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Author Topic: Solo ship builds  (Read 15656 times)

Temjin

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Solo ship builds
« on: April 11, 2012, 09:51:17 AM »

All you guys who run solo, what are your favorite ships to do so in?

I've been most successful with the Enforcer in terms of taking down mid-sized to large fleets quickly:

Weapons:
-Dual flak in the two side turrets
-Dual Hypervelocity Drivers in the two diagonal turrets
-Heavy Mauler in the front-facing turret
-Four single Harpoon MRMs on the missile mounts

Hull Mods:
-Hardened Shields

Rest in vents.

I've loved playing with solo Tempest and solo Wolf too, but haven't had quite so much success in terms of taking down large fleets and dealing with overwhelming numbers.
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SwipertheFox

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2012, 09:57:03 AM »

Independent Defense Force
Class: Negev
Type: Strike Cruiser
Even though it would be crazy to just "throw away its support" Using this baby as a lone wolf is good times...
I LOVE THIS MOD!!!! ;D
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Thaago

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2012, 10:17:42 AM »

I decided to do a high tech run (I mainly run low tech) and have fallen in love with a particular Medusa variant:

- 2 Heavy Blasters
- 2 Railguns
- 2 Tactical lasers in the front 2 small turrets
- 2 burst pd's in the rear side turrets
- back turret empty

- flux resistant conduits, all other points in vents. The small energy weapons could be switched up to whatever you feel like without changing the feel of the ship.
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armoredcookie

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2012, 10:40:36 AM »

Apogee with:
-2 Graviton Beams
-2 Burst PD Lasers
-MIRV Sabot
-Barricade SRM
-Tachyon Lance

-Augmented engines and then rest in vents...

Solo Apogee is a lot of fun, probably because those shields rarely ever come down.
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Wyvern

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2012, 10:44:36 AM »

I've had good luck with the high tech ships.

Frigate: Hyperion.  2x pulse lasers, rest of your points into boosting shields & flux dissipation.  Really only has issues against very large fleets - and that's only because very large fleets generate maps with lots of objectives, which your one ship can't hold, and then you get run down by swarms of enemy ships moving at high speeds & with extended ranges.  Oddly, this should be an easier ship to fly solo once frigates & fighters no longer benefit from nav / sensor nodes.

Destroyer: Medusa.  Grav beams, tac lasers, and 2x railgun.  Can be tricky going up against high-tech fleets, since you've only got the railguns for generating permanent flux.  But absolutely demolishes pirate fleets - you've got a huge range advantage over most stuff, and that many beams will tear through low-tech shields.  For a more general purpose build, might be worth considering pulse lasers - though their increased flux generation will reduce your ability to take incoming damage.

Cruiser: Apogee as described here worked fairly well solo.  Aurora is also good; for solo play I tend to go light on the missiles and rely more on the energy weapons; pulse & ir pulse lasers in all the turrets that can aim forward; choice of pd lasers w/ extended range or tac/grav beams for the rear.  A harpoon pod in the large missile slot isn't a bad plan, but I often spend the space on more hull mods instead.  (If using my energy balance mod, I'll put burst PD into the rear turrets - but otherwise they're not really worth it.)

Capital: Paragon.  Leave the front large slots empty & mount plasma cannons in the large turrets.  Flak or dual flak in the universal slots.  Grav beams in medium energy, ir pulse in small energy, lots and lots of vents.  Takes a bit of care to use well - the flak guns can easily run out of ammo, so you often want to turn them off if you're good on flux and can just take missile hits to shields.  Turn them on if you're taking down shields or dealing with bombers - the medium & small energy mounts can easily kill off bombers if you've got flak to punch a hole in their wall of bombs.  And, of course, you have to get fairly good at aiming the plasma cannons.  For hull mods, you want for sure resistant flux conduits, stabilized shields, and integrated targeting unit; you'll also want at least near max on flux vents.

