Nerf novax aim speed, beam lifetime, and rebalance costs

[lL1l1]

Description of the proposed changes

Inspired by Caliber's novax rework.
Discord discussion
Reducing aim speed and lifetime nerfs the OP retargeting that could kill 7 shields or tons of t2 fabs in the 8 second lifetime.
Cost is rebalanced by moving mass cost into the form of an energy drain to fire the novax. This means that novax timings are the same but there are additional power generators to defend, especially when making many novaxes, so there are more vulnerable locations for artillery/units to attack, which requires greater investment in shields and engineers to defend. The energy ratio is increased so that players build the power for firing the novax before they build the novax.

Testing done on the proposed changes

The forum thread has details on the economic numbers and the impact of aim speed. Basically it can kill 50% less shields/t2 mass fab mex caps.

Checklist

- [ ] Changes are annotated, including comments where useful

• Changes are documented in a changelog snippet according to the guidelines.
• Request 2-3 reviewers from the list of reviewers and their areas of knowledge.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Balance Changes
  • Novax Orbital Death Laser re-tuned: shorter beam lifetime, much slower aim speed, and higher damage per volley; firing now requires energy charging and ongoing energy drain.
  • Novax Base Station updated: reduced mass cost and slightly reduced build time, offset by increased energy requirements.
  • Sensor behavior changed: Novax sensors now favor Sonar over Omni.
  • Defense Satellite tuning: orbital laser energy requirements added and turret responsiveness adjusted.
  • Economy update for a defense satellite unit: energy build cost increased, mass build cost decreased, with slightly faster build time.

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This PR implements a balance pass for the Novax Center experimental satellite unit. The Orbital Death Laser's beam lifetime is reduced and aim speed drastically lowered, while damage is increased and energy charge/drain mechanics are introduced. The unit's sensor system is updated from Omni to Sonar. The base station's economy is rebalanced with higher energy requirements and lower mass cost.

Changes

Novax Center Balance Adjustments

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Balance and sensor changelog entries changelog/snippets/balance.7123.md	Changelog entries documenting the balance pass rationale and all specific parameter changes: beam lifetime reduction, aim speed lowering, damage increase, energy charge/drain introduction, base station mass decrease, energy cost increase, build time adjustment, and Omni-to-Sonar sensor swap.
Omni-to-Sonar sensor system swap units/XEA0002/XEA0002_unit.bp	Sensor system updated by removing Omni categories and abilities and adding Sonar equivalents; Intel radii changed from OmniRadius to SonarRadius (60) while leaving RadarRadius unchanged.
Orbital Death Laser weapon tuning units/XEA0002/XEA0002_unit.bp	Weapon configuration updated with reduced beam lifetime, increased damage output, and new energy charge/drain mechanics; turret rotation speeds (pitch and yaw) reduced from 360 to 8 to significantly slow aim.
Base Station economy adjustments units/XEB2402/XEB2402_unit.bp	Satellite base station economy rebalanced with increased energy cost (800000), decreased mass cost (32000), and reduced build time (43600) to align with weapon changes.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~12 minutes

Suggested labels

area: balance, area: unit-blueprint

Suggested reviewers

• Rhaelya
• BlackYps

Poem

🐰 A hoppy hop for balance fair,
Novax swaps sensors in the air,
Slower aim but harder blows,
Energy demands as power grows,
The satellite finds equilibrium's care! ✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and specifically summarizes the main changes: nerfs to novax aim speed and beam lifetime, plus cost rebalancing.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description adequately covers all key sections: proposed changes with rationale, testing methodology, and completed checklist items for changelog and reviewers.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@units/XEA0002/XEA0002_unit.bp`:
- Line 148: The BeamLifetime value (BeamLifetime) is currently 5.3 which,
combined with the weapon Damage (Damage = 90), reduces the total volley damage
below the documented 4860; update BeamLifetime to 5.4 so that BeamLifetime *
Damage * (number of beams per volley) matches the expected total volley damage
(preserve the intended volley damage calculation by setting BeamLifetime = 5.4).

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 10fad4b2-40c2-4999-ace4-211eeb670489

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 342e60d and 38d12f0.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• changelog/snippets/balance.7123.md
• units/XEA0002/XEA0002_unit.bp
• units/XEB2402/XEB2402_unit.bp

[hotcheese4444]

This is alot of changes if it all doesn't get approved, perhaps just start with the duration and aim time changes.

[coderabbitai]

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

changelog/snippets/balance.7123.md (1)

17-17: 💤 Low value

Minor: Improve clarity of sensor swap rationale.

The phrase "to partially keep that interaction" is awkwardly phrased. Consider restructuring for better clarity—e.g., "to maintain that interaction" or "to better preserve that interaction."

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

In `@changelog/snippets/balance.7123.md` at line 17, The phrase "to partially keep
that interaction" in the changelog entry is awkwardly worded and reduces
clarity. Replace this phrase with a clearer alternative such as "to maintain
that interaction" or "to better preserve that interaction" to improve the
readability and flow of the sentence while conveying the same meaning.

Source: Linters/SAST tools

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Nitpick comments:
In `@changelog/snippets/balance.7123.md`:
- Line 17: The phrase "to partially keep that interaction" in the changelog
entry is awkwardly worded and reduces clarity. Replace this phrase with a
clearer alternative such as "to maintain that interaction" or "to better
preserve that interaction" to improve the readability and flow of the sentence
while conveying the same meaning.

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 88a99ef1-bbfb-4326-b574-a1cd196a16a3

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 38d12f0 and 30dd362.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• changelog/snippets/balance.7123.md
• units/XEA0002/XEA0002_unit.bp