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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Messages - Kaeladin

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@Kaeladin:

Verge and Skye are getting some changes to make them more distinctive in their roles as battleline cruiser and skirmisher respectively.

The carrier thing is a vanilla issue, really. The Drover sets a ridiculous baseline for destroyer carriers where even in vanilla spamming Drovers will beat cruiser carriers in terms of sheer DP efficiency. I'm adjusting the DP values of Tress and Strand a bit for now which should improve things a bit.

That makes sense about the Drover piece; really looking forward to seeing your upcoming changes, and particularly the ones for differentiating the Verge and Skye!

I didn't comment about the weapons yet, but as far as the current discussion about large energies are concerned...I honestly think STS has some of the better (especially in player hands) large energies in the mainline (i.e. not a boss faction such as KT) modiverse in the Stitch and Ruffle. My only wish is that I could find them more often; they're so rare! I utilized the Stitch and Ruffle in a ton of Verge (pewpewpew!) + Skye builds, and in other cruisers, and was never disappointed. The Ruffle, in particular, is monstrously powerful at deleting ships when you have a skirmisher with the mobility of the Skye to get around shield arcs or to choose where to apply your enormous pewpew. I actively seek these two weapons out in every playthrough because I know they'll typically be in the running for what I put into my large energy slots; they occupy very different niches but do their respective jobs quite well.

I do think the Lace could use a little something. Its DPS is outstanding for its slot, but the low damage-per-hit + moderate range + how hot the gun runs means, to me, that in the times that I consider when I'd want to use it, a lot of ships would struggle to have the flux capacity to support the weapon if it's below cruiser class, while heavier ships will typically outfit for longer range engagements or PD with the exception of hunter-killer/skirmisher cruisers (which STS specializes in!). The heavy blaster also runs into this issue since it has even worse flux efficiency, but its relatively better armor-cracking ability means that the gun has a little more versatility. Ironically, the Lace has done excellent for me in a ship with energy-equivalent AAF (like the Brim or Verge) as it outputs monstrous DPS for those medium slots. But outside of those ship systems, I've had a bit of difficulty finding opportune times to put Laces in.

A quick clarification question about the Tousle; am I correct in thinking that it's really doing 5x100 (for the total 500 damage) per shot because the main round splits into 5? It's been a pretty fun weapon to use and I think it's definitely a solid 1k range KE, but assuming that's how the damage calculation works then I do wonder if it could use a slight boost given its 14OP cost.

Thanks so much!

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First off, some of the ship and weapon additions from this mod have been some of my favorite out out of all the ones I've used in the modiverse. I really wanted to give you huge kudos for the work, and the product, you've created here. Scalartech hands down has some of my favorite looking/player experience ships I've played with, even though there's nothing enormously fancy about the ship systems or weapon functionality (at least from a gameplay perspective; it's just very clean and well-done).

A few random feedback points after playing with Scalartech for several mid-length playthroughs (about 12+ hours total).

1) Verge + Skye: These two cruisers are absolute dreams to fly; they represent everything I love about high-tech playstyle and are probably in the running for some of my favorite mod cruisers. They're both agile, able to project strong surgical pressure (whether through sheer volley of fire in the case of the Verge and Skye's considerable power and hit-and-run capacity), and make the player feel like a complete badass with proper application and finesse.

I put these two together because, while their ship systems are considerably different in functionality and there's some differences in ship specs (e.g. the Verge has an additional medium missile hardpoint while the Skye is notably faster), they do feel like they fit quite similar profiles; they're both high "burst phase" ships with above-average to high agility with reasonably similar flux and shield characteristics. I'm wondering if this is intentional, or if there's some thought about differentiating these two ships a bit more in terms of playstyle/role? That said, I'm a huge fan of these two cruisers.

2) Tress: This destroyer-class carrier is both objectively powerful and subjectively a joy to play compared to most other carriers. Typically carrier gameplay consists of "Press F to spawn more fighters/Win more with bombers". However, the addition of the Magmine system makes for something more interactive (with a little bit of risk involved since you are still playing a fragile destroyer-class ship) and potentially extremely powerful in the right situations at the destroyer level. This destroyer is fast, has 2 bays, has a powerful ship system (much more so in player hands), and 2 medium missile hardpoints. This little ship contains a lot of power and I think it's in the running for one of the most powerful carriers of its class in the modiverse. Which brings me to...

3) Strand: This cruiser-class carrier is by no means "bad", and again I love how it has a pretty nifty ship system. However, from a DP perspective, it's outclassed by two Tress (12DP each vs. 25DP of one Strand) in terms of what that same package brings to the table. It's a pretty reasonable ship in terms of its characteristics; it has 2 medium synergy (typically missiles; I think it's a little fragile to field two medium energies when fights get harder although it could carry a wicked PD package), decently fast, and has 3 fighter bays. Again, not bad, but then we get to...

4) Filament: This thing is no joke. It could end up being the Charybdis of the capital battlecarriers; it is a legitimate threat as a frontliner with its weapon package and shields, has an extremely strong ship system, and a respectable 4 bays to boot. Again, if we were to compare the threat provided from a DP perspective (e.g. approx 4 Tress, 2 Strands, and/or 1 Filament), there's no question in my mind that the Tresses and Filaments (in different capacities) fill strong fleet roles. The Filament is also reasonably agile for a ship of its class (which is huge in a world of 30-35 speed capitals) while projecting both considerable personal power and fighter/bomber support.

I'll add some other thoughts when I put more time into into them. Overall, very well done!

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