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Author Topic: [0.9.1a] 'Junk Pirates' 3.5.3 (including ASP & P.A.C.K.)  (Read 597066 times)

mendonca

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These guys have been around longer than I have been playing StarSector, so I guess it's time to finally give them a try.  Here's my first bit of feedback.  In the description of Lincoln, it says, "Offloading ship captains are met by a Hegemony logistics officers".  Either the "a" in "a Hegemony" or the "s" in "officers" is unnecessary.  (I'm not just a grammar Nazi, I'm a grammar HYDRA agent.)

That's a vanilla typo (Lincoln borrows the vanilla descriptions), but good spot nevertheless.

Hope you have fun with the mod!
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Nanao-kun

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The over OP limit probably stems from the assumption of 10 Tech.

I also noticed that ASP ships tend to be a bit hard to find, but in my case, I just never find a Gigantophis. I found Copperheads every now and then.
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mendonca

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The over OP thing is just a failure in mental arithmetic on my part, or lack of proper checking. I did try and fix all cases recently, obviously missed a couple of variants. I'll see if I can clean that up.

On the 'Looking for Trouble' flagship - that's a hangover from the time when the Hammerhead had two rear medium energy turrets - this variant for this mission has kept them (in order to maintain the cutlasses). I feel like it would be a shame to fix it, for whatever reason.

I'll probably have a play about with ASP ship frequencies, I kind of agree fleet makeup should be a little more ASP-centric (if only because what's the point otherwise), and that should bring a few more ASP ships out in to the market. I normally get a Diamondback or two for the fleet pretty easily, if I'm running frigates and looking for a bit more space.

Balance-wise - the intent is pretty much as you say. ASP are meant to be very good ships - just not particularly combat focused. Normal PACK ships are sort of pretty good - but have low OPs and lightweight hulls - with the best probably starting to approach midline, overall, in performance (but the specialist skins e.g. Canebianco type variants maybe as good as TriTach). Junk Pirates are balanced against midline.

Look forward to the feedback, really interested to know what you think :)
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Nanao-kun

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I for one, love the Schnauzer (CA). The two energy points at the front of the original didn't really appeal to me, but the missile points did.

Sure, it'll blow up with a small tap, but it's quite fun to fly and I like how it looks.
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mendonca

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Junk Pirates 2.3.7 is up ...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66536185/junk_pirates237.zip

Changes;
- Fixed some typos and variant OP counts
- ASP fleet arrangement changed - more ASP specific ships should appear (by a significant margin - maybe the gigantophis will show up now ...)
- Added the Magpie, a JP Light-ish Cruiser
- PACK super-skins nerfed a bit - they are all more expensive to run and [CB] ships have a greater penalty to CR timer.


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Az the Squishy

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Pesic, your reviews are great to read. xD Make a video man!

mendonca

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Yeah, lovely read :)

Nice to see you say that about the Schnauzer, a very nice compliment indeed! (I've got a soft spot for it, probably amplified by the feeling of [terror / hubris / anger / humour?] I get every time one of them explodes from just a singular badly dodged harpoon)

We don't have yeller, red and white versions of everything just yet - and I don't think we ever will (but I do intend to implement a few more once I make the time to sit down and have a think about it).

Sounds like you've got (or mentioned) every frigate that's currently available. The Schnauzer is the only ship that actually has a skin from each machine-shop, Komondor and Pitbull both have Red/White, BRT has Red (maybe yellow? I'd have to check ) ... They are still scratching their heads about how the Shar Pei works, so haven't got anywhere with that ... The Mastiff and Ridgeback are untouched, and the Ridgeback X has been given the once over by just the Rothund guys. So not too many at present, but hopefully enough that it adds a bit of interest.

e: checked ... Schnauzer does not have [CB], and BRT does not have [CA] ... (yet) my mistake :)
« Last Edit: April 12, 2015, 01:42:33 PM by mendonca »
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cardgame

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So I haven't played this since 0.54 or so, are the PACK still disappointingly underpowered?
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HELMUT

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They are weak individually, making early game a chore. The fun start when you can field several of them, as the name of the faction suggest it.

Haven't played enough of them to tell what kind of tactic to use but Network Pesci's idea of long range Schnauzer spam sounds good. Add a few Bedlington for the always useful ion drones and you should be able to hunt on fleets with big ships. Neutrinos in particular would be easy preys for PACK swarms.
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mendonca

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Yeah, what HELMUT said.

Really, it's probably not that much fun to field e.g. any lone PACK ship at all, unless you are very patient and / or a masochist.

