looks pretty good, but i don't see any fighter changes! surely you want to help the poor, starving fighters, don't you?
- Added view panning, right-click to toggle
Added Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)
Conservation efforts have been successful and a small number of Buffalo Mk.II's have been spotted in the wild
looks pretty good, but i don't see any fighter changes! surely you want to help the poor, starving fighters, don't you?
Been thinking about it, but don't think I'll be able to squeeze it in, unfortunately. Just too many other things still left to do.
Improved behavior for detecting when it's safe to lower shields; analyzes statistics/trends to see if current behavior is working
QuoteImproved behavior for detecting when it's safe to lower shields; analyzes statistics/trends to see if current behavior is working
Is it.. is it learning? Is it aware?
I can't wait to see these AI changes in action.
Nice changes all around, especially the AI stuff. Interesting.
I can't wait to see these AI changes in action.
QuoteAdded Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)
Is this the midline combat frigate I've been craving since 2012?
Or, for quick fixes to a small subset of the fighter problems: maybe fighters shouldn't count towards that 25 ship limit? Or maybe AI fleets should actually respect said limit? One or the other should make a difference here.
Brawler: Unless the "Damper Field" significantly improves flux stats somehow, this looks like a pretty severe nerf to an already rather niche vessel. I guess we'll see how it plays out, though, given that I don't actually know what that ship system does.
You listed weapon slot covers twice.
- Added Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)
RIP, imperial Centurion.
Edit: Also, +1 for Cyc's suggestion about fighters. It shouldn't be too hard to squeeze it in the patch and would make fighters a bit more worth it.
Hm... It occurs to me, there may be a miscommunication here: I look at "flux stats" and my mind immediately goes to "flux dissipation", as that's the primary flux stat that I pay attention to, since it directly governs a ship's sustained offense. It sounds like what you actually adjusted was flux capacity and/or shield efficiency, which are still "flux stats", but which give a very different feel to what sort of adjustment is actually being made.Brawler: Unless the "Damper Field" significantly improves flux stats somehow, this looks like a pretty severe nerf to an already rather niche vessel. I guess we'll see how it plays out, though, given that I don't actually know what that ship system does.
It's a defensive system, and the main reason for boosting the Brawler's flux stats was to allow it to stand up to larger ships in direct combat. One nice thing the system does is make the Brawler's frontal shield and lack of PD less of a liability.
Inquiring minds want to know - can we pan it now? There's mod systems as close to the edge of the map as you can be while not being in a storm.
- Bigger main intel map
Well, that's one way to solve the "burn drive AI needs to learn to vent-cancel" complaint, that's for sure :D
- Burn Drive: now disables venting while active
Inquiring minds want to know - can we pan it now? There's mod systems as close to the edge of the map as you can be while not being in a storm
- Bigger main intel map
Hm... It occurs to me, there may be a miscommunication here: I look at "flux stats" and my mind immediately goes to "flux dissipation", as that's the primary flux stat that I pay attention to, since it directly governs a ship's sustained offense. It sounds like what you actually adjusted was flux capacity and/or shield efficiency
Also I am excited for the jump destination tool-tips, If it shows nearby abandoned planets it will make figuring out which jump point to use for bounties easier.
Is this what you expect to release with 0.7.2a or is there another big batch of changes still incoming?
So, when you go auto-hostile with the -20 rep, does that mean that eventually you'll go into vengeful if you don't recover at least 20 rep during peacetime, even if you don't attack them? If so, that'd kinda suck. I can deal with being knocked to say -60 or -50 but inevitably going past that into vengeful even when ignoring that faction is a bummer.
Can you play with a savefile from the previous version without issues?
CombatEngineAPI
MutableStat getTimeMult();
I'm guessing it can be modified like any other stat can.
Luddic Path ships now have built-in "Ill-Advised Modifications" hullmod that gives a small chance of critical weapon malfunctionsIs there no positive effect? If not why would LP make these modifications? Turning certain factions into "hi just kill us so you can level up" is immersion breaking and a genre convention that doesn't fit with starsector's campaign, where it usually feels like the universe is living for itself. Difficulty wise, does anyone have problems with LP? They aren't very plentiful.
Faction commission and hostilities changesWhat about cutting the -2 rep when you flee from pirates? It's a slap in the face to people trying to be pirates, and it doesn't make sense that any faction angry enough to attack/kill you would get more angry just from you running away. It feels odd. If pirates let you pay them a bribe with no rep hit, then -2 for fleeing would make sense.
If I am in a normal ship and I see a phase ship 'phase' they start moving at 3x and get 3x AI etc. what is the trick to speeding things up for a AI ship?
I'm a little curious about new ships being added while there are lots of major features that need implementation or overhaul. I think we may hit a point of diminishing returns with new ships.
QuoteLuddic Path ships now have built-in "Ill-Advised Modifications" hullmod that gives a small chance of critical weapon malfunctionsIs there no positive effect? If not why would LP make these modifications? Turning certain factions into "hi just kill us so you can level up" is immersion breaking and a genre convention that doesn't fit with starsector's campaign, where it usually feels like the universe is living for itself. Difficulty wise, does anyone have problems with LP? They aren't very plentiful.
QuoteFaction commission and hostilities changesWhat about cutting the -2 rep when you flee from pirates? It's a slap in the face to people trying to be pirates, and it doesn't make sense that any faction angry enough to attack/kill you would get more angry just from you running away. It feels odd. If pirates let you pay them a bribe with no rep hit, then -2 for fleeing would make sense.
Conservation efforts have been successful and a small number of Buffalo Mk.II's have been spotted in the wild
Accidents now occur when ships are at 0% CR (and only affect those ships) instead of happening when your fleet is out of supplies
"Timid" officers no longer show up in AI fleets; replaced with "Cautious"
Phase Lance: removed EMP damage component
Added Harbinger-class destroyer (system: Entropy Amplifier)Daaaang look at all the new ships!
Added Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)
Added Scarab-class frigate (system: Temporal Shell)
Added Wayfarer-class frigate (combat freighter, system: Flare Launcher)
Wolf (D) variants now have Degraded Engines hullmod
Added a converted version of the Mudskipper to pirate fleetsThis might be my favorite change. XD
Added "weapon slot cover" graphics for empty weapon slots
Phase skimmer: removed flux cost
QuoteFaction commission and hostilities changesWhat about cutting the -2 rep when you flee from pirates? It's a slap in the face to people trying to be pirates, and it doesn't make sense that any faction angry enough to attack/kill you would get more angry just from you running away. It feels odd. If pirates let you pay them a bribe with no rep hit, then -2 for fleeing would make sense.
I'm not sure what you're asking. I suspect the answer is "some combination of adjusting the engine and ship time multipliers", though Smiley
QuoteLuddic Path ships now have built-in "Ill-Advised Modifications" hullmod that gives a small chance of critical weapon malfunctionsIs there no positive effect? If not why would LP make these modifications? Turning certain factions into "hi just kill us so you can level up" is immersion breaking and a genre convention that doesn't fit with starsector's campaign, where it usually feels like the universe is living for itself. Difficulty wise, does anyone have problems with LP? They aren't very plentiful.
It's a side effect of getting "Safety Overrides" for free, so that's the benefit. LP ships are still extremely good, but this adds a different way to handle them ships, especially at game start when they can be very dangerous.
Plus it's a good thematic fit - very effective modifications (but borderline suicidal, which explains why everyone doesn't just go in for "free SO"), and a counter-strategy of exploiting that weakness.
- Added view panning, right-click to toggle
Is this referring to the Intel map?
It makes the ships undesirable as a player ...
- Added view panning, right-click to toggle
Is this referring to the Intel map?
Cough cough
- Added view panning, right-click to toggle
Is this referring to the Intel map?
Cough cough
Oh, right, you were asking about intel map panning: it can pan if the right settings in settings.json are adjusted. By default, it doesn't.
(And no, the above doesn't refer to the intel map, but the main campaign view.)
I'm a little curious about new ships being added while there are lots of major features that need implementation or overhaul. I think we may hit a point of diminishing returns with new ships.
I'm a little curious about new ships being added while there are lots of major features that need implementation or overhaul. I think we may hit a point of diminishing returns with new ships.
I do agree that that we're getting near that point for frigates but for destroyers, cruisers and capitals? Heck no!
Other mechanics and modes of entertainment are fine, but we're all here because we dig the combat.
That said, and now that this set is done, I'm going to try to focus for a bit on other things.
Soooo....David could you tell us what the 'larger' ships are and the 'roles' they are going to be filling out? Please?
Glad to hear that larger ships are now nearer to the top of the to-do list.
Nice changes all around, especially the AI stuff. Interesting.I can't wait to see these AI changes in action.
I don't want to oversell this change. It's not learning, really (that's a whole other thing, and probably not a good fit) - just some cases where it can look back to examine trends. For example, it can now answer a question like "am I being successful in pulling away from an enemy, over the last X seconds?" and then use that information to make a decision, instead of all decisions being based on data from the current instant.
It only does this in a handful of places to resolve cases where the AI gets "stuck" with a bad behavior and doesn't realize it's not doing what it wants to accomplish.
High Energy Focus
Removed downside (increased damage to own weapons/engines)
Now has 3 charges, regenerating a 1/20 seconds
Each charge lasts 3 seconds
- Added Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)
RIP, imperial Centurion.
Also that new Tachyon lance is going to be terrifying. Brawling against a Paragon will be impossible.
And those MIRVs scaling with skills, Jesus... It reminds of something... (http://i.imgur.com/T94YR8n.gif)
Nice changes all around, especially the AI stuff. Interesting.QuoteAdded Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)
Is this the midline combat frigate I've been craving since 2012?QuoteConservation efforts have been successful and a small number of Buffalo Mk.II's have been spotted in the wild
(http://i.imgur.com/08Kdcvt.gif)
...What are those missiles? Clarents?the ones in the gif? just the vanilla small 2-OP 'single shot' Reapers.
Oh, wow, this reminds me about a conversation we had some years ago about the AI analyzing the success of its current behavior and potentially switching tactics. I would be very interested in hearing more about the specific cases this occurs in.
Speaking of the jump point tooltip, it is possible to have some place hidden from it? I think pirate stations or abandoned ones (and a lot of modded stuff) would be better if not directly exposed to the player. It kinda defeat the goal of having limited sensor range if you "knowk their global location from hyper. Also, I have in my mod a triangular wormhole and I have no doubt it will mess that tooltip up.
So what is the Cerberus now that the frigate-sized combat freighter, Wayfarer, is being added?
Is the pirate Mudskipper simply called Mudskipper Mk 2?
Didn't see it in the notes, you chose not to give the Odyssey a 360 arc for one of its large turrets? =/
Still appreciating this so much xD
... Alex and David are actually having a competition to see who can be the biggest tease... :D...and they are both winning!
More ships, more weapons = more fun. That's the selling point of mods for me. The game hasn't nearly reached a point where there's good variety on every size level. It could have twice as many ships and weapons and still not reach a point of diminishing returns IMO.
Probably 11.
How can there be any excitement left after the mudskipper mk. II?Mudskipper mk III confirmed! \o/
How can there be any excitement left after the mudskipper mk. II?
In both cases, the idea is to mitigate/avoid the "keeping shields up and preventing flux dissipation for no visible reason" behavior, which can also lead to ships trying to back off continually.
...
Well, lots of possibilities. Are you interested in exploring them further?
Could ya post a pic of the updated Hyperion? Was it made a bit thicker/larger so as to not appear like it was more weapon than ship when you had it fully equipped? heh
This patch is probably still at least 2 weeks away, thats too long to wait for a surprise. Cruel!
Great game, Great fun, (it's like Mount & Blade, in space!) and great work so far. My only question is: When is this patch coming? (Need to set an alert on my phone - so I Can download it as soon as it's available).Alex has a habit of not giving us ETAs on patches so you will just have to wait. However! there IS an alert system set up that will email you when the patch drops but sadly I don't know how to use it...
Thanks
Alex has a habit of not giving us ETAs on patches so you will just have to wait. However! there IS an alert system set up that will email you when the patch drops but sadly I don't know how to use it...
Does it go 105/100?That happens.
So as long as you don't change anything afterwards, you can have an overpowered ship for the current patch? Better take good care of it then.
Great game, Great fun, (it's like Mount & Blade, in space!) and great work so far. My only question is: When is this patch coming? (Need to set an alert on my phone - so I Can download it as soon as it's available).
Thanks
you'd think I'd be used to it by now... :'(
Maybe you could busy yourself with other games?there are other games?!! *gasps*
Well it doesn't help that this upcoming patch has a bunch of really nice goodies. Hehagreed, but isn't that the case for at least every other release? ^^
Normally when the new patch notes are released, I lose all desire to play the current version, but for some reason that's not happening this time. I have lost all desire to deal with the faction rep system and use Console Commands to cheat things the way I feel they "should" be, but still putting 20+ hours a week into this game.
I recently thought about that arming time change for torpedoes, and i'm a bit curious of why it is implemented, and the consequences.
The main reason to fire point blank torpedoes at a target is usually to go past its omni-shields. There are currently 4 ships that can do that trick, 3 of those are phase ships and won't be able to do it with 0.7.2 due to the cloak change. The last one is the Hyperion, that can teleport and fire before the AI can raise its shield. With the arming time, it won't be able to do that trick anymore. Fair enough.
However i don't know how long that "short" arming time is, and if it can potentially screw with the Missile specialization skill, that can increase the speed of torpedoes by 50%, also, most importantly, bombers. It's not unusual seeing a trio of Daggers unloading their payload at point blank range, if not straight on top of the enemy ship. Will the arming time affect them?
Also, does the torpedoes that bounce back on armor can still be armed? Because i can totally see a bunch of Reapers coming back at your own fleet, with salty consequences.
Hardened Shields now reduces the chance for shields to be pierced by Ion Beams and other similar weaponsIs this an addition or is this a replacement effect for the mod?
Missions have a collision class now?
- PD AI will no longer attempt to fire at missions with collisionClass "NONE"
Hm. Does this help with trying to make a completely custom right-click ability, or is it orthogonal to such efforts?
