[Mod] Shields and Weapons balance overhaul 1.74

[Requiemfang]

Just tried the mod, while I really like the general feel of the weapons and fire rates, they feel much weeker now, battles take way longer. By myself in a Falcon I have no change against 3 xen ships. Is this intended?

have you tried the new version yet? mod creator just gave Xenon ships a buff across the board.

[AngEviL]

Again and again in X4 the xenon were pushed around and got obliterated from the galaxy and sent straight to the hellhole where they came from ! Time to end the picking on the small guy, the Xenon got back to the drawing board and fixed many flaws in their ship design and weaponry.

No really, I didn't nerf any weapon, and remember, what the player uses, the NPC uses too. Actually some weapons like laser and plasma are greatly improved from vanilla.
In vanilla Xenon had weaker ships and weapons than player, now I made them on par with the player. If you read the forums, I see this complaint everywhere, that the game is too easy, that Xenon get obliterated by the NPCs even, without the player doing anything.

I made Xenon ships and weapons on par with the player, no cheating. I realize that this may make the game harder at first when you are starting out, but this part of the fun, and if you wrote that, i think that the mod is in a good direction, haha.

[Requiemfang]

I like it, I like the challenge, it makes you feel that sense of accomplishment when you manage to take them down in a fight. I do not like having things handed to me.

[Osbot]

If it feels like weapons are nerfed, it's because shields are much stronger.

[thanos]

Thanks for the mod. Quick questions:

1. I can't seem to find the latest version on the Nexus (I see 1.54 only).
2. What exactly do you mean by integrating engines/turrets/shields into the hull? Is it not possible to destroy individual subsystems anymore?
3. Can you look into modifying the destroyer main batteries? They are a bit anemic for what they're supposed to do. At least in my mind they should be powerful anti-capital/anti-station guns.

[AngEviL]

Thanks for the mod. Quick questions:

1. I can't seem to find the latest version on the Nexus (I see 1.54 only).
2. What exactly do you mean by integrating engines/turrets/shields into the hull? Is it not possible to destroy individual subsystems anymore?
3. Can you look into modifying the destroyer main batteries? They are a bit anemic for what they're supposed to do. At least in my mind they should be powerful anti-capital/anti-station guns.

The version is up, there was a small error I had to correct before uploading.
2.No, the way this mod is headed that was more of a hindrance, as instead of hitting the ship, the components got hit. The main ship took no damage in that case.
The turrets and shield hp got boosted so much, that they didn't get killed anymore. I just don't like it for a capital ship to be disabled easy and be a sitting duck.

Besides, when it gets chaotic, and i am sure it will in the next patches with more conflict, hitting those huge engine hitboxes would be more of a hindrance imho, might as well buff the total hp instead. Of course i know some people would prefer to disable components, and I agree, it is that the way I am balancing this mod I don't like having that in practice.

3. They are already modified, the destroyer main guns do x2.5 times the damage of Mk2 Plasma, which does big damage already.

[thanos]

Thanks for the reply. One thing to consider with the invulnerable components is how it affects boarding. If you can't blow up those turrets, is boarding going to be impossible? They will just shoot down all the pods. At least, that's what they did in Rebirth if you didn't blow them up first.

Just something to keep in mind.

[AngEviL]

Thanks for the reply. One thing to consider with the invulnerable components is how it affects boarding. If you can't blow up those turrets, is boarding going to be impossible? They will just shoot down all the pods. At least, that's what they did in Rebirth if you didn't blow them up first.

Just something to keep in mind.

Damn, I didn't consider that. I'll add back hp to turrets.

[TR0LL]

Thanks for the reply. One thing to consider with the invulnerable components is how it affects boarding. If you can't blow up those turrets, is boarding going to be impossible? They will just shoot down all the pods. At least, that's what they did in Rebirth if you didn't blow them up first.

Just something to keep in mind.

Damn, I didn't consider that. I'll add back hp to turrets.

Thank you! I wasnt going to update because of this.

[draugar77]

Hi,
I noticed some weapons got increase of 300-1000% damage output. I'm a bit afraid that your regen system and doubled shields is not enough to compensate. 300-1000% damage vs 200% shields It's breaking my head

[AngEviL]

I think that i underestimated how much people like to destroy components, I removed the integrating into hull of turrets, engines, and weapons. Shields did get integrated though.

