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[Talgo]

If the initial wave contains many overseers, then yes, it will be much more difficult. Other threat ships can only use their systems if they get hit with overseer's energy lash and their systems are strong.

I know how the Overseer's lash works, thanks. What I haven't experienced is a meaningful difference between starting with the field flooded with Overseers, fighting through them and their escorts, and arriving at the backline flooded with more Overseers; and starting with no Overseers, proceeding smoothly up to the backline and finding it flooded with Overseers. They'll be there regardless, because a single Fabricator seems limited in its ability to simultaneously construct new units only by the physical space available around it, which is probably why triple and quad Fabricators are easier than doubles and singles. Additional Fabricators take up another 20DP each and only provide redundant production, not a higher production cap or an increased rate.

[Doctorhealsgood]

If the initial wave contains many overseers, then yes, it will be much more difficult. Other threat ships can only use their systems if they get hit with overseer's energy lash and their systems are strong.

I know how the Overseer's lash works, thanks. What I haven't experienced is a meaningful difference between starting with the field flooded with Overseers, fighting through them and their escorts, and arriving at the backline flooded with more Overseers; and starting with no Overseers, proceeding smoothly up to the backline and finding it flooded with Overseers. They'll be there regardless, because a single Fabricator seems limited in its ability to simultaneously construct new units only by the physical space available around it, which is probably why triple and quad Fabricators are easier than doubles and singles. Additional Fabricators take up another 20DP each and only provide redundant production, not a higher production cap or an increased rate.

It costs CR though. And i assume they just can't fabricate without CR

[Killer of Fate]

It costs CR though. And i assume they just can't fabricate without CR

it costs CR, but when a ship is destroyed an invulnerable (fairly durable) swarm of fighters is sent back to the Fabricator, which your ships will often ignore instead of firing at it. That will fully refund the Fabricator all CR spent on fabricating the said unit

[TaLaR]

It costs CR though. And i assume they just can't fabricate without CR

it costs CR, but when a ship is destroyed an invulnerable (fairly durable) swarm of fighters is sent back to the Fabricator, which your ships will often ignore instead of firing at it. That will fully refund the Fabricator all CR spend on fabricating the said unit

And it's actually multiple entities, with their collision shapes not exactly obvious from visuals. You can't really kill them with manual fire weapons (like AM Afflictor), and most weapons that will reliably hit them on autofire don't have enough dps (and won't prioritize them with other targets around). Plus, if killed near fabricator, reclamation will be pretty much instant.

So really, trying to kill reclaim swarms is a fake option at least most of the time. Maybe you could make it work, if you designed your whole fleet for that purpose alone (but then it may end up bad at actually killing threat ships...).

[Killer of Fate]

It costs CR though. And i assume they just can't fabricate without CR

it costs CR, but when a ship is destroyed an invulnerable (fairly durable) swarm of fighters is sent back to the Fabricator, which your ships will often ignore instead of firing at it. That will fully refund the Fabricator all CR spend on fabricating the said unit

And it's actually multiple entities, with their collision shapes not exactly obvious from visuals. You can't really kill them with manual fire weapons (like AM Afflictor), and most weapons that will reliably hit them on autofire don't have enough dps (and won't prioritize them with other targets around). Plus, if killed near fabricator, reclamation will be pretty much instant.

So really, trying to kill reclaim swarms is a fake option at least most of the time. Maybe you could make it work, if you designed your whole fleet for that purpose alone (but then it may end up bad at actually killing threat ships...).

An Anubis can probably kill it

[StuffyEvil]

I keep hearing people say the Voidblaster is not good on player ships, and I can only agree. Can the AI stop firing it off into shields?

Alex did talk about that if he makes such a change, it will also require reworking some Threat ships.

It is fine enough on ships with S-modded Expanded Magazines, which makes up for it unloading into shields.

[Firestone]

I keep hearing people say the Voidblaster is not good on player ships, and I can only agree. Can the AI stop firing it off into shields?

I heard that it is without the "useless_against_shield" tag so AI will fire them at shields

[djrvywfbjr]

Alex did talk about that if he makes such a change, it will also require reworking some Threat ships.

It’s a simple change to make the AI ignore the tag while under Incursion Mode. Now I don’t know enough about implementation details to say whether this is an easy change to make, but it is a simple change that’ll ensure the ship doesn’t get accidentally nerfed.

[Talgo]

And it's actually multiple entities, with their collision shapes not exactly obvious from visuals. You can't really kill them with manual fire weapons (like AM Afflictor), and most weapons that will reliably hit them on autofire don't have enough dps (and won't prioritize them with other targets around). Plus, if killed near fabricator, reclamation will be pretty much instant.

