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1

General Discussion / Speaking of carriers

« on: October 31, 2014, 01:22:53 AM »

I love fighters.
No, let me say it once more.
I bloodly love fighters.

Thus after some time, I had to look for a proper carrier to augment my wonderful single medusa. And I've run into an interesting balance issue.
But first, let's look at different carriers.

Name	Crew	Cargo	Burn	Decks	Supplies/battle	CP
Astral	350	450	2 (+2)	6	100	22
Atlas	50	2000	2 (+2)	1	60	7
Condor	65	120	4 (+3)	1	10	9
Gemini	35	250	4 (+3)	1	10	9
Heron	150	250	4 (+2)	2	36	14
Odyssey	400	500	3 (+2)	1	75	25
Venture	125	500	3 (+2)	1	16	12

And then I understood that for most fleets I've made, there is but one choice. Gemini.
All cruiser+ carriers lack proper burn rate to catch enemies. You can get up to +4 burn on cruisers/capital ships with Navigation 10 and Augmented Engines, but that's still not enough.

That leaves us with three choices. Heron (that has burn 4, despite being a cruiser), Condor, Gemini.
Condor almost equals to Gemini, but has some nice missile coverage and lacks in number of crew needed. Once you start hunting 150K+ bounty fleets Condor missiles do not do anything - too much PD.
Heron costs even more (150 crew, ouch!) but it has some awesome defence capabilities. That's cool and such, but you know what?

I never. Ever. Had my carriers under attack.
I mean, really, you put a carrier waypoint somewhere on the outskirts of Large Magellan Cloud and they just sit there, while you hack-n-slash through enemy fleet. Not a single fighter appeared, not a single rocket was shot upon them, so why would I need to buy a Heron? Just to spend 26 resources more each battle? No, thank you.

This leaves us with one possible choice - Gemini, and oh, this thing is awesome. It has a nice cargo hold, small crew requirement, costs not much and holds a lot of additional crew. Or can hold. If you suffer to rearm your 5 wings of daggers - just throw in another, it will still cost you less than a Heron.

I can see only a few possible exceptions of this rule. Atlases are cool for trade and/or capital fleets. Their flight deck on top of 2000 cargo makes them awesome. Odyssey is nice as a flagship, though my greed would kill me to spend 75 resources each combat. Astral - in my opinion - is hardly worth it, just as Condor and Venture. Heron.. well, it is a good ship, but pales in comparison with Gemini. Sorry.

Just to clarify - I am not teaching people how to play, there is no way you can play a sandbox right - just pointing out an interesting issue that made me spend a few days hunting for ever-elusive Heron and then ending with a duo of Geminis in my fleet.

2

General Discussion / 0.6a life in the sector

« on: September 21, 2013, 07:44:55 AM »

I had to register to post this - been a lurker here for a while, but then I realized that I do not agree with many opinions. My apologies if this topic seems to bee to selfish or something - mods are very welcome to delete it, if it is unfitting in some way.

== General Playstyle ==

Previously I had been playing as a proud captain of a lone starship that roams here and there and kills everyone he wants to. Of course in 0.6 I decided to go the same way, as I do not like to lose ships. Losing ships may be fun, but some part of me always weeps of these poor elite crewmen who died for my sins lack of tactics. Thus - no frigates for me. I was really really happy with the fighter update (resupplying fighters yay!) so I decided to throw in a bunch or two fighters for some space lights.

== Early Days ==

Early days were not fun for me anymore. You see, I love kiting tactics. I tried it this time too - only to find that I am forced to rush in by my degrading CR. Ouch. Thus I had to fight fast and fight hard to grind my way to a big scary battleship. Now - as for my opinion - this game is seriously unbalances in supply cost. They are too abundant. You wipe a fleet or two or three and you suddenly sit into a cruiser. Then you sit into a capital ship and early days are over. I believe that a properly fitted frigate can wipe the floor with pirate carrier groups with skilled player. One very important thing I've found - your engine and weapon may malfunction, but your shields won't! So you actually can continue fighting and fighting and fighting. That won't be an easy task, but it is doable. So - several trips back and forth and my character reaches his middle-age.

== Character Plan ==

Remember that I wanted to fight with a long BS (as in Battleship, not as in BullS'eye) against the cold lonely world? This tactics requires some careful planning.
The one and only ship that I consider to be fitting for that tactics is (fanfares) Odyssey class Battlecruiser. Why, you ask?

 - Energy weapons. You may not worry about going out of pew-pew soon.
 - Lots of ordnance points.
 - Good flux capacity and dissipation.
 - Lots of point defence mounts. Man, fighters are scary nowadays and I do not want to give any chances to them.
 - Proper shielding. Later on this point.

