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Author Topic: [0.95.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.95rc1 (2023/01/07)  (Read 491702 times)

HELMUT

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.72RC3 (20/06/2017)
« Reply #120 on: August 10, 2017, 01:35:07 PM »

I decided to play an experimental campaign using only autopilot (except for early game) and trying to exploit the advantages of the leadership and tech skills. I went with ORA for this campaign, mostly because i haven't had the chance to try them yet, and because i thought space broadsides would work well with this strategy. This'll be a little different than my usual feedback posts, since i didn't really piloted any ships, i don't really have a precise opinions about them. Instead, i'll talk about my choices and my feeling about the ORA fleet i build.

As Tartiflette can probably attest from my moans of frustration on the Discord chat, early game was hard. I got careless with my starter Mirth in the beginning, and lost it quickly to pirates. I failed to find another one for a long while, and relied instead on the Bliss frigates. Big mistake, the Bliss is pretty much a trap option for early game. It is fairly slow at 120su (as much as a Lasher), and while his compact fortress shield works well to tank alpha strikes, it deals quite poorly being pressured. It is more or less hard-countered by the fast and numerous pirates i encountered.

So yeah, it didn't went well. I had to restart after a few fights.

I got myself a Harmony destroyer for my second start, making things easier. Its exceptional mobility was very useful to catch even the swiftest frigates, and while getting the whole broadside trick took me a little bit, it worked quite well. As much as i wanted to try those ORA blasters, i knew from my tests in the simulator those would not work for early game skirmishes. Instead, i went first for a bread and butter IR pulse/Ion cannon boat with Safety Override, which i later upgrade to an asymmetrical phase lance boat. That was also the moment i realised how important Accelerated Shield is for ORA, they needs to cover their long profile as quickly as possible to avoid taking unnecessary damage. Extend shield is nice too, but as i eventually learned that ORA needs more hullmods that they can afford.

After grinding a sufficient amount of pirates with my Harmony, my hard earned money was spent on a pair of Communion carriers, something to relieve some pressure off my Bliss frigates. I couldn't quite afford the Fervor gunships though, so i went for the cheap Talon option, this also allowed me to stack ECM package and Nav Relay on them. The Communions made my life much easier, and from there money started to roll in much quicker, allowing me to grow further the fleet. I felt confident enough in letting the AI pilot the flagship, letting me command the rest of the fleet thanks to the Operation Center hullmod.

As i was very satisfied with the performances of my Harmony, i decided to add a few more to my band, as well as a bunch of Bliss frigates (why was i even bothering with those anyway?). It was also the time i felt i could try those long range ORA blasters. I was disappointed with the results. Obviously my fleet wasn't quite big enough to to drown the screen in a Touhou-esque amount of bullets, but still, the very slow projectiles made the Lithany/Eschewal too unreliable to catch frigates/destroyers, even in large numbers. I find the solution by looking at Orikson's ORA tournament's fleet. If i can't hit a moving enemy, perhaps i can hit one that stays still? It's time to load on ion weaponry.

I wasn't too hot about dedicating precious mounts to ion weapons, so i let that duty to fighters. A bunch of Claws and Xyphos suddenly drastically increased the precision of my ships. Because of this reason, i found Converted Hangar to be invaluable for ORA, and all my destroyers/cruisers were soon accompanied by their own Xyphos wings, bringing solid point defenses as a bonus. I also replaced most of my cheap interceptors with Fervor gunships too, those proved very useful for my fleet as well. The Choirs brought a welcome, if small, amount of EMP, the flares distracted the PDs from the blaster shots (Lithany Throwers's projectiles are like missiles for those that don't know) and the Calling launcher brought... Erh, more dakka? Never enough of that.

Things were going smoothly so far, i added a few more ships, some Sanctuary destroyers, which fulfilled a very similar role to my Harmonies. Also a longbows loaded Felicity carrier, which became my new command center. In battle, my fleet was separated in three groups, the larger carrier group, compromised of Communions, Sanctuaries and the Felicity, which was used as an anvil to push the enemy's fleet where i wanted. And then two smaller squad of Harmonies and Bliss, hunting the stragglers that my "anvil" managed to separate from the main group. Despite not participating directly in battles, my fleet was able to take down even high-levels bounties, including IBBs with those tactics.