- AI specified in a phase cloak's .system file will now be used when the system is a right-click phase cloak
QuoteHardened Shields now reduces the chance for shields to be pierced by Ion Beams and other similar weaponsIs this an addition or is this a replacement effect for the mod?
Missions have a collision class now?
- PD AI will no longer attempt to fire at missions with collisionClass "NONE"
Hm. Does this help with trying to make a completely custom right-click ability, or is it orthogonal to such efforts?
- AI specified in a phase cloak's .system file will now be used when the system is a right-click phase cloak
Ah, sorry, should've spelled it out rather than joking around: I think you meant "missiles" rather than "missions". :-PMissions have a collision class now?
- PD AI will no longer attempt to fire at missions with collisionClass "NONE"
They always did - MISSILE or MISSILE_FF, generally.
This looks like a flux hog for (LR) PD, especially for low DPS.
- LR PD Laser: range increased to 800, flux/second increased to 100
Will the Atropos changes also herald the return of the Trident bomber wing?probably! and it might actually be a good idea to have both Daggers and Tridents in one fleet. Reapers against big/slow ships, Atropos against smaller/faster ones.
Yeah, the LR PD is a flux hog but dat range......which is less than Tactical Laser. It is not much more OP to get Tactical Laser plus hullmods or PD Laser plus Advanced Optics than LR PD alone to get better PD.
This looks like a flux hog for (LR) PD, especially for low DPS.
- LR PD Laser: range increased to 800, flux/second increased to 100
Are we gonna see a medium and large mount weapon for the new and improved Atropos in the future? With greater speed and tracking its just been potentially put into the "will use" category!
the High Intensity Laser changes sound dangerous as well, but i think it needs one more buff: increased turret turn speed. it turns way slower than even Tachyon Lance or Plasma Cannon, which makes it pretty useless for the Odyssey and the side mounts of the Paragon, which can't just aim by turning the whole ship.
Everyone kinda focuses on combat changes but I reread the notes and the ones from the 1st and I have to say there are a lot of great campaign changes as well!
I'll start a new game for this patch even if I don't have to (does this patch still support .7 saves?).
I think that'd be too good vs frigates and other such. It's still got all the benefits of being a beam weapon vs smaller targets; the slow turn rate has always been intended to offset that.then maybe the Tachyon Lance needs to turn slower? with the upcoming buffs to both weapons they will still have around the same dps, but the TL has the advantage of doing high burst damage (making it especially strong against low capacity shields, like those of frigates) and emp damage.
Everyone kinda focuses on combat changes but I reread the notes and the ones from the 1st and I have to say there are a lot of great campaign changes as well! I'll start a new game for this patch even if I don't have to (does this patch still support .7 saves?).i'm definitely looking forward to the various campaign changes as well, particularly regarding commissions and smuggling. :]
"Possible to start non-hostile with pirates"
I know what start ill be using! *Raises Black flag*
Instability Java 8 consisted in that that the computer hangs(The picture freezing, the sound vanishes, doesn't react to buttons.)?
The game started on Java 7 will have bigger FPS than Java 8?
i still feel the turn speed is too low, though. not because TL or HIL seem too weak overall, but because the difference between having them mounted in the hardpoint of a Sunder or Apogee compared to having them mounted in a turret of an Odyssey or Paragon seems too big. even without officer skills, Sunder and Abogee can turn pretty quickly. it feels really weird to me that a cruiser can turn its front mounted laser faster than a battlecruiser can turn its turret.
Fighting pirates that occasionally attempt to take your cargo will no longer ruin your reputation with the pirates, though it will still result in a slight penaltyDoes this mean a new memory key that modders can set to tell the reputation plugin "don't insta-drop status to hostile for fighting this fleet" or is it hardcoded/tied to something else?
It does get somewhat outperformed by Tactical + Turret Gyros + IPDAI, but I don't really want to balance against that being always available.I used to think this was a sweet combo, but they're not that good in actual play. Tac Lasers cannot handle IPDAI because they turn slowly while firing - too slow for missile duty. Resulting in repeated on-off-on-off cycles. This isn't a bad thing by the way, Tac Lasers are fine. But ideally you'd use them with Gyros only, that way they make quick work of fighters without being distracted by (and awkwardly dealing with) missiles. Considering fighters also produce missiles, this works fairly well for hightech ships that can afford to shield tank missiles otherwise.
Saying you just didn't have time to give the Hephaestus a looking over makes me think the patch is virtually upon us, or it takes a great deal more effort to tweak a weapon than I thought. O_o
Does this mean a new memory key that modders can set to tell the reputation plugin "don't insta-drop status to hostile for fighting this fleet"
I used to think this was a sweet combo, but they're not that good in actual play. Tac Lasers cannot handle IPDAI because they turn slowly while firing - too slow for missile duty. Resulting in repeated on-off-on-off cycles. This isn't a bad thing by the way, Tac Lasers are fine. But ideally you'd use them with Gyros only, that way they make quick work of fighters without being distracted by (and awkwardly dealing with) missiles. Considering fighters also produce missiles, this works fairly well for hightech ships that can afford to shield tank missiles otherwise.
Ah, do you see maneuvering thrusters attached to the HIL? :)now that i'm thinking of thrusters attached to giant lasers... why not go one step further and let us chain torpedos to our ships for some extra boost? imagine a Dominator riding into battle pulled by a swarm of Reapers, chariot style! \o/
It's more of an "I already switched gears from a 'making weapons changes' mindset".are you still working on some big change or new feature (as in, potentially blog post worthy) for the next release, or 'just' various improvements here and there?
Just to make sure: when's the last time you used Tac Lasers w/ IPDAI and Gyros? Due to some changes in the autofire AI (i.e. it keeps firing them) they can absolutely maul missiles now, even doing some pretty neat "sweeping" stuff - not entirely intentionally, but rather effectively for all that. At least, that was my experience when testing that combination after that autofire changes.huh. i was about to agree with Schwartz, but looks like i hadn't tried the combination in a while. testing it on a Hammerhead now, it really does work very well. O:
Hephaestus is not terrible per se. It is the Heavy Needler of heavy HE. It is a faster, more efficient version of Hellbore, which means... you usually take Hellbore much like you usually take Heavy Autocannon over Heavy Needler, unless you need the turn speed badly or accuracy badly.It's not more efficient than the Hellbore, though. Because of the way armor mechanics work, burst is king, and the Hellbore has enough burst to blast through any armor in the game in one to two shots. The HAG takes much longer to bust through cruiser-to-capital grade armor or even the kind of armor the Enforcer can get, which is what you're going to be using it against since it's a large ballistic weapon. Sure, it's slightly more flux-efficient on paper, but it's nowhere near as time-efficient, which means you're going to be spending more total flux in practice. On top of that, it costs 4 more OP than the Hellbore, so with the Hellbore you can get 40 more flux dissipation worth of vents to almost totally make up for the decreased flux efficiency.
Hephaestus is poor man's Mjolnir, and can sub in a pinch, but that means no Heavy Mauler in the medium ballistics slot to complement HAG.
On top of that, it costs 4 more OP than the Hellbore, so with the Hellbore you can get 40 more flux dissipation worth of vents to almost totally make up for the decreased flux efficiency.Not really, I have max vents either way, which means I do not have 40 more dissipation per gun.
Added "cargo scan" patrols may perform when the player's transponder is on
Chance to happen if player has been doing smuggling at patrol's source market
Rewrote game launcher in OpenGL (was in Swing)Any chance you can add a direct link to the mod folder in the launcher? That's about the only feature I've been missing.
Is this permanent, or does this go away after the player stops smuggling at that market for a while?
- Added "cargo scan" patrols may perform when the player's transponder is on
- Chance to happen if player has been doing smuggling at patrol's source market
Not really, I have max vents either way, which means I do not have 40 more dissipation per gun.
Armor is not the only thing I need to hit with guns. I need to hit hull too.
The most dangerous enemy to a souped-up Dominator or Onslaught is not another capital, but a swarm of high-tech frigates. Eight or more Wolves, Tempests, and phase ships will wreck your low-tech ship if not dealt with. Hellbore is probably better against phase ships. Against other frigates, HAG is easier to use.
That said, I think Hellbore is the better gun overall, especially if OP is scarce. HAG costs enough OP that if I have Mjolnir available, I use the latter instead. Basically, Hellbore if going cheap, Mjolnir otherwise.
So you've got 800 more flux capacity per gun. Or you can drop 1 vent and swap out a Heavy Autocannon for a Heavy Needler, which will drop your weapon flux/second by a total of 30. There's a bunch of things you can do with 4 extra OP.More capacity or convenience hullmods are luxuries, just like getting HAG over Hellbore. I do not want too much capacity because that just makes venting take too long if flux is high. Hellbore is more vent-spam friendly, but HAG is good if you are forced to fire continuously or want to swat down small, fast, and nimble targets.
The Hellbore has 20 more DPS than the HAG. It's very, very, very slightly more effective vs hull than the HAG. I'm not sure why you're bringing this up.
Why are you deploying a Dominator or Onslaught vs swarms of high tech frigates? That's not what those ships are for. Bring along some Enforcers or Medusas or something and deploy those instead, they're much better at killing frigates. Why are you trying to hit high-tech frigates with a large ballistic weapon? You've got a bunch of small and medium ballistic slots to put kinetics and maybe some Maulers in, they're much better at killing frigates. Why are you trying to kill high-tech frigates with a High Explosive weapon? They have terrible armor and great shields, HE is overkill vs their armor and bad vs shields.
are you still working on some big change or new feature (as in, potentially blog post worthy) for the next release, or 'just' various improvements here and there?
Don't forget to make that relation transparent, maybe just by having the patrol captain state the reason for his suspicions :)
Any chance you can add a direct link to the mod folder in the launcher? That's about the only feature I've been missing.
Removed reputation penalty for escaping w/o dealing major damage
Player fleet able to interact with objects immediately after battle, i.e. now possible to escape through a jump-point after retreating from battle w/o always being re-engaged by enemy fleet
Reputation loss if patrol judges cargo to be likely destined for black market, even if it's otherwise legal
Is this permanent, or does this go away after the player stops smuggling at that market for a while?
What about when you escape from combat before it even starts, with the dialog box option 'disengage' or flee or whatever it is? e.g. when a pirate fleet catches up to you. That currently gives you a -2 hit. Complaining about that has been my drum to bang for the last 6 months, so much thanks if you changed or will change that. :)
This sounds interesting, from the brief description I'm not sure quite what it means overall though. Can't we already interact with objects after battle? But fleets don't chase the player with as much tenacity now?
This could be one of those thing where some unexpected behavior leads to players getting constantly profiled by the cops for being 'suspicious looking' and human rights lawyers will have to become involved. Maybe punishing players for possible, future crimes is a bit harsh and a little too realistic? I.e. if a player decides to 'go straight' and start legitimate trading then they still keep getting punished for their past misdeeds.
What do all these smuggling changes mean to someone who only uses the black market to buy a single rare ship or weapon? Like, probably going months before buying another item from the same black market.
There are probably workarounds, but I'd imagine they're platform-specific and so rather fiddly.
You could just disable it on non-windows machines (and allow re-enabling via settings.json) ;D
What would also be great would a automatic "new version" check/alarm in the launcher. I think especially the hotfix releases are missed by a whole lot of people.
Does this all military markets no longer require commission or just Independents?
- Independent faction no longer offers commissions or engages in faction hostilities
- Military market access doesn't require commission, just reputation
Any improvements for performance on AMD cards and CPUs, or do I have to keep telling AMD to work on it?
Any improvements for performance on AMD cards and CPUs, or do I have to keep telling AMD to work on it?
It's not a vram issue, it's a "their opengl driver code is slow for whatever things Starsector is doing" issue.I'd have to check the performance again without mods.
But: does it run ok for without mods? Because that's a very important distinction to make, whether the performance issues you're having are with mods or without.
Trident bombers have 3x LR PD lasers - they'll be able to fire all 3 of them for about 5 seconds before they flux out. Maybe the flux isn't an issue but perhaps the range would be? Or is it all fine the way they are?
So what happens if we vastly change our fleet composition? that's something I've always wondered. if they are chasing us based on what they have in intel, say a fleet with a few cruisers, and we scuttle/store them in exchange for a capital and a few frigates, we're no-longer matching whatever report went out on us, right? (So long as we do it someplace safe from prying eyes...)Don't forget to make that relation transparent, maybe just by having the patrol captain state the reason for his suspicions :)
Yep, they mention that right off the bat. "Your fleet matches the profile of a suspected smuggler provided by <market> authorities", that sort of thing.
Riight - changed them all to regular PD Laser for the time being. They're not really in the game (except in 1 mission, IIRC?), though, so something of a moot point.shouldn't they be in again now that Atropos are actually useful? or was there another reason for not using Tridents?
So what happens if we vastly change our fleet composition? that's something I've always wondered. if they are chasing us based on what they have in intel, say a fleet with a few cruisers, and we scuttle/store them in exchange for a capital and a few frigates, we're no-longer matching whatever report went out on us, right? (So long as we do it someplace safe from prying eyes...)
shouldn't they be in again now that Atropos are actually useful? or was there another reason for not using Tridents?
Well, hopefully the Scarab can be bought from a black market and not just from Tri-Tachyon military markets!
Playtest harder, Alex! >_<
I've heard repeated phase shifts can really mess up your mind.
E: Scarab sounds cool. What about the other two?
Perhaps Alex should playtest aboard a Doom.Aww, just got that joke now. :D
I've heard repeated phase shifts can really mess up your mind.
E: Scarab sounds cool. What about the other two?
I've really enjoyed playing as a smuggler in the Wayfarer, personally.
Perhaps Alex should playtest aboard a Doom.
Millenium Falcon vibes?
Corvette, I believe.Personally, if I had to pick a warship classification for the Millenium Falcon, I'd be inclined to go with something more along the lines of an MTB or PT boat or other very light craft, at least if we're classifying it as it compares to other Star Wars combatants (though in all honesty I would sooner class it as an armed light freighter than as anything actually intended to see combat).
