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1

General Discussion / Re: Anyone have data on the Pursuit mechanics?

« on: April 13, 2024, 03:19:25 AM »

Just SOME level of "this is how you use it efficiently" would be enough

It seems that neither speed nor armanents of the pursuer are taken into account - a couple of unarmed Shepherds will do fine work against a couple of retreating hounds/buffaloes/drams/whatever in my experience, even though the'd never catch up or deal any damage in real fight. So being effective in this case means using cheap, numerous low/midtech frigates with fast CR replenishment above all else.
Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

2

General Discussion / Re: Isn't being called "captain" kinda incorrect here?

« on: February 18, 2024, 08:34:40 AM »

I would presume that an admiral is a part of a rigid military structure, simply a link in a chain of command (although pretty high up in said chain, s/he would still answer to even higher ups) like any other. Or a self-assumed title at least, which is exceedingly rare.

While "captain" is much more frivolous term - any pirate in the Carribean with a vessel to his name will most likely be sharing that same, eh, rank if you will, no matter if he's personally piloting a tiny sloop or commanding his own island and a few ships of the "lesser" captains. And while humanity is yet to conquer the stars, this is basically all there is to the limits of our collective imagination on how the space pirates (or other types of freedom-n-booty loving scum) would operate.

3

General Discussion / Re: I suck at piloting

« on: May 30, 2023, 06:07:56 AM »

One thing I'd like to add here is to try and refrain from using Safety Overrides as much as possible, for a few reasons:

 1) On a smaller ships it makes them too "floaty", having greater speed and thus inertia. Combined with their subpar overall survivability, extremely low HP on engines/weapons and limited flux pool, this often leads to being unable to retreat in time (if at all) and eating a bunch of ordnance that would otherwise harmlessly bounce off a shield.

 2) Hampering the learning process about flux management and fleet behavior on greater scale. You can't vent with SO, and venting is the cornerstone of efficient combat - my finger is glued to the V key 100% of the time, and so should yours. Having enough flux to attack, defend, safely retreat, rescue allies or finish off an overloaded opponent is absolutely crucial at every stage of battle.

 Also, while using SO you're most likely playing a twitch shooter type of game, zipping here and there and everywhere, tunnel visioning in a small area around player ship and not doing much else. But the key to victory is learning about your AI friends' behavior - when they deem proper to launch a missile or commit to full assault, when they feel insecure and retreat, when they roam around the edges of battle lines and seek for easy targets, simply derp around and eat a full Hammer salvo to the hull, etc. You might not be the best pilot out there, but a full complement of officers that you've personally studied and understood is a game changer.

 3) Limited build potential - SO usually forces player to partake in a knife fight while eating up to 40% of ships total OP. While yes, having a mighty SO flagship is both efficient and fun, newer player would benefit greatly from experimenting with different loadouts, range categories, and learning how individual weapons (besides their on paper DPS and flux/dmg ratio) behave in actual combat scenario.

4

General Discussion / Re: the 4 way choice in the skill points distribution is unfun

« on: May 21, 2023, 05:03:11 AM »

I think the Industry tree is kind of a problem, cause I feel like it's pretty much mandatory to take logistics skills.

I completely disagree with this statement. In my experience money is never an issue in Starsector, and you can always carry more supplies/fuel/crew, always free to add extra ships to carry goods or have a stacking survey discount, and colonize as may worlds as you desire.

For example, even if I handicap myself in early game (no Galatia stipend, no commission, no black market trading, no raiding, etc.) to have a rough start, yellow skills feel "okay" at most, usually just "meh" or "why would I take that instead of something that gives my fleet advantage in only thing that presents any challenge at all and cannot be solved by adding more stuff to your fleet, namely combat". Usually an answer to every logistical issue early-mid game is "bring more Shepherds".
 And if simply playing a regular game, they become complete and utter garbage. Want more storage space, loot, repair rate or burn speed? Bring an extra specialized vessel or, you know, install a few hullmods. Most of them are rather cheap in OP and can be installed on civvy ships.

Although Derelict Operations exists, I must admit, and that thing is absolutely nuts if properly built around. But that is rather extreme case of specialized playthrough based on metagame knowledge and isn't fun for most players.

5

General Discussion / Re: Do you like traveling in the hyperspace?

