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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?

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Author Topic: [0.9.1a] Blackrock Drive Yards  (Read 1790645 times)

Cycerin

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1545 on: March 10, 2015, 09:03:55 PM »

Alex actually changed that in the most recent patch, civilian ships will now actually fight if ordered to do so. It makes shuttle swarms very good early game, among other things
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orost

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1546 on: March 14, 2015, 03:40:06 PM »

Since it's impractical to integrate mods into the starting options, I whipped up a minor mod to enable starting with Blackrock.

Download link

Requires Console Commands

Usage: install and enable like any other mod, start a new game with any starting option and type "BlackrockStart" into the console.

It will move you to Blackrock, adjust faction relationships appropriately and replace your fleet with a Strike Scarab. It will not remove any extra credits or weapons your starting option might have given you. If that bothers you, pick a starting option that doesn't provide any.

@Cycerin: are there any mod factions that, when they are included, Blackrock is hostile to or friendly with? If so, could you please provide a list? I will then add the appropriate relationship adjustments.
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Cycerin

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1547 on: March 17, 2015, 01:41:43 PM »

Cool. No, Blackrock only starts hostile to the factions that hate almost everyone in the game, such as Templars, Junk Pirates etc. Also I believe both me and Kazi agreed that Mayorate should be hostile to Blackrock, but I don't remember.

I've been using a lot of Darts lately.  Even at twice the price of the Swarmers, they're great for a few things.  Obviously they slaughter most fighter wings but they're also decent at hitting exposed hull as a finishing weapon, and their amazing speed and tracking not only gets them through light ballistic PD that would get a lot more Swarmers or Salamanders, it also lets them catch those especially fast vanilla targets like Tempests or burn driving Cerberuses.  I don't use them on frigates, but larger craft that lack the speed to catch retreating ships get Darts to make sure anything they beat gets destroyed, not just defeated.  Their range is deceptively long too, as they last for a long time after they burn out.

Have you considered buffing the Sunfire any in light of the new addition of the Phase Lance?  I think the Phase Lance may get a nerf, but as it stands it's a good deal more powerful generally than the Sunfire for less OP.  The Sunfire has a tad more range and more DPS only against armor, but fires a tiny bit slower and of course is nearly useless against shields.  I like the look and feel and sound of the Sunfire, but any time I want to equip one the Phase Lance is tempting me with added EMP, energy damage instead of HE, and a cheaper cost.  I understand if for thematic reasons you want an ultra-specialized beam weapon that noticeably underperforms the more generalist vanilla competition though.  I do end up going with the Sunfire but only because its color complements the BRDY color scheme instead of clashing with it.

Despite the lesser range of the Shard Gun, its continuous fire seems to work a lot better for suppression or countering phase ships than the Shard Cannon, plus it has better DPS.  I'd swap the OP cost for the Gun and the Cannon.

Thanks for the feedback yo.

It'll please you to know the big Dart launcher is getting slowly regenerating ammo in the next patch. 8op is quite the overinvestment for frag missiles, but this should make it attractive as a "filler" weapon. I've been taking a look at Shard weapons recently so the Shard Gun/Cannon is going to be changed to ensure one is worth the extra OP. Ideally it'll be like so:
Shard Gun: Damage, bad range, inaccurate, efficient
Shard Cannon: Suppression, long range, accurate, less efficient

As for the PDEs, HE damage type ensures they still stand out from the Phase Lance, but I've slightly increased their burst duration so they do more damage from max range.

Spoiler
[close]

Here's a new weapon I'm working on. Also the curvy Desdinova is back.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2015, 10:15:13 PM by Cycerin »
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frogbones

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1548 on: March 19, 2015, 05:55:05 AM »

Fine jobs, looking forward to it all.
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Xanderzoo

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1549 on: March 20, 2015, 08:52:00 PM »

Would it be all right if I were make a mission mod using ships from the Blackrock Drive Yards? I would link to your mod and credit you, of course.
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Cycerin

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1550 on: March 22, 2015, 10:52:21 PM »

Go ahead.