As time went on however, battles began to drag on longer that i wanted to. My blaster spam started to show its limit against heavier armor, and i needed to quickly improve my fleet's overall firepower to keep going. I experimented a few different loadouts for my Harmonies that were forming the bulk of my fleet. I went with a few Typhoons launchers in the Synergy slots. I'm usually not that keen on unreliable, unguided torpedoes but since my numerous Xyphos were able to paralyse whatever i was focusing on, i thought it would work well enough. And it did, although the limited ammo would cause me issues in prolonged engagements.

I eventually got myself some more cruisers, two more Felicity, both loaded with Tridents and Daggers, since i still needed more raw damage. Also a pair of Revelation and an Elevation. Those three were outfitted as mobile artillery, it was a good chance for me to try the Invocation Launcher. The ability to fire a long range, guided projectile going over my own ships is amazing, there's no reason for my cruisers not to be constantly firing that thing. As such, Advanced Turret Gyros tends to be mandatory on the Revelation to constantly keep track of the target. Sadly, even with lvl 3 loadout design, choosing where to invest my OPs was getting tricky. Accelerated shields, ITU, Converted Hangar, Advanced gyros, extended shields... I wanted them all, but it would be at the cost of my capacity/dissipation. My support ships probably didn't needed those too much, but my frontline destroyers? Difficult choices... I preferred to sacrifice a few hullmods (Extended shields, Extended racks) for a bit more flux capacity, in case they end up in tricky situations.

The other ships i purchased throughout the end game were just more of the same. The Enlightenment battleship was "just" a heavier Revelation. The Beatitude cruiser, a slower but punchier Harmony. Similar loadouts, similar roles. Oh, and i still had Bliss frigates still laying around somehow, they didn't fulfilled any purpose asides from cannon fodder. I didn't even needed them as dedicated PD platforms, similar to the Centurion/Monitor, since ORA carriers comes with a built-in Wasp interceptors, and the  bucketload of Xyphos i fielded resolved all  potential issues about missiles and fighters.

Unfortunately for me, this strat eventually showed its limit against end-game opponents. Being always outnumbered, my shrinking deployment point capacity prevented me from deploying a sufficient amount of ships to properly control the battlefield. Since my tactics about surrounding a target and finishing it with torpedoes couldn't work anymore, i was stuck on the defensive all the time, only saved by my long range artillery, until CR started to wear me down. Of course, a player controlled flagship surely would have done the trick in this situation, but given i was too busy playing with plastic soldiers aboard my operation center...

I still managed to get to the final IBB, but gave up trying to take down the three mod-battleships. Not enough ships, not enough CR, not enough hullmods, not enough of everything. That was still quite a surprisingly fun campaign, and it inspired me quite a bit in how to properly build fleets.

I would have liked if ORA had more options for fleet-wide support options. I know Tyrador have a fighter AOE buff hullmod, and somehow hoped for something similar during this campaign, especially since ORA ships rely so heavily on each others. Ideally though,  Alex should try to develop a bit more the global in-battle bonuses like Nav Relay and ECM, the idea is good but sadly currently too limited in my opinion. If you have ideas for "support' abilities for ORA though, i certainly won't complain.
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FreedomFighter

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.72RC3 (20/06/2017)
« Reply #121 on: August 10, 2017, 01:57:36 PM »

I found ORA having a hard time keeping the battleline since their ship is long and it need to do broadside which eat up a lot of space. Enemy fleet with forward facing ship seem to get their guns on me more than i put on them. Although ORA ship make a great aux force. Most of them are bloody fast with their system. They are also great at doing pincer maneuver since if enemy fleet starting to collapse and falling back, ORA ship still be able to keep their broadside on them while your main fleet with vanilla ship pressure them from bottom. The ship itself having a problem operating on their own agenda but once you mix them in your fleet along with the other ship, they are damn good at padding on left or right flank.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.72RC3 (20/06/2017)
« Reply #122 on: August 11, 2017, 01:01:09 AM »

Thanks Helmut, I will mull over that some.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.73 (14/08/2017)
« Reply #123 on: August 14, 2017, 12:01:38 AM »


Requires LazyLib

Quick update after Helmut's feedback that for the most part matched my own feeling about the mod. Some ship systems have been shuffled around, some effects tweaked, the Litany Thrower is now significantly different and there is one new weapon in ORA's arsenal: The Echoes Caster! A medium range EMP shockwave weapon that deals slightly sub-par damage but can affect a lot of targets at once. It excels at taking down entire volleys of missiles and wings of fighters! (And yes, plural "Echoes", get over it!)