« on: May 08, 2023, 04:54:43 AM »

Don't love it, but also don't hate it.

If my fleet is below 100 DP and consists of cheap junkers, I'll gladly ride the storm to save a day or two of travel. Later on (as I never keep more than ~300 supplies in cargo) I'll try to avoid most clouds and only ride one if there is no better way around or I'm stuck in a huge nebula while below 16 burn.

As for the system itself, I think it's fine for now. It's eventful enough to keep you on your toes, and infuriating enough to want to avoid it (via Gates, convinient slipstreams, or learning the safest routes from A to B).

6

General Discussion / Re: Starsector 0.96a-RC6 S-mod Bonuses/Penalties

« on: May 05, 2023, 02:00:16 PM »

Recovery Shuttles: Increases the fighter pilot casualty reduction to 95%.

This one perplexes me the most. Who in their right mind would install this S-mod?

 I mean if you're just starting out and have a few half-broken destroyers to your name, there is no reason to waste SP on temporary ships. And if you've progressed far enough to be able to buy and maintain a couple of decent cruisers/capitals, then the crew is the least important part of your daily management.

 Even without any logistical ships you can carry much, much more peeps above the skeleton crew level, to the point of loading half of them into Talons and flying 'em right in a middle of ~250 DP lategame fleet and not feeling any impact at all. They're readily available at every port and cost just about nothing, plus roughly every fifth wreck or abandoned station would have some free meat to bolster the ranks, and sometimes there is a possibility to recover some after a battle or from planetary signal.

I'd really appreciate if someone would shed some light on this matter. Maybe I'm simply playing this game the wrong way or something?

7

General Discussion / Re: Atlas - Most useful ship in the game?

« on: January 18, 2022, 02:02:46 AM »

While I agree capital ships will have more terrain penalties, slowing you down, and the logistics capitals have a max burn speed of 9 without skills, I don't see how it puts a dent in your supply/fuel economy.  Can you give an example?

Sure thing.
Say you got hit by a storm or an asteroid. Due to CR restoration mechanic you're going to pay dozens of supplies for Atlas, while smaller ships are much more manageable. Your burn speed became 15 inside a nebula? Now your whole fleet is going to reach its destinations a bit later, consuming more supplies and spending more on crew wages (not to mention your own sanity, flying at those speeds is bad for your health). Doesn't really happen with pure frigate/destroyer 10 base burn fleet. A-and you've spent precious SP on a ship you simply might not want later in the game. A-and let us not forget the Salvage Gantry. Free loot, anyone?

So, what about eventual combat scenarios? Got caught with your pants down and forced to retreat? Smaller ships are no problem, Buffalo/Phaeton with UI might stand a decent chance. But Atlas? Yeah, that thing is dead and gone. Really early into a playthrough Shepherds provide Salamander spam and basic PD/distraction, while later on you can simply repurpose them with converted hangar or even scuttle without a second thought. You have options. Atlas provides none, it's there to haul stuff. Stuff you might not even find, depending on your luck (for example, in may latest game I've found exactly one pile of precious loot, 1k volatiles and 1,5k transplutonics, in about 2 years of exploration).

In the end I'd say it's only a matter of personal preference. If trading doesn't bore you to tears - go for it, Atlas is great for its intended purpose. Otherwise there are far better options to play with.

8

General Discussion / Re: Atlas - Most useful ship in the game?

« on: January 17, 2022, 03:12:48 AM »

Well, I have to disagree with you, OP.
It's a capital ship, which will considerably slow you down (even with burn 20 penalties do still apply to the difficult terrain movement) and put a dent in your supply/fuel economy. Early game you can't really afford it (both the price of a ship and its logistical profile), and you're not limited by the 30 ships cap. Destroyer sized haulers are good enough, while Shepherd is a top tier pick with Converted Fighter Bays+Expanded Cargo Holds combo.

Late game (or past the first few years if you're not a complete newbie) credits become practically worthless, thus there is no reason to pick up anything besides supplies and fuel. If you absolutely love to roam outside the Core with the full 300DP fleet for months and months then yeah, I can totally see the appeal. Otherwise there is absolutely no reason to haul around this slow, vulnerable, fuel guzzling monstrosity.

