I've come to accept that Seeking weapons are criminally under-priced as presented in the Starmada Unity Rulebook. Game-mechanics-wise, they work fine, and on ships that don't rely on seekers as their sole means of combat, they aren't particularly unbalancing. However, the point cost issues are a magnet for min-maxing, so much so that some players have banned them entirely.
Thus, I've been giving some thought to how they might be fixed.
The core assumption is that a seeking weapon should not cost less than the same direct-fire weapon with an equivalent range value. In other words, if you build a range-9 weapon, its ORAT should not drop if you make it a seeker with an MA of 9. This is because, due to the sequence of play, a seeking flight will be able to move at least that many hexes before anyone has a chance to shoot them down (discounting the existence of enemy fighter flights and defensive weapons).
My first thought was to simply make "seeking" a flat multiplier (say, x1.5). However, once the enemy does have an opportunity to start shooting, more powerful seekers are at a disadvantage, since every successful hit eliminates more potential firepower (this is the reasoning behind the admittedly clunky saving throw rule).
Therefore, I'm proposing the following:
Compute the BSUR of a Seeking weapon normally, using the base MA as the Range value (not twice the MA as stated in the rulebook). Then, increase this initial BSUR by an amount computed as follows:
(BSUR x MA x ROF x 0.2)^.5
For example, a weapon with MA 6, ROF 2, ACC 4+, IMP 1, DMG 2 would have an initial BSUR of 9.8 (6 x 2 x 0.25 x 1.25 x 2.6). The added value is 4.8 ((9.8 x 6 x 2 x 0.2)^.5), for a final BSUR of 14.6, or an increase of about 50%.
Thoughts?