Even bigger temp. changelog:


Spoiler
Changelog:

0.7.4
- Added Megaceras-class Combat Freighter and Shredder Drones system
- Added Scalaron Pulse Launcher, a weapon that fires homing energy pulses.
- New Impossible-difficulty Mission: Awaking the Beast. Save a station from an attacking fleet with your lone Karkinos. How gneiss of you!

\\\Imaginos changes:
- Rift Cannon revamp: prefire delay to 0.05 seconds (from 0.95 seconds) and lowered damage per shot drastically. Now operates like the Autopulse laser on a charge-limited system - this is mainly to make the ship better in AI hands and less clunky to pilot.
- Reduced the EMP damage done by the Rift Cannon
- Built-in beams are now called S-Beams and deal energy + EMP damage + different look/sfx.
- Increased overall damage done by the Imaginos' Scalar Rejector, especially when you get a massive explosion, but lowered emp damage
- Slightly lowered Scalar Deracinator (small) damage and emp damage
- Increased Imaginos supplies/day by 0.5
\\\Hullmod changes:
- Added new Blackrock-only Hullmod: Blackrock Drive Conversion. Increases 0-flux Boost by 30, max. speed by 5% and max. burn by 1. Lowers turn rate and deceleration by 20%. Does not stack with other engine mods.
- Changed Blackrock Assault Fitting. Bonuses are now 50% EMP resist, 15% extra hull integrity, and 25% faster weapon/engine repair speed. Fixed a bug that made the original hullmod not actually lower repair speeds.
OP cost adjusted down to 5/10/15/25
- Blackrock Sensor Suite renamed to Blackrock Strike Suite. Bonus/Drawback from 10% to 15%.
- New icons for all BRDY hullmods
\\\ Weapon changes:
- Removed ammo from all BRDY ballistic weapons. Tooltips are ultra confusing and bugged with regards to the regenerating ammo, and it was an irrelevant balancing mechanic all in all.
- Increased buckshot projectile count from 18 to 20 for Volley Gun and Ironweaver ADC
- Lowered Volley Gun per-volley damage to 500 total, decreased cooldown between shots to 3 seconds.
- Lowered Ironweaver ADC cooldown to 2.5 seconds, decreased crit chance by 5%.
- Voidspear SRM: Flux/missile to 200 from 170, flight time to from 5 to 6, added DO_NOT_AIM AI Hint
- Changed Ferrocannon: 15% less shot damage, ~25% lower cooldown between shots, ~15% lower flux per shot (This is to make it less powerful when you field 4 of them on the Karkinos, and more powerful if you have one or two)
- Rewrote Shard weapon tooltips to include specific by-the-numbers information on the crit mechanic
- Increased DPS of Shard Cannon and Dual Shard Cannon slightly. Increased range by 50 for both weapons.
- Increased DPS of Shard Gun slightly, but lowered the range to 500.
- Nerfed Achilles MRM ammo to 5 for 6op version and 12 for 12op version, fragmentation damage to 350 per MIRV from 400, and MIRV health down to 180 from 240. Increased refire delay to 10 seconds.
- Added regenerating ammo to 8OP Dart SRM launcher, but not to the 4OP one. Also boosted ammo on the 4OP Dart SRM by 30%.
\\\ Misc changes:
- Lowered charge replenish rate for Stenos Autoloader system to 0.1 from 0.2 ( 10 seconds per charge)
- Increased Stenos flux dissipation by 10, lowered flux capacity by 400
- Increased Stenos hull strength by 500
- Increased Knight flux cap by 100
- Lowered Karkinos flux dissipation by 50 and lowered shield arc to 160 from 180. Reduced maneuverability slightly.
- Increased Nevermore flux dissipation by 20
- Increased Kurmaraja flux dissipation by 50
- Krait fighter: Changed formation type to make sure both fighters fire at the same target more often
- Fixed some descriptions in Rama
- Made BRDY engines slightly warmer in color
- Added CR timers to BRDY capital ships
- Changed Cetonia stats to be a more clean cut freighter now that Megaceras exists
- Adjusted Convergence sprite
- New INM Assault Gun sfx
- Edited Gale Cannon sfx
- Adjusted some Imaginos sound/hullstyle things
- Adjusted ship variants to account for new content and changes
- Adjusted some ship mass values that were erroneously high for the ship's class
[close]
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Xanderzoo

