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Author Topic: Overrated (overpriced) ships  (Read 43050 times)

Grievous69

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #240 on: September 28, 2019, 03:06:53 AM »

You can just use Console commands to spawn a prometheus if you don't have a chance to otherwise get it. Or just put it in a mission so you can play around with various builds. It's much easier to see how a ship performs in that way rather than just looking at stats in codex or as you said, fighting against it.
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Plantissue

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #241 on: September 28, 2019, 03:15:45 AM »

You are going to have to tell me how to do it rather than telling me to do it, as I aren't familiar with programming. "Just" put it in a mission you say. If only it was so easy for me, I would had done it already.

I've been asking for the sim to be much more options for a while now so that it is easier to test out builds.
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Grievous69

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #242 on: September 28, 2019, 03:25:07 AM »

I've actually suggested multiple times that same thing, where we can just pick our ships, pick the enemies, and have a fight. Like a custom mission option but from the in-game menu. Playing with officers would also be great. But it seems Alex ain't too keen on that.

Now for the ''modding'' part, I also had zero clue on what do to, so I played with files and let's say I mostly figured out how to do it. So go into the game folder > starsector-core > data > missions and then I just altered the random battle one. Open the missiondefinition.java with notepad, scroll down until you see a list of ships starting with ''addShip'' then somewhere in those lines add the Prometheus mk II. It should be ''addShip("prometheus2_Standard", x);'' where x I think is the probability of a ship to be in a random mission, so just put it at 5 or something. I did the same with Atlas mk II so I could test them both.

EDIT: It's probably smart do to a backup of any files you plan to fiddle with.
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goduranus

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #243 on: September 28, 2019, 03:49:25 AM »

You are going to have to tell me how to do it rather than telling me to do it, as I aren't familiar with programming. "Just" put it in a mission you say. If only it was so easy for me, I would had done it already.

I've been asking for the sim to be much more options for a while now so that it is easier to test out builds.

Ok man, let's get you in a Prometheus in the simplest way, take you less than 2 minutes:

1.Run Starsector with any save,
2.Open your fleet and pick a ship you don't want any more, strip it and rename it something funny, like "1122334455", and then save game
3.Go to your save folder and open campaign.xml with a word pad
4. Press Ctrl+F and search for that funny ship name, "1122334455" in this case. You should find the funny name in a block of text like this, with the ship type defined with hId one or two lines below the ship name:
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<FMmbr z="138215" o="1" sid="buffalo2_FS" sN="1122334455" t="SHIP" iF="false" id="1e92cf" sUN="false" civ="false" cCiv="false">
<savedVariant z="138216" hId="hermes" v="0" c="0" hVId="buffalo2_FS" vDN="Support" s="REFIT" mAAW="true" gV="true">
5.Change the hId="hermes" or whatever, to hId="prometheus2"
6. Save the campaign file, and load it up in game, and the ship you didn't want any more will turn into a Prometheus Mk2
« Last Edit: September 28, 2019, 03:59:30 AM by goduranus »
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SCC

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #244 on: September 28, 2019, 04:00:22 AM »

I have played with Prometheus Mk II for a bit. It's the only ship in the game that can mount a HIL/TL+ ballistics combo and it's decently fun. Its speed of 50 is in between battleship and battlecruiser mobility, and it has burn drive, too. However, its flux stats leave much to be desired, so the best way to use Prometheus Mk II is to pretend it's a heavy cruiser, much like Atlas Mk II. Too bad it's very hard to acquire, in comparison to ubiquitous Atlas Mk II.

Plantissue

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #245 on: September 28, 2019, 04:01:20 AM »

You are going to have to tell me how to do it rather than telling me to do it, as I aren't familiar with programming. "Just" put it in a mission you say. If only it was so easy for me, I would had done it already.

I've been asking for the sim to be much more options for a while now so that it is easier to test out builds.

Ok man, let's get you in a Prometheus in the simplest way, take you less than 2 minutes:

1.Run Starsector with any save,
2.Open your fleet and pick a ship you don't want any more, strip it and rename it something funny, like "1122334455", and then save game
3.Go to your save folder and open campaign.xml with a word pad
4. Press Ctrl+F and search for that funny ship name, "1122334455" in this case. You should find the funny name in a block of text like this, with the ship type defined with hId one or two lines below the ship name:
Quote
<FMmbr z="138215" o="1" sid="buffalo2_FS" sN="1122334455" t="SHIP" iF="false" id="1e92cf" sUN="false" civ="false" cCiv="false">
<savedVariant z="138216" hId="hermes" v="0" c="0" hVId="buffalo2_FS" vDN="Support" s="REFIT" mAAW="true" gV="true">
5.Change the hId="hermes" or whatever, to hId="prometheus2"
6. Save the campaign file, and load it up in game, and the ship you didn't want any more will turn into a Prometheus Mk2
Thanks, I'll give it a go.
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Goumindong

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #246 on: September 28, 2019, 05:05:23 AM »

He has interesting opinions. It's best not to take his opinions as facts. Anyhow Goudmindong, I assume you mean prometheus MKII, not Atlas MKII. Have you used it though? I know it has a large from missile mount and two overlapping large ballistic mounts becuase I've fought it, but I've never really been able to buy of recover one for use. So I have no idea how wide the arcs are, how manoeuvrable the Prometheus MKII is, and what the rest of the mounts are like, unlike the Atlas MKII, where we can give layouts and proper opinions on its usage. I don't even know if its small mounts can even cover its own engines from Salamanders. I suppose it'll forever be just an opponent ship. I just find it hard to compare. It might have relatively low dissapitation rate compared with an Onslaught, but it does have 2 fighter bays so part of its ability to fight isn't reliant on dissapitation rate directly. Compared with the Legion, it's flux dissapitation is reasonable.

