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Messages - Temstar

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31
General Discussion / Re: Low tech is not underpowered at all
« on: March 20, 2012, 01:44:59 PM »
Do Auxillary Thrusters help with Strafing, Turning, or both?  I've never used them enough to really be sure.  If they improve turning, then I don't see how some of the larger ships could be without them...

Turning, it increases turn rate by 50%. Essential for ships with powerful hardpoint firepower but slow turning.

32
General Discussion / Re: Low tech is not underpowered at all
« on: March 19, 2012, 07:43:59 PM »
That said, I pretty much disagree with the assertion that low tech destroyers and cruisers punch above their weight. 'S just not true. The Medusa will destroy an Enforcer, and it's much faster and much more versatile.

I disagree, Enforcer with 3 railguns mounted on its forward turrets is exact same shield killing power as an Eagle as far as ballistics go, never mind the Falcon. Except Enforcer is faster and much more maneuverable compared to the Eagle and its guns are all turret mounted, giving a huge cone in front where all 3 railguns can train on the same target. This means Enforcer can easily stay out of Eagle's front arm and punch through its shield with railgun. Once the shield is down it then has 4 small missile bay worth of strike weapons to sink the ship, again more than Eagle. Only thing Eagle has are the three medium energy turrets which can't hold any weapon with the flux efficiency comparable to railguns.

The Aurora's so fast and has so much flux that just by that virtue alone it can wear a Dominator down pretty easily.

Dominator is a bit of a special case, namely all three variants are worthless due to lack of auxiliary thrusters. Gauss cannon + auxiliary thrusters coupled with 3 Harpoon launchers are deadly to even capital ships. It's scary how much of a difference custom variant makes for this ship.

33
General Discussion / Re: Low tech is not underpowered at all
« on: March 19, 2012, 06:59:14 PM »
It does though, low tech ships have so much firepower they can often fight ships one class above them to a standstill. Enforcer can easily outgun a Falcon and fight Eagle to a stand still (Aurora is a bit harder, but that's 10 v 17 FP); Dominator with its two Gauss Cannons, three Harpoon launchers and forests of PD can take on capital ships can nearly fight them on even terms; and Onslaught with its huge forward battery and all round flak can't be taken down with anything short of another Onslaught or significantly larger FP worth of ships.

That and low tech isn't exactly low in capping power, with very cheap and fast Talon that flood the map and always outnumber other fighters, or the powerful and shield raping Broadsword that walks all over Xyphos.

34
General Discussion / Re: Low tech is not underpowered at all
« on: March 19, 2012, 06:37:24 PM »
Low tech line doesn't need to be fast though, each of them (enforcer, dominator, onslaught) can flatout outgun and outlast ships of comparable class. They don't need speed because they are always running into fights, never away. It's the same idea with the slow 21 knot American standard type battleships. If the American battlefleet never have any intention to avoid a fight then there is no real need for high speed for tactical manoeuvre, any fight their find themselves getting into are welcomed and if the enemy really trieds to avoid them at all time then all then have to do is sail slowly right at the enemy naval base and force a battle.

Same with low tech ships. All they have to do is stay in a pack and slowly creep up the map. Sooner or later you'll have to fight that pack if you don't want to lose your carriers or other slow ships. And that amount of armour and firepower and flak concentrated together is extraordinary hard to deal with even with superior FP and speed.

35
Lore, Fan Media & Fiction / Re: The Lore Corner
« on: March 19, 2012, 03:58:33 PM »
Are starfarer ships capable of entering planetary atmospheres? Does this vary from ship to ship?

I think most ships are not atmosphere capable. Valkyrie class troop transport is a noted exception being designed for planetary assault. Hegemony made a big deal about it trying to ban the sale of this ship precisely because of this reason. So I think it's safe to say atmosphere capability is definitely not a common ability of ships.

36
General Discussion / Re: Low tech is not underpowered at all
« on: March 19, 2012, 05:27:38 AM »
It's the fact that they can achieve battlespace superiority so quickly that you zone out the enemy with your speed, and can bring more of your fleet to bear faster.
I don't find this true. Talon are now 200 speed and therefore faster than Wasp due to Wasp having permanent green crew. In a straight up dog fight and factor in Talons are 1/3 cheaper per wing than Wasp they're actually pretty even now. I don't find much difference in terms of capping power between low tech and late tech.

Quote
Not enough midline ships
That's where midline comes in, they're the king of capping and air superiority due to Thunder and Broadsword. The two midline heavy fighters are also pretty deadly and make up for the difference between Trident vs Piranha, particularly those crazy IR Pulse Laser spamming Gladius.