High Intensity Laser:
Damage type changed to "high explosive"
Dps and flux/second doubled to 500
OP cost increased to 20 (from 16)
But the High Intensity Laser still does soft flux, yeah? Its not such a massive buff if its all still soft flux - it'll do the same DPS to shields as before. This is only a buff for when the laser isn't hitting shields.and it generates twice as much flux now. but it means you really have to tank it with your shield, as just a couple seconds of unshielded damage will demolish even heavy armor, at 1k range, with perfect accuracy.
I hope the weapon's lore description and the color of the beam or other FX were changed a bit to match the new HE damage type it has - maybe give it a slight reddish tint.
Alex did you change the way that the Combat skill tree interacts with CR at all?
I know that the skill tree revamp isn't coming yet but this seems like a pretty important change, considering those findings that the more you level the worse it is for your CR/Supplies.
Could've sworn I tested that - ahhh, that explains an oddity I saw but couldn't reproduce at the time.
Fixed that up; probably hotfix-worthy, but might wait to see if a couple more things come up.
And the ill-advised mudskipper mods! :)
:D Those might be my favorite part. Entirely David's idea, btw.
Hyperspace movement feels different somehow.. smoother is the word maybe? Especially when running while compressing time.
Edit. This is a bit odd, in the changelog you are stating that "Updated ships the player can restart in: now Lasher, Wayfarer, Centurion, and Wolf".
But wasn't the Wolf removed from all starting options when creating a new game? I find it a bit odd that you have a choice to kill yourself to still start with that ship.
also: Damper Field's description states "Briefly activates activates an energy field ...".
Aww, damn! I'm at work, someone please post screens of the new ships and updated Hyperion!here you go:
Not gonna lie, I'm sad that you couldn't hear the noises I made when I saw the modified Mudskipper. That thing is great.
Is there anything in the base game that uses Composite slots? I could see those being really good on something like the Gryphon or Kite [A]; also would be nice to see one or two new flexible low-tech ships using them.
Damn Alex you're really cranking it out lately ;D
Phase lance description still says 'with a significant EMP component' :3
Also kind of sad that the EMP is gone without a reduction in flux usage :( - unless you forgot to note it in the changes.
Not gonna lie, I'm sad that you couldn't hear the noises I made when I saw the modified Mudskipper. That thing is great.As long as you're not lying: did you see it? Or did it shoot you first?
Is there anything in the base game that uses Composite slots? I could see those being really good on something like the Gryphon or Kite [A]; also would be nice to see one or two new flexible low-tech ships using them.
Not at the moment, no. Probably at some point, but I'd like to be sparing with the oddball slot types, so that it doesn't become a question of "which special slots does this ship have"? Rather, I'd like to keep these as something that makes the ship special by virtue of having *any*.
I won't argue with you there, I'm just gonna go be emo in the corner about it :P
i noticed while taking screenshots that the "More recently, you've..." part of some of the starting options doesn't appear in the small log.. clearly this new release is unplayably broken! :P
(and yes, i wouldn't post all the shiny new stuff without spoiler tags, since i imagine quite a few people would really not want seeing those things spoiled.)
I rolled up on a pirate fleet, and the first sign of trouble was Hellbore rounds coming out of nowhere. Didn't lose anything, but I almost died laughing when I saw what they were coming from.
That's what I figured; you can leave the wretched excess to modders (I found a couple of places to stick them; still working out how dumb that was). I was just eyeing a few edge cases like the Gryphon's medium ballistic turret as a good slot for, say, a medium Annihilator, and perhaps the tip of the left arm as a good spot to stick a ballistic weapon. And of course it would be neat if you could sub a Dual LMG or LAG in for the Kite's right missile slot.
Yeah, no worries, and I probably shouldn't have said anything anyway :)i don't mind :]
I have to say, I'm liking the idea of putting some composite slots on a Kite (or, rather, I'm liking the idea of a Kite kitted out with 3 dual machine guns or Vulcans just going to town.) I'll probably resist the temptation, though.i had a similar experience with it in v0.7.0. and with SO, a couple Kites are now my go-to pursuit frigates, at least until i can get my hands on some Tempests.
It's already such a capable ship for the cost - honestly, I was surprised how much having it as the 2nd starting ship helps, and how survivable it is. Half the time fighting pirates, it somehow manages to get 1-2 kills all by itself.
I have to say, I'm liking the idea of putting some composite slots on a Kite (or, rather, I'm liking the idea of a Kite kitted out with 3 dual machine guns or Vulcans just going to town.) I'll probably resist the temptation, though.Kite that is not forced to use missiles for two out of three slots would be nice. Occasionally, I use Kite (A) with railgun and two annihilators, but that is not very satisfying, and I cannot find anything better for brawling. Basically, I snipe with the railgun, then unload with annihilators. Plays very much like a ballistics ship before ammo limits were removed.
It's already such a capable ship for the cost - honestly, I was surprised how much having it as the 2nd starting ship helps, and how survivable it is. Half the time fighting pirates, it somehow manages to get 1-2 kills all by itself.
Noticed a music bug.
In the previous version the combat song would sometimes linger after an encounter was over, usually happened in hyperspace I think. Now that doesn't happen anymore, but after the combat part the "engagement" song starts playing (the faction song of the other side) and THAT song is the one that is now lingering after salvaging.
Aww, damn! I'm at work, someone please post screens of the new ships and updated Hyperion!here you go:Spoiler
updated LR PD and HIL, new Ion Pulser and Ion Beam
(http://i.imgur.com/OkYE5kc.jpg)
new Wayfarer, Centurion, Scarab, Harbinger and Mudskipper MK.II (featuring only a single large mount!), and updated Hyperion
(http://i.imgur.com/5DjG7b0.jpg)
new ship systems for Centurion and Brawler, Scarab, Harbinger, Afflictor, and Doom
(http://i.imgur.com/0kyDSDL.jpg)
some more weapon slot cover examples
(http://i.imgur.com/nCvSGs7.jpg)
some new starting options
(http://i.imgur.com/xzYEZj2.jpg)[close]
but you could put composite mounts on the Luddic Path versions. with their risky hullmods, it could make them interesting to use as a player.
By the way, are all these little fixes going to be dealt with in a hotfix or are you just updating the download link each time? Just curious.
The Afflictor might be a BIT OP now...Spoiler(http://i.imgur.com/gZ5THio.png)[close]
* This is the first version where I had to disable sound to run the game. If I run fullscreen and with sound, the game freezes soon after it starts, probably due to lack of memory. If I turn off sound, I can play the game, but no sound is no fun. I had this problem before with mods, but this is the first time without mods installed.
if the Afflictor seems too much of a hard counter to ships like the Paragon, you could make the system unusable while phase cloak is on cooldown. that way it would have to make itself vulnerable to enemy fire for at least 2sec before it can pull off its combo of overload + HE burst.
* LR PD Laser costs too much flux! I had flux problems using them as a Wolf, more so than Tactical Lasers. I will stick with other beam PD options. LR PD Laser should not use more flux than Tactical Laser, given its OP cost and reduced DPS.I think that's the idea though - its not frigate PD.
Nice! I'm assuming at least 5 missile spec, and then timing a 4-torpedo barrage with a Quantum Disruptor activation? IIRC you'd need more than 5 torpedoes, though, or missile spec 10.I got lucky with my shots and the enemy shots. Barely took any damage. Missile spec 5 for +1 missile was all I had for skills
Seems alright to me, though, since that's a very specialized loadout - guessing you probably even had to link up the Reapers. Main thing I'm surprised by is the lack of damage on the Afflictor - you'd think it'd catch at least some of the Paragon's firepower after unphasing.
Agreed. This took me a few tries to do and most of the time if I wasn't cloaked after the cooldown, I was deadif the Afflictor seems too much of a hard counter to ships like the Paragon, you could make the system unusable while phase cloak is on cooldown. that way it would have to make itself vulnerable to enemy fire for at least 2sec before it can pull off its combo of overload + HE burst.That's a possibility, but really, my initial reaction is that this isn't an issue. A hyperspecialized phase ship *should* probably take out a lone capital ship.
* LR PD Laser costs too much flux! I had flux problems using them as a Wolf, more so than Tactical Lasers. I will stick with other beam PD options. LR PD Laser should not use more flux than Tactical Laser, given its OP cost and reduced DPS.I think that's the idea though - its not frigate PD.
Also I found a few bugs: One is that the bounty in Corvus is only for around 12 days. I think this is because we start on Jan 1 206. The other bug is that in missions, the game won't remember you checking the "don't show unusable hullmods" box and it resets every time the hull mod box closes
The first time I ran it, I froze after I tried to exit the codex after browsing a ship. On subsequent runs, it freezes for a bit when "preloading..." appears. Usually, this is temporary, but if I click something later to exit a screen, it freezes permanently.* This is the first version where I had to disable sound to run the game. If I run fullscreen and with sound, the game freezes soon after it starts, probably due to lack of memory. If I turn off sound, I can play the game, but no sound is no fun. I had this problem before with mods, but this is the first time without mods installed.
Hm, that's extremely strange, considering this version only added a couple of sounds. I'd be very surprised if it was indeed a memory issue, since even with sound on, vanilla is still well short of using up 1 gig of memory. How long does it take to freeze? What does it end up doing, i.e. does it recover at some point, does it stutter, or does it just hang permanently?
Could you try installing OpenAL from a link here?
https://www.openal.org/downloads/
That might actually resolve the issue.
It's not any-ship PD. I do not even use tactical lasers for PD on some capital ships (like Paragon) due to flux cost, and I do not want to use PD that sucks more flux than tactical lasers. The ships that have flux for LR PD Laser need that flux for flux hungry assault weapons like blasters, and PD that costs too much flux interferes with effective blaster/PC use.* LR PD Laser costs too much flux! I had flux problems using them as a Wolf, more so than Tactical Lasers. I will stick with other beam PD options. LR PD Laser should not use more flux than Tactical Laser, given its OP cost and reduced DPS.I think that's the idea though - its not frigate PD.
On subsequent runs, it freezes for a bit when "preloading..." appears. Usually, this is temporary, but if I click something later to exit a screen, it freezes permanently.
If I need to install something, I think I will try 64-bit java. I have the RAM, but not the 64-bit java to use it.
Stealth buff to Hammerhead? Did it always have 5000 hull (same as Enforcer)?Yea
Anyway, will 0.7.2a become a long-sustained version? We had just done the translation just for 0.7.1 not long ago.
Scarab is hilarious, firing 3-4 annihilator volleys before the first one hits is an amazing feeling. Gets real nasty when you have 10 helmsmanship. Flank anything.
Anyway, will 0.7.2a become a long-sustained version? We had just done the translation just for 0.7.1 not long ago.
That's the plan, yeah! (Also, sent you a PM with a question.)
I like the Centurion. It's right up my alley – heavy armor and lots of guns. 8)looks like we feel rather differently. :D
Also, turning to put different weapons on target makes me feel like a pro. :P
i gotta say, i'm not a fan of the firing arcs of Wayfarer and Centurion. way too spread out for ships that are supposedly designed for combat. having only two small mounts for primary weapons (or a maximum of three, in a tiny arc, at an awkward angle) and being unable to have frontal PD coverage without sacrificing yet another of these two mounts seems really weak, especially for what is classified as a heavy frigate.I completely agree here. The Centurion feels like an over-gunned freighter or a PD platform and not as an actual mine line combat frig
i understand that the Wayfarer is only a hybrid combat ship and the Centurion's strength is supposed to be its toughness, but i still feel this is too little. i think at least the two side-turrets should have firing arcs up to the center front (as in, not overlapping with each other). that would still only allow aiming a maximum of three weapons at a time at one enemy, but it wouldn't be at such a limited and awkward angle. alternatively it would allow having full (albeit weak) frontal PD coverage without having to give up a frontal mount.
even with a change like that, they'd still have far less focused firepower than a Lasher or Wolf.
edit:I like the Centurion. It's right up my alley – heavy armor and lots of guns. 8)looks like we feel rather differently. :D
Also, turning to put different weapons on target makes me feel like a pro. :P
i gotta say, i'm not a fan of the firing arcs of Wayfarer and Centurion. way too spread out for ships that are supposedly designed for combat. having only two small mounts for primary weapons (or a maximum of three, in a tiny arc, at an awkward angle) and being unable to have frontal PD coverage without sacrificing yet another of these two mounts seems really weak, especially for what is classified as a heavy frigate.I noticed that, and it seems that way. My gut instinct is to put LAG, and one kinetic at the front, and the rest Vulcans. Centurion and Wayfarer feel like shuttles with lots of mounts for Vulcan PD. Scarab seems to have a similar layout, but for worse energy weapons.
The redesigned Hurricane MIRV is also not very interesting. It tends to mostly ignore PD except for flak, leaving you shielding the submunitions until the ship runs out of ammo, because it's too risky to engage while it's still launching them unless you vastly overpower the enemy. In the end, you just game the ammo out, and if you can't, you'll probably get punished hard for it. Might be a side effect of how liberally the AI uses the weapon.The MIRV is much like it was before it got unlimited ammo. If your ship can shield-tank them, it is a good idea to do so until it runs out (most).
Centurion isn't the most exciting ship, even though it does fill an unexplored niche and is ridiculously hard to kill for a frigate. I can see the overarching idea behind it, but the end result is that you'll probably outfit it as a long range tac laser/gyro/ipdai ship almost every time, unless it's at the very start of the game. Need to test more though, it might be a funny unflankable point capping ship with a set of long-range ballistics on it, or as a "tank" with an aggressive officer to generate flanking opportunities.
What's the deal with the missile power creep, by the way? Missiles offer lower TTK and a higher degree of randomness than a few years back, and most patches have continued the trend in some way, although the Locust and Squall are good. (is the squall supposed to have 750 proj HP?)
Missile Specialization is the biggest culprit, but there are a few other changes too. The new Atropos isn't really fun to deal with, and it feels fairly brainless to use. If the enemy fleet has a few, you basically can't overload near those ships ever, or you die, forcing you to play extremely cautiously. This was already the case thanks to Harpoons and missile specialization, but now there's an added dimension to it. They're thankfully quite rare in vanilla, but I find it tedious. I wonder if the idea of a homing torpedo is inherently flawed.