I have. Though not for long. It was by choice rather than luck. I found it so amazingly hard to fit that it wasnt worth more than a cruiser at the time. With max vents and ITU it has 140 DP left for other things. Which is like... the large guns and talons.

Its turret arcs are really good.
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Igncom1

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #247 on: September 28, 2019, 05:43:16 AM »

Too bad it's very hard to acquire, in comparison to ubiquitous Atlas Mk II.

Don't the pirates have heavy industry in vanilla? I think it's under a tier 2 low tech station. Not the best armed with guns and a decent target to hammer again and again that does the whole sector a favour.
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Serenitis

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #248 on: September 28, 2019, 09:41:46 AM »

Pilum missiles have extremely low hp, they are among very few missile types that can actually be stopped by token PD lasers. Trying to seriously base tactics on them is too easily counter-able.
Try using more. The same principal as fighters applies to them: Too many targets to effectively counter.
You just need more of them because they are so fragile.

Quote
Plus, Pilums have about the worst compatibility with FMR system. Can't spam like Salamanders due to clip based nature, and dumping like Sabots/Harpoons is nowhere near as threatening.
Thankfully, Pilums have about the best compatibility with FMR system. Because it helps to achieve the weight of numbers above when each launcher gives 6 missiles 'per shot'.

Pila are fantastic for campaign play because very few ships, let alone fleets are capable of dealing with them en masse.
Even the best PD (flak) will falter because it forces the target to run up its flux shooting/tanking silly missiles, leaving them vulnerable to more direct action as they try to back away.

Different approach, different result.

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TaLaR

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #249 on: September 28, 2019, 09:59:59 AM »

Pilums are too fragile to ever achieve a critical mass (in proper sense, like Spark Drovers). Just 2 LRPD (on a Falcon) are enough to shutdown 4 Pilum launchers (on Falcon P). Token PD is enough to stop attempts at Pilum spam.

It may kind of work against AI ships, but only because AI is too easily distracted by Pilums (way more than they deserve) and may lack even token PD.
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Serenitis

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #250 on: September 28, 2019, 10:13:04 AM »

It may kind of work against AI ships
It doesn't kind of work. It does work. They can absolutely achieve critical mass.
Granted, not many people will go to the lengths needed to make it work by building thier fleet around trashmissiles. But that doesn't make it not work.

And what other kind of ships are there but AI ones?
« Last Edit: September 28, 2019, 10:26:32 AM by Serenitis »
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Thaago

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #251 on: September 28, 2019, 10:40:05 AM »

Pilums are... well their greatest strength is in their ability to confuse the AI and stick around as potential threats for a long time. I have seen them achieve hits, and watching their cloud of HE slowly, slowly, hit overloaded targets is oddly satisfying. ECCM is a tremendous boost to their effectiveness, but it also negates their low OP cost to a certain extent.

I wish that one of the new skills is a fleetwide boost to missile stats - that would be amazing for Pilums.
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TaLaR

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #252 on: September 28, 2019, 10:42:40 AM »

I mean just a bit better designs + getting less distracted by Pilums would have been enough to break this strategy. Not so with proper spam strategy (Spark Drovers).
Though it's actually questionable, how important Pilums actually are in yours. You do have a lot of converted hangar Sparks after all.
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Serenitis

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #253 on: September 28, 2019, 10:59:00 AM »

Pilum are not 'optimal' by any stretch, but they are certainly good enough to be an option if you're willing to consider it.

ECCM is a tremendous boost to their effectiveness, but it also negates their low OP cost to a certain extent.
Not wrong. But I prefer to think of it as the low cost allows me to more freely use that boost. And all the ships that you're likely to use as missile platforms have quite a lot of 'spare' OP when you're not using the more expensive missiles.

Though it's actually questionable, how important Pilums actually are in yours. You do have a lot of converted hangar Sparks after all.
And all of those are on Falcons, which are waypointed off into a corner so they get infinite peak time, which is something that I've found is really nescessary when you can't do large battle sizes and have to take the long haul through all the reinforcements.
The Sparks don't need to be there, but they are insurance in case the Falcons need to defend themselves. Usually I'd use Wasps or Talons for that, but I had a ton of Sparks so why wouldn't I use those instead? It's not like the Falcon can't afford it.
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Igncom1

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Re: Overrated (overpriced) ships
« Reply #254 on: September 28, 2019, 11:01:01 AM »

ECCM also reduces enemy ECM bonuses right? So that's another nice little bonus from using them!
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