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Author Topic: Harry mechanic.  (Read 1975 times)

Gibbatron

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Harry mechanic.
« on: September 17, 2013, 06:49:25 PM »

So I was just thinking about the upcoming changes to the harry mechanic, notably that it will be more difficult to repeatedly harry a fleet into submission. Exactly how I'm not sure yet, probably a speed boost.

Even though the current system feels a little "broken", I feel like the mechanic exists only so you can do this. If you can only do it once and then have to chase them for ages, what is the point. By the time you catch them (unless your fleet is significantly faster) the enemy fleet will have a)recovered most of its CR already and b)not lost anything, since I don't think enemy fleets can run out of supplies.

« Last Edit: September 17, 2013, 07:26:29 PM by Gibbatron »
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Alex

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Re: Harry mechanic.
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2013, 07:52:59 PM »

The point is to be able to punish a fleet that wants to disengage without going through an escape scenario or losing CR. Without that, faster fleets that can always run away in "escape" (or even without having to go through that, if their burn level is high enough). It's meant as a way for larger, more powerful fleets to swat away any annoying flies without bothering too much.
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Gibbatron

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Re: Harry mechanic.
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2013, 08:42:23 PM »

But it doesn't do anything? You reduce their CR a bit, which is neither a penalty to the enemy fleet nor a bonus to you.

The only way it can affect the enemy fleet is if they're unlucky enough to run into a bigger enemy fleet moments after they disengage from you, which wouldn't matter because they would lose anyway.
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Psygnosis

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Re: Harry mechanic.
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2013, 02:39:35 AM »

The only thing ive really used harry for is being lazy.

My fleet burns at 9 and damn near everything except massive capital fleets (attempts to) run away from us.

Once combat starts we're lucky to kill 1 or 2 ships due to shields / retaliation from PD.

Harry, catch, harry, catch, harry, Catch, engage.

Then the opposing ships just cruise thorugh space nice n slow like. So you can pick em all off and walk away with a big bag of supplies and cash. (on and destroy any boardable ships, that mechanic is dumb, rare, and slows the pack down when you have to drag its sorry carcass to the shop. while scuttle doesnt return any decent amount of supplies.)
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Gibbatron

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Re: Harry mechanic.
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2013, 05:07:20 AM »

The only thing ive really used harry for is being lazy.

My fleet burns at 9 and damn near everything except massive capital fleets (attempts to) run away from us.

Once combat starts we're lucky to kill 1 or 2 ships due to shields / retaliation from PD.

Harry, catch, harry, catch, harry, Catch, engage.

Then the opposing ships just cruise thorugh space nice n slow like. So you can pick em all off and walk away with a big bag of supplies and cash. (on and destroy any boardable ships, that mechanic is dumb, rare, and slows the pack down when you have to drag its sorry carcass to the shop. while scuttle doesnt return any decent amount of supplies.)

To me it seems like this is the only thing harry is good for, and making it much harder to do makes the mechanic useless. If you engage a much smaller fleet all it wants to do is run away. If you want to swat it without wasting your time, an autoresolved pursuit is a much better option than harrying, chasing after it for a good few seconds while it recovers the lost CR, rinse and repeat until the fleet is finally all not combat ready and you are both stuck somewhere way out in space.
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