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181

General Discussion / Re: The Last Hurrah and Predator or Prey?

« on: February 20, 2012, 11:41:22 PM »

Okay, after trying Predator or Prey five or so times, I can say it's pretty darned near impossible, if it isn't. The main problem is that turrets and engines can now be disabled. So, while my Dominator is busy homing in on the Astral, the Wasps will dart in and out and disable my engine and my Reaper launchers, which prevent me from knocking down the Astral's shield.

And that's if you can even get close to the Astral. The best way is to sit tight with a Defend order right at the spawn, and keep your forces together as best as possible to weather the fighters until the Astral comes blundering down, to minimize the travel distance.

I'm going to give it a few more tries before I officially call it quits on Predator or Prey  

EDIT: Yeah, no go. Best I've gotten is to get the Astral down to a bit less than half health. But that was kind of luck, since the genius Omen decided to eat a Hurricane volley for me (and die).

182

General Discussion / Re: The Last Hurrah and Predator or Prey?

« on: February 20, 2012, 11:06:21 PM »

welp. I know all this.

Can you beat these missions now? Because I've more or less executed those strategies and usually end up getting slaughtered. I'm operating under the belief that right now some AI changes have happened and made these missions impossible.  

True, I ended up with 80%+ scores on both of these before 0.50, and since then, the fighters have gotten much better at flanking. I'll give at least one of them a go right now and we'll see.

EDIT: Okay, just played The Last Hurrah, applying the same strategies. Got a 69%, but that's entirely because of the AI's new tendency to retreat once things aren't going well. I didn't lose a single ship or fighter wing.

Order of deployment:
1) Thunders + 1 x Gladius
2) Carrier + flagship
3) Other Gladius, Warthogs
4) Hammerhead
5) Sunder destroyer

Was planning to deploy my heavier ships at the end to mop up, but they all ran away by then. My fighter wings chased down two of the Dominators, but the (nearly dead!) Onslaught managed to slip past since it was on the opposite side of the map as my flagship.

183

Suggestions / Re: Space Music

« on: February 20, 2012, 09:23:59 PM »

But space is dead silent

I dunno man, I kinda like how quiet it is. That said, Maybe radio chatter would be real cool, but if the voice acting's bad it could get real distracting.

I do like this idea. Radio chatter for things that don't appear on the feed in the top left would be cool, ie "Broadsword Wing on intercept course for enemy Dagger Wing." Could get distracting with a large battle though; it'd have to be implemented well...

184

General Discussion / Re: The Last Hurrah and Predator or Prey?

« on: February 20, 2012, 09:20:26 PM »

The Last Hurrah: Two main points to try,
1.- Send out your fighters/interceptor craft first, to cap as many points as quickly as possible, and only then send your capital ship in.
2.- When piloting your capital ship, watch for the bombers and make sure to wipe out the entire wing when they come in close, so they can't refit and come back again. See tips here: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=1021.msg10002#msg10002

Predator or Prey:
1.- Keep your group together. You need all the firepower you can get, and that means you need to prevent your fighters from charging ahead.
2.- Have your group focus on one fighter wing at a time: remember, if you destroy every single fighter in a wing, they won't come back.
3.- When the main threats (the several torpedo wings) are gone, charge at the Astral with the Dominator and side strafe to avoid its torpedoes.

185

General Discussion / Re: Piloting Captial Ships

« on: February 20, 2012, 08:22:07 PM »

I assume you're playing through the missions? If so, here are some tips for Forlorn Hope. The mission is only really difficult if you don't have the half-damage setting on. If you have that on, you can pretty much turn autofire on for everything and sit back and watch the fireworks.

If not, though, here are some pointers:

• Given your slow speed, you're essentially immobile, so you'll a sitting duck. You'll need to rely on your armor and super-thick shields. This is true for any capital ship, really, but even more so here (where you're the only target).
• That said, you need every benefit you can. At the very beginning, manuever yourself so you have a nebula between you and the enemies, so as to slow them down and give you time to react. This is again important for any capital ship, really.
• You have to learn what damage your armor can and can't absorb, and what targets to go for with your Lances. The Talon wings won't be worth your time, so let your PD handle that (have groups 3-4 on autofire). Use your Lances initially on the Hound + Lasher group, and later on the Enforcers.
• With so many guns firing, you need to make sure you manage flux well. You do NOT want to vent flux or overload on this mission, though, since you'll be ripped to shreds. Instead, when your flux is getting high, just hold fire (X). Your flux will decrease quickly.
• Hold fire before any huge missile volleys arrive, so you have enough flux buffer to absorb the ones your PD can't take care of. Then, when the volley arrives roughly within range of your PD, stop holding fire so your PD can destroy as many missiles as possible, without overloading.
• To fully clear away your flux, though, you'll need to bring down your shields. If there's just one or two Hounds around, bring down your shields and vent quickly if you're relatively low already. Bring up your shields when ships that have missiles/torpedos get close.
• Specific to the Paragon: use Tachyeon Lances to select what craft you do not want to fight against at close range. Target Enforcers and Lashers that have missiles/torpedos to either destroy them or force them to hang back. Your ship can handle each one at a time, but not all at once.
  
