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Messages - SapphireSage

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31
General Discussion / Re: Carriers in 0.95
« on: October 14, 2021, 11:11:54 AM »
Yeah, it seems like it was a combo effect of a few things, one was skills getting revamp much harder toward combat ships and less so toward personal carrier skills, and the other were carriers and fighters getting nerfed across the board.

Not only were skills more slanted toward warships and the tier 1 personal carrier skill and the Leadership 3 carrier skill at direct odds with other skills that would benefit carriers, but the fewer personal skills in general also means that the anti-fighter skill "Point Defense" (Advanced Countermeasures 3 in 0.9.1) is a much more common choice in the field than it was in 0.9.1. This combines with the lack of a skill increasing fighter survival rate makes them feel paper thin when running into a fleet with many officers as a larger number of them can now easily rip fighters to shreds with or without adequate weapons for it.

I also feel that the big across the board nerf into every aspect of fighters and carriers in the game was mostly unwarranted. Fighters act as a force multiplier via the coveted ability of being able to attack past allies. Sure, there were some stronger fighters out there, like the Thunders with their previously regular ROF ion cannons which could immediately lock down most non-360 shielded ships. However, the real easy mode strat consisted to combining two much higher performing than their competition components, the Drover and its Reserve Deployment and Sparks the tiniest, fastest, and shielded fighters sporting 5 whole Burst PD lasers in a wing (10 total for only 16 OP) or any other stronger fighter that could go in that slot like Thunders.

In 0.9.1 I wound up starting a carrier only run using an Astral, 2 Herons (Bombers), 3 Moras (Wasps), and 5 Condors (Thunders) and while I'm not the very best StarSector player out there I will say that the run, which ended prior to finding an Astral, did have trouble punching hard enough against pirate cruisers between the 2 herons' bombers that fights would wind up taking long enough for the smaller ships to start running low on CR. It was certainly not the easy ROFL-Stomps that people claimed an all carrier fleet would be, likely due to the fact that it was missing said Astral for more punch and due to the fact that I decided not to use Drovers over the much more vulnerable Condors. It also had a problem that if I had any combat ships at all on the field then all of the carriers would immediately focus all their fighters onto the one combat ship to the detriment of themselves and the battle. I wound up picking up a Falcon-P as a temporary filler and that was a big mistake as then all the Condors and Moras would send their Interceptors to hang out with the Falcon-P who was too timid to engage close enough for the escorts to matter, meanwhile the Condors would be getting destroyed by the frigates their Thunders were meant to counter.

32
General Discussion / Re: For those who don't pilot their own ships
« on: September 10, 2021, 12:37:25 PM »
If you like commanding and want to avoid taking personal combat skills I would recommend taking a Hound (when the upcoming patch comes out then the Kite(S)), slapping an Operations Center in it, and using that as your flagship as it will increase how fast your CPs regenerate so long as you are on it. Just place that in a far corner somewhere away from all the combat and command from there.

33
General Discussion / Re: What posts do new guy need to learn?
« on: September 10, 2021, 07:52:36 AM »
Not a modder, but if you want guidelines for mod functionality and balance, then you can check out the guidelines written by Dark Revenant here.

For things like hate speech and ideologies it would be best to follow the Forum and Community Guidelines.

There is historical precedent of a modder that posted a mod here containing pro-nazi propaganda and dog whistles that has since been removed and the user banned. It would be in best interests to avoid the topic entirely.

34
General Discussion / Re: The best fighters against stations
« on: September 10, 2021, 07:19:09 AM »
Longbow + Cobra/Trident/Dagger combos along with my favorite, Piranha spam.

In 0.9 during my pure carrier playthrough (using only Moras, Herons, Astral, and Condors) I would keep my bomber carriers with their Longbows + Daggers and replace most of the other carriers interceptors/fighters with tons of piranhas bombers and sit all the carriers at around 3000su range until the enemy station got whittled down and destroyed. The mines and missiles weren't a problem due to all the stacked PD from the clustered carriers and the station often didn't have enough 1000+su range weapons to do much about my squatting out past 3000su while I could barrage them with tons and tons of bombs.

Piranhas also work well because they're fairly tough on approach and spam so many bombs that their retreat is covered through all the garbage thrown in front of them. Their normally bad traits of firing slow, inaccurate, and unguided bomb projectiles are nullified due to the fact that the station is immobile and large enough to absorb all the bombs thrown at it. Mind you that those downsides are because Piranhas throw out the most damage per salvo in unguided munitions, it normally doesn't come into effect because of the aforementioned downsides, but worked explosively well against stations. That said, carriers have been nerfed pretty heavily across the board so I'm not sure if this can still work on the tougher stations, but it should still be fine for a level 1 pirate outpost so long as you have enough hanger bays with piranhas or longbow+bomber combos and the crew for the fighter losses you'll take.