Harpoons have become better against frigates over time. Frigates like to use Harpoons as equalizers against bigger ships. Bigger ships can never dodge harpoons reliably anymore due to the veering, but even frigates can struggle due to the fact harpoons will flip around and accelerate back if they miss on the first run. Maybe harpoons should commit more to their heading and instead try to predict based on the target's current vector, so that a frigate that reads the incoming missile's projected hit location can pull off a last-minute dodge, and to make the initial firing position more important.
The best defense against missiles is to crush the enemy ship so hard that you're never vulnerable in the first place.
The redesigned Hurricane MIRV is also not very interesting. It tends to mostly ignore PD except for flak, leaving you shielding the submunitions until the ship runs out of ammo, because it's too risky to engage while it's still launching them unless you vastly overpower the enemy. In the end, you just game the ammo out, and if you can't, you'll probably get punished hard for it. Might be a side effect of how liberally the AI uses the weapon.
-missiles power creep stuff
-more missile power creep stuff-I really don't have much more to add except that I agree with these guys
What exactly is OpenAL? The host site gives almost no details on what it is, or what it does if I install it.You remind me of someone at my college, a friend of mine - he worries WAY too much about everything that happens or doesn't happen. A simple Google search will tell you that it's an audio application that's fairly common across pretty much every platform conceivable.
The Scarab seems a bit OP for a starter ship, though I suppose no more so than the Wolf already was. It IS starting to warp my perception of time in-game though, which is fun I guess.
The Conquest's engine flare alignment is messed up. No screenshot because it should be obvious if you look at it.Same with the Hammerhead, though that ones a bit harder to see.
for some reason my Harpoons seem to frequently ignore my target and go after another enemy instead. just had two of a salvo of three fly after some Broadswords, rather than take out the overloaded Wolf in front of me, which was set as target.
somewhat related, the AI still seems to have some trouble judging how many Harpoons it should fire at a vulnerable enemy, at least when there are allies nearby doing the same (screenshot (http://i.imgur.com/83Hcpjy.png)).
@ Alex: My monitor is a widescreen, 1920x1080. Instead of disabling sound, I can reduce resolution (and disable fullscreen), and can run the game (maybe not extended play). Like no sound, lowering resolution is not fun either (I have grown used to a bigger screen), but probably not as bad as no sound.
I have problems when I run 1920x1080 (or close to it) AND sound. Did not have problems before 0.7.2 (without mods); do not have problems if I downgrade something (not fun).
What exactly is OpenAL? The host site gives almost no details on what it is, or what it does if I install it.
Alex did you release this patch just for little ol me? Time ships and API assistance for hiding TWIGs? You even wrote a 'temporal' shell ship system for me!
A very quick thought: how's "Dynamic" sound compared to "Synergy" for energy/missile mounts? Synergy sounds nice but seems a bit out of place (it almost implies you can use two weapons in one to "synergise"), Dynamic sounds more "versatile" while retaining a high tech feel.
My opinion of course.
Hey Alex, here is a screencap of what I was talking about. This is right after doing a new gameSpoiler(http://i.imgur.com/e3k7aLv.png)[close]
I right-clicked my officer to remove him from a ship and transfer to another ship, and he disappeared entirely?
The officer you start with doesn't count as an officer it seems. Accidentally put myself in his ship and when i put myself back in mine he'd vanished. Reloaded the save from an earlier one, when trying to reassign him he's just nonexistant.
Edit: A Mudskipper with a Large Ballistic Mount? What?
1) Sometimes friendly AIs will get stuck in a corner of the combat map, no order can debug them. You need to physically move near them and ask for escort.
2) The Onslaught has a new stock loadout that's quite "special" to say the least. It's called "Standard" like the other one, but it's most certainly not standard as it mounts missiles nearly everywhere, which of course isn't even possible. It works though.
Centurion isn't the most exciting ship, even though it does fill an unexplored niche and is ridiculously hard to kill for a frigate. I can see the overarching idea behind it, but the end result is that you'll probably outfit it as a long range tac laser/gyro/ipdai ship almost every time, unless it's at the very start of the game. Need to test more though, it might be a funny unflankable point capping ship with a set of long-range ballistics on it, or as a "tank" with an aggressive officer to generate flanking opportunities.
What's the deal with the missile power creep, by the way? Missiles offer lower TTK and a higher degree of randomness than a few years back, and most patches have continued the trend in some way, although the Locust and Squall are good. (is the squall supposed to have 750 proj HP?)
Missile Specialization is the biggest culprit, but there are a few other changes too. The new Atropos isn't really fun to deal with, and it feels fairly brainless to use. If the enemy fleet has a few, you basically can't overload near those ships ever, or you die, forcing you to play extremely cautiously. This was already the case thanks to Harpoons and missile specialization, but now there's an added dimension to it. They're thankfully quite rare in vanilla, but I find it tedious. I wonder if the idea of a homing torpedo is inherently flawed.
Harpoons have become better against frigates over time. Frigates like to use Harpoons as equalizers against bigger ships. Bigger ships can never dodge harpoons reliably anymore due to the veering, but even frigates can struggle due to the fact harpoons will flip around and accelerate back if they miss on the first run. Maybe harpoons should commit more to their heading and instead try to predict based on the target's current vector, so that a frigate that reads the incoming missile's projected hit location can pull off a last-minute dodge, and to make the initial firing position more important.
The best defense against missiles is to crush the enemy ship so hard that you're never vulnerable in the first place.
The redesigned Hurricane MIRV is also not very interesting. It tends to mostly ignore PD except for flak, leaving you shielding the submunitions until the ship runs out of ammo, because it's too risky to engage while it's still launching them unless you vastly overpower the enemy. In the end, you just game the ammo out, and if you can't, you'll probably get punished hard for it. Might be a side effect of how liberally the AI uses the weapon.
I would like to expand upon this, I strongly dislike the entire flight profile of most vanilla missiles.
Evasion is essentially ineffective as the missiles have so much acceleration and turn ability that they just loop around and then hit the rear of the ship. Even more bizarre is how often they weave and sidewind around a stationary target effectively missing on purpose then hitting the rear! I would prefer a flight profile that relies on interception rather than massive maneuverability, where the weapon is fast and sets up a pass at the intercept point, if you evade it? Kudos, it is unlikely to be able to make a return pass on all but the largest targets. The weaving behavior would also taper off as it approaches the target at a faster rate than it does now which would fix the missing on purpose issue.
I feel that Salamanders are ok, Locusts are ok, Swarmers are ok, Annihilators are ok, and Squall are ok but every single other missile weapon uses distasteful mechanics. In the previous paragraph I described what I do not like about the agility and AI of standard guided missiles. But what of the others?
Why is the Sabot second stage projectile essentially hit scan?
(http://i.imgur.com/sfBEsor.gif)
So that mod missile weapon has a reasonable second stage, the primary missile actually aims the shot at an intercept point so its accurate while retaining a "fair" speed for the submunition. This is similar in a way to what I mentioned before about normal guided missiles, that a system that is smart instead of just boosting all the stats like crazy makes for a far more fair and balanced game.
What of torpedos and rockets? Same issue really, the AI is terrible at aiming them so to fix that they all have insane acceleration and top speed. You cast the finger of death and there is almost no possible way to defend against it via simple movement and PD has almost no response time. If the AI actually aimed rocket weapons properly then they could have reasonable speed and acceleration.
Bassically, I believe in the theory that every play should have a counter play but with how most missiles work right now there are few options to deal with them and they just are not fun. The way the AI works I don't agree with, most all of them are too agile and too fast, and the alpha strike is completely out of control and I am only talking about level 0.
A bit of a rant there, but it is what it is. Most mod missiles that use custom AI work similar to the theory I described that I believe makes for a better game.
What of torpedos and rockets? Same issue really, the AI is terrible at aiming them so to fix that they all have insane acceleration and top speed. You cast the finger of death and there is almost no possible way to defend against it via simple movement and PD has almost no response time. If the AI actually aimed rocket weapons properly then they could have reasonable speed and acceleration.
(is the squall supposed to have 750 proj HP?)
Bassically, I believe in the theory that every play should have a counter play but with how most missiles work right now there are few options to deal with them and they just are not fun. The way the AI works I don't agree with, most all of them are too agile and too fast, and the alpha strike is completely out of control and I am only talking about level 0.
The Conquest's engine flare alignment is messed up. No screenshot because it should be obvious if you look at it.Same with the Hammerhead, though that ones a bit harder to see.
I'm okay with the turret layout of the Centurion, Scarab, and Wayfarer. They first two have Omni shields and ship systems that either mitigate/ let you more easily avoid incoming damage.
Wasn't the Doom supposed to have its Medium Missile mounts changed to Synergy? Don't think this has been mentioned yet (or perhaps it has and I'm just blind).
somewhat related, the AI still seems to have some trouble judging how many Harpoons it should fire at a vulnerable enemy, at least when there are allies nearby doing the same (screenshot (http://i.imgur.com/83Hcpjy.png)).
for some reason my Harpoons seem to frequently ignore my target and go after another enemy instead. just had two of a salvo of three fly after some Broadswords, rather than take out the overloaded Wolf in front of me, which was set as target.
- Doom:
- Changed medium missile hardpoints to "synergy"
- New ship system, "Interdictor Array"
The Conquest's engine flare alignment is messed up. No screenshot because it should be obvious if you look at it.Same with the Hammerhead, though that ones a bit harder to see.
Uhh, how'd that happen? Thank you, let me fix that up.
- Doom:
- Changed medium missile hardpoints to "synergy"
- New ship system, "Interdictor Array"
That's where we got the idea from. ;D
*Cough* Maybe I updated the sprites - for the Conquest at least - without fixing the engine glows? Or was that the patch before? Pretty sure I didn't touch the Hammerhead at all however.
Right - more or less "how it works" now; phase breaks missile lock and phase skimmer/teleporter actually does phase out the ship briefly.oooh, i see. i had no idea that this change applies to all phase-related stuff. that's actually pretty cool!
*Cough* Maybe I updated the sprites - for the Conquest at least - without fixing the engine glows? Or was that the patch before? Pretty sure I didn't touch the Hammerhead at all however.
Are you really sure? Because it looks super messed up, like, not the kind of messed up that could've gone overlooked for too long. (Fixing now, about to check in.)
i love how the Mudskipper variant that's armed with a Gauss Cannon has to vent after every single shot. xD
shouldn't the MK.II have significantly worse logistics stats, though? seems weird to me that forcing a large mount and military sensor systems on that little thing doesn't come at the cost of cargo and passenger capacity, or maybe increased maintenance requirements.
on a completely different note, i've started subconsciously trying to shift+scroll to speed up in things other than Starsector, because that's such a useful feature, and it doesn't work! frustrating. >_<
Alternatively I'm imagining the pirates literally just bolting the guns on top of the cargo space, ha! Silly pirates.shouldn't the MK.II have significantly worse logistics stats, though? seems weird to me that forcing a large mount and military sensor systems on that little thing doesn't come at the cost of cargo and passenger capacity, or maybe increased maintenance requirements.
I think they just put the passengers/cargo inside the barrel of the Hellbore. I don't see the problem, it's very roomy in there.
That one actually required an AI change - a special case of "if you've only got one weapon, and a non-offensive system, then just vent when the weapon is cooling down if it's beneficial".i was actually a bit surprised to see it! "wait, the ai recognises it should just vent when it has only one weapon and no shield? huh, neat."
Alternatively I'm imagining the pirates literally just bolting the guns on top of the cargo space, ha! Silly pirates.they could be offering special tours that let customers experience the thrill of battle and force of heavy weapons like never before!
Alternatively I'm imagining the pirates literally just bolting the guns on top of the cargo space, ha! Silly pirates.they could be offering special tours that let customers experience the thrill of battle and force of heavy weapons like never before!
Seatbelts not included for the most genuine experience.seeing as how they're all likely to die regardless, that's probably fine.
question: does Damper Field's effect apply before or after armor damage reduction is calculated? also, i assume it doesn't mitigate emp damage?
Before, and it does mitigate EMP damage. It's preeeetty good.oh, wow, okay.
Hmm, should the refire for the (single) atropos be 60 like a (single) harpoon? I feel its an oversight and should be closer to a reaper's 12.Atropos feels like super Harpoon. I like Atropos as super Harpoon.
Hmm, should the refire for the (single) atropos be 60 like a (single) harpoon? I feel its an oversight and should be closer to a reaper's 12.agreed! +1 ammo for "single" torpedos should mean getting another shot later on, not being able to just deal double damage without delay. i'm glad the Reaper was finally fixed, although i'd still say 5sec delay is too little, considering the Typhoon has 10sec and Missile Specilization further reduces it to 3.3sec. doubling their ammo is already very powerful for these weapons.
Personally, I like to see most missiles upgraded to something close to Templar's Clarents. Atropos is a good start.o_o
(http://i.imgur.com/djOS8nB.jpg)
Alex gonna get a visit from the Secret Service.
1) Sometimes friendly AIs will get stuck in a corner of the combat map, no order can debug them. You need to physically move near them and ask for escort.
How often/under what conditions are you seeing this? What exactly are they doing? Are enemy ships nearby? Are any "Avoid" orders in play?2) The Onslaught has a new stock loadout that's quite "special" to say the least. It's called "Standard" like the other one, but it's most certainly not standard as it mounts missiles nearly everywhere, which of course isn't even possible. It works though.
Did you see it in the campaign? If so, where?
The new Aurora is disappointing. The only energy weapon you can realistically put in the small synergy hardpoints is the AM blaster, but the new phase ships are much better AM blaster platforms because they'll almost always have the speed and positioning advantage as well as not having to worry about risking an overload from soft flux. So either you're piloting a burst-and-run Aurora which is very inferior to a burst-and-run Doom, or you're trying to use the Aurora as the hybrid energy/missile boat it used to be but now isn't because it doesn't have a large missile slot anymore.For the Aurora, I use one Tactical Laser at the furthest tip to force AI to keep shields up at long range, and three Ion Cannons in the other three small synergy mounts. Medium synergy gets Heavy Blaster. Aurora can now out-Eagle the Eagle at triple blaster assault, and gives a reason to use Aurora over a Medusa or two. Before, Aurora was a weird Medusa and Gryphon combo.
