Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Szasz]

Yep, the Tempest build works and the reasons are logical. So far its tearing apart cruisers and AI is significantly better in my experience with this loadout. And I've given up on dorito ordos since basically only the most imbalanced stuff works there anyway.

To the rest of you: I don't understand your obsession with PD. The most dangerous projectiles Hell, all projectiles but two that can be shot down deal HE damage. HE already has a hard counter called shields. What am I missing? PD is counterproductive most of the time since its fire is drawn by random missiles or flares and beam speed is slow in Starsector, and the resultive constant retargeting significantly reduces anti-fighter capabilities which are often the bigger threat or outright the source of incoming missiles. Unless its named Dual Flak or Guardian I don't even consider equipping it anymore with one exception: small mounts sitting right on top of engines nozzles.

Addendum: Tempest has a new system in case anyone missed it.

[Salter]

To the rest of you: I don't understand your obsession with PD. The most dangerous projectiles Hell, all projectiles but two that can be shot down deal HE damage. HE already has a hard counter called shields. What am I missing? PD is counterproductive most of the time since its fire is drawn by random missiles or flares and beam speed is slow in Starsector, and the resultive constant retargeting significantly reduces anti-fighter capabilities which are often the bigger threat or outright the source of incoming missiles. Unless its named Dual Flak or Guardian I don't even consider equipping it anymore with one exception: small mounts sitting right on top of engines nozzles.

I would agree on the smaller mounts, but the AI doesnt like it when you dont give it any PD unless you use mostly reckless officers or something.

Frigates are small and generally speaking can dodge oncoming missiles and some attack pretty easily, but most missiles got tracking and unless you have some sort of defensive frigate like the omen to provide guard duty against it, you need point defense to evade and parry oncoming missiles, cause a few good hits can take out engines or worse. Granted terminator drones could be the PD, but since they also double over as your weapon system and the AI likes to throw them, its not reliable. On the upside, might as well fill a few of the slots out since the OD cost is really low and practically uses no flux when fired.

[Megas]

I tried HSA Graviton Tempest in several endgame bounties, and they worked about as well as a Tempest with a Pulse Laser loadout.  The range is a bit short, so I added ITU to the configuration.  10% more range is noticeable in frigate duels and lets the Tempest attack slightly further back otherwise.

The only thing next I could try them against is large Ordos fleet full of alpha cores in a red system.

To the rest of you: I don't understand your obsession with PD.

When I tried older loadouts that worked before the system change to Termination Sequence, my Tempests died more often.  When I replaced the weapon in the right mount with heavy burst laser, survivability went up to about pre-Termination Sequence.

Also, heavy burst laser doubles as anti-armor or anti-hull when enemy shields are down, and the range is the same as pulse laser.

Shield cannot be relied on when...
* Flux is too high to block all incoming Harpoons, Pilums, or whatever.
* Shield pointing toward enemy ahead instead of the Salamander coming up from behind, then engines get knocked out (or shield moves to block salamander then ship gets blasted by enemy).

Addendum: Tempest has a new system in case anyone missed it.

Which means Tempest can no longer rely on drones for PD because the AI will lob the drones at the enemy soon enough.  The drones were excellent PD in previous releases, but after Termination Sequence was added, the AI only sees the drones as Harpoon equivalents to launch at the enemy when shields are down.  Thus, if player wants PD on Tempests, mounting a small or medium burst laser in one of the mounts is the only feasible option.

[Goumindong]

I wonder if it works on the TT brawler.

[Megas]

HSA Graviton works on Brawler TT.  Needs missiles for anti-armor.  I used Swarmers if it had Expanded Missile Racks, or Breach if not.  This is one case where conserving small Breach works.  For hullmods, I used Extended Shields for near 360 shields, Hardened Shields, ITU, and one other hullmod.  Had 10 capacitors and (I think) 9 vents.  Vents may seem like overkill, but it helps the AI dissipate the flux faster when it backs off.

Whether HSA Graviton Brawler works better than other loadouts, I do not know.

[Salter]

Tried Brawler TT with Phase Lance & Sabot SRM with SO on. I found that it basically shredded the shields & killed instantly against the two SIM Pirate Wolfs. It generates ridiculous flux though and has a hard time dissipating it.

Spoiler

[close]

Someone more skilled than me can probably whip up something better, but it performed pretty well but cant punch up, which for how fragile its flux systems are isnt great.

Edit: Tried it against the SIM support sunder. Alone it had a hard time doing anything against it without a distraction, which I had to deploy a carrier to give it the fire support needed to actually fight it. Conclusion imo is that Brawler (TT) doesnt work too well with this setup, but can do alot in the initial burst if it can get past shields.

[Serenitis]

Nothing spectacular, but I've had some small amount of success with a HSA Sunder.
Don't particularly like flying it myself, but the AI seems to do okay with it.