37
General Discussion / Low tech is not underpowered at all
« on: March 19, 2012, 04:28:45 AM »
Over the last 2 weeks I've been working on a challenge I set myself: build three 200FP fleet profiles, each consisting of ships from only one tech level. Having just completed the last one with low tech I must say, low tech is not underpowered at all.

See aside from small frigate actions where maneuver is king, once you get to serious fleet action with cruiser and above the name of the game is flux race. Two ships go head to head and the one that can fill the others flux quicker is most likely the winner. Other than the tricky to aim Sabot SRM, the best weapons for winning the flux race is by far ballistic kinetic weapons, and low tech have by far the most of them.

Let's take my favorite: railgun

7 OP
small ballistic
200 kinetic DPS
700 range
180 flux/s

To put that into perspective let's compare it to the daring of energy weapons: the Heavy Blaster:

12 OP
medium energy
400 energy DPS
600 range
720 flux/s

So both weapons do the same damage against shields. Railgun out ranges heavy blaster, is much lighter in OP, uses a smaller mount and generates only 1/4 the flux of a heavy blaster. The only advantages heavy blaster have is higher damage against armour (not hull!) and infinite ammo.

Oh but you say, energy weapons are better than kinetic against ships armour once shield is down. Well that's true, but neither energy nor ballistic (both kinetic and HE) are the king of killing unshielded ships, that title goes to missiles due to their enormous burst damage. Harpoons, torpedoes, rockets and MIRV, those are the things you want to be lobbing at venting/overloaded ships when you need to kill them fast. Even if a big missile strike doesn't outright sink a ship it will nuke the section of armour facing you, showing you the hull underneath which is equally vulnerable to kinetic, HE or energy and especially vulnerable to very high DPS fragmentation weapons like dual flak cannons.

Let's look at the missile bays:

Low tech:
Destroyer - 4 small or 1 medium + 3 small
Cruiser - 3 medium or 2 medium + 2 small
Capital - 4 medium

Late tech:
Destroyer - 2 light if you use the universals
Cruiser - 1 large + 4 small
Capital - 4 small + 2 medium universal or 3 medium or 2 large 2 small

Only thing that comes close is the Aurora with its 4 small missile and 1 large. And even in that case it has to dedicate the small missile bays to Sabot due to crappy shield killing power of its 3 heavy blasters (which as we established, can be outraced flux wise by 3 railguns). On top of this all low tech ships missile bays (aside from Buffalo Mk II) are all mounted together facing forward, perfect for hard to aim weapons like sabot or rockets or reaper torps.

Putting it all together, I find the low tech ships the best bar none for overloading shields and then follow up with a deadly missile barrage. Throw in the best PD weapons and they're pretty much the king of line of battle fleet actions.

38
Suggestions / Re: Large mount machine gun and autocannon
« on: March 17, 2012, 04:51:46 AM »
Autocannon and assault guns are for completely different purposes. Autocannon is shield killing while assault gun is armour killing.

39
General Discussion / Re: Simple Hammerhead Question
« on: March 17, 2012, 01:31:04 AM »
Basically, HE is crap, it's only really useful against heavily armored lightly shielded ships like Onslaught. Armour is non-regenerative unlike shield and can be bored through in sections rather than all or nothing defense. On top of this flux is an "ammo" that all weapon except missiles use. By filling the enemy's flux you seriously reduce his offensive potential, therefore protecting yourself.

Yes kinetic is bad against armour, but most ship have pretty lackluster armour under their shield and can be bored through with concentrated kinetic damage fairly easily. On top of this there's always the option of nuking whole areas of armour with strike weapons such as say a pair of harpoons from a Hammerhead. Once the section of armour facing you is gone your kinetic weapons do as much damage to the soft hull inside as HE weapons.

You'll be much better arming your Hammerheads with two railguns and two harpoon racks with extra missile ammo. Don't bother with tactical laser, just use all 4 energy for PD. The rest in vents and accelerated shield if you can fit it.

