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Messages - Alphascrub

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31
General Discussion / Re: How do you play the early game?
« on: July 29, 2019, 02:03:05 PM »
I guess scavenging is what I'll vote for, but what I do is more so exploration/salvage (I'd imagine scavenging is more so going around home-world battlefields and looting). Basically I've found that the easiest way to make a quick profit is to go around, explore, avoid [REDACTED] and salvage their stuff.

That said - I modded my latest game and gave [REDACTED] +2 burn level, so now that's much, much harder, so I start out by trading instead with a little exploration mixed in.

I should have put exploring on the list. I knew I was missing something, finding early caches or ships can make a big difference in the earlygame. I can remember an extremely lucky game where I found a Legion carrier pretty early. I guess this kind of counts and salvage but tbh exploring is a big thing, should have its own spot on the poll.

Usually i go through these steps:

1. Scavenger - Getting some supplies, maybe a ship or two and some credits by hanging around the starting fights.
2. Opportunistic Trader - Supplying shortages and destroyed Outposts to get my starting money.
3. Looking for a World to claim: Usually these become year-long expeditions over 1/4 the map or something. (I start this when i have the spare 1000 People to colonize and enough ships to Survey (Around 6 Shepards, a few Wolves or something for Defense and loads of Fueltankers)
4. Endgame

I don't do Missions and such. Always working for myself.

Oh and Skillwise: Usually i take nearly the whole Industry block, starting with the scavenging - then i take Command - commanding a Carrier later on.

Its interesting to for me to look for a colony really early, however I guess if your in a deeper part of space you can basically use a colony to make money early on and not really need to worry about it being attacked just because of shear distance it is from most colonies. Hunting down supply shortages for money seems like a great thing to, since most colonies can be fixed supply shortage with only 100-200 supplies or a small amount of another commodity like food. Great way to gain rep as well, this is one thing I think I will have to focus more on in the future when starting a new game.

I also take industry block on about anything else early to as much of my fleet generally rely on salvaged ships early. I feel like taking advantage of its bonuses as soon as possible nets you quite a lot of free stuff/better ships early. Earlygame you can pretty much ignore buying fuel as long as you salvage regularly especially with the skill that increases salvaged fuel.

I played for a long time. Initially I went for either bounty hunter or exploration early on (which is what I selected in the poll), but now I just do one thing the whole run. I start as an explorer and I end as explorer (though rarely, since explorations is not risky enough). I start as a bounty hunter and I end as a bounty hunter. I start as a pirate and I end as a pirate.
By the way, it is not possible to be a miner without mods. You should remove that from the poll.

As far as pirating goes I generally do the same, once a pirate, always a pirate. Bounty hunting is something I think I do on nearly every play through to a degree however unless im trying to do a none aggressor playthough like being a trader/smuggler. Not that Ive done that often, you can do get lots of credits fast but later on it gets a bit boring because your fleet gets big and everyone tends to like you from all the trading.

I agree about the mining removal. I think I will replace It with explorer as an option.


I tend to pick a patrol fleet to hang around and join any fights it gets into.

Recovering Shepherds is one of the highlights of this stage. Sheps rule early game.


So these are thing things I genuinely haven't really thought doing. I tend to stay away from shepards like the black plague. But now that you mention it I can see what you mean about them being strong especially against un shielded pirate ships. I might give that a bit of a go, I could also seem them being decent for early exploration and elimination of automated defense systems.

As far as shadowing a patrol fleet I've never really done that. Do they tend see a lot of action? I would guess they do given their existence. Do you know if the game actively spawns fleets for them to fight or is this just a happy correlation of separate parts of a whole meeting together?

I typically depend on bounties for income until colonies are up and running, but I also explore a lot. I try to do a few bounties, and then stop at a pirate base (with a bounty on it), sell all the junk and buy out all their supplies and fuel, then destroy them and head out to explore until I need to come home due to lack of resources or full cargo holds.

I've pretty often used pirate bases as dumping grounds before I kill the bases. I generally raid their blackmarket of anything I value and then destroy the base. In my head its kind of like destroying the evidence lol but I think its just generally useful. With Nex on this is sometimes how I start my faction, taking a pirate colony/base for my own and then commissioning with the local faction in the system. Corvus is a great example with the pirate base there you can generally commission with heg, use them as a shield and then build up your forces before promptly wiping them from the sector, and taking Jangela for yourself. I use ai cores a lot so heg is usually on my chopping block just as much as the pirates. Inspections are annoying, especially if you miss them.

32
General Discussion / Re: How do you play the early game?
« on: July 28, 2019, 09:42:04 PM »
Wait what? A commission allows you to colonize in their systems? I never knew this.


