Weapon Balance Question: Turbolasers versus Ion Cannons

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wminsing
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Weapon Balance Question: Turbolasers versus Ion Cannons

Postby wminsing » Tue Jan 24, 2017 11:22 pm

So is it just me or are Turbolasers still absolutely better than Ion Cannons? You get them at similar points in the Tech Tree, they do similar levels of damage, but Turbolasers are 'laser' class weapons and can benefit from the 'Rapid Fire Lasers' and 'X-Ray Lasers' techs which grant then RF and AP, at which point the become much better overall in my experience. Am I missing something major? The AI seems to favor Ion Cannons.

-Will

bjg
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Re: Weapon Balance Question: Turbolasers versus Ion Cannons

Postby bjg » Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:13 am

Had never cared for Ion Beams in SiS. They are needed to research Disruptors and Neutron Beams though.

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Arioch
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Re: Weapon Balance Question: Turbolasers versus Ion Cannons

Postby Arioch » Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:34 am

There are two issues. First, Ion cannons were supposed to be a different damage type (electrical/charged), but instead were implemented as another "heat" beam weapon. Second, a number of nice mods were implemented for lasers, but not for the other weapon types. So there's not really any compelling reason to use ion beams over turbolasers.

If we ever get around to implementing the tactical revisions for AoE, template weapons and more specialty weapons, I'd like to try to get the "charged" damage type implemented as it was originally envisioned.

wminsing
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Re: Weapon Balance Question: Turbolasers versus Ion Cannons

Postby wminsing » Wed Jan 25, 2017 2:06 am

Ok, so they are supposed to be just be different, but the current engine doesn't reflect that, which is fine. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing some game mechanic that would have made my Turbo-laser strategy obviously wrong. :)

-Will

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TheDeadlyShoe
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Re: Weapon Balance Question: Turbolasers versus Ion Cannons

Postby TheDeadlyShoe » Fri Jan 27, 2017 11:53 pm

There is one major flaw in sticking to laser techs - interceptors and strikefighters scale with your best researched weapon, and rapidfire/xray mods don't help.

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Arioch
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Re: Weapon Balance Question: Turbolasers versus Ion Cannons

Postby Arioch » Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:42 am

It's possible in the future that we could make mods available to small craft as well.


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