Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => General Discussion => Topic started by: goduranus on December 12, 2018, 03:25:10 AM

Title: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: goduranus on December 12, 2018, 03:25:10 AM
Wow,  Monitor+Frontal Shield+Harden Shields+Flux Distributor, could sit in the middle of an enemy formation for minutes without overloading :D, and distract the crap out of them while your cruisers shoot them from behind. There is a choice between Unstable Injector for extra speed or Hardened Subsystems for longer distraction.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Deshara on December 12, 2018, 07:17:31 AM
Same! Tho after the initial mods you mentioned I just throw everything onto reactor skills.
It's especially fun to put an aggressive officer at the helm, throw him at a carrier-heavy expedition and just... watch him go
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Flying Birdy on December 12, 2018, 07:24:49 AM
Wow,  Monitor+Frontal Shield+Harden Shields+Flux Distributor, sit could in the middle of an enemy formation for minutes without overloading :D, and distract the crap out of them while your cruisers shoot them from behind. There is a choice between Unstable Injector for extra speed or Hardened Subsystems for longer distraction.

So frontal shield doesn't change the arc of fortress shield? Will the AI actively use the fortress shield and just sit there?
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: StarGibbon on December 12, 2018, 08:23:51 AM
This is really something I've wanted to play with, but have been having trouble finding them in my .9x games.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: goduranus on December 12, 2018, 09:34:34 AM
I've found a few Monitors in the Askonia system.
Not sure about AI control, I've been controlling it myself, gonna give AI officer a try if I find a reckless officer with good stats.

(https://i.imgur.com/JiTpjtS.png)
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Thana on December 12, 2018, 08:44:16 PM
That image is amazing.  :o
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Draba on December 13, 2018, 01:45:58 AM
Yep, they are friggin amazing :)
An immortal distraction for 6 supply might be a bit too much but still love them.

This is really something I've wanted to play with, but have been having trouble finding them in my .9x games.
IIRC they can show up in black market, dunno if it's faction dependent.
I remember having them way before the blueprint so definitely buyable.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Flying Birdy on December 13, 2018, 02:51:11 PM
Yep, they are friggin amazing :)
An immortal distraction for 6 supply might be a bit too much but still love them.

This is really something I've wanted to play with, but have been having trouble finding them in my .9x games.
IIRC they can show up in black market, dunno if it's faction dependent.
I remember having them way before the blueprint so definitely buyable.

Hegemony patrols have them too! You can steal them from the hegemony.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: solardawning on December 13, 2018, 04:42:26 PM
They're really good vs. starbases. You can park it in front of your carriers, and soak up most of the attacks.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Vind on December 14, 2018, 12:07:57 PM
AI will drop shields for no reason so monitor will not last long - still much better than any frigate except maybe centurion.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: diegoweiller on December 23, 2018, 04:20:00 AM
Lul gotta try that whats the load out?
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Wapno on December 24, 2018, 12:40:37 PM
With the hard 30-ship fleet limit, Monitor is the only combat frigate that's worth including in your endgame fleet. Anything else is a waste of slot.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: intrinsic_parity on December 24, 2018, 12:57:08 PM
SO tempest for pursuits and monitor for distraction are the only frigate I use.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Deshara on December 24, 2018, 08:26:18 PM
actually the monitor serves as proof to me that 1% hard flux discharge with shields up and 0-flux boost at 1% or less flux should be the standard for frigates -- the monitor has half of those and is the only frigate that can stand up in a big fight
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: RawCode on December 24, 2018, 11:15:21 PM
tempest\afflictor chain deployment + monitor with officer with 10% hard flux drain and you can beat anything that have limited CR
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: TaLaR on December 24, 2018, 11:41:23 PM
actually the monitor serves as proof to me that 1% hard flux discharge with shields up and 0-flux boost at 1% or less flux should be the standard for frigates -- the monitor has half of those and is the only frigate that can stand up in a big fight

Better normal frigates have perfectly sufficient raw stats to effectively 1v1 decent subset of larger ships (phase frigates/Hyperion can kill anything, but we are not talking about them).

Problem is AI. Frigate needs to be much smarter both in absolute terms and relative to the larger ship it fights to win.
Stupid large ship is still good enough, stupid frigate is dead.
Title: Re: New favorite ship, the Monitor
Post by: Deshara on December 25, 2018, 06:42:29 AM
actually the monitor serves as proof to me that 1% hard flux discharge with shields up and 0-flux boost at 1% or less flux should be the standard for frigates -- the monitor has half of those and is the only frigate that can stand up in a big fight

Better normal frigates have perfectly sufficient raw stats to effectively 1v1 decent subset of larger ships (phase frigates/Hyperion can kill anything, but we are not talking about them).

Problem is AI. Frigate needs to be much smarter both in absolute terms and relative to the larger ship it fights to win.
Stupid large ship is still good enough, stupid frigate is dead.

yeah but the specific way that the AI is not good enough is in micro-managing shields in a way that maxes its hard flux dissipation when it'd need to, and making the AI 100% effective in managing shields would make the game unplayable for the player who has to fight them.
Having passive hard flux dissipation would relieve this. AI that backs out of an enemy's effective range but is still in its potential range and keeps its shields up wouldn't be left at 0 dissipation forever, but a player who forced an enemy to back and then ran them down wouldn't have their effort completely foiled by the enemy perfectly slipping shield drops into the player's actions.