There appears to be near-universal confusion and disapproval with where 4.5 is at in the PTU: The changes to weapons that were initially pushed out were met with widespread acclaim and then abruptly reverted. It was finally an attempt to reign in the light fighter meta and shake up the repeater dominance. Sure, it had its issues. Limiting all weapon ranges significantly reduced turret weapon range coverage, making ships like the Hammerhead useless for their role. And sure, the obvious, much simpler fix is to just buff the range and projectile velocity of weapons when mounted in a turret on a multi-crew ship. But we could see the intent there: force light fighters closer to help even the odds. It was the first time we had seen a serious attempt to address the most glaring issue with combat balance.......and then it was taken away. The fact that all damage goes to the power plant after hull HP reaches 0 is universally hated. It defeats the purpose of engineering and component damage and repair. With armor as just another layer of HP, and a reduction of hull HP to 0 meaning the PP will inevitably blow.....any ship can kill any ship. A S1 repeater will eventually kill a capital ship. This is the exact opposite of what engineering and armor was supposed to bring. The redundant shield mechanic is useless and confusing. Of all the ways to implement benefits of having more than 2 shields, this was probably the worst way possible to do it. If you are getting hammered with armor penetrating shots, your backup shields, coolers, and PP are likely getting destroyed as well.....so having shields that only come online when the primary ones are destroyed is useless. Furthermore, this creates insane shield hp compression. There are now only 6 shield HP values to balance for over 200 ships (excluding capitals). 1-2 S1, 1-2 S2, 1-2 S3. That's it. That is impossible for balancing. The solo Idris problem was addressed briefly with a railgun nerf....then reverted. In the end it has a slight 10% shield nerf...while the Polaris got whacked with a 37% nerf....further asserting the Idris dominance and widening the gap between it and any ships that can affect it. Through all of these whiplash changes and baffling decisions, there has been zero communication. We literally have no idea what CIG is thinking with these changes. Why did they think this was the best way to approach shields? Will there be future mechanics to allow for a wider range of shield HP values for balance purposes (like the once-mentioned shield emitters)? What is the rational with their changes to hull damage? Will Maelstrom fix this? How are they going to address the light fighter meta, since they have backed off on doing so through a weapon range nerf? It's all been so frustrating and confusing. This should have been a brilliant moment for CIG, where the marvels of engineering gameplay gave us renewed faith in the progress of the project and where we are headed. Instead, I don't think I have ever doubted CIGs ability more to develop mechanics and balance the game. It seems like this feeling is extremely prevalent in the community. The question is ---- is CIG aware, and are they going to change course or address anything? EDIT: I want to draw attention to the post made by @Savrals-CIG in the patch feedback thread today. It does a good job of addressing some of the concerns and outlining a way forward: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/4/thread/4-5-0-ptu-updated-engineering-gameplay/8537606 Also this engineering guide that was just released: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/comm-link/transmission/20935-Engineering-Gameplay-Guide