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16

Suggestions / Custom Ship Production

« on: November 17, 2018, 04:16:43 PM »

Currently Custom built ships come with "uhhh some weapons" and a very basic fit. This doesn't cost any money and you get them for free and that is weird to me. But the main thing is that you still have to refit them and order weapons for them individually if you want to have a specific loadout.

So rather than having ships come fit randomly have them fit for the last player created saved custom fitting of that ship type. (or let you choose) and then price out any and all weapons that that entails (supposing you can build them, if you don't have the BP for the weapons its empty).

This would save time for building ships (especially things like cookie cutter frigates/destroyers) and also be a more fair pricing model for ships (you would no longer get a free stash of random stuff)

17

Suggestions / The Tyranny of Cargo: Stable Orbit Solutions

« on: September 27, 2018, 09:12:41 PM »

So a while ago i wrote a thing about fuel and cargo and how ships don't have much variation and how this was kind of strategically boring. here

Now i have a simple solution to the problem of cargo ships.

Say you're out in space. And you destroy a fleet and there is this big pile of wreckage. Its too much to haul back but you can stabilize the orbit, come back in 150 days!  Has anyone ever come back for that stuff? I am going to guess no. If it is even worth it its definitely not better than going somewhere else and getting new loot. But having a huge cargo is still valuable because you still need to have profit on return and having a big cargo allows this.

Well, what if, instead, you just... sold the information to someone else and they went out and got it. When you stabilized the orbit it would create a data nodule worth x amount of credits, where x is 50% of the sale value of the equipment in the cargo. You would no longer be able to loot from that cargo (doing so would require destroying the nodule) and could then go and sell that data to interested parties.  Now sure there are issues of "how could this thing work in a real economy with low levels of trust et al" and those are entirely value but i don't think it matters very much. So long as cargo is assigned a quality of the type of ships it was harvested from(which would be contraband in associated space) so that you could not blow up hegemony ships and then sell the wreckage location back to them it should work pretty cleanly.

Now the value of bringing excess cargo is a lot less. Players only need to be filling up on cargo ships if they plan to make a delivery or they want the resources themselves. What you bring home depends more on what you want rather than how much you can fit.

18

Suggestions / Faction Commissions: Minor Tweak

« on: June 01, 2018, 11:38:32 AM »

Many Factions like it when you have your transponder beacon on. Some factions don't care.(Well only the pirates)

As it stands, when you have a faction commission and you forget to turn your transponder on the faction you have a commission with will like you less as a result of that.

My Suggestion is that this does not happen when you have a faction commission unless you refuse to turn your transponder on when they ask. And they will stop following you as soon as they positively identify you. (so you can blip your transponder at them to say "yes, i am friendly"). This of course would be negated if they suspect you of smuggling.

The reason is simple, when you've got a commission you're working for them and your hiding, while not ideal maybe, isn't there to hurt them, its because you were doing something special and secret that required it. The equivalent of a plain clothes cop flashing their badge.

This would alleviate a lot of the "damnit forgot to turn my transponder on" complaints that people have while also providing and in-world rational for having that advantage

19

Suggestions / The Tyranny of Fuel: Exploration Vessels, Solo Fleets, and Vanity Projects

« on: April 01, 2018, 04:59:15 PM »

This might be seen as an extension of the topic "large ships in small fleets" but for me its primarily a verisimilitude issue. Though it would generally solve that "problem" as well.

As the game has progressed the otherwise coherent ship design ideology has faltered as ships have been changed. As a result a number of ships and ship types have lost their identity and fleet and fleet composition has as well.

And the reason for this is primarily fuel. Well, not fuel exactly (though it does make for a great title) but the fact that combat ships have very little variation in fuel and cargo space despite in game design goals which produce fleets that are always very similar and with little variation. This hampers play styles which would exploit opportunities which might exist in

In general there are roughly four purposes for designing ships in starsector

1) Exploration/Pirating: Go far, be safe out there, bring back stuff

2) Raiding: Go a medium distance, kill things, leave debris fields

3) Sector Defense; Go nowhere, prevent raiding
3a) Assault Support: Take sector defense fleet and put it in your opponents sector

4) Pure Hauling: have loads of stuff. Move it places

Ships in starsector are only really designed around point the third. You're expected to bring support ships with extra fuel and cargo space if you want to go far and/or bring back stuff. This is OK, but primarily it does two things.

1) It limits the player use of the non-optimal ships because there is little strategic value in choosing the non-optimal ship

2) It puts all fleets on a knife edge with regards to disengage ability because even if they can run they still have to protect their fuel and supplies, without which they're basically done.

