Typical domain drone (not ship or carrier) that on level 1 throw bunch of dmod drones with faulty AI on level 15++ throw 8 cruiser drones in pristine condition with 20++ escort ships and best AI.Domain drone fleets scale based on the number of domain drones you've salvaged, not your level. That little hyperwave pulse in the post-salvage description? That's an alarm, telling all the other domain drones to rev up their autofactories because there's a predator about.
After some moment difference between different type of drone derelicts erased, both start to spawn drone deathball in pristine condition.
There are always survey and analyze missions available, those require only fuel unless you're unlucky and end up in a Remnant system, but even then you can sneak around if you just have frigates. Now, I'm really curious, how the hell did you beat a deathfleet AND a station with only frigates? I can't see how you would pull that off without cheating since higher levels (when you actually can afford a big fleet) require far more exp than in the beginning.
There are always survey and analyze missions available, those require only fuel unless you're unlucky and end up in a Remnant system, but even then you can sneak around if you just have frigates. Now, I'm really curious, how the hell did you beat a deathfleet AND a station with only frigates? I can't see how you would pull that off without cheating since higher levels (when you actually can afford a big fleet) require far more exp than in the beginning.
afflictor and tempest chain deploy (one ship at time), ludd ships that stay near station runout of CR and just swallow critical malfunctions doing nothing, preventing station from firing at you, as you can hide behind hulls from station fire and just score freeshots, as zero CR ships do not have shields or weapons.
and no, i not managed to finish station, as soon as i retreated from lone station (due to lack of CR), more deathballs spawned instantly and wiped my fleet.
Issue is not scaling itself, by level, time or amount of fleets destroyed, issue is overly agressive scaling, lone drones orbiting trash planet should not have deathball in pristine condition as guards.
And if taken amount of kills in account, it progress really fast from bunch of barely combat ready dmodded drones to pristine condition deathballs
float limit = 300f;
if (Entities.DERELICT_SURVEY_PROBE.equals(type)) {
limit = 60;
} else if (Entities.DERELICT_SURVEY_SHIP.equals(type)) {
limit = 90;
} else if (Entities.DERELICT_MOTHERSHIP.equals(type) || Entities.DERELICT_CRYOSLEEPER.equals(type)) {
limit = 150;
}
well, it's actually not related to level directly, or time itself, but lack of "decay" or any kind of system difficulty offset, makes it looks like level scaling
there is no logic behind this mechanic, it's immersion breaking to assume, that only player loot derelicts and everyone else just fly around doing nothing
i made testrun with drones, first 3 combats are okay, then instant jump to deathball with ships in perfect condition.
and cryosleeper much harder
Huh, didn't quite understand this or the code you posted. You mean it's related to the number of ships you, the player, have destroyed in the game?
Frankly, though, hmm. Derelicts - pristine or not, in large numbers or not (as Thaago already mentioned) - do not pose that much of a threat. And there's always probes and such that are entirely undefended. And there's a plethora of other ways to get back on your feet. Missions, bar events, rummaging through Remnant systems in stealth mode, and so on.
The state of the game world changes as the game goes on, you know? If you're knocked that far down and want *all* of the early-game options to be as effective as they were to begin with, then starting a new game is probably the way to go. Otherwise, again, there's a lot of options available, it's just not the same identical set as at the start of the game.
In any case, I hope you enjoy the game :) Also, my apologies for spoiling some of the REDACTED stuff.)Why not use a spoiler tag? :)
it will be obvilion, literally, and getting more ships will make you weaker...
i hate scaling, just hate it, this is cheap and crappy design move,
(Obligatory "there isn't any meaningful level scaling in the game" every time this comes back, to avoid confusion.)
But at its core this game is a fleet bashing simulator, eventually you're just going to have a big fleet and will bash it against the biggest fleets in the area, there's no real way to resolve that currently. At least that I know of.
The only real "scaling" is in bounties and such,
but my in-universe explanation is you're more likely to be given details on bounties involving people with full capital-led fleets as you gain more fame and notoriety in the sector.
The only real "scaling" is in bounties and such,
<checks patch notes> as of .9, there's no level scaling in bounties, either - it was a small component of their strength before, but now doesn't factor in at all. They do get stronger over time, though.
So: there isn't any level scaling in the game at all at this point.
No, because pirates don't have battleships in .9? :)
But, yes, pirates would get appreciably stronger if you did that. There are other details, though, so "time has an impact" shouldn't be conflated with "time is the only thing that has an impact".
The only real "scaling" is in bounties and such,
<checks patch notes> as of .9, there's no level scaling in bounties, either - it was a small component of their strength before, but now doesn't factor in at all. They do get stronger over time, though.
So: there isn't any level scaling in the game at all at this point.but my in-universe explanation is you're more likely to be given details on bounties involving people with full capital-led fleets as you gain more fame and notoriety in the sector.
