where the player is unlikely to have a high enough evasion to reliably dodge missiles. On Easy, this might not be a problem. Easy is, after all, too easy. On Normal (i.e., Insanely Stupidly Impossible), however, I've had numerous playthroughs abruptly curtailed by a chance encounter with a missile drone.
To compound matters, I've yet to see such drones available in shops or from events or enemies. In my playthroughs at least, this implies that enemy ships get to field the arguably most overpowered weapons in the game but I, the player, cannot. I'm largely O.K. with the Rebel Flagship breaking the FTL rules of engagement and fielding ridiculously overpowered weapons and systems. I'm not O.K. with random enemies on the road to the Rebel Flagship doing the same. It feels deeply unfair – to the point that I've recently removed DronesPlus from my mods list. (I should probably just edit out the missile drone and possibly the ion drone from the zipped XML files, but... that smells suspiciously like work.)
Ideally, I'd love to see both either rebalanced or (failing that) reworked from the ground up. It shouldn't be terribly hard to fairly balance the ion drones, for example: decreased rate of fire (for the 4-power version) and increased power consumption (for the 2-power version) should do it. In the case of missile drones, however, I question whether the core idea of a drone always bypassing all shields even can be fairly balanced.
In any case, thanks for your tremendous efforts in keeping the FTL journey alive.