35
Also, a second issue: Anti-fun game mechanics. The biggest two are combat readiness and deployment points. Both are added to solve the problem that large fleets would easily crush small fleets. But there is already a solution: A large fleet is likely slower than a small fleet, and has to waste fuel on emergency burns to catch up, and they get very little payout for defeating a small fleet, so its not worth it anyway. Why make it even less worth it by making ships require supplies to recover CR and limiting the number of ships in play at once?

In addition, deployment points are unfun for even matchups between large fleets because if two massive fleets fight, having giant 30 vs 30 war is more fun than a 7 vs 7 battle while the remaining 23 ships wait for their allies to be destroyed so they can join the battle.

With regards to Combat Readiness, its actually the inverse to prevent a solo ship from being able to kite and slowly wear down a much larger fleet. If the time limit didn't exist it would be possible to take a fast ship like, say a Medusa, and use it to slowly work down the enemy fleet one ship at a time indefinitely. If you summon overwhelming force against an enemy and quickly crush them you can even get a reduction to the CR used for deployment for the ships involved.

With regards to deployment points, its purely a computational power thing so that people with not high-end hardware (like myself) can play the game at 1.0x speed at minimum even with Carrier spam. If you have a strong computer though, you can modify the ".\starsector-core\data\config\settings.json" file and change the "maxBattleSize", "maxShipsInFleet", and "maxShipsInAIFleet" options to make fleets both bigger and to allow more to be deployed in combat at once.

36
General Discussion / Re: Some thoughts on phase ships
« on: June 12, 2021, 05:06:23 PM »
After fighting some bounties with Officered Harbingers, I've started avoiding fleets with Harbingers and Dooms in them. I will tell you that having a Harbinger a mile away spam force overload at me for a minute with no way for me to counter through my own actions while the rest of the enemy forces move in and start firing freely is definitely anti-fun. Especially if anyone wanted to fly a capital since two of a capital's main direct defenses (PD and Shields) and one indirect defense (threat of firepower) are instantly nullified with no chance of moving away due to the lowest speeds in the game and nothing you can do about it due to Officered Harbinger overload potentially having far longer range than most weapons and with the ability to do it for a prolonged period. As much as I disliked the Knights Templars having a weapon that forced flux on you potentially causing overloads with shields down at least you could counter-play that by keeping a lower flux threshold in mind, but you can't do that with Harbingers moving up to you at lightning speeds and pushing a button.

One of those bounties had 2(!) Officered Harbingers that would not stop escorting a Paragon with High-Intensity lasers and in terms of effective compositions I would definitely say that was one of them. After successfully surrounding and killing off the rest of the fleet the only option I figured I had to take those three without losses was to just sit around, wait for a minute with avoid orders, and watch them until the Harbingers ran out of CR for easy, unopposed kills before moving in on the Paragon. If any ships had moved in before that, then the Harbingers would have just chained their Overloads on them while the Paragon HILed them down with no real way to do anything about that but retreat against their obscene range.

Edit: Incidentally, the best counter to phase ships in general are officered Harbingers since you can force them out of phase with overloads and burst them down even with the reduced damage, only Dooms won't be defeatable in the 4 or 5 uses you'll get in the engagement due to their higher toughness to their destroyer and frigate sized comrades.

37
Capital ships indeed got a hard time right now. It's funny how given enough time something you like can also become something you hate at the same time. I had similar feelings at the launch of new patch then drover and carriers as a whole got nerfed to the ground. Denial, rage, acceptance. And eventually I come out with this new frigate strategy and finally found inner peace again, perfect tranquility.

True acceptance is knowing that sometimes, losses will be taken and that they don't matter because frigates are dirt cheap to restore anyway. Besides, frigate rushes are much more exciting IMO than Drover spam and hitting 'Z' once ever could be. That tactic needed to be removed for the good of the game.

38
Suggestions / Re: Tempest Nerf Options
« on: May 19, 2021, 11:10:10 AM »
After two campaigns of testing frigates with wolfpack I've came into a conclusion that officered scarab>officered tempest, but regular scarab<regular tempest. 3x speed on scarab is just bonkers, it received a huge buff, i must say i was a fan of scarab even before then it has only 150 flux dissipation and considered by many a very meh pick. Most other unofficered frigates do not even worth a try. Tempest do not really have two free ir blasters, target analysis, wolfpack tactics, energy focus them all do not affect drones, so it felt like wasted potential putting officer on tempest imo. in the previous version I've even tried putting green skill on a tempest officer, worked well tbh.

Interesting, from what I've seen so far using the Combat Analysis mod and my loadout below, Officered Scarabs tend to perform about on par or slightly below at times with Officered tempests in terms of damage done to the enemy. I'm going to hazard a guess that the Sabots at 3x or Burst PD at 3x recovery rate have something to do with it?

