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Author Topic: Help me, I'm a newb!  (Read 14018 times)

Midnight Kitsune

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #15 on: December 13, 2015, 11:59:37 AM »

Hey all thanks for the responses! I really appreciate all the feedback. As to what my loadout is, I have a save where I just bought the ship and I've been fiddling around with buying things and running simulations with whatever I end up with, but I can't seem to beat even one ship that is in my weightclass. I usually end up with like 10-15 of each flux stat and I add blast doors and expanded magazines. Then I do two light assault gun turrets on one side and two heavy needlers on the other side then a plasma turret in the middle. Then two sabot srm missles and two anhilliator missle racks on the other. Do I need more flux?
Why don't you post a screencap of your setup on here? (Imgur works great)
Also are you using mods?
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Pushover

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #16 on: December 13, 2015, 12:50:23 PM »

Expanded Magazines probably does nothing on an Enforcer, since it affects guns that have a limited amount of ammo, such as Antimatter Blasters.
Blast Doors are also unimpressive, since in combat, all it gives you is a tougher hull, not any tougher armor.
Capacitors are generally the least important thing on a ship, flux capacity does not matter for most builds.

Vents, on the other hand, are often the most important thing on a ship. The dissipation rate of your ship heavily determines how often you can be firing your weapons, as well as how long you are vulnerable when not if you need to vent flux.

As for good hull mods, the generally good ones are:
Resistant Flux Conduits: you WILL vent your flux, and EMP damage reduction helps vs things like Thunder Fighter Wings, or pirate Wolves.
Integrated Targeting Unit: Better range means you can stay out of range of your opponent.
For the Enforcer, and other ships with a bad shield/good armor:
Heavy Armor: Someone did the math, and Heavy Armor is actually better on well armored ships than lightly armored ones.
Armored Weapon Mounts: More armor is good. Enforcers have a pretty bad shield. Best to use it to block missiles.
On bigger ships, you should also consider Auxiliary Thrusters to make the ship turn better.

On well armored ships like the Enforcer, Dominator, and Onslaught, you want to keep your shields off as much as possible, relying on thick armor to save you from damage.

Never overload in a fight if you can avoid it. The one case it might be worth it is to avoid getting hit by a Reaper torpedo. Instead, just vent. Instead of being useless for a few seconds, and then still having high flux, you will have no flux, and be set to continue fighting. On an Enforcer (or any other ship with Burn Drive), it's often a decent idea to turn away from your enemy when you reach high flux, then Burn Drive away. This can allow you to reset your flux.
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Nimaniel

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #17 on: December 13, 2015, 03:24:53 PM »

If you are having trouble in an Enforcer, it is probably because of it's poor 1.2 shield/flux ratio, combined with relatively poor flux dissipation considering how many big guns it has. This is even more problematic in the early game when you don't have skills to alleviate the flux issues.

Another drawback of the Enforcer is its slow speed. Even for a DD it is slow (although it does have burn drive to compensate).

I have never tried, but if your fly an Enforcer solo in the early game, you will probably not have a good time. Your best be is to get a wingman or two, and have them escort you. In addition, you must manage your flux very carefully, intentionally taking kinetic damage on the armor/hull instead of on your shield, when you can afford it. If you are overloading, you are either in a situation you can't win, or taking too much damage on your shield.

Ships with high tech shields (better shield/flux ratio), higher speed and better flux dissipation are much easier to fly, particularly early on when you have not levelled up yet.
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Jude

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #18 on: December 13, 2015, 03:38:52 PM »

-snip-
You know, I've always heard the Enforcer talked about as though it were actually a really good ship, but I personally have never had one last very long, either piloted myself or in the AI's hands.