Phase Lances in both medium mounts, an Ion Pulser in the large and a single Vulcan on the back.
HSA + SO + Hardened Subsys. + Armoured Weapons.
16 remaining OP into caps.

[Megas]

I tried HSA Brawler TT in some endgame bounties, and they survived like other frigates.

[Goumindong]

Nothing spectacular, but I've had some small amount of success with a HSA Sunder.
Don't particularly like flying it myself, but the AI seems to do okay with it.

Phase Lances in both medium mounts, an Ion Pulser in the large and a single Vulcan on the back.
HSA + SO + Hardened Subsys. + Armoured Weapons.
16 remaining OP into caps.

Why would you go 2X PL +ion instead of 1x TL + ion?

[Candesce]

Why would you go 2X PL +ion instead of 1x TL + ion?

Higher efficiency, higher DPS, lower OP, I'd assume. Less EMP, but you've still got the Ion Pulser, so.

Better question from my point of view - once you're SOing a Sunder, why not just mount a Plasma Cannon? You've actually got the flux for it, at that point, and the PC's got very nice stats if you can afford to mount it at all.

[Salter]

Why would you go 2X PL +ion instead of 1x TL + ion?

Higher efficiency, higher DPS, lower OP, I'd assume. Less EMP, but you've still got the Ion Pulser, so.

Better question from my point of view - once you're SOing a Sunder, why not just mount a Plasma Cannon? You've actually got the flux for it, at that point, and the PC's got very nice stats if you can afford to mount it at all.

Ive seen more success with an autopulse laser w. extended magazine on an SO sunder. 56 shots will tear apart most anything. Shields wont help much, nor will armor and its fast enough to basically be a frigate speed destroyer with cruiser firepower.

[Serenitis]

Why would you go 2X PL +ion instead of 1x TL + ion?

Not having any large energy guns.
It's a 'make do' build that worked better than expected.

[Salter]

Tried my hand at a HSA build with the shriek, cause I remember it being a good light destroyer that works well with aggressive officers and its won most of its duels. Since im running wolfpack tactics, the image shown was designed for it to sink bigger ships/stations with the help of smaller shield shredders but you can easily replace the Reaper Torpedo Tube with a Sabot SRM pod since they have the same OD cost.

For the 1v1 duels w. Sabot pod, I used the Medusa SIM. For the Reaper Torp Tube, I used the Aurora SIM and gave it a scarab built for shredding shields as support.

Spoiler

[close]

I enjoyed the result alot. If it ever gets a hit on you with its phase lance, its guaranteed to sink even the high end destroyers with one shot. You need an aggressive officer/AI though or it wont ever stay on top of its opponent cause with the sabot it will shoot its missiles and instantly shred its shields, which the missiles cant be PD'd cause they will blast from behind the Shrieks own shields. Ill probably deploy the pod as I begin exposing it to the Ordo fleets to see if I want the pod or the torp tube long term, especially for station busting. My fleet currently lacks a dedicated ships for sinking big capitals when their shields are overloaded.

Wasnt too sure about the Hardened shields for this loadout, but it surprisingly made it very tanky with its shields. It has issues about overloading from the phase lance being used too much and doesn't have a way to bring down shields on its own if it doesnt have the sabot pod, but the idea is that in fleet engagements, it will have the rest of the wolfpack to compensate for it and it sinks anything the wolfpack finishes bullying.

Edit: Replaced the center TL with an Ion Cannon and swapped a few capacitors to install LR PD lasers, found that its pretty good for helping harass and keep a ships weapon systems down for the wolf pack and the LR lasers managed to catch some missiles aiming for its rear. It didnt get all of them, but I figure this is something that will eventually hash itself out with interceptor fighters marching up with it.

Edit of an Edit: I traded out the LR PD lasers for more Tactical Lasers (Since they cost less). Trading the already limited PD range due to HSA for strong TL's has made it really effective at stopping fighters. Made Integrated PD AI into an S-mod for the ship and its doing twice as effective of a job at stopping missiles as the LR PD was doing.

Keeping a backup save in case I need to revert if I dont like how it functions tho.

[Megas]

Triple HSA Phase Lance (and no other weapons) on SO Fulgent.  Murders destroyers and smaller fast.  With a core for Energy Mastery, Target Analysis, and other skills, it can crush cruisers as well.

Sunder can use it too, but it is more fragile and has less PPT.

[Salter]

Tried a double phase lance HSA on a fury with two Tactical lasers on the side of each. In the hands of a player and some decent kiting it tore up ships up to its size with little trouble and killed lesser ones in one shot. Gave it a reaper torpedo tube to finish off bigger enemies when they overload. In the hands of the AI, it performs poorly though since it likes to angle its nose towards the enemy and the awkwardness of its mounts.

An update on the Shrike, didnt like point defense AI on it and replaced its back TL's with burst PD lasers. Performs alot better now.