(Yep, that's a good way to think about it in-fiction, imo!)
@vagrant
These are 4th-wall-breaking mechanics, so please no. Current bounties are already problematic in this regard - why are they just waiting to be killed at convenient locations? Aren't pirate supposed to be a bit more proactive? How did they even get a bounty being that passive? They just don't look as part of any meaningful simulation.
Target fleets could try to be stealthy/evasive (run from player) etc, but strictly within what game rules normally allow. So a small fleet of fast frigates running silent and avoiding the player is a valid challenge (assuming player gets at least rough location where to look), but despawning/refusing to spawn on some hard condition is not.
Part of the fix for less pirate ships is they get bigger ships instead of more ships (they should honor the 30 ship fleet cap per fleet)! Pirates will get a capital ship of their own, a modified Atlas. (Pathers will get a mod Prometheus.)
How did you set up the dual phase lance Eagle? i find the Phase Lances too short ranged compared to autocannon, and enemies will just keep out of range. Did you have to put Advanced Optics on it?
Even with a long range load out on the eagle/falcon, short ranged lances can be nice for finishing targets up close when knocked offline by kinetics. And with their speed they can easily pull it off whenever needed.
I would use only Phase Lance with Advanced Optics on Falcon or Eagle. Because those are set far back from ballistics, I would consider using Arbalests instead of Heavy Autocannon, for the ranges to match better. Of course, Heavy Autocannon has better DPS. Then again, the flux spikes from Phase Lances would probably make the efficient Arbalest more appealing.
Depends on how you want to fly it, but the key thing is that you aren't using the phase lances all the time - they are finishers and anti-fighter - so its ok to be overfluxed. The Eagle can handle 3x Autocannon + Ion Beam flux neutral, so when battering down the shields there isn't much need for greater efficiency. When firing the lances, in general you are dumping your flux reserve into a kill anyways (and you can safely vent much of the time, because phase lances will knock out guns very well on the second or third shot). I don't value range matching very much in mobile ships like Falcons and Eagles, though its a big concern on Dominators and Onslaughts.Is this for playership only, does it include AI? Whenever I give phase lance Eagles to AI, they just brawl and fire lances at every opportunity. The AI overloads sooner or later because of flux spikes from phase lances. Even worse if I combo them with needlers (which I did during 0.8 when needlers were more flux efficient).
Depends on how you want to fly it, but the key thing is that you aren't using the phase lances all the time - they are finishers and anti-fighter - so its ok to be overfluxed. The Eagle can handle 3x Autocannon + Ion Beam flux neutral, so when battering down the shields there isn't much need for greater efficiency. When firing the lances, in general you are dumping your flux reserve into a kill anyways (and you can safely vent much of the time, because phase lances will knock out guns very well on the second or third shot). I don't value range matching very much in mobile ships like Falcons and Eagles, though its a big concern on Dominators and Onslaughts.Is this for playership only, does it include AI? Whenever I give phase lance Eagles to AI, they just brawl and fire lances at every opportunity. The AI overloads sooner or later because of flux spikes from phase lances. Even worse if I combo them with needlers (which I did during 0.8 when needlers were more flux efficient).
Depends on how you want to fly it, but the key thing is that you aren't using the phase lances all the time - they are finishers and anti-fighter - so its ok to be overfluxed. The Eagle can handle 3x Autocannon + Ion Beam flux neutral, so when battering down the shields there isn't much need for greater efficiency. When firing the lances, in general you are dumping your flux reserve into a kill anyways (and you can safely vent much of the time, because phase lances will knock out guns very well on the second or third shot). I don't value range matching very much in mobile ships like Falcons and Eagles, though its a big concern on Dominators and Onslaughts.Is this for playership only, does it include AI? Whenever I give phase lance Eagles to AI, they just brawl and fire lances at every opportunity. The AI overloads sooner or later because of flux spikes from phase lances. Even worse if I combo them with needlers (which I did during 0.8 when needlers were more flux efficient).
AI manages it's flux only in sense of "too much flux, let's fire less" not "I want to drive enemy flux up with efficient kinetics, then finish them with Phase Lances". AI just does not reserve flux/weapon cooldown for such planned usage.
It's still a huge improvement over pre-0.9 AI and works rather well with Eagle builds like: 2x HAC (or 1x HAC + 1x HNeedler), 1x Mauler, 2x Graviton (persistent offense) + 3x LRPD/PD (persistent PD) + 1x Heavy Blaster (opportunistic flux dump) .
Reminds me of a similar issue I encountered in Battletech and Starship:Gemini. Late game just boiled down to using only the largest, most powerful mechs/ships, because anything smaller is simply obsolete in every fashion. My attempts at frigate-only runs generally fail after I bump into fleets with twelve Moras and I get swept down by fifty fights of strike craft with no real way to answer it.