Hmmm keep in mind I pretty much don't play without nex so maybe it doesn't allow it in vanilla? Not want to send out misinformation. As a matter of fact most the time Ill just pick system with a pirate colony in it an conquer it and then get my commission rep from turn ins. In my experience this stops them from threatening you, and allows you get get the colony at least with nex without losing rep for taking it for yourself instead of giving it to your commissioned faction which is what do normally unless you want a reputation hit. That being said its a pretty meaningless hit 10 or 20 or something. Easy to fix with cheap AI cores or High Value Prisoners.

33
General Discussion / Re: How do you play the early game?
« on: July 28, 2019, 07:39:23 PM »
I think colony growth can fit into any stage of the game, depending on how early the player builds a colony. I know it sounds kind of silly to say so, but the player can get a colony very early if they really want to: take a commission with the Hegemony straight away and build a colony in one of their systems. They provide free protection from pirates.

Thats true, taking the pirate base with the nex mod on in Jangela can be a decent start as well with hegemony. Overall I might be a bit colored in my perspective since I have so much time playing without the new colony system compared to with. My perspective is probably quite skewed in that regard.

34
General Discussion / Re: How do you play the early game?
« on: July 28, 2019, 06:25:44 PM »
As a new player I do a little bit of everything, but mostly I like to do trading/smuggling since I'm not quite good enough to take down bounties unless I outnumber them. Explorer/surveyor should be one of the options. Also, isn't mining exclusive to the Nexerelin mod?

I'm looking forward to colony management when that time comes. Would that be considered mid-game or end-game?

Well for me I kind of consider early game basically have sub capital ships and a large amount of frigates in your fleet. Outside of super frigates I generally try to phase them out by midgame and more often than not I'm running cruisers and up during latgame. You can for sure have a colony in the early game but in my experience its not the best idea until you at least have a few decent cruisers or carriers in your fleet to deal with ai factions picking on you. Midgame to me is basically having cruisers, having a colony or two and looking for some capital ships to save for or salvage.  Hmm your are definitely bringing up more questions which is what this post is all about so go wild.

35
General Discussion / How do you play the early game?
« on: July 28, 2019, 05:40:27 PM »
So recent I've began to become very curious on how others play the game. I would love to go deeper here but I'm unsure of how this post would be received. Naturally this post might see a large amount of edits once I figure things out or a complete redesign or abandonment if people aren't really interested in the type of other questions I want to ask such as what kind of sector the generation do they use, how many mods do they use, how long does one of their champagnes generally last, what kind of start mode they use, ect.

The poll allows you to pick three choices however I picked only two since I don't do any of the others often enough to really. Feel free to use all three choices just try to keep it to ones that you use quite a bit.

Also if this is something people dont want to see feel free to comment below, not trying to rock the boat and I'm only curious.

Edit: Removal of strawpoll replaced with forum tool that was staring me in the face.

Edit: I've removed miner from the poll after feedback about it not be available in the base game and replaced it with explorer because its something you can actually do in the vanilla game. This may have skewed results as some may have picked scavenger to represent part of their exploring. Hopefully this doesn't skew things to much but I don't think I need a new poll just yet. This is kind of a learning experience for possible future polls for me so it might be a bit... inaccurate as well as inconclusive. Sorry in advance.



36
General Discussion / Re: Hegemony and AI cores
« on: July 28, 2019, 05:21:32 PM »
I generally use cores in my colonies. I will say now that nex lets you succeed colonies to you faction you really don't need to do it all the time. But in the end I get so many cores I might as well use them. I just do so with the knowledge that I either need to wipe out the hegemony or at the very least be at war with them, I also always check the intel menu whenever I here that horn sound to make sure its not inspection. I generally always try to build a decent sized fleet with at least one capital before colonizing thing. Sometimes Ill just get a commission with a faction of ships or weapons I like and then use one of their big markets as a base of operations. Ill build up found my own colonies, they are usually great allies at that point and then after I'm making 1 million or so a month from my colonies ill resign my commission. Heg is pretty easy to wipe out btw and Jangela can make a great planet to take over for a good central place. Sometimes the Delta Hiesengberg system has a good planets or the Duzak system near corvus if you are having issues picking a good planet. Frankly I also generally search for a perfect colony planet. One that has good minerals and farmlands and then focus on said farmlands and a medical center to grow my population fast. Basically the more pop you have the more money you seem to make regardless of industries. Not that they don't help make more money that is. I think I generally go mining, refining and some kind of ship building as early as I can. Sometimes Ill make two colonies, one to refine and the other to mine so I can have patrol stations up running pretty fast.

