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391

General Discussion / Sunders!

« on: October 05, 2012, 11:30:18 AM »

For some reason I hadn't gotten around to playing with the Sunder until today... and I really like it! Its slow and fragile, but is also cheap FP wise and can carry a heck of a lot of firepower. My current favorite build (which the AI is pretty good with!):

1x HIL
2x Pulse Laser
2x Swarmer
2x Railgun (forward turrets)
1x Vulcan (back turret)

Flux resistant conduits
20 vents, 5 caps

The high energy focus really makes the HIL a beast for support.

How do other people feel about the Sunder?

392

Modding / Hard flux beam?

« on: October 03, 2012, 09:57:39 AM »

Does anyone know how to make a custom weapon that acts in every way like a beam, but does hard flux damage? I'm working on a built in weapon for a ship - a "Dimensional Lance". Its the ship's primary armament and it just doesn't feel right doing soft flux damage.

393

Suggestions / Engage + Strike

« on: October 02, 2012, 08:00:03 PM »

Little thing: I think it would be useful to let both an engage and a strike command be active on the same ship. I like to group bombers with a waypoint, wear a target down a little bit with my main ships using engage, then suddenly dump the bombers on them with a strike. The problem is that the strike command overrides the engage command and my other ships sometimes peel off before the bombers arrive, letting the target vent. It would be nice to have continuous pressure but still have control over when the strike happens. Thoughts?

394

Suggestions / Gauss Sniper

« on: September 29, 2012, 02:21:39 PM »

I was playing with the Gauss Cannon, but was disappointed by how inaccurate it is. I found two changes which make it into a sniper . They may be a bit much but if you want to have fun:

1) Change the chargeup from 1 to 0 and the cooldown from 1 to 2. The gun traverses even more slowly while charging so even if was accurate when it first starts firing it won't be a second later.

2) Change the speed from 1200 to 1500.

In testing with a normal crew with ITU on a capital, this let the Gauss cannon hit frigates about 40% of the time at 1600 range, 20% at 1800. Its probs a bit much, but so much fun.

395

General Discussion / Surprisingly Dangerous Weapons

« on: September 27, 2012, 05:19:33 PM »

Name a weapon which is much more dangerous than you first thought!

Annihilator rockets pods! At first I wondered what the point was, then saw an Onslaught throwing 1600 DPS at me from 4 of these for no flux.

396

Bug Reports & Support / Broadswords escorting Tempests

« on: September 26, 2012, 09:04:08 PM »

I'm running a fleet including Broadswords, Tempests, and Wasps. I noticed recently that when I assign a light escort on a Tempest a Broadsword will be preferentially selected as an escort even though it can't keep up while a wasp could. I have also observed the same behavior with intercepts: Broadswords will be assigned to intercept Tempests even though they are too slow to catch them. Bug in the speed calculations maybe?

397

General Discussion / Deployment Points?

« on: September 18, 2012, 06:12:31 PM »

Does anyone know how the initial deployment points are calculated?

It seems that the player's deployment points is inversely proportional to the enemy fleet, and vice versa. When engaging the Hegemony SDF the player's initial deployment is always 40 (I'm using a 100 FP fleet) - possibly because the SDF is so large? The AI has a deployment of 60+ which is higher than I've seen with smaller fleets like the Pirate Plunder Fleet.

It seems like initial deployment would be something governed by a skill, as in large battles an extra 10 points can be huge. I guess we'll see.

398

General Discussion / Favorite Odyssey wing?

« on: September 15, 2012, 05:21:35 PM »

I'm really loving tooling around in an Odyssey and a fighter company so... whats your favorite fighter compliment to go along with it?

I'm flying 2x Broadswords, 2x Talons, 1x Thunder, and 1x Dagger. Gotta love those reapers!

399

Suggestions / Hyperion - teleport soft flux

« on: September 07, 2012, 07:56:07 AM »

I never thought I'd suggest a buff for the Hyperion, but I think the ship could really use its teleport ability using soft flux rather than hard. This is mainly due to two observations on the AI, one of which I think should stay unchanged and another which might need a tweak.

1) The AI is very conservative with shields, often keeping them up while maneuvering outside the effective range of other ships (see: Hyperion vs. 2 CS Lashers in simulator). I think this is good behavior in general: better to lose a little flux dissipation rather than eat a HVD or Heavy Mauler round, especially for fragile ships. The Hyperion is excellent at biding its time and waiting until it has a good opportunity - but during this time it keeps its shields up and doesn't dissipate the teleport cost. I think the AI behavior here is excellent, but doesn't work well with the teleporter's hard flux.