So what are the upsides to that behemoth? is it mostly just the armour?
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harrumph

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #19 on: December 13, 2015, 03:59:12 PM »

It's mostly the weapons and the OP. The Enforcer out-guns some cruisers and has an enormous amount of OP. It scales really well as you level up—you can pack a crazy number of destroyer-priced hullmods into what's basically a light cruiser.
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Jude

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #20 on: December 13, 2015, 04:11:39 PM »

It's mostly the weapons and the OP. The Enforcer out-guns some cruisers and has an enormous amount of OP. It scales really well as you level up—you can pack a crazy number of destroyer-priced hullmods into what's basically a light cruiser.
I see. I guess it's just a matter of balancing big weapons with flux dissipation then. Good to know.
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Thaago

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #21 on: December 13, 2015, 04:15:21 PM »

Try putting single flaks on the sides, a heavy mauler in the middle with 2 heavy autocannons on the sides. Save OP by using Reapers or Hammers in the missile slots, then get the vents as high as they will go. Unstable Injector helps a lot as well.

That should give you a solid warship that either you or the AI can use well, and it can outrange most frigates. Just try not to get surrounded and swarmed.
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Dri

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #22 on: December 13, 2015, 08:12:24 PM »

Ya see this thing? This thing has nearly 10,000 hull and over 1100 armor - and its a destroyer! Look at those two Dual Flaks - NO missiles are going to hit this thing.

Spoiler
[close]

Enforcers are love, Enforcers are life!
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Achataeon

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #23 on: December 13, 2015, 08:15:18 PM »

It's also good to have an officer with the perk that allows hull regeneration to pilot Hull-Heavy ships, 'specially that enforcer right there. Makes them nigh impossible to take down.
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BillyRueben

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #24 on: December 13, 2015, 08:51:17 PM »

My favorite Enforcer setup:

- Assault Chaingun in the front mount.
- Heavy Machine Guns in the 45 degree mounts.
- Flak Cannons in the side mounts
- 4 Annihilator Missile pods

Throw Safety Overrides and as many vents as you can on that thing, and anything that gets close (that isn't bigger than an Eagle) gets murdered without hardly enough time to raise their shields.
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harrumph

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #25 on: December 14, 2015, 07:12:19 AM »

I like two dual flaks, three heavy needlers, and four Harpoons, with ITU, Expanded Missile Racks, and Augmented Engines. Easy for the AI to handle, and capable of easily winning 1v1 against anything smaller than a Dominator.
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Vind

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #26 on: December 14, 2015, 07:30:12 AM »

Considering AI weakness with shields up even then no immediate danger present anything kinetic heavy with some missiles/rockets/torpedoes will do the job.
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zenstrata

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #27 on: December 14, 2015, 08:08:40 AM »

I am really struggling with the entire game, but more specifically, I am having a lot of trouble with customizing my new ship. How do I equip it with a well balanced/powerful load out? I Try to have a balance of kinetic and high explosive weapons but I feel like everytime I run a simulation I get destroyed by any ship that seems at all equivalent. I guess what I'm saying is; HELP!!

P.S. Im running SS+ and Nexereline.

Hi Menos87!  Welcome to starsector =)  I have been playing this game for a while, and the early game has gotten a good bit rougher with the latest patch.  The options you pick starting out will make a difference when deciding which path to take.  

I like the combat path, so I pick the following choices:
1st Choice - 3. A Bounty Hunter
2nd Choice - 2. Acquired some high-end weaponry
3rd Choice - 1. Easy (more salvage less powerful enemies)
4th Choice - 2. Learned with some thought toward the future (assign your own skills)

This will start you out in a Wolf-Class frigate with a Heavy Blaster (rare energy weapon) in your inventory.

very first thing, assign your skills! Put your aptitude points into the Technology Tree and spend your skill points on Applied Physics and Mechanical Engineering.
You are aiming for the following upgrades initially and long term, - Stabilized Shields, Front Shield Emitter, Hardened Shields.
This will give you the ability to outfit your flag ship with decent shields which are much easier to keep up and use to mitigate incoming damage.  Also long term when you get into better ships, you will be able to mod the shields to be very good.

Next go to the closest planet or space station and Refit your ship.  Remove the Harpoon MRM missiles, replace your Pulse Laser in the front with your Heavy Blaster, on the right side get rid of Blast Doors and put on Stabilized Shields and Unstable Injector, and put two more points into your ships Capacitors.  Then click on your Weapon Groups and make sure your Heavy Blaster is on weapon group 1 and your Point Defense Lasers are set to auto-fire on weapon group 2.