• Watch for bomber and torpedo wings. You need to keep an eye out for them as a capital ship. If you do notice one or more wings headed your way, make some preparations. Assign a nearby frigate or interceptor wing to intercept them if possible. If not, then prepare a flux buffer as described above, and turn your ship so that as much of your PD is pointed at the wing as possible.
  

That should cover most of the major points about managing capital ships, I think... as you can see, managing flux and proper positioning of your ship are basically the two major keys.

186

General Discussion / Re: I Have A Challenge For Each And Every One Of You! (not easy)

« on: February 19, 2012, 05:01:59 PM »

Yep, I've been enforcing the limits in terms of Cargo/Personnel/Fleet Size/Hangar Space for my fleet. I'm comfortably below 200, and I have the strength to deal with pretty much any threat

187

General Discussion / Re: Do they really exist?

« on: February 19, 2012, 04:58:58 PM »

I have three Conquests in the Station's inventory, so they're definitely attainable there. I've been waiting for an Astral... the ones that spawn always get scrapped after my engagements with them... :/

188

Announcements / Re: Starfarer 0.5a Preview (Released) - Live Patch Notes

« on: February 14, 2012, 03:21:02 PM »

Is there currently any way to "fast travel" back to the start location? I somehow managed to chase a Talon wing quite far off the map, and now can't seem to get back (literally flew for 15 minutes at max speed). Might have to restart... 

189

Suggestions / Re: Animated weapons in codex

« on: February 13, 2012, 09:10:07 PM »

I love this idea!

I also like the idea of the weapon firing at a dummy target or something.  That could be cool too.

It doesn't even need to be that complicated. Even a simple .gif-style animation of the weapon pivoting and shooting would already help immensely, so it's easy for newbies to immediately recognize "I should definitely dodge this" or "my ship's armor can probably take that."

190

Suggestions / Re: 0.35a Feedback

« on: February 13, 2012, 09:07:52 PM »

Back on the topic: I played another round desperately trying to be useful in my flagship and got blown to bits because I overloaded my shields. Upon this I recognized that I would really like some in the face warning indicator, when my shield is about to overload. I am always to busy to watch my flux meter.

Yeah, I had this problem for quite some time as I started playing SF. I would be intently positioning my ship to get the perfect angle for my hardpoints, aim carefully, and-- overload! I think the option to have a more "in your face" warning indicator for flux (ie, red text flashing at the middle-top of the window) would help smooth the learning curve.

As for not being as useful as setting my ship on autopilot: I disagree. In general, I find that I'm better at controlling ships than the AI (especially for the large ships, less so for the smaller ships), because I know exactly where I want myself and can react to non-immediate threats far better.

In terms of aim, though, the AI is better than me at aiming lasers/machine guns/any rapid fire weapons, so I almost always have those on autofire. I take manual control of any hardpoint weapons and slow-firing missles/cannons (ie, Onslaught's Hellbores) since I know the best time to use them and how to lead on smaller, faster ships.

191

Suggestions / Re: frigates are too small...

« on: February 12, 2012, 02:42:56 PM »

Go test out the Tempest frigate, and you'll probably change your mind 

192

General Discussion / Re: This game is too hard.

« on: February 12, 2012, 12:23:09 PM »

I'm 80-90% sure that the OP is just trolling you guys.

Hey, but it's still a good opportunity to discuss the best strategies 

193

General Discussion / Re: This game is too hard.

« on: February 12, 2012, 10:12:55 AM »

Another example of everything coming down to luck - 'Predators or prey'.

No. Here's a way to do well on that mission, at least in my experience:
1.- Keep your group together. You need all the firepower you can get, and that means you need to prevent your fighters from charging ahead.
2.- Have your group focus on one fighter wing at a time: remember, if you destroy every single fighter in a wing, they won't come back.
3.- When the main threats (the several torpedo wings) are gone, charge at the Atlas with the Dominator and side strafe to avoid its torpedoes.

194

General Discussion / Re: Current Favorite Pre-made Ship?

« on: February 11, 2012, 06:51:35 PM »

What, no love for the Astral? Its three flight decks are just amazing; being able to field so many fighters and keep them all up and running is amazing. The Conquest is also great; being able to toggle on and off the omni shield is perfect for fending off bomber and torpedo runs.

Don't love the Onslaught and Dominator classes what with their ridiculously slow speed and reliance on hardpoints for their main weapons: do enjoy the challenge of piloting them though!

195

General Discussion / Re: This game is too hard.

« on: February 11, 2012, 06:42:42 PM »

Maybe OP has a valid point, perhaps there should be one or two more missions where they're much more forgiving of mistakes to ease you in, this way people might have a testing ground for tactics and strategy while the really hard missions stay as they are.

Yeah, I would expect that in the final version, there will be more tutorials than the current two, which leave you with huge gaps in grasping even the basic interface.

Perhaps: one or two tutorials to demonstrate some of the strengths and weaknesses of different craft, another tutorial to supplement the current fleet tutorial that introduces some more advanced tactics, another tutorial to emphasize the management of 3-4 weapon groups and flux, etc. That would make the learning curve a bit less steep.

Understandably, though, that sort of thing is probably on the backburner now, what with all the work going into getting the campaign down.