I can confirm that if you turn devmode on and look at the variants, there is an Onslaught loadout with Salamander MRM pods mounted in the large ballistic and medium missile slots, and Harpoon MRM pods mounted in every single other slot.1) Sometimes friendly AIs will get stuck in a corner of the combat map, no order can debug them. You need to physically move near them and ask for escort.
How often/under what conditions are you seeing this? What exactly are they doing? Are enemy ships nearby? Are any "Avoid" orders in play?2) The Onslaught has a new stock loadout that's quite "special" to say the least. It's called "Standard" like the other one, but it's most certainly not standard as it mounts missiles nearly everywhere, which of course isn't even possible. It works though.
Did you see it in the campaign? If so, where?
1) So far I've only seen it happen with Burn Drive ships. They just keep burn driving over and over into the border of the map. If you bring enemies to them they turn around and attack though, but if you try to tell them to move or escort when nobody is near them they just ignore you. No avoid orders were in play. Just a few escorts. Small ships escort medium ship, which escorts big ship.
2) The AI isn't using it, but it's available in the loadout menu. Elite, Outdated, Standard, and now, another Standard. I've never used mods so it's not a leftover or anything, it says (Stock), I can't delete it. Haven't tried on the XIV Onslaught since I don't have one, but it's there on the normal version. It mounts missile pods on various weapon slots like the medium ballistics and so on.
The reason to use an Aurora instead of a few Medusas was the large missile mount. Being a weird Medusa/Gryphon combo, i.e. a Gryphon that can actually defend itself on the front lines, was the point of the ship. Now it's two Medusas mashed together with no Phase Skimmer, inferior turret arcs, Synergy slots instead of Universal slots, and it costs as many supplies to deploy as three Medusas.The new Aurora is disappointing. The only energy weapon you can realistically put in the small synergy hardpoints is the AM blaster, but the new phase ships are much better AM blaster platforms because they'll almost always have the speed and positioning advantage as well as not having to worry about risking an overload from soft flux. So either you're piloting a burst-and-run Aurora which is very inferior to a burst-and-run Doom, or you're trying to use the Aurora as the hybrid energy/missile boat it used to be but now isn't because it doesn't have a large missile slot anymore.For the Aurora, I use one Tactical Laser at the furthest tip to force AI to keep shields up at long range, and three Ion Cannons in the other three small synergy mounts. Medium synergy gets Heavy Blaster. Aurora can now out-Eagle the Eagle at triple blaster assault, and gives a reason to use Aurora over a Medusa or two. Before, Aurora was a weird Medusa and Gryphon combo.
That said, I agree that the loss of heavy missile is a bit of a net nerf. I would like to see an Aurora with a large synergy mount. That way, it can use the fun heavy energy weapons, or heavy missile. If not, then at least a medium universal so it can mount an HVD or Heavy Needler and can actually use beams effectively if it wants.
(http://i.imgur.com/djOS8nB.jpg)
Alex gonna get a visit from the Secret Service.
bug: i've been holding a Tri-Tachyon commission for a few months, and they declared war on Sindrian Diktat shortly after, dropping my (previously neutral) standing with them down to hostile. but just now hostilities between the two factions ended, and instead of having my standing with SD increased back up again, my standing with TT went way up (from 73 to 100) and i'm still at -50 with SD.
1) So far I've only seen it happen with Burn Drive ships. They just keep burn driving over and over into the border of the map. If you bring enemies to them they turn around and attack though, but if you try to tell them to move or escort when nobody is near them they just ignore you. No avoid orders were in play. Just a few escorts. Small ships escort medium ship, which escorts big ship.
2) The AI isn't using it, but it's available in the loadout menu.
oh, cool. thanks. :]And the same to the temporal shell. Overloaded myself the first time I used it
should maybe also add to the description that it builds a significant amount of flux when used.
I agree that missiles have power crept a bit too far. The AI is very liberal with the missiles when ships go above 80% flux; I would have had a great screenshot of the AI unloading what must have been 4 dozen Harpoons from 3 Enforcers, a Falcon, and a Vigilance in an attempt to kill my Doom, but this patch is giving me having trouble with screenshots. Starsector+ nerfs Missile Specialization, and that does make the missile situation feel quite a bit better, but it gives out Atropos racks to what seems like every pirate and Hegemony fleet in the game and that doesn't help much. The sheer quantity of guided strike weaponry the AI throws around is staggering. Not that I'm much better really, all of my destroyers and frigates get Harpoons if they can mount missiles.Found my picture! I was wrong, it was only 3 dozen Harpoons. They still one-shot one of my Wolves.
The reason to use an Aurora instead of a few Medusas was the large missile mount. Being a weird Medusa/Gryphon combo, i.e. a Gryphon that can actually defend itself on the front lines, was the point of the ship. Now it's two Medusas mashed together with no Phase Skimmer, inferior turret arcs, Synergy slots instead of Universal slots, and it costs as many supplies to deploy as three Medusas.Large missile was the only reason I used Aurora in the past. If I did not want missiles, then all high-tech cruisers were a bust, with firepower no better than a Medusa, and Eagle would have been my pick for three medium energy weapons, but triple blaster Eagle is unforgiving to use. Now, Aurora can blast things with three blasters and have better flux stats than Eagle and better firepower than Medusa. Aurora is good at blaster spam. Unfortunately, there is not much Aurora can do well now other than blaster spam. Aurora's role has changed from missile boat to melee specialist... in a game where high speed and long-range are most effective.
I'm not really a fan of frigates but I must say these new ones are great, as others said the turret arcs are a bit weird but I already got used to them. With all these new ships, I want more and more a place where we can just test ships and fool around with all the skills and weapons. Yea, I could just use the Console Commands but that takes a lot of time :/.
Also the phase changes are really interesting, it made playing with/against phase ships more fun than before.
As always keep up with the phenomenal work Alex, the game keeps getting more and more awesome with each update. :)
I'm just getting into the game, and I noticed something slightly odd:Spoiler(http://i.imgur.com/XXdvO1D.jpg)[close]
The red areas roughly mark the screen space that is "off limits" for your fleet while panning the camera, i.e. you cant move your camera in a way that the fleet is in that area. But what is the point of the area in the upper right corner? It would make sense in the lower left, there it would stop you from covering your fleet with the Tripad widget.
Oh and btw, a "go back" option during character creation would be greatly appreciated.
Large missile was the only reason I used Aurora in the past. If I did not want missiles, then all high-tech cruisers were a bust, with firepower no better than a Medusa, and Eagle would have been my pick for three medium energy weapons, but triple blaster Eagle is unforgiving to use. Now, Aurora can blast things with three blasters and have better flux stats than Eagle and better firepower than Medusa. Aurora is good at blaster spam. Unfortunately, there is not much Aurora can do well now other than blaster spam. Aurora's role has changed from missile boat to melee specialist... in a game where high speed and long-range are most effective.The Aurora could be used as a melee specialist before the change. 4 Annihilators and 1 Locust SRM backed up by a battery of Pulse Lasers and IR Pulse Lasers, with Expanded Missile Racks to make sure it never runs out of missiles. And I don't think I ever did run out of missiles, even with SSP's increased fleet sizes. It cut through everything smaller than an Onslaught like butter, using Annihilators on destroyers and cruisers, and the Locust on frigates and fighters. Now that build doesn't work; it's dependent on the Locust SRM for anti-fighter/frigate HE. Medium missile weaponry doesn't have the particular mix of burst and sustainability that the Locust does, there isn't even a medium anti-fighter missile in vanilla.
There might have been a recent discussion to change Medusa's universal to synergy, which all that would do is reduce variety of endgame configurations (e.g., cannot use beams offensively without kinetics).
What the Aurora is left now with is Heavy Blaster spam; flux-heavy and flux-inefficient which greatly reduces its survivability, and which uses relatively short-ranged weaponry, ensuring it'll be taking fire from anything it engages that's larger than a destroyer. Not a good combination. It can use an Antimatter-blaster burst build, which phase ships are inherently much better at. Or, it can mount a bunch of Harpoons and Atropos torpedoes and be a tankier Gryphon with crippled offensive capability.I do not disagree that Aurora was weakened overall, despite getting better with blasters.
(I think you guys might be selling an all-beam Aurora a bit short. It's not going to kill a Paragon, probably, but anything short of that?)Compared to Eagle, Aurora has three small beams instead of three (superior) medium ballistics. Eagle with beams + HVDs + Mauler is long-ranged and effective, but slow at killing things, certainly no simulator smasher like Dominator (though with more ships in 0.7.2 simulator, I doubt Dominator can solo the simulator now). I think all beam Aurora would be even worse at killing things than beam-and-ballistics Eagle.
What if the Aurora's Synergy slots are all changed to Universal?I would mount railguns or needlers in the small mounts, and heavy blasters or phase lances in the medium mounts. Aurora with universals would work like Medusa, Falcon, or Eagle.
P.S. Still no intel map panning, boo hiss etc :P
Compared to Eagle, Aurora has three small beams instead of three (superior) medium ballistics. Eagle with beams + HVDs + Mauler is long-ranged and effective, but slow at killing things, certainly no simulator smasher like Dominator (though with more ships in 0.7.2 simulator, I doubt Dominator can solo the simulator now). I think all beam Aurora would be even worse at killing things than beam-and-ballistics Eagle.
There's a bug which I can't reproduce reliably, but I've seen a few times. When I join a battle in progress, say between the Hegemony and the Pirates, then we win the battle and pursue fleeing ships, it seems that dead Hegemony ships will occasionally deploy from the sides to try to catch fleeing pirates. I've mostly been using my starter Centurion so I've never been fast enough to actually see a dead ship enter the battle, and I could imagine an ally ship with a tiny sliver of hull left might fatally collide with an asteroid or friendly. However, if this happened, I assume I'd see a "Whatever Ship has been destroyed" message and I didn't in the cases I'm talking about. Now if ships that were destroyed in a previous battle will still be in the battlefield during pursuit, maybe that's what I'm seeing? I've definitely seen a couple of dead allied frigates coming in from the sides when I'm pursuing from below.
Noticed MIRV behavior gets pretty weird against small targets. The Hurricane will sometimes slam into shields before it can split, but usually it splits extremely close. So SplitRange doesn't mean much against small targets, but it seems to scale up a lot vs bigger targets as well. It's very noticeable with mod MIRVs, the Achilles from BRDY is supposed to split at a range where the 3 heatseekers can curve around and hit engines, and it usually splits way too close against frigates. Increasing SplitRange too much makes it buggy against large targets in exchange.
E: also, the random factor MIRVs have can compound this issue, I belive it's what causing the stage 1s to occasionally fail to split
E2: Mirvs go after your current target rather than the target you had when you fired the stage 1, not sure if bug or intended, but it can lead to strange situations : 0
E3: A Hurricane firing on cooldown can kill a full health Balanced Hammerhead on its own in about 20-30 seconds, to go back to the missile criticism. The only real defense against the weapon is to play ultra defensively until all the ammo has been wasted, due to the massive DPS while firing as fast as it allows. Then again it IS ammo limited, can only be mounted by a few ships, and costs 25 OP, but idk, I don't like how low the firing cooldown is, plus the ease of countering it (avoid and bait ammo) contrasted with how *** you are if you don't cheese it out. I actually think it was better as a long-range pressure weapon, because then you were basically forced to kill the mounting ship OR you could generally deal with the missiles in some way due to how they were less dangerous and numerous.
It's also hard-countered by flak and ignores every other form of PD save mass vulcans.
I'm waiting for the hotfix to start a full new game. The bug reports and other issues seem to have slowed down; patch tomorrow or Mon? :)
Something like that, most likely. We'll see what tomorrow brings!
There's a bug which I can't reproduce reliably, but I've seen a few times. When I join a battle in progress, say between the Hegemony and the Pirates, then we win the battle and pursue fleeing ships, it seems that dead Hegemony ships will occasionally deploy from the sides to try to catch fleeing pirates. I've mostly been using my starter Centurion so I've never been fast enough to actually see a dead ship enter the battle, and I could imagine an ally ship with a tiny sliver of hull left might fatally collide with an asteroid or friendly. However, if this happened, I assume I'd see a "Whatever Ship has been destroyed" message and I didn't in the cases I'm talking about. Now if ships that were destroyed in a previous battle will still be in the battlefield during pursuit, maybe that's what I'm seeing? I've definitely seen a couple of dead allied frigates coming in from the sides when I'm pursuing from below.
Hmm. I'll keep an eye out, but I *strongly* suspect something else is going on here. It's hard to imagine a scenario where a ship could deploy dead. Even if it deployed at 0 hp, it'd still be alive until it got hit once, at which point you'd see a message.
I think it'd be cool to give it more missile power. Several medium forward missile mounts for example. I've always found it a bit weird to use 4x small mounts.If that means giving up the medium synergy, then Aurora reverts to high-tech Gryphon, and Eagle becomes the next upgrade from Medusa if player wants a big blaster boat. Admittedly, for small energy (for synergy), the only useful options, if building for blasters, is one tactical laser to fool shield AI and three ion cannons to shut down targets for blaster smackdown.
3x medium energy work rather well, and putting Heavy Blasters here gives the Aurora its typical profile of high-damage, high-cost shots appropriate to its flux pool. I'm not sure the frontal loadout is any better now than it had been previously. They are both kind of weird. How about 1x large, 2x medium forward missile mounts? Is that too much?
Eagle vs Aurora is one comparison; the one that is not being made, and should, is Apogee vs. Aurora.When I play Aurora, I envy what Apogee has. Lower costs, stronger shield, free 360 shield, large energy mount, more cargo capacity. (Aurora used to have 360 shields for free, now it needs to pay an OP tax to get them back!) Also, Apogee has High-Resolution Sensors.
I think it'd be cool to give it more missile power. Several medium forward missile mounts for example. I've always found it a bit weird to use 4x small mounts.personally, i'd prefer a large mount over more medium missile capacity. synergy allows for more flexibility in loudout choice, and being able to mount a Squall, Tachyon Lance or High Intensity Laser should make a beam / long range Aurora really something to be feared, even by large ships or those with strong shields.