So really, trying to kill reclaim swarms is a fake option at least most of the time. Maybe you could make it work, if you designed your whole fleet for that purpose alone (but then it may end up bad at actually killing threat ships...).

I've been tinkering with a hexa-IRAL Executor for this purpose (in addition to bursting down exposed hull from afar), as well as swapping out escort Enforcers for some IRAL-equipped Eagles. It's not going great. The autolance, especially six of them, has got the damage to zap Reclamation Swarms quickly, and the range to do so even when they're coming off of a ship that's a good distance away. But when left to their own devices the Eagles just kind of fart around, it's a coin toss whether the IRAL is going to target a Reclamation Swarm or an Attack Swarm, assuming it's not already busy shooting a ship. When I'm flying the Executor, targeting manually and using HEF, I can rapidly pick swarms off. Even can clean up the half-dozen that flew off a dead Line Unit, which I hadn't even thought possible. But the battle of attrition still swings against me every time. I fight my way to the Fabricator after killing as many Reclamation Swarms as I feasibly could, it still has something like 50%+ CR, the noose closes, Overseers sitting 2000+ units away flick freshly-built Assault Units at me like so many boogers, the end. It doesn't feel like I'm on to anything trying to deny swarms.

The only Reclamation Swarms I was reliably denying before trying the laser pointer strat were ones that flew off of dead Skirmish units that were behind my fleet, and ones that flew off Assault units that died nosediving my fleet. Because the Overseer and Line units seem to prefer to keep a good distance from my ships, by the time they die the swarms that will spawn from them are usually out of range of most weapons. My ships will tag them with a beam of some sort or chuck a Mauler burst at them, and then they're home free. What makes matters worse is that while swarms are flying off of a dead unit, the hulk still blocks incoming fire, until the last swarm is away. So if your ship, the dead ship, and the Fabricator are more or less aligned in syzygy, the Reclamation Swarms will get a head start on top of their head start. Line Units are notorious for this in my experience due to their overall bulk and the number of swarms they generate.

What if a hulk decomposing into a Reclamation Swarm just exploded into its components all at once, instead of peeling away bit by bit? I do love the visuals of the gradual disintegration, but the effect it has on gameplay is a negative. Or what if Reclamation Swarms just had reduced health, since the window of opportunity to attack them is so slim?

[Bungee_man]

Yeah, I haven't seen picking off reclamation swarms as especially viable, and the positioning to do it in time is the part that's meaningfully challenging. I'd support reducing their health to keep it in line with the other strats.

[TK3600]

Or perhaps keep their hp stats, but modify their movement behavior. The dead ship wreck turn into reclamation swarm faster, but the swarm remain stationary for a few seconds before moving toward the mothership.

[Doctorhealsgood]

Or perhaps keep their hp stats, but modify their movement behavior. The dead ship wreck turn into reclamation swarm faster, but the swarm remain stationary for a few seconds before moving toward the mothership.

Decomposing wrecks could just probably lose all collision and projectile blocking that way you can have your cake and eat it.

[Bungee_man]

Decomposing wrecks could just probably lose all collision and projectile blocking that way you can have your cake and eat it.

I kind of like the positioning challenge that involves. Without it, swarms just mean doing a little bit more damage after killing a ship, with no extra strategy or thought. Rather the swarms were weaker but still "smart" enough to leave parts of the wrecks in the way.

[Euphytose]

Hey,

Tried installing the new version but I get a warning from Windows 11 saying it could be malicious.

I tried reinstalling an older version and no such warning appears, so something changed with this version.

Question is: What changed?

Thanks.

[Megas]

Something funny happened not long ago:

Accepted a contact bounty that was placed in one of my colony systems.  To make it even more hilarious, the fleet was placed directly on my colony planet (it was a gas giant in a black hole system, no moons).  I dropped in on my gas giant colony where there was a midline star fortress (which I build purely for the stability boost, all crises were done) saw the bounty fleet and lured it closer to my star fortress.  Not a good place for a bounty fleet to hide.  Directly on top of my colony?  Stupid.

In any event, it was a rare opportunity to unleash a battlestation on an enemy.  What was disappointing was even though I had Dragonfire DEMs prioritized and no other missiles, my Star Fortress used Squalls and MIRVs instead.  I felt let down.  I wanted to see a red light show.  With high-tech battlestations, whatever energy weapons I want prioritized they get used, but not the missiles for the midline battlestation.

P.S.  Bounty fleet was TT deserters.  Not much of a fight, and every ship that could be recovered was then immediately placed into storage.  Instant fleet (not that I needed one since I can just build a new fleet).  The bounty fleet gave me the feeling of watching a show about the dumbest criminals.  Should be playing the COPS theme song.