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Author Topic: Buffalos, what're they good for?  (Read 13105 times)

Evolution13

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Buffalos, what're they good for?
« on: October 09, 2013, 08:33:29 PM »

The Buffalo Mk II Destroyer seems to be good at only one thing: Exploding. ;D This ship, from what I can tell, is the 1970's Pinto of Starsector! It looks like it ought to make a decent missile platform but it just doesn't have the ordinance to do anything useful for very long.

I know that the game's in alpha and it'll likely be improved over time, but for now I'm wondering if there's a way to make use of the ship's one outstanding ability? Has anyone managed to get one to detonate reliably enough that it could take out some fighters or light frigates with it? Is it worth the cost to use it as a mobile bomb?
« Last Edit: October 09, 2013, 08:39:58 PM by Evolution13 »
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PCCL

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2013, 08:37:59 PM »

well.... 'round here we call them pinata ships...

think of them as bags of candy to make your early game easier
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DelicateTask

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2013, 09:24:20 PM »

At first I was thinking, 'okay, here's another person complaining that the ship's useless,' but I lol'd hard once I realized that you weren't complaining that the ship exploded, but that it didn't do it in a useful fashion!  ;D

You sir, made my evening. (Also, does anyone get the Pinto reference anymore?)
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Evolution13

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2013, 09:35:50 PM »

At first I was thinking, 'okay, here's another person complaining that the ship's useless,' but I lol'd hard once I realized that you weren't complaining that the ship exploded, but that it didn't do it in a useful fashion!  ;D

You sir, made my evening. (Also, does anyone get the Pinto reference anymore?)

I'm glad I could help. I do try to think outside the Box!

For any of you young'ins out there that don't get the Pinto Reference, The Ford Pinto was famous for not having a reinforced rear bumper, a fact that Ford tried to cover up for almost a decade. When it was rear-ended. it would often rupture the fuel tank, occasionally catastrophically. ;)

Oh, one more thing, no matter how many Flux Capacitors I put on my ships, I can't seem to achieve Time Travel. What am I doing wrong!?!?
« Last Edit: October 09, 2013, 09:46:03 PM by Evolution13 »
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Borgoid

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2013, 09:46:13 PM »

I'll just leave this here.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=6777.0

I've found mounting 2 cluster bombs, 3 Atropos's, a Reaper launcher and two anti-matter blasters to be hilarious, and suicidal... but good luck being killed before something else dies :P
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Hopelessnoob

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2013, 10:43:29 PM »

I've started to lose hounds to buffalo a lot more now that they actually seem to use that Antimatter blaster of theirs.
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Voyager I

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2013, 12:55:46 PM »

You should never have a Hound that close to a Buffalo.
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Magician

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2013, 01:06:38 PM »

Hmm, I only now noticed irony of the namings: Hound, Buffalo. A wild-wild west star sector fairy tale.
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MrDavidoff

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2013, 01:10:39 PM »

Basicly, Buffalos gave me the "pavlov effect", when I go YUM YUM -supplies, when I see them.
(I do droll a bit too)
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Hopelessnoob

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2013, 01:36:55 PM »

You should never have a Hound that close to a Buffalo.
Not a hound I'm flying, AI doesn't always seem to take into account other ships when its focusing on a target.
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Cycerin

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2013, 02:49:39 PM »

It's mildly useful for hauling loot and providing some support firepower at the same time, but dies as soon as it faces a ship that knows how to fight back. Unless you manage to capture one, I would never waste logistics on fielding these.

But I think the idea for these ships is that they are going to be like the Peasant converting into Militia in Warcraft III - sort of lacklustre military muscle for when you desperately need it, with the potential for clutch plays. So basically, when the campaign starts to resemble its final form, maybe you will be building some freighters on one of your outposts, it gets attacked, you have the option to try to make 4 buffaloes into buffalo IIs and a tarsus into a Condor and you can try to throw a defense against the attacking fleet.
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Gabrybbo

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2013, 03:03:31 PM »

It's a bit useless, but it will find its role as low-end fire support ship when the full campaign gets developed.
After all it's cheap and fairly disposable, why wouldn't you have a few deployed in the back firing pilum after pilum while an enforcer takes the brunt of the enemy attack? In my personal modded vanilla i reduced the CR deployment cost to 5% but decreased the peak performance to 60 seconds with a very slow CR loss... It remains unreliable in long battles and direct combat, but can be deployed as support without thinking too much about it.
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Faiter119

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2013, 06:05:40 PM »

I wondered the same thing a while ago, and tested to find the best MKII variant I could.

http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=3613.0

I actually came up with a good design, it could tackle most low-end ships. Though that was a long time ago, and it might not have aged well.
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NanoMatter

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #13 on: December 13, 2013, 06:07:32 PM »

While I was minimodding, I created a 20 Buffalo-class fleet with a ton of suplies and stuff and called it Super Mexican Pirate Pinata Fiesta Fleet Remanant.
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Bjørn_in_the_Sector

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Re: Buffalos, what're they good for?
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2013, 07:23:39 PM »

hah. nice.
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