--------------------

The Solution is to increase the variation in ships by giving them a more defined strategic purpose. This should limit the use of pure cargo and fuel ships and relegate them to more specific purposes. Pure cargo ships would primarily be involved in shipping. Fuel ships would largely be involved in refueling operations and assault support. The three primary assault types

Changes Based on Ship Type

• Pure Cargo Ship: Fuel capacity up.
• Pure Fuel Ship: No changes
• Exploration/Pirate Ship: Increased Cargo, Fuel, fuel efficiency.
• Raiding: Decreased Cargo, Increased Fuel/Fuel Efficiency, Increased Supply Efficiency. Small decrease in Strategic Speed
• Sector Defense: Large Decrease in strategic speed for large ships, Small increase in strategic speed for small ships.

With the advent of "sustained burn" we can now modify the base speed of ships even further, whereas the difference between 6 and 8 used to be a 33% increase in speed now its a 12.5% increase in speed without considering the skill that caps every fleet at 20. Ships can have burn speeds as low as 3 or 4 because planets cannot avoid assault fleets and because multiple fleets can be expected to work in tandem for sector defense (some with capitals burning to catch up, some with frigates for catching fleets until the capitals can catch up). The difference between a 4 burn ship and an 8 burn ship is only at 28% increase at sustained burn speed and 5.2% with the +5 max burn skill. Changing the max burn of various ships radically doesn't alter the ability of players to take those ships places they might not be suited, but does make it a little bit harder than it is currently.

The question of course is then "how much of a change are we talking about" , "which ships go where and why". Cargo and Fuel Ships are pretty much unchanged

Exploration Ships: Need fuel for about three times as much maximum range as current(100-150 LY). This is about similar as what they currently run when escorting a single fuel ship of one size lower than themselves. Needs cargo for about 4 months of deployment plus full cargo compliment of ship one size smaller. An exploration/pirate focused capital at 10 fuel/LY, 40 DP should have about 1500 fuel and 1060 cargo capacity.  This is not enough fuel or cargo for its maintenance to justify bringing it if it is not intended to fight. But enough that you don't have to also bring a fuel/hauling source for it if its intending to. An exploration focused Cruiser at 20 DP should have around 380 Cargo Capacity and 450 fuel. A destroyer at 10 DP about 140 cargo capacity and 150 fuel. They need to be slow enough to be caught by fast sector defense fleets but fast enough to outrun sector defense capital fleets.

Raiding Ships: Need fuel for about 50 LY of travel (enough to get to a close-ish sector and back) and supplies for 1 month-ish of deployment. Needs speed to outrun sector defense capital fleets but not sector defense frigate fleets.

Sector Defense Ships: Needs fuel for about 5-10 LY of travel (enough to jump out of the sector and maybe fly to another sector... but not back and/or burn at things) and cargo for 1 month-ish of deployment. Capitals should be quite slow and frigates the fastest in the game.

-----

What ships go where and what changes are made to them?

Goal here is to have a decent amount of variety for what tech types(high, low, pirate) have what types of ships. There will be bias for exploration ships for pirate vessels (non -D mod) as well as anything that we might consider traditionally undergunned. There will be no suggested changes for fuel and cargo ships except that cargo ships all get enough fuel capacity go go about 50-60 LY.

-----

Exploration Ships: These ships can generally operate on their own. They're good solo candidates as well as prime candidates for efficiency in flying to the outer reaches because you do not need to add dedicated cargo and fuel ships in order to make the journey and come back with a reasonable amount equipment. Adding one of these to a non-exploration fleet will add minimal value with the exception of the Paragon simply because you're unlikely to choose one of them for their DP over a more dedicated ship.

Spoiler

Capital:

• Paragon: Burn 7, Fuel 1500, Cargo 1100. This is a special case. Normally capital ships don't fall into this category but the Paragon is a big vanity project and big vanity projects don't conform to the same constraints as everything else. That is, while everyone else has to make tradeoffs on the Fast/Cheap/Good spectrum the Paragon's designers just kept throwing money at it until they didn't have to make any tradeoffs. It still keeps its supply and burn inefficiency though, because who cares about efficiency when you have money. Paragon purchase price should be upped to at least 1M credits
  

Cruiser:

• Apogee: Burn 9, F/LY 2, Fuel 340, Cargo 400. Top of the line baby. This is the Starship enterprise. Still Supply inefficient but damn if it doesn't go fast and long. Still better in a fight than the rest of the non-paragon explorer options for the DP though.
• Venture: Burn 8, F/LY 3, Fuel 450, Cargo 500. The Baseline pirate/exploration ship. Its kinda ***? But at least its cheap and you can haul *** back with it.
• Gryphon: Burn 8 F/LY 2, Fuel 300, Cargo 380. The Hegemony's answer to the Apogee, not quite as fast but the missile autoforge makes for easy resupply out in the vast.
• Colossus Mk 2/3 Burn 8, F/LY 3, Fuel 450, Cargo 350. Slightly better better cargo efficiency due to much lower supply costs. Its big and slow and you might rather fight a destroyer. But if you need 600 armor and 12 guns to toss into a fight its not actually that useless at 9 DP.

