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1

Mods / Re: [0.6.1a] The Nomads (v0.9.9)

« on: October 21, 2013, 03:20:04 PM »

Okay so after about four hours of testing these things against pretty much everything out there I've come to a few conclusions about the Fangs

1. The CR cost per fighter is totally out of whack, due to the way the deployment costs are applied even if NONE of them die they're still out of action for days. I'd say if you gave them roughly the cost of a Dagger they'd be closer to the mark but it's hard to say. The downtime is definitely a killer though.

2. This ties into the CR cost - The total combat effect of a wing of Fangs is... really low, at best you're going to get 5 total missiles which may or may not do damage. The missiles themselves seem quite violent -Out of curiosity what IS the listed damage?- but not so violent as to justify how few are fired.

3. The Bomber AI doesn't actually suit the Fang, the formation based bombing run is totally meaningless and actually has the unfortunate side-effect of sometimes leaving the carcass of the ship ontop of the intended target which means it often dies before the missile is fired due to collision damage.

4. Hilariously they can't perform their intended roll in a 1-sided fight, I'm not sure it's a problem per say but it's not uncommon for them to fly about ships un-targeted and doing very little if any damage.
It's a huge shift from a standard bomber which ideally exploits an overload or high flux caused by supporting ships to do its damage which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it definitely lowers their overall value.


Other things unrelated to the Fang -
The Flycatcher's primary competition for Destroyer carriers is the Gemini... I'll be the first person to point out that the Gemini is probably overpowered for its cost of 2 supplies/day but I just can NOT justify ever deploying a Flycatcher.
It's lacking in firepower, flight decks per logistics, and durability. It makes up for it somewhat in speed but I remain unconvinced that speed is required for a carrier

2

Mods / Re: [0.6.1a] The Nomads (v0.9.9)

« on: October 20, 2013, 08:02:54 PM »

I'm giddy just thinking about the Fang, looks fantastic by the way.

You're really zippy on the updates, it's glorious


Edit: Fang is great! Working as intended by the looks of things. I'll set up a carrier fleet and do some more extensive testing.
Rattlesnake/Komodo MKII feel like much more viable options now too.

3

General Discussion / Re: Do you use your fleet as extra flagship lives instead of an AI fleet?

« on: October 20, 2013, 07:25:15 PM »

This kind of thing isn't limited to peak performance frigates, if I'm playing with Gedune I keep a Tenzen in my back pocket for emergencies, Nomads it's a Komodo, Blackrock a Nevermore, hell in Vannila I tend to just cart around an Enforcer even if I never intend to use it.

The CR system encourages deploying the bare minimum to overcome any given obstacle and.. that bare minimum is always one ship in my experience.
Given that the CR maintenance cost is so low in comparison to the deployment cost, and the " oops I blew up your ship " AI, it's exponentially more efficient to pilot every ship in your "fleet" personally.
I'd be surprised if not personally flying any given ship was the less effective option, pleasantly surprised however.

4

Mods / Re: [0.6.1a] The Nomads (v0.9.6 RC2)

« on: October 20, 2013, 06:45:20 PM »

I'm really struggling to find a use for the Rattlesnake. It's essentially a slow Sandstorm with less potential firepower and for 80% of the cost

The universal slots are useful there's no doubt about it, and it's definitely heavily armored, frankly it's tanky as hell... but I don't ever find myself wanting a tanky ship, or at least not one so slow.
Less a rattlesnake, more a snap-turtle : /
Perhaps it's not a problem with the Rattlesnake so much as it is with the Sandstorm.

The Sandstorm is a downright monsters. It can tackle a Paragon on a good day and for only 10 supplies/day and 22% CR per use it's incredibly cheap to maintain... It even has a burn speed of 4 compared to the Rattlesnakes 3.

On an unrelated note... why does the Komodo MkII have such terrible arcs on its Firecrackers compared to the standard Komodo?
The worst part about them is that they don't actually converge at the front of the ship, they're offset to the right. Kinda sucks for the ship with a less efficient shield, that's also slower by a fair chunk to have less comprehensive PD.
At least with the Rattlesnake you know missiles aren't ever going to bother you but with the MKII it's a bit harsh given the side-gradey nature.

I haven't had any problems with the Scorpion, apart from it being so expensive to maintain it does exactly what it says on the box, great support ship.


Edit: One more thing about the Rattlesnake/Sandstorm comparison... The range from ITU because of the hull class difference is a killer.

5

Mods / Re: [0.6.1a UPDATE!] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.42

« on: October 18, 2013, 08:59:36 PM »

Or something wilder, like sunfire spitting missiles!

