We need to talk about combat in SE1.
With Warfare 3 being the next update for SE1 we need to discuss the problems with combat starting with the most important one.
Combat is fundamentally flawed and there’s no way to truly fix it. Due to the fact that ships are built and destroyed piece by piece combat will always be flawed. So instead of trying to completely fix combat let’s look at the flaws and see what is fixable.
What wins combat: There are 2 things that win any combat scenario in SE1. Speed and volume. Speed means that you can outmaneuver any enemy fire. Volume means either more ships or more shots it’s much easier to hit a fast moving target if you’re firing hundreds of rounds a minute at it.
What defeats the enemy: There are two things that need to happen to defeat an enemy. They need to stop moving and stop shooting. There are a few ways to do this from destroying the guns and thrusters themselves to destroying the power, conveyor, or fuel systems to just destroying the ship outright.
What happens after combat: While there are a few things happen after combat there are 2 things that are required to be done before the next fight. Repairs and rearming. Both of which take time and resources.
The Flaws with combat:
Speed is so important that slow ships aren’t just bad they’re guaranteed to be destroyed making them a completely unviable choice.
Volume of fire is so important that anything besides gatling guns and auto cannons are just going to be missing their shots making them pointless.
Repairs are a pain just plain simple.
How to fix them:
Give guns different roles. Making each weapon have a purpose would go a long way.
Make repairs easier. I actually have a way to do this in the form of a new Prototech welder. Instead of repairing right in front of itself it instead repairs in a beam instead. However it can only repair one block at a time and is power hungry though in can repair through blocks as well. Maybe even a turret version could be added.
Reverse the decoy nerf. Maybe make in only able to mimic a single system type at a time or something but make them actually useful.
The controversial addition: A shield. Now before you sacrifice me to Klang let me explain how I’d add a shield. First it’s gota be Prototech. Second it doesn’t give damage immunity instead it reduces damage by a large amount. Third the damage reduction is tied to speed the slower you go your shield get stronger faster and it gets worse even completely failing at high speeds.
But what do y’all think? What changes do you think should happen?