by Mike_Evans
I used the word douchebaggery because I called it what it was. But M. Faulkner was big enough to apologize, and so I accept with no hard feelings.Since one apparently needs to have a pedigree where this game is concerned in order to be taken seriously: For the record, I am being conservative when I say that I have close to 30 games of Eclipse under my belt, I playtested the expansion, AND I have spoken with a member of the design team about the expansion. I have the emails and pdf's to prove the latter two claims, you'll have to take my word for it on the first. This is partly in response to Mr. Hammond's implication that I am a new player.
Mr. Hammond, my thoughts about your comparison of the hull points on techs to my suggesting that the missile techs are a band-aid: Interceptor Bays are clearly there to improve interceptors, I don't think it says anything about hull "balance" in the game. Sentient Hull is an interesting combination of hull and computers, and Conifold Field is certainly a rich man's Improved Hull. While I am not nearly as infatuated with Improved Hull as some of my fellow players are in my game group, Improved Hull IS a pretty awesome tech. Without speaking to the author directly, I think one COULD argue that these techs are there to give more players access to good hull techs, since I.Hull does get snapped up pretty frequently. Not a fix, necessarily, but an improvement.
The difference is that the anti-missile techs exist PURELY to counter missiles. Ion Missiles are also such a perfect counter to low-hull missile boats that I am inclined to lump them in the same category. the added initiative means you can pop those ships like balloons before they can fire off their payload. You guys wanna call it "options," fine. But I am inclined to believe that even if the designers think there's nothing wrong with missiles, those two techs could be a nod to the part of the community that thinks missiles are OP.
For the record, I will happily play with missiles, rules-as-written. I know how to use them well, but I have experience fighting against them. That being said, I think their raw power does tend to push certain strategies to the forefront more often than I like, making for a somewhat repetitive/boring play experience, and have played around with simple variants, mostly for the benefit of others in my game group. This is partly because I love designing variants and quasi-expansions.