About the explosive damage vs shields (vanilla 1.5.2)

[Fulano]

So... I keep hearing this is a bug, it seems like a bug... but at the same time it kinda feels like a natural counter to shields?

Is that why it hasn't been fixed yet? Or is it more because it's complicated to teach a game how to block area damage with shields and hasn't been a priority for the devs?

I can say I like having a counter to shields. It's been the only way I could defeat certain techs. Though on the other hand I feel like missiles are plenty OP as they are currently. It's hard to survive unscathed when the Hawkeye cruise missile boats spawn.

[Reeva!]

You mean missiles damaging shielded parts?
It's not a bug as far as I know, but it does lead to the same endgame every time.
You get those missiles, because other techs have those missiles. But now, they have more, cuz you have more, etc. etc.
Now you'll never "fight" a tech ever again. You'll see one, tap spacebar once, and watch it evaporate.
The reason you do this, is because if you get too close to it, that's what'll happen to you.

In the end it doesn't really matter what your tech looks like, its mobility, its utility. All that matters is how many missiles you can fire at once.

The fact that enemies do not agro onto you because you're too far away, makes this both OP and necessary at the same time.
Some enemies just stand still infront of other enemies until you get close, they literally do not "activate" if you're too far.

I'd like to call it a bug, but it doesn't seem to be. It's just a very strange decision.

[Fulano]

Originally posted by Reeva!:

You mean missiles damaging shielded parts?

Yes, that.

Near as I can tell the projectile is still blocked at the shield, it just detonates there and still does the area damage to anything in the explosive area, whether it's shielded or not.

I've seen other indie games struggle with getting similar mechanics to work right. Seems like it might be a pain to code such mechanics... basically carving a sphere out of another sphere. Though just toggling the components as shielded would probably be an easier way to approach it? Dunno... I never got that deep into coding.

I like to try to play the campaign in a way that I can scavenge as much as I can, but ya, end game I end up just using the Venture Swarm Launcher to slowly weaken the tech and break any missiles it has, then go in and finish up with lasers.