This. A thousand times this.

A MIRV that shatters into half a dozen little missiles that all fire a Sunfire at the target from various angles before fizzling?

Full body tingles.

6

General Discussion / Re: A simple message to Alex.

« on: October 18, 2013, 08:57:09 PM »

C'grats you've done the Internet equivalent of yelling insults at passing hitch-hikers on the highway.

Except the hitchhiker is someone who's poured endless hours and passion into creating something you yourself have enjoyed.


This really ought to be locked.

7

General Discussion / Re: What is the best Hyperion loadout?

« on: October 18, 2013, 08:54:34 PM »

I've used frigate swarms of all kinds including pure Hyperions ( amusing by the way ) and I've never found a use for Hardened Subsystems for the reasons I've already covered.
True performance time is much longer than the Peak Performance time would suggest.

8

General Discussion / Re: What is the best Hyperion loadout?

« on: October 18, 2013, 08:19:25 PM »

With regards to Hardened Subsystems, keep in mind you've already "payed" 75% CR so you can literally burn through 75% after your peak performance has ended before it becomes a logistical problem. You're only contending with the Malfunctions threshold which is pretty lenient.

Basically you get 120 seconds of Peak performance and then (75% / 0.33CR/sec) 227 seconds of your CR degrading before it goes below the 75% threshold that you've already "payed" for deploying it in the first place.

Frankly I don't entirely understand why Hardened Subsystems exists... Nobody needs a Hyperion for 9.5 mins O.o

9

Suggestions / Re: Hits causing directed explosions

« on: October 18, 2013, 07:53:00 PM »

I get the hugging problem, but the solution "big explosion upon ship death" is not perfect. The main issue is that it does not discourage "face-hugging" for the undefined period in which a sudden death of the target can be ruled out. So, it remains a very effective tactic most of the time.

Worse than that, a shield of any kind can absorb an infinite amount of damage and merely cause an overload. Face hugging/ramming is the worst kind of force multiplier because the penalty for doing so in the worst case scenario is an Overload if played correctly.

Another problem is that ship explosions are an unforgiving and hard-to-predict danger for the player, especially if they are caused by allied fire on the target. If you are near harmless hostile A but engaged only with dangerous hostile B, you're still required to observe hostile A in case your allies kill him. I at least lost more than one frigate to enemy freighters that way.

Not sure I agree for the player. Few things suddenly kill an opposing ship, Torpedoes.. maybe antimatter blasters or a BIG volley of ballistic fire, all of those have travel times or obvious indicators. It's a threat to be sure but it's observable and can be compensated for and entirely mitigated.

I'm not sure directed explosions are the perfect solution.. mostly because of the side-effects.
Fighters taking damage ontop of you would do damage to you, adding to the damage the husk does to either your ship or shield when it actually dies... And then there's frigates to consider.

Consider what happens when a Lasher decides to get all up in the grill of a Paragon - it's getting all the befits of being close, full accuracy, firing short range weapons, constantly exploding due to being shot, damage the Paragon further... then finally exploding and doing more damage...

Hard to use as a player unless you've got cash to throw around but the AI would do it automatically with no real penalty for doing so, it'd inadvertently make combat harder and would encourage suicidal face hugging under certain circumstances.

Indisputably cool but not particularly practical.


On just the vague subject of ship death and anti-face-hugging, it'd be interesting if ships exploded into shrapnel or large chunks, like a ship might actually do if a large internal explosion of that size happened. As-is Starsector ships seem better equipped to deal with an internal explosion than an external one

10

General Discussion / Re: What is the best Hyperion loadout?

« on: October 18, 2013, 07:23:51 PM »

*Obligatory mention that " Best " is subjective and that you will get a wide variety of different responses*

I personally prefer a Hyperion with no PD at all. The Hyperion's shield is extremely efficient and comprehensive so fighters and missiles are rarely -if ever- a threat. It's not uncommon for me to leave the small energy slots empty.

I wouldn't personally recommend Antimatter Blasters, mostly because they're limited to 24,000 (36,000 with extended magazines) total damage which a Heavy Blaster achieves in 60 shots (60 seconds).

My ideal loadout is typically 2 Heavy Blasters, 1 Ion cannon, 2 annihilators, 10 vents, ITU, flux resistant conduits, Stabilized Shield, Hardened shield. With some leftover OP if you've leveled up enough to get ITU in the first place.

Basically the intention here is to vent after EVERY shot where possible to maximize potential damage, letting the Ion cannon fire where/when appropriate.

I've also tried a burstier approach with two Mining Blasters which while less efficient in terms of flux-> damage hit a lot harder per shot therefore punching through the armor of say.. a Dominator much more quickly. It has its problems if you don't play it perfectly though.