40
Suggestions / Large mount machine gun and autocannon
« on: March 16, 2012, 09:26:09 PM »
Currently we have 4 complete ballistic weapon families:

Needlers: Light Needler - Heavy Needler - Storm Needler
Linear motors: Railgun - Hypervelocity Driver - Gauss Cannon
Assault guns: Light Assault Gun - Assault Chaingun - Hephaestus Assault Gun
Large bore cannons: Light Mortar - Heavy Mauler - Hellbore Cannon

Then we have 2 other families with three weapons, but with two weapons per family that are light:
Machine Guns: Light Machine Gun - Light Dual Machine Gun - Heavy Machine Gun
Autocannons: Light Autocannon - Light Dual Autocannon - Heavy Autocannon

I really like the machine gun and autocannon families and I feel they are incomplete somehow without a large mount version. Drawing on real life for inspiration I suggest the below two new weapons:


Volley Gun
Primary Role: Point Defense
OP: 28
DPS: 1200
Damage Type: Kinetic
Range: 400
Flux/sec: 600
Shots/min: 2000
Ammo: 2500

Affectionately known as "Chicago Piano" by the gun crew after an archaic weapon of the same layout. Volley Gun is a weapon system mounting 8 light machine guns in a single package designed to throwing up a fearsome wall of lead in the face of incoming fighters and missiles. The extreme volume of fire is also excellent at downing shields if the enemy gets within its rather limited range. Heavy gauge, cryogenic cooled barrels allow the volley gun to use larger propellent load, enabling it to match the range of the larger bore heavy machine guns.



Autocannon Battery
Primary Role: Close Support
OP: 18
DPS: 400
Damage Type: Kinetic
Range: 800
Flux/sec: 300
Shots/min: 160
Ammo: 200

Mounting four autocannons, the Autocannon Battery is capable of sustained fire rather than burst like its smaller brothers. High volume of medium caliber inert projects offers a low tech solution against shields but like all autocannons has trouble hitting fast moving targets due to low projectile velocity.

41
General Discussion / Re: Eagle-Class Thoughts
« on: March 15, 2012, 05:02:12 AM »
It's built for a niche role, that is being a concentrated fire support for large capital ship battles.
That's hardly what you'll call a niche role. For Starfarer, large capital ship battles are at least as important as small single-ship actions. Eagle, more so than even the Aurora due to it's all guns forward design is built for that kind of battle. It's not suppose to take on Hyperion or Lasher in one on one dog fight because that's not what it's for. It doesn't care about its exposed rear because in the kind of battle it's designed for that area is going to be covered by an assload of fighters and frigates and destroyers. It's a cruiser designed purely for slugging it out with other cruisers and capital ships, and when it's fighting other lumbering ships of cruiser and above class it has plenty of speed and maneuverability to keep the target trained in front of its guns.

If you want to see a bad ship design that's unable to keep the target in front of its main guns look no further than the dominator.

42
General Discussion / Re: Hegemony Standard
« on: March 15, 2012, 02:50:00 AM »
The thing to remember is that authoritarian governments have this thing with dressing themselves up as champion and protector of the people. Hence you have ironic names like Democratic People's Republic of Korea and National Socialist German Workers' Party. This filters down to the symbols they choose for themselves and you won't see any overt symbols of oppression on their banners.

On a slightly different note, by popular demand, the same Hegemony symbol, now in GRIMDARK colours

43
General Discussion / Resistant Flux Conduits are a bit too good
« on: March 15, 2012, 02:32:39 AM »
Now that Resistant Flux Conduits also give 10% bonus base flux dissipation rate on top of 75% EMP damage resistance they've become a bit too good for ships with high base flux dissipation. For some ships RFC gives such a big bonus that the 10% increase is actually higher boost to flux dissipation than the same amount of flux dissipation that you can get from putting on vents. Here's a list I've noticed so far. For all ship classes 1 OP in vent gives you 10 dissipation

Tempest  - 2 OP for 22 dissipation
Hyperion - 2 OP for 28 dissipation
Medusa - 4 OP for 40 dissipation
Apogee - 6 OP for 70 dissipation
Aurora - 6 OP for 85 dissipation
Odyssey - 10 OP for 100 dissipation
Paragon - 10 OP for 125 dissipation

So pretty much for the above ships, Resistant Flux Conduits is now a no-brainer choice

44
Suggestions / Re: Who are these lost souls?
« on: March 14, 2012, 04:04:38 PM »
need a monthly salary for the crew, calculated per head and d epending on their rank, to be paid at the end of each month. Don't pay up? You'll have a mutiny on your hand with the crew taking some of your ships and try to make off with them as payment.

45
General Discussion / Re: Hegemony Standard
« on: March 14, 2012, 02:04:22 PM »
It's easy to flip the picture but I thought about it while making it and decided on wings down. It's Hegemony's way of saying "We are the only legitimate government of the sector because we inherited the legacy of the Domain of Man. Our mandate for rule comes directly down from Old Earth itself".

Wings up would look too full of hope and it places the sector above Old Earth, which then doesn't give the same "came down from Domain to restore order to the sector" feel.

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