Is it just me who's doing something wrong, or does the lazorz own everything? They seem to hit faster. Missiles, seem slow, even though they hit before the animation have completed, they're still much slower, so the target may just as well be down when they finally arrive and many times my ship has been destroyed by then. I can have double the missile power and a higher hitpoint ship and still get dusted. Well, almost. The kinetic weapons are weak, and I don't really notice their impact at all. Only tried them with a trispec ship, and those are fail I tell you. Only real success I have had is with beam weapons, they hit my target fast and have been the best offensively as well as defensively. Supposedly the AI knows that as it seem to produce these beam weapon ships exclusively. Am I missing some keen twist here, that will take me by surprise on how advanced the combat really is? Will I be like having missile cruisers in the back, laser fighters in the middle and small kinetic ships in the front? I think not.
Always thought this trispec system was conceptually flawed. Do I need the defenses or what? Am I building small ships specifically to draw enemy fire from my larger ships and then refilling? I thought large ships were the tanks. Why are there no hybrid models readily available? Why aren't old designs automatically removed?
I have some general questions surrounding the weapons, but first and foremost, to have them work, as you surely know, they must be distinctively useful for their own specific purpose, they must own face in their very own way. Thanks for reading, please educate me in space warfare!
Beams are OP atm. Only way to deal with it is to mod the game and nerf them yourself. But in theory each weapon has their niche. I believe i have this correct how things currently are. Beam long range, medium/high dmg, medium fire rate. Missiles medium range, high dmg, low fire rate. Kinetic Short range, medium/Low dmg, high fire rate.
But in the way battles are modeled non of the weapon characteristics matter but range and how quick you hit. Since Beam is long range and instant hit along with more than enough damage to tear through any defenses and health they just are the best and anything else will die before it can do dmg.
While balance will be dealt with as we go.I do hope smaller ships have a use in the game too as you do, especially in combat , so it's not just a matter of producing the biggest possible ship each game.
Tiny ships with one weapon, an engine or two, and no defenses were a staple of my armies in GC2.
They picked off unescorted transports, freighters, constructors and scouts, and could do deep strikes on starbases that hadn't been given a weapon upgrade.
On fleet battles they'd typically be added as a 1 of to a stack of capital ships, and they'd soak up the first strike from an enemy battleship or whatever to save HP on my capital ships.
The AI in GC3 isn't really using transports or starbases or scouts at the moment. When they start doing that, tiny ships will have a role.
I am a lover of kinetics, but I have given up on them for the time being. According to the devs you need to add a lot of shields, and boost tactical speed to get close enough to kill. I haven't experimented enough to know if this would work but I doubt it.
Personally, I think the weapon systems need to be re-thought, from beginning to end. Missiles, longest range, most damage, slowest rate of fire, with the lowest rate of return on research. Lasers, medium range, lowest damage, highest rate of fire, highest rate of return on research. Kinetics, shortest range, medium damage, medium rate of fire and medium rate of return on research.
This is all in general terms, and one system might outpace another for a while, but missiles with high tech guidance and anti-matter/nuke tips are always going to be the most powerful weapon. Lasers will never be as long range as missiles and in spite of their long term potential, they will never have the range of missiles or the damage potential. As long as war involves melee, kinetics will always have a place in our arsenal, and we will always find ways to hurl our rocks faster and further. Ultimately the line gets blurred between kinetics and beams, but kinetics will be around for a long time.
I sometime wonder if the beams in GCIII have more to do with the battle viewer than weapons tactics.
I wanted to chime in that this has been my experience as well. The AI seems to only build Beam ships - which makes sense, because Beams seem to be attacking from the very start while missiles take a while to get there and I don't think I've ever seen ballistics work. I love the idea of the three aspects having a rock-paper-scissors approach, but it doesn't seem to be the case at all right now.
I will also second the vote for more effective hybrid models than what's currently available. The oddity seems to be that hybrid defense approaches take a significant investment, leaving very little left over for attack. It might be better to reduce the weight of defenses but apply a diminishing returns effect based upon the size of the vessel. That should allow for hybrid defense models to have a decent base of defense but still allow for specialists to maximize their defense against a specific type of attack.
I think there's some great bones here, I hope they continue to be refined!
Actual cutting lasers have a very short range *I think*. Plasma is superheated and would lose temperature very fast, would it not? That would make beam the shortest range, but instantly hitting, making it very accurate and perhaps seriously damaging, being within its range. Shield defense makes sense, somewhat, but wouldn't a shield and armor be valuable against any form of attack? I mean, armor feels like a core defense, how valuable your hitpoints are, point for point, and shield feels like a secondary defense - perfect when you want to take a hit or two but no more and go unscathed through a fight, but not really the best if you know you will have to tank heavy damage. A fighter would like a shield, while a capital ship wouldn't, mostly?
Missiles should have a homing function and serious damage, but slow attack. The defense against missiles is to avoid getting hit by it through misdirection, making it detonate with shrapnel or blasting it before it can reach you. Missile defense is worthless against any other form of attack, inherently.
Kinetic attacks would, in my mind, be the actual long range attack as it would literally never lose momentum, but it would also be increasingly difficult to hit with as the distance grew, contrary to a laser which would always connect immidiately, plasma would not however, they're really different things, even though I understand why they're both beams. Can't really picture how plasma would behave, I don't know much about it (Like a fireball or ball lightning?)I think they should rework both the attacks and defenses, bring depth into their functionalities. That is a necessity, to have combat and equipment be a relevant aspect of the game. Then you could tactically spot vulnerabilities in your opponents defenses, strike with your specialized fleet and move out, or fortify positions with your slow multifacetted ships, keeping specialists off them with your own specialists. Or something, I'm more or less just babbling, because I'm really not sure how it ought to play, but right now all I see is a do or die game where I attack and expect certain losses, with all ships without beam/shield are simply a misbuild. I can't make an intelligent maneuver - I just fall back and hope those who overpower me don't follow, or I sweep in, uncontested, without a need to think it through but to keep my transports out of harms way. I'm sure there's more twist to it than that, but it comes off as shallow to me on a first playthrough.
Maybe Stardock is not focused on having their combat perform, I think that would be a mistake, a missed opportunity. The trispec system needs real attention to make it a good addition to the game, otherwise it is just a research filler.
The last Stream I was very specific in asking Paul to re-balance the weapons as beams are win,win win....along with Carriers.
The build that Paul has NOW, (not ours) has missiles currently overpowered. He is working on adjusting them. I called out that in order to make Kinetics viable the cost and size of thrusters absolutely must be lowered or giving a coefficient to make them smaller when combined with kinetic weapons. Also there was mention of having the fighters on Carriers vary in the weapon load-outs. I am one who wants to see ALL weapon types viable during each age.
My personal opinion is if you want to focus on one weapon type at start of game you should not be penalized for it. Rather the balance to each weapon type should occur with strengthening the defenses and making the strategic resources PRIME in making them much stronger.
I feel that if resources like Elerium made Shields 2 or 3x stronger and same with others, Durantium for armor and antimatter for chaff types, then there would be a very good reason to rush these resources early in game.
Personally Id like to see the resources crossed in use. Durantium for 'shield augmentation, Elerium for Chaff types, and Antimatter for better armor. This would GREATLY enhance their value for everyone at the same time making them very scarce and fought over.
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