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News:

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

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What would you like to see in Blackrock?

More ships
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Space monsters
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Total Members Voted: 1424


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Author Topic: [0.9.1a] Blackrock Drive Yards  (Read 1790392 times)

Cycerin

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1230 on: August 12, 2014, 08:31:27 AM »

While I think those complaints aren't coming from a vanilla balanced standpoint, Dark_Revenant has cooked up an ai attachment linked to the Blackrock hullmod that makes ships more likely to vent, so this long-standing design problem with the faction is actually going to be remedied, finally.
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ValkyriaL

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1231 on: August 12, 2014, 09:17:53 AM »

BRDY fighters are very strong indeed. but coming to them from valkyrian fighters, its a different world entirely.

my fighters are extremely strong, you won't find much out there smaller than a destroyer or high tier frigate that can stop one of my highest tier fighter wings, but good luck sustaining them in a long fight, you can't replace them because they are so expensive and rare, and they are dispatched off quickly since they cost so much to deploy and repair. with great power comes a great price tag as they say. ;)

BRDY fighters are behind my fighters in terms of power, but they don't have the logistic drawback that mine does (not that i know of)
a krait is basically one of my corvettes, their bombers are INSANE, and their phase fighters are just straight up unfair, and if they die, you can replace them with 2 more. :)
« Last Edit: August 12, 2014, 09:21:49 AM by ValkyriaL »
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Cycerin

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1232 on: August 16, 2014, 05:49:20 PM »



I've been working on my Imaginos piloting lately and compiled some useful tips for flying it. Yes, the patch is still coming. In the mean time though, here's some reading.

The Dimensional frigate is one of the most atypical ships you can pilot in Starsector right now. To recap, the Imaginos' features are:

E: Scalar Deracinator - teleports to target location after a short delay, during which the ship is vulnerable. Upon arrival, the ship deals a modest amount of EMP and Energy damage to anything nearby. The system has two charges and can be fired off twice in short succession, the charges then regenerate.
Right mouse: Scalar Rejector  - phases out, boosting speed and maneuverability for roughly one second. Nearby projectiles and missiles are sucked in and absorbed, and a burst of damage is released once you unphase, with damage based on the damage value of the absorbed projectiles. Damage dealt is always Energy and EMP. Fragmentation and kinetic damage is weighed less than energy and HE. The Imaginos glows when the Rejector is online. When it's on cooldown (four seconds) the ship goes dark until it recharges.
Built-in Weapon: Rift Cannon - a fixed, large energy weapon that charges briefly, then shoots a burst of slow-moving, short-range energy bolts. These bolts can be sucked in by your Rejector to act as fuel for the resulting discharge. Leading the enemy and using your own momentum to propel your shots further is vital in order to maximize the efficiency of this weapon. Because it fires a burst of energy bolts rather than one large shot, it's better against shields and hull than armor, but it will still devastate frigate and destroyer armor.
Built-in Hullmod: Nanolattice Armor - While the ship lacks a shield, it can regrow armor over time. This armor regeneration causes your peak CR time to tick down and is less effective the higher your flux level is. If you want to get the most out of this ability, you need to vent early and often to keep your flux low.

Spoiler
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Strengths:
Escaping, harassing weak ships, AoEing fighter wings, clearing out missiles, disabling frigates and destroyers, crippling capital ships, protecting allied big targets, and capping objectives
Weaknesses:
Precise, hard-hitting weapons, like the Tachyon Lance, Phase Beam, Heavy Mauler, AM Blaster, Heavy Blaster, etc. Your armor regeneration won't help you and two or three unlucky hits can kill you, or force you to waste a lot of CR regrowing armor or dodging around. EMP can also be troublesome. The Imaginos also doesn't do a whole lot of sustained damage, killing a tough target like the Enforcer can take more than a minute. This makes it a better fleet ship than solo ship.

Off the top of my head, here are all the weird tricks/techniques I've discovered so far:

Rift Cannon Trick:
The Deracinator disables all weapons while active, but if you start charging your Rift Cannon right before you activate the Deracinator, you can actually get off half the salvo before you teleport away. Occasionally useful while retreating to squeeze in extra damage, or to look like you're some kinda pro or some sh*t.
Extended Rejector:
By exploiting the fact that phase ships cannot unphase inside an enemy vessel, you can extend your Rejector duration and keep absorbing shots by skirting the insides of an enemy ship. This is most useful against big ships with a permanent weak spot, such as the Dominator or Onslaught. If done correctly, you will be pushed out by your high flux level naturally, and all the EMP arcs from the Rejector will hit the closest armor tiles once you unphase, dealing a vast amount of concentrated damage.
Shield Breaker:
Frontal shields will take a vast amount of damage from the Deracinator explosion if you position yourself at the front of the vessel. This seems to be because the shield absorbs every single EMP arc generated by the system. This makes it a valid decision to teleport IN FRONT of ships like the Eagle in certain situations.
Shot Deflection:
The Scalar Rejector begins sucking in projectiles in a much bigger radius than the actual radius in which shots get converted into energy. This allows you to redirect missiles into enemy ships. Most useful against enemy torpedoes and bombs, if you position yourself so the torpedoes will be sucked to the side and into a hapless ship.
Rejector Cancel:
You can interrupt the chargeup of your Deracinator by using the Rejector. This can be useful sometimes, if you're about to be fried by an Antimatter Blaster, for instance.