9

General Discussion / Re: Your favorite mod ship

« on: January 08, 2022, 01:09:28 AM »

I absolutely love Vesper frigate from Dassault-Mikoyan. It looks great, very fun to fly and safe to drive even with reckless officer.

2nd place would probably go to (LI) version of Hresvelgr. The design is top notch, and its combat capabilities are nothing to scoff at.

And lastly I'd like to mention the Doominator. Because, well, it's Dominator, but with phase coils! Might not be an optimal pick all around, but fits perfectly in the current phase meta. Also, did I mention it's a phase-capable Dominator?

10

General Discussion / Re: Builds for the new/updated ships introduced in 0.95.1a

« on: January 02, 2022, 01:05:27 AM »

2x Assault Chainguns in the forward medium ballistic slots
1x Heavy Needler in the remaining medium ballistic

Why? Just... why-y-y? Chaingun requires sustained kinetic support during AAF bursts, otherwise you're losing a good portion of hull/armor damage due to shield flickering.

Also, with this build you're basically paying premium for a Hammerhead with worse KE mounts and lower mobility. Plus, good ol' Hammer can dart in and out (or strafe with shift+movement) thanks to its high acceleration and low inertia, whereas Eradicator is forced to facetank all the incoming damage while packing low-ish destroyer level of firepower.

Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I just don't see it as being cost-efficient or, well, efficient at all.

11

General Discussion / Re: anybody using OP for ship modules?

« on: December 25, 2021, 11:58:41 PM »

Yep, I'm very reluctant with non-vital hullmods (ITU, HShields, HSubs, EMR, HA, RFC) for a given ship role. Better weapons/fighters/flux stats is my usual go-to.

12

General Discussion / Re: Do you often use small missiles slots on OP starved ships

« on: December 06, 2021, 06:51:15 AM »

Basically never, yeah. Most of the time I'd even ignore a double small/single medium missile slots (Hammerhead, Shrike, etc.) for the sake of better survivability, deeper flux pool, stronger weapons or whatever the ship in question requires to stay competent at its given role.

Most of the time your mentally challenged comrades would dump all available ordnance into the first thing they encounter, while the battle lines are still forming and slower, more dangerous ships taking their sweet time to arrive. If this does not happen for some reason, the following list of events usually happens:
1) Missiles miss their intended target
2) Missiles hit the intended target, cause it to overload and promptly retreat to a safe&secure position behind friendlies
3) Missiles get blown up by PD/interceptors/random shots/grav beams/what have you
4) In case of guided missiles, they tend to overkill their target and waste multiple racks of ammo on multiple ships just to deal with a single Mule or whatnot
5) Everything goes according to plan, target is crippled or dead

It all comes down to one simple question of "what is the probability of AI successfully using a missile and why would I gamble on this chance instead of getting a stronger, more reliable vessel?".

13

General Discussion / Re: Mining blaster vs heavy blaster which one to use?

« on: November 07, 2021, 12:53:07 AM »

... I'd also say not to use either of those weapons on a Shrike or Wolf unless your fleet has no other anti-armor... pretty much my number 1 pet peeve when it comes to Shrikes is people putting on blasters then complaining it doesn't do well vs shields!

I'd argue that this is true only for officerless Shrike, without Smods or any additional advantages. HB is the only weapon worth putting on a Shrike (aside from Ion Pulser+Unstable Injector support variant).

I've had a huge success going for 200k+ deserter bounties with a pure Shrike/frigates setup. Works like a charm every time, and they never ever die.

14

General Discussion / Re: Do you tailor your ships to your officers or officers to your ships?

« on: March 24, 2021, 01:25:56 AM »

Just as a previous poster, I prefer to train a general archetype of officer for a certain composition of the fleet (tanks with every possible defensive skill, hybrids with missile+regular guns or fighter+missile, pure support PD/salamander boats, and so on).

The only type of ship I'd be willing to tailor an officer for would be a unique modded uberboat with unusual weapon mounts or active system.

15

General Discussion / Re: Is it the end of system override?

« on: March 24, 2021, 01:16:18 AM »

IMO the only hard nerf for AC is lowered armor penetration, which in turn means "popping heavy cruisers in one go" is going to be less probable.
Honestly I've never even used SO on any ship after a hour or two into the game due to a wide variety of downsides (huge OP cost, no vent, extremely limited PPT and range), so nothing is going to change in my tactics.