Super Melee Balance Thoughts and Concerns

from StarControl Forums

I played a few hours while testing all the ships against the Crazy Cyborg. Here are some observations, opinions, and bugs I came across.

Bugs
- primary fire stuck on sometimes after winning a round
- The Measured ship became invisible a couple matches until destroyed
- Occasionally the AI with start with about a full section of crew damaged

The Measured
- Spamming De-Motivator is highly effective
- The AI can beat it with the Scryve Battlecruiser's flak, but I cannot figure out how to use the flak as effectively
- The AI can beat it with the Menkmack but I cannot, the AI (crazy) seems to have proximity bombs whereas I only have bombs with a long timer
- The AI can beat it with the Pinthi sometimes, but my aim is nowhere as good as the crazy AI
- Tywom, Drenkend, and Dan'nath Trickster are effective at kiting around it

Earth Ship
- Powerful when skirting enemy and firing missiles
- Can be countered with Dan'nath Trickster, Menkmack ship with reinforcements, and Tywom Defender

Dan'nath Trickster
- Strongest at skirting enemies due to decent speed and extremely long range weapon
- Besides itself, not much can counter it once it outranges the other ship, maybe the Tywom or Drengen could outrun it but the AI doesn't want me to test that

Menkmack Ship
- strong attacks but slow speed makes it difficult to overcome other ships, feels underpowered overall

Scryve Battlecruiser
- Powerful but has great difficulty hitting other ships
- Some aiming of the flak would help in thwarting close range attacks
- Infinite range cannon may be needed too due to slow speed

Pinthi Ship
- Powerful against slower ships but easily outranged by others

Tywom Defender
- Weak vs The Measured, Drengen Carrier
- Strong

Trandals Ship
- Weak vs The Measured and Menkmack Ship
- AI is not effective at using the speed burst and as such isn't much of a challenge

Drengen Carrier
- Balanced against most other ships when I use it
- The AI and its perfect aim can freeze other ships easily and bombard it while out of range
- Very strong against Scryve Battlecruiser

Mowlings Ship
- Mowling just run away and wait for Jeff
- Jeff can take out most ships
- Weak vs The Measured

242 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

Menkmack Ship
- strong attacks but slow speed makes it difficult to overcome other ships, feels underpowered overall

Totally agree. I think it is currently slowest ship in the game.

The strategy for taking it down, is always go for main ship (which can't outrun you) and ignore reinforcements. And bombs are really bad weapon for slow ship.

Scryve Battlecruiser
- Powerful but has great difficulty hitting other ships
- Some aiming of the flak would help in thwarting close range attacks
- Infinite range cannon may be needed too due to slow speed

My main problem with flak is that cannons look really intimidating, but actually are pretty meh when used. They need to feel intimidating too.

Maybe add to them some some slow speed autotracking, synced with flak animation for greater effect?

 

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

I feel like I am doing something wrong with the flak because the AI can do a lot more damage to me than I can do to it. I get the feeling that the crazy cyborg gets a damage boost sometimes. Anyways, when I fire the flak I get considerably less explosions and they almost never hit the opposing ship.

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