37
Daka is fun though. Especially with ammo feeder. I also feel like it was designed for BRDY ships. Throw in on a dragonfly, sure you build flux fast but can vent very fast as well, the strike variant I think does it pretty well. That being said I generally only control frigates outside super frigates in the early game and I don't feel like the AI generally manages flux that well so I don't run Thunderhead Dragonfly.

I suppose it could be buffed but I'm really not sure it needs it. Its got more faster projectile speed, range and dps when compared to the HMG. Yea it cost 1 more OP but I think thats pretty marginal. Its somewhere between the HMG and the HAC. Adds flavor without being OP which I think is the goal.
It's range advantage is marginal for ships that can use Thunderhead effectively, projectile speed at this kind of ranges isn't very important, either, and it ultimately fails by being way less flux efficient than the HMG. Thunderhead's only significant advantage is that it won't turn to shoot at some unimportant stuff, like HMG does.

I can't really refute that. The range is as you say pretty marginal. After numerous testing using HMGs on my new ragtag salvage fleet I have to agree the HMG was much better than I was giving it credit for. I'm frankly unsure of where the thunderhead could be buffed. I kind of thought it would be interesting to turn into an energy weapon but ultimately thought the soft stats would probably be a better place to start. Giving it emp or frag could be interesting but that would make it very similar to a  shard gun, not saying that's a bad thing but I think the thunderhead exists entirely in its own realm of weapon type. If anything I would say a range bump and increase of dps to match is flux requirements might work or a decrease in flux to match its damage. But again I don't really make mods and to say that I'm educated in weapon balance beyond looking for op/power weapons to smash the ai with IS a stretch. 

38
Mods / Re: [0.9.1a] Interstellar Imperium 2.1.0
« on: July 18, 2019, 07:13:12 PM »
Is there a chance to get old sprites for mod? new painfully ugly

39
Speaking of invasion fleets it's me again that guy with the worst luck in the sector here to *** again. I have one size 4 colony with a battlestation mining and light industry on it. No cores or fancy nanoforges or whatever.

Blackrock just dropped 2 invasion fleets on me one of which has enough Kurmaraja's and Eschaton's(plus a Karkinos because of course) that they are fielding 30 fighter wings against my small fleet that has a total of ONE capital ship that being the beatup XIV legion I pulled out of mothballs to try and defend against this garbage. After two tries I'm not even going to bother. It's literally impossible when your station goes down in about two fighter strikes.

I get that invasion fleets are supposed to be able to actually succeed but I also expect to actually have a fighting chance at beating them off. And realistically speaking this is overkill and a waste of resources. You don't send something like this after some little world like I have. This would be something you send after a core world like Sindria or Jangala.

I'm going to go find something else to play while I cool off but if I do come back to this game I'm just gonna console command this garbage.

I think it speaks for itself on how messed up invasion fleet strengths are that the freaking KADUR took over Jangala. The Kadur that has a bunch of size 3 stations with supply shortages scattered across the sector and can't even field anything bigger than picket fleets.

I haven't really had this issue. I generally build up a pretty good reputation in the early game my destroying pirate fleets and general bounties/IBB bounties. I also always pick a system that is empty of main factions, or I will try to find a pirate system with just pirates and decide to take over what they have. Duzak for example near Corvus is either empty or only has one faction in it, or lately I've been going to Delta Heisenburg as for a pirate system its kind of random but generally there is always one with a planet and not much else in it. I also don't generally found a colony until I'm fielding fleets with multiple midline cruisers, like dominators. I think this last time I had a Nevermore, Two Herons and a Conquest before I founded my colony. More than capable of taking on most any early invasion fleets. I also generally try to have a few blueprint groups before founding so my faction is fielding garbage. This last time I found a shadowyards bp set as well as one from Diable Avionics. Both great packs for a starter faction. You can find these by exploring deep in space. Generally in the early game I try to build a midsized fleet and do bounties to fund buying lots of supplies and fuel while trying to find dmod civ ships for cargo and fuel carrying. Then I try to get a mission from the bars to go find an alpha ai core which generally always leads to a tech cash or station. Don't neglect your salvaging skills early either they are extremely useful.

Your probably wondering why I'm saying all this but the reason is pretty simple. Don't start a faction till your personal fleet is ready to defend it. There is a reason why Nex says "own faction" is very hard. Most factions act like corporations or military states, they hate competition. This is not to say you can't found one early, it honestly sounds like you got pretty unlucky.

40
Mods / Re: [0.9.1a] Underworld 1.3.3
« on: July 09, 2019, 12:32:13 AM »
I can also can confirm fleets seem a bit more rare now. I've only seen a few and most are maybe 10 ships or less nothing bigger than a medusa.  Mine however might be related to large sector like around 22 modded factions + the vanillas, so I see tons of factions.