Destroyer:

• Gemini: Burn 9, F/LY 1, Fuel 150, Cargo 150: Its a combat freighter of course it goes here
• Mule: Burn 9, F/LY 1, Fuel 150, Cargo 150: Its a combat freighter of course it goes here
• Condor: Burn 9, F/LY 1, Fuel 150, Cargo 150: Its a converted freighter of course it goes here
• Medusa: Burn 10, F/LY 1, Fuel 150, Cargo 150: The phase frigates seem more like raiding or defense ships and so did the Sunder. So the Medusa gets an exploration role
• Buffalo Mk II Burn 9, F/LY 1, Fuel 150, Cargo 150  Its a converted freighter of course it goes here

Frigate:
 

• Hound Burn 10, F/LY .5 Fuel 75, Cargo 75: Its a combat freighter of course it goes here
• Mudskiper MK II Burn 10, F/LY .5 Fuel 75, Cargo 75: Its a combat freighter of course it goes here
• Shepherd Burn 10, F/LY .5 Fuel 75, Cargo 75: Its a combat freighter of course it goes here
• Tempest Burn 11, F/LY .5 Fuel 75, Cargo 75: Again the other high tech options seemed more appropriate in other roles. The Tempest definitely fits though

[close]

Raiding Ships: Adding a raiding ship to an exploration fleet won't reduce its range too much. But it will significantly impact the relative amount of supplies that can be brought back. Adding a raiding ship to a defense fleet will barely extend its range. Only worth it if you need a specific aspect of the ship. The Heron and Odyssey will be the most common raiding ships seen in traditional defense/strike fleets.

Spoiler

Capital:

• Odyssey: Burn 7, F/LY 6, Cargo 180, Fuel 300: Good at killing things and then getting away. Fast, expensive, but cheap to run for a capital. Might also get a free OP center or Insulated Engine Assembly in order to make it even more unique
• Conquest: Burn 6, F/LY 8, Cargo 160, Fuel 400: Good at killing things and then getting away. Its not quite as strategically advantageous as the Odyssey but its got a bit more oomph.

Cruiser:

• Heron Burn 7 F/LY 3, Cargo 80, Fuel 150: The only carrier on the raider list and the only proper carrier which doesn't need a support fleet. The Heron is a mean machine
• Falcon Burn 7 F/LY 3, Cargo 80, Fuel 150: The smaller Eagle designed for killing ships and then getting out rather than as a pure power option
• Aurora Burn 8 F/LY 3, Cargo 90, Fuel 150: The Doom was going to go here but now that it going to have mines instead of interdiction the Aurora makes more sense. The Aurora is the quintessential overpowering high tech ship... but all it can do is fly there and blow something up because its going to need all its cargo for supplies

Destroyer:

• Harbinger Burn 8 F/LY 2, Cargo 60, Fuel 100: Not much to say about this. It kills things dead. But again with the supply issue.
• Hammerhead Burn 8, F/LY 2, Cargo 32, Fuel 100: A straightforward design for a straightforward task. The distinctive hammerhead is a result of stripping out the places which would have been used for cargo

Frigate:

• Lasher Burn 9 F/LY 1, Cargo 16, Fuel 50: Most of the hegemony uses larger ships in raids or eschews raids all together. But the Lasher is an effective ship
• Shade Burn 9 F/LY 1, Cargo 32, Fuel 50: Now that the afflictor is getting interdiction the shade is the clear option. It can use its EW to disable enemy defensive ships while the rest of the fleet kills the valuable cargo
• Scarab Burn 9 F/LY 1, Cargo 32, Fuel 50 When the shade is disabling dangerous things the Scarab is cutting through anything it can find
• Hyperion Burn 10, F/LY 1, Cargo 60, Fuel 50 Another high tech raider. Even worse for supplies than the other ships the Hyperion is in danger of running out unless its constantly farming a good amount of supplies

[close]

Defense Ships: Adding any of these to a raiding or exploration party will impart a significant penalty to effective range and potentially maneuverability speed. The frigates are much easier to accommodate because of their much lower total supply usage and their much higher burn rates

Spoiler

Capital:

• Legion Burn 4, Fuel 100, Cargo 160 What can we say its a straightforward murder machine
• Astral Burn 4, Fuel 100, Cargo 200 What can we say its a straightforward murder machine
• Onslaught Burn 3, Fuel 100, Cargo 160 What can we say its a straightforward murder machine

Cruiser:

• Eagle Burn 6, Fuel 30, Cargo 90 What can we say its a straightforward murder machine
• Mora Burn 6, Fuel 30, Cargo 90 What can we say its a straightforward murder machine
• Dominator  Burn 6, Fuel 30, Cargo 90: What can we say its a straightforward murder machine
• Doom  Burn 6, Fuel 30, Cargo 90. Now that it has mines tri-tach is going to park it at home and make it a silent killer of raiding fleets.

