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1

General Discussion / Re: Endgame Factions All Lose to the Same Build

« on: May 10, 2025, 11:11:56 PM »

These Medusas usually have SO and actual weapons such as Phase Lances or Heavy Blasters. OP's Medusas have two Railguns and 7(!) PD weapons. Then he apparently puts them to guard Onslaughts(since they have escort package) because we all know Onslaughts are so vulnerable to fighters they need a dedicated PD destroyer...

You've missed the point, which explains why you don't understand how this setup works.  You don't escort the capitals to keep them safe.  You escort the capitals to make your destroyers twice as deadly.  And with capital-grade PD coming from your destroyer escorts, you free up all your capital weapons for highly lethal concentrated fire.

No wonder you have trouble with Ordos.  If you can't see how the pieces work together, you likely don't have a well-built fleet.

2

General Discussion / Re: Endgame Factions All Lose to the Same Build

« on: May 10, 2025, 04:07:50 PM »

But why are those Medusa using Railguns instead of needlers?! Moooore Neeedlesssss. /silly

Side note that's not silly: no extended shields S modded? How do your Medusa do?

[Edit] Second side note, how have I never noticed that S-mod emag Heavy Burst Laser competes with Phase Lance so well? Less armor penetration (500 vs 225) but same DPS, slightly better flux efficiency, and PD so with the right officer it can stack elite PD and advanced optics for a flat +400 range. IPDAI + skill = +100% damage vs fighters and missiles, too. Lots of investment here (elite skill, S mod), but seems like a good payoff...

Railguns instead of needlers because of flux management.  I haven't done the math, so you can correct me if you'd like, but the Medusae take a lot of shield flux and I don't want them to run up their soft flux to the point where one volley from a capital or pair of cruisers pops them like balloons.

No extended shields, no.  I've never noticed a need for them with the Medusa.  Hardened Sheidls is a *fantastic* third S-mod if you use that skill

And yes, those PD burst lasers are astonishingly good if you'll stack Extended Magazines S-Mod, Advanced Optics (theory yields to practice, here - you don't need all that turn speed for the burst lasers when they're on maneuverable ships in the first place) and the elite Point Defense pilot skill.  If you'll build three officers from the beginning - or get very lucky with your Level 7 finds - it makes the Medusa a truly phenomenal room sweeper so the big ships can lay down the law.

3

General Discussion / Re: Endgame Factions All Lose to the Same Build

« on: May 10, 2025, 11:05:53 AM »

You kill Remnant with kinetics? Or the Threat? I'd like to see these kinetics.

Unmodded game, so take that for what it's worth.  And not all kinetics, obviously.
Onslaught MK I, Onslaught XIV (x2)
3x Medusa
6x Enforcer XIV

That gives you three main battlegroups so you have a little tactical flexibility.  Mod your Medusae with Escort Package and Expanded Magazines (plus Advanced Optics if you can build in three), equip them 2x Railgun, 2x Heavy Burst Laser, 5x Burst Laser.  Point Defense + Energy spec + Gunnery Implants + expert Shield pilot, IPDAI hullmod.  Mod your Enforcers with Escort Package and Expanded Missile Racks, equip them 2x Dual Flak Cannon, 2x Heavy Needler, 1x Heavy Mauler (or more flux instead if you prefer), 4x Harpoon MRM.  Your escorts will completely nullify all missiles and most strike craft from any size Remnant fleet, including full Ordos with Nexus assistance.  Storm Needlers and Heavy Needlers will take care of Remnant shields, and the energy hardpoint weapons plus maybe a few assault guns will take care of ship armor.  4x Harpoon on the XIV Onslaughts are nice, too.  Full alpha Ordos last maybe 90 seconds against this fleet so it makes a lot of sense to Shield Shunt your Onslaughts since you'll win the race.

Haven't played enough to fight Threat 3rd Strike fleets, just 1st and 2nd.  That setup handles them so easily, though, that I feel like it might work for 3rd as well.

Needlers are pretty awesome en masse.  Where's the Radiant gonna teleport to if the entire screen is little shards of spite?

4

General Discussion / Great sector for base building in vanilla .98a-RC5

« on: May 10, 2025, 08:21:24 AM »

I know that a lot of folks here play modded so this may not interest any but finally got a sector with some really good systems, and thought I'd share.