Now for fighting you will let your point defense lasers auto-fire at things while you control the Heavy Blaster.  Raise your shields and use your ships special skill of short range teleport when needed to avoid enemy fire or chase things down, or to get away to give you time to vent flux when needed.  Try not to get surrounded and take enemies out one at a time - which should be doable as your ship will be faster than most enemies due to your upgrades, and you will have decent shields.

Next you want to move to the Magec System.  The reason for this is one of your next goals is to get yourself into a better ship, I prefer the Tri-Tachyon ships and weapons (mostly energy in nature) so fighting pirates in their system will help you raise your reputation with them and get access to better ship hulls and weapons.  Use the Maxios Jump point in the Magec system and use planet "Maxios, Barren World" as your primary base of operations.

Longer term goals are to get yourself into better ship, The next fighting class hull you should work toward is the Medusa Class Destroyer hull.
I outfit the Medusa with two Heavy Blasters and 1 or 2 of the cheapest missile launchers I can find, "Harpoon MRM single" work fine here.
On the Medusa I put: Hardened Shields, Front Shield Emitter, and Extended Shields.  I also use Safety Overrides.  The remaining points put into Vents.
This will leave many of the Medusa hardpoints unfilled and empty.  This is a Good thing!  You will be using those points elsewhere and the heavy blasters are beastly weapons capable of doing a ton of damage provided you can manage the flux levels.  Safety Overrides and the other suggestions I made for this ship build will help significantly.
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Medusa Class Destroyer
Hardened Shields, Front Shield Emitter, Extended Shields, Safety Overrides
1 single Harpoon MRM (basically so you have a weapon to select so your ship can auto-fire the weapon group you do not have selected)
2 Heavy Blasters
-----------

This leads to my long term battle strategy - I prefer to let my ships auto-fire at things to get kills and I concentrate on movement and shield management.  The reason for this is the computer AI is better at managing your ships weapons through auto-fire than you could ever do yourself.  When entering combat, I raise my shields and select my missile weapon as my active weapon, and leave my heavy blasters on auto-fire in the Medusa.  The heavy blasters will then proceed to blast whatever you are near to bits while you concentrate on keeping your ship alive and in a good position to fire.  The safety overrides and the extra vents turn the Medusa into a beast which will chew through almost anything (within reason) even the biggest Cap ships are vulnerable to this beast once your have leveled up your captain properly.

As you level concentrate on skills which will give you more command points and raising your shield defenses.  Next put some points into skills which help with managing your flux dissipation.  Then work on your energy weapon skills to raise their range and damage.

My end goal is to get to the Aurora, this ship is my end-game ship, Here is a link to the build I use for it and the strategy I use when fighting with it.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=7914.msg134099#msg134099

With that Aurora and a good skill setup I can smash through any fleet in the game with that 1 ship, usually I am around level 50+ once i get to that point, so it does take a while to get there.  I keep a couple of the base level Buffalo-class freighters to carry loot and such around with me.  They have very small crew compliments and they can carry a decent amount of loot back to sell allowing you to travel around squishing enemies and collecting items and weapons.  

The Aurora is very difficult to find however and may require you to capture it from someone who already has one.  I spent a huge number of hours hunting around for the ship I wanted, then I spent even more trying to build up the economy of the system where my ship was commonly sold so it would appear, then I gave up and flew around till I found someone who had one, then I saved the game and fought the guy over and over till I was finally able to capture it.  Aurora's are incredibly rare!

To do this successfully, you may need to find a fleet which has one in it, then destroy every ship except the one you want to capture.  Then run away from the battle.  Then save as soon as you get out, then attack the lone aurora over and over (reloading the save repeatedly as needed) until you are able to capture it.  The odds are you will need to do this, because they almost never come up for sale anywhere.

Well that's it!  Other strategies work well, but this is my strategy.  I ally myself with Tri-Tachyon and fight other factions and enemies to level up and gain loot and income.  Tri-Tachyon is usually enemies with the Luddic Path, Luddic Church, Hegemony, and of course the Pirates.  So don't fret if you lose faction with those other groups, eventually you will be anyway, and you can only ally with one group usually.  The independents will love you because you will be smashing pirates, so you should always be able to find a port in most systems.

