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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Messages - FooF

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31
General Discussion / Re: Termination Sequence continues to be terrible
« on: February 28, 2024, 06:32:41 AM »
Seems like the consensus suggestion is to ensure Drone uptime is much higher than current, which jives with my opinion. If I could Frankenstein some of the ideas thus far presented:

- Reduce Drone replacement time to a flat 10 seconds if destroyed. Isn’t actually a flight deck, does not benefit from Carrier skills but doesn’t count against them, either.
- System has 2 charges with 20 second recharge time. If the system is used, a new drone is immediately deployed. Is affected by Systems Expertise.

I’m divorcing the drone replacement rate from Termination Sequence charges because Drone death is independent of system use and 20 seconds has always felt excessive. The only wrinkle is that the system would be unavailable for use if both drones have been destroyed, but with a reduced replacement time, it’s at most 10 seconds away.

32
General Discussion / Re: Termination Sequence continues to be terrible
« on: February 27, 2024, 12:39:12 PM »
The AI used the system too frequently, yes. I will say that the drones being faux-missiles is interesting enough to keep, though.

Suggestion: Reduce Terminator replacement time to 10 seconds. Make Termination Sequence have a 20 second cooldown. The Tempest would always have at least one drone, barring destruction, and at minimum 50% uptime with both. Yet, it would still retain the “free”’missile.

This actually touches on a topic the Tempest is in the middle of: built-in Drones counting against the Fighter wing total of the Carrier skills. I don’t think they should (nor receive any benefit from Skills) because they are part-and-parcel with the hull they’re attached to. I also don’t think any Drone (even Terminators) are on par with any bona fide Fighter outside or Talons, yet they hurt your bonuses as much as one. Shepherds and Tempests are prime offenders, but the Venture is also in the mix.


33
General Discussion / Re: Partial commentary of 0.97a
« on: February 27, 2024, 10:41:21 AM »
SIM Dominator actually has decent PD and will swat fighters, too. Squalls not getting through doesn’t surprise me. All that to say, I wouldn’t base my judgement of Squall effectiveness using that example.

34
General Discussion / Re: Partial commentary of 0.97a
« on: February 27, 2024, 09:42:57 AM »
On the topic of PD, Burst PD always wants more charges but I don’t think I’ve ever put on Expanded Mags for the sole purpose of making my PD better. If I have other weapons that need the bonus, and the Burst PD also benefit then yay, but Burst PD getting some passive boosts from Elite PD skill could be good.

What if Elite PD also gave +50% charges to PD weapons? Paladin would also benefit. If you then stack Expanded Mags on top, you’d have some very powerful PD, but would it be too much?

35
General Discussion / Re: An analysis of SP sinks and some thoughts
« on: February 27, 2024, 05:46:59 AM »
Reading is hard. Disregard.

Putting a cap on BotB or any of these other SP-heavy skills is too heavy-handed for me. You shouldn’t nerf these skills because a minority of players can’t get their SP-addiction under control.  ;) It’s not like the increased power from these skills doesn’t come with a commensurate investment, as you’ve already said. In fact, most of these skills confer very little until you start investing in them. Low floor, high ceiling, and all that. It’s up to the player to decide when enough is enough, not arbitrary hard caps.

I’m also not convinced “converting a whole fleet” should really be in the cards, or to put it another way, a scenario we should balance the game around. I can’t think of a time in my dozens and dozens of runs where I just didn’t start over if I ever felt compelled to try something else.

36
Suggestions / Re: Alpha Core Admins
« on: February 26, 2024, 07:30:23 PM »
Ever since AI was introduced and cores could be utilized in colonies, even entrusting them to run entire planets, I think the expectation has been "this will end badly." However, the consequences for doing so has been limited to AI inspections, Pather interest, and Alpha Cores refusing to give up their governorships. All can be somewhat mitigated one way or another so the existential threat of AI use is basically non-existent.

I don't believe that is the intent, though. Alex just hasn't gotten around to it. I'm of the mind that Alpha Core governed colonies should do some nefarious stuff on the side, but more akin of what the Beta Core was doing to scientists in one of the Galatia missions. That is to say, searching for Omega and/or preparing for its ascendency. While I would hate for Alpha Core'd colonies to randomly spawn Remnant fleets or go completely HAL 9000 without warning, I do believe players should expect them to sabotage your best laid plans over time. Human sub-administrators might warn you that while overall efficiency has never been higher, they are losing track of small shipments, production facilities are using small percentages of their output to unknown ends, etc. and the AI's Grand Plan basically marches on beneath anyone's notice. This may lead to the odd colony going rogue but I think it could fuel an end-game scenario where Omega returns in force because of the machinations of AI you thought were working for you!

