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1

General Discussion / Re: Regarding Orbital Habitat Drops

« on: August 04, 2023, 05:38:33 AM »

Or raid a faction for it, if we're talking about a pristine nanoforge.

I don't know - I don't mind some slot machine scarcity. If you've gotta find different ways to get what you need from run to run, or even change your colony setup a little to compensate for items your game seed didn't provide you, it adds a little variation.

2

General Discussion / Re: Destroyers

« on: August 01, 2023, 01:18:35 PM »

Boost the Shrike's speed. Make it an outright oversize frigate. Increase its DP cost or shield flux/damage numbers if testing shows it needs to be balanced against the increased speed.

Give the Manticore a cruiser or capital targeting core instead of a ballistic rangefinder. Let it be a true sniper gunboat. A Manticore with equivalent range is a choice between guns/DP and more well-rounded capability when you take it over a bigger ship. The Manticore we have is a struggle in build optimization and battle tactics to compensate for its range disadvantage.

The Medusa is . . .probably fine. It's a player ship with a system that the AI struggles to use well. We have several of those.

Make the Enforcer more of a brick. Just a big discount pile of Hull and Armor for its DP cost. A destroyer-sized budget anchor with a burn drive.

Maybe narrow the Hammerhead's shield frontage and up its shield stats to let it credibly tangle with larger ships as long as keeps them directly ahead. And perhaps give the Sunder heavy energy integration or a unique large energy mount to lean into that one big gun. These two are trickier, as a bunch of firepower without the range or speed to safely bring it to bear is an awkward role to fill.

This is all just whiteboarding; I know there's better ideas. But I do think what the destroyer lineup needs is to have their individual roles pushed harder.

3

General Discussion / Re: Destroyers

« on: July 31, 2023, 07:12:09 AM »

Right now it's not clear what a destroyer is supposed to do that cruisers don't. There is a niche for fast firepower that can act as a mobile reserve or exploit holes in the enemy line. Destroyers should probably be the default choice for that, but they really don't do the job unless it's a player-driven Medusa. Fast cruisers do it instead. We probably have a few too many cruisers with high base speed and strong mobility systems. And maybe not enough of a maneuverability advantage for destroyers as a category. There's a also niche for gunboats that prioritize firepower per DP over mobility and defense. Destroyers are clearly meant to fill that niche, but their in-built range penalties mean they either have to overextend themselves to bring their guns to bear or they have to sacrifice firepower by mounting HVDs and the like.

4

General Discussion / Re: IR Autolance uses?

« on: July 24, 2023, 01:45:55 PM »

Can you tell which ship(s) are those ? High tech ships usually have few mounts and a lot of dissipation, so I assume it's on things like falcon or some of the capitals ?

I use them most often on Eagles. The ship has a great hardpoint spread, but struggles to fill them all without being overfluxed. A pair of Autolances on the left/right medium energy hardpoints, then either a third Autolance in the center medium energy hardpoint or a Heavy Burst Laser/Mining Blaster/Ion Pulser. With Burst PD Lasers in the small energy hardpoints. Can go for a faster closer range build, or use Advanced Optics to extend everything out to fit the same range band as your front mount ballistics. Or go all in on burst lasers with elite Point Defense. It all works decently well, and in whichever build the Autolances just keep beaming down fighters, standing off frigates, and chipping hull on damaged capitals.

5

General Discussion / Re: IR Autolance uses?

« on: July 24, 2023, 10:36:43 AM »

If I have a ship build that wants s-modded Expanded Magazines but doesn't really have enough flux dissipation to run all its hardpoints. That's when I reach for the Autolances. They get a decent DPS boost from the s-mod bonus and that damage is essentially flux free.

6

General Discussion / Re: What ships/weapons/fighters do you prioritize for your colony fleets?

« on: July 12, 2023, 06:36:35 AM »

I do pay attention to fleet loadouts. With Nexerelin I'm joining my colony fleets in battles (or dragging them into battles) all the time.

Two tricks I've found for good loadouts:

1. The autofit will pick for you if you don't have any weapons prioritized for a given role. If you don't pick any anti-armor weapons in your small ballistic slot and the autofit decides it needs one, it'll stick a random gun on the ship. You don't get to say 'only fit light autocannons and Hellbores'. You're usually better off picking at least one weapon for each role in each category. It will sub in weapons with the 'General' tag for roles that you haven't selected any other weapon to fill, which makes good generalist guns valuable. This also goes for fighters. If you only pick Longbows and Broadswords and the autofit decides it wants interceptors, then by God it will take interceptors.

2. Ships with fighter bays make great gunboats. This is because the autofit requires a certain quota of PD on a ship, and fighter bays fill it. A battleship with 6 small ballistic hardpoints and no fighters will get 6 vulcan cannons. A ship with 6 small ballistics and 2 fighter bays will get 6 light autocannons.

