Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

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

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 10

Author Topic: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun  (Read 46875 times)

nathanebht

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 93
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #30 on: November 26, 2018, 11:08:08 AM »

I just let it defend itself and, while the stability has taken hits, it has yet to lose to a raid

Congrats on being lucky I suppose.
I left my fortress world alone with a maxed station, ground defence, and miltary base. And plenty of patrol fleets with capships/carriers wandering about boosted by a nanoforge, and the Hegemony pitches up with an "evenly matched" fleet and proceeds to kick all my anthills over while I'm on the other side of sector and completely unable to do anything about it.

All I'm getting from this, is that I'm not allowed to leave this colony alone anymore.

Did you customize your Doctrine and Blueprints? Would have to think this is key.
Select the nicest ship blueprints you have. You can also pick weapon and fighter blueprints.
Fleet composition and doctrine settings seem very important. Max the ship size slider and it has no drawbacks? Free defensive capital ships in my fleets.
Logged

Dragon239

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 51
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #31 on: November 26, 2018, 11:20:51 AM »

Congrats on being lucky I suppose.
I left my fortress world alone with a maxed station, ground defence, and miltary base. And plenty of patrol fleets with capships/carriers wandering about boosted by a nanoforge, and the Hegemony pitches up with an "evenly matched" fleet and proceeds to kick all my anthills over while I'm on the other side of sector and completely unable to do anything about it.

All I'm getting from this, is that I'm not allowed to leave this colony alone anymore.

Either something is off, you're doing a thing wrong, you're facing expedition strengths I haven't seen, or you're lying.
I've tried several games and my friend has reported the same: the expeditions all rapidly become a non-threat if you build and upgrade just an orbital station and the patrol HQ. Only in my first game of this entire patch have I actually been threatened by Expeditions, and that's because I failed to build any defenses, not knowing they were a thing.

Here is a threat I have in game right now:



And this is the colony:


What strength-ratings are the enemy expeditions that qualify as evenly matched?

Oh and for Doctrines I have, and have always had

For blueprint Prio I do pick the ships I think are better, but they don't even have to be that good - I generally only pick high-tech ships and high-tech weapons simply because I personally fancy lasers, and for significant amounts of my "fending off strong expedition"-time, I'm still limited to Mining Lasers & Blasters.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2018, 11:23:00 AM by Dragon239 »
Logged

Cyan Leader

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 718
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #32 on: November 26, 2018, 11:28:49 AM »

What strength-ratings are the enemy expeditions that qualify as evenly matched?

"Very strong" as opposed to the "Fairly strong" you shared. I've been getting them quite frequently now. They are manageable though, as I outlined before.
Logged

solardawning

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 140
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #33 on: November 26, 2018, 11:33:48 AM »

If you're able to build two or more colonies in close proximity (optimal situation: planet & moon, or moons of a gas giant), then once built up with starbases and military bases, they'll be unbeatable by any strength attack.
Double the fleets patrolling.
Logged

Dragon239

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 51
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #34 on: November 26, 2018, 11:34:19 AM »

Yeah, after I posted that I loaded up another save in year 2011 on a size-8 colony.
They're facing Very Strong, but the enemy is still outmatched in both departments.

What colony-size are you?
Logged

knogleknuser

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 27
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #35 on: November 26, 2018, 11:51:50 AM »

I support Serenitis opinion.

I too am facing very strong expeditions on a regular basis from multiple factions, they go from evenly matched to superior in term of fleet strength comparison. Doctrines are setup for max fleet size and the best (and biggest) ships. Just "Strong" expeditions are always outmatched by orbital defences.

Colonies are size 8 to 10, they all receive ships from a colony with a pristine nanoforge+orbital work, fleet logistics is maxed out for the one in charge of the colony. (Either me or an alpha core)

They have a level 3 space station and patrol HQ /Military base/High Command (Since military bases don't increase fleet size according to the ingame info, I have been experimenting to potentially optimize income)

Their raiding/boarding strength is usually outmatched, which means that I at most lose my orbital station, (which is -3 stability for 90 days, that equals to about 100k-200k/month less for 3 months)

I get about 1 or 2 raids every 2 months. Usually targetting the same colony despite there being 9 targets. (All with free port and high market share of various products, and all size 8 plus)

Even if I did have an industry that increased local fleet size to levels that would allow my colonies to easily beat the repeated expeditions, that would just create a new problem. Expeditions would be almost completely and utterly pointless and add no fun to the gameplay experience. (Currently, they subtract from the gameplay experience, so it would still be a step forward)
Logged

speeder

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 364
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #36 on: November 26, 2018, 11:53:37 AM »

I got totally stomped while having size 3...