For reference:
Scarab
Officer skills:
  • Aggressive
  • Helms
  • Elite Targeting
  • Energy Mastery
  • Reliability Engineering
  • Systems Expertise

Weapons
  • Antimatter Blasters x2
  • IR Pulse Lasers x3

Hullmods
  • Built-in Hardened Shields
  • Hardened Subsystems
  • Front Shield Emitter
[close]

Tempest
Officer skills:
  • Steady
  • Helms
  • Elite Targeting
  • Energy Mastery
  • Reliability Engineering
  • Shield Modulation

Weapons
  • Heavy Blaster
  • Graviton Beam
  • Atropos Torpedo Rack

Hullmods
  • Built-in Hardened Shields
  • High Scatter Amplifier
[close]

I think the reason scarab is so strong is that it's system increases dissipation and fire rate by 3x. While the system is active, 2 IR pulse lasers become 900 DPS at .8 efficiency, and then you add wolfpack + target anaysis + energy weapon mastery and you some really high damage numbers. I prefer to lean into the system by increasing uptime with system mastery and spending OP on other hullmods instead of missiles and expanded missiles racks. I don't think it really needs to rely on sabots, although I'm sure it's very effective that way too.

Same, which is why I have AMBs and IR Pulse Lasers on mine. Scarab can do with time dilation what phase ships cannot, attack. They are still "vulnerable" since they can technically get shot at, but they also fire as well and it can get carried away. If you move forward while blasting your IR pulses you can get them to hit the enemy near the same time for crazy burst with an otherwise sustained fire weapon.

39
General Discussion / Re: 0.95 Small ships performance comparison
« on: May 17, 2021, 11:10:22 PM »
Phase Lances won't be as great against a Venture 1v1 as they have Omni shields rather than front and Phase Lances do bursty soft flux over a period of time while a H. Needler on its own isn't enough hard flux to be a concern for it. Instead, you want to take advantage of the Hyperion's ability to teleport where ever and give it strong close range weaponry like the Heavy Machine gun if you want Kinetic (most Kinetic DPS among medium Ballistics and for the cheapest flux.) and weaponry like Heavy or Antimatter Blasters for strong burst damage against armor and hull. Mining Blasters if you're feeling risky, but those really need skills to make up for their flux inefficiency. Likewise, being a high tech ship that loves bursty hit and runs, and a frigate at that, Hyperions love flux capacity rather than dissipation to dump more rounds at a target before backing off to vent.

SO and to a lesser extent Helmsmanship elite do a really good job of letting it teleport on demand. If its an AI Hyperion though, it will really need SO in order for the AI to better abuse teleporter since AI do a really bad job with letting down shields or holding fire to get Elite Helms bonus for easy getaways.

40
It adds 5% to the max, so at level 1 or 0 ECM it makes the max go from 10% to 15%, at level 2 ECM your max goes up from 15% to 20% and at level 3 ECM from 20% to 25% and likewise for Coordinated maneuvers.

41
Suggestions / Re: Tempest Nerf Options
« on: May 07, 2021, 09:12:54 PM »
Increasing the Lasher's speed would greatly help its survival ability, its threat, and put it more in line away from "low-tech" doctrine and closer to combat frigate doctrine of quickly moving in, bursting flux for damage on target, then speeding away and recovering for the next strike. If Lasher speed were increased it could possibly be brought up to strong end-game generalist which would be a decent contender for officer skills in terms of frigates. LAGs and Railguns are both very good against fighters as well allowing the Lasher to defend itself against fighters with its weapons and AAF in a low-tech spin of how the Tempest covers itself from fighters with the terminator drones.

42
Suggestions / Re: Tempest Nerf Options
« on: May 03, 2021, 03:41:25 PM »
I don't wonder if this issue with Tempests is because Frigates are finding more use from people in 0.95 whereas they were left by the wayside for most players in 0.9.1 due to Objectives being important to capture and the game including many skill buffs for frigates via Gunner Implant Elite, Coordinated Maneuvers, Wolfpack tactics, and Targeting Analysis. Now that frigates are being used people are putting more focus on the strong outliers the Tempest and Omen, but the main detail to look at is what frigates are best at and what doctrines are best at.

It makes sense that the Omen and Tempest are considered best because High-tech's doctrine of high mobility and burst damage is in line with what a frigate can do best, move quickly into range, flux out and hit the target hard, and then back off and recover. Conversely, Low-tech doctrine of high armor and sustained ballistics doesn't work out so well when you can only have so much armor and guns on you compared to what a Dominator or Onslaught can field. Mid-tech frigates meanwhile might outrun anything larger sure, but its rather hard for say a brawler to strike at arms length when it can get two 1100 range weapons at best compared to capitals fielding many 1600 range (or more with Gauss/ATC) weapons or Eagles and Falcons running them down with many more medium mounts. The Kite is a meme because even though its otherwise very weak, its a 3 DP frigate that can sometimes get close enough with weapons that can really ruin your day. It won't do it very often and more often than not its just a punching bag for all of a second, but you will remember those times when a Kite Reaper gets through your notice and cripples you. Getting close and bursting is something that frigates can do to keep up against late game larger capital and cruiser spam and getting close and bursting is something that the Tempest is able to do regularly thanks to its fast speed, two Medium mounts, and HEF. Anything different and you take it away from what frigates can do to compete.

