Hi! Thnx. Highly appreciate your input, it is better to get four eyes two brains!
Or, in my case, one and a half (my) brains.
I always wanted to finish up Ascend Delyxe to get that matter of heart done finally, you lured me into, thnx.
One thing you should ALWAYS keep in mind. All my thinking doesnt comfort the Human Player, but the AI in the first place. What is the AI capable of (near nothing), and how should I develop the values to lure the AI into capable action. The shield values 1.6, like I told, did just comfort the Human Player, but I need to take care of the AI. The buildings, the shields, the weapons, all is basically designed to comfort the AI FIRST, THEN the Human Player, but he will have fun anyway, cause it just works now. Ascendancy had always fun, the ships, the moduls, but the lack of a totally uncapable AI - so, to increase the AI, increases the potent game itself, the other stuff is smooth anyway.
So, perhaps the Colonizer should lose again its capability to shoot, yes. But I never will take that super huge fun of Invader moduls shooting away! The thing is, that the AI has often Invader moduls onboard, sometimes no weapons at all. That would be a sitting duck. If you remember the Ascendancy Vanilla - that was basically just a freakin dumb sitting duck all the time, capable of nearly nothing, therefor ALL of my thinking is: Prevent the AI sitting duck. If the Invader modul is capable of shooting, that would prevent ANY AI sitting duck ships. Plus, I ADORE the combo of Invader moduls shooting and CI DisRaptor. I LOVE the Invader modul shooting, how it does it, and then when the AI shoots with CI DisRaptor and empties a ships shooting capability, that is awesome! That just works amazingly good.
That is really really super fun to me, Ascendancy owes me much of that. MUUUUCH of that!
My thinking is, that the AI gets industry boost, the Human Player NOT. The advantage of Star Missiles is the price. If you want to keep up with the Middle Class ship building of the AI, or any further ship building, you have to decide which modules you put into your ships - and if it would be better to spare Invader moduls caused by the risk of CI DisRaptor, and if you would use the best possible energy or shields or drive, or weapons, instead of cheaper alternatives getting the ship built faster. Star Missiles advantage is clearly the price, plus, you wont lose them versus CI DisRaptor, all I gave on purpose. The plus of Invader moduls shooting is, that AI ships are equipped with Invader moduls and CI DisRaptors in the early game, and that is really hard - on purpose!
For example. Ascendancy Vanilla, you were able to spam build all of your planets in no time, to spam build ships and fleets. You were always able to build FAST, the BEST STUFF, in no time at all. Once you got Huge Hulls, you just disbanded the Middle Hulls, bam bam bam - and five turns later you got the Giant Hulls. I wanted to make SURE, that ships and moduls are precious, and you dont waste time nor equipment, and it is no cheap spamming.
In my current testgame I dont build the best available energy moduls - at least, every time my shot down ships come back to the docks, plural, docks, a planet with four shipyards and two docks, a powerhouse MADE to do that, I have to decide which better moduls they probably get, PROBABLY, if perhaps needed, or if they just get basic repair and FK off to the front again, fast as possible. That is exactly what I want. If you want to keep up with the AI pace of ship building, you need to THINK how you could build up FAST, how to repair and equip fast. You dont have the Ascendancy Vanilla luxury to spam build whatever you want, any time, any planet, any ship, no matter. That I dont want.
In my testgame I have 16 Middle Classers and 16 Huge Classers, they all have to serve. And only when a Middle Classer actually gets destroyed he might be replaced with a Huge Classer, they all have to fight. My Middle Classers are NOT ALL top of the tec, even my Huge Classers not, cause energy moduls are expensive, weapons too. So, I cant do what I did Ascendancy Vanilla to just spam build always the best and trash the rest. Even we humans today have tanks 50 years in service - or more. And we overhaul war ships or battle tanks on a regular basis to not waste equipment and money - what would we do with actual space ships? That is my point.
Oh, yes! Another point: The common laser weapons are cheaper, and higher range! That is the cheese for the Human Player! Both, Invader modul, and CI DisRaptor, have a 30 range, all common laser weapons have a 40, at least. So, you can equip your Human Player ships cheaper, and can shoot at the AI FIRST - until the AI comes in range to devastate you by low range super guns. Plus, AI will probably use the Tractor Beam, or, the Molecular Tie Down.
That is the reason I let the most special stuff in the Heavy Delyxe like Repulsors or Magnetrons or Catapult or even Swapper - cause the Human Player could use higher range laser plus smart outmaneuvring by smart specials.
The problem with the 1.6 was, that the common laser weapons had a range 30 and the super guns a 40 - so the common guns had no actual use, and the initial AI attack was without any possible match. Why should the AI use these common guns anyway, while I WANT IT to use the brutal stuff first and only. So, I designed the common guns as cheap high range option for the Human Player, a niche the AI wont use - but could rescue the Human Player. Cheaper, higher range, the Star Missile! Plus, you wont lose it versus CI DisRaptor, while the usage of Invader modul is smooth and great - but high cost, low range, high risk.