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Messages - FooF

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1
General Discussion / Re: Do you like traveling in the hyperspace?
« on: May 10, 2023, 10:28:49 AM »
I don’t have a problem traveling through hyperspace but I am (currently) disappointed in how empty it is. It needs to be more dynamic with more to do in it. Sensor ghosts were a good addition as are distress calls but other horrors could be lurking out on the fringe that demand more attention. My favorite thing to do while exploring is get sidetracked by something interesting and never even reach my intended destination.

There just needs to be more interesting phenomena and points of interest that catch your eye. Why is that hyperspace storm red? Why did that jump point just flash? That sensor ghost isn’t moving, maybe I should check it out. One of my favorite current oddities is seeing a sensor ghost materialize into a derelict ship or Remnant Ordo. There needs to be more of that.

2
I’m half tempted to try 4x Autopulse with S-modded Expanded Mags and then throw on all Burst PD Mining Blasters and Ion Pulsers. Short-ranged, maybe, but the burst DPS would be insane.

3
General Discussion / Re: Current notes on 0.96a
« on: May 08, 2023, 05:22:02 AM »
@Grievous69

I haven’t even tried the Pegasus yet. The Executor I was using was very suboptimal with weapon choices and hullmods. It felt “OK” but I was constantly soft fluxing myself out because it had less than 1k dissipation. One-one-one it felt fine but in fleet settings it was getting crushed when I inevitably had to vent. It is way more nimble than I was expecting, though. I imagine the Pegasus, relying much more on missiles and having a missile system, would be much stronger. I think the Executor has potential as a decent Midline generalist (again, a bigger Eagle) but its poor flux stats hamstring it. That’s why I was suggesting a -10 DP reduction if you get rid of the inherent Sindrian D mod. It definitely doesn’t compete with other 40 DP options even then but it’s definitely not worth 50.

Something you mentioned in the OP stands out: the Kinetic Blaster and Gigacannon sound like retro/1950s Flash Gordon sfx. Not bad, per se, but out of place? I’ve been underwhelmed with the Kinetic Blaster. It’s a worse Pulse Laser to me. I need to try it on a variety of ships but the inefficiency and OP cost are off putting.


4
General Discussion / Re: Current notes on 0.96a
« on: May 07, 2023, 05:00:22 PM »
Since this is just a general feedback thread:

Mining Blaster: +10, will buy again. This was a fantastic change all around and I actually have a pair of Tempests with MBs and Pulse Lasers that make really good generalists. I haven't really used it on Ballistic mounts but as a cheap HE option for High Tech, it's great. I'd dare say it makes the Phase Lance a little anemic.

S-Modded Expanded Magazines: This is a huge, huge buff. It makes everything with ammo just...amazing. The aforementioned Mining Blaster becomes very nice, the Autopulse becomes a monster, Ion Pulsers become a fantastic Medium energy anti-everything.

S-Mods in general: These do make me think about what I want to do with a ship now. Some are little bonkers, like the above, but I am genuinely weighing my options between more OP and S-mod effects. This is a good change.

Converted Hangar: I really like this so far. The DP increase doesn't really hurt me too much at this stage and the extra wings don't gut the ship. I haven't really tried it on any Destroyers but I have a CH Eradicator and CH Eagle right now that use them pretty well.

New Ventures: These things are awesome as new enemies. I'll never use them but they make fighting Pirates and Pathers more interesting. I keep seeing Hurricanes come at me from seemingly nowhere and then see a modified Venture.

Aurora: This thing is insane. I found a derelict with 2 D-mods that weren't deal breakers and decided to give it a go. It easily replaced the Executor I got from the Sindria arc. I know the only change was the shield efficiency but the meta game has made a lot of its options better. Pulse Lasers are better, the rear Synergy can take more impactful missiles, Typhoon has 7 torpedoes now (which is great in the front hardpoint)... I even added CH with some Broadswords for more anti-shield. Yes, it's 32 DP now but it's worth every penny. Please hear me out: it is not OP, it's just worth its DP now and until this patch, it was really hard to justify the cost.

