Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

2221

General Discussion / Re: What Kind of Ship do you Pilot?

« on: May 09, 2017, 12:02:13 PM »

I still can't use the Hyperion as well as the AI and the phase ships are one-trick ponies to me.

AI is atrociously bad at flying Hyperion. It's pretty much the ships whose potential AI is least capable of demonstrating.

2222

Suggestions / Re: Remove/tune down turning back to 'Avoided' enemy

« on: May 09, 2017, 10:10:33 AM »

Happens mostly in big battles, where it's hard to track precise conditions. Mostly I just notice that some ship is being destroying due to showing rear to enemy blob, in direction of avoided enemy.

It's easy to show turn back to enemy in 1 vs 1 scenario ('balanced' Aurora vs sim Paragon, autopilot on start, avoid set as soon as Paragon is seen), but when more enemies are present AI ship does seem to face them as expected. At least as far as my attempts to find a test case went.

I haven't observed this either. Just that ships following the command sometimes let themselves be pushed into a map border.

Yes, I've seen avoiding ships cornered and destroyed as result too, despite having enough speed to just move out of corner.

2223

Suggestions / Remove/tune down turning back to 'Avoided' enemy

« on: May 09, 2017, 05:32:14 AM »

Ships often tend to turn their back to avoided enemy, which can lead to very bad consequences if more enemies are closer in the same direction.
This this pretty much same kind of unwanted vulnerable behavior that retreating caused in previous version.

2224

General Discussion / Re: Just thought that remnant faction is really cool

« on: May 08, 2017, 02:10:23 PM »

Why do we even have relations value for remnants? There isn't one for domain drones. It doesn't seem to serve any purpose, beside being edited from console.

2225

General Discussion / Re: .8 feedback thread

« on: May 08, 2017, 12:53:07 PM »

UI is not that useless.

It's still auto-pick for most frigates. They can't hope to outrange anything more than other frigates and maybe some DEs anyway, so it's best to stack speed as much as possible. Unless you pick SO instead.

It's also auto-pick for Carriers (just put a Cautious/Timid officer in it and enjoy).

Otherwise it can be useful for Medusa(player piloting only), Aurora (AI can use competently  only beamboat variant), Odyssey (just in case, of course it's better to get a real Capital). Ships that are not going to impress anyone at range, but have decent base speed.

I agree that -25% may to be too harsh though. Especially when combined with SO.

2226

General Discussion / Re: Drawn-Out Battle

« on: May 08, 2017, 12:08:03 PM »

I would imagine they'd try to take out the cap ship with their superior numbers, but when losses are too great, they would flee. They wouldn't stick around with just a few fighters pewpewing at the shields, right?   If I was the enemy, I'd jet out of there after that battle, then grab more buddies, then come back with a bigger force.

Paragon under AI control is somewhat vulnerable to this tactics (due to raising shield too late or dropping too soon).
Since AI doesn't consider player's superior piloting skill as a factor, it's behavior has some internal merit.

2227

General Discussion / Re: Drawn-Out Battle

« on: May 08, 2017, 11:54:23 AM »

Tested out more battles.  Yeah, having just a lone slow capital ship will have drawn out battles when carriers (even the Astral) stay out of range and poke at you with missiles and fighters, while shades dip in and out without taking damage.

Well, hard to blame them for optimal behavior. Definitely better idea than approaching Paragon to get slaughtered.

2228

General Discussion / Re: Drawn-Out Battle

« on: May 08, 2017, 11:14:15 AM »

the AI on both sides are so cowardly.  They only engage when they think they have an advantage.

As they should. As long as my fleet can distract enemy without dying in process, I'm generally happy.

They are a bit less flexible about when to engage, than I'd like though:
- Cautious officers seem to never properly attack ships of same size, even if objectively stronger. And when a relatively fast and powerful ship like Falcon goes for a frigate, it will often fail to finish the job for no good reason.
- Steady on the other hand are too willing to charge at Paragon alone (or similarly suicidal stuff). They just seem to engage anything that is not marked as Avoid.

2229

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.8a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: May 08, 2017, 08:59:06 AM »

Onslaught has obvious weakness - getting surrounded. It is also weaker in raw stats, but has more control of battle flow (under player control).
Due to Burn drive it can force engagements, while Paragon is just forced to wait for enemies willing to suicide into it.
Enemy putting avoid on Onslaught doesn't matter too much. It does for Paragon.

2230

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.8a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: May 08, 2017, 08:41:11 AM »

Paragon without range buff was a pushover. Killing it with Onslaught's TPCs or Gauss Cannons on Conquest was trivial matter of waiting until it drops dead.
It's the slowest Capital. It can't do anything if outranged.

Now it's a tough opponent, but skill-less player controlled Onslaught can defeat sim Paragon.

2231

General Discussion / Re: Most effective fighter setup?

« on: May 08, 2017, 08:30:51 AM »

Astral with 3 Longbows + 3 Daggers is quite nice. Rapid refire due to ship system and decent fighter survival rate (=sustained firepower) since all fighters are shielded and don't get too close to target.

2232

General Discussion / Re: Brawler vs Lasher

« on: May 07, 2017, 11:52:41 AM »

Brawlers need about 30 speed and a bit more acceleration, then they'd be fine. 

That would make Lasher obsolete. Less speed than Brawler, inferior flux stats, inferior weapon range.
Kind of same goes for many other frigates, to lesser degree. 130 base speed Brawler is too good.

2233

Suggestions / Re: Ability: Fleet Detachment

« on: May 07, 2017, 11:38:10 AM »

You're missing the point. If your detachment is significantly weaker in both numbers and firepower than your main fleet, which by its limitations it would be, then winning that fight you otherwise wouldn't be able to initiate is less certain - especially if they decide to go full assault on you due to the time pressure.

As long as I get to pilot a ship in detachment this won't stop me (and otherwise I'll never use detachments, losing ships to autoresolve is not fun).

Player piloted Hyperion can survive against anything as long as it has CR. Phase frigates can last quite a while too. If enemy has not too many fighters even simply fast frigates like Tempest are ok.
Unless time to main fleet arrival will be extremely long (5 or more minutes), stalling (and getting quite a few kills in process) is not problem for well-piloted frigate.

And if they retreat in meantime - it's ok too. I'll catch them again (If I had enough speed to do it once, nothing stops more attempts), with less CR next time.

If the enemy can do the same to me, then it probably is never safe to use big fleets until endgame when you can afford a fleet that can kill everything.

It should never be entirely safe to use a primarily non-combat fleet without a significant escort. Your big fleet could also be entirely comprised of frigates and fast cruisers.

It won't be safe with escorts either. If enemy can cause CR drop (due to retreat) on my whole fleet, while paying CR only for small part of it's fleet, multiple times in a row - I'm doomed.

2234

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.8a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: May 07, 2017, 11:23:16 AM »

Could someone please explain to me what these numbers mean?

http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11918.0

A bug in how Coordinated maneuvers are calculated (unless your summary bonus is exactly 10%).

2235

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.8a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: May 07, 2017, 02:15:46 AM »

In the end PD range is not an issue for Paragon.

It's best to completely ignore PD for Paragon anyway. 360 efficient omni + Fortress shield ability are enough (though level of situation awareness involved makes Common Radar mod mandatory...).

Universal slots are too valuable as the only possible hard kinetic weapons to waste on Flaks, range-nerfed  or not. And beam PD is just not worth bothering with, especially when you can install insane range Tac lasers instead (IPDAI cuts their range on Paragon, so not an option).