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[mendonca]

Hello,

Thanks for your great looking faction!

I feel the Orca freighter is over weaponized. This is a freighter, but with the armaments of what, an heavy cruiser? Are you using BalanceSuite5000 and how it fares?

Hi there, thanks for comments and the compliment!

and yeah, as Upgradecap says, the Orca is supposed to be highly weaponized, and you'll notice it sits in with the 'Capital' class ships (unless I remembered to shift it in to 'Cruiser' with the latest version ...). It was supposed to be a combat capable carrier, by design, and almost a miniature capital ship.

It is supposed to be balanced, and actually sits okay in terms of the last time I checked it against the BalanceSuite, and Apophis' codex puts it pretty weak in terms of balance (which is okay, as it has decks, cargo, personnel capacity etc.).

Checking again, it is carrying only 10 OP more than the Eagle (which is 2 FP less) and 30 OP less than the dominator (which is 1 OP less). The Orca is also significantly less durable than the Eagle. I don't know really, it's a tough balancing act, and maybe it could do with a few less OP to balance it a bit, but it doesn't seem that far off to me. I'll think about it though...

Have you experienced it being quite a tough cookie, in battle? In my experience I find it a bit of a liability, but maybe that's just the way I play

[vorpal+5]

Big OOOOOPS. Forget about the Orca. I meant the Octopus... So let's resume the discussion on this ship...


In my hands (perhaps not in the AI's hands, but then the AI has no hand, so no hand no chocolate, oops I digress   ) ... what I was saying... yes, in my hands the Orca Octopus is just an awesome toy. It is cited as a freighter, but have these following attributes:

a) transport a lot of cargo and fuel. Ok, that's a freighter.

b) has a hangar size of 20. Now, that seems a lot, check the other ships, the carriers of other races have that, not much more. In essence, it has the hangar size of an escort carrier, close to a fleet carrier.

c) 1 large missile slot. This is the abuse I believe. LARGE, really, for a freighter? This seems very weaponized to me. Check the other ships of your faction at the destroyer level, even them don't have a large slot... I would remove it entirely, and even without, it would have more weapons than any other freighter, and on par with most of the others combat destroyers of other fleets.

Check in comparison the weapons of a condor light carrier or a walkyrie troop transport. Your Octopus is uber weaponized I believe. At least, remove the large mount, that should be reserved for military ships I think...


While I'm there, I humbly request to be able to use your faction in my total conversion mod, where the Junk Pirates would be used by the PRC instead (People Republic of China). For that, I would also need to rename the ship classes, but I would leave the weapons and weapons mounts untouched. The look of your faction would fit quite well what I have in mind for the PRC, so please? You would get full credits in the readme, sure.

[mendonca]

Big OOOOOPS. Forget about the Orca. I meant the Octopus... So let's resume the discussion on this ship...

a) transport a lot of cargo and fuel.

b) has a hangar size of 20.

c) 1 large missile slot.

Aaaah ... yeah, the Octopus.

When you put it like that, I had to go and check. Indeed the Octopus does have a Large missile slot. I thought it was medium ...

These are all very valid points, and I will think about how I balance this back down. I was always kind of assuming that due to the AI Octopi exploding on a regular basis, the combat capability of the craft was suitably low, not quite appreciating that this was down to a sub-optimal variant more than the actual physical balance of the hull. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

While I'm there, I humbly request to be able to use your faction in my total conversion mod, where the Junk Pirates would be used by the PRC instead (People Republic of China). For that, I would also need to rename the ship classes, but I would leave the weapons and weapons mounts untouched. The look of your faction would fit quite well what I have in mind for the PRC, so please? You would get full credits in the readme, sure.

This sounds cool, and in principle I would be very interested to see these ships in another mod with a different flavour!

So I will say, yes!  Go for it (I don't see a problem with it being part of another total conversion). Also, if you are doing this as part of a total conversion, and you are renaming the ships etc., feel free to play about with the ship builds, if you feel it is necessary for what you are trying to achieve.

Without wanting to sound like a twerp, I hope you don't mind if I withhold the right to withdraw this permission (as I haven't seen what you are trying to do with your mod yet - I'm sure I won't have an issue with it when I see it, but I hope you understand where I am coming from).

[NikolaiLev]

Hiya.  I just started playing as JP in Uomoz's Corvus mod.  I started with the sickle, and I realized the Standard loadout has advanced optics.  You might not know this (I know I didn't until I tried this out) but advanced optics only affects beam weapons, not energy ones.  So, tactical lasers are affected but say, pulse lasers and Cutlasses are not.