There's a degree of unavoidable variation, and a given ship's hardpoints will weight the algorithm in different ways. But you can get consistent builds after a little trial and error generating sample patrols and seeing how different weapon selections influence loadouts. And getting strong colony fleets is all about manipulating the autofit algorithm.

7

General Discussion / Re: Am I the only one think mod ships are lot weaker than their Vanilla counterpart?

« on: July 07, 2023, 10:00:21 AM »

The Pather sporeship from the Bultach Coalition pack is a genuine terror.

It's a space station with a burn drive. It's 4 shield shunted Dominators welded together. The prow is a ram covered in large missile hardpoints. The spinal turret is a giant flamethrower. It will plow straight through enemy cruiser formations and snap them in half while blaring Mad Max horns. If you have quick ships you can dodge out of its way, but I hope you've already destroyed the rest of the enemy fleet because burning through its hull will take all day.

I stumbled across a derelict sporeship in my current Nexerelin run and I've been using it as one pilot system defense fleet.

8

General Discussion / Re: Money balance

« on: July 06, 2023, 09:27:56 AM »

Yes. Disincentivize large scale smuggling. I think that's the key. Whether it's harsh escalating penalties for smuggling large quantities of goods or simply lowering the in demand quantity for black market shortages. Smuggling should be a low investment way to make a moderate amount of money. You don't need a lot of ships, so you can potentially get into it much earlier than bulk trading or high value bounties. But you'll need the right ships outfitted in the right way, and there's real risk in getting caught.

Along with that: black market trading needs to be less of an obvious choice over regular trade. If a player is willing to invest in a fleet of capital freighters and escorts it should be a high profit return. Given you can run black market trades with a couple Mules and do exploration missions in a Dram. Maybe rethink the way players get intel on market shortages as well? Finding good places to buy and sell is the only active part of trading. Right now you just mouse over the goods and the let the game tell you where to go. Maybe have the player get market intel from active contacts in the system/bugged comm sniffers/ship mods that provide market info within X LY? So that getting good at trading is something you actively invest in and there's a sense of accomplishment when you find systems with surpluses/shortages. Then increase the profit margin for surpluses/shortages accordingly.

9

General Discussion / Re: Endgame Suggestions?

« on: July 03, 2023, 11:31:34 AM »

While it is not help for your current save (and in contrast to Pesci) I think Nexerelin really is the best route for endgame content right now.

It's a good system for giving the player reasons to get into fights. Sometimes you start them, sometimes an invader brings them to your door, sometimes you're working for an ally or conquering planets for money. The important thing is you keep having reasons to use and tinker with all your fancy endgame ships.

And the thing is that it's all kind of opt in. Even with the mod running. I was hesitant to install Nexerelin because I like the vanilla campaign. But you can still just fly around doing missions as usual, and all of the faction stuff is just an ant farm in the background.

10

General Discussion / Re: What's your usual logistics backup in your fleet ?

« on: June 30, 2023, 05:15:42 AM »

I prefer to run with a lean fleet:

1 Apogee or Venture
2-3 fast cruisers
1-2 Monitors
5-6 high power frigates (Tempests, phase ships)
2 pirate Buffaloes/Mules
1 Phaeton

Strong enough to fight off pirates and random Remnant guardians, small enough and fast enough to run by or sneak by anything else. Then if I find a Domain Mothership or I want to collect a high value bounty I return to base and take the big guns out of storage.
   

11

Mods / Re: [0.96a] Forge Production v1.1.3

« on: June 28, 2023, 05:22:17 AM »

Is there an additional requirement for activating a forge module besides installing the mod on a suitable ship?

I've tried installing them on several ships, but the hotbar ability always gives the 'no active forge module in fleet' message. Fleet is stationary, CR is full, repairs are not suspended, holds are full of heavy machinery.

I'm sure there's something obvious I'm missing.

12

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

« on: November 11, 2021, 10:52:00 AM »

Mining Blasters are effective as secondary burst or armor breaker weapons. You generally shouldn't use them as primary weapons compared to Heavy Blasters, but they work well as complementary weapons on Cruisers and similar.

If you can get them, Antimatter Blasters are likely better than Mining Blasters for this purpose, though they have slightly shorter range, have lower output and are generally less flexible in exchange for twice the burst damage.

I take Antimatter Blasters over both Mining or Heavy, personally. At least on ships like Shrikes and Wolves. The DPS may be lower, but I don't want those ships sitting around inside a capital's arc trading broadsides. I want them to get in, dump as much damage as possible, and get out.

13

General Discussion / Re: Best low fuel bounty hunting fleet

« on: November 11, 2021, 07:43:02 AM »

Phase Frigates. Antimatter Blasters, Sabots. Especially if you have the skill points to spare for Wolf Pack Tactics.

Half a dozen phase frigates costs about as much fuel/supplies per month as an Odyssey. And 10 frigates with officers can nearly handle enemy fleets by themselves.