Frankly, I think the Apogee needs a slightly higher CR/DP cost (I would lean 27-28) .... and the Aurora needs to clearly shine. How does not matter so much.Apogee also has a much more powerful shield than the Aurora, worthy of a high-tech cruiser. and, lorewise at least, i think the Apogee isn't even supposed to be a pure combat ship, but more of an armed exploration/science vessel.
For the most part, ships seems to be "balanced" either based on "AI as pilot" or "Player as pilot". I am not sure where to put the Aurora in this sense. Maybe the answers are down that road.Aurora in prior versions was mediocre solo "AI as pilot" due to poor shot range. AI would kite the Aurora and kill it. Aurora would waste MIRVs and not use Reapers aggressively enough. I had better results with Dominator or Eagle for "AI as pilot" ships. Those have better shot range and are less squishy when shields come down.
Medium missile mounts are shiiiiiiiiit. The only good things you can stick in them are Harpoon Pods or Typhoons. I'm getting sick and tired of Harpoons and Typhoons are so rare in vanilla that you're more likely to find them from heading into Hegemony space and blowing up patrols with Vigilances than you are to find them on a market.Actually, for endurance runs (or for simple Pilum oversaturation), medium mounts are great for being able to mount Pilums. Almost every medium missile mount (and some large) my fleet has are stuffed with Pilums. Pilums are the only unlimited missile that offer non-negligible damage.
They definitely do not do that. They used to a few versions back, but I remember fixing this. Just tested and it works the way it's intended, as far as I can tell. I.E. target one ship, fire MIRV, switch targets, observe MIRV split and fire submunitions at original target.
Re: Aurorachat, one of the strengths of the Aurora over the Eagle is defense. The Aurora can easily back off and reset flux thanks to its strong shield and passively good engine/movement stats, and it has unrivalled PD coverage.the Aurora has better flux stats, but its shield by itself actually isn't any better than the Eagle's. they share a 0.8 efficiency, and the Aurora's shield actually has double the upkeep cost by default, due to it being an omni shield. the only real advantage is being able to achieve complete 360° coverage with Front Shield Emitter, whereas the Eagle will always have at least a small spot of vulnerability even with Extended Shields. and when shields go down, the Eagle has better armor below.
I've tried using Pilums. They're annoying to use since you either need to time overloading the enemy with your Pilums arriving, or build your fleet around Pilum spam and ships that can effectively Pilum spam have their own issues, other than the Onslaught. They're good just because they're unlimited with decent damage, but crippled in other ways.Pilums are annoying to use, but they work. I do not use Dominator or a few other ships for Pilum spam, yet Pilums with max Missile Specialization kill things. AI still manages to do dumb things and eat a stack a Pilums from time to time. Dominator would not be able to solo the 0.7.1 simulator without them.
And I'm sure the Aurora would do really well as a Pilum platform. Great value for 35 deployment points.
- Trying a Pirate playthrough, faction relations seem to develop very slowly given the small scale of procurement mission rewards and limited impact of selecting the relation boost. Selecting this new-game option seems to improve starting faction standing from (-65) to (-45), not enough to enable transponder-on docking, so open-market trading doesn't build much goodwill. Since they don't offer bounties, I'm having a hard time increasing relations to the point where I'm able to aid them in battle.
- Really minor nit--this wasn't in the changelog, but was mentioned during discussion of .71--clicking a message popup still takes players to the last-viewed Intel screen rather than details of that item. It feels a bit clunky having to switch to the Log and change filters, then reset them next time you want to check prices or bounties on the map.
- I was going to point out that I haven't run across any of the new ships yet, but it occurred to me that this playthrough has been spent almost wholly in Pirate / Hege space.
Still happens with the Achilles LRM, which uses vanilla behavior and AI for both missile stages. Could be due to the fact the stage 2 missiles are heatseekers.
What does minTimeToSplit do, by the way?
Also, had no idea about SplitRangeRange existing, but after setting it to 0,
splitRange = (float) spec.getParams().getDouble("splitRange");
splitRangeRange = (float) spec.getParams().optDouble("splitRangeRange", 0);
minTimeToSplit = (float) spec.getParams().getDouble("minTimeToSplit");
arc = (float) spec.getParams().getDouble("arc");
hitpoints = (float) spec.getParams().getDouble("hitpoints");
spreadSpeed = (float) spec.getParams().getDouble("spreadSpeed");
spreadSpeedRange = (float) spec.getParams().optDouble("spreadSpeedRange", 0);
projectileRange = (float) spec.getParams().optDouble("projectileRange", 300);
damage = (float) spec.getParams().getDouble("damage");
impact = (float) spec.getParams().optDouble("impact", 1f);
emp = (float) spec.getParams().optDouble("emp", 0);
numShots = spec.getParams().getInt("numShots");
evenSpread = spec.getParams().optBoolean("evenSpread", false);
If Aurora had two medium missiles instead of four small missiles, I would use Pilums and let them do their thing. If I could not be bothered with Pilums, I would downgrade to single Salamander or a one-shot missile, which two small mounts are better at than one medium, admittedly.that would only be possible if the mounts were missile-only though, as multi-type mounts like synergy do not allow downgrading to weapons of a smaller size-class.
(Am I alone in really liking the Ion Pulser sound effect? Feels like the smoothness of it is a nice fit for the rapid fire/spinning barrel nature of it.)i think it's alright, but something with a bit more bang would probably better fit its high burst damage.
I want to play as the Scarab (or at least get my guaranteed rare ship), but hostile to Tri-Tachyon hurts my plans for getting an early commission from them. Hostile to Tri-Tachyon would not be bad if I wanted to sign up with anyone else but Tri-Tachyon. (Low-tech is probably the most powerful epoch overall, so being Hegemony war dog would be a good idea.) But it seems much of the new content seems high-tech focused, and that means if I want to buy it, I need to be friendly with Tri-Tachyon.i had the same problem. i really wanted to start with the Scarab, but i had also planned for some time to start a Tri-Tachyon playthrough with this new release, due to all the new high-tech toys.
I wouldn't want to give this cruiser a heavy synergy hardpoint, because it has the flux pool to handle Plasma Cannon etc. better than most other ships so the advantage would be disproportionate and enemy shield overloads easy to achieve while you're still trucking along.The amount of supplies and deployment points the Aurora costs is already disproportionate to its effectiveness, but in rather the opposite direction. It's a cruiser that costs almost as much as an Onslaught to field. It should be disproportionately effective. The Apogee has a Large Energy Mount and a Large Missile Mount and a ship system that gives it 2 free ion cannons and 30% extra range, and it costs fewer supplies to field while supposedly not being a dedicated combat ship.
You know, let me just fix that up now. There, done.
All of the new frigates are actually available through the various starting options.
Think I found a bug, couldn't turn my transponder back on once I turned if off (although I didn't turn it "off", I "went dark" which turned it off). When I disabled going dark, I was then unable to enable my transponder.Transponder needs to be double tapped to be turned on or off
Think I found a bug, couldn't turn my transponder back on once I turned if off (although I didn't turn it "off", I "went dark" which turned it off). When I disabled going dark, I was then unable to enable my transponder.Transponder needs to be double tapped to be turned on or off
just found something strange.. i'm buying marines from the blackmarket on Zorra, with price starting at 747 credits per unit. but with each one i buy, the price per unit decreases. if i buy all 30 available marines, price per unit goes down to 379. i would've expected price to increase, not decrease, as local supply approaches 0.
I had the very same bug in StarSector 0.7a in Tigra City, but forgot to report. When I tried buying the marines one at once, the price was constant, but when I selected more the price per unit was decreasing. I even checked the save now. Buying one costs 881 but buying 10 costs about 6800.
One more bug from 0.7a that I had a prepared save with. Sorry for not reporting it earlier but I only came back to StarSector today. The bug is possibly already fixed since then, but won't hurt to report anyway in case it was not.
When finishing procurement mission, you get a credits payment. Now if you, without leaving the station, try to recruit an officer, and offer to hire him, it shows your available sum of credits, but instead of actual one it shows the amount you had before you received the payment.
Added "cargo scan" patrols may perform when the player's transponder is onalso apply to buying/selling ships on the black market? It's a bit strange if the patrol people board my just illegally acquired ship to search it for contraband, they are really missing the forest for the trees there. (Could actually be cool if back market ships/goods stay "hot" for a while.)
Chance to happen if player has been doing smuggling at patrol's source market
Phase Lance: removed EMP damage componentI still didn't get as far as I'd like, but what I've seen I enjoyed. Many of the changes are not very noticeable (except in direct comparison) but make for an overall much smoother campaign experience. Since this is a polish update, I'd (so far) say "job well done" ;)
QuoteAdded "cargo scan" patrols may perform when the player's transponder is onalso apply to buying/selling ships on the black market? It's a bit strange if the patrol people board my just illegally acquired ship to search it for contraband, they are really missing the forest for the trees there. (Could actually be cool if back market ships/goods stay "hot" for a while.)
Chance to happen if player has been doing smuggling at patrol's source market
Another, really minor thing that nevertheless bothered me for a while now: In the little hover-over ship tooltip (that appears e.g. in the deployment dialog or while selecting a flagship during an encounter dialog) a ship's top speed is not shown. Since that is the primary factor in any pursuit scenario, it would be neat if it would be shown. Crew level on the other hand seems irrelevant.
On another note, Is it possible to load a save on this release guys, or will I need to restart/using the power of mods to transfer the save?
Then how would max CR levels be controlled on officer-less ships?Another, really minor thing that nevertheless bothered me for a while now: In the little hover-over ship tooltip (that appears e.g. in the deployment dialog or while selecting a flagship during an encounter dialog) a ship's top speed is not shown. Since that is the primary factor in any pursuit scenario, it would be neat if it would be shown. Crew level on the other hand seems irrelevant.
Yeah, that could probably use a rework. Honestly, I'm thinking about removing crew levels altogether. They complicate a *lot* of things under the hood, and at this point - with officers in play, and all of the crew impact working through CR - they don't add much anymore.
Then how would max CR levels be controlled on officer-less ships?
I'd reconsider doing that unless you feel the game really needs the change. Crew levels are pretty nice flavor if nothing else knowing you brought up people from raw trainees to experts at fighting and maintaining spaceships.
I'm sure more could be done to alter their mechanics to something more satisfying if desired, but I'd like to see them stick around.
OK, I think I found another rounding issue. Sometime in a food shortage it said it needs approximately 70 foods to resolve it. But after I sold 70 foods it still said approximately 1 more food is needed. So I thinke it may actually needs 70.31415926575 or soso foods but it got rounded to 70 just like something for the purchase missions.
Maybe crew could gain some kind of campaign-level benefit?
(... and certainly you could remove a tier for simplicity.)
For example, salaries - if you have those, then you'd expect them to go up for higher crew levels, which means you'd be punished for crew automatically leveling up, which is a mess that requires more detailed controls for the player to deal with. But if you have just "crew", then adding salaries is a breeze. Other mechanics could likewise follow.This is exactly why I've disabled crew salaries in SSP.
Minor bug: the Pirate skin of the Wolf seems a bit shifted to the right. You can see this by comparing other skins with the Pirate one in the codex.
... Also, the naming and descriptions of special skins aren't very consistent. The Pirate skin for the Kite has a Pirate indicator and description but none of the other Pirate skins do, even ones that are actually different from Defective skins (Buffalo, Mule). The Dominator XIV's description is different from every other XIV ship. Hegemony Auxilliaries don't have descriptions, although I note that the Kite one has a commented-out description.
I'm not a fan of how they feel, torpedo payload entirely aside. Will probably take another look at some later point and decide one way or another.
... making crew *more* interesting.
... Other mechanics could likewise follow.
Also, consider that marines already only have one level and that's not an issue
crew levels are a thing that made sense way back but it just doesn't anymore, to me. The time-cost of maintaining it going forward is a bit much.
It does, yeah. As you say, they are indeed missing the forest for the trees; might make sense to add the same kind of thing for ships - where they don't take them from you, they just very strongly suspect they're "hot" and this results in a reputation drop. I like it! Made a note. (This does bring up the question of black market weapons as well... hmm.
On the other hand, functionally this wouldn't change very much if you already have a bunch of cargo - having a ship that's "hot", in that case, results in an increased chance for a "suspicious cargo" outcome. Which, if the result is the same as a "suspicious ship" outcome (i.e. rep loss), might be getting a bit too fancy without clear gain.
Honestly, I'm thinking about removing crew levels altogether. They complicate a *lot* of things under the hood, and at this point - with officers in play, and all of the crew impact working through CR - they don't add much anymore.
Agreed, I wouldn't miss the different ranks. I think more colorful crew varieties could help much more to "bring the world to life". I'm thinking rare specialist classes (medical, engineering, accounting) that change corresponding fleet stats. Here different pay grades would be make sense and be player controlled. Or passengers: refugees, diplomats and tourists that earn you money/rep but maybe consume certain goods. Basically, turn the vertical crew levels into a horizontal palette of interesting options.
Tossed some thoughts about crew over here (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=10751.msg183228#msg183228); a way to (I think) remove most of their complexity without losing the flavor.I'd reconsider doing that unless you feel the game really needs the change. Crew levels are pretty nice flavor if nothing else knowing you brought up people from raw trainees to experts at fighting and maintaining spaceships.
I'm sure more could be done to alter their mechanics to something more satisfying if desired, but I'd like to see them stick around.
They're good flavor, yeah, but not much else. And in terms of the complexity they add, it's not even close in terms of what they bring vs what they "cost".
Heh, not really a "hot"fix anymore, more of a lukewarmfix by this point. :P
If that is indeed the goal I am 100% on board.
Just consider that there is more to crew than just the core
game mechanics. It is also about progress / accomplishment / rewards.
While that is true from a game mechanics standpoint I would like to have some kind of customizability (experience, weapons, gear).
Especially when thinking about outposts / planets I would imagine that we will see (boarding / invasion) troops much more often.
At the moment patrols hunt me down all the time, but they never find anything, which makes them look rather silly and the whole thing less interesting than it could be. (Even if I had something illegal, I'd probably just dumb if before they catch up.)