Also one other thing, The Maxios jump point is VERY USEFUL.  I think Magec is one of the best systems in the game because that Maxios jump point will always pop you out right next to the planet.  I strongly suggest paying for storage at that planet early on and using it as your base.  You will be able to sell your loot there for good prices, and since that jump point is always right next to the planet, you can easily hop into hyperspace and hunt fleets there if you want, then pop back and sell and store whatever you find.  This is the Only jump point in the game I have found which is like this.  Other jump points tend to wander around their systems, and you will have to do a bit of traveling to get to your chosen port through other jumps.

Good luck! And enjoy the game!

((More Random Advice - When selling loot be sure to keep the following weapons for outfitting ships! - antimatter blasters, srm swarmers, heavy blasters, Burst Point defense lasers, and Heavy Burst Point Defense lasers.  These are very useful weapons and I tend to use them on most of my builds.))

Edit note! I changed the build of the Medusa a little based on suggestions from other folks, evidently I had made a minor mistake with the mods and the changes make a big difference in capability!  So use the edited one =D
« Last Edit: December 14, 2015, 03:47:03 PM by zenstrata »
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Cik

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #28 on: December 14, 2015, 08:19:55 AM »

it's a good post but you suggested removing harpoons from the wolf

what

why

why remove harpoons from any ship?

harpoons are the one of the best weapons in the game

if you aren't using small missile mounts you are really screwing up, those PD lasers on the wolf are useless because PD lasers are pretty garbage at actually PD and because the wolf can phase skimmer out of any missile save perhaps salamander spam.

better wolf fit is heavy blaster, 2x harpoon MRM (small mount) and then a frontal PD burst laser.

alternatively, you can use varying numbers of IR pulse for an assault wolf that's also pretty threatening.

but removing harpoons? why.jpg
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zenstrata

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Re: Help me, I'm a newb!
« Reply #29 on: December 14, 2015, 08:22:35 AM »

it's a good post but you suggested removing harpoons from the wolf

what

why

why remove harpoons from any ship?

harpoons are the one of the best weapons in the game

if you aren't using small missile mounts you are really screwing up, those PD lasers on the wolf are useless because PD lasers are pretty garbage at actually PD and because the wolf can phase skimmer out of any missile save perhaps salamander spam.

better wolf fit is heavy blaster, 2x harpoon MRM (small mount) and then a frontal PD burst laser.

alternatively, you can use varying numbers of IR pulse for an assault wolf that's also pretty threatening.

but removing harpoons? why.jpg
I am not a fan of the Harpoons unless I go with missile spec captains, as I spec for energy - missiles are usually an afterthought and only on there when I need to select a weapon so my other weapons can auto-fire effectively.  He could leave them on there if he wants, I just personally take them off and concentrate on using my heavy blaster to get the job done.  But yes, your build seems good too.  My main complaint with missiles is they are very limited in ammo capacity.  And I hate spending points on things which may eventually run out of ammo and be useless.

Two harpoons on the wolf is a fair number of points which can be used elsewhere - their removal helps pay for the unstable injector which will greatly help moving around in combat and will give a much needed maneuverability edge which will make the difference when fighting groups of 3 ships, basically its a build which fits my personal playstyle.  I suggest experimenting a bit to find a personal playstyle for everyone, but at the start it is difficult because of limited resources.  As he plays, undoubtedly he will come up with his own setup.  

The exception to my 'anti missile' policy occurs once I get into the cruisers.  Cruisers usually have enough points to play around with adding decent missile pods.  Once there I put on SRM Swarmers which are incredibly helpful in dealing with annoying fighters and smaller ships.  The Eagle for example makes a good fighting cruiser when outfitted with antimatter blasters, swarmers, and such.  It has been a long time since I used an eagle though, as usually once I get the Medusa I go straight for an Aurora next.  My ship progression tends to be, whatever semi-decent energy frigate I can get my hands on (wolf works here), then Medusa, then Aurora.  I also pick up a couple basic Buffalo's in there to help ferry junk around.  And the Medusa build I put in here is truly beastly by itself.  Makes a good ship for a secondary mercenary captain to pilot should I need help, or a good backup ship if I need to take something other than the Aurora due to CR restraints.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2015, 08:45:12 AM by zenstrata »
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