Of course, any of the larger ships will function a *lot* better with even just a little bit of frigate support; a couple of AI-controlled Tempest or Hyperion frigates will help a lot - send them out to capture nodes, tie up enemy ships so you're not getting totally swarmed, chase down things that are smart enough to run away, etc.

Alternatively, an Odyssey plus a complement of fighters works very nicely - though that's kinda debatable if it really counts as "solo".  Probably an ideal setup would use 2x tachyon lances on the left, and a plasma cannon on the right - though 2x plasma and 1x lance is, at least for me, more fun.
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Temjin

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2012, 12:02:54 PM »

FTR, I'd define "solo" as one ship, no support ships, no frigates, no fighters.
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Wyvern

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2012, 12:30:02 PM »

Well, the only reason I suggested Odyssey + fighters is that it's a carrier - that fighter bay is a good chunk of its firepower, and not using it feels kinda like deliberately not spending all your ordnance points.
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Temjin

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2012, 01:10:25 PM »

Am I the only one who tries going solo with low- and mid-tech ships?
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CaptanSpudsy

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #8 on: April 11, 2012, 01:18:37 PM »

Mine: Conquest-Class
Mjolnir Cannons and Hepatitus in the large slots.
Dual Flak and Heavy Autocannons for the medium slots
Tac Lasers in all the small energy slots
2 Pilums in the missile slots

Hull Mods:
Auxiliary Thrusters
Resistant Flux Conduits

The rest of points are split 60/40 in Vents and Capacitors.

It slaughters most everything. Also, if you get behind a slow moving, forward facing shielded ships (*ahem* Enforcers *ahem*) and they will pop like blood sausages.
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Mjolnir Cannons and Hepatitis in the large slots.

DougieK

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2012, 04:58:18 PM »


Hepatitus in the large slots.

I'm certain you did this delibrately it's still hiliarious.

I'll second everyone talking about the medusa and Hyperion.

And add my Onslaught,  three storm needlers and a heap of Harpoons.  Assualt Chainguns (they're the HE one right?) in the medium forward turrets (3)  everything else in flak.  Aux thrusters and expanded magazines.
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Thaago

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2012, 05:25:54 PM »

Am I the only one who tries going solo with low- and mid-tech ships?

I've done it... the low-tech is too slow without support to chase stragglers so the AI will escape a lot more, but has enough sheer firepower to make up for it. The mid-tech ships (with the possible exception of the hammerhead) are kinda suck at solo (much better with escorts): they can't be maneuvered into a dominant scenario because they don't have one (jack of all trades, master of none).
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Catra

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2012, 05:36:51 PM »

hound
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Temjin

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2012, 09:12:36 PM »


Hepatitus in the large slots.

I'm certain you did this delibrately it's still hiliarious.

I'll second everyone talking about the medusa and Hyperion.

And add my Onslaught,  three storm needlers and a heap of Harpoons.  Assualt Chainguns (they're the HE one right?) in the medium forward turrets (3)  everything else in flak.  Aux thrusters and expanded magazines.

I guess the Aux Thrusters is how you keep everyone from circle-strafing your butt to death? I couldn't make solo Onslaught work for me.
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robparker

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #13 on: April 12, 2012, 03:54:48 AM »

hound
Isn't that just like playing on easy mode? :P
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Shoat

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Re: Solo ship builds
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2012, 06:28:33 AM »

Fireant destroyer. (1 large ballistic hardpoint, 2 medium ballistic turrets, 4 medium universal turrets)

1 light gauss cannon
2 flaks
2 small PD weapons
2 small mid-range high-dps weapons


Small things die to flaks, cruisers&capitals get shot with the gauss until they overload or vent and then die to the other stuff when I go in.
No AI ship so far had anything that can match 1800 range (except for the paragon with tachyon lances which I wouldn't even attempt to face solo), and big ships are too slow to catch up.

The only thing that poses a challenge are the non-squishy frigates that don't instantly die to the flaks.
And obviously being outnumbered too much will mean death aswell, but up to medium-sized fleets can be handled with it.

Still, this is the first ship I buy on a new game and it usually serves me very well.
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