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1

Suggestions / Re: The heavy mortar deserves a buff

« on: July 02, 2022, 05:37:09 PM »

You focus on a relatively minor difference and handwave away the actual one, that looks a bit silly. Mjollnir's main advantage is energy being better against shields, not accuracy.
In that vein Heph has ~2.7x the base efficiency of Mjollnir against armor (including OP diff in vents). Yes, it doesn't have as much accuracy/hit strength, but it has enough to be acceptable.

I thought I did not need to spell Mjolnir's better-against-shields out (which I almost did but ultimately decided not to on the last post), but yes, Mjolnir does that, and it better for the extra flux cost.  Without Rangefinder, slots to fit weapons with enough range are generally too limited.  (And, yes, you pointed out slots.)

With the elite PD range bonus it actually has a longer range than 900 kinetics, and skill+armored mounts give it noticeable damage in standoffs though

Okay, after testing ePD+Devastator, having ePD and enough recoil reduction puts enough shots close to competitors' ranges to work as you say.  Kind of feels like a variant HE Volatile Particle Driver.  Without ePD, Devastator does not pump enough shots at long enough ranges to compete with other heavy HE.

When I use Hellbore, Hephaestus, or Mjolnir for anti-armor, I need the range, often to match complimenting Mark IX or range-boosted light kinetics.  If short range was not a concern, then of course Devastator without ePD would be an option.

2

Suggestions / Re: The heavy mortar deserves a buff

« on: July 02, 2022, 06:05:52 AM »

I mean, who uses the Arbalest unless they can't find a HAC?

The arbalest is really good now, less accurate/more efficient railgun with double the hit strength.
Play arund with it, you'll be surprised how much hull damage it does on top of being a standard kinetic gun.

Arbalest is good.  The biggest problem with it is does not get all the nice boosts small kinetics can get from skills and hullmods.  If Arbalest could get all of the boosts small weapons can get, I would use it more.

Hellbor is very slow turning, very low projectile speed, low DPS.
Extremely good at cracking medium-heavy armor, but a completely different use case.

Same for mjollnir, 667 flux/sec for 533 energy DPS vs 480 for 480 HE.
Mjollnir is good for ships with better flux stats/fewer mounts to get kinetic from.
Since strippign armor takes longer in this version I think the heph is a good general weapon for ships with enough mounts, IMO the main competition is devastator.
Devastator is usually worse for general use, but the burst is really nasty at close-medium range and it also functions as turbo-PD.

We use HE mostly for armor cracking.  Otherwise, we would use more kinetics than we already do to win flux wars faster.

Mjolnir is more accurate than Hephaestus.  Also knocks out their weapons more easily.  Yes, Mjolnir is not as much anti-armor, but it has enough to be acceptable.

Devastator does not have enough range and accuracy to snipe effectively with other 900 range weapons.  It is no good as a Hellbore or Hephaestus substitute.  It has its uses, but sniping is not one of them.

3

General Discussion / Re: Legion is too underwhelming?

« on: July 02, 2022, 05:07:50 AM »

Nice, M/L reapers are generous enough with ammo but if it also affected other missiles that could be a very significant improvement.
...
What you quoted means that right now all overloaded ships are top priorities, fighters weren't excluded like they should be.

That was what happened when my ships fired Harpoons at fighters.  Shield overload on some high-tech fighter, and missiles get launched.  Harpoons being wasted on fighters was painful, given their low ammo count.

4

General Discussion / Re: Curious on why it isn't possible (Vanilla) to get the Tesseract

« on: July 02, 2022, 05:01:32 AM »

Sadly from both fights and alpha site I managed to get all the Omega weapons i dont have any real use for in my fleet. Like the Rift Missile Launcher, rift beam, and Disruptor repeater (I think thats its name) and a copy or two of eachj of those Ohwell.

I find the rift lance to be a good replacement for antimatter blasters.  It works better against shield flickering, and only really is overshadowed by the AMB against the most armored ships in the game.

There is a difference between Rift Lance and Rift Beam.  Rift lance is the faster phase lance in a small mount.  That is strong, although not as an AMB substitute.  Rift beam is the continuous beam in a medium mount.  Rift beam is a better heavy burst laser, and it is underwhelming unless the ship really needs something with more PD power than heavy burst laser.  The explosions it procs can gobble up fighters.

Rift Missile Launcher I am guessing is the large missile.  Not terribly practical, and not as useful as smaller Omega missiles.  With only one at a time, it is practically a slow homing Sabot because you almost never catch the AI without its shields up, so that one missile is basically 6000 damage to shields.  With more than one missile (from racks or Missile Spec.), player might get the chance to actually land a hit on armor or hull.

Disruptor repeater... not sure if you refer to Reality Disruptor (which is not a repeater) or Volatile Particle Driver (which is a repeater).  Reality Disruptor seems more useful for the enemy to use against the player than the other way around.  It is slow and non-homing, does little more than EMP whatever is in its path.  Volatile Particle Driver is decent on high-tech ships.  Not too useful for ballistic users because it does not count as ballistic for Heavy Ballistics Integration (you pay full 30 OP) or Ballistic Mastery (no range and damage bonuses).