The Standard Sickle has two Scatter PD lasers and a Cutlass, as well as Advanced Optics, which ends up being a waste of 5 op.  Might want to rethink some of the loadouts. 

[mendonca]

Hiya.  I just started playing as JP in Uomoz's Corvus mod.  I started with the sickle, and I realized the Standard loadout has advanced optics.  You might not know this (I know I didn't until I tried this out) but advanced optics only affects beam weapons, not energy ones.  So, tactical lasers are affected but say, pulse lasers and Cutlasses are not.

The Standard Sickle has two Scatter PD lasers and a Cutlass, as well as Advanced Optics, which ends up being a waste of 5 op.  Might want to rethink some of the loadouts. 

Good point! And thanks for raising it ... I've had a pass through all the ship variants, and nerfed the Octopus.

1.22 available from the OP.

[NikolaiLev]

I'm liking the faction far more than I initially thought I would.  As I fought them from an IF perspective they were little more than cannon fodder, but playing them is quite rewarding.  They have an awesome feel to them.  I love capturing enemy ships and refitting them with a schizophrenic loadout, adding to that junky feel of my fleet.

Other than some balance issues (why is the Dugong so expensive?) my biggest complaint would be the ships are just... too colorful.  They have this ugly maroon/dark turquoise color to all their ships with the occasional baby blue.  Maybe it's just me being a dullard, but I'd much rather see them more grey, brown and rusty than so... colorful.  @_@

Gotta admit, the color scheme was what made me lukewarm towards the faction when I started playing.  Other than that I like the ships.  The Goat is my favorite so far.  Oh, and the sprites themselves look very nice, though some of them look too... organic.  But again, all personal taste.

Oh, and for some reason I get a SPAZ vibe from the ships, though I can't actually recall what most of those ships looked like.

[mendonca]

Ha ha! Yeah, I can't say I've ever been particularly good with colours, this actually reflects one of my better artistic endeavours, with respect to the use of colour. The honesty is much appreciated.

I put the Dugong relatively high because of it's excellent fire support options, a large missile mount on a cruiser supplemented with three mediums is 'top of the range', and it also has a decent assault capabilty with a low crew overhead. I just think it's pretty good, and didn't want to offer it too cheap

E: of course, I'm very glad you're enjoying it. This makes me happy

[Avan]

New ships!

I like the progress you've made, and it seems that a few of your original ships got some touchups too. Or am I just imagining that? 

[mendonca]

Or am I just imagining that? 

No, depending on when you last looked at them, the Orca, Sickle, Hammer and Octopus in particular have been tweaked a few times ... If I had the time, most of them would get another few passes of touching up aswell ...

[Avan]

Ok, I thought so!

Particularly noticeable on the sickle and hammer.

[NikolaiLev]

Ok, I thought so!

Particularly noticeable on the sickle and hammer.

Well greetings, comrade!

By the way, another minor complaint.  The Spikes seem far too fragile to be 6 FP, I would think they'd be competitive with the Broadswords but they don't have the firepower to match up and iirc they don't have much else going for them.  Cleats are nice, though.

[mendonca]

Damn. This new version has thrown a massive curveball in to the balance equation.

Just having a play about with systems before I get this thing updated, and working on something else:

[Erick Doe]

Damn. This new version has thrown a massive curveball in to the balance equation.

Just having a play about with systems before I get this thing updated, and working on something else:

Oh yes. Those phasing ships are doing quite a number on my poor Ante's. Nice new ship though. It looks like an organ holding on to several parts. It also reminds me of an octopus, thanks to those squid like arms and that lobe at the bottom.

[MShadowy]

Damn. This new version has thrown a massive curveball in to the balance equation.

Just having a play about with systems before I get this thing updated, and working on something else:

Yeah it has.  Guess I was slightly lucky in that I had less to work with.  Still, your mod is one my favourites I'm eagerly awaiting the next release.  Also, JP phase destroyers(?), hehehe.  Excelleeent.

[mendonca]

I've updated to v1.30.

- New ship - the Turbot (Phase Destroyer)
- New system - Phase Drones
- Systems added to existing ships:
  sickle - burn drive (point capper extraordinaire)
  clam  - fortress shield
  hammer - fast missile racks
  Boxer / Boxenstein - jets
  Octopus - midline pd drones
  Orca - hi-tech pd drones
  Stoat (A&B) - burn drive
  Langoustine / Kraken - HEF
  Scythe - Flares
  Goat - sensor drones
  Turbot - phase drones
-Turbot variants added to campaign fleets, and a mothballed hull available at Junk Yard
-Turbot available for test drive in 'Test Mission' (also in corresponding refit / simulator)