Fractal Softworks Forum
Starsector => General Discussion => Topic started by: hairrorist on February 16, 2012, 12:07:01 PM
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Let's hear your favorite custom ship loadouts and their tactical niche!
I'll start off:
My absolute favorite-- Hyperion Frigate with 2x AM Blasters, 2x Atropos Torpedoes, 2x Ion Cannons, 10 capacitors and 6 vents Capable of soloing cruisers if your aim is good. If not, ditch an ion cannon or some vents and pick up an ammo extension and/or missile extension. You can quickly down shields with your Ion Cannons, then carve a hole through their armor with your AM Blaster before finally releasing two torpedoes right up their soft underbelly. Its a devastating combo. Then you can run out, let your flux cool off and do it all over again. This ship is absolutely incredible. Nothing this small can pack even close to the amount of strike potential this craft brings to the table. No need for PD whatsoever--you're too damn fast. If the enemy has a lot of very fast fighters that are giving you trouble, you can plug in tactical lasers instead of ions, but you will not have the same lightning fast death swoop combo.
Great Support Cruiser-- Hate carriers as much as I do? Grab a venture class cruiser instead. Drop your choice of medium energy mounts, 2x Pilum Launchers, 2x Harpoons, 2x Hypervelocity drivers. This ship is a dangerous sniper and mobile carrier. Keep it in your back lines with an interceptor wing escort and you can cause some real damage. This is the best option for a carrier craft I have found.
Brawler--Aurora cruiser with 3x heavy blasters, 4x tactical lasers, 2x Sabot SRMS, a Cyclone Reaper Launcher, 30 vents, stabilized shields and hardened shields. This ship is all about timing and using your sabots correctly. Down their shields with a volley or two from the sabs, then unleash your right broadside, turn your nose to them and drive straight toward them and drop your reapers. Continue to rotate around and let them have the weaker left broadside if the shield is still down or they are disabled.
What are your favorites?
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Heavy Blasters, not burst lasers
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EDIT mixed 2 hulls ^^ so my current favorite wulf with hevymauler 10/10 flux
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Rather than a Venture, I like using the Odyssey as my flagship, which also takes care of the carrier needs. Having the flight deck RIGHT THERE helps keep the bombers fighting.
I also swap out the IR lasers on the left side of the ship for antimatter blasters, which really makes the broadside deadly. For the final touch, swap out the pilums on the front of the ship for torpedo launchers - they actually swivel far enough to contribute to the broadside as well.
I leave the right side of the ship as is - fighters/frigates tend to try to attack that side to avoid the broadside, so the huge concentration of PD and IR lasers gets a lot of use.
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I personally am in love with the Medusa Destroyer, 2x Heavy Blasters in the Medium Energy Turrets, nothing in the two small universal fixed mounts, 2x Burst PD in rear right and left small energy turrets, nothing in the bottom rear turret, 2x tactical lasers in the 2 forward small energy turrets, and then full flux capacitors, Turret Gyros, and all the rest of the points into flux vents.
Not sure how much sense that made, but I love that combo, and I currently have a fleet of 6 Medusa's with various loadouts, TONS of fun. ;D
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Medusa w/ 5x Burst PD (or 5x Tac Lasers w/ AI Autotargeting - uses same OP, Tac's are a bit slower at targeting, but will give you better total DPS and range), 2x AMblasters (front slots), 2x heavy blasters, and any extra OP goes to flux vents - works absolute wonders against fighters/bombers, frigates, and destroyers, and can still effectively contribute in a fight against a cruiser or capship (esp. of the carrier or fire support variety) - you will have to occasionally back off to vent a bit more frequently than with a stock medusa though
Paragon w/ 4x Tachyon Lances & PD sorts of stuff in all the other slots (Brilliant sniping platform that can sit in the back and pick off enemy ships from across the map [usually can one-shot anything smaller than a cruiser]; can even do a number against a capship with its shields turned away, because of how front-loaded the lances are)
Tempest... just... the tempest
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The stock Wolf frigate with the graviton beam, x2 missile racks and x3 tactical laser is one of my favorite ships by far, without a doubt my favorite starter.
The Venture is amazing too for a command ship. I load it out with:
3x Harpoon MRM
1x Salamander MRM
1x Heavy Energy Blaster
2x Triple Auto Cannon
Extended Missile Racks
Then get as many Broadsword fighters as I can.
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Yeah I have been noticing in the campaign how mean those broadswords are, haha. They took out my wolf once. I was flabbergasted.
