featherwings wrote:And the ship tier list, which you might want to take a peek at. (no really, i'd love your critism.)
Some ships I simply haven't played enough to have a reliable opinion on, but my thoughts anyway:
Overall I agree pretty well. Carnelian is clearly amazing (though can have a rough patch if you hit a lot of Zoltan shields), The Vortex is definitely bottom tier. I'd probably raise both Stealth ships one tier; Nesasio is actually super strong early on (though the 3 weapon slots is a big downside). The Stealth B is definitely awkward, but it does start with a solid end-game quality weapon which is worth something.
The Torus seems on par with the Red Tail, though I'm not actually sure offhand if I'd want to bump The Torus up or the Red Tail down. Stormwalker I mostly feel is bottom tier alongside The Vortex, but at the same time might gain a tier simply by merit of starting with a teleporter. I'd also probably bump the Basilisk a tier - it's a bad version of the Crystal B, but that's still pretty good.
I think the Man O War is at least Mid Tier - it starts with Breech I and Dual Laser which are both amazing weapons, and with 4 weapon slots you can potentially still be using one or both for the end game. The Bio Beam also means you'll be pulling in good scrap rewards like the teleporter ships do. (I believe I've only actually played this ship once, though, for a Normal win.)
The Noether is also probably one tier higher as the dual ion ends up being quite powerful. I also kinda hate the Bravais, but that's probably because the first time I played it I hit nonstop Defense Drones which can shoot down your laser-like weaponry. A relevant weakness, but still probably a strong enough ship to stay at its tier (especially with the free scrap from the augment and the crystal crew).
To reiterate, I don't feel super confident in all these statements, as I don't have enough experience with all the ships to say for sure, but those are my current thoughts.
featherwings wrote:Would it be too difficult to divide the mod up into different sections? For instance, a weapons&drones, an arguments, an events, and a stores&systems? It'd really help with the compatibility, at the very least. If it's an actual effort, don't bother, but if it's just a few more download links I'd appreciate it.
It'd be a reasonable hassle. While there's still a fair bit up in the air that will still change, I probably won't worry about breaking it up or making it compatible with other mods (unless there is high demand). As things start to become more finalized, it is certainly something I can look into more. Breaking things up is also somewhat awkward as its meant to be a whole package - some tweaks don't work as well in a vacuum.
featherwings wrote:Store prices: look really good across the board. Keep in mind that there's a number of other events that are balanced around the cost of missiles in the stores, such as the selling military grade explosives event.
Good thing to mention. I have considered this, and any I've noticed are probably fine to stay where they're at - the one you mentioned sells off missiles at 3 each which still seems perfectly reasonable when they cost 5 at stores.
featherwings wrote: (fyi: I really only ever buy mantis. Every other crewmember tends to be not worth the price in early sectors and unneeded in late sectors.)
You might want to lower humans a bit, too - being "average" really translates into being the absolute worst race. Ten scrap isn't really worth not picking up double repair speed or double fighting ability.
This has been mostly the case for me as well, though I'll pick up something else if I get unlucky with crew-giving events (generally Engi if possible, Human if desperate). I briefly had Zoltan down to 60, but I believe the ability to go over your normal maximum power is relevant enough to be worth paying for in some cases.
Dropping Humans to 35 isn't unreasonable at all, but perhaps the better way to approach this would be to reduce the amount of crew you get from events a little bit, meaning you can't rely on it as readily to net you free crew and making buying crew a better idea.
Glad this discussion brought this to mind; I like this idea a lot. I specifically like the idea of reducing how often Slaver ships offer a surrender giving you a slave, as reducing that nicely goes in hand with the reduced cost for buying a slave from friendly slaver ships as well (since it's less assured you'll get one for free from fighting).
featherwings wrote:Ships: Again, I've got some ideas I'll spare you. What you've got so far isn't enough to really swing things too far but they're still welcome.