Agreed, I wouldn't miss the different ranks. I think more colorful crew varieties could help much more to "bring the world to life". I'm thinking rare specialist classes (medical, engineering, accounting) that change corresponding fleet stats. Here different pay grades would be make sense and be player controlled. Or passengers: refugees, diplomats and tourists that earn you money/rep but maybe consume certain goods. Basically, turn the vertical crew levels into a horizontal palette of interesting options.
- Even though I trade both ways, suspicion level will steadily increase with no obvious impact to bring it back down. -> This should be more forgiving. As I understand it, once you're done trading and return to the market a second time, you can't decrease your 'old' suspicion level by fair trading. You should be able to.
- Black market trading and patrols are two very separate things. I assume only a tiny, tiny fraction of players will actually buy illegal goods.
I suppose the Wolf was too fragile and the phase skimmer is too hard to use for new players. Thus, it got the AXE as a starter/restart option.If I cannot select Wolf with starting options but can get it with respawn, I will suicide my character to get it, much like scuttling a Hermes(D) or Kite(D) I just bought and getting a Lasher or Wolf in return.
The more I think about removing crew levels, the more I like it. The only thing you'll really miss from that is the rare profit made from training and selling crew.Yet another reason to eliminate crew levels. I have considered maxing the crew XP skill precisely to enable this sort of revenue source.
I never even think of it, really. I just buy cheap crew once in a while and they tend to level up quicker than I space 'em. I don't sell Elites off either, I just stash excess crew for when I get bigger ships. Yeah, the mechanic doesn't really 'grab you'. So how can it be made into something cool? ..because just removing a thing is stripping yet another layer off the cake. I rather like the concept of crew. Of having to hire them, train them, pack them lunch and send them off into combat. D'aw.
Not really a bug, but opening a comlink with a patrol that just scanned your fleet for contraband just cycles the "allow the scan or run away" options over and over again.
No, I'm not stuck. The option to leave is still there.
Essentially, immediately after being scanned, pressing 1 would just cycle the Open Comlink, Allow Scan, Continue options without end. Although you could still exit if you wished to. And this is regardless of the scan result.
(Also, how do you put the images in the actual post and not as an attachment?)
Is it just me or is the Conquest's engines still a bit messed up? Some of the engine ports don't have exhaust.
Super minor but unless I'm mistaken the RC2 installer still wants to install to an RC1 folder by default.
It would be nice if this was clarified in the station dialogue. Made me scratch my head for more than a minute there.
Not really a bug, but opening a comlink with a patrol that just scanned your fleet for contraband just cycles the "allow the scan or run away" options over and over again.I decided to open comm link to a fleet that just scanned mine and found no contraband (because I just bought a Medusa from the Black Market openly, just to see what happens). They demanded yet another scan. That is very... forgetful (or corrupt). After one scan, they should not demand another if you try to talk to them after the first scan.
The Harbinger's small universal mounts aren't symmetrical. Unless that was intended?i noticed that as well. should probably be changed, since they're almost symmetrical, and the ship itself looks perfectly symmetrical.
Not really a bug, but opening a comlink with a patrol that just scanned your fleet for contraband just cycles the "allow the scan or run away" options over and over again.I decided to open comm link to a fleet that just scanned mine and found no contraband (because I just bought a Medusa from the Black Market openly, just to see what happens). They demanded yet another scan. That is very... forgetful (or corrupt). After one scan, they should not demand another if you try to talk to them after the first scan.
The Harbinger's small universal mounts aren't symmetrical. Unless that was intended?i noticed that as well. should probably be changed, since they're almost symmetrical, and the ship itself looks perfectly symmetrical.
They are? Ahh, the weapon arc facings, off by 10 degrees - thank you, fixed.
Hey David, what did you mean when you said that you're now working on ever so slightly larger ships? :o
Hey David, what did you mean when you said that you're now working on ever so slightly larger ships? :o
Larger than just frigates, which the latest batch of new ships has been.
Sadly, it would appear that officers do not get EXP when you send them to do an auto-battle pursuit. I sent a lvl 1 and lvl 7 officer to pursue a 4 ship pirate fleet and they destroyed them all, I got 7000 EXP but my officers got nothing. =/
Finally played RC3 for some time. It seems most of my ships refuse to obey Capture orders. A Centurion with my first Steady officer (originally from starter Kite-A) obeys, but a Lasher with an Aggressive officer and a Hound with no officer refused. I click Capture on objectives, but I see no arrow from any ship except the Centurion to one of them (out of two or three) if that ship participates.
I've seen something similar, but I'm not sure how to reproduce it yet.
I have no idea either. Another case: During a pursuit battle (with me as attacker), I deployed frigates on the left and frigates on the right. I click capture on the point at the right, and a frigate from the left is assigned to it, even though the frigates on the right are much closer to it!
Have any of you noticed your AI ships seemingly dumbfounded by an enemy ship that was just destroyed? Several times I've seen my Kite remain facing the hulk of a destroyed enemy for 3-4 seconds before it finally turns and goes after another target.
1. In a description of procurement mission in mission screen there is a typo:
<name> is is working for the local authorites and the delivery may be made openly.
2. I was selling fuel to Asharu black market. Starting price is 75c. When I sell 1 unit of fuel the price is always 75c, even when I sell one unit 30 times in a row. But when I sell 30 units in one transaction, the price drops, for first one I get 75c, but for 30th one I get only 56c, and the average price for all 30 is 65c.
3. When selling a stack, the average price calculated while dragging the stack differs by one from the average price calculated after placing the stack in black market. There is also small difference in formatting of "x <number>". Look at these screenshots:
http://prntscr.com/abj4yo
http://prntscr.com/abj5gd
Had a strange bug that I haven't seen before, where I exited to menu as a patrol was hailing me (I zoned out momentarily but it could have been that the interaction dialog opened while the game was "fading" after exiting), immediately went on "continue" in the main menu, and the save started with the interaction dialog created by the fleet from the previous session open, which had some broken strings and then created a fatal error and CTD when I tried to click a dialog option.
Another small bug I noticed:
In the Intel Screen->Reports tab->Message Categories->Prices
there is no entry for Volturnian Lobster.
Another small bug I noticed:
In the Intel Screen->Reports tab->Message Categories->Prices
there is no entry for Volturnian Lobster.
This means you don't have any price information for it.
But I have: http://prntscr.com/absmkn
Unless you mean there is nothing to show on the map, but in one of the test games I started I remember the map was "empty" for some commodities, and despire that they still had the entry in Prices list.
Anyway another possible oversight I found:
Ragnar is called Red Giant, but its description fits Red Dwarf, especially when it mentions that its mass is only a fraction of old sun mass.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_classification#Class_M
For the first time I've actively engaged in campaign level stealth gameplay. I had as much fun as in an interesting fight, it was really intense. That's why I think the game could stand more reasons to enter markets undetected besides smuggling, like spy missions . (I only started being sneaky because I wanted to scout all black markets for phase ships, even those of enemy factions.)
Oh, and thank you for the new intel tab. It's not perfect, but so far from the headache inducing wirrwarr from before.
Are ships properly closing into range when an enemy has been overloaded? I've seen my Enforcer XIV with a Steady officer (who had little to no flux himself) seemingly AVOID getting into range of enemies while they are overloaded even to the point where he'll slowdown. Its infuriating to see.
Happens 1 v 1 in simulator vs another Enforcer for certain.
Well that doesn't make sense concerning the Buffalo. The pirate (D) is combat converted, has tons more weapon mounts and no shield where as the standard Buffalo is a pure freighter with a shield but only a single weapon mount. The stats should not at all be the same, lolHe is talking about the pirate skin of the normal Buffalo, that has the shielded cargo and is objectively better than all the other buffalos skins, not the Buffalo mkII
I consider pirate Buffalo the best for being able to mount Vulcan instead of weak and/or expensive beam PD. At least before Buffalo (A) lost civilian-grade hull. Now, Buffalo (A) may be good for not bloating profile as much as civilian Buffalo. (Then again, I rarely care about sensors and profiles after a certain point.)Given how limited is the impact of the sensor profile on the detection range, I wouldn't care that much about the civilian grade hull. Unless you are running a full phase ship fleet for role-play (and I bet role-play isn't your style).
Occasionally, I may try to minimize profile when I really want to sneak into a hostile market that is likely guarded by patrols. (Fighting would mean I need to want months, which will not do.) I have done this in my 0.7.0 Hegemony game (before commissions, when everyone became hostile), when I bought organs in Askonia, and I really needed small profile to avoid Diktat patrols.
I tried it with several profiles:Also that quote link to an interesting discussion about the way detection works.
0 => 510
1 => 570
2 => 680
4 => 790
8 => 930
16 => 1050
40 => 1210
79 => 1350
150 => 1470 (25 Onslaughts with augmented engines!)
250 => 1570 (25 Atlases with augmented engines)
Not sure how I feel about the new phase ships as a symmetrical mechanic. They seem to fall into the same category as the Hyperion where there's no real counterplay available other than waiting for them to run out of CR and malfunction or hoping the AI makes an unforced error (because there is no way to make impositions against ships with incontestable mobility advantages to that degree). The Afflictor's systems also seems insane. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how it works but in a large fight having it zip up and overload something through shields can just mean a ship is instantly dead and there's very little that can be done to prevent it. This is also assuming you aren't in a ship with fixed front shields, in which case against a phase ship you might just be straight dead since you can't even make it hard for them to get behind you anymore.
They're a ton of fun to use, probably in part because of how brutally unfair they can be, but oh boy can they be awful to fight against if the AI isn't durdling around trying to EMP swarmer missiles instead of violating engine ports.
Other things on the list: Hegemony fleets with multiple quad-Harpoon Enforcers flown by missile-specced officers, fond of launching unified alpha strikes of turbocharged missiles to delete the first ship on your side of the field to let their flux get high, even if they happen to be two screens away fighting something else at the time.
Not sure how I feel about the new phase ships as a symmetrical mechanic. They seem to fall into the same category as the Hyperion where there's no real counterplay available other than waiting for them to run out of CR and malfunction or hoping the AI makes an unforced error (because there is no way to make impositions against ships with incontestable mobility advantages to that degree). The Afflictor's systems also seems insane. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how it works but in a large fight having it zip up and overload something through shields can just mean a ship is instantly dead and there's very little that can be done to prevent it. This is also assuming you aren't in a ship with fixed front shields, in which case against a phase ship you might just be straight dead since you can't even make it hard for them to get behind you anymore.
They're a ton of fun to use, probably in part because of how brutally unfair they can be, but oh boy can they be awful to fight against if the AI isn't durdling around trying to EMP swarmer missiles instead of violating engine ports.
The idea here is that they run out of CR much faster due to being in fast-time much of the time; counter-play can actually involve forcing them to spend more time there. You're also much less likely to be in a situation where you're waiting them out - a larger battle will generally take enough time that phase ships are going to be close to "done" by the time you start targeting them.
So, yes, they're dangerous and hard to counter directly - though it's still possible: if you're piloting an Afflictor it's doable, if you're using a Hyperion, it's easy, and even something like the Medusa can do it with some planning. Basically, the goal is for them to be fun to use, and for you to mostly not encounter the "let's wait it out" situation to a degree where it's annoying. Even wearing down a frigate from full peak time to 0% CR isn't *that* bad, and that's the worst case.
Bringing an escort or two along can also be very helpful if you're in a front-shield ship.
Specifically regarding the Afflictor's system: the overload only lasts for half a second, so it's not generally instant death. It can be very dangerous, of course. It's also very short-ranged, so simply packing enough firepower and keeping it pointed at the Afflictor is enough to keep you safe. The design here (per the blog post) is that there's something about the new phase ship systems that feels "unfair" (it's part of their feel), but on closer examination is only marginally so and offers some opportunities for counter-play.
Other things on the list: Hegemony fleets with multiple quad-Harpoon Enforcers flown by missile-specced officers, fond of launching unified alpha strikes of turbocharged missiles to delete the first ship on your side of the field to let their flux get high, even if they happen to be two screens away fighting something else at the time.
Yeah, this is something I'll be looking at alongside the skill revamp. It's definitely a bit much.
Glad to hear it. It's almost impossible to not lose a ship to one of those fleets, so you end up just hoping they blow their wad on something you don't care about or something that is more durable than they estimated from its own officer bonuses.This is another reason why I solo fleets. They cannot murder my ships like this when they are not on the map, and I can better prevent or defend against incoming missile storms.
The Afflictor's system is probably still too much against any of the high-tech sluggers, though. A Dominator can probably survive its shields going down for a moment, but something like an Aurora or a Paragon that needs to shield tank and has shields that take 10+ seconds to deploy will just die if it gets them switched off in the middle of a fight, especially if the fight involves enemy officers with Harpoons or torpedoes.
The bigger problem is in small battles against something like a Hegemony patrol. You can't deploy a similarly sized force because your own frigates will probably just get murdered, while anything big enough not to lose in a straight fight is too slow to pressure them and may still need an escort to avoid getting tailpiped, so now to win the fight you have to heavily overdeploy and then wait for them to time out.
Really, the new phase ships are approaching a power level where it might be advisable to start carrying around dedicated anti-phase platforms (if such a thing truly exists at the moment) just do deal with them, and I recall you said that you didn't want them to turn into an RPS mechanic where they own regular ships but then die to some specialized countership you have to lug around.
Specifically regarding the Afflictor's system: the overload only lasts for half a second, so it's not generally instant death. It can be very dangerous, of course. It's also very short-ranged, so simply packing enough firepower and keeping it pointed at the Afflictor is enough to keep you safe. The design here (per the blog post) is that there's something about the new phase ship systems that feels "unfair" (it's part of their feel), but on closer examination is only marginally so and offers some opportunities for counter-play.It's only not-unfair with the vanilla loadouts though. When you put torpedoes+AM-blaster in those mounts it really feels like cheating as you can instantly kill or silence any ship instantly without ay possible counter. With SS+ randomized variants, one single Afflictor with an average officer in a frigate fleet killed all my destroyers by himself and then harassed my remaining frigates (leading to a humiliating retreat).