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The Null ship in the fleet of 0 ships with 0xNull weapons. While it guarantees loss, it will give you infinite money (if you grind away, but the money rate is much better than early game pickings, at any rate) :D [See my bug report about selling all ships for details]
[edit: turns out you max at ~23,000 if you do it just right, since above 20000 Cr you get deducted if you lose. Enough that you might be able to pick up a better 'starter' though. Might be able to nab a tempest almost right off the bat as a result]
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I really like the tempests, don't know why i just have like 12 of them and i can take out nearly anything. ;)
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Tempests are awesome in just about any config. Theoretically, you could get on, spend everything on engines, maneuverability, and shields, while having no weapons, and be able to kite until everyone just surrenders to you :D
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I like the Medusa destroyer with 5 PD lasers (not LR PD, but PD - shorter range but same dps as the tac lasers), 2 grav beams, augmented engines, hardened shields, and advanced optics. 8 points left for vents, or you can slap something in the universal mounts. I currently have 4 vents and some bombs in one of the universal mounts. It doesn't have the flashy frontend damage of AM blasters, but it's extremely sturdy and can wear just about anything down with a little time.
It's not great vs big ships, but it's the best anti-fighter ship I've seen. You can chase down fighter and bomber groups and shred them with the grav beams and PD lasers, and your PD lasers can take out huge swarms of missiles. The hardened shields can take a hell of a beating before you need to retreat to vent too. Against frigates your beams will quickly overload the shields and start cutting through the hull. Against destroyers and cruisers your beams can overload their shields given a little time, then you can move in with the bombs. Not so great against capital ships though - the Hegemony ones aren't bad since you can flank them and whittle them down, but the Tri-Tachyon ones will murder you.
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Hammer head with 2 hevy maulers 2 rocket pods and 2 standard lazers front 2 point d lazers back is nice... 8)
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Astral carrier.
Max flux/dissipation, every shield upgrade, all weapons specialized for long distance combat. My little flyboys and flygirls take care of the rest.
I surround myself in just the right mix of fighter wings for each specific engagement. After all, there are fighter wings specialized vs any situation. There are fighter wing killing fighter wings, and capital ship killing fighter wings, and smaller ship killing fighter wings, and speedy fighter wings just for quickly capturing objective, and fighter wings just for escorting my astral and acting as point defense (from the safety of its shield).
Every battle is about tactics and managing my command point resources more than skillfully maneuvering my controlled ship in the thick of combat. Lumbering around in my massive mobile command center, staying perfectly positioned to be of maximum support without exposing myself to too much fire, overseeing and ordering the dozens and dozens of fighter ships, keeping just enough of them alive to refit and nudging them (as they seem to have minds of their own!) into cohesive and complementary group or set of groups...
It is quite an awesome experience, and extraordinarily effective when done right. It might actually be TOO effective seeing as the fighter refit mechanics allow me to pretty much never lose a fighter wing if I'm careful, and I can simply toss a million fighters onto the field with a carrier and not really have to worry about limited ammo, or the damage they take so long as just one survives.
I would love to see customizable fighters, and ammunition/armor/parts that you actually have to stock up on, like in mechwarrior games.
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And eventually going over the limit on hangar space will murder you somehow. :)
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Hmm, since I usually get screwed up after getting two or three ships..
Favorite starter is the Wolf with the following loadout
2x Salamander MRMs
1x Mining Blaster
3x PD lasers
grab expanded missile racks and dump the rest into flux and vents
Great for tearing up pirate frigates and Buffalo IIs
PD lasers are amazingly good at ripping up fighters, and the mining blaster packs a good heavy punch.
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Where do you find the ion cannons? there don't seem to be any on the orbital station, and i haven't come across one as loot yet.
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The orbital station for some reason doesn't always add items/ships to its inventory, even if they are spawned in the convoy (at least thats how it appears in the convoy script)
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I just noticed you mention ion cannons for shields - I thought ion damage just disabled stuff? Don't think that would work too good vs shields, since their DPS is pretty terrible.
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I dont think its the dps that brings down shields - its the flux damage. I am however not sure if flux damage is applied past shields.
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Hmm, I think I modded Ions to be a little more effective against shields because I felt they were pretty underwhelming. I just tried it after a reinstall and they do still to some degree, but its a little different. Instead of burrowing through the shields like a bloodthirsty mole, you just fly up to the ass end of a cruiser and disable its rear PD systems, then unleash your hell in peace. I thought vanilla Ions were pretty terrible but used right they can really turn frigates into pretty effective flagship sinkers.