5

General Discussion / Re: Eagle + HSA decent?

« on: July 01, 2022, 04:49:05 PM »

I wouldn't add a fighter wing to Eagle because I think it would make the issue even worse: the AI would then send out its fighter wing and lose zero-flux speed meaning it wouldn't even get its ballistics in range before the enemy kited away (I also don't see the removal of them on the Brilliant as a reason to add another one back- imo it's something to be avoided)

AI mostly defaulting to Engage can a problem for AI warships that need speed (like Odyssey).  Also, there are not enough support fighters to prevent AI from using Engage, just pods and Xyphos.

Also, Eagle having a bay counts as one toward the eight bays limit from skills.

6

General Discussion / Re: Eagle + HSA decent?

« on: July 01, 2022, 11:51:52 AM »

To put things into perspective, not every ship needs to be a Tempest, a secret weapon for the skilled player to use for the rest of the game. A Shrike can be cool, too. Even if you grow past its flashy, but short-lived tendencies. By the way, Dominator, Apogee and the regular Falcon are all cruisers that don't punch up, albeit for different reasons. Dominator is a raidboss for midgame fleets, but also a brick to be sacrificed lategame. Apogee is a semi-civilian ship that's meant to fulfill trekkies' fantasies of piloting SS Enterprise, doubling as a support. Falcon is a nimble support that's shepherding enemy destroyers and pressuring cruisers for the bigger guys to finish the job. As long as Champion, Phalcon, Gryphon, Heron all punch up, even as specialists, I don't see a reason why midline can't get another ship to punch down.

Dominator can punch up.  It can have superb long-range ballistic firepower (more than Eagle can pack) and missile spam in critical moments.  Dominator is also a brick and one of the few good options for Shield Shunt.

Apogee is cheap for a line cruiser.  Plasma cannon and large missile is a good assault package.  It has been nerfed at least twice (lost sensor drones that extended range, lost shield efficiency) since Starfarer, and it is still fairly strong for its DP cost.

Falcon is relatively fast and cheap (at least non-P version).  It functions more like an elite destroyer than a line cruiser.  It is fast enough to chase smaller ships.

Eagle is mediocre at punching down.  It is not very fast, not fast enough for short-ranged energy weapons, and long-range small/medium beams are slow killers.  Eagle needs more speed (or more long-range burst firepower) to punch down effectively.

We had a period where frigates were underpowered, and that has been solved now.

As a whole, perhaps.  Some individual frigates can use some help.  Wolf's flux stats are terrible (barely better than other 4-5 DP frigates with ballistics), and Vanguard is too expensive for crash-test dummy gameplay.

7

General Discussion / Re: Eagle + HSA decent?

« on: July 01, 2022, 11:25:35 AM »

Re: Hiruma Kai's post
I tried burst PD spam with ePD.  It kind of works against fleets no stronger than yours.  Great at zapping missiles and weaker ships.  Probably better than Graviton/Tac Lasers.  Kind of fun watch burst PD zapping missiles or wrecking thin armor of weak ships at long ranges.  It can hold its own against endgame human bounties.  But once it is time to hunt Ordos, it is not strong enough.

As to what to put into the energy mounts of Eagle.  I guess this is for the incoming autolance, but if that is only about as effective as Thumper, I have my doubts.  With only three ballistic mounts, Eagle needs to give up one among: shot range, anti-shield DPS, or anti-armor damage.

Also, Eagle is not that great defensively either (aside from beam PD spam).  It is not awful, but it does not excel at soaking damage like some other ships.

P.S.  One idea to buff Eagle:  Give it an advanced built-in version of Hard Scatter Amplifier with no range penalty, but no +10% damage.  Maybe block Advanced Optics as normal HSA.

8

Blog Posts / Re: Uniquifying the Factions, Part 2

« on: July 01, 2022, 11:15:33 AM »

I know there are lore reasons for it, but hearing that the Persean League will lose access to the gauss cannon (as part of their focus on autocannons, so no HVD/Guass), which is essential for the Conquest in my opinion because of how fragile it is, feels like a real kick in the gut. What's it supposed to do, wander into range of other ships that are more heavily armored and shielded and just get killed because it has no range to stay at a safe distance? Completely neuters the idea kiting when it can't even stay out of range while being able to engage.

Forget about Gauss, according to this...

To make sure the distinctive feel of the missiles really comes across, the League will use these to the exclusion of all other missile weapons.

That seems like the League uses only DEMs in their missile mounts, so no Squalls, MIRVs, Harpoons, or any of the classic missiles.  If so, the League cannot use the classic long-range Squall-and-Harpoon or Gauss-and-MIRVs combos.  It hurts more than Conquest; it may hurt Gryphon that is overpowered with the Squall-and-Harpoon pods (and officer with both tier 5 combat skills) combo.

9

General Discussion / Re: How does One find the Angry Dorito Chip Bounty

« on: July 01, 2022, 10:49:08 AM »

I got mine when I reached 100 rep with Rayan Arroyo.