Destroyer:

• Sunder Burn 8, Fuel 20, Cargo 40: This went here because the others seemed better. Plus i believe that the Sunder is the generally superior fleet ship due to its potentially excessive range
• Drover Burn 8, Fuel 20, Cargo 40 Similar to the Sunder this ship fits better in this place than the other options
• Enforcer Burn 8, Fuel 20, Cargo 40 This is a quintessential defensive ship

Frigate:

• Centurian  Burn 7, Fuel 10, Cargo 20: Intended to primarily fly with larger ships as mobile point defense the Centurian does not need a strong burn drive
• Afflictor Burn 12, Fuel 10, Cargo 30: The afflictor is the high tech defensive frigate that can run down and out maneuver raiding parties.
• Kite Burn 12, Fuel 10, Cargo 20 The Kite is the low tech defensive frigate which can run down and out maneuver raiding parties
• Monitor  Burn 7, Fuel 10, Cargo 20 Intended to primarily fly with larger ships as mobile point defense the Monitor does not need a strong burn drive
• Wolf Burn 12, Fuel 10, Cargo 20 The Wolf is the mid-tech defensive frigate which can run down and out maneuver raiding parties.
• Omen Burn 9, Fuel 10, Cargo 20: General point defense its intended to fly with the faster high tech fleets. Expensive but availiable to explore or raid if necesary
• Vigilance Burn 10, Fuel 10, Cargo 20: Dangerous in a group its all purpose fast defense
• Brawler Burn 10, Fuel 10, Cargo 20: Dangerous in a group its all purpose fast defense

[close]

20

Suggestions / Simulating AI resource management

« on: March 13, 2018, 02:55:53 PM »

One of the biggest frustrations in the game as it stands is that the AI fleets are clearly operating without resources. This has two primary effects in game, neither of which enhance the verisimilitude of the game or produce ideal results with regards to cogent gameplay.

1) The player is prevented from running AI fleets out of resources by exploiting over world mechanics

2) The player is prevented from smartly destroying fleets in order to achieve desired results

This currently doesn't extend to relief fleets, which is good. You can push stability on a planet lower and also attain resources by smartly destroying relief fleets... But you can't do much more.

Now, its obvious that simply adding in resources won't work for AI fleets. Its too complicated and can easily fail in ways where loads of fleets are unable to sustain themselves. This breaks a lot of things in how the game looks and feels not just for how the game actually plays. So if possible we should simulate it.

----

The solution is actually pretty simple and has two parts to deal with these two aspects. As it stands every fleet has a duration on the "job" its doing. Patrol fleets only patrol for so long. Trade fleets only go for so long. ETC.

A) When a fleet on screen on a fixed duration event hits an environmental effect that reduces CR or a combat they reduce instead the duration of the job they're doing. When that value is zero they steadily lose CR until they hit zero or they dock.

B) Fleets carry a number of supplies equal to "(fleet size * days left on jobs) + (1 or 2) combats" and an amount of fuel equal to "Fuel needed to complete job plus 1 or 2 eburns". This value is calculated only when the fleet is destroyed. If "days left on jobs = 0" then the fleet carries zero supplies. Additional items in cargo can be added when players destroy fleets with specific jobs (like coming back from a scavenging run)

This solution should have minimal computational impact on how fleets are currently handled. The duration of jobs is already created/used in order to determine what fleets are doing and modifying it when a fleet that is on screen hits an environmental effect shouldn't be too much more than is already done.


----

So its still not really possible to run a fleet down to zero supplies very easily (get a fleet stuck in a solar flare) with the exception of bounty fleets*. But it would be possible to get a fleet to stop chasing you and return home by dragging them through a star.

It would allow the player to pick out targets specifically for the types of materials they might be carrying. Fleets heading out into unknown space would end up with far more fuel than fleets heading back to civilization. Fleets heading back might contain AI cores or other valuable salvaged goods.

*Because they more or less disappear when the bounty is over but must stay the entire bounty. So dragging them through a solar flare will produce a number of days where they have zero supplies but must stick around.

21

Suggestions / Tactical Refitting: Fighters and Missiles.

« on: February 11, 2018, 06:27:30 AM »

Currently refitting in space isn’t particularly valuable. It has some uses (refitting a salvaged ship) but otherwise the CR loss for refitting tends to mean only minor modifications can be made and only when they’re a clear upgrade over what is done currently.