Its also what makes other stronger frigates considered so strong as well due to their capability to threaten capitals and cruisers, Afflictors, Hyperions, and Scarabs are all very capable of moving themselves into a position and with enough burst power to threaten a capital, the difference is that they have tricks to do so, while Tempest only has its raw speed and so can't strike with as much impunity as the above.

Other frigates that are considered strong or outliers do so in a manner different from the ones that people are most concerned about because they're strong at different things then taking down big ships. Omens, Monitors, and Centurions are great at holding out and taking down missiles/fighters and being a temporary shield to take up something's time. Anything else is considered either too strong because it can effectively hit against something larger than destroyer or forgotten about past the early game because they get taken out too easily by said big ships or their fighter complements while being unable to effectively threaten them. Aside from Afflictor and other phase frigates needing adjustments because their only real threat is getting caught by their target exploding, the Tempest is one of few frigates that's able to keep up with larger ships threat-wise when the main fleets clash together and it seems weird to want to nerf it now that frigates are starting to be something other than road bumps you kinda just run over when you start fighting the enemy fleet.

43
Suggestions / Re: Tempest Nerf Options
« on: May 02, 2021, 10:04:44 AM »
First, I will start by saying that I am running a pure combat frigate playthrough at the moment, so I am somewhat biased, but I will say that I think balancing focus should look more toward the extreme outliers like Phase (Afflictor can kill all capitals in real-time seconds, Harbinger can solo Ziggs, and Doom can literally solo anything it wants to with little to no counterplay possible), Derelict Contingent destroyers tanking a fleet's worth of reapers, or Carriers that are unable to handle end-game due to all the anti-fighter skills and weapons added before looking at stuff that's on the top end of regular effectiveness.

For my playthrough Tempests are my general go-to for officers mostly because, aside from phase frigate and scarab, they seem to receive the most bonuses from officer skills and WolfPack Tactics. Omens are mostly there for EMP, PD, and shield efficiency but it gets very strong shields even without officers and can't do as much long-term with only two light weapons and the only skill that seems decent on a monitor is Point Defense. Arguably Brawlers might be a decent contender shelling from a distance with Ranged Specialization and Gunner Implants, but Tempests make the best general "line" ships for the frigate force due to a combination of their high speed and strong, bursty firepower.

Terminators, alongside Monitors and Omens, can help hold off nasty fighter swarms until their carriers get nuked by an Afflictor or Hyperion, but will falter if the parent carriers aren't dealt with soon enough and the two medium weapons allow them to pressure larger ships with backup to keep the pressure on while they back off for round two, but are limited on their own since a Tempest will only get a couple rounds off on a shield at best before having to retreat letting the target recover its flux. The officer tempests do decent against the officer spam so long as they have backup or other tempests to assist, but are limited against what they can do to other larger targets on their own unlike the other 8 cost ship, the Afflictor, which is able to effectively crush large bounties mostly unassisted.

44
Bug Reports & Support / Possible Marine Exploit?
« on: April 30, 2021, 10:06:22 AM »
I was reading some stuff on the StarSector reddit when I came across this thread talking about how jettisoning marines before a raid will allow you to take less casualties than leaving them in your crew.

I'm not sure if it works or not due to not making much use of raiding early on, but if anyone coming into this topic with more resources or experience with in-game raiding can comment on whether or not this works as described? Some posts in the thread state or imply that it works, and if true can lead to "Doing tedious, non-intuitive things for optimal results" type of behavior that tends to be removed. Especially for raiding that I hear is rather profitable early on.

45
General Discussion / Re: Not able to grasp something regarding combat
« on: April 26, 2021, 07:45:07 PM »
If the two builds are the same and they're putting out more fire then you, its likely that you're not using the Hammerhead's ship system while the AI is. When you hear that little "Shhhoop" sound and see the enemy's weapons glowing yellow, that means they've activated Accelerated Ammo Feeder which doubles the rate of fire and halves the flux cost of ballistic weapons for a few seconds.

Every ship has a ship system that is activated by the 'F' key by default and generally helps determine what a ship is good at or what they can do. Hammerhead and Lasher get bonus firepower, Omens get EMP Emitter which is great for stopping missiles and fighters, Monitors and Paragons get Fortress shield which makes them mostly invincible for as long as its activated, but raises hard flux and makes them unable to fire while active, etc.

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