Spoiler
[close]

Changelog:
Spoiler

0.73

NEW CONTENT:

 - Echoes Caster:
   . Medium sized EMP shockwave caster.

BALANCING:

 - Litany Thrower:
   . Reworked as a decent damage burst fire weapon with slow ammo regen and slightly unreliable medium range.

 - Invocation Launcher:
   . On hit effect now slows down the target instead of pushing it away,
   . Effect triggers on hull hit too instead of only shield impacts.

 - Eschewal Projector:
   . Added same on hit effect as the Invocation Launcher.

 - Bliss:
   . Shield arc raised to 300 from 240,
   . Flux capacity increased to 4000 from 3000,
   . Most logistic stats slightly improved.

 - Grace:
   . Ship system changed to Solid State Capacitors from Heavy Teleporter.

 - Communion:
   . Ship system changed to Long Range Wings Coordination from Interdictor Array.

 - Sanctuary:
   . Weapon slots types shuffled,
   . Added built-in ECM Package and Nav Relay hullmods,
   . Ship system changed to Arc Emitter from Solid State Capacitors.

 - Elevation:
   . System changed to High Energy Focus from Reserve Deployment.

 - Fervor:
   . Now equipped with a Litany Thrower instead of a Calling.
[close]
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Takion Kasukedo

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.73 (14/08/2017)
« Reply #124 on: August 14, 2017, 02:27:23 AM »

o.o that EMP shockwave is pretty.
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FreedomFighter

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.73 (14/08/2017)
« Reply #125 on: August 14, 2017, 03:40:21 AM »

It kinda like Dragonborn's shout. This gotta be great at disable an entire fight wings.
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Mr. Nobody

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.73 (14/08/2017)
« Reply #126 on: August 14, 2017, 04:51:54 AM »

(And yes, plural "Echoes", get over it!
Act 1, 2 or 3?
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A Random Jolteon

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.73 (14/08/2017)
« Reply #127 on: August 15, 2017, 06:29:46 PM »

It kinda like Dragonborn's shout. This gotta be great at disable an entire fight wings.
FUS-RO-...Uh...EMP! FUS-RO-EMP!...Erk...Lame jokes with A Random Jolteon folks. Bask in the crud that it is.


Anyway, I'll try out this mod again as I have gotten a little better at the game. (AKA, I will actually remember I have a shield/phase capability) Tomorrow (after I post this) I'll do a campaign with Blackrock and Neutrino (Falken is Love, Falken is Life) to go along with ORA. I may give information for either each in-game month, or each IRL day (or two...because I play nothing but starsector...because no life = happy fun times).
In other words: Brace for feedback...This time with some "Drove the ship personally" stuff, rather than command tab stuff. (Not hating ya Helmut, just wanna get the personal commanding in as well)

(Edit: ...I just realized why I hate driving/flying broadside ships...I SUCK with them.)
« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 01:41:26 PM by A Random Jolteon »
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Takion Kasukedo

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.73 (14/08/2017)
« Reply #128 on: August 23, 2017, 07:10:57 AM »

Oooo blimey, those EMP Crescents and the stop-shunt cannons (Invocation Launchers) can be a real pain in the ass and a helper as well.

The Invocation halts, the Echoes Caster disrupts, then the enemy has to forcefully take the barrage.
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Ratheden

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.73 (14/08/2017)
« Reply #129 on: September 08, 2017, 05:13:47 AM »

A quick note, the moon "Spin" in the Valis Star System, does not show up for me, just its name.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.74 (27/09/2017)
« Reply #130 on: September 24, 2017, 06:56:41 AM »


Requires LazyLib

Minuscule maintenance update to fix one annoying bug. Won't break your saves.

