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 optimized: beam lifetime reduced, aim speed significantly lowered, and damage per volley increased to reduce effectiveness against multiple shields and structures
  • Energy charging costs and drain rates now required for Orbital Death Laser operations
  • Novax Base Station adjusted: lower mass cost and faster build time offset by higher energy requirements

[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 to reduce effectiveness in massed volleys, while damage is increased and energy charge/drain mechanics are introduced. 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 changelog entry changelog/snippets/balance.7123.md	Changelog entry 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, and build time adjustment.
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 reviewers

• Rhaelya
• BlackYps

🐰 A hoppy hop for balance fair,
Novax's aim now slower in the air,
Beams reduced but damage grows,
Energy costs bring balance blows,
The satellite finds equilibrium's care! ✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately reflects the main changes: nerffing Novax's aim speed and beam lifetime while rebalancing costs.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description includes all major required sections: clear explanation of changes, testing done, additional context, and completed checklist items with proper documentation.
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

[coderabbitai]

⚠️ Potential issue | 🟠 Major | ⚡ Quick win

Beam lifetime value breaks the stated “same volley damage” target.

Line 148 uses BeamLifetime = 5.3, but with Line 153 Damage = 90 this yields lower total volley damage than the documented 4860. If the intent is to preserve volley damage, this should be 5.4.

Proposed fix

-            BeamLifetime = 5.3,
+            BeamLifetime = 5.4,

📝 Committable suggestion

‼️ IMPORTANT
Carefully review the code before committing. Ensure that it accurately replaces the highlighted code, contains no missing lines, and has no issues with indentation. Thoroughly test & benchmark the code to ensure it meets the requirements.

Suggested change

	BeamLifetime = 5.3,
	BeamLifetime = 5.4,

🤖 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 `@units/XEA0002/XEA0002_unit.bp` at 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).