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

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Author Topic: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes  (Read 596154 times)

KDR_11k

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1845 on: April 23, 2021, 06:46:24 AM »

If you want your 150 virtual armor go stick Militarized Subsystems on a frigate, get Auxiliary Support and combine that with Elite IM.

Which release did you play?  As soon as I updated to RC14, at least three more core worlds (Sindria, Aztlan, and one other) that did not have cells previously suddenly got them. 

Also, if your colony was size 3, then cells never appear until size grows to 4.  (If I plan to then spam spam Alpha colonies, I plan to keep all of those colonies at size 3.)

Like I wrote before, as soon as I installed items into Ground Defenses and Patrol HQ, my colony got a Pather cell because both items added +4 interest each.  Nanoforge and Synchrotron still add +4 interest, so I know I will get a cell if I put those two together on a colony bigger than size 3.

I may of dived in at the wrong time (sorry), this was on RC12 before I ran the update.  The planets are all at maximum population, I think this one should of gained their attention:
Spoiler
[close]

Still I was surprised I didn't get any Pather interest at all in this game, though the Pirates and expeditions still kept me busy.

Yeah, they were bugged in RC12 and ignored everything except Alpha Admin.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2021, 06:50:30 AM by KDR_11k »
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1846 on: April 23, 2021, 07:45:21 AM »

Alex, is it really intentional that the non-combat phase ships count against the Phase Corps op limit?

I was hoping that would be patched. I don't know what purpose this serves, and it makes the description rather misleading.

It's a bit weird - they don't have the civ-grade hullmod, so technically they're not civilian. But I can see how it's weird/annoying. It's on my todo list of things to look at; a ton of things are that didn't get into the hotfix.
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Megas

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1847 on: April 23, 2021, 08:03:01 AM »

Currently, I have ten Phantoms in my fleet (and plan to go even higher) to help steal blueprints from Culann.  That place is a meatgrinder even after I kill the battlestation to lower its defenses, and it is only size 5.  Lose about a thousand marines.  (I do not want to think about what I need to steal from size 7 places, namely Kazeron and Sindria.  Not touching Chicomoztoc except for its forge.)

Kanta's Den is nowhere near the meatgrinder the quest for Zal claims.  I lose much less than what I lose from raiding low defense planets with blueprints.
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Megas

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1848 on: April 23, 2021, 08:39:01 AM »

Just took a quick peek in one of the data files with the items in it, and noticed "pather4" for most equipped items, which explains +4 to interest.  The exception is Hypershunt, which has "pather8".  I guess that means +8 to interest, which is more than enough for a cell.  Since the colony needs to be big to meet 9 or 10 demand for transplutonics, I probably end up throwing the hypershunt in the trash, or maybe do some devious exploit against a core world (like plant a Pather cell to destabilize the place, unless it enforces the 10 ly restriction).
« Last Edit: April 23, 2021, 08:54:52 AM by Megas »
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IonDragonX

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1849 on: April 23, 2021, 09:02:05 AM »

Well, before this patch +150 armor was incredibly huge, just a must-have for any ship.
I think it’s the flat number that is the biggest factor. It should have been something like 50/100/150/200 based on hull size from the start. 150 is just out of balance for Frigates
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AcaMetis

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1850 on: April 23, 2021, 09:08:25 AM »

Just took a quick peek in one of the data files with the items in it, and noticed "pather4" for most equipped items, which explains +4 to interest.  The exception is Hypershunt, which has "pather8".  I guess that means +8 to interest, which is more than enough for a cell.  Since the colony needs to be big to meet 9 or 10 demand for transplutonics, I probably end up throwing the hypershunt in the trash, or maybe do some devious exploit against a core world (like plant a Pather cell to destabilize the place, unless it enforces the 10 ly restriction).
Last I checked it does enforce the 10LY restriction (and activation) in order to work, but they'll install it regardless, so it might still generate interest even though it won't generate any demand or do anything else?