2) An extension of 1: the Hyperion will do 2 to 4 teleports during the 'approach' before attacking rather than 1, all with shields up. This puts a serious dent in the offensive/defensive power of the ship - and from the player's perspective it is entirely avoidable, because the Hyperion has the unique ability to teleport away and vent. The soft flux would help soften the problem, but a tweak might be nice.


What do other's think?

400

Discussions / Eclipse Tips?

« on: September 04, 2012, 08:00:37 AM »

I've just started using Eclipse at work because I wanted a single environment to work in Python, Fortran, and C++ (and I'll probably end up doing java coding in it as well). Anyone on this fine forum have any advice for a newbie at this IDE?

401

General Discussion / Notes on AI

« on: September 03, 2012, 09:07:10 AM »

Watching all of these AI fights have solidified a few of my opinions on the AI. I think the AI in this game is fantastic, but here are two things I think could use improvement:

1) The AI does not capitalize on enemy vents/overloads - it might fire a single missile, but it almost never tries to close and fire. In fact, most times an enemy overloads the AI retreats! In some of the fights the overloading ship has a light escort, but imo this should not stop the AI from doing everything in its power to land hits on an overloaded/venting ship. It seems like 90% of the time overloads don't get punished.

2) The AI tries to maintain "perfect range" in inappropriate circumstances. It works very well for frigates circling a destroyer, but when a destroyer is hunting a frigate (or crippled/venting enemy ) it will often close to long range and start firing, but then back away to maintain range. The enemy starts retreating and the destroyer loses all its shots. This is especially apparent with the Hammerhead - it will activate its advanced ammo feed and then wast 3/4 of its fire time backing away from its fleeing target. I wish I could just tell the AI to hold down 'W' and fire!

This behavior can be seen in a default simulator attack between an elite hammerhead and wolf close support.

Anyone else seen behavior they think isn't quite right?

402

General Discussion / 1st 50K Classic Tournament!

« on: August 30, 2012, 08:17:53 PM »

Seeing how successful the long running system PvP (AI v AI) is going, managed by Uomoz: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=4187.0, I thought I would propose something slightly different:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the signup for the 50 kilocred classic battle royal is now open! This winner take all tournament will pit customized fleets worth of to 50,000 credits each against each other in a single elimination, AI on AI tournament bracket! The number of rounds will be determined by the number of entries, but all battles will be streamed LIVE from http://www.twitch.tv/thaago! Hang out with your Starfarer friends, chat, and compete for bragging rights and a sig medal.

The Rules:

Create a fleet worth up to 50,000 credits - weapons are free, but the hulls and regular/veteran/elite levels will cost you as follows:
Ships:

Spoiler

Talon   2000
Dagger   4500
Wasp   8000
Xyphos   10000
Broadsword   6500
Piranha   6500
Trident   15000
Longbow   6500
Mining Pod   5000
Gladius   8000
Warthog   9000
Thunder   8000
   
Wolf   6000
Hound   4000
Hyperion   22000
Shuttle   2000 Not allowed .
Lasher   4500
Omen   5500
Tempest   18000
Brawler   6000
Vigilance   5000
Dram   4000
Afflictor   10000
Shade   12000
   
Hammerhead   10000
Sunder   12000
Condor   8000
Enforcer   9500
Buffalo   7500
Gemini   11000
Tarsus   7000
Valkyrie   8000
Buffalo Mk.II   8000
Medusa   15000
Mule   10000
Phaeton   9000
   
Falcon   17000
Eagle   20000
Venture   18000
Apogee   25000
Dominator   28000
Aurora   35000
Doom   50000

[close]

Crew levels, shamelessly copied from the other thread because they seem so good:

...
SHIP'S CREW VETERANCY COSTS:

Spoiler

To know the cost of a certain crew level on a certain ship, multiply the ship factor for the veterancy factor needed:
- Fighter: 5
- Frigate: 10
- Destroyer: 20
- Cruiser: 40
- Capital: 80

. REGULAR: 50
. VETERAN: 100
. ELITE: 300

[close]

How to sign up:
Post on the thread below your fleet's name and any title you want associated with it. Then EMAIL me at myname [at] gmail [dot] com a roster of your ships and all the variant files attached (please put Starfarer in the subject) - I won't be messing with them so make sure you get them right! I recommend Trylobot's editor.