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My favorite ship and loadout
Medusa
In the 2x omni slots i run 2x Harpoon MRM
In the 2x Medium energy 2x Pulse Laser
In the front 2 small energy, 2x IR pulse laser
in the back 3 small energy, 3x LR pd laser
Advanced turret gyro mod
20 vents
6 capacitors
(everything but the mrm's on autofire)
I originaly fit this with antimater blasters in the front but i found they were such energy hogs that they barely ever even fired as my flux would be to high to allow them to. The Pulse lasers give me great range, great damage for low flux and blow the crap out of everything and anything. the turret gyros and the fast rate of fire of the pulse lasers also mean i can eat up fighters and bombers... just go near them and boom all dead no one ever goes back to there carriers!
The pd lasers do a good job shooting down missiles going for my butt while my sheilds tank front missiles just fine without any front facing pd.
What i love is the damage at range and how well it works even when at full flux, as well as its anti fighter capabilities. Have not found a ship that i enjoy more or that feels as insanly powerfull on hte field in my hands, can easily work around the sheilds of large targets and tear them a new one. If i give it to the AI and pilot something else it always dies but if i fly it just eats through everything something about the ai and that fit makes it suicide.
Also the one carrier i forget its name but the larger of the ones you can get at the station is refit with LRM and missile magazine i love how many missiles it spews out i just captured 2x onslaughts and with them spewing missiels its fantastic.
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Okay, I had a very successful run in the campaign today, lasting almost a complete cycle (year).
Flagship for most of that period was an Odyssey-class Battleship.
The final iteration of it consisted of the following:
3 Large Energy Slots - 2x Tachyon Lance(left side) 1x Pulse Laser(right side)
3 Medium Missile Slots - 2x Salamander MRM 1x Harpoon MRM
12 Small Energy Slots - 12x IR Pulse Laser
Extended Shields
Hardened Shields
4x into Vents
15x into Capacitors
The two lances were good for ripping frigates apart at long range while the IR Pulses kill any fighters or munitions that get near you, as well as overload most destroyer and capital ship shields. Plus enough Cap to have a constant wall of red lasers flying off your ship.
Never managed to capture a Paragon, but looting Tachyon Lances off them makes for some good experimenting.
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Absolute favorite hull would be the Apogee (with maybe a bigger missile mount, but hey), but that isn't what I'm here for.
Also, for each of my loadouts, vents/capacitors are entirely a matter of preference.
If I had to pick one ship to be my only ship, it would be:
--- Hammerhead ---
- 2 Heavy Maulers
- 2 Harpoon Missiles
- 4 LR PD Lasers (for those pesky fighters)
- Expanded Missile Racks
This thing is absolutely spectacular, and can handle quite a few fighters.
In terms of fleet frigates, I would go with the following:
--- Wolf ---
- 1 Graviton Beam
- 2 Harpoon Missiles
- 3 LR PD Lasers (again, for the fighters)
- Expanded Missile Racks
Again, amazing for just about everything,
but you could probably tweak it as necessary to fit different roles.
The number one problem is the availability of these frigates,
since they are rare and are usually only with Tri-Tachyon, I think.
And as a final note, remember the following:
BROADSWORD FIGHTERS BROADSWORD FIGHTERS
BROADSWORD FIGHTERS BROADSWORD FIGHTERS
BROADSWORD FIGHTERS BROADSWORD FIGHTERS
BROADSWORD FIGHTERS BROADSWORD FIGHTERS
BROADSWORD FIGHTERS BROADSWORD FIGHTERS
BROADSWORD FIGHTERS BROADSWORD FIGHTERS
That is all.
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It's a little sad to me how little love the midline and low tech ships get! I have so much love for the Eagle cruiser, was my flagship for an extended period of time, although I admit that the Odyssey was also pretty great. I swapped out the IR lasers for antimatter blasters, and the autopulse cannons for heavy blasters. Wound up being a pretty good broadside craft, and like someone else said, having a flight deck RIGHT THERE to rearm piranha bombers is pretty great.
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Hmm, I think I modded Ions to be a little more effective against shields because I felt they were pretty underwhelming. I just tried it after a reinstall and they do still to some degree, but its a little different. Instead of burrowing through the shields like a bloodthirsty mole, you just fly up to the ass end of a cruiser and disable its rear PD systems, then unleash your hell in peace. I thought vanilla Ions were pretty terrible but used right they can really turn frigates into pretty effective flagship sinkers.
