Damage Bonus Reversal

Looking for a more EVE-like weapon setup? Think shields should be kinetic deflectors like Star Trek and Mass Effect? Want your armor to be ablative instead of reactive?

Don’t worry! There is now a mod for that!

• Shifts weapon damage bonuses. Armor is now considered ablative and shields deflect ballistic projectiles.
• Lasers now strip shields and struggle against ablative armor (dealing EM+thermal damage).
• Gauss cannons and artillery now destroy ablative armor (dealing kinetic+explosive damage).
• Plasma is something in between (dealing thermal+kinetic damage).
• PD, disruptors, arc emitters, missiles and torpedoes are unchanged.

Incompatible with anything that changes vanilla weapon stats (weapon_components.csv) or definitions (namely 00_leviathans_weapons.txt, 00_weapons_archaeotechnology.txt, 00_weapons_energy.txt and 00_weapons_projectile.txt).

Definition changes can be overridden by another mod by placing it lower than DBR in the load order, but the AI may use anti-armor weapons to target heavy shielded ships and vice versa.

DBR is not intended to be a huge rebalance mod; it simply changes armor or shield damage and penetration values for suitable weapons. I’ve tried to keep its intrusion into game balance at minimum. This means that some weapon classes like point defense, disruptors and missiles, while thematically suitable for modification, have not been touched.
Thus,

• DBR does not change weapon damage/range/accuracy stats.
• DBR does not modify any stats of point defense, disruptors, missiles, torpedoes and the majority of leviathan/NPC weaponry.
• However, the mod does change AI weapon tags and derived targeting priorities for modified weapons.

Does DBR affect overall balance? It definitely does. I suppose that recent meta strategies will not work, but if you’re worried about the meta, you shouldn’t install this mod in the first place. It’s more RP-centric.

• Lasers:
  +25% hull damage
  +50% armor damage
  -50% shield damage
  changed to
  -25% armor damage
  +50% shield damage
• Archaeotech Lasers:
  +50% armor penetration
  +50% armor damage
  -50% shield damage
  changed to
  -50% armor damage
  +50% shield penetration
  +50% shield damage
• Plasma Cannons:
  +50% hull damage
  +100% armor damage
  -75% shield damage
  changed to
  +25% hull damage
  +50% armor damage
• Proton/Neutron Launchers:
  +75% hull damage
  +50% armor damage
  -50% shield damage
  changed to
  -25% armor damage
  +100% shield damage
• Railguns / Archaeotech Railguns:
  -50% armor damage
  +50% shield damage
  changed to
  +50% armor damage
  -50% shield damage
• Autocannons:
  +25% hull damage
  -75% armor damage
  +50% shield damage
  changed to
  +25% hull damage
  +50% armor damage
  -75% shield damage
• Artillery:
  -50% armor damage
  +100% shield damage
  changed to
  +25% hull damage
  +75% armor damage
  -50% shield damage
• Energy Lances:
  +50% hull damage
  +100% armor damage
  -50% shield damage
  changed to
  -25% armor damage
  +50% shield damage
• Mega/Giga Cannons:
  +25% hull damage
  -25% armor damage
  +50% shield damage
  changed to
  +50% hull damage
  +100% armor damage
  -50% shield damage
• Archaeotech Giga Cannons:
  +25% hull damage
  -75% armor damage
  +150% shield damage
  changed to
  +25% hull damage
  +75% shield damage
• Titan Lances / Archaeotech Titan Lances:
  +25% hull damage
  +50% armor damage
  -25% shield damage
  changed to
  +25% hull damage
  +25% shield damage
• Mining Lasers:
  +50% hull damage
  +50% armor damage
  -50% shield damage
  changed to
  +25% hull damage
  +25% armor damage

Yeah, there are two commonly used sci-fi setups:

• Reactive armor that protects from shaped charges and energy shields that protect from particles/heat.
• Ablative armor that protects from heat/radiation and kinetic deflectors that protect from, well, kinetics.

Vanilla Stellaris utilizes the former. My mod makes it utilize the latter. If you don’t like what this mod does, simply do not subscribe and enjoy vanilla mechanics.