I've been reviewing the entity files and BSG battle scenes and if the goal is to be as close to canon as the engine allows I have observations and recommendations. I haven't reviewed the shield mitigation decay rate but looking at the relatively low weapon damage and long PreBuffCooldownTime would lend me to believe shield mitigation would remain relatively high once battle began. This will give the Cylon a significant advantage all other things being equal (which of course they aren't).
Specifically reviewing fighter vs fighter, GSG footage using the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage as a typical example shows several things that starkly differ from that currently found in game.
Cylon fighters seem to outnumber Colonial fighters by at least 2:1, Cylon Combat squadrons start with 4 and Bomber squadrons start with 3 ships while all Colonial Combat fighters start with 6 per squadron, bomber squadrons 5 bombers and the stealth bomber starts with 1 fighter.
BSG footage shows most Cylon and Colonial fighters are destroyed on a single successful attack, currently in-game a typical Cylon Combat (not the bomber) can withstand 5-6 "hits" before being destroyed, Colonial fighters (Combat) tend to endure 3-5 "hits".
Recommendation, and this will require additional balance work but:
- Double the number of CommandPoints StartValue and ValueIncreasePerLevel for the Cylon capital ships and frigates as applicable.
- Reduce FighterCylonCombat maxMitigation from 0.600000 to 0.350000
- Reduce FighterCylonBomber maxMitigation from 0.600000 to 0.400000
- Double Colonial Combat and Bomber gun weapon damage (except for the StealthBomber)
- Double Colonial figther AttackType "ANTIVERYLIGHT" missile damage
I can find no discernible difference between the Colonial Combat and Combat2 entity files which appear to be the MKII and MKI respectively. The BSG wiki suggests the MKII had a different weapon and slightly better performance specs. To meet this difference recommend the following adjustments for the Combat2 entity file:
maxAccelerationLinear 240.000000
maxAccelerationStrafe 95.000000
maxDecelerationLinear 900.000000
maxAccelerationAngular 49.999992
maxDecelerationAngular 99.999985
maxSpeedLinear 2500.000000
adjust weapon damage from 19.5 to 17 which does not account for the doubling mentioned above.
- Adjust the gun weapon damage of the Combat1 which appears to be a missile armed variant of the Viper MKII from 10.5 to 19.5 to match that of the base MKII Viper. The AttackType "ANTIVERYLIGHT" of the missile equipped is almost worthless against any ship with armor medium or heavier and so isn't unbalancing.
- Adjust weapon 3 of the CorvettColonialLoyalist and CorvettColonialRebel from ANTILIGHT to ANTIVERYLIGHT and double the damage from 20 to 40 which will very slightly decrease effectiveness against larger ships but will increase (by ~40%) the effectiveness against CylonCombat and maintain parity against CylonBomber craft.
Edit: I can make these changes and send the files via e-mail if you prefer, if so PM me a good e-mail.
Edit2: I also reviewed the SoaSE fighters and the above recommended changes are not exceptionally overbalanced against the vanilla races. Vanilla fighters retain maxMitigation 0.600000 but have lower hull repair rates and comparable gun weapon damage.
