Atroika

I'd argue gameplay should almost always supercede dedicated "realism", though it's best if the two can parallel as closely as possible. An exploding cargo hold full of torpedo's isn't a huge stetch for suspension of disbelief even if it doesn't fit universally. A compromise could be as simple as having nuclear warheads do a smaller percentage of damage if they explode internally, shown as a text trait on the weapon info tool tip, to reflect the fact it's just a trigger charge (which would still not be a good thing to have happen) while kinetics could be exempt entirely but have their own trade offs. As for tracking being universal. You could come up with any fluff to explain that not being the case (Battletech is a prime example of how to justify a weirdly primitive high tech future) but the bottom line is it's just significantly better for gameplay. You could use the presence/absence of it to impact damage values, price per use, it differentiates torpedo's from each other in a way that impacts playstyle and you could even tie it into additional systems. For example they could introduce counter measures that affect guided weapons effectiveness which in turn provides a benefit to using a dumbfire weapon beyond cost. Finally there is a significant difference between something being difficult, and something being tedious. I'd argue early game is more grind than it is challenge at the moment and the addition of guided-torpedo-spamming enemies only added uneccisary frustration. Pirate attacks are far to common in sectors a "pirate" shouldn't even be in, while the invaders are less of a panic-inducing crisis and more a clockwork annoyance. It's not especially challenging to run away when you hear that beeping alarm go off, but it's incredibly annoying given just how often it happens. Especially if rng has failed you and you've not gotten the modules/turrets you need to do anything but run Add in the addition of persecutors as an extremely artificial gating mechanic executed in the most simplistic way possible, forced gear checking, and you have a starting experience that really just isn't fun.

They are an incredibly unnecessary addition that penalizes exploration, artificially delays progression for no reason, reduces the reward for what is already a major risk, and delays access to the materials needed to really take part in the primary mechanic of the game; ship building. They feel artificial, cheap, and they add nothing of value to the experience. In fact the actively detract from the games enjoyability. If you want to make coreward diving more dangerous, just work on making the combat deeper, maybe add more hazards as you get closer to the core. In the end, a skilled player should still be able to explore and achieve rewards for taking risks, without the game arbitrarily telling them "no". It's just forced grinding at that point and grinding is not fun.

This is actually a cross post from another forum, but I felt it should go up here too; To start off. I like the torpedoes as a concept, but the current execution leaves something to be desired. I'm not neccisarily talking about their sheer damage either, though that certainly is one concern. Below are a few thoughts on these weapons from the other post; Firstly, All torpedoes are guided which should not be the case at all. Most torpedoes, especially the big capital ship busters, should be either dumb fire or limited guidance that isn't full tracking. The guided torps should be limited to one or two types and have the same damage penalty that Independent Targeting turrets receive. Guided torpedoes should have a limit on how many can be fired at once which is tied to your computer core (not processing power, but the core itself) so you need to dedicate real space in your build if you want to salvo fire guided torpedoes. Torpedoes should also have a minimum range under which they will not explode. If you want to get fancy you could have this be something you can disable in the torpedo menu, but a torp explosion too close to you should do self damage, and torpedoes that have had their safety disabled should explode in your storage for full damage if your launcher/storage block is heavily damaged/destroyed with torps in them. These should also be weapons that are extremely rare in the early game. It's silly that tiny, poorly equipped factions on the fringe of space can rain expensive torpedoes all day long and it really hurts the early game for new players. PD's work fine (assuming you don't get insta-gibbed because torps got launched at you before you even hit the space bar to load into a sector, or because a torp ship happened to jump in right next to you) but obtaining them is incredibly unreliable. Incidentally, there should be a cooldown when entering a sector during which torpedoes cannot be fired by you or at you, and you should be immune to all damage for a few seconds upon loading into a sector. Building your own turrets, because of how much of a headache crafting is, is not viable for a new player. They are restricted to what will randomly drop for them, and what they happen to find at a store. But there is so much RNG in this, it is not a practical solution to this issue. You might luck into amazing PD's that make torps a complete non-issue, but more likely you'll get tiny cannons that won't do much at all. Even if these canons do handle torpedoes, odds are they will not do enough offensive damage to ships which leads into the next issue. Equally as important are the turret + system upgrades. Maybe more important now. On my fresh restart this was the single biggest problem; I could absolutely not find any turret modules of worth anywhere and was stuck with three armed turret slots (which thanks to the turret size change, meant two actual turrets) for ages, all of which *had* to be dedicated to PD's because of torpedoes. Honestly I feel like the Turret Module should either be scrapped all together or changed to a buff of some kind. The number of turrets your ship can have should be determined by how many "turret mount blocks" you include in your build. There should either be limits or penalties to exceeding a certain number of turrets to prevent excessive boating, but the entire determining factor to your turret count should not be based on system modules. Just a few thoughts.