Only click below if you want to spoil the true endgame, though! ;)
Spoiler
The Great Lobster Emancipation on Volturn. Makes the AI stuff look like child's play by comparison. Who knew Ludd was a lobster?
[close]

37
Suggestions / Re: My wishlist for the next update
« on: February 26, 2024, 09:52:08 AM »
Well you'll be happy to hear what Alex is currently working on.

Was that announced somewhere? What'd I miss? :D

38
Suggestions / Re: My wishlist for the next update
« on: February 26, 2024, 09:38:06 AM »
You can ctrl or shift click to select multiple tags at the same time, btw.
WHAT? When was this added, because I can't believe I missed this since I would've used this a looooot. Can't recall being told this anywhere also, not the game, not forums, not reddit, anywhere.

(But I do disable help popups for new campaigns)

Gah, I didn’t know this either! And I call myself a veteran…

My one wishlist item: Simulator Overhaul It has Pirate Dominators and Eagles not even in the game but no ships post-0.8. Even fighting against officered ships would be helpful, since toward the end you’re always fighting against something more than baseline. The Sim could also log battle statistics and have a practice dummy if you’re just looking to test DPS or loadouts.

39
I like the idea of it being a unique colony item, rather than a structure that becomes mass-produced.

If it were such a stand-alone item, it could be buffed to fairly extreme levels. “Effectively raises ground defenses to unassailable levels, barring a PK weapon. Tighter access control of global airspace reduces insurgent activity to a maximum of -1 stability and keeps unwanted forces from reaching the surface.”

The thought here is that the planet in question is virtually impossible to disrupt directly. Shortages can still hurt it but raids, AI inspections, invasions, and other destabilizing activities bounce off it. The blurb about a PK weapon is quite intentional, though!

40
Good write up, though I disagree on switching the two abilities. Reverse Polarity is a godsend, yes, but slipstreams are not always on demand, nor can you control where they go. Slip Surge is crude, but definitely gives the player initiative. Using a black hole, you can easily traverse a quarter of the sector instantly. That said, I agree it could come earlier.

Regarding the re-work, I haven’t had a lot of problems aiming it but at the same time, I don’t believe it’s is intended to be precise.If I were to put forward any room for improvement, I would have a 360 degree dial appear on the gravity well with an arrow of intended travel and let the player rotate it to the desired angle. Pause the game if necessary but a little finer control would be good.

41
While technically true, I don’t see the benefit of changing it back. There’s nothing wrong with the current version. The only major difference would be that overloads would be longer if it was a single large impact versus the smaller individual ones.

42
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: February 25, 2024, 02:59:36 PM »
I've maintained for some time that Small Energies could use a cheap hard flux option roughly equivalent to the Light Mortar. Instead of poor accuracy, it just has low rate of fire. Whereas the IR Pulse does more raw DPS and is more general purpose, this would be more specialized, have 600 range and would do HE. Mounted on High Tech ships, it would help with armor cracking but due to the low overall DPS and damage modifier, it would be virtually useless against shields if you try to kite with it.

Something like:
3 OP
600 Range
50 DPS (100 HE damage/shot, 30 shots/min)
50 Flux/sec

43
I can't wrap my mind around this at all. Why are we trying to nerf a rare quest item that is barely useful as it is?

The argument seems to be:
1.) If you get this this quest item, you must use it. (Completely false)
2.) If you use said item, it looks bad (subjective)
3.) ? ? ?
4.) Therefore, make said item use a valuable Industry slot when it doesn't even confer that great of a bonus and costs 750,000 credits (what!?)

It's not mandatory to build at all, like not even a little. I barely use it even if I have it. If it were an Industry, I would literally never build it.

If you don't like the aesthetic, maybe the suggestion should be to modify the color (like the Fusion Lamp)? 


44
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: February 24, 2024, 09:41:40 AM »
I don't understand Mortrag's dilemma, either. I have hordes of weapons stashed away at colonies (or an abandoned station early) for virtually any ship. I tend to value certain weapons higher (Heavy Maulers, Railguns, etc.) but I still have dozens of them by the end. The only weapons I sometimes have to search for are Large Energies, prior to Ordo hunting. But, I'm bounty hunting all the time so I'm looting them off a wide variety of ships. The only time I feel I'm at a loss for weapons is really early in the game, and it's not so much I don't have a weapon but more I don't have a preferred weapon. Which is fine.

45
Suggestions / Re: Hellbore buff?
« on: February 24, 2024, 07:01:35 AM »
Hellbore having low DPS is a feature, not a bug. It's a specialized Large Ballistic that is literally the most flux efficient armor-cracker in the game. It's not intended to be a general-purpose weapon nor is it supposed to be "strong." Why its DPS is being compared to HAGs or Mjolnirs (which cost more OP and flux to operate) is odd. What else do you expect? It's the cheapest Large Ballistic for a reason.

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