I have to say I agree with this guy, reloading / refilling a ranged weapon feels more natural when done manually. I can bet anyone here would agree, when feeling the difference between "waiting for the ranged weapon to reload by itself" and "reloading manually when energy is depleted". At least to me, waiting for the damn gun to reload on it's own is very frustrating, it becomes like "Come'on damnit, start reloading already!", really not cool guys, not cool. If anything, it should automatically start reloading immediately when the energy is depleted, then there wouldn't be a frustration in the situation. And also like others have said, the energy bar being shared between techs and ranged weapons is totally wrong, that gives the melee class a huge advantage. So at least separate the ranged weapon energy and tech energy so the tech's energy is outside of the weapon balancing issue. It makes no sense to have the ranged class so vulnerable, they should have a fighting chance as well. Switching between melee and ranged weapons should be totally optional if you ask me, but it seems that is not what you are going for, seems like melee class will remain overpowered...
@Caelann yaayyiiiy Gunblades!!! Count me in! Edit: @XRiZUX hehe, not cool guys, not cool^^ harsh but true
As mentioned before, I don't think that'd be ever a problem for anyone who wouldn't want to deal with it if there'd be actual choice allowing people to choose whether they want a ballistic weapon or an energy one. After all, no one says that average miner/explorer has to carry around a heavy machinegun with belts of ammo, the same way a player making a planetfall with intent to storm certain installation has to really concern themselves with mining all kinds of resources with matter manipulator. In fact, such distinction with certain drawbacks would balance guns well. Energy weapons - versatile, with no ammo requirement but with no ability to maintain fire for prolonged periods of time and ballistic ones - allowing continuous fire and serious warfare as long as there's ammo, but requiring additional funds to replenish said ammo and space to carry it. I am sure we already had discussion about this in particular.
Those boosts burn mad energy (don't even remember what the rates used to be like, but I'm pretty sure they've gone up a fair bit since stable) but the regen rates were worthless. I was getting limited use out of the tech at the end-game tiers, 'cause you'd burn off the energy so fast--even with decent boost control--and the recharge rate was very disproportionate to the amount of energy you had. Couldn't quickly explore a planet and expect to use firearms. What this change means is that people with larger energy pools charge at the same % rate as people with smaller pools, making the recharge after using those skills significantly faster. This is a colossal buff for characters that want to use techs in melee combat in the late game. This will have an even bigger effect as the larger energy pool sets are added. It was pretty much a necessary change for hybrid and ranged(/'caster') builds to even be viable end game; they would've had to deal with even more disproportionately large recharge times. Burning off all your energy in a fight or two, then having to wait around a few minutes to recharge isn't fun for anyone. Now people should be able to use lighter, more energy efficient armor to combine guns (or staffs) and techs in a reliable way with very little downtime. @ all the ammo stuff: I just think of the energy cost on firearms as a suit-based stabilization/cooling system. This change makes the meter more like an overheating cost than an ammo cost, and that's the way it should be. I'd rather a weapon customization system for different ammo types than actually having to equip different types of ammo for the same gun.
Of course, we also don't yet know how they're gonna adjust the Techs for this new system going forward. I mean, this would be only the initial round of balancing, changing the most egregious issues, but more broad-strokes... the more fine-tuned stuff comes later in the development process.
Armagon, I realize this was a blog update, but can there be another blog entry, perhaps on chucklefish.org, where you can go into the balance process in more detail? I'm more interested in learning how game developers determine balance of different kinds (i take it damage, hp, and energy usage all work different formulas.) within a video game's progression. How does one determine which numbers to use for a game like this, as opposed to other RPG games' numbers going into the millions?
All of that holds true if you don't rely on a combat strategy that combines energy weaponry with techs. The new system means you need to stop firing weapons or using techs for a few seconds before energy regeneration kicks in. Not only that, but if you accidentally let it drain completely, you will be locked out of using energy weapons and techs until the bar regenerates completely. This means you cannot successfully maintain combat action indefinitely, unlike melee. You are forced to constantly stop combat and retreat so that your energy bar can refill without you getting swarmed by enemies. Depending on the situation, you might be forced to use tech to retreat, which can either fail due to not enough energy, or result in an "overheat", essentially penalizing you for doing exactly what you're supposed to do under the new system. This could easily kill you, which in normal or permadeath mode means everything. Removing the inactivity requirement and waiting period before energy starts refilling would help, but ultimately this will never be truly resolved unless weapon and techs consume different resources; and as it stands, tech+melee is reasonably feasible, whereas tech+guns just isn't. EDIT: Also, it should be noted that with the changes to combat removing damage from merely touching enemies, melee has become infinitely more reliable, especially if combined with tech. Meanwhile energy weapon + tech strategies are being penalized, forcing people to either drop techs or go melee.
nice change in how energy works! =D now we can add projectiles / bullets for guns that fire projectiles. keep energy for energy weapons though. that seems to make some sense at least xD
Developer has worked and reworked this game so much that when it comes out it will be called Starbound 2! Lol.. love it, keep up the good work!
Unless melee weapons are ALSO being rebalanced to work with this new system, altering damage rates and swing-times to adjust, on top of enemy attack power and reaction time, armor ratings.... Which the blog post gives every indication is the case. It just focused on a reworked energy bar because that's likely the biggest, "flashiest" and easiest element of the combat rebalancing process to demonstrate, rather than talking about a bunch of largely-boring incremental numeral tweaks. Again, we're only getting snapshots, not the full picture.
After getting a feel for it, energy regeneration begins roughly three seconds after you stop consuming energy using either techs/guns/other weapons that use energy. If you drain your energy completely, however, you'll be waiting a few seconds longer -- AND not even be able to use energy until the bar is refilled completely. I think in total if you empty your energy, you'll be waiting around 8-10 seconds.
Get ready for the waiting game, where PvP will be about waiting for the opponent's turn in real time... Turn based real time action inception
I like this system, it seems well balanced. Also, just an idea: how about tech that applies status effects (to you, and/or enemies) or tech that adds a passive effect, like energy shielding or something?