The reason for this is less the supply cost and more the time cost. When you refit you have to spend time regaining CR before you can fight again.

Now in many ways this makes sense. If you could refit for free then you would want to refit every weapon for every fight whatever was optimal. Costly refitting prevents both micromanaging and promotes thinking ahead with fleet management.

However some weapons seem like ripe candidates for refitting. Not only is it thematic, but also proper with respect to how the game treats certain weapons, and also promotes uniqueness in weapons. I am talking of course about missiles and fighters. Notmally these are produced without CR cost or time.

If missiles and fighters were able to be refit without a time cost (or CR cost maybe) then carriers and missile focused ships could have a niche and missile fittings on non-focused ships would be more than on off equipments.

22

Suggestions / Salvaging and In(D)ustry, and Piracy

« on: June 11, 2016, 11:07:52 PM »

So now that the first industry blog is out and its survey/outposts and not salvaging i thought i would suggest a way to fuel the ship economy, discuss how it fits in the lore, and give some pros and cons

The standard "industry" in video games like this is that you have a blueprint of a ship or weapon and the raw materials and then can build it. That might work for weapons, but the core idea in starsector is a sector in decay, locked off from the old civilization, repurposing old hulls and so on and so forth. This would lead to the core mechanic as i see it for ship production

1) Ships destroyed in a battle become (D) variant ships with the relevant bad hull mods on them
2) Ships can have hull mods removed/added at a cost of time/resources at a shipyard that the player owns/leases/has access to.


Basically fights produce hulls, people take the hulls and work on them until they're fixed and working again. Some do a worse job than others. Some take more time. Then they use these hulls and go back out into space to be blown up.

The full structure would be

1) If a ship is destroyed and not hauled away from a battlefield it produces a salvage field.
2) Players/factions can find salvage fields and retrieve hulls from them
3) To retrieve a hull you need a tug
4) You can repair these hulls

There are three big benefits to this and one big problem

The first big benefit is that this produces a dynamic objective for which different groups can have different policies. The Hegemony clearly claims all salvage as theirs but are unlikely to care if its out of their space. Tri-tach claims only tri-tach equipment but are going to care everywhere. They might even send retrieval fleets for them. Pirates don't have claims but might fight you for whatever you're at.

The second big benefit is that its produces an interactive method for how players acquire hulls. You could be sneaky about it, trying to drop in on a fight and pick things before people finished shooting. You could tail convoys of ships you wanted, etc.

The third big benefit is that its lore friendly. The feel of a game is often just as important as the mechanics working right. And omnifactories aren't really friendly with the idea of a declining sector without the old tech, getting by on hulls designed and produced from before the separation. It could also provide some meta plot, as the sector recovers and shifts away from salvaging.

Problem: This leaves capturing out in the cold.

That being said, capturing was never all that great a mechanic anyway, its random and then it works only if you have marines which you may not because capturing is so rare. But capturing can be repurposed to be much much more pirate like.

Mechanic:
In a retreat action once all combat ships retreat or are destroyed the combat ends regardless of whether or no there are non-combat ships left. These non-combat ships left can be captured by the winning side in the same manner they are now. If you fail the ship gets away[basically you put the marines on then it does an E burn and if they succeed it stops, and if it doesn't then it keeps going]. If you have no marines or just want to you may freely destroy the ship. The difference is that if you capture a ship you get it entirely intact including its cargo.

This makes piracy make a lot more sense too. They're after the stuff you're hauling around to resell it.

23

Suggestions / Separating Skills

« on: May 28, 2016, 06:20:10 PM »

In most games designing a skill system is not particularly difficult. There is one core action in the game and players simply choose which aspects of that to specialize and modify. Because there is only one core aspect to worry about its very easy to make evaluations as to keep options of similar value. Or, when its not the case that options are not of similar value there does not seem to be much of a problem, since there is only one core action.

But Starsector is not most games. Starsector has three (coming on 4) core aspects of the game to worry about. Individual performance, strategic map/fleet management, and command (with upcoming industry). And while its fairly easy hard for a balance issue within a branch to cause significant problems its very easy for a balance issue between branches to do so. Players feel like they have to play a certain way and ignore sets of skills. Players might as well not have "branches".

This probably isn't the only problem that Starsector has. The ordinance points skills, ironically the "OP" skills, seem to be necessarily, and science increases the value of every ship rather than just yours, making it too hard to pass up. Skills and bonuses aren't as unique as they could be and, besides the breakpoints don't seem to offer as much "transformative" gameplay opportunities.

The hardest solution to this is to force players to choose between the trees and just balance the trees properly. Not only do players want to be involved in all aspects of the game, but it also means that small imbalance feel very impactful. "I want to be combat focused but feel like i have to get the OP skills".