Keep in mind that your Peak Performance time will NOT go down while on 0 flux, another subtle bonus of vents is that they'll increase your actual combat time.

11

Mods / Re: [0.6.1a] The Nomads (v0.9.6)

« on: October 18, 2013, 05:54:46 PM »

P.P.S.: Does anyone think this would cause problems for balance? In other words, "is it even possible for a system like this to be balanced?"

Oh it's totally possible for it to be balanced. Current Torpedo bombers function almost identically with larger payloads and lower velocities. The only real difference is the actual delivery mechanic is... strange. I have no doubt it's balanceable.
There are really only two things to consider for bombers, effective damage and cost. You've already got a nice tweakable system with replacement chassis and CR costs. The damage is a trivial change via actual damage value, acceleration, and maneuverability of the projectile.
The real question on my mind is "can you make it work"? Because that's probably the coolest mechanic I've ever seen anyone even consider!

A bomber that you almost don't want to escort as opposed to the obnoxious babysitting of current bombers? Yes please!

12

Mods / Re: [0.6.1a] The Gedune - Faction mod V1.3.1

« on: October 18, 2013, 06:41:23 AM »

Hyph my first thought is: am I doing it wrong? I seem to be doing absolutely terrible with the Tenzen. I'm always needing to vent because the dissipation rate is so low, but venting takes so long because he's got so much capacity. What am I doing wrong with this guy XD

Then I played some of the other ships with no difficulty. I like the style and the feel, you've got a consistent theme, it's good stuff. You might add one more mission, for a really big battle. Maybe one where you play against the Gedune, to get a feel for what it'd be like to face them in the campaign?

Would've replied to this one earlier if I could've - You've really got to ditch the Nuclear Bursts in my experience. They generate too much flux and you don't need that much HE on... well anything really.
My personal suggestion is 4 Chidori's, 3 LR PDS, Missile of your choice, ITU, Advanced Optics and 30 vents if you're after something semi-brawly. It's also quite pretty to watch
Other than that two HIL and two Chidori with a similar loadout, sacrifices vents for range but doesn't skimp too much on the damage front.

I've actually found the Tenzen to be the best flagship of.. well any mod -excluding neutrino for obvious reasons- It's extremely fast even if you don't include the Nuclear Burn, 90 with good acceleration means you can always pick and choose your fights or simply outrange your opponents.
Failing all that just keep in mind that the dissipation/capacity ratio and vent early.. and never put Capacitors on because they're terrible
Also for some inexplicable reason it has a burn speed of 7.. SEVEN! It burns faster than some frigates

13

Mods / Re: [0.6.1a] The Nomads (v0.9.6)

« on: October 18, 2013, 06:00:34 AM »

You might need to do a balance pass on the Firecrackers, possibly a lower fire rate.
Right now Nomad ships with Firecrackers pretty much just ignore missiles, they might as well have not been fired.
Edit: This of course has solved the Nomad firepower problem pretty handily since they trade really well with anything with missiles and trash Fighters much more easily, it does lend itself to a shieldless play style though because there's no large HE threat that can't be dodged. The Komodo in particular benefits heavily due to its thin profile.

Also is it intentional that Nomad ships don't benefit from Optimized Assembly from the Combat tree?
I'd say it's fine from a balance standpoint that they don't since Nomads scale very well with player skills but it's an inconsistency.

Oh! I haven't been able to check this yet but when a Nomad ship is repaired after being disabled in combat does it keep its weapons? If they lose their built-in weapons they'd be a useless husk.

Also - if your intention is to have Nomad weapons available to people for purchase like they currently are via pirates ect - you need to do an OP cost adjustment on the Fusion Torpedoes, currently they all cost 10 OP

LOVE the Rattlesnake design by the way, keen to see how many Onslaughts I can kill with it

14

Mods / Re: [0.6.1a] The Nomads (v0.9.2)

« on: October 10, 2013, 07:19:40 PM »

It's THAT time.

Hammer time?


By the way on the subject of the Death Bloom have you considered giving it a modified, toggleable, version of High Energy focus? It's mostly a terrible idea to fire when you don't have it up especially in 1v1 or 1v2 situations so it feels like a lot of unnecessary interface checking to see whether or not it's viable to fire at any given time.

15

General Discussion / Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?

« on: October 09, 2013, 09:46:13 PM »

I'll just leave this here.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=6777.0

I've found mounting 2 cluster bombs, 3 Atropos's, a Reaper launcher and two anti-matter blasters to be hilarious, and suicidal... but good luck being killed before something else dies