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Messages - Aereto

Pages: 1 ... 17 18 [19]
271
General Discussion / Re: Officers and ship class
« on: April 20, 2014, 05:12:04 PM »
on a side note.

It seems like there are much more damage increase capabilities then endurance capabilities no?
Will we have longer battles between cruisers and battle cruisers?
Damage increase capabilities... that could range from current flux reserves to skills that directly increases damage yield of weaponry.

Endurance capabilities... that could range from hull mods that increase survivability to flux management.

I have to admit that I am at a loss here... As far as I see, offense and defense are interchangeable to one another. A good offense is a good defense and vice-versa... same with offense-offense and defense-defense thoughts. I don't see a discrepancy in the offense-defense balance at the moment.

A ship designed with armoring every part of the ship would have enough armor to have significant changes in the time taken for high-explosive weapons to punch through, while PD weapons deal with missiles and torpedoes... or enough hull to give the precious seconds to deliver its salvo before it goes out with a bang.

Then there is a ship designed to deliver the most damage to a ship in a short amount of time, using kinetic non-beam weapons to force shield drops, then pump out high-explosive and energy weapons to crack the armor and hull before the shields are raised or overload ends.

Then there's a ship that has the best of both worlds, making compromises and take what features would be most helpful in a wide spectrum of situations.

272
General Discussion / Re: What's YOUR flagship? Modded or Vanilla
« on: April 20, 2014, 04:53:46 PM »
Quote
its not about creating a flagship, its about the ship you like to fly the most.
In my case, as a Combat/Technology junkie, capitals are not a viable option until after level 30.  Much as I like to fly a Paragon or Odyssey to stomp fleets, I do not have the Logistics to do so until endgame.  In the meantime, I use Medusa and/or frigates to fight stuff.
Such method of growth implies that a captain needs to be resourceful and become one with each ship ever piloted... before being even worthy to be the admiral of a combat fleet.

Slightly venting hard flux and significant venting soft flux while shields are up, placing more weapons and modifications than factory-grade safety guidelines allow, and pull a turn as fast as the lower ship class size to deliver a battery of weapons tweaked to bring a bit more force and yield per shot... That kind of a captain? Such a captain may not be a tactician, but a captain of both engineers and helmsmen.

273
General Discussion / Re: Officers and ship class
« on: April 18, 2014, 01:37:32 PM »
I would like to see officers bring back a surrendering mechanic. That is, if a captain's perceived chance of survival falls below his "courage" threshold, he/she has a chance to either surrender or straight up flee.

I say this because I really liked the old surrender mechanic where you would capture a ship basically by default if it was unable to fight. Now, I think that the new mechanics with how ships can be crash mothballed and etc in order to flee makes more sense, but it still seems like there should be situations where an enemy captain should simply surrender rather than taking the chance of being shot of of the sky.

(unless of course that mechanic exists in the current build and I just don't know about it >.>  )
Diversity in AI captains would make sense on probability to flee or surrender. So far, I do not see any disabled or disengaging ships surrender; just goes on a 'run or die' plan. 'Prize crew' indeed when there's no defense survivors at the end of a boarding attempt.

274
General Discussion / Re: Starsector, is it the one?
« on: April 18, 2014, 01:32:30 PM »
EV was quite good; Starsector is leagues ahead of it in terms of combat, comparable in terms of user mod-ability, and (so far) leagues behind in terms of exploration, environment interaction, plotline, etc.  (Though some mods manage to address that...)
But, well, that's kinda what Alex is working on next, and it's still alpha anyway.  Totally worth getting regardless of that 'alpha' tag; I got my money's worth back when the campaign mode didn't even exist and you couldn't outfit your ships in missions, and it's only gotten better since then.

(Speaking of EV Nova, my favorite thing was always turning a Polaris medium freighter into a full-on warship.  Had to do the right plotlines to get the upgrades that let you mount guns at all, and you pretty much had to know about the wormhole network to bypass the hostile Polaris military outposts so you could buy the right ship... but it had amazingly strong shields, was quite decently maneuverable, and - with all the cargo-to-weapon-space conversions you could buy - had room for an amazing supply of missile weapons, with enough cargo space still left over to pay for a complete munitions restock in a single delivery run.  Spamming hellhound missiles was a great way to blow up everything in your path.)

I have to admit, this is one is very promising, even if it's a bit early for me to play something that does not have every feature available.

EV Nova is impressive, but carries different gameplay mechanics. Managing a fleet might not be practical, since no orders to do and buying ships as escorts. It has an economy and factions, though fixed.