Another solution is to flip the marginal value of skills, so that dipping tends to be the most efficient. Players don't have to wait until level 15 in order to start putting points This has advantages in that it does not require any rewriting of the code skill code(just changing their values), but disadvantages in that eventually everyone kind of does everything.

The Least Elegant Solution

Sometimes the most elegant solution is best. Aaand sometimes the least elegant solution is the best. And i believe that this is the case here. Rather than having skill points and aptitude points players have tech points, industry points, leadership points, and combat points. The core skills go up gradually with level and you're able to specialize in each tree as you see fit. Like a "one aspect" game you have an easier time balancing the various skills within the trees.

An example of a system could look like this(without too much messing with the overall structure):

Leadership Base Skill: 1 Rank every 4 levels starting at level 1
-Grants 4 leadership points and 1 command point

Skills

• Logistics: Reduce standard maintenance costs. Develop supply fleets.
• Training: Increase crew XP, increase crew CR effect
• Tactics: New fleet formations available.
• Combat: Better marines, easier capturing
• Officers: More Officers
• Fleets: Additional friendly NPC fleets fleets/ give fleet orders
• Economics: Set up friendly trade, generate tax income

Combat Base Skill: 1 Rank every 4 levels starting at 2
-Grants 4 Combat points, 2% max combat readiness and 5% increase in peak deployment time

Skills

• Missiles: All the Missiles!
• Guns: All the guns
• Lasers: Pew pew
• Harder: Tank More
• Better: Flux!
• Faster: Zoom Zoom
• Stronger: Shields!
• Fighters: better fighters wooo!

Industry Base Skill: 1 Rank every 4 levels starting at 3
-Grants 4 Industry points, Grants ability to produce different sized ships and use different heavy industry hullmods at breakpoints

Skills:

• Industrial Org: -2% Production costs/level
• Off World Drydocks: Reduce refit CR costs.
• Automation: Reduce hull mod modification time*
• Space Optimization: Ships in fleet gain more cargo room
• Repair Gantry: Ships in fleet repair faster
• Special Modifications: Ships gain default shielded cargo.
• Hammers: Turret fire angle increased by 2%/level
• Vents: Allows more vents to be fit on ships

Technology Base Skill: 1 Rank every 4 levels starting at 4.
-Grants 4 technology points, 2% increase in OP per level, high tech industry hullmods at breakpoints

skills

• Sensor Shielding: Reduce running dark penalties.
• Navigation: Reduce Penalties, increase bonuses from overworld effects.
• EWACS: Reduce sensor burst penalties
• Intelligence Analytics: Gain more accurate and more timely intel updates.
• Deep Space Specialty: increase distance to planet required for outposts.
• Fuel Injectors: Reduce Burn Penalties
• Communications: Gain increased detection range for allies only
• Spy Drones: Gain more info about what specifically detected fleets are doing/composition

One of the big advantages of this specific tree and the overall structure is that, if you know a players level, while you might not know their specific advantages they've chosen you will know their general OP/available hull mods. And so enemy fleets can have variants which correspond to those levels. Almost everything aside from the combat tree is now a strategic level bonus. And so players do not have significant fleet advantages even if their flagship is pimping.

Of course there is nothing that says these skills are what would have to be used, just an example of how separating the skills can lead to specialization in all aspects of the game without as many balancing issues, while still maintaining a lot of the bonuses and advantages that players like.

*Will post another post about industry and how i kind of envision that working.

24

General Discussion / Weapon MATHS

« on: May 20, 2016, 05:48:03 PM »

This is largely something for myself, but i figured it could be useful to a number of other people. Generally i am just going to look at the top producers for each class of weapon. What to look for and why.

As an explanation there are three primary concerns in Starsector. Damage per flux. Burst damage. And range. Weapons which excel in one or more of these options (OP also matters sometimes) are more or less usable.

Range is useful because you can fire on an enemy without being fired upon. DPF is the equivalent stat to DPS, since ships shut down at peak flux, anything that does more damage for less flux functionally has higher "DPS" regardless of its actual DPS. And of course burst damage kills ships dead before they can react. Additionally there are weapons that are good vs shields(Kinetic), and weapons that are good vs armor(Anything with a high RAW damage number after damage modification).

I won't be listing weapons just going through and looking at which weapons are valuable and why.

Weapon | DPF: Shield/Armor | Burst: Shield/Armor - method | Range: Range

Ballistic Weapons in general

For the most part Ballistic weapons get worse as they get larger in terms of DPF and get better in general against armor. They gain more range and do more burst. Their best point defense is found in medium.

Small Ballistic

Light Needler | DPF: 2.49/.6225 | Burst: 294/73.5 second | Range: 800
Railgun: DPF | 2.226/.5565| 334/83.5 - second | Range 700

Both are useful for standoff shield damage and also as primary vs Shield DPF on larger ships. As weapons get larger their DPF tends to fall and as well the higher raw damage starts to advantage armor. The only reason to use anything but these is running out of space and/or not having enough.

