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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Balancing Weapons

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

Balancing weapons in a game system can be a tricky business. While weapon "A" might have similar damage output to weapon "B", weapon "A" may be designed to have another tactical limitation.

Photon torpedoes are pretty much equivalent to disruptors in damage output, for example, but they require two turns to arm whereas the disruptor can fire every turn. Fusion beams can be pretty devastating at close range, but are pretty weak at long range and have the firing rate of photon torpedoes, even if they require only half the energy a photon torpedo needs to fire their shot ever other turn, and the same power a disuptor needs to fire a shot every turn.

Every weapon needs to bring something to the game. A weapon, for example that can fire every turn, but if you do not fire it on a turn, you can add more power to it the next turn. If you do not fire it then, you can add even more power on the third turn making it a pretty horrendous weapon. The problem is your opponent knows you have not fired it the two preceding turns, and knows that it cannot be held, and if he does not let you get into a good firing aspect, you have to dump all of the power as the weapon cannot be held ready, and cannot be armed a fourth turn. Which may leave you with weak version of the weapon when your opponent closes in to hit you with his faster firing, or holdable, weapons.

Make sure you are fully aware of how a given weapon operates and test your tactics before concluding that the weapon is too powerful, or too weak.