How it will work:
I will make a bracket with everyone who signs up, then post a time for it all to go down! The winner of each battle will advance with all ships repaired to fight other winners. Losers will be out unless popular demand wants a losers bracket as well for 2cd place! If there are too many battles then I'll split the event into multiple days, but all battles will be recorded automatically so everyone can watch later.

Lets get this tournament started!

Currently Signed Up
V    The Soldier
      GUNINANRUNIN - has opted out (may come back in if he wants)
V    BillyReuben
V    DM818
V    nonomo4
V    Brainbread
     firstattak1 - has opted out (may come back in if he wants)
V    heskey30
V    Wyvern

Still Needs to Submit Variants
GUNINANRUNIN - has opted out (may come back in if he wants)
firstattak1 - has opted out (may come back in if he wants)

403

Modding / Drone Ships

« on: August 24, 2012, 11:32:13 AM »

So I decided to play around with the drone system a bit and makes ships that focus around them. I present my first attempt:

The Corona:


A small Capital ship classified as a Drone Carrier, the Corona is a ship designed for solo, long range operation. The ship contains 12 attack drones and a dedicated autofactory to replenish drones lost in combat (1/4 seconds).  They can also take commands from their mothership and will prioritize a dedicated target - the order of priority is target ship, fighters, other ships, missiles. While in close mode the drones stay within 400 of the Corona, but in free roam mode they have a whopping 4000 range - they can easily support distant engagements, but if the Corona gets in trouble they might not make it back in time.

The Corona itself supports 4 medium energy mounts and 3 small energy mounts, though most of these are usually dedicated to point defense. Its armor and hull are weak for a ship of its size, but it has the same powerful shield system as the Odyssey. Don't let its weak weaponry fool you though: the Corona is a powerful, versatile capital ship!


A mod containing this ship is attached below, but it is not campaign integrated. In order to play with the Hive, turn on dev mode and use the simulator in the 'edit variants' tab.

Update: Renamed Hive to Corona, changed the drones to Assault drones (1 ir pulse laser, 150 speed), reduced front to one small energy, lowered OP by 10.

[attachment deleted by admin]

404

Suggestions / Activating mods in a save

« on: August 23, 2012, 09:29:51 AM »

A modding suggestion/request: to have mods that are activated in the middle of a save, so that it is not necessary to start a new game. I'm imagining a flag in the mod_info.json file that would tell the game to run the mod's generator files even in the middle of a game. Once activated the save would rely on that mod being active. This wouldn't work for mods that remove elements of vanilla but would be very convenient for 'add on' mods.

This isn't a very important feature now because of how quick it is to start a new game, but when leveling and exploring and all that are in I can see having to start a new game being a big barrier to playing around with mods, especially the smaller ones.

It would also be nice to be able to de-activate mods as well, but that might bring up a whole host of issues (a modded ship being the players only ship, modded weapons suddenly disappearing...).

405

General Discussion / Gonna miss my Hammerhead :'(

« on: August 22, 2012, 11:47:51 AM »

I'm hunting the SDF with a midline fleet: Conquest (me), 3 Hammerheads, Venture, and fighters to fill. Normally its a pretty easy fight... but this time things get fubar.

I'm finishing off one Onslaught after some hard close in fighting (sucked burn drive'd right into me!) when another burn drives into fighting range on my other side and unloads its thermal cannons. I pop up my shield to block them, but mistime my drop and overload! So I'm in a pretty intact but overloaded Conquest square between one almost dead Onslaught who is just finished venting and another one with high flux but full health! I was totally convinced I was dead.

Enter my elite Hammerhead, my flagship for countless battles before I moved up. It comes roaring up into the back of the crippled Onslaught with its heavy mauler going double speed - I'm pretty sure it was actually swarmers that finished the Onslaught off, but thats just a nice ironic twist. The explosion was really painful for my Conquest however and the other Onslaught is breaking my starboard armor pretty fast. The Hammerhead swings around the hulk and me and gets right between me and the Onslaught! It goes toe to toe with the beast protecting me. Overload finished I was still forced to back off as the blast and beating had knocked out most of my weapons on both sides. The Hammerhead pulls back but is chewed to hell - at this point another (just veteran, my number 2 ship) shows up and starts kiting the Onslaughts engines. My weapons come online, the storm needlers do their work, and I sink 4 reapers into the Onslaught face. Just as it blows though, a Lasher sinks a harpoon into my venting buddy. You had to be a hero! *sniff*


I have no idea if the AI actually has 'here I come to save the day' coded in where ships will protect vulnerable other ships, but it made for a hell of a sight!