Light Assault Gun | DPF: .5/2 | 80/360 - second | Range 600
Mortar DPF .75/3 | 37.5/150 - second | Range 450

The LAG is your go-to anti-armor weapon on a small mount. While its raw DPF numbers are higher than later weapons the "per shot" armor reduction value will make them significantly less valuable than the heavy hitting medium or larger mounts while the small kinetic mounts have no such disadvantage. The mortar is here not only because of its good DPF but also its exceedingly low OP cost of 2.

Vulcan Cannon | DPF: 6.25/6.25 |Burst: 125/125- Second | Range: 250

The Vulcan Cannon is one hell of a knife fighter, nothing else in the game comes close to the DPF and its actual DPR is not shabby anyway. Hard to deploy on anything but a frigate unless you specifically want point defense. Its also capable as an anti-missile weapon in this slot through not very reasonably as an anti-fighter.

Medium Ballistic

Heavy Needler | DPF 2.497/.624 | Burst: 422/105.5 -second | Range: 800
Heavy Mauler | DPF .444/ 1.77 | Burst: 100/400 -shot | Range: 1000

The Heavy Needler is good against shields and the Mauler against armor. There is no real reason to use any other long range weapon in these slots. Worth noting that because there are no good small weapons against armor. If you have the choice, put the mauler in your medium slot and the needler in your small slot. The hypervelocity Cannon isn't bad, per se, but its only particularly valuable for its EMP component. If you're not looking for that, stick with the needler.

Heavy Machine Gun | DPF 5.33/1.33 : 640/160 - second | Range: 450
Almost strictly better than the Assault Chaingun (which is three times as good against armor it has 3 times the flux cost)  the HMG is the premiere medium slot DPF. Its good at anti-fighter work, it knife fights, its flux efficient. If it didn't have such a low range it would easily go in every medium slot you can find for it. On fast cruisers or knife fighting destroyers (because that enforcer is going to burn right into the middle of the enemy anyway) its probably your best option.

Thumper | DPF .75/.75 | 112.5/112.5 | Range: 600
Flack Cannon | DPF 1/1 | 50/50 shot/second | Range: 500

The Thumper is in with the Flack Cannon because its actually a surprisingly effective point defense weapon. Against fighters it dominates the Flack Cannon and Dual Flack Cannon. Of note that once you do get through shield/armor on a ship a Thumper will wreck what is underneath really hard, having the highest hull DPF and DPS of any medium weapon. Its easy to find so no need to stockpile them, but consider using Thumpers instead of Dual Flack if you are looking for an upgrade and want something specifically anti-fighter.


Large Ballistic

Gauss Cannon | DPF 1.16/.2915 | 1400/350 - Shot | Range: 1200
Hellbore Cannon | DPF .454/1.816| 375/1500 - Shot | Range : 900
Mjonir Cannon | DPF: 2/.5 | 800/200 - Shot | Range: 900 + EMP
Storm Needler | DPF: 2/.5 | 1498/374.5 - Second| Range: 800

In general Mjonir's are better than Storm's in almost every way. But both are hard to find so keep your eyes out. Hellbore Cannons are better in every way than Hephaestus Assault Cannons simply because per shot high explosive damage is better than per second high explosive damage even if the Hephaestus has slightly better DPF numbers. The Mark IX Autocannon is only valuable due to its low OP. Gauss cannons are very rare, and, by the numbers mainly used for their range. Though their ability to punch through a shield and overload a ship instantly shouldn't be discounted.

Energy Weapons in General

In general energy weapons get BETTER as they go up in size in terms of DPF, as well as range and burst. Their best point defense is found in large but in terms of power for the slot its probably found in small.

Small Energy

Tactical Laser | DPF 1/1 | 75/75 - second | Range: 1000

The highest range small energy weapon. Only really valuable to stack a lot of 1/1 damage on smaller targets when you have a bunch of them, and/or kite. At 1/1 anyone with lower than 1 damage/flux on their shields will actually win the trade by tanking you. They're pretty easy to find and imo not all that valuable but they are high range so its worth noting.

PD Laser | DPF 1.5/1.5 | 75/75 - second | Range: 400
Burst PD Laser | DPF .914/.914 | 214/214 - second | Range: 500

The PD Laser has the highest DPF of any small energy weapon. Its a terrible DPF but its the best none the less. The LR PD laser costs more to run than a flack cannon for less damage than a PD laser. Sure it hits missiles that are forever away but unless you're a dedicated fleet wide PD its just not worth it. The Burst PD laser tends to be better missile defense (as you're on a hard time limit) but worse against fighters or other frigates where the PD laser is actually pretty effective.

