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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Messages - DeMatt

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16
General Discussion / Re: Need help to counter frigate swarms
« on: May 14, 2018, 08:45:33 PM »
But what make me surprised is why nobody think about things like tractor beams? which can pull smaller things toward you, so the large ship has some way to deal with those small fast flyers.
In the unmodified game, the Graviton Beam already has the ability to send fighters or frigates spiralling out of control.

From a story perspective, perhaps gravitational technology isn't precise enough to lock onto attacking fighters.  Or perhaps it's merely too slow, and the fighter will have launched its missiles before the tractor beam can grab hold.  Or perhaps developing a tractor beam would be expensive, while building fighters and frigates of your own is cheap.

From a gameplay perspective, imagine playing against the tractor beam.  You're flying your frigate at a giant behemoth of a battleship, shots whizzing by to left and right, and feeling pretty badass and confident.  Then - WHONK - your controls freeze as the tractor beam grabs you, and all you can do is sit and watch as the guns you'd been dodging reduce your frozen frigate to a smear of space-dust.  Doesn't sound very fun, does it?

17
Suggestions / Re: Basic AI flux management error
« on: April 21, 2018, 07:27:15 AM »
I think that this is one area that can be safely left as-is.  Making the AI too capable would make the game too difficult for, shall we say, less-than-fully-optimized-and-skilled players.

18
General Discussion / Re: Your opinion for best ballistic weapon
« on: January 27, 2018, 05:46:51 PM »
..."Best" depends to a large part on the tactical situation in which you're trying to employ the weapon.  Consider:
  • "Railgun!  Shoot down that Swarmer barrage!" - miss - miss - miss - THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD - "YOU MISSED!  YOU'RE WORTHLESS!"
  • "Railgun!  Punch through that Onslaught Dominator Enforcer's armor!" - dink - dink - dink - "WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?  YOU'RE WORTHLESS!"
Try "favourite" instead.

19
General Discussion / Re: Mechanics of EMP
« on: July 09, 2017, 08:37:53 PM »
The value of a knowledge base is the confidence in it's data.  Observation has valid uses and I will use it in place of better data but more solid confirmation is preferable, if at all possible.
The information I provided is easily replicated in the simulator.  Adding in a Colossus modded to have no shields and a top speed/accel/rotation of zero is trivial, and provides a simple gunnery target for you to repetitively pound on with your choice of weaponry.  Any more detailed information would require deconstruction of the code.

Any other observations or data on EMP?
Outstanding questions include;

-Arcing mechanics
Alex stated that arc are weighed linearly and could arc anywhere, without weapon distinction, which might imply it is possible for all EMP sources to arc.  The observations & categorisation of "localised EMP only" contradict this so not sure where we're at there.  Will bigger EMP hits arc easier or will lots of already disabled mounts within initial impact increase arc rates?

-Repair rates
We now know that mount &engine repairs stall if that section has taken any damage in the last 5 seconds, which is excellent.  At what rate do they repair? Is it different for different mount/engine sizes or different hull sizes?
What are you, some kind of min-maxer?  I can't imagine any circumstances under which knowing that level of detail will affect either tactical decisions or weapon/trait selection.

20
General Discussion / Re: Mechanics of EMP
« on: July 05, 2017, 11:10:22 PM »
Interesting! Based on observation or code?
That would be "observation", something which I encourage you to do yourself.

21
General Discussion / Re: Mechanics of EMP
« on: July 05, 2017, 02:26:11 PM »
So all EMP weapons cause arcs?
No.

There are three categories of EMP-causing weaponry:
  • Localized EMP only (Hypervelocity Driver, Mjolnir Cannon, Squall, Salamander).  These do not cause any arcing at all, and thus only apply EMP damage to what they hit.
  • Standard EMP weapons (Ion Cannon, Ion Pulser, Sabot (second stage only)).  These can cause arcing FROM their impact point TO turrets and engines, but must hit the hull directly in order to do so.
  • Penetrating EMP weapons (Ion Beam, Tachyon Beam).  These can cause arcing through shields, again targeting turrets and engines.

22
Thanks for the report - if it's vanilla, do you happen to have the savefile handy? Would make it a lot easier to reproduce.
It's vanilla, 0.8.1a-RC8, Windows 7 if it matters.

I did some further testing - it happens in the simulator too, and it happens with any carrier:
  • Choose a (presumably combative) flagship and start a simulation.
  • Choose to deploy a carrier as ally.  No enemies are necessary.
  • The carrier will stop behind you, launching its fighters, but not move elsewhere.  Presumably "where it entered the sim" is as good as anywhere else, due to the lack of enemies.
  • Hit Tab, choose "Full Retreat!", and then select your flagship and turn off the autopilot.
  • On returning to the action, the carrier will move up into the line-abreast escort position, instead of fleeing as the strategic map thinks it should.

It's worth noting that the carrier will retreat properly if, instead of selecting "Full Retreat!", you individually order it to "Retreat" or "Direct Retreat".

Lemme know if you still want a savefile.