Hi,
I noticed some weapons got increase of 300-1000% damage output. I'm a bit afraid that your regen system and doubled shields is not enough to compensate. 300-1000% damage vs 200% shields It's breaking my head

The weapons that got that damage output are the Mk1 weapons, which are useless in vanilla, basically same as Mk2, but with half the damage, and other minor disatvantages. Also the encyclopedia in vanilla is borked, for some weapons the numbers have nothing to do with reality, like bolt appeared to do 10 times less damage than it really did.

And I upgraded bad weapons like plasma and laser, and if you compare mk1 variant from mk1 from vanilla, of an already bad weapon, the difference is huge. There is balance and multiple choices and fun now ! But i am open to suggestions if stuff dies too fast or too slow.

[draugar77]

I think that i underestimated how much people like to destroy components, I removed the integrating into hull of turrets, engines, and weapons. Shields did get integrated though.

Hi,
I noticed some weapons got increase of 300-1000% damage output. I'm a bit afraid that your regen system and doubled shields is not enough to compensate. 300-1000% damage vs 200% shields It's breaking my head

The weapons that got that damage output are the Mk1 weapons, which are useless in vanilla, basically same as Mk2, but with half the damage, and other minor disatvantages. Also the encyclopedia in vanilla is borked, for some weapons the numbers have nothing to do with reality, like bolt appeared to do 10 times less damage than it really did.

And I upgraded bad weapons like plasma and laser, and if you compare mk1 variant from mk1 from vanilla, of an already bad weapon, the difference is huge. There is balance and multiple choices and fun now ! But i am open to suggestions if stuff dies too fast or too slow.

Ok I see. Thanks for info.

One more point though. I just died from a Khaak while in travel mode. It literally catched me with one shot at 2600 m/s .... I don't think that's intended. I don't mind the damage it did to me, but accuracy and weapon distance are questionable in this case.

[ausmcbain]

Thanks for your work, like the way this is going, however I can confirm, got wasted in about 3 seconds flat from a Khaak beam. Had no chance of doing anything.
If I wanted to nerf them a bit, what settings would I adjust?

Thanks again

[AngEviL]

Thanks for your work, like the way this is going, however I can confirm, got wasted in about 3 seconds flat from a Khaak beam. Had no chance of doing anything.
If I wanted to nerf them a bit, what settings would I adjust?

Thanks again

A reason why I buffed Khaak is because there are so few of them, and they have no capitals, and barely scratched shields before. Their damage may be too high now, so I'm nerfing it by a third, feedback is welcome as to how much of a challenge they pose. You can adjust damage by going into RebalancedShields/assets/fx/weaponfx/macros, find the bullet_kha_s/m_beam_01_macro.xml, open it, and edit the damage value.

Edit: Version 1.60 is up where i nerfed Khaak damage by 40%, plus more other balance changes.

[Misunderstood Wookie]

I seriously commend this mod, I believe it is one of the MUST HAVE installs as usually leave it up to the community to find balance. Well done!

[Requiemfang]

Just saw the update on nexus and something in the change notes concern me.

'Removed the annoying heatbar filling when firing beam weapons'

Why? that I think is a way to balance those type of weapons, you can't just fire a beam weapon and expect to keep firing it for forever it has to overheat at some point. Remove the overheating mechanic and you basically have an IWIN every time button.

[AngEviL]

Thank you for the kind words ledhead900, I will keep working on this mod !

Regarding the Beam weapon, please test the weapon first. I will be more clear in the update notes. Mk1 overheats very slowly like before, but its damage is low. Mk2 has higher damage but overheats at an above average rate.What i am talking about is that if you pressed the fire button just for 0.1 seconds, it filled the heat meter instantly by 10%. I changed the wording: "Removed the annoying instant heatbar filling at the first fraction of a second when firing a beam weapon"

Beam Mk2 is the only weapon in my mod that is a little bugged in the encyclopedia that it doesn't say correctly what the "sustained output" but it's dps is correct. You can compare beam with the other weapons yourself in encyclopeida or ship building and see that they all have their pros and cons which I love. Beam is certainly not better, and the player has choice.

[Requiemfang]

Ah okay yeah totally misinterpreted that, now that it's worded properly no more confusion

[ausmcbain]

loving your work mate, keep it up. Cant play without this Mod to be honest.

[bl3ek]

I'm installing this tonight.

My Behemoth feels more like a useless sloth than a destroyer!