Energy is a weapon of choice for one more thing. You have damage bonus as your flux raises - and your flux will be high.

Now for character development.
Main trait here is speed. So you have to dump:
 - Combat X
 - Helmsmanship 10 (0-flux speed boost is very helpful, +75 speed for nothing!)
 - Evasive Action 5 for better turning

Now for flux. I consider Advanced Routing Algorithms (Power Grid Modulation 10) to be the most powerful skill in game. 20% hard flux dissipation will save your ship in many many many times. On top of this you may add Applied Physics and Flux Dynamics.

Damage. Ordnance Expertise 5 will help us hit faster, Gunnery Implants 5 or 10 will help us hit father, Target Analysis 5 makes our crits frequent. Actually you do not need any more damage skills besides it.

Defence. Remember I told about proper shielding? Mechanical Engineering 5 and you have Front Shield Emitter. Suddenly your Odyssey class BC has 360 frontal shield and you don't have to worry about pesky emission guidance missiles anymore. 360 shield is doable with any ship with 120+ omni shield - you may need to add extended shields on top to reach full coverage.

Once you'll start flying, you may discover that enemy fleets move with burn5+. Thus you may invest into Navigation 5 (+3/3/1/1/1 burn to your fleet depending on ship size). With this skill your tugs will have burn rating of 9. A few of them and your Odyssey ship pierces space and time and enemies alike.

To add some frigates to your allmighty fleet, throw in Leadership I + Fleet Logistics 1. 28 points is enough for BC + 2 frigates + 2 tugs.

Useless skills for that type of fleet:
 - Missile Specialization. They end too quickly for my tastes.
 - Damage Control. If they hit you, you are doing something wrong!
 - Advanced Tactics & Command Expertise. We are operating alone and bonus from the second skill is not significant enough.
 - Computer Systems. They are useful for up to +10% ordnance points, but Mechanical Engineering is just better.
 - Construction. See above - they should see your shields, not your exposed hull.
 - Field Repairs. Never felt need for this kind of bonus.

== Middle Age ==

Now we are big and mean and scary and can stomp almost everyone here. Pirate Attack fleets/carrier groups/armadas should go down easily. One hint - if they have a carrier, go for it first. They are easy to destroy, but you will get rid of 10+ additional fighters.

Defense fleets look like a grindfest to me. You circle around and round and round, kiting and killing ships on their flanks. Worst thing that you can do is to miss one of their ships - being flanked is no fun. Worst thing #2 - move into a nebula. Your speed suddenly falls to 80 or so and whoops - they are on your tail faster than you can say `do not look into laser!`. No fun as well. Other than that they go down easily, you just have to be cautious.

Pirate plunder fleet is something very very special. First round of combat is easy - you just kill their ships one by one, while standing on some beacon. But hten they have two transports there and they will attack you with them only to retreat them from the battlefield asap. First time I got no salvage because of these buggers. Solution is simple - they harass you with transports and you respond to them with the Mightiest Ship of Your Fleet. Beware the Tug! Round starts, they retreat, round ends, you harass their retreat. Continue as needed. Once they lose all their CR they finally flee and you can start listening to Benny Hill music while doing some nice explosions.

Independent Mercenary Forces are the most fun for me just due to number of phase ships. It is an interesting game of hide and seek and I really enjoy such fights. The downside is that there are only a few merc forces in this quadrant. You kill them, you wait for fun for a long time.

CR was never a serious threat for me. It is... annoying, probably. You have to miss that plunder fleet because you just wiped the armada. This is totally fair - no doubts here - but it annoys me a bit as I have to wait for repairs when I am far away from friendly stations. Supplies are abundant, and after some fights you may find youself sitting on 1kk creds with ease.

== Fleet Composition ==

Odyssey is your main force, but you may want to have some things to catch retreating enemies. 160 speed is just not enough - so you throw in a pair of interceptor wings or - even better - a couple of Tempest-class frigates. 280 speed, 2 heavy blasters, terminator drone and you may be sure that your pursues will be very very very successful.

As for odyssey, I prefer the following fit:
 - Unstable injector because I move fast;
 - Dedicated Targeting Core because I shoot far;
 - Frontal Shield Emitter because I hate being shot.
Weaponry:
 - mix of PD & Burst PD lasers in small slots because fighters, frigates, missiles and cruisers all will melt under your High-energy focus;
 - 2 x High Intensity laser (1250 + 50% + 25% + possible 200 range anyone?)
 - 1 x Plasma Cannon. It chews through your flux and through enemies as well. Better put it into different weapon group because AI will stupidly shoot once your flux is low enough leading to overloads. Remember - overloads are not fun.

I believe this is all I wanted to say. May the Pink Gods of Space Battles bless your lasers - and happy hunting, everyone.