Domain sector registry ID is MN-2410668442190083129

Three very good, self-sustaining systems, each with gate and Domain Comms System (my second favorite thing for a system to have): Olgoi-Khorkoi, Blue Crow, Morgoth.  Olgoi in particular is very close to Tia in the core worlds area so it's a quick trip until you get fast travel.

I can spoil the systems in case those of you who've played more have higher standards than I =)

Spoiler

Olgoi-Khorkoi:  5 planets, 2 uninhabitable with no atmo, one desert, one tundra, one gas with +2 volatile.  Also +2 rare ore
Blue Crow:   9 planets including a Terran Eccentric with +3 rare ore.  3 no atmo, 2 gas with +0 volatile.  +3 ore and +3 rare ore (not on same planet)
Morgoth:  5 planets, 3 no atmo, 1 Tundra with +2 food and no volatile/transplutonic

[close]

5

General Discussion / Re: AI scared of missiles

« on: May 08, 2022, 09:09:16 PM »

Annihilator pods are great too.  A single pod not so much, but several ships each with several pods can create a sort of "shield push" effect when they volley a cloud of rockets.  The enemy will usually recoil, allowing you to get a little bit of control over battlefield placement.  Given how amazingly crap the AI is at moving well in the battlespace, it's nice to have an option to sort of corral the enemy or at least hold them back into a line so you can more effectively bring your damage dealing weapons to bear.  Annihilators do almost no damage, ultimately, but they are the only reliable way I've found to keep enemy frigates mixed in with their main fleet instead of flanking my AI-controlled ships.  And because of that, it makes targeted hits on the most dangerous ships of a fleet easier, and also significantly increases the usefulness of my PD systems.

6

General Discussion / Re: Kanta's Den decivilized?

« on: April 25, 2022, 12:41:31 PM »

If it was after you did that part of the Institute quest, it wasn't random, fyi.  Just so if you see it again in antoher play through you know to expect it.

7

General Discussion / Re: So where should I look to find this "rare tech" stuff?

« on: April 23, 2022, 03:47:48 PM »

Spoiler-free version: go explore everywhere, and do the quests you get from the Institute.  Also, keep an eye out for anyone interesting in bars when you visit populated planets/stations.  That'll get you most of the unique and rare stuff out there.  For the rest, you'll mostly be farming Ordos in end game.
Honestly, the really rare items are more for diehard completionists than for normal people.  There's basically nothing left to do in the game once you're farming Ordos except farm them more; unless you just gotta catch 'em all, it's probably more rewarding to just start another game and try something new.

8

General Discussion / Re: What should I be looking for in terms of colonies?

« on: April 23, 2022, 08:10:10 AM »

One other tip not given yet: don't waste the whole game looking for the perfect system.  Settle for good enough. One planet with no atmosphere, one planet with extreme heat, one planet with organics, and one planet with ores adds up to a very nice system. Doesn't have to be four planets, either; often enough, no atmosphere, extreme heat, and ores all come together.

The colony system you have up and running is better than the colony system you're still looking for.

9

Suggestions / Re: Teaching the AI about 'fleet power density'

« on: April 21, 2022, 12:50:14 PM »

I still feel like almost all of these problems are rooted in the AIs inability to move well in the battle space.  I've brought it up a time or two but either I'm not describing it well or nobody agrees with me, since there's no dialog on it.  But I still think it boils down to the AI just never manages to be in the right place, so a thorough inability to do anything right logically follows.

Your power density idea is generally a lot like what I thought would help - setting up the idea of the core of the fleet, and teaching the AI to prefer to move toward that core unless it has other explicit player-issued orders - but it has some finer detail baked in.

10

Suggestions / Re: Respec and mentoring should limit combat skills to those the Player has

« on: April 20, 2022, 09:47:00 AM »

The fiction is simple. When you respec / mentor an officer, how are they learning new skills? Who's teaching them, if not the player?

Doesn't make sense, though.  Anyone in any leadership position knows you can mentor someone to get better at their job, without the mentor knowing how to do the mentee's job.  Give them the resources they need to succeed, help them make contacts, provide problems for them to solve.  Limiting a mentored officer to the player skills has no realistically consistent logic, though realism shouldn't ever be the final word in a video game.