Looking at your Tier List commentary, it sounds like we're mostly of the same mindset here. I just wanted to reign in some of the high end and boost the low end -- it's a good thing for them to not be completely balanced. I'm considering a few other tweaks (like moving Stormwalker's Medbay), but probably don't intend to do anything too drastic. The Bulwark is also buffed a bit by missiles being cheaper which is nice, though I could potentially see them starting with say 2-4 more missiles as well.
featherwings wrote:Systems: Pilot 3 is handy because it gives your helm a bit more damage resistance. bumping it down to 35 might be putting it in "every evade ship gets this" territory. For engines, you're taking into account that as you get more dodge, each additional percent of dodge is more effective? (which has more impact on hit chance, 1% > 2% or 98% > 99%?) The percent you get for the max level of engines already gets bumped up a little relative to level 7.
I don't believe that's cheap enough to quite put it there - 35 is a fair bit to pay for a mere buffer. I'd like it to be reasonable but not clearly good to get it, which I believe 35 is, but I could potentially see 40.
I'm aware how dodge works - see my previous post in response to 966socho for some numbers on that. And as a side note - I'm amazed how many people in the FTL community understand this concept; it's not the most intuitive thing. Back when dodge existed in League of Legends it seemed like nobody understood the idea at all, and I'd go red in the face explaining how multiplicative dodge did not have diminishing returns...
featherwings wrote:Weapons: I'd avoid tweaking the burst lazer II's cooldown. Like you said, it's integral to a few starting ships. I tend to think it's important to have a weapon or two that's "obviously the best" just so when you get one it feels like a burst of luck. Keep the cost tweak, but it's like a dual laser you can find once in awhile.
Even with the slight nerf I think it still fits this bill nicely - I'm pretty much jumping to pull together 95 scrap any time I see it in a store =)
I'd say getting BL2, BL3, Glaive, or Pre-Igniter still feel like a great burst of luck!
featherwings wrote:Hull weapons pretty much suck across the board, I'd bring the breach up a little higher to really send the message home.
Yeah they're kind of awkward; the concept make sense, but in practice you almost always would rather hit systems that rather than do more hull damage. If you're talking Hull Missile, I could see 50% but wouldn't want to go higher; it's not a Breach Missile (if Hull Missile needs further buffs, they'd have to be elsewhere). Hull Beam I like at 10% a lot - I actually think it's decent pre-buff (the main problem being getting it at the right time with the right equipment alongside), but it's definitely more fun with the breach chance and it doesn't make it overly strong.
featherwings wrote:Changing the ion bomb's cooldown really really dicks with it. It was a single-fire hit to drop shields before your first burst hit, or a quick shot to the helm. Because it uses missiles, you really don't want to chain it. So basically you've just nerfed it pretty hard, while giving it a slightly different purpose.
It still does that job admirably I believe - 3 ion is enough to guarantee disabling the pilot for example. So far I've still found it very strong in its nerfed state; that much disable for only 1 power is really really good, even if it does cost a missile. And because the cooldown is just barely low enough, you can also chain it with itself to keep heavy shields down if necessary.
featherwings wrote:Why would you lower the price of the hull repair drone? It's already way too good, especially vs. the flagship where it lets you fight round 2 with a full hull. Having a portable hull repair is REALLY powerful and I'd probably still buy the suckers if they were 120 scrap.
This is a change I don't feel too strongly about, but I will note that it is almost impossible to break even with the cost compared to simply repairing (even with the reduced drone part cost) - you'd need to heal up 72 hull damage to break even in cost.
Obviously, the ability to repair in the field is relevant and worth something as well - I just don't find it very important myself (e.g., I only expect to take about 2 damage from Phase 1 of the Flagship anyway; being topped off is good, but rarely that important). I believe you are over-valuing it, but I certainly welcome further discussion - anyone else want to chime in with their Hull Repair thoughts?
featherwings wrote:Events:
Would you consider removing the " from the real stealth cruiser unlock quest? It's a very silly spoiler.
Already done! Didn't even realize the significance of it - I was just fixing punctuation errors ;O
featherwings wrote:Again, thank you for all your fantastic work and I'll give you more feedback as I play a bit.
Cheers. Thanks for the feedback.