Are Novakid supposed to feel like Hard Mode?

It seems like Novakid are supposed to be Hard Mode. Guns only (with a pretty flawed system to begin with) and the only melee weapons available are randomly generated and are usually a tier below the crafted stuff you can get on other characters.

 

All races have the same equipment, iirc. Only difference is they are themed for them. How exactly are they harder? I've not played a novakid though.

 

Novakids are harder on stable build (at first). Guns in general aren't that great on stable, exceptions exist, of course.
But on unstable they're pretty solid, might be roughly equal to melee finally (if not better).

Also of note, Energy Dash doesn't cost energy on unstable, but has like a 1-2 (somewhere around there) second cooldown built in.

Novakids craft guns instead of melee weapons. They craft 2h Rifles and 1h Pistols, and start with one of each.
I can't remember if they get to craft any melee weapons at the last two tiers, but I don't think they do.

 

The only weapons Novakid are capable of crafting are a 1h pistol and a 2h rifle, until you get to the Aegisalt/Rubium/Violium split arount Tier 5 or so. So either you need to pick things off at ranged with the rifle and conserve energy, or hope for a good Melee weapon in a chest... and even then it'd have to be Purple for it to be comparable to anything else the other races can craft

I'm actually not sure if they can craft any Melee on the later-game tables or not...

 

Well that is new to me. Although in Unstable, energy regenerates faster.m ranged weapons are much better IMO.

 

novakids cant craft any melee weapons, not even at the final tiers

 

To be fair, I haven't played since December, but I don't ever remember crafted weapons being particularly worthwhile. I always picked up vastly superior melee weapons from chests than I could craft. Decent gun drops were rarer, but also pretty frequent, from what I recall.

 

Well, looking at my Human VS my Novakid, a Tier Three melee weapon (2h axe or 2h mace) is like 325 Damage Per Second, while a Tier Three Ranged weapon (2h rifle) is 195 DPS.

I found on a Tier 4 planet (Risky, Radioactive Alien world) a 355 DPS 2h Axe from a miniboss Bird that spawned.

I'd be happy if they brought Novakid crafted guns in-line with the other 6 races' crafted melee weapons

 

Don't count on that. Mele weapons have higher damage output because of the risc incolved in getting close to your enemy. Ranged weapons remove much of that risk, so they are balanced out by lower DPS.

And the future plan of allowing all races to at some point aquire other racial armors and weapons, this would make the novakid weapons basically THE ranged weapons to have over all other races. Higher damage guns for the novakid would be akin to a racial benefit, which is against the intended design plan.

 

Melee
Pros:
More damage
Block
Doesn't use energy
Can use techs without worrying about not being able to attack
Can focus on using health based armor as you don't have to worry about running out of energy

Cons:
Gets close to enemy
~~~
Ranged
Pros:
Stay away from enemy

Cons:
Little damage
Cannot block
Consumes energy
Must time attacks and wait to prevent running out of energy
Uses the same energy pool as tech
Monsters have gap closing abilities
In order to fire more bullets, you need energy armor, which reduces your health

 

I think the big problem is that right now weapons are not balanced and the system needs to get reworked. Melee definitely gets to be too powerful as armor goes through the roof for melee users.

Perhaps if your armor is X, it should Prevent X damage every 2 seconds or 3 seconds or the equivalent. Probably best for this protection to regenerate so that the results look pretty even.

So if your armor is X and we have an attack timescale of 2 seconds, then it would regenerate X armor/sec. Weapons that hit hard wouldn't see much of a difference. Weapons that hit lightly but rapidly would burn through that armor and then deal more damage (only needing to compensate for the regen).

Another option would be having two kinds of armor. One type reduces damage by X, another type reduces it by a percentage. Keep the fixed reduction amount pretty small.

It could potentially all become percentage-based, but even with diminishing returns this tends to lead to early armor not feeling as effective. Usual systems like this pick a fixed total reduction amount of say 75%, and each point of armor is just as effective for reducing overall damage as the previous point in terms of Time To Live from suffering damage.

Hmm, or armor could be a mix of shields (idea 1) and some other sort of reduction.

Anyhow, I wouldn't get too worried over this atm. It is definitely a major problem, but the combat balance is very much still in beta.

 

Energy regen is faster in Unstable. Guns are much more viable. I have a rocket launcher that does ~1000 damage and I can keep on firing it because the delay between shots is enough to almost regenerate all my energy. Honestly energy is must less of an issue now.

 

Ranged weapons that do damage in big chunks are more viable now. Machines guns and other fast-attacking weapons? Still not good, especially ranged ones with their piddly damage.

 

They indeed could use a damage boost, but with faster regen and almost perfectly safe range most times is fine balance IMO.

 

When I play as a Novakid, I'd usually go for dual pistols because of the unstable update that made energy regen really fast. It uses up a lot of energy but can deal a lot of damage in a short time.[DOUBLEPOST=1428552540][/DOUBLEPOST]

Trust me though, you don't really want to get too close to the enemy
especially on some missions where one attack would already half your health.
I'd go for both instead.

 

The problem with Novakid gun crating is that it lacks variety.

Most races get to craft a dagger, a broadsword, an axe, a spear and a hammer for each tier.
All Novaids can craft is a pistol and a rifle. I think each tier should introduce a new gun type.

Tier 2 - Shotgun

Tier 3 - Assault rifle

Tier 4 - Grenade launcher

Tier 5 - Rovket Launcher

 

I've had no issues adapting to using guns... However i've come straight from the first phase of starbound back into starbound after a year of not playing it... So i've missed a bit.. (Spent five minutes trying to make a stone pickaxe to realize those days are behind us! ) The guns with the novakids handle feel identical to the old days. Findinga gun was rare then and it was clunky as hell but it had its advantages. Novakids require changing your play style to fit them.. However the fact you can't craft melee weapons makes exploration an objective. Or even a shield and pistol routine teamed with a flashlight and pistol method works great My biggest issue with the novakids is the fact theres no dialogue with them They're just empty shells with guns and a badass ship... I went back to playing floran because I need anaylze text.

Also some gun variety would be pleasent it would make it easier to get a style down quicker

 

There's a mod for novakid inspection text.