Executor: This is the Eagle of Capitals. It's aggressively average with a few bright spots. Gigacannons aside (which are fun on this, btw), it just doesn't have the flux stats for getting in the thick of it but HEF allows you to hammer single targets pretty well. The built in Energy Bolt Coherer makes the few Energies you do use more competitive with Ballistics, but you still have to be very judicious with what you mount. I haven't used it with a lot of Combat Skills, but it was effective for what I was facing at the time. I'm not sure its worth 50 DP, though, even as a "joke" ship. Personally, I think removing the Sindrian D-Mod should remove 10 DP from its cost. If you decide to really go with it and front the cost of restoring it, it would be more economical to field. Hull Restoration doesn't remove the D-mod does it?

Ordos: These are much more interesting now. The Apex is a welcome brick to slam your ships against while the new Brilliant surprised me. I've only faced one Nova and it actually rammed me! I don't have much to say about it yet but that it killed my Eradicator.

Resistant Flux Conduits: one my go-to's on every ship, I've played for hours and just now found one. It hasn't been in any market and it took killing a huge pather fleet to get it. Is it rarer now?

Hostile Activity: I only have one colony and have a station and patrol HQ. Thus far, it's been fine but I can see that there will be a ever-present march toward 500. I think it, and Hyperspace Topography, both need their own Intel Tab. I didn't even know where to find the Hyperspace Topography event. They also take up the whole screen so having it underneath Colony Threats make sense but then you can't really go back and forth easily.

That's all for now. I'm very much enjoying it. There's still some discovery and I'm nowhere near endgame but the challenges have been fun so far.

5
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: May 06, 2023, 07:29:26 AM »
The Invictus doesn't appear to generate in the "Random Battle" mission. I've probably refreshed it 50x. The Retribution and Pegasus do but not the Invictus. I think all the new Capitals need to be in the Simulator. To be frank, every hull (minus REDACTED) should be represented. It's missing most of the staple Cruisers now, too.

I find it hilarious that the Missile Autoloader came standard on the Fast Start Dram. It is a perfect candidate(!), but...I'll never put it in battle.

6
Re: Recovery shuttle S-Mod. I'm thinking Talons. Those things chew through crew like no other and I honestly don't use them because I know I'll have crew problems. Now, I don't use Talons in general anyway because there are better options but S-mod that on an early Condor and toss a couple of Talons on there and you'll never have to worry about crew again.

I do admit, that's an extremely narrow use case, though.

7
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: May 05, 2023, 02:26:13 PM »
Things have escalated quickly in this first run:

Sindrian Shenanigans! Just stopped in to...see the sights...and get thrown into a conspiracy. Heck yeah! My fleet was too small to even tackle the first mission so I'm just out exploring for now.

New weapons! The Kinetic Blaster is not what I expected and I don't think it's the cure-all that people expect it to be. That said, it does have a niche. The G I G A C A N N O N is basically a better AM Blaster with 700 range (and without charges). 2000 damage! I really like the flavor text for it.

The most unexpected, but awesome, change I've experienced thus far is the new music. Especially the ambient stuff while exploring in systems. I mean, perfect eerie atmospheric mood music. Makes you feel alone, isolated, and on edge. Maybe it's because [REDACTED] were about but it really (and I do mean really) adds to the experience.

I've only seen a few of the new ships as they fly by but I can't wait to see more.

Also, just in my brief foray into exploring, I feel like "loot" density is up. I found two orbital habitats around the same planet and it feels like weapon/supply caches are more common. I have a super small sample size but it felt like there was a lot more in each system. Also, just more fleets flying around in general. I was ganked by a massive (4x Prometheus, 2 Auroras, a Champion, 2 Furies, tons of Destroyers and Frigates) fleet coming back from the fringe as I was leaving a system and then they turned pirate. They were headed back to some core world. Again, very little to go off of here, but there's just "more" of everything so far. I like it!

8
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: May 05, 2023, 10:37:43 AM »
Glad to see Eagle getting 60 speed in the end, gives slightly more space for experimenting with short-medium range weapons.
IMO it needs the M energies to pull their weight, beam only setup is a bit anemic.
If it's too strong this way DP can always go up.

I didn’t read the patch notes. This makes me happy.

9
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: May 05, 2023, 10:18:04 AM »
Ahhhh!!!! I have 4 more hours of work…

So excited though. Like, giddy as a toddler excited.

10
General Discussion / Re: Base busting builds
« on: May 04, 2023, 05:31:18 AM »
Piranhas. I know they don’t do particularly well against moving targets but immobile stations? Their DPS against things that can’t get out of the way are well-documented.

