Author Topic: Mesons  (Read 16828 times)

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Iranon

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Re: Mesons
« Reply #135 on: March 02, 2019, 09:57:08 AM »
The particle lance will definitely be interesting. Note that you don't have to go with all options -  I'll probably field small regular beams for long-range work, and look at large but otherwise low-tech lances as can openers after which other weapons can find the gaps. Paying for capability you don't need becomes less attractive when a weapon has a chance to break down each shot. OTOH, microwaves probably remain the top choice against heavy armour - doesn't matter if destruction takes a while after the enemy has been render deaf, dumb, blind and impotent.

I see little use for the new mesons unless shields turn out to be oppressive. Apart from PDCs, I found them dubious despite all the advantages they will no longer enjoy. I believe the upcoming version will be interesting and a little weird - to my understanding, a great many mechanics changes encourage something rather counterintuitive.
 

Offline MarcAFK

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Re: Mesons
« Reply #136 on: March 02, 2019, 05:07:57 PM »
They'll be niche, should be useful for fighters or as a counter to smaller vessels, they'll shred destroyers or anything without a ton of armour.
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Offline Desdinova

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Re: Mesons
« Reply #137 on: March 02, 2019, 10:28:21 PM »
They'll be niche, should be useful for fighters or as a counter to smaller vessels, they'll shred destroyers or anything without a ton of armour.

A 10cm laser would be superior in all respects against a lightly armored target. Mesons have half the range, so you're going to be close to or in the laser's full damage range. For example, against a target with 2 layers of armor a 10cm laser will penetrate with every shot causing at least 1 point of internal damage, while base tech mesons only have a 25% chance of causing internal damage. Even if you dump a million points into armor retardation tech, Mesons are inferior across all ranges and armor thicknesses to base tech 10cm lasers until possibly the very end of the tech tree.

They may bypass shields but would make poor anti-shield weapons because they don't complement other weapons; a mixed laser/meson battery is not as helpful against strong shields as either an all-laser or all-meson battery, with the latter only being situationally useful against strong shielded opponents. Microwaves are a better choice because they cause direct damage to shields.
 
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Offline Bremen

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Re: Mesons
« Reply #138 on: March 03, 2019, 02:24:56 PM »
A 10cm laser would be superior in all respects against a lightly armored target. Mesons have half the range, so you're going to be close to or in the laser's full damage range. For example, against a target with 2 layers of armor a 10cm laser will penetrate with every shot causing at least 1 point of internal damage, while base tech mesons only have a 25% chance of causing internal damage. Even if you dump a million points into armor retardation tech, Mesons are inferior across all ranges and armor thicknesses to base tech 10cm lasers until possibly the very end of the tech tree.

They may bypass shields but would make poor anti-shield weapons because they don't complement other weapons; a mixed laser/meson battery is not as helpful against strong shields as either an all-laser or all-meson battery, with the latter only being situationally useful against strong shielded opponents. Microwaves are a better choice because they cause direct damage to shields.

Mixing lasers and mesons gets much more attractive when you consider you'll seldom be engaged against a single hostile target. If you have five ships with a mix of mesons and lasers, and the enemy has five ships with both armor and shields, you can fire all of the mesons against one ship and all of the lasers against another. It's still not quite as effective as all lasers would be against an armored ship or all mesons would be against a heavily shielded, lightly armored ship, but on average it works out better than either.

I do agree that the meson penetration chances are probably overly low, but I think we can wait and hope it gets changed after gameplay testing.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2019, 03:02:28 PM by Bremen »
 

Offline Father Tim

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Re: Mesons
« Reply #139 on: March 03, 2019, 04:06:09 PM »
Someone mentioned (in another thread) modding the VB6 Aurora database to reverse the Meson Size tech line.  The idea being that Mesons now start out as 60cm monsters that still only do one (unstoppable) internal damage, but slowly get smaller as you progress.  It makes meson-armed fighter swarms an end-game weapon system.

I love this idea, and I really wish it would become the C# Aurora Meson model.  Having to choose between dozens (hundreds?) of points of laser damage and one point of unstoppable penetrating damage seems much more like an 'apples to oranges' choice than 10cm Meson vs 10 cm Laser (where the laser wins 96.5% of the time).

. . .

(Though this might require removing the 'bigger Mesons have longer range' feature, leaving range entirely in the 'increased meson range' tech line.)
 
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Offline xenoscepter

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Re: Mesons
« Reply #140 on: March 03, 2019, 06:34:41 PM »
What about making so ships mounting Mesons can only mount one type of Meson weapon? So if you mount a turreted Meson Gun, you must use only THAT type of Meson Gun on your ship. Would that help? I mean we already can add only one type of engine and only one type of shield. And while were at it, can we change that please? I really want mixed engines and shield types...
 

Offline Bremen

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Re: Mesons
« Reply #141 on: March 03, 2019, 07:28:02 PM »
I don't think we need to rehash the thread. Steve said he'd already coded it and was going to wait on balance testing before any further changes.
 

Offline waresky

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Re: Mesons
« Reply #142 on: March 08, 2019, 11:30:40 AM »
@Steve.
In Traveller and Megatraveller (@ Mark W.Miller) Mesons are a crucial weapon. Same a "Particle Cannon" but..in Spinal Mount design and in big Ships.

Meson in little ship can't be mounted.

For me..u can scrap entirely from the Game. Your choice