1. The difficulty at the start is being addressed in the next build, along with a bunch of things to make the midgame/lategame harder (the difficulty ramp still goes the wrong way in the build you're playing, and gets easier fast).
2. Asteroids do not respawn, but you can go to another System and harvest there. Or, once you have a fleet that can do it, you can do raids for Blueprints on formerly-inhabited worlds; this can net you a bunch of cash and good captures.
3. Capturing ships during battles can really help long-term income growth. Not all Factions get Boarding Shuttles, though, so it's easier to join the Pirate Kings / Punk Junkers right now. In the future, this dynamic will change, as I'm introducing some new mechanics that will allow all ships to capture hulks.
4. The quality is improving, but it's an irregular thing; I kind of take a two-steps-forward-one-back approach, where I introduce radical, game-breaking stuff then fix the balance. The version you're playing has an easy exploit- Armor regeneration is easily abused. Try it out and enjoy the easy play; it really helps bigger ships stay viable.
5. There are always errors in descriptions, due to changes that I forget to update the text for. I'll correct the SABOT description asap.
6. Due to the fairly radical stuff I did with RAM / CPU use, I think that unless your computer's really really weak, it should be able to handle 4 Systems without any real issues. Multiple Systems don't really use much RAM or CPU now; this is going to get even better in the future.
7. In terms of "not blowing up"...
A. You've discovered that you can't go broke running away. So why not just run away every time you meet an Asteroid fleet, up until the point you think you can handle one? Totally legit, and it works.
B. The Pirates are quite potent in that version if using Regenerating Armor and a couple of buffed-up Ventures with Shield Removal; if you can get the cash together, this makes them pretty much immune to all low-level fleets up through midgame.
For really early play vs. asteroid fleets, 2-3 Lashers with appropriate front weapons (a pair of Phase Beams and Energy Pump is great, coupled with zero-flux stuff like Light ACs) and buffs can rip through most Asteroid fleets, including the Glaug and Exigency, if played well.
A little later on the income curve, a player-piloted Enforcer with a pair of Melters and speed mods is a very powerful ship, having great speed, armor and plenty of punch. Melters are enormously-powerful short-ranged beams on fixed mounts; they're quite capable of taking out most Destroyers in the game in 1-2 passes. However, be aware that Cruisers will generally kill you if you try to get that close, unless they're distracted.
In terms of Frigates, the Lasher remains a very potent choice, because of its plethora of weapons to choose from.
But the main thing about going with the Pirates is that they can start with Boarding Shuttles and a single Dachshund (basically a flying box that has a single Flight Deck)- this is a "weird" choice and a little hard to play at first, but with some practice and another Frigate as support, it's quite powerful against Asteroid encounters, so long as you're not fighting Glaug or Exigency. If you meet either, run; they can both counter an early Pirate fleet. But once you reach the point where you have a couple of Ventures with, say, Energy Pump armed with a couple of Medium Lasers and a Guardian, you're going to crush most opponents pretty easily through most of midgame.
Lategame in the build you're playing mainly just consists of building the most OP uber-ship possible and backing it up with a bunch of fighters or other capships. There are ships (the Black Eagle and Conquest being perennial favorites, but there are others) that can pretty much lay waste to whole fleets if buffed correctly.
The build I'm working on makes the tactics of all of this quite a bit harder; I want lategame to require a combined-arms approach and keep the player really busy.
Anyhow, I hear you on the hard start; I don't find it all that hard, personally, but that's because I know all the ins and outs, obviously. I already have an EZ-Start mode built for the next build of the mod that should give people a much easier initial ride. Midgame / lategame is getting considerably harder, though, so that the ramp's no longer so lopsided.
[EDIT]I got the Drone AI fixed up. Now I "just" need to get the Repair Drone working so that the Repair Ships are an official Thing.
That, and there is now a new beam weapon- the Dual Mining Laser. Why? I finally differentiated the Mining Laser, is why.
It's a medium-length pulse, no ammo, reasonable cycle time, higher damage, good tradeoff on PD. Beams are back to being great for PD again, after some issues with them got resolved; it seemed like a good time to revisit their balance overall.
The Dual version sports 800 range (lower than a LMG or the PD Beamer, but higher than a Tac Laser, basically) and two beams that meet at max range, which produces an interesting effect (if using HEF, the beams cross, which looks rad). It's worth the 8 OPs; the range alone makes it a better weapon than a Tac Laser and the DPS is great.
Also, the Glaug have a new toy, called the Devourer. It's the primary armament of the Catcher, finally giving it enough punch to be fun, but there's a mountable version available. It's a 50-OP gun; it penetrates shields, damaging anything along its path, with a random chance of being removed from play every time it does damage.
It one-shots most small stuff, like all of the super-heavy guns. It is fierce when it gets a lot of hits, but it's a bit of a dice-roll- it has much slower reloads than the Heavy Plasma Cannon and if it only gets one hit, it does far less damage for lots more flux (like 3000 per shot... ouch). But if it gets, say, 10 hits... can you say, "glowing path of molten metal where an Onslaught used to be"?
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