The highly combat-capable [CB] type ships are very strong, but typically you won't be carrying enough logistics support to have fun with them on their own - so make sure they have logistic support.

If you wanted an early stage fleet that can punch above it's weight, picking from the basic skins - the Wirefox is an excellent 'kiter' against most fleets, but you'll probably need a couple of Samoyed (Base) to bring in more firepower / distractions to be able to reliably take on any kind of fleet above one or two ships (and even then, it's very sensitive to mistakes). The Caomarelo Samoyed (Base) are ridiculously quick, and eminently survivable - in the AI hands - and are a reasonably cheap effective combat option (but will have a constant supply drain due to being overclocked).

If you want to move up a level, try a Pitbull, but you WILL want a couple of escorting Schnauzers (or Bedlingtons?) to back you up, as the Pitbull is very slow but can slaughter things once it gets the Ripsaw in range (assuming you don't get flanked ...). The Pitbull is a bit more forgiving (it has decent armor), and has huge potential forward firepower just due to the four front facing missile hardpoints - Jets make it maneuverable in a pinch, but positioning overall is important as without the Jets they are pretty lethargic. The Pitbull [CB] may make you feel invulnerable due to hardened 360 shields ... I've found that not to be the case - but it can do (and take) a lot of damage over the course of a battle.

For more 'fun' - try piloting the Shar-Pei. This one definitely needs protection from flanking AND probably escort PD, and I guess was balanced against the inferior Missile AI of a few versions ago - so probably sucks more than it should - but can be rewarding to play and requires skill to use effectively (probably not really that suitable for AI, unless you want to send a bunch of crew to an early space-grave).

You're supposed to mix craft up, really, due to the relative strengths of the ships. I've found lot's of mixes of craft work - but sticking to one type can often be a recipe for disaster (I find that without a sufficient mix of craft types - you can go from hero to zero very quickly, particularly when you come against a problem fleet, and larger craft need particular care whilst fielding a PACK fleet - try Pitbulls or [CA] Schnauzers to bring the Reapers).
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Nanao-kun

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Re: That's no moon!
« Reply #460 on: April 18, 2015, 07:15:55 PM »

I STILL haven't gotten a Gigantophis without pirating one.  I'm level 46 now in a different campaign than the last time I griped about this.  I have kept count, I have sacrificed over 1.5 million credits to the RNG gods buying all the frigates and freighters out of Paddington's black market and scuttling them, and I have yet to ever see a Gigantophis for sale.  I'm still working on getting Venoms but I've seen and purchased two wings each of Constrictors and Bites.
The RNG gods must hate you, considering I've found several in my last playthrough. :P
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Histidine

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It might be a Nexerelin bug (though I don't see how), but I'm getting spammed (once a day) with paired "P.A.C.K. secure comm access granted" "Junk Pirates secure access comm revoked" messages while in any system with a PACK market. I think I've seen the inverse while friendly to Junk Pirates and hostile to PACK, too.
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HELMUT

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Re: [0.65.2a] 'Junk Pirates' 2.3.7 (including ASP & P.A.C.K.) - Shaderlib Required
« Reply #462 on: September 11, 2015, 09:40:23 AM »

So i played a pirate Nexerelin campaign. I ended up with the Junk Pirates as my only allies and as such, managed to grab a bunch of their ships during the campaign. I liked quite a bit the Boxer and Turbot, one of the few phase ships able to mount a typhoon launcher.

Unfortunately the Templars took over the sector during the early game so i couldn't experiment a more "traditional" fleet as i would get hacked to pieces against them. So i had to find another strategy.

If no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the H-team.







So yeah, two medium missiles on a frigate with a deployment cost of 5 will eventually break the game. Oh, and it also have fast missile rack, in case there weren't enough missiles.

Personally i think switching one of the medium mount for two or three small ones would help avoiding the gross lrm spam. Of course, you'd still be able to launch a ludcrious amount of lrms across the map but it'll be roughly on par with the Vigilance.

Edit: I also noticed that some variants still have the expanded ammo magazine hull mod even though ballistic weapons don't require ammo anymore (all variants of the Scythe, close support Clam, support Kraken and standard The Reaper). I guess that's how one can recognize an old mod, eh?
« Last Edit: September 11, 2015, 12:41:45 PM by HELMUT »
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mendonca

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Re: [0.65.2a] 'Junk Pirates' 2.3.7 (including ASP & P.A.C.K.) - Shaderlib Required
« Reply #463 on: September 11, 2015, 10:16:21 AM »

Ha ha ha!

And yeah, it does need changing, I accept that (just never wanted to do anything about it :))

Next SS version, next update, it's makeover time.
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kruqnut

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update time! lol
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