23
I run a light survey fleet - a couple combat frigates, a couple Shepherds, and a Phaeton/Buffalo/Valkyrie for storage.  Occasionally, the lack of combat vessels means some ill-intentioned idiot decides to take me on, and incautious immobility on my part allows him to engage, which in turn means I choose to "Attempt to Disengage", and immediately hit "Full Retreat!" in the resultant combat.

The storage ships and regular combatants are perfectly okay with retreating, though they may not make it unscathed due to flanking frigates.

The Shepherds are not.

Near as I can tell, the command to "Full Retreat!" causes the Shepherds to want to escort my flagship with their Borers, so they stick around.  It's worth noting that NOT hitting "Full Retreat!" means they retreat normally.  I suspect that if other ships had hangars with interceptors, they'd also want to play fighter escort.

24
I have to say I've noticed this as well.  Doesn't really affect me, since I spend most of my time exploring the outer reaches of the galaxy, but there always seems to be a fleet or two stuck on the "despawn" part of returning to a major planet when I return to resupply.

Stock 0.8.1-RC8 install on Windows 7.

25
About the only thing I wish the Neutrino Detector had was fixed, clock-type angle reference markings.  Something that you could mentally reference the pings against, instead of having to guess.  See attached image! And marvel at my l33t MSPaint sk1llz.

Pretty sure. It was supposed to be at 3 o'clock position from the star. At first I just gave me a doubtful chase, stopping 3 more times to use my sensor burst and reactivate my sustained burn. After the 3rd time it when went 5 o'clock in correlation when I was midpoint near the edge of the map. Changed direction towards the new signal.

Found nothing.
It's entirely possible that the "false readings" periodically swap positions.  So while you were flying, the first false reading shut off, and a new false reading turned on.

[attachment deleted by admin]

26
Salvage rigs are useless if you do not have any points in Salvaging.  Salvage Gantries that ships have are capped by difficulty rating, and an unskilled player has 0%.  Also, most things have a max of 0%.  Only things like abandoned habitats and research stations have higher than 0%, and all of their loots is mostly more junk.  I have not found anything I want that I could not get elsewhere.  (The main reason why I want to salvage is more rare heavy weapons and hullmods that are locked behind commission, but all I find is common junk found in open/black markets.)  Sure, it is a way to make money, like Surveying.
As I understand it, probability of dropping weapons/LPCs/hullmods is not affected by the difficulty rating.  That only affects what resources (supplies/metal/machinery/etc.) you get from the salvage attempt.

27
General Discussion / Re: Battleships weapon group issues
« on: May 12, 2017, 03:33:22 PM »
The rules for what non-homing weapons fire when you click the mouse button:
  • Minimum of one weapon firing.  If no weapons can bear, weapon nearest to bearing will fire.
  • Linked mode will fire all weapons which can bear.
  • Alternating mode will fire first ready weapon.  Upon completion of its firing cycle, move to next ready weapon.

Note that beam weapons don't "complete their firing cycle" until you release the mouse button, so (in player hands) an Alternating group of beam weapons will only fire one beam at a time.

28
Suggestions / Re: Enhanced strike craft controls
« on: May 12, 2017, 03:39:02 AM »
I'd like to third this.

I noticed when I was testing Thunders (from a Phaeton with Converted Hangar) in the simulator, that on Regroup and close to my target Atlas the Thunders would individually launch, spit out their Harpoon, and then land to rearm.  Which made them completely ineffective against the Atlas.  Switching to Engage allowed the active Thunder to start using its other weapons, but with the Phaeton's replacement rate down in the dumps, the second Thunder was unable to relaunch before the first (and my Phaeton's machine guns) finished taking the Atlas apart.  Being able to command "stay docked" would allow me to launch the Thunders when they were both rearmed.

Also, the fighter AI seems to have no conception of "land for repairs".  It can only land to rearm.  Now, choosing to repair in the middle of a furball might not be the best of tactics, but a carrier that's unengaged might want to recover its damaged craft right then instead of waiting for the next engagement and seeing them finished off.

29
General Discussion / Re: Faction standings
« on: May 08, 2017, 11:18:56 PM »
What Igncom1 said.  Additionally, fulfilling missions for Persean League personnel (black-box scans, planetary surveys, bounties, trade runs) and turning in AI cores (contact the highest-ranked person you can find) all give you rep.

Another possibility is to play "convoy escort".  Find a Persean League merchant fleet, follow it on its journey, and if it's attacked, pounce on their foes.  This gives you a double-whammy:  you aided a PL fleet (+rep) AND you smacked down some PL enemies (+more rep).  Careful not to have any "friendly"-fire accidents, though.

30
While in hyperspace, "deep" hyperspace shows up on the radar as purple clouds.  Unfortunately, it doesn't update the clouds unless the radar is redrawn entirely by, say, pulling up the map (Tab).

The three attached screenshots are 1) start at the blue star on the radar, 2) move to the orange star (and the clouds don't move), 3) refresh the radar while staying at the orange star.

[attachment deleted by admin]

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