Ion Cannon | DPF .833/.833 | 50/50- second | Range: 500

The Ion Cannon is easily the best general use small energy mount. Don't lets its small damage numbers fool you it does 400 EMP damage per shot, 800 EMP damage per second. A Mjolnir Cannon does 266 EMP per second at 200 per shot. A hypervelocity driver does 400 per shot at a rate of 200 per second. The Ion cannon may have low range but its got the EMP oomph of 4 medium ballistic slots! Its a Salamander MRM every 1.8 seconds.

Antimatter Blaster | DPF .938/.938 | 1400/1400 - shot | Range: 400

While it has terrible DPF its got the highest per shot damage of any non-missile in the game against armor. Nearly the highest against shields. Get up close, take an enemies shield down and then break their hull in a single shot before they can get it back up. Its got charges but this weapon is super useful on dedicated platforms. They're like torpedo's that are hard to miss with that can't be defended with PD.

Medium Energy

Gravitron Beam | DPF: 2.66/.665| 200/50 - Second: Range: 1000

I think the only worthwhile medium energy slot in general. It has high range and a DPF greater than one. Its total DPS kinda sucks but the Heavy Blaster has a DPF of .694 [despite OK, legit high total DPS at 500], and the Pulse Laser has a DPF of .909 and neither of them have 1000 range.

Phase lance | DPF: .831/.831| 1250 - Second: Range: 600

The phase lance does about 1250 DPS for something like 2-3 seconds. Since its more efficient and with more burst at the same range as a heavy blaster and nearly as efficient as a Pulse laser there is basically no reason to use any other weapon but the phase lance.

Ion Beam | DPF: .25/.25 | 50/50 - Second: Range: 1000

The Ion Beam is worthwhile because it has 1000 range and 400 EM DPS. No other ion weapon is reaching out that far. This makes it fairly valuable in conjunction with gravitron beams. But be careful, each Ion beam you add makes it harder to get through the shields to actually do that EM damage.

Ion Pulser| DPF: .75/.75 | 750/750 - Second: Range: 500

I will admit i don't think i have ever even seen one of these. But while its got charges it does 4000 EM DPS at 400 sized chunks. Its actual real burst DPS isn't that bad either! Downside is that its out of charges in 2 seconds. They will regenerate of course but remember this is a specialty weapon

Heavy Burst Laser: Mentioned here because its the only medium sized point defense. While medium sized PD for ballistic is amazing, this isn't that much better than a normal burst PD laser which isn't that much better than a normal PD laser.. If you need point defense you will probably want to stick to ballistic.

Large Energy
Finally more than a handful of weapons that break into >1 DPF! Also we're ignoring the Thermal Pulse Cannon because its built into only one ship. But otherwise every large energy weapon besides oneis good in its own way.

Autopulse Laser| DPF: 1.2/1.2 | 1500/1500 - Second: Range: 700
High Intensity Laser| DPF: .5/2 | 250/1000 - Second: Range: 1000
Tachyon Lance| DPF: .748/.748| 2249/2249 - Second: Range: 1000

The number speak for themselves really. The Autopulse is probably your general "go-to" stomper. If you can hit with it, especially a number of them, reliably, you're going to be dealing some damage. To compare; its as much burst and DPS as a TPC but less range. The HIL is great as a complement to Gravitron Beams so that once you've gotten through shields you can actually do something to what is underneath. And the Tachyon Lance is the Tachyon Lance.

Guardian PD| DPF: .666/.666 | 667/667 - Second: Range: 750

Its got the highest range and best burst DPS of any point defense. It won't ever be as effective as flak is against missiles but it will shred fighters.

Missiles in General

The best thing about missiles is that they use zero flux. The worst thing about missiles is that the vast majority of ships will have point defense and will swat them out of the air for very minimal flux cost of the defender. So you have to be smart about your usage (in most instances) at least until you can get some ECCM packages for them. I won't be doing a real write up on missiles because all missiles are valuable in their own way. However the ones that are the most rare are

Atropos Torpedo Launchers of all stripes. They're, imo the best torpedo due to their high speed and slight tracking. But more importantly they're the hardest to find. All medium and larger launchers besides the pilum LRM can be hard to find. Of the large launchers the Squall seems the least useful to me since it fire so slowly for the effect. While the Hurricane or Reaper Launcher are probably the best.

Additionally its worth noting that Salamander and Pilum's launchers don't run out of ammo and while their overall DPS and effect is very low(The Pilum due to low speed, the Salamander due to its tendency to try to get around enemies) smart use can make them quite powerful (Salamanders against retreating enemies, Pilum as fire support). Its also always worth hiding a torpedo in the middle of an annihilator swarm