Are you sure this isn't the case of underestimating it until it was too late? I'd bet you could probably do a lot better replaying that battle a second time. Worst-case scenario, a mass escort formation would make it very difficult for an Afflictor to pick destroyers apart like that.I have to hand it to you, the Afflictor is pretty smart at positioning itself in the back right where no weapon can hit it and no allied ship will fire either by fear of hitting the destroyer. Still, an AI Afflictor took out 3 AI destroyers each escorted by a frigate before destroying mine. I don't see what I could do differently except using a deathball formation: The most boring strategy there is and one I believe you wanted to avoid from becoming the optimal play.
Torpedo Afflictor can easily destroy one ship unopposed. I do not use that because it becomes useless after it kills one or two ship, while another ship can solo fleets... after some work.That's stil a feat I do not like to see coming from an AI ship...
I have not played around with afflictors yet (been having a blast in a Scarab - that thing is scarily deadly against front shielded destroyers), but if the problem is alpha strike damage, why not change the front mounts away from universal to hybrid?
Give it some time guys, feel it fully out and maybe brainstorm some counters before ya pass absolute judgement.People have played enough to know what the Afflictor can do.
Plus, mods probably already have some bursty HE ballistic/energy weapons that can work as poor man's reaper to some extent.
It seems as if there are different principles at work when delivering illegal goods. For example, I get official Hegemony missions to deliver organs (which are supposedly illegal), and I can even deliver them with the transponder on, no problem. But when I deliver drugs for some pirates on a Hegemony world I've got to play all sneaky. Am I missing a distinction or is this a bug?The legit recipients are licensed medical staff who need an extra supply through semi-official channels. The pirate ones are black market dealers.
Changes as of March 03, 2016 (hotfix, -RC3
Something's really bugging for quite a while now. The -RC3 doesn't have a closed parenthesis on it ")"
That and, where can you buy Harvested Organs legally? The only reliable way I can buy that thing is off of Chicozmotoc, and it's illegal there. Kinda hard to do those legal Organ missions without resorting to Black Marketing.
Burn Drive: now disables venting while activeThis is an absolute cow to get used to after being able to stop at will. :P
Hey Alex, looks like the skeleton crew perk can still put fighters under alpha-level AI control :)
Is this as it should be? Seem kinda strange that saving their people from starvation doesn't make Tri-Tachyon hate me at least a little bit less.
(http://i.imgur.com/eO0nE9P.png)
Is this as it should be? Seem kinda strange that saving their people from starvation doesn't make Tri-Tachyon hate me at least a little bit less.
(http://i.imgur.com/eO0nE9P.png)
AI fleet commanders now always take the largest combat ship for their flagship, if one is available
Weeell, you've probably been shooting at their military for a while. Selling a bunch of food (at a profit!) to a market with a shortage (which, for all they know, you engineered) doesn't really stack up against that. So realism-wise, I think it's pretty reasonable.
:o That lying piece of patch note! Still seems logical for the Merchant leader to be closer to a civilian and stay safe away from the battle, while his guards protect him and the cargo XDWeeell, you've probably been shooting at their military for a while. Selling a bunch of food (at a profit!) to a market with a shortage (which, for all they know, you engineered) doesn't really stack up against that. So realism-wise, I think it's pretty reasonable.
So this is something normal now? To not be able to overcome hate easily sounds really nice. Adding a period that no matter what actions you do, will not be accepted by the enemy faction as a friendly gesture~
I had a whole suggestion on that subject, but I don't think anyone noticed.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=9786.msg168860#msg168860
Hence dedicated effort would be required, and things like black market transactions or similar wouldn't really be enough, even in massive volumes. You would have to be obviously opposed to them to the point where they are unable to trust you to be friendly, ever.
Still needs some kind of Fleet commander interaction system, and you need a way to get out of combat with semi-hostile fleets without Fighting.
Ah. Sorry. Just that no replies at all, so I wasn't sure.
I noticed! Remember reading it at the time. Sorry I didn't respond; it's just... well, it's hard to make time to respond everywhere I'd like to. I do try to read as much as possible, though - especially suggestions; I'd estimate I catch probably 90% of it at least.
I think that specifically would be troublesome, because then getting to cooperative would basically be a license to smuggle without consequences. That doesn't seem desirable design-wise.Hmm. Main issue I've had with that is that a lot of weapons or ships are hard to find, so you really need to look into the black market AND the legit market. A database that updated what kind of stuff you can find at each station might help.
The system in place already pretty much supports these kinds of mechanics, though.Oh? At higher cooperation levels there are less penalties for smuggling/using the black market?
Yeah, I'm more or less holding off on touching it until more/almost all things like this are in place. What's there isn't perfect but works for now. Once it's clear what war etc looks like, it may make sense to revisit.True enough. Its just that if an enemy faction is hostile but not vengful, it isn't exactly hard for that to slip. Generally, running away results in you losing at least one ship in my experience, and the alternative is to kill the enemy fleet if you can. Either way, things get worse.
Hmm. Main issue I've had with that is that a lot of weapons or ships are hard to find, so you really need to look into the black market AND the legit market. A database that updated what kind of stuff you can find at each station might help.Yes, many high-quality hardware is rare enough that player needs to shop every market. I go to Black Markets to buy ships, weapons, and marines. If I join Hegemony, maybe organs too.
Any chance of a release to fix the ships not following orders bug (or a workaround we can apply?). I do love my Lashers. :P
"aiHints":{
"activeSpeedIncrease":0,
"burstMovementPotential":0,
"averageSpeedIncrease":0,
}Does Ion Beam GFX resemble that of Graviton Beam too much? I was wondering why a Graviton Beam was disabling all my weapons.That it does, along with the HIL...
The annoying thing is that before sensors, fleets would chase other fleets (including the player) for a while, then give up and go do something else if they didn't catch up after a while. Now they hound their victim until they catch it or lose contact, which looks rather ridiculous in most contexts (especially if it's a multi-capital fleet chasing a single frigate).
And then you get things like smaller fleets shadowing you until they reach critical mass, which is important to prevent a large player fleet from becoming 100% untouchable.This doesn't actually work out, in practice, because those small, fast-enough-to-catch-you fleets are inevitably weak fleets that pose no threat, even in large numbers, once you reach a certain point in the game. I'm not sure that this is a good solution to player power in general; if Skills get nerfed to the point where they're largely just cosmetic, rather than making high-end enemies considerably more scary, then we're right back to single-player-vs-all being the motif, rather than fleet combat being efficient. I don't that's the way to go, tbh; I think SS+ has largely gone the right way, by giving the player genuinely challenging fights to have at high levels- the only major flaw is that they're entirely optional fights, rather than things the player cannot always avoid, so they don't provide any real sense of danger.
This doesn't actually work out, in practice, because those small, fast-enough-to-catch-you fleets are inevitably weak fleets that pose no threat, even in large numbers, once you reach a certain point in the game.
I'm not sure that this is a good solution to player power in general; if Skills get nerfed to the point where they're largely just cosmetic, rather than making high-end enemies considerably more scary, then we're right back to single-player-vs-all being the motif, rather than fleet combat being efficient.
It would be nice to have more granular controls, like to set priorities for certain behavior. For example, if I want a fleet to guard another, I want it to be very unaggressive with chasing enemies and prioritize keeping to its normal movement routine (simply being near the thing it's trying to guard).
This seems backwards to me. The high bonuses from skills, and in particular high offensive bonuses coupled with low defensive bonuses, are largely what enables single-player-vs-all. Clearly we're thinking about this differently; what're your thoughts?Sorry to butt in, I've been meaning to make a big suggestion post about skills for a while and this is a good occasion.
My idea for a skill revamp would be that instead of giving direct bonuses, most of them (except leadership type skills) would unlock a dedicated hullmod at level 1, and all subsequent levels would improve the efficiency of that hullmod. Then they could still provide significant bonuses, but since you'd have to spend OP and could not install all of them, that would prevent turning all ships in flawless murder machines.That's an interesting idea, although the devil's certainly in the details. Personally, I'm not at all sure that coupling Hull Mods and skills was a great idea in the first place, especially when most of them are on Tech / Combat areas we'd get anyhow.
Clearly we're thinking about this differently; what're your thoughts?Basically, there's a vaaaaaast difference between rolling around with a couple of Frigates and Level-0 pilots and what I was rolling around with the last time I went to level 40+ on regular difficulty- a few Frigates for chasers and a mix of Medusas and Enforcers and Level-20 Captains with hand-picked skill trees (i.e., I just ruthlessly culled them any time they got a bad upgrade choice), backed up by my invinci-Cruiser, an Apogee kitted to shield tank.
My idea for a skill revamp would be that instead of giving direct bonuses, most of them (except leadership type skills) would unlock a dedicated hullmod at level 1, and all subsequent levels would improve the efficiency of that hullmod. Then they could still provide significant bonuses, but since you'd have to spend OP and could not install all of them, that would prevent turning all ships in flawless murder machines.
Personally, I'm not at all sure that coupling Hull Mods and skills was a great idea in the first place, especially when most of them are on Tech / Combat areas we'd get anyhow.
...
Seriously, though, I think that ultimately, Hull Mods should be tied to missions given to you by Factions, where the power toys require pretty amazing heroics, rather than leveling.
The fleet could catch practically anything and fear nothing, and I could just sit back and watch. Practically no amount of anything less than Cruiser-sized could kill even one member of this fleet, frankly.
I think that the Fleet AI should get more exposed in the API; I'd be more than willing to write a smart one that takes player levels / power into account, calls reinforcements, etc.
I'm not sure this does anything qualitatively different than skills providing direct bonuses, though. These hullmods cost OP, alright. But this just means they provide a greater-than-usual amount of benefit per OP - otherwise, they wouldn't be locked behind a skill. And then we're looking at skills providing that "extra" amount of power for free, in terms of OP.The main difference as I see it is that you can't mount all hullmods on a ship, thus they can't get better in every single aspect even at high level. Also hullmods are already pretty powerful by themselves, and skills are VERY powerful alone. The combinaison of both create ships worth multiple times their skill-less hullmod-less self.
I'm still not understanding - this sounds like exactly an issue with skills being very strong compared to baseline.It's the combination of skills, a few ships / weapons being markedly superior to everything else in their weight class, having enough OPs, etc., etc.
I guess we could say all of this is the fault of skills being OP, but I look at this more as simply not having enough challenges on the high end. I'm entirely OK with having awesome fleets of cool captains and ultra-tech at the high end- that's fun.
this started out with you saying that reducing the impact of skills would make everything into one-ship-vs-allBecause if we don't have fairly heroic Skills for AI Captains, then we're back to player skill being the deciding factor, basically.
If player skill, rather than stats, is what is most efficient, we're right back to the single-player-vs-all model of gameplay.
The right answer isn't to make the early game even harder by making the climb out even slower, imo... which is exactly what nerfing Skills much, especially Combat, is going to do, along with making Captains in general far less relevant.
You could take away all of the TTK skills tomorrow and that Tempest would still be a monster- but a monster that's harder to kill than ever.
Of the skills I just mentioned, only one (Entoptic Rangefinder) counts as both; it both boosts range and therefore it also boosts CEP. Helmsmanship is purely about CEP at kiting ranges; Power Modulation 10 is about causing damage to not matter, long-term; only major burst damage matters.Power Grid Modulation reduces shield flux generation and increases flux dissipation; the level 10 bonus just does more of the same. Reducing shield flux generation and increasing flux dissipation increases the effective flux pool available for firing weapons and allows your ship to remain actively engaged longer without too much risk of overload; increasing the venting rate means that the ship can return to the fight more quickly after backing off to vent. Helmsmanship increases the speed and agility of a ship whose captain has the skill, which makes the ship more able to get around front and, to a lesser extent, omni shields, and also makes it easier to keep enough pressure on an opposing vessel to prevent that ship from venting. Both of these skills can be argued to be at least in part offensive skills; only from a very narrow veiwpoint are these entirely defensive.
Instead of making skills just make you stronger, how much make them give us more and more customization!
I like the "shoot harder" skills because I think the level 0 baseline is too slow and weak, and not enough OP to get anything fun. If the "shoot harder" skills were gone, I would like to see the baseline raised. I see skills as a patch to a fundamental problem - sluggish and weak ships.
Slow-paced combat where maneuvers are committal and ships deteriorate rather than combust is the intended gameplay, though.You don't understand Megas. He has a very, very niche style of play, and makes the game bend to him rather than the other way around. :P
Are we going to be able to take abandoned planets and set up trade? Build starbases? What about hiring fleets to protect said areas?there will be outpost construction and related industry of some kind, but we don't have many details on that yet. it has however been more or less confirmed that said industry will be a major focus of the next release (whenever that will be), with a recent blogpost detailing planetary surveys (http://fractalsoftworks.com/2016/06/09/planetary-surveys/).
Will there be a steam release? This game is super fun and I think it stands alone in its genre. It would do well.i think it's not 100% certain at this point, but yes, the game will most likely find its way onto steam one way or another, once it's done. for now though, Alex (the lead dev) doesn't want to expose the game to the big steam audience just yet.
which, thank God Alex isn't one of those sad devs that kills their game in the womb by putting a game on the steam front page in alpha. Really it basically needs to be 1.0 releases and upmany indie devs/studios simply don't have the money to fully develop a game before getting any noteworthy returns. Starsector is somewhat unique in that it has a very small team, even compared to other indie games, and has (afaik) already sold a decent number of copies despite very little advertising. if steam early access allows some good games to be completed that otherwise wouldn't have been possible, i'm all for it.
my concern isn't even whether or not an early access game will get completed, it's that even if I love it I won't care when it gets completed because I've already played it in alpha
Every version feels like a new game, with more things added to it. I guess I feel that when sandbox games with mod support, have alpha releases and they are done right, they can be enjoyable even when a person replays them when an updated version appears.yeah, same for me. i wouldn't play something with a linear campaign and/or narrative focus in early access, because it would just spoil the experience of the full game. but something sandbox-y that i'd play repeatedly anyway, and that is enjoyable even when some of the mechanics or content are still missing, works quite well.
I tried asking Alex if all major features for the next patch were set in place, with just polishing left to go, but he didn't respond.