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1

General Discussion / Re: How do I live out my fantasy of building the ultimate ship? (New guy problems)

« on: November 26, 2014, 01:02:05 PM »

My fleets usually revolve around one big ship (I generally hate piloting frigates), so this is entirely possible. I usually dump the starting frigate/destroyer as quickly as possible and pick up an Enforcer, then move to a Dominator, and then an Onslaught. I have a few support ships, usually one or two Gemini with 2 fighter wings to capture points, and a medium tanker (eventually looking for an Atlas, but they're remaining elusive in my play-through).

With the Tech speed boost perks, I find tugs to be unnecessary as well, since there's no point chasing small fleets that don't have good payoffs anyway. I'm always raking in more money than I can realistically spend through bounties and the occasional highly-profitable trade run.

2

General Discussion / Re: Game is way too complex

« on: November 10, 2014, 07:02:41 PM »

I definitely get where the OP is coming from, although I enjoy the nuanced complexity.

Perhaps a visual representation of stats such as burn, flux capacity, etc, etc (ie Hyperion has a full speed bar, Onslaught has a near-empty one) could be more useful? Many games that have hidden complexity in numerical stats represent these in the UI as various bars (ie: Mass Effect 3). Starsector could do the same, and have the actual numbers be visible by hovering over the bars.

3

Suggestions / Re: Give station docking priority over fleet encounters

« on: August 18, 2014, 11:26:19 PM »

Uh, that's kind of how early game works for me anyway.    So yeah, I'm looking forward to the mechanics change.

Right, starting off, I go way overcapacity all the time while hunting close by the stations, and quickly head back to offload all my loot and bring my CR up to full again

Agreed that the status quo is a bit of a problem for beginners. I think a lot of us who have been with Starsector for a while don't realize how steep the learning curve can be at times.

4

Blog Posts / Re: Faction Relationships

« on: August 14, 2014, 04:55:26 PM »

Great blog post, Alex. Chiming in with the others, I too found the "good" relationship statuses a bit confusing. In my mind, the rankings would make more sense like this (with the minimal amount of renaming):

- Neutral: intuitive
- Favorable: intuitive as well, shows you're moving in the right direction (with "a favorable reception," you can be sure they're not going to shoot you)
- Friendly: to me, this is less extreme than "welcoming" ("a friendly reception" in my mind would have acquaintances shaking hands)
- Welcoming: again, to me, this is the more extreme emotion than being merely "friendly" ("a welcoming reception" would have good friends hugging each other with warm conversation)
- Allied: as you mentioned earlier, "cooperative" implies some action. It's not an overly "friendly" descriptor, though: a prisoner can be cooperative with the police, but that doesn't mean they'll be hugging it out anytime soon. Allies would be much more likely to honor agreements, overlook minor transgressions, etc.

5

Blog Posts / Re: Fleet Creation

« on: July 27, 2014, 12:11:05 PM »

That was actually tested, let me point you to this. Doesn't look too pretty, in my opinion.

Heard nothing official about icons, though. Some of the backrock ships look great with them.

Spoiler

[close]

Right, those were the images I was thinking about, thanks for the link! I think overall they look good, actually. The colors could be more subtle, and I think the Astral is a bit overdone. In general though, I do like the effect. If the Hegemony had one color (ie. faded blood red), the TT had another (ie. faded light-blue), it'd be quite interesting. Would lend uniformity irrespective of the fleet ship composition.

6

Blog Posts / Re: Fleet Creation

« on: July 26, 2014, 03:36:16 PM »

oh, from a gameplay perspective, sure....

which is why paintjobs would probably be the best way of going about this, the coding and art involved though....

That's been my favorite idea from the start; it's been mentioned several times over the months/years. If the sprites could each accommodate some minor visual modifications based on a faction's color or logo (color might be less tacky...), such as with Mass Effect's armor stripe colors, it could go a long way to making it much easier to identify enemy/friendly ships in the heat of battle, and lend some unity to factions' ships.

Sure, it'll take some time to code and make visual modifications, but I think it's an effort that'll pay off in the long run.

7

Discussions / Re: Gun Nuts

« on: July 22, 2014, 01:45:20 PM »

Remington 870 is a nice, solid shotgun--fired a lot of 12-gauge shells from the 870, and it's a lot of fun.

It's not so easy to compare recoil, since there's a ton of factors that affect it. Size of the shell/bullet, the particular weapon, the construction of the stock, etc, etc.

Another thing to note is that rifles have a higher muzzle velocity than shotguns, so the kick is "sharper," whereas a shotgun's recoil is more like a strong shove. So, the force might be comparable, but the "felt" recoil is stronger from the rifle.

8

Suggestions / Re: Weapon arc colour change for disabled weapons.

« on: June 22, 2014, 05:50:39 PM »

I like this idea, a different-colored arc would be a nice and unobtrusive way of knowing exactly which weapons are disabled at a glance.

9

Suggestions / Re: Retire

« on: March 09, 2014, 09:57:38 AM »

This is a great idea. At the moment, I rarely use Retreat for anything other than frigates, mainly because I need to be 100% sure I won't need that ship again.

I too don't think any recovery should happen when "retired," as in the grand scheme of things, that's not a lot of time. Repairs and CR recovery usually take days, so any recovery in the short time span of a battle seems unrealistic. And, it'd be far too easy to abuse.