I mean hypershunt taps are basically trophies in any case, since by the time you can use them you've proven that you're 100% done with your fleet both in terms of combat and trading, and therefore don't need them.
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oooh_senpai

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1851 on: April 23, 2021, 09:13:51 AM »

Well, before this patch +150 armor was incredibly huge, just a must-have for any ship.
I think it’s the flat number that is the biggest factor. It should have been something like 50/100/150/200 based on hull size from the start. 150 is just out of balance for Frigates
yea, 200 on top of 2000*0.05=300 indestructible armor. It would make capitals and some cruisers unkillable. No thanks
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oooh_senpai

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1852 on: April 23, 2021, 10:05:09 AM »

    Changes as of Hotfix #5 (-RC14), April 21, 2021, 1:20pm EST
    • Tactical bombardments no longer count for "atrocities committed by player"
    What does it actually mean? I still cannot launch tactical bombardment without becoming hostile, no matter of transponder being turned off or on.[/list]
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    oooh_senpai

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    Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
    « Reply #1853 on: April 23, 2021, 10:05:34 AM »

        Changes as of Hotfix #5 (-RC14), April 21, 2021, 1:20pm EST
        • Tactical bombardments no longer count for "atrocities committed by player"
        What does it actually mean? I still cannot launch tactical bombardment without becoming hostile, no matter of transponder being turned off or on.
        [/list][/list]
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        Alex

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        Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
        « Reply #1854 on: April 23, 2021, 10:06:35 AM »

        Ah, it's not a huge deal, but I don't want to spoil it.
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        IonDragonX

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        Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
        « Reply #1855 on: April 23, 2021, 10:20:35 AM »

        Well, before this patch +150 armor was incredibly huge, just a must-have for any ship.
        I think it’s the flat number that is the biggest factor. It should have been something like 50/100/150/200 based on hull size from the start. 150 is just out of balance for Frigates
        yea, 200 on top of 2000*0.05=300 indestructible armor. It would make capitals and some cruisers unkillable. No thanks
        You know what? Maybe you're right.
        Lets make it 25/50/100/150 based on hull size!  :P There! All better.
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        Hiruma Kai

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        Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
        « Reply #1856 on: April 23, 2021, 11:09:31 AM »

        So I've started a low tech run in RC14, and the larger armor tankers feel a lot squisher than they did in 0.9.1a.  Now this may be intentional, but officered Onslaughts are noticeably weaker to small and medium weapons fire.

        The loss of synergizing armor tanking skills seems to have hurt a number of armor tanking ship in the transition from 0.9.1a to 0.9.5a.  Enforcer probably doesn't notice as much since it received a fairly large armor bump.

        In 0.9.1a, skill wise the options were:
        +150 armor damage for calculation purposes (reduced to +50 as elite)
        Maximum mitigation raised from 85% to 90% (removed - so armor at best is multiplied by 6.67 instead of 10, an effective reduction of 33% at the top end, or against kinetics overall)
        -20% armor taken (increased to -25%, or 1.2 more armor converts to 1.33 more armor, a 10.8% net improvement)
        +50% armor for calculation purposes (removed - so period of maximum 6.67 reduction is reduced)
        -50% kinetic damage (removed)

        Heavy armor hull mod for a capital improved from 400 to 500 armor.  A heavy armor fully skilled Onslaught (2150 armor, 100% CR) likely was taking minimum damage from most kinetics for the entire time (i.e. 100 damage or less).  Which meant, 119,444 kinetic damage to break through to hull in one spot.  Now a heavy armored Onslaught (2250 armor, 100% CR) tanks 44,466, or about a factor of 3 less.

        It's less dramatic for energy and high explosive admittedly.  A pulse laser's 100 damage used to remain around 7.2 until around 330 armor was left.  An Onslaught's armor would have absorbed ~27,600 worth of pulse laser damage.  Now, minimum pulse laser would be 10.1, and starts to rise at around 330 armor as well. So it absorbs about ~20,500 worth of pulse laser damage.

