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346

General Discussion / Re: Hyperion phase teleport range/recharge broken atm?!

« on: August 21, 2012, 07:48:51 AM »

There's nothing bugged with the Hyperion at the moment, although I do think something may have to be done about them.  They're basically playing their own game at the moment, and as a player your only real recourse is to let them blink around while you kill the rest of their fleet and they decide to retreat, unless you get lucky and the AI does something suicidal.

347

General Discussion / Re: What the hell are you doing back there? (AI annoyances)

« on: August 21, 2012, 07:45:50 AM »

I do agree that the AI is prone to serious lapses in self-preservation, but they seem to be pretty good about taking care of themselves when they aren't under direct orders.  I have seen fighter wings very deliberately stay outside of PD range in engagements.  Perhaps commands are overriding their survival instincts?  They already have the ability to evaluate threats, so maybe they just need the ability to path around dangerous areas instead of making beelines, and maybe some general anti-suicide protocols so they can understand that "intercept this bomber wing" does not mean "follow this bomber wing unsupported into the heart of the enemy carrier fleet".


With regards to the Tempest;

First of all, the AI devotes an inordinate amount of effort to killing the Terminator Drone.  While it's certainly too strong to ignore, between its small size, phase cloak, and phase skip, getting rid of it is always a chore...and then the Tempest just pops out a new one.  Quite often, the better way to get rid of the drone is to kill the Tempest itself, given that they're a fragile unit with a small shield arc and one of the few hi-tech frigates that doesn't have an escape ability (other than being obnoxiously fast).  Don't take this as hate on the Tempest or his little buddy, because I think they make an awesome unit and the 20,000 credit pricetag is a pretty fair check on their usefulness; I just feel like the AI should be directing much more attention to getting rid of the Tempest itself, rather than its easily replaceable drone.

The Tempest itself does seem to get a little bit suicidal, sometimes.  I'm running three of them in my fleet right now, and by far the greatest cause of Tempest losses is their habit of hugging enemy ships that are about to explode and getting caught in the blast.  I'm currently giving them a Pulse Laser, PD Laser, and a single-shot Atropos with Advanced Optics, Auxiliary Thrusters, Resistant Flux Conduints, and a whole lotta vents.  Given that they're a fragile, evasive unit with 800 range on their primary weapon, I have no idea why they're doing that makes them get that close to the enemy.  I don't think they're trying to do bombing runs, because I had the same problem when I was using a single-shot Harpoon in place of the torpedo.  They also have this behavior when using a Heavy Blaster as their primary gun.


I've also noticed that enemy Phase Cloakers have a habit of popping out of phase for split seconds when surrounded by hostiles.  I'm not sure what their goal is, since they don't have time to vent anything.  They just end up increasing their flux with the activation cost and taking a bit of damage from any beam weapons that happen to be watching them.  This often happens in situations where they had no chance of escaping before being forced out of phase anyways.  The only guess I could venture is that the "I need to vent" and "I need to stay in phase" priorities aren't talking to each other correctly.

348

Suggestions / Re: Buffalo Fix

« on: August 20, 2012, 02:40:33 AM »

I don't think its supposed to be combat capable in the first place.
Once you're actually hauling stuff around the galaxy it'll fall into its role perfectly.

Aye, the buffalo MK2 actually has so little fuel and cargo that its utterly useless for hauling. In addition it has the same max crew and crew requirement, meaning you have 0 extra crew and if one guy dies and you have no extra somewhere else you're  *deleted* .

I still think it should be cheaper for what it is. 

Making the Buffalo cheaper would ruin them in their primary capacity as early-game income.

349

General Discussion / Re: Harpoon MRM overpowered?

« on: August 20, 2012, 01:30:12 AM »

They're very strong against vulnerable, but shields and PD do a good job of keeping them in check, especially in larger fleet engagements with overlapping PD bubbles.  The only things they're really amazing against are Buffalos and Hounds, but those ships are supposed to be easy kills for players just starting to cut their teeth.


All together, it seems like things are working as intended.  Also, don't underrate the Salamander.  Engine hits are a pain, and if you're already engaging the target from another angle then they get to pick what part of their ship gets blown up.

350

General Discussion / Re: Fighters

« on: August 20, 2012, 12:49:54 AM »

and that is where the fallacy begins:

See, you are the one getting aggressive here, making pouty faces and throwing out accusations like this.

by looking just at OP cost, all the fighters look meh in comparison.

however, at some point you will reach a stage where it would be more beneficial to replace ships with fighters due to the fact that those ships are barely contributing to the fights either because they can't get there or the field is so saturated that they are taking more time maneuvering than they are shooting.

It's a pretty clear pattern that that bigger things are more OP efficient in terms of how much survivability and firepower they bring to the battle.  This is offset by other advantages for the lighter frames and weapons like torpedoes that do a good job of leveling the playing field.  Nobody here is saying that fighters in general are useless.  Instead, we are looking at one specific fighter that has a cost which is out of line with its capabilities.  There is nothing wrong with having a slow, heavyweight fighter that serves as an escort for destroyers and other heavier craft, but we're talking about a support wing that has the same deployment cost as the destroyers themselves (and a pricetag that isn't too far off that mark) and loses the signature mobility of fighters without really getting anything to make up for it.

What do people think of the Torpedo Bombers?  For 5 points they can put a pretty big dent into things...but then again, for 5 points I could just load up a Lasher with Atropos Racks and missile upgrades.

I'd say they're worth it if you can protect them and reload them. A Lasher runs out of ammo after one volley, Daggers can reload. 12000 points of HE damage per reload is some serious firepower. The dagger clearly wins for strike purposes: The Lasher can only match a Dagger's strike power once with it's first volley, then it has minimal strike power afterwards... While the daggers are still running around with 12000 points of hurt just waiting for a ship to get in front of them.

The only reason I'm hesitant to use them is that things big enough to get hit by unguided torpedoes tend to have a lot of point defenses around them.  The little guys seem to be good at getting their payloads through thanks to fighter pathing and an fearless AI routine, but I'm not sure I trust them to make it back afterwards.  They have to survive (or at least deliver) two runs to match a Lasher, which can mount twin three racks with guidance upgrades and transitions into a handy anti-fighter platform after it runs dry.

351

General Discussion / Re: Fighters

« on: August 19, 2012, 09:29:58 PM »

My mistake, I was mixing up the wing counts with the Gladius.  Still, even at three to a squad, they just aren't worth that outrageous fleet cost.  It's really hard to justify spending 10 FP on a fighter wing when the unit itself has significant limitations and another 2 points gets you a midline destroyer.

People haven't been getting aggressive with you.  We're not even trying to gang up on you.  You just happen to find many people independently coming to a conclusion contrary to your own, because most people are going to look at a unit with that kind of associated cost and expect it to do much more than the Warthog is capable of.  It's not to say the Warthog is useless or even bad as a design; it's just an inefficient use of a very precious resource.


What do people think of the Torpedo Bombers?  For 5 points they can put a pretty big dent into things...but then again, for 5 points I could just load up a Lasher with Atropos Racks and missile upgrades.

352

General Discussion / Re: Fighters

« on: August 19, 2012, 04:33:21 PM »

sigh


im not even going to honor an answer if youre not going to read the thread in it's entirety.

Melodrama is pointless.

A single Warthog costs as many fleet point as a Lasher.  They're not even close to worth it.