10

Suggestions / Re: Missile firing and venting/overload

« on: September 19, 2013, 02:59:56 PM »

This bug has huge consequence for the Onslaught, Dominator, and to a lesser extent, the Enforcer. The Onslaught/Dominator can pack 4x/3x medium Annihilator pods, which provide a continuous stream of rockets. Especially against high-tech foes, the rockets are enough to keep PD very busy or at least force shields up even while the Onslaught/Dominator is venting, making them much more difficult to take out.

As I usually take the Onslaught, Dominator, or Enforcer as my flagship, it's helped immensely, although I'm not sure if this mechanic is overall desirable in the game.

TL;DR If you launch a missile while venting, it should have a lower initial speed or take longer to reach max speed and it should have a lower range (70-80%)

I'm a bit against this sort of thing because it seems like another hidden mechanic that adds complexity but doesn't really change how you'd use the missiles tactically (especially with Annihilators, which are basically slow and unguided already anyway).

11

General Discussion / Re: Any seen a tug in 0.6a campaign?

« on: September 18, 2013, 05:21:09 PM »

Construction rigs and tugs only appear in Askonia, pay them a visit once in a while, they should be there.

I've gotten 2 tugs for my fleet from the Hegemony Orbital Station.

12

Suggestions / Re: Feature Request: Set Flagship In Initial Deployment

« on: September 17, 2013, 09:15:56 PM »

Somehow missed that thread in the search results, my bad. Agreed that a deployment UI addition would be a cleaner fix.

13

Suggestions / Feature Request: Set Flagship In Initial Deployment

« on: September 17, 2013, 01:06:58 PM »

First of all, great work on 0.6a Alex, it's been fun testing out all the new mechanics, sounds, etc.

With the new CR system, it's become necessary to be more selective about deploying your fleet so as not to waste supplies on an enemy that can be easily defeated, particularly regarding whether or not to deploy a capital ship that'll be expensive to restore to combat-ready state.

With that in mind, I think providing the option to select an alternate flagship in the initial deployment screen (if the currently-set flagship is not initially deployed) would be a good idea. It avoids the tackiness of having to wait for your command pod to catch up to the rest of the ships (even worse now that all the ships initially boost in), and also avoids having to enter the fleet management screen right before you anticipate a battle to do a swap (which is what I do now).

Just a minor bit of streamlining.

14

General Discussion / Re: favourite capital ship

« on: September 17, 2013, 01:36:06 AM »

@BonhommeCarnaval: Right, except that the Onslaught would likely have Maulers or HVDs mounted as well, and potentially even Gauss Cannons that outrange everything (true, you can mount that on the Conquest as well).

What works to the Onslaught's advantage is that it does not need to enable its shields at all. I usually go with 2 Flak + 3 Dual Flak, and this, along with the thick armor, means that the relatively poor front-facing shield is unimportant.

Hypothetically, the Conquest would be focusing on dancing just out of range of the TPCs and the Onslaught's 3x Large Ballistics, while trying to loop around to the Onslaught's rear. At such a large radius, however, it's nigh impossible to dance around faster than the Onslaught can turn. Moving closer isn't an option, however, as the Onslaught can tank some hits without its Large Ballistics being disabled (as they're mounted far from the edge), whereas the Conquest will either have several of its weapons disabled or take a large flux hit from its poor shield efficiency.

What really ruins the Conquest's day, however, is the flux-free constant stream of Annihilator rockets that the Onslaught can unleash. Unless you mount at least 2x (Dual) Flaks, neither the energy PD nor the shielding will be able to keep up with it. The Onslaught can, on the other hand, shrug off any missiles from the Conquest due to the Flak wall.

That said though, both ships have their uses, and I do like the Conquest as well. I would personally argue that Onslaught is a better 1-on-1 brawler, while the Conquest performs better in dominating a field versus cruisers and destroyers. It's why I'm using a Conquest in campaign ATM.

15

General Discussion / Re: favourite capital ship

« on: September 16, 2013, 06:25:10 PM »

Most of the time (in a 1v1 simulation anyway) by the time you manage to get behind the Onslaught with your Conquest you will be clinging to life.  Though the Conquest is indeed more manuverable, it isn't so much of a difference that you can loop around outside of the Onslaught's range and then cut in behind it.  No, you have to burn past it at point blank range and THEN use maneuvering thrusters and cut in behind it hard.  That will work, but most of your weapons will be offline from the pounding you took in getting there.  This assumes a 1v1 in a sim where the Onslaught isn't distracted by anything else of course.  Real battles are totally different and the Conquest is great for the mobility it offers.  As Gunnyfreak said, it's great for controlling the battlefield vs smaller ships.  I voted Onslaught though; being able to tank hits on the armor with no need for shields is very satisfying.  Not to mention the firepower.

Right. That, and all things being equal with both the Conquest and Onslaught outfitted with ITU, the built-in Thermal Particle Cannons have extraordinary range that'll prevent the Conquest from getting behind the Onslaught without first taking large amounts of damage and/or disabling many of its weapons. In a capital v. capital 1-on-1 fight, the Onslaught is tough to match, even with it in AI hands. That said, its extraordinarily slow speed, low maneuverability, and high deployment cost make it pretty tough to deploy economically.

Nevertheless, I voted for the Onslaught.