Then there's the X-series, where it became extraordinarily time-consuming to build credits and a working complex that contributes to the ever-shifting economy. Does not feel like inertial flight, but combat goes where it counts... Still, every once in a while, an AI ship crashes into a station while docking/undocking... or ram into another ship, especially when setting a large ship such as a frigate to autopilot. Unintended rep loss.

275
General Discussion / Re: What's YOUR flagship? Modded or Vanilla
« on: April 18, 2014, 01:14:45 PM »
My flagship has changed several times while I try to find a sweet spot but right now, it is a wolf-class frigate with graviton beam, 3 tactical lasers, and 2 Harpoon MRM racks.  Interestingly enough, the other 24 ships in my fleet are the exact same thing.  It's nice flying around at 14 burn in normal space and warping to the other end of the battlefield so the enemy doesn't have time to retreat.
Now that's what I call a Wolf pack. I am not an agile captain, so I do not pilot frigates unless pursuing.

276
General Discussion / Re: Officers and ship class
« on: April 17, 2014, 11:58:14 PM »
I would be curious as to how officers will do to ships. But if capital ships would become quite scarce, would shipyard-like stations be the best bet to find them?

I tend to buy at least one ship per combat ship class, since I may or may not find use in it later on.

277
General Discussion / Re: What's YOUR flagship? Modded or Vanilla
« on: April 17, 2014, 11:49:45 PM »
My flagship is the Paragon, though I'm usually in a Hyperion out-of-combat and while pursuing disengaging fleets.

Until reputation gain events are placed, I will stick with pirates while stockpiling supplies and elite crews. Since I outfitted it to crush heavy cruisers and below, pirate armadas and plunder fleets are struck down by a lone Paragon while a trio of Hyperions engage fleeing ships.

278
General Discussion / Re: Capital flagship suggestions
« on: April 17, 2014, 11:40:57 PM »
While still new and recently purchased the game. My play style went well with the Paragon. The outfit when I first had my hands on it was armed with all beam weapons. I would still play in vanilla so I could get the feel the direction as updates go by. After moving on to a different, it was saved as the 'Attrition' variant.
Spoiler
2 High Intensity Laser
2 Guardian PD
6 Graviton
Tactical to all small energy mounts
Harpoon to all small missile mounts

Hull mods include augmented engines and maneuvering thrusters to improve turn rate and speed; improved optics, turret speed, and integrated targeting unit brings out the range and responsiveness on the beam weapons. Rest went to flux or shield-focused mods.

This outfit struggles with capital ships, but outlasts anything else smaller. The focus was on flux management, sacrificing finishing strikes to conserve reserves when surrounded, found effective if Combat aptitude is 10 and gained limited hard flux dissipation while shielded. Found to put an end to large pirate fleets, since the largest they have at the time are cruisers, especially when flying with just one capital for any reason. It will withstand some waves until CR depletes. While beam weapons deliver soft flux when shielded, graviton beams are just for that purpose, build up flux to the point that enemies could not fire weapons that give off more flux than it can carry. After getting a sizable fleet to keep pirates off me, I set that variant aside for long-term defense needs.
[close]

My current outfit is named as the 'Obliterator' variant

Spoiler
2 plasma cannons on hardpoint
2 Tachyon turrents
2 Gravitons at front
4 Phase beams on the rest of medium mounts
Tactical laser on all small energy mounts
4 Reaper torpedoes

Modded with Augmented Engines and Maneuvering thrusters; has integrated targeting unit and stabilized shields; made sure to put 100 points to venting, or it won't last when surrounded.

This outfit became a credible threat to a capital, even with heavy escorts smaller than a capital; it was matter of which ship can the plasma cannon salvo say hi to first. Due to said player-only skills, PD lasers were no longer used (unless the opposing fleet carries high-yield torpedoes). More than enough to erase a pirate armada or cut off all combat ships in a supply fleet and leave the disengaging fleet to the Hyperions (My default flagship is a Hyperion, but always switch to Paragon on first engagement; needed to have extra CR on reserve.). The gravitons at the front were placed to keep pressure on enemy flux before the plasma cannons are ready to breach. Tachyons are most useful in putting ships under EMP and take out long-distance and fleeing ships. The torpedoes were meant in the rare event of facing a capital; that or accurately predict and hit a fleeing target with unforgiving linked firing of all four. While a bad idea in itself, piloting that variant by itself while engaging the Hegemony's 3 Onslaught ships with escorts was successful, though left with more than mere armor scratches. As far as I remembered, that was on 'full damage' setting, and the AI mishandling the Onslaughts to burn drive into my plasma cannon range.
[close]

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I find myself relying on front shields over omni-shields; one being that playing on a laptop made it impractical to move the cursor over fast and accurate enough to minimize damage on particular points.

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