Changelog:
Spoiler
0.74

BUGFIXES/IMPROVEMENTS:

 - (finally) Fixed a mod incompatibility regarding some visual effects.
[close]
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.75 (2017/01/09)
« Reply #131 on: January 09, 2018, 11:43:09 AM »


Requires LazyLib

Small post tournament patch: Lots of small buffs to the Sempiternal Repeater, the Echoes Caster, the Eschewal Projector and most ships.

Changelog:
Spoiler
0.75

BALANCING:

 - Sempiternal Repeater:
   . Turn rate vastly increased.

 - Echoes Caster:
   . EMP arching range and damage slightly increased.

 - Eschewal Projector:
   . Flux per shot reduced to 500 from 600 (1.25 flux/dmg from 1.5).

 - Frigates/Destroyers:
   . Small flux stats buff.

 - Cruisers:
   . Small shield efficiency buff.
[close]
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.76 (2017/02/22)
« Reply #132 on: February 21, 2018, 04:36:46 PM »


Requires LazyLib

   It's Update Time, and this one is meaty! From starters, WEAPONS! You will now be able to buy the Recital Deliverer, a small energy weapon that has an increasing rate of fire and flux efficiency the longer the burst it fires. And you will encounter the Calling Scatterer, a large energy weapon that fires a bunch of high damage orbs in the general direction of the enemy, and doubles up as a makeshift flux-free PD weapon when not in active use.







Spoiler
[close]


   Then there are pair of new WINGS OF FIGHTERS: the Wisdom-class Interceptor, and the Allure-class Antimatter Bomber.







   And last but certainly not least: the Discernment-class Strategic Carrier!




Spoiler
[close]


And as usual a bunch of bugfixes and stuff nobody really care about. Except maybe for this one: the proliferation of debris fields you can see when entering some systems is actually caused by a small vanilla bug that Nexerelin will probably fix in its next release. In the meantime however you can install the console command mod and use state to print a breakdown of the content of your save, and check if there are a bunch of debris fields bloating your save and slowing down your game. If that's the case (say, more than 500) use state true to allow the command to erase every combat generated fields in the sector. If done at regular intervals, it could help prevent some case of save corruption.

This update should be save compatible.

Changelog:
Spoiler
0.76

NEW CONTENT:

 - Discernment-class strategic carrier:
   . 11 medium turrets of awesomeness,
   . 14 small mounts of triumph,
   . 8 flight decks of glory.

 - Wisdom-class interceptor:
   . Fast and well armed,
   . Unshielded and somewhat bulky.
   . Replace the Wasps as built-in wings on all ORA carrier.

 - Allure-class bomber:
   . Wing of one shielded bomber,
   . Equipped with two antimatter bombs.

 - Recital Deliverer:
   . Small assault energy weapon,
   . Low fire-rate and bad flux efficiency that both rise with longer bursts.

 - Calling Scatterer:
   . Large assault energy weapon,
   . Throws a bunch of highly damaging plasma orbs in the general direction of the enemy,
   . Very flux efficient but can be blocked by PD,
   . Doubles-up as a flux-free makeshift PD weapon when not in active use.

BALANCING:

 - Harmony-class destroyer:
   . Reduced OP to 105 from 125.

 - Fervor fighter:
   . Removed Flare launcher,
   . Flux capacity reduced to 1000 from 1500.

BUGFIXES/IMPROVEMENTS:

 - Fixed missing flavor text in one of the hidden refuges.
 - Added a console command to check the content of the sector for debugging purposes (doesn't belong to this mod in particular but a useful tool).
 - Ship bounds optimization pass.
[close]
« Last Edit: February 22, 2018, 01:16:45 PM by Tartiflette »
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Kwbr

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.76 (2017/02/22)
« Reply #133 on: February 21, 2018, 04:58:12 PM »

oh baby
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A Random Jolteon

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Re: [0.8.1a] Outer Rim Alliance v0.76 (2017/02/22)
« Reply #134 on: February 21, 2018, 05:31:53 PM »

...That carrier not only carries a massive amount of fighters, it has a massive amount of weapons.

I know what I am getting now!
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