Well, ions aren't meant to be good vs shields - their specialty is disabling ships that aren't shielded. If you can maneuver around them and nail em in an unshielded spot it can be devastating, but hitting their shields won't do much. Graviton beams are better for dropping the shields initially.
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Wolf: phase beam on the front, 3 burst pd lasers, enhanced optics on the hull, rest into vents
DANG that thing is good. Incredible range for a frigate and that phase beam is NASTy
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mmm I tend to prefer just three tactical lasers on personals wolf (with harpoon mrms, with +engines +optical +missilerack) - Does the spinal mount phase beam do enough deeps to make keeping exactly on target worth it?
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Yes. It is dang fun. :) This is obviously a personal preference, though.
I will have to try yours. Would be nice not to have to strafe everywhere.
I need to play with the Sunder. It's fragile, but think of the possibilities of that large energy mount. Tachyon lance? :D
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wolf with PD lasers heavy blaster, 25% range and maxed flux able to solo ever large pirate fleets, heavy blaster oneshot kill fighters and with nice aim you able to destroy wings in no time.
missle racks removed to allow more flux
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my flag ships loadout. not to different from a the default. but i like it
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c205/arwan2/my-flag-ship.jpg)
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Rather than a Venture, I like using the Odyssey as my flagship, which also takes care of the carrier needs. Having the flight deck RIGHT THERE helps keep the bombers fighting.
I also swap out the IR lasers on the left side of the ship for antimatter blasters, which really makes the broadside deadly. For the final touch, swap out the pilums on the front of the ship for torpedo launchers - they actually swivel far enough to contribute to the broadside as well.
I leave the right side of the ship as is - fighters/frigates tend to try to attack that side to avoid the broadside, so the huge concentration of PD and IR lasers gets a lot of use.
This, a thousand times over. My current build uses the Expansion mod and TT+Gun Runners Stations, so I have 1 Guardian PD thing, something like 8 PD lasers, 3 of the Medium-level MIRV Launchers (mod only), 2 Plasma blasters, and 4 Antimatter Blasters. I have yet to take on an Onslaught personally, but I can't WAIT to try. :D
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my flag ships loadout. not to different from a the default. but i like it
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c205/arwan2/my-flag-ship.jpg)
I use something similar to this, except with some Medium-class MIRV launchers from a mod, 4 AM Blasters on the left side, and PD lasers everywhere else. Takes out just about everything in range, along with whatever the medium-MIRVs hit.
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i would love to put in some medium class mirv type weapon for missiles.. honestly i think we need more missiles like the pilum... ammo wise for sustained fire support.
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i would love to put in some medium class mirv type weapon for missiles.. honestly i think we need more missiles like the pilum... ammo wise for sustained fire support.
Agreed. Most missiles come in 'racks', but I would love to see a missile tube system with an internal magazine of at least ten or so missiles by default.
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my flag ships loadout. not to different from a the default. but i like it
*snip*
Are these first two ships in the vanilla version, or are they mods? Have not seen either one in my lengthy campaign :'(
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the flag ship is vanilla the second one is from the tri-tachyon station mod. (its a middle of the line carrier with 2 flight decks)
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Dang, maybe I'll have to start a new sandbox to find a Zeus? The offerings in my hire/trade menu change plenty often, and I guess the choice of fighter wings has grown, but I would swear that my options for the two largest classes (Destroyer and Cruiser?) have gone totally unchanged since I started.
Maybe I should just take some mods for a spin.
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also another setup i use a lot for its support capabilities and if i dont want to be on the front lines per-Se
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c205/arwan2/my-flag-ship-2.jpg)
excellent range beam weapons and good turret gyros to keep those beams where i want them.
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Dang, maybe I'll have to start a new sandbox to find a Zeus? The offerings in my hire/trade menu change plenty often, and I guess the choice of fighter wings has grown, but I would swear that my options for the two largest classes (Destroyer and Cruiser?) have gone totally unchanged since I started.
Maybe I should just take some mods for a spin.
i named it the "USSF Zeus" its class is "Odyssey"
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Ah ok gotcha well that doesn't change the fact that the ship doesn't exist in my current sandbox :-\
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you can find the independent fleets flying around with them some times also the tri-tachyon fleets can have them as well.. also more common in there fleets than the independents
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Good to know, will keep my eyes open