        So against the moderate damage category (around 100 damage per shot), if armor had an efficiency like shields, it went from 0.75 to 1.0 for energy, and 0.3 to 1.0 against kinetics.

        Now, because of the residual armor mechanic, these skills have a large effect on hull damage as well.  Assuming all shots land in the same spot (a bad assumption, but it's what I've got), and ignoring shields, it took approximately 915 unskilled pulse laser shots to kill an Onslaught in 0.9.1a.  In 0.9.5a RC14, it takes about 552, roughly only 60% as much.  If you assume spread out shots, the ratio becomes even worse, as the armor holds up longer in 0.9.1a.

        On the other hand, in 0.9.1a, it took 6 unskilled reapers (4000 HE damage each) to kill , and it 0.9.5a, it still takes 6 unskilled reapers to kill, so the high end of high explosive damage is pretty much not a noticeable down grade.

        Shield tanking, on the other hand, has gotten stronger in the transition.

        For skills we had:
        -20% shield damage taken (same)
        10% of hard flux dissipation (improved to 15%)
        -25% high explosive damage (improved to -30% as elite)
        +20% max capacitors (improved to flat +10)
        +20% max vents (improved to flat +10)
        +10% flux capacity (improved to +20% for 240 DP, same at 480 DP)
        +10% flux dissipation (improved to +20% for 240 DP, same at 480 DP)

        At this point, hardened shields and shield modulation are likely much better investments on high armor AI controlled ships than Impact mitigation and heavy armor - which was kinda true back in 0.9.1a as well due to the nature of the flux war and AI.  Although, in the presence of small ships and no HE missiles, at least I saw my AI Onslaughts vent while under fire.  They seem less willing now.  I will note, if you want maximum damage absorption, you obviously take both, because they do improve things, but you should prioritize the shields first.

        If people wanted to buff high armor ships specifically, as opposed to generically help all ships minimum armor, effectively a hull tanking mechanism, the 0.85 to 0.9 maximum reduction was a good option.  It's a further 33% buff at the high end, that falls off at the low end (since there isn't enough armor to reach a 0.9 reduction level).

        I should go check to see if the AI battles mod has been updated.  I'm willing to bet shield modulation + hardened shield Enforcers and Onslaughts would beat impact mitigation + heavy armor versions in a head to head match up, all else being equal.
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        Alex

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        Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
        « Reply #1857 on: April 23, 2021, 11:22:30 AM »

        Thank you for the analysis! Hmm; I wonder if IM shouldn't get some kind of bonus that specifically helps vs high-damage hits in the future; let me make a note about that. It'd be thematic, useful, and it would not create the problem of nullifying kinetic/low-hit damage vs hull. Something like being able to eat an extra couple of Reapers with an Onslaught - without changing the Pulse Laser numbers - seems like it'd be really nice.

        I'm not sure whether including +flux stats skills in this analysis only on the side of the shield-tanking makes 100% sense. That is - of course they help you shield-tank! But you also get significant benefits from them while armor-tanking, since your goal there is generally to win the flux war, and the flux stats help with that, too. I'm not sure exactly how you'd compare this, though; lots of factors to consider.
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        SCC

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        Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
        « Reply #1858 on: April 23, 2021, 11:27:10 AM »

        I would prefer bias against low-damage hits, since it means that when armour tanking, you had to watch out for big hits (reapers and whatnot) and catch them. If performance against all hit strengths is normalised, then it doesn't really matter what are you going to block.

        Alex

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        Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
        « Reply #1859 on: April 23, 2021, 11:39:43 AM »

        I get what you're saying, but we're not talking extremes here. Cutting the effective damage of a Reaper by 20% or some such is not going to make it into something you don't care about blocking. It just makes mistakes be punished a bit less - one might say, it mitigates their impact*.

        (*Sorry)
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