10

General Discussion / Re: Eagle + HSA decent?

« on: July 01, 2022, 10:42:08 AM »

Then again if you buff Eagle to be able to punch up, it will end up taking another hull's niche.

Seeing that Eagle is currently overshadowed by most if not everyone else of its weight class or DP cost, I do not agree with this.  Right now, most cruisers can either punch up or use speed to catch enemies.  Eagle does not have either.  It can snipe, but that is not powerful enough.

Against superior endgame opponents when player only has 160-200 DP to the enemy's 240 DP and superior officer power, ships do need to punch up.

It is easier to buff Eagle than to nerf several cruisers, although some cruisers might need a nerf anyway.

11

General Discussion / Re: Eagle + HSA decent?

« on: July 01, 2022, 08:42:43 AM »

Isn't that a good thing some ships are more focused on other types of dealing damage rather than missile spam?

Unfortunately, Eagle is not it.  Eagle is not focused at dealing other damage very well either.  It does not have the ballistic firepower (range and/or DPS) of Dominator and possibly Eradicator, and it does not have the speed to use smaller non-beam energy weapons like Fury or Aurora.  The one role Eagle seems to be built for is long-range beam support, which is not a useful role against superior opponents.

If Eagle does not get something, it will remain overshadowed by the majority of cruisers by cost, firepower, or both.

12

General Discussion / Re: Eagle + HSA decent?

« on: July 01, 2022, 06:12:27 AM »

Eagle does not have excess OP.  If it gets a normal fighter bay and nothing else, it needs 10 more OP to support midgrade fighters like Broadswords.  No extra OP would be a thanks-for-nothing moment, with fighter likely being mining pods or Talons due to lack of OP.

If Eagle gets a fighter bay, its wing could be built-in (with possibly unique fighter wing), so that Converted Fighter Bay can be used to remove the bay if trying to keep fighter skills within the bay limit.

I think Eagle should get more missile power, either upsized hardpoints or synergy turrets.  It has no better missile power than Hammerhead or Sunder, and Conquest and upcoming Pegasus have two large missiles and more.

Maybe one idea for a buff:  Give Eagle Energy Bolt Coherer that the upcoming Apex has for longer range energy bolt weapons.  If Eagle's problem is not enough range with energy weapons, then give it to Eagle.

13

General Discussion / Re: Eagle + HSA decent?

« on: June 29, 2022, 07:02:09 PM »

I've thought the Apogee needs to be nerfed for a bit now- primarily because every time I fight them they drive me up the wall. They're a civilian ship and have no right being so tanky. I've got a custom mod I run that edits a few ship stats (like turning Claws into drone wings) and one of the things I do in that is nerf Apogee flux capacity and shield flux to 0.8 or maybe 0.9 (which the latter is maybe extreme combined with the capacity nerf but boy was I tired of fighting them at the time lol)

Oh, and people seem to be forgetting there's more than just the fragmentation energy being added next patch: there's the kinetic-dmg medium energy mount from the Sindrian Diktat special reserve as well, and depending on its stat lineup (namely, range) that could change Eagle quite a lot.

I do agree that there's been some power creep, though. The eagle used to be a very solid ship and while gameplay changes have also had an effect on that it isn't the overarching factor for its fall from grace. At least, not from my point of view. It's pretty alright to me to have an average of average vessel, though. Feels like a lot of the cruisers stray from that line into either heavy or light territory so it's nice to have something properly in the middle.

I doubt the kinetic blaster will have enough range to matter.  600 range kills all of the powerful energy options for Eagle.  Even Advanced Optics on Phase Lances is not quite enough range.  Even if range was not a consideration, its flux/sec might (400 I think).

Kinetic blaster will probably be good for high-tech that cannot use ballistics or heavy energy at all (like Shrike and Aurora).

But... from given info, Kinetic blasters are only available from drops from Lion's Guard Executors.

For energy weapons to matter on Eagle (without SO), they need to have long enough range to end near where 700-800 range ballistic end.  Eagle is a slow-poke without its system.

One thing Eagle is below average in is missile power.  Only two small mounts, which is destroyer-tier for midline and frigate-tier for low-tech/high-tech.

14

General Discussion / Re: How do you use battlecruisers properly?

« on: June 29, 2022, 03:23:41 PM »

Note about AI Conquest:

If none of the ballistic and energy mounts have non-PD weapons, then AI Conquest will not use broadsides.  I tried IPDAI small weapons, dual flak, and devastators on Conquest for all of its non-missile mounts, and (to my disappointment) it refused to use a broadside against an enemy.  It pointed its bow toward its enemy at all times.  This happened when I tried Steady and Aggressive officers.  If I want Conquest to use broadsides, at least one weapon on its side needs to be a non-PD weapon.

15

Suggestions / Re: [Chain Quests] Legendary Ships

« on: June 29, 2022, 11:24:07 AM »

Ziggurat sort of does this.  It is unique and acquired a little past halfway through the quest for the Janus Device.

I would like to see one or two more unique hero ships the player can find aside from Ziggurat.  Ziggurat is fun, though I would like a non-phase alternative.