Light Armor

No changes. Light armor remains a standard structural block capable of taking light damage.

Heavy Armor

Heavy Armor has been slightly changed, making explosions the direct counter. It works well against projectiles though.

Blast Doors/Armor

Blast Doors now serve as blast-resistant armor, with increased resistance against explosions (but reduced resistance against projectiles).

Functional Blocks

Gyroscopes, Space Balls and other offenders for excessive damage resistance have been nerfed. Component costs remain identical to the vanilla values (and can still be edited with other mods).
Warheads have also seen a modest nerf, ensuring that player-made-weapon (PWM) missile spam is less decisive in combat.

Infantry Weapons

Pistols, Rifles & Interior Turrets have been adjusted to provide a more authentic infantry & boarding experience.

Gatling Guns

Light, fast-firing offensive weapon, designed for taking out smaller targets.

Gatling Turrets

Close-in Weapons System (CIWS) to defend against incoming ordnance (Assault Cannons, Artillery, Rockets).

Autocannons

Moderate offensive weapon for small grids, capable of dealing damage to most targets.

Assault Cannons

Tank cannon-style weapon, serving as the primary offensive weapon on large vessels.

Artillery Gun

Slow-firing, but very powerful battle cannon for large vessels, delivering maximum explosive damage.

Small Railgun

Pinpoint accuracy, designed to penetrate light enemy hulls and snipe specific areas. High power draw.

Large Railgun

Pinpoint accuracy, massive penetration damage, and very high power draw and reload time. The Large Railgun now uses prototech components (no frame).

Rockets

Fast firing unguided rockets which acellerate over time, designed to overwhelm enemy defenses.

Target Locking

Instead of holding down ALT and wildly panning your camera around until you magically spot a target, you will now actually need to directly look at a target before you can lock it. This gives greater reason to use AI blocks and other systems to handle target detection.

Heavy Gas

Hydrogen (and Oxygen) Tanks now actually have mass based on their fill level, based on the mass ratio of Hydrogen to Oxygen in Water Ice.

This ensures that hydrogen thrusters are less overpowered in combat, by discouraging extreme amounts of fuel capacity - which in turn makes Fuel Endurance more important for combat as a whole.

1000kg of Ice => 450kg of Oxygen + 50kg of Hydrogen

Relative Top Speed

Mass now affects your speed & turn rate, so you will need to strike a balance between speed and fuel endurance/armor (mass).

Speed is also now split into two subcategories:
> Cruise: 50-200m/s, depending on grid mass. This is your general top speed that you can maintain when disabling dampeners and not applying thrust.
> Boost: Up to 300m/s, depending on available thrust. This is the absolute maximum speed achievable, but requires constant accelleration/thrust to maintain.

When using Hydrogen, constantly burning your thrusters to maintain maximum boost will burn through your fuel: You will need to ensure your ship has enough fuel endurance, especially when you decide to flee or give chase. You can use Thrust Override to manually set your desired boost speed.

Speed VS Turn Rate

Burning beyond your Cruise Speed now has a negative effect on your turn rate. This simulates the strain that high accelleration burns put on Gyroscopes, reducing their effectiveness at high speeds.

Always Armed Warheads

Warheads are now always armed (but can still safely be dismantled via grinder). This means that you will now need to weigh the risk of carrying live missiles on wing pylons, or reinforce your missile launch tubes to prevent incoming fire from causing your warheads to prematurely detonate in their tubes.