Barring that, yes, bigger ships with deeper flux pools and/or heavy armor for a sustained fight are necessary. High Tech takes a lot of damage on shields on approach because of the range mismatch so sometimes you get within range already overfluxed. Low Tech can typically just slug it out and I find Dominators to be extremely effective station crackers for their DP. They have Capital-grade firepower and armor and their glaring weaknesses can’t be exploited by a station. The only thing they lack is the superior range of a Capital.


11
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: April 26, 2023, 06:21:43 AM »
Yeah, I conceded the standard Eagle didn’t need it but as an XIV or Lion’s Guard variant, it would be cool. Kind of like the Legion XIV is a pretty big departure from the base version. I liked it on the XIV because it was a little slower and had better flux. It could support the Large better while not being too fast to disengage.

12
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: April 26, 2023, 04:41:35 AM »
The HAG is why I loved the “Give the Eagle a Large Ballistic turret” idea back awhile ago. It went perfectly with Heavy ACs up front and beam PD in the Energies on a platform that wasn’t too fast or slow. It made the Eagle a kind of slippery generalist that could hurt you if you let it just plink away.

The point being, the HAG does need a good turreted platform and flux to stand out.

13
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: April 21, 2023, 06:59:01 PM »
Knowing my luck, the patch will drop at the same time as Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. That would truly be a cruel choice.

14
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: April 20, 2023, 11:02:03 AM »
Yeah, don’t sleep on a more accurate HAG. It’s a gun that you can’t shield flicker like the Hellbore and is generally useful against all hull sizes. The only thing I don’t like is its flux cost. Whereas the Mk. IX is probably more useful as a generalist weapon (it does have decent damage/shot), the HAG isn’t too far behind and its higher DPS once the armor goes down means it finishes ships off better. Against Ordos, I think it’s more than sufficient, and it only really struggles against outlier Low Tech with lots of skills and heavy armor. Even then, it’s not bad: just less impactful than Hellbore shots.

15
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: April 12, 2023, 04:26:48 PM »
Re: Front-Shield Conversion

Chalk me up as one who uses it primarily as a QoL mod. I appreciate the usefulness of Omni Shields in "oh crap!" moments but, in general, I prefer the stability of good coverage Front Shields. The shield upkeep reduction was nice but not the primary reason I used it (not to mention that FSC cost more than Stabilized Shields, anyway). My favorite use-case was on an Aurora, as it gave 360 degree coverage and reduced the fairly pricey upkeep.

I admit that FSC was essentially Accelerated Shields and Stabilized Shields "in one" but you were also giving up pin-point shield flexibility, which can be a big deal. The AI definitely prefers Omni-Shields in my experience. I don't think I ever put FSC on non-player ships. As a side-grade option, I think FSC is fine with the new changes but you're paying for that QoL preference.

Other stuffs:

Something must have happened to the Eagle if playtesting is reverting the most important change: speed. I was excited to try the faster Eagle because that was my #1 complaint. I figured the 18 DP would be the first thing to go if it needed walked back but I didn't expect the speed change. I'm sure the meta game has changed with new weapons and hullmod options but it being nearly "too strong" at 20 DP is kind of surprising.

Apogee change is actually quite a shock. It's still in a hardpoint and the Large and Medium won't really converge but that's a lot more potential firepower vs. current.

I imagine the Converted Hangar change will be polarizing, either due to disrupting the status quo, or because DP costs can be considered one of the key stats in shipbuilding, especially as you push up against the 240 limit.

I'm ambivalent about the Drover changes. I saw the tweet and I'm still...underwhelmed(?)...by the B-deck idea. The reason I pick a Drover over a Condor is because the fighters on a Drover are superior to those on a Condor on a 1:1 basis. You can field more fighters with the ship system and get more DPS. It's the same reason I pick a Heron over a Mora in some cases. So, the Drover's ability to restore its Replacement Rate once just doesn't strike me as suitable replacement to Reserve Deployment. If you go 2x Bomber, it seems to me that that B-Deck perk could get used up toward the beginning of a fight and then you just have a 2-deck carrier with Active Flare Launchers for the remainder. Or, if you go 2x Fighter and don't see a ton of losses, you may never even get down to 50%. It just doesn't strike me as 40% better than a Condor if all you want is more flight decks. The B-Deck is a great idea, just not as a replacement for Reserve Deployment. Of course, I need to try it before complaining too much.

"Medusa: adjusted misaligned engine nozzle" - truly the unheralded diamond in the rough. :D

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