11

General Discussion / Re: So the game's all about the huge fleets?

« on: April 18, 2022, 12:41:46 AM »

How much can you do with a small fleet or as one good quality ship?

Most of the game can be managed with a medium-sized fleet, call it 120DP or so total combat ships, plus a few support ships to carry fuel and supplies and spare crew.  However, if you'll take the time to get good at piloting a phase ship and spec your character into combat skills instead of fleet support skills, you can basically solo most of the game.  There will be a few times you just have to have support but for the most part, a well piloted phase ship will crush overwhelming odds because the AI isn't especially good at combat.

Also, do I have to start colonies and do all that stuff? Is that the intended end game?

It is the intended end game, but you don't have to do it.  However, there's almost no downside to it.  Once you have a few million credits laying around, there won't really be much to spend it on, so may as well build up a system.  If you start two or three colonies all at once in the same star system, and quickly get them each the patrol fleet colony upgrade, then you won't even have to worry about defending them from enemy fleets very often at all.
A colony is free storage, tax-free fuel/crew/supplies, and eventually, it's positive income - though that can take a while, especially on high hazard rating planets while running hazard pay.  But eventually, even without Commerce industry or heavy use of AI cores, you'll be making in the ballpark of 100,000 credits per month per colony, which will fund your fleet in the later game when some of your easier sources of early- and mid-game income have dried up.

12

General Discussion / Re: What are my options ? No big fleet, explo, casual fights

« on: April 17, 2022, 01:59:17 PM »

NEXUS: The Jupiter Incident meets all your criteria except turn-based.  However, it can be paused at any time, so even though it's "real time" it's very easy to play it like a turn based game.  I always recommend NEXUS when it's relevant.

I know you were asking for mods for this game, just felt like shilling for what is - in my opinion - a very underrated and under-recognized game.

13

General Discussion / Re: What happened to AI?

« on: April 13, 2022, 03:30:47 AM »

I would post a picture but stupid site is limited to 192 KB and files are much larger that that.

Download an image viewer (I like IrfanView but whatever you like should work fine) and when you want to upload a screenshot to the forum here, open the image in your image viewer, then select "Save As" and save it as a jpg/jpeg or png file, but specify the file size you want or the image quality.  You can easily get your screenshot down under the file size limit just by reducing its quality a little.  No complicated knowledge needed, just "Save As" and you're done.

Regarding the bone-stupid AI, yes, it's bone-stupid.  But it's also easy enough to game.  The AI will become uncontrollably dumb as soon as combat is joined, so make sure your fleet is nicely arranged into some sort of formation before the enemy gets into range.  Then, even with all the terrible choices the AI will make, you'll have a basic setup that will still allow your fleet to mutually reinforce and protect, all through the opening moments of the fight.  For most fights up until the end-game stuff, those opening moments should define the whole fight, so you'll be good to go.

14

General Discussion / Re: What games were inspiration for / spiritual ancestors of Starsector?

« on: April 07, 2022, 01:21:32 AM »

Star Control was great - especailly 2.
Arilou Skiff was my perfect flawless child. It can beat (almost*) anything with enough patience (and holy hell will you need patience for some matchups).

*

Gorram Shofixti!

[close]

I don't ever remember beating a Chmmr Avatar, Utwig Juggernaut, or Melnorme Trader with a Skiff (though I've read it's possible if the Avatar/Jugger/Trader player is bad enough, or vs the AI of course), and my friends and I played the absolute hell out of that game.  Tried playing it a few years ago.  Remember that I used to be able to judge ranges within one or two pixels, and clear entire Ur-Quan battlegroups with just Fwiffo, or beat Slylandro with the starting Earthling Cruiser.  Nowadays?  Not so much.

15

Suggestions / Re: Navigation officer (hirable officer)

« on: March 27, 2022, 07:40:27 AM »

You can just set autopilot. It's a straight line, which absolutely will run you through storms, but unless and until something better gets implemented, you don't have to hold the button down.  Just click the destination and go make a cup of tea; the prompt to drop out of hyperspace will pause the game until you get back.

Plus, you do not want to be at the screen to watch the dumb-as-rocks autopilot run you through five storms in a row when it could have missed all of them by moving a quarter screen away.