41
Not sure if this is intended as a feature, maybe more ship emp weapons can do this but the Dynastos can hit phased ships with its core discharge. I would test this with other emp ships but I don't have any in my current campaign and I'm not running console commands because If its there I generally turn into a dirty cheater. This one just seem outside the realm of what the description of the special does.  Sorry if this is a feature or if its been covered before, just thought I would put it out there.

42
Mods / Re: [0.9.1a] Interstellar Imperium 2.0.1
« on: July 05, 2019, 06:28:42 PM »
Well, just finished re-DL'ing the game, the mods, extracting them and putting them in proper order. EVERYTHING is working just fine now.

Just a "tanks" seems a bit dull, but that's what I got - thanks a lot, I forgot the whole way this game's updates worked and this is now cleared up. o7

Not sure how everyone else does it but I generally play SS in bursts few weeks here, maybe months on a campaign ect. Basically whenever your about to start playing again its always best to do a fresh install on everything. Least in my opinion. I don't think I've ever really had a crash as long as I edit my memory and keep my mods up to date. Maybe a half dozen to a dozen over course of a few years, I think I've been playing since .65 so that's a pretty good record for a game still in active development.

43
Is there list of all the IBB ships you can acquire? Do IBB targets regenerate, or are they finite? Thanks for the mod, btw. Incredibly good.

The International Bounty Board (IBB) and its missions are part of the Ship/Weapon Pack mod, not Nexerelin.

Nonetheless: I don't think there's a documented list anywhere, but the mod forum post does include this lovely image with (IIRC) all the bounty ships you can find - though this does include those of other mods which add their own IBBs (Shadowyards, Tiandong, Interstellar Imperium, etc.) so if you aren't using those mods (some aren't updated to 0.9 btw) you won't find those ships.

Spoiler



[close]

IBB missions are one-offs: once you've fought the battle, it won't spawn again.

I want to say after defeating IBB ships they have a chance to show up in markets like Prism Freeport but frankly I'm not sure anymore. I skimmed the change log in SWP and didn't see it there so maybe thats a figment of my imagination. However they will always spawn after battles so I guess it doesn't really matter. I always seem to get a bunch of hades. Call it luck but last time I got all four of them.

44
Thunderheads are rather flux hungry for what is basically just a slightly improved and more expensive HMG without pd hints.

Daka is fun though. Especially with ammo feeder. I also feel like it was designed for BRDY ships. Throw in on a dragonfly, sure you build flux fast but can vent very fast as well, the strike variant I think does it pretty well. That being said I generally only control frigates outside super frigates in the early game and I don't feel like the AI generally manages flux that well so I don't run Thunderhead Dragonfly.

I suppose it could be buffed but I'm really not sure it needs it. Its got more faster projectile speed, range and dps when compared to the HMG. Yea it cost 1 more OP but I think thats pretty marginal. Its somewhere between the HMG and the HAC. Adds flavor without being OP which I think is the goal.

45
A quick question to everyone who runs this mod:

Currently, I've been really thinking about whether the 'coloured' GMs ships should continue to exist in this mod (as per the changelog) and replace them with GMHQ versions of the Lasher, WOlf and Kite (Again, as per the changelog). While they might be neat and fit the 'sports car' asthetic which GMDA promoted, I feel that they don't necessarily have a large impact on gameplay (due to their rarity, and when you eventually find one you're probably not going to use them). GMHQ versions, however, can be made less rare (and more inherently ridiculous), and done in such a way that you will actively use them, even into the mid to late game.

So, to anyone who uses this mod, how attached are you to the coloured series? I would like to know your thoughts.

I think you could honestly keep the "colour line" if you wish. Frankly I think you do  decent job spriting your own ships and redesigns of vanilla and would love to see what you could come up with on top of these colour models. Maybe you could do a little of both? Take your colour line into the super frigate category and make up your own souped up sprites.

I don't actually have strong feelings on a lot of GMDA colour boats because they're too rare early on and too fragile when I find them. I've bought the Green Lasher a few times because it's a pretty good shoot-and-scoot gunboat if I know dampened mounts, but most of the rest felt too OP-starved or fragile to do well in later game.

I was thinking of suggesting having them be more common and show up in more indie and pirate fleets, but making a line of powerful and desirable super/playerships might be a more interesting direction to take the mod.

100% agree and relate here. Most of the time I'm running destroyers instead of frigates (with the exception of super frigates) by the time I come across any decent amount of GDMA colour variants. Very rarely have I seen a gold lasher or pink wolf and never early in the game.

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