Have fun flying the thing and chime in if you discovered any tricks/bugs. :)
« Last Edit: August 16, 2014, 05:57:13 PM by Cycerin »
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LB

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1233 on: August 21, 2014, 09:09:43 PM »

I've been getting the following regularly, every 5-10 minutes:
Code
1988280 [Thread-5] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  - java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
at data.scripts.world.blackrock.BRSpawnPoint.rndSystem(BRSpawnPoint.java:67)
at data.scripts.world.blackrock.BRSpawnPoint.spawnFleet(BRSpawnPoint.java:43)
at data.scripts.world.BaseSpawnPoint.advance(BaseSpawnPoint.java:63)
at data.scripts.world.BaseSpawnPoint.advance(BaseSpawnPoint.java:46)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.BaseLocation.advance(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignEngine.advance(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.A.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.B.ØÓÒ000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.oOOO.A.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Code
StarSystemAPI rnd = Global.getSector().getStarSystems().get((int) ((float) Global.getSector().getStarSystems().size() * (float) Math.random()));
in BRSpawnPoint.rndSystem() is assigning an invalid system, apparently? Error is on the next line,
Code
if (rnd.getStar().getName().equals("Gneiss"))
I'm using the modified JAR provided by Starsector+.

It's always Blackrock every time causing this, which seems a little odd because probably at least one other mod I have installed should have a similar random system selection somewhere.

I've noticed when using the console addon that in the system list (when entering "jump" with no arguments) there's one with a blank name listed between Neutrino's Corona Australis and Nihil's Noll system, so it looks like "... Corona Australis,  , Noll, ...". Occasionally I also get things like "The pirates have formed a horde and are pillaging  system!", but it doesn't cause the game to crash. I haven't gotten around to isolating exactly which mod is adding that blank system. Related, perhaps?

This forum has a marquee tag? What is this, 1996?
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Dark.Revenant

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1234 on: August 21, 2014, 09:15:44 PM »

You are absolutely correct that those are related.  That line is throwing a NPE because the star doesn't have a name.  Whoever created that script must have (reasonably) assumed that all stars have names, which don't just return null when fetched.

This is a pretty easy fix, just by putting a null check or two in there:
Code
        if (rnd != null && rnd.getStar() != null && rnd.getStar().getName() != null && rnd.getStar().getName().equals("Gneiss")) {
« Last Edit: August 21, 2014, 09:19:24 PM by Dark.Revenant »
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LB

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1235 on: August 21, 2014, 11:44:29 PM »

...Wouldn't returning an empty string be much more reasonable than returning null?
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Cycerin

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1236 on: August 25, 2014, 04:14:48 PM »

Thanks for the report.

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Just brushing up some details. Scalaron weapons now have some cyan detail in addition to the mint green, and the Imaginos has a different engine.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2014, 04:33:56 PM by Cycerin »
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Shield

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1237 on: August 26, 2014, 05:37:34 PM »

WTB super capital ship...lol
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ValkyriaL

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1238 on: August 27, 2014, 08:39:52 AM »

WTS Super-Capital. buyout only!

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SpaceRiceBowl

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1239 on: August 27, 2014, 09:18:45 AM »

I sorta want that ship to happen  :o
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I really don't know what I'm doing...

JDCollie

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1240 on: August 27, 2014, 12:55:35 PM »

. . . and their phase fighters are just straight up unfair, and if they die, you can replace them with 2 more. :)
I hate those little ***. I'm not sure I've ever even killed one.


. . . though I can say with some certainty that they've killed me. :(


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Darloth

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1241 on: August 27, 2014, 01:23:44 PM »

Hmm, I liked the mint green.

I wonder what a mixture of those two shades would look like, or, if it's not processor-killingly expensive to animate, would it be possible to have them flickering between the two?
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Cycerin

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1242 on: August 28, 2014, 06:46:43 AM »

It's already a mixture of the two. :)

I won't ever make a supercap for BRDY. It just doesn't fit within the framework of starsector.

If you're curious as to why:

1) Supercaps are hard to make interesting from a gameplay perspective. If the size upscale is to be validated in terms of power, a supercap on the field reduces destroyers, frigs and possibly many cruisers to "spectators" that can't really accomplish much when the supercap is on the field.
2) Game mechanics make supercaps inherently buggy. Range finding gets buggier the more rod-shaped the ship is, and collisions upon burning into the battle etc. become a concern
3) It's an absolute ton of work. Time I'd rather spend making other content.
4) Subjectively, I find supercaps are boring to pilot and play against.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 06:50:48 AM by Cycerin »
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JDCollie

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1243 on: August 28, 2014, 10:30:51 AM »

4) Subjectively, I find supercaps are boring to pilot and play against.
This. So much this.
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Sabaton

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Re: [0.6.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.6.5 - With ShaderLib Dynamic Lighting
« Reply #1244 on: August 28, 2014, 12:04:02 PM »

The 2 combat cap ships Black Rock already has are bonkers on their own and teleporting battleships are as good as they get.
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