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1

General Discussion / Re: Planet composition algorithm: is it designed to screw you, or RNG?

« on: March 02, 2022, 03:19:51 PM »

As the other guy said, just settle. Perfect is the enemy of the good enough, and good enough + time (endgame farming) = great.

I don't have any GREAT seeds for 95.1, but I'm sure someone has found and posted one somewhere. Might be worth trying a game with an amazing system, to really push the limits of colonies, but that often gets boring.

I actually disagree with a lot of colony advice, and try to set down my first 2 colonies pretty much ASAP, as soon as I can afford to buy the required supplies/machinery/crew and have enough space junk to get the materials to the system. My first colonization fleet is usually a mix of barely spaceworthy pirate salvage that will be left on the planet anyway. Maybe an extra 200-300k for initial buildings (industry, waystation, patrol HQ).

I don't look at colonies as cash cows, usually. I just hope they can cover crew/officer salary and support heavy industry/orbital works to make ships from blueprints. I don't actually need them to do much more than that. That's why I try to settle 2 colonies quick, usually one for high value industry (heavy, fuel production) and the second to do something that is relevant to the high end supply chain (mining/refining, volatiles) I pick for my first.

2

Suggestions / Re: Suggestion for top tier derelict/scavenged ships

« on: February 28, 2022, 05:20:29 PM »

Seems like unnecessary complexity to me.

The way I understand it, supplies are crates of generic stuff: fuses, spark plugs, etc, as well as materials that can be used to manufacture necessary smaller parts--like how carriers manufacture fighters. Adding a second category of ship-specific parts just means that instead of carrying supplies, you have to carry x different types of parts.

Next, I believe that factions do have the ability to manufacture capital ships, considering the player can steal capital blueprints from factions, as well as the fact that Hegemony and...Persean League, I think? start with pristine nanoforges.

This would just mean that capital ships can only be bought, because by the time you're finding colony items regularly, you can afford a capital or two. Why would I remember the location of one of the six derelict legions to come back later, when I could just scrap them for parts and buy a new one?

If we make capitals hard/impossible to buy, then the effect ends up being that the player is simply barred from using capitals, or at the very least, significantly dissuaded due to the potential of losing something that will require a deep space exploration mission or two to replace.

What would work better, in my opinion, while still gating capitals a bit more, would be a requirement for a "capable" salvage ship. I imagine the salvage rig/shepherd, for the salvage gantry, and carriers that are at most one size smaller--i.e. a condor can only salvage cruisers, but not capitals, while a Mora can salvage anything. But this really wouldn't be a significant hurdle, just takes away the possibility of a lucky early Legion.

As far as D-mods, it would make sense to be able to restore D-mods by sacrificing another ship of the same type, i.e. D-mod Doom + D-mod Doom = pristine Doom, but that might throw off the balance quite a bit.

3

General Discussion / Re: Loadouts, fleet composition and the wiki

« on: February 28, 2022, 04:51:25 PM »

The most beginner-friendly tactic I've found is to have a big honking block of armor (Dominator, Onslaught, see anchor above) in front, and a strike carrier behind it. Make two defense points, one in front, one in the back, and order the block of armor to the front one and the carrier to the back one. Add in some smaller ships to deal with enemy smaller ships. Micro the carrier with elimination orders on ships that are getting softened up by your armor block.

As long as your carrier doesn't get flanked and your armor block doesn't get overwhelmed, you should be fine.

Another tactic I really like is the sacrificial enforcer: give it heavy armor and blast doors, load it up with PD, and order it to eliminate the big ship deep in the enemy formation. Let it charge ahead, where it will die, but will also absorb the entire first wave of enemy damage from missiles/fighters, and likely throw the enemy fleet into a bit of disarray.

In general, I find that placing defense orders on your side of the battlefield and letting the enemy come to you is usually the better option. Your slow ships will have time to get in formation, and the enemy ships will be filtered by speed, making them easier to kill as they trickle in.

4

General Discussion / Re: Commissions

« on: February 28, 2022, 04:10:06 PM »

Yes, but as far as downsides go, they are not very significant compared to the benefits.

Maybe if there was a higher penalty to having enemies, such as having enemy fleets dispatched to hunt you down (balanced to your fleet DP, so that it's not just getting slammed like a high danger system, but a balanced fight that you can win), or an inability to collect mission/bounty rewards from enemy factions, or just more aggressive defense fleets to the point where going into enemy systems WILL involve combat unless you are very careful, or some other more significant downside. Losing more trade fleets in addition to the access penalty? I don't know.

Right now, it seems too easy.

5

General Discussion / Re: Beginner looking for tips

« on: February 28, 2022, 03:54:23 PM »

Another colony thing to keep in mind:

More planets in a single system simplifies defense, late game, as the space defenses of your colonies basically count all the patrol/military HQs you build within the system. I would skip right over a 50% hazard paradise in a 1 or 2 planet system, because you will have to manually defend it later on. I don't colonize systems that have less than four planets for this reason--four planets with military industry will spawn so many overlapping defense fleets they can handle any attacks.

Cryoarithmetic engine (requires hot or very hot) significantly improves patrol fleets, +25/+100% IIRC, so three planets, or maybe even two if they're very hot in system might be able to hold their own, but I haven't tested.

This actually makes Penelope's Star a very attractive colony location, with something like seven colonizable planets: a volcanic+cryovolcanic for good resources, a desert planet which is often 100-150% hazard for your main growth colony, and a barren world or two that usually lack atmosphere for synchrotrons/nanoforges.

6

General Discussion / Commissions

« on: February 28, 2022, 03:40:18 PM »

Maybe this has been addressed in the past, if so, I apologize.

Are commissions just supposed to be an "easy mode"? I'll be honest, I've never played with them before, but the Nex mod said that the no commission start was very hard, plus free Doom with the TT start, I figured I might as well.

As far as I can tell, I just get an extra 50k per month with no strings attached, except for forced diplomacy changes. No expectation of helping out my faction, no minimum kills or whatever. They just pay me to fly their flag.

Shouldn't there be some requirement alongside the commission? Something like destroying at least one enemy ship, or engaging in combat with enemies every few months minimum would make sense. Or a minimum size colony that has the accessibility to provide certain goods, like those occasional bar missions?

As of right now, commissions seem like a no strings attached cash infusion. This doesn't really make sense to me, unless it's supposed to be a beginner friendly way to get into the game...which could be accomplished by raising the Galatia stipend for easy mode.