Ie: my colony was still new, still size 3, and already had endless stream of capital ships of all factions pounding it. No way this would work with just upgrading stuff... my total defense even at max upgrades was still tiny, only pickets and ground force of 500 or so (instead of 7000 like your screenshot)
Logged

Reinhark

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 55
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #37 on: November 26, 2018, 12:06:15 PM »

I get about 1 or 2 raids every 2 months. Usually targetting the same colony despite there being 9 targets. (All with free port and high market share of various products, and all size 8 plus)
Ah yes. I think factions prefer to target capital world(the planet where your faction sends manufactured weapons/ships) if there are multiple possible, equally large targets.
This is potentially an excellent bait.
Logged

Eji1700

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 222
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #38 on: November 26, 2018, 12:07:09 PM »

What determines fleet str?  Is it just how much money you're making in the market?  Both my colonies do not have freeport on and run 0 AI cores, but it still makes me about 200k per cycle (depending on pather junk, which is a different issue).

I suspect fleet size/quality factors are exactly what fleet size/quality tooltips state, without any hidden extras. In terms of actual combat ability, your doctrine (with chosen blueprints/weapons) also matters of course.
I meant enemy invasion fleet size.  My whole point was that I'm yet to have the trouble many are claiming where they just blitz my colony with a super fleet. They did blitz with something absurd for a colony that was just starting (1 cap and many crusiers) but the largest thing i've seen was 4 caps + cruisers, broken into 3ish fleets, and even waiting for them to all engage my star fortress alone, it still won.
Logged

speeder

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 364
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #39 on: November 26, 2018, 12:56:09 PM »

Seemly fleet strength is partially tied to the factions own economic success, I saw in other thread someone saying that if you bomb their orbial factories their fleet strength drops.


Since I tend to play a sort of heroic type that helps everyone, this might be a reason why the factions are all super strong... since I hunt pirates, ludds, etc... for everyone... keep convoys safe, don't smuggle, etc...
Logged

Dragon239

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 51
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #40 on: November 26, 2018, 01:40:52 PM »

Mm, I don't interact with the other factions' stuff at all, so I don't think that is necessarily it.
Do you still have your Size 3 colony that is attracting expeditions? What defense industries do you have, at what level?

My ground defense is 7,000 because they get multiplied a bunch by the higher-tier buildings (3x in some of them) & Planetary Operations, and the base defense goes up by like 100 every Colony Size which is huge.
But I don't think I've ever had it go towards ground defense, is the thing. Not that I'd particularly know, I suppose - they just all "Fail."
Logged

Cyan Leader

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 718
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #41 on: November 26, 2018, 05:34:59 PM »

Currently, they subtract from the gameplay experience, ...

I have a hard time figuring out how you got to this conclusion. Expeditions for me feel similar to something akin to pollution in city builders. As you grow larger it also becomes a larger problem. From your own example it seems like you managed it very well, and only one out of your nine colonies is suffering from a minor penalty loss so what's the issue? I imagine that you are ranking in millions per month.

You had to engage and make decisions while interacting with factions, how is this not a positive for the overall experience over not having anything challenging them?
Logged

Reinhark

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 55
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #42 on: November 26, 2018, 06:11:42 PM »

If you're able to build two or more colonies in close proximity (optimal situation: planet & moon, or moons of a gas giant), then once built up with starbases and military bases, they'll be unbeatable by any strength attack.
Double the fleets patrolling.
Perhaps. But is double fleet truly enough against all malevolent forces of the sector?





I welcome all forms of expedition.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2018, 06:14:59 PM by Reinhark »
Logged

Cyan Leader

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 718
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #43 on: November 26, 2018, 06:17:45 PM »

Are those colonies profitable? IIRC the planets are all barren in Penelope's Star.
Logged

Dragon239

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 51
    • View Profile
Re: Colony Expeditions are Unfair and Unfun
« Reply #44 on: November 26, 2018, 06:21:19 PM »

They probably are.
You can still produce drugs & organs via simple pop, which scales with size, and importing is free so you can just import ores and stuff and make aspensive transplutonics and whatnot out of.
Logged
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 10