dread build cost needs to be beefed majorly. nerfing is silly because things are very balanced already. a good fc can give an sd a challenge. 2 augs is a true limitation to its wep dps already. really is a damn good ship and i have one for almost every class.

Regarding missile # in the air - this is a difficult point, and Jeff is against being able to launch x20 missiles at one time, due to balancing issues. However, the Capital Ship Tier 2 T20 launchers do fire more missiles than the normal Broadsword ones.

I have a suggestion that may accomplish most of what you're aiming for and solve the issue of the number of missiles in the air at the same time:

Make most missile launchers only control one missile at a time. Instead of multiple launchers increasing launch ROF, make each launcher fire simultaneously. The net DPS would remain the same that way. The difference would be that instead of a constant stream of single missiles blocking incoming fire, you get a burst of missiles, a few of which would inevitably be shot down, and the rest would get through to do dps. Then you would have to wait for the full reload time of a single launcher before you could launch another "broadside." This would also negate the necessity of making minimum arming distances or times and balancing all of that. You also wouldn't have to worry about 20 missiles in the air at once since you can only fit so many launchers on a ship, and really good launchers are hard to find in such high numbers anyway.

Then, you could give different types of missiles modifiers that affect launch speed. Your big base killer torpedos could increase the reload time of the launchers, since they are, presumably, bigger, heavier, and harder to load. Small, fast, low damage SD hunting missiles could give an increase to the speed of your launchers since they would be smaller, lighter missiles.

To make one T20 launcher better than another, you could simply give a slight reduction of launch / reload time or lower the size a little bit. That would make balancing new launchers much easier than having to adjust number of missiles and speed of launch together. To add a little variety, you could have certain launchers that do control 2 missiles at once, at twice the reload time of a launcher that only handles one missile. It would be the same dps as a normal missile launcher, but it would change the strategy for using it.

I like the idea of all the different debuff missiles, but finding a way to use them effectively will be tough since you can only unpack so many at a time. I suggest making missiles fire directly from crates instead of having to unpack them. Crate size would have to be increased of course. The problem now is that you don't have enough options for missile size. With a minimum size of 1 for the smallest, weakest missiles, the best missiles have to be larger than practical in order to be balanced. If missiles could be fired directly from crates, you would have the option of effectively making each missile less than one in size. For example, a crate of 50 small missiles could be 10 size, giving the individual missiles an effective size of .2 each. There is still the problem of having enough hotkeys for all those types of missiles, plus tractors, tweaks, etc., but that is an issue for C2 I guess.

I have a suggestion that may accomplish most of what you're aiming for and solve the issue of the number of missiles in the air at the same time:

Make most missile launchers only control one missile at a time, and increase firning speed for launchers across the board. Instead of multiple launchers increasing launch ROF, make each launcher fire simultaneously. The net DPS would remain the same that way. The difference would be that instead of a constant stream of single missiles blocking incoming fire, you get a burst of missiles, a few of which would inevitably be shot down, and the rest would get through to do dps. Then you would have to wait for the full reload time of a single launcher before you could launch another "broadside." This would also negate the necessity of making minimum arming distances or times and balancing all of that. You also wouldn't have to worry about 20 missiles in the air at once since you can only fit so many launchers on a ship, and really good launchers are hard to find in such high numbers anyway.

Then, you could give different types of missiles modifiers that affect launch speed. Your big base killer torpedos could increase the reload time of the launchers, since they are, presumably, bigger, heavier, and harder to load. Small, fast, low damage SD hunting missiles could give an increase to the speed of your launchers since they would be smaller, lighter missiles. You could even design missiles that break into a small, fast swarm of low damage missiles. It would be similar in balnance to a gun with multiple projectiles.

To make one T20 launcher better than another, you could simply give a slight reduction of launch / reload time or lower the size a little bit. That would make balancing new launchers much easier than having to adjust number of missiles and speed of launch together. To add a little variety, you could have certain launchers that do control 2 missiles at once, at twice the reload time of a launcher that only handles one missile. It would be the same dps as a normal missile launcher, but it would change the strategy for using it.

Finally, change the way missiles deploy and fly. Right now, they drop out the bottom of your ship facing the wrong direction, sit there for a second or so, then turn and thrust toward the target. This is fine for the big, slow high damge missiles for killing bases and large ships. Smaller, fast, lower damage missiles should pop into existance flying directly at their target at a high enough speed to give them a chance of hitting an SD.

Make most missile launchers only control one missile at a time, and increase firning speed for launchers across the board. Instead of multiple launchers increasing launch ROF, make each launcher fire simultaneously.

This would also negate the necessity of making minimum arming distances or times and balancing all of that.

Then, you could give different types of missiles modifiers that affect launch speed.

To make one T20 launcher better than another, you could simply give a slight reduction of launch / reload time or lower the size a little bit.

Finally, change the way missiles deploy and fly.

/me wonders if there is any feedback on my missile damage type suggestion a few pages ago...

I've butchered an excellent post, but thank you - great input.

Problems:

1) Players would simply aug for +hull and stack their ships full of launchers. If you could get 20 launchers (at size 50, possible) and fire missiles all at once, they would do.

Use the hard cap system you suggested as well, or something on the lines...

2) We do need arming distances - for a different reason

I can't generally think of why, apart for making spamming harder, would love to hear the reason behind this.

3) At the moment the launchers have a set launch time - missiles can't effect this, without a lot of recoding.

Get it right once = Happy players, happy devs as they don't have to recode

4) Direction of launch - we can change this, I'll play around with it

Win!

5) Missiles / Fighters take a little bit to "wake up" because they're essentially AI - not sure how to get around this

Speed up server.... Only thing I can think of. XD

Anyhow, much food for thought there, so again thank you. I'll incorporate these ideas into the mix.

p.s.

Yes, crates is impossible. You're actually destroying one item and spawning #x of another when you use a crate, nothing more.
Lots of coding, but I have a method:

I have a crate of 50 missiles, I launch a missile.
Crate of 50 missiles object is destroyed, and another is spawned "Crate of 49 missiles" Bamm.

I have a crate of 50 missiles, I launch a missile.
Crate of 50 missiles object is destroyed, and another is spawned "Crate of 49 missiles"

/like
/becomefan
/sign