Simple Way to Fix Defense

And Improve Ship Combat

Defense is gimped. I hope this point does not need to be argued. Take a look at the stats of any weapon and its corresponding armor. Try out some ships in the fleet simulator. You will be inclined to agree. Yes, it does have its uses, but it is not doing its job at the moment. It needs improvement.

The solution also needs to be as easy as possible to implement. Although i would like to see huge, sweeping changes in ship combat, it probably is not going to happen in a patch. Not only will it take time, but it will also probably raise its own balancing issues and concerns. My point? Lets focus on what can be done.

My suggestion is pretty simple. Actually, its someone else's. I found it to be very effective: add a small HP bonus to armor. Lets take Ultimate Invlunerability for example.

Cost: 70 MP
Size: 3
Absorption: 9
HP Bonus: 3

For every installed module, it would add an extra +3 HP for the ship. Of course, this number can be anything balanced, but +3 sounds pretty good. Lower techs will have less of a bonus, perhaps counting in decimals like .5. Also, the cost of all armor should be cut in half. Defense now is just far too expensive, even with the HP bonus. I've mentioned this before but if you take a look at 1.0 numbers for armor, they were 4x cheaper while weapons remained completely unchanged. That means armor cost was quadrupled for absolutely no reason.

Although returning the numbers back to 1.0 would definitely help, i believe this solution would be much better. More HP means a ship can take a bad roll and keep on trucking, instead of being completely annihilated. Defense is far too random for its own good, but that was another post. I'll leave with some numbers in case anyone wants to play with the fleet simulator. I believe they are pretty accurate.

1.0 (Cost of Armor: 30, Cost of Weapon: 100)

-------------------Attack Defense Cost HP
Offensive Huge 368 -66 -2640- 48
Balanced Huge 224 -275 -2310- 48
Defense Huge 128 -407 -2070- 48

Offensive Medium 192 -11 -1310 -16
Balanced Medium 96 -143- 1070- 16
Defensive Medium 48 -209 -950 -16

1.2 (Cost of Armor: 140, Cost of Weapon: 100)

-------------------Attack Defense Cost HP
Offensive Huge 368 -66 -3300- 50
Balanced Huge 224 -275 -5060- 50
Defense Huge 128 -407 -6140- 50

Offensive Medium 192 -11 -1420 -16
Balanced Medium 96 -143 -2500 -16
Defensive Medium 48 -209 -3040 -16

1.X (Cost of Armor: 70, Cost of Weapon: 100, HP bonus +3)

-------------------Attack Defense Cost HP
Offensive Huge 368 -66 -2880 -68
Balanced Huge 224 -275 -3310 -125
Defense Huge 128 -407 -3550 -161

Offensive Medium 192 -11 -1350 -19
Balanced Medium 96 -143 -1590 -55
Defensive Medium 48 -209 -1710 -73

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Why is defense gimped ? Seriously show some evidence.

It comes down to what your opponents are using. In general the AI doesn't use much defense. So for me that means I don't need much offense to beat them. Most of the space on my ships goes to defense and engines.

Using this style, I rarely lose a ship in combat. (large hull and up) It gets disgusting having 1 ship crush whole fleets and watching it just get stronger.

The problems I see are :
1) The ai(s) not trying to research a different weapon. Remember you only need the square root of your original weapon to be just as effective against the armor that was beating you. By switching weapons you can generally build cheaper, more effective ships. It doesn't take long researching this far in general. It also throws your opponent, because they have to deal with both weapons.

2) The ai(s) balance of offense/defense. For me in most games the AI doesn't use enough defense. I have on some versions seem very good AI ships, just not often. (Think it's always been the Korx too)

3) The ai(s) quickness to adapt. Most of the time the war's almost over before I see them switch their defenses. And they don't recognise that the ships that are stomping them are the ones they need to defend against. (seems to look at some sort of avg, so if 3/4 of your ships are defensive with lasers, and the battle groups are missles most of the def still goes to lasers)

4) The ai not deciding to reseach defenses against you in a significant manner. Although since they don't use much defense in the 1st place, this is probably just as well.

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