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1551 on: March 22, 2015, 10:54:46 PM »

:) Great! Thank you! :)
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kazi

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1552 on: March 23, 2015, 03:00:10 AM »

Cool. No, Blackrock only starts hostile to the factions that hate almost everyone in the game, such as Templars, Junk Pirates etc. Also I believe both me and Kazi agreed that Mayorate should be hostile to Blackrock, but I don't remember.

More or less. The Mayorate folks were meant to be hostile to most mod factions so you'd either have a new set of ships to beat up on (that would hopefully pose slightly more of a challenge to modded ships than vanilla), or a diverse set of enemies if you sided with them. Plus probably my favorite method of balancing is buying up a whole bunch of Blackrock ships and going on a rampage through Rasht. Speaking of which, I need to update my mod at some point...  :P

Quote from: Cycerin
Yeah, it's one of the things that need some further polish. Apart from that, I'm glad you like the sprite! It's becoming a challenge to evolve my art style while still keeping the faction cohesive. A lot of things I used to do a lot, I never do anymore, like using black outlines - the engame might be to have to redo all the older sprites, which I don't look forward to that much...

I don't think it's actually possible to make the Nevermore any cooler than it already is lol...
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Silver Silence

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1553 on: March 23, 2015, 05:08:38 AM »

Initially didn't like the look of that Ferrocannon tweak, though I didn't see the -25% as +firerate just "ohgod, it's a womp". I still think they're weird guns. Animation doesn't quite go with the speed of the gun because the animation is MUCH faster than the gun can shoot and the animation gives me the impression of these kinetic strike weapons that just hit like runaway freight trains. I have not yet successfully used BRDY ships against Templar fleets with more than just a couple Jesuits or Paladins(? (the all-purpose Templar destroyer).  The long-range guns don't quite do the deeps I'd like (the Ferrocannon was like 130? It's low to me given alternatives like the Gauss Cannon or the Mk 9/IX) and BRDY's tradition of in-your-face, well the Templar do much better murdering with their Rhon and Longinus lasers than the BRDY with their hit-and-run style. Even using the Karkinos' teleport aggressively or defensively has not worked for me yet. Aggressive, can successfully jump a Jesuit and kill it before it does much, but the following Templar let loose the hounds of war Clarents. Defensive, can't quite vent a maxed Karkinos' even with Resistant Flux and 75 vents fast enough to avoid taking a free barrage of Clarents. PD is not robust enough to deal with 6+ Clarents at once. Will keep experimenting to see if I can use a BRDY ship with only BRDY weapons to knock off a Templar fleet with a capital or a couple cruisers in it. Regenerating ammo in more missile launchers will always be a plus. I generally just don't equip them at all because I never feel a weapon that's empty after the first couple ships is worth it. The recent changes has meant most ships I use get smothered in Ballistae now for long-range missiles going everywhere, otherwise it still gets pumped into vents/caps/hullmods for more prolonged battery fire with actual guns. I guess my experiences should be taken with a pinch of salt considering the choice of enemy I'm determined to go up against with BRDY.


Cool. No, Blackrock only starts hostile to the factions that hate almost everyone in the game, such as Templars, Junk Pirates etc. Also I believe both me and Kazi agreed that Mayorate should be hostile to Blackrock, but I don't remember.

More or less. The Mayorate folks were meant to be hostile to most mod factions so you'd either have a new set of ships to beat up on (that would hopefully pose slightly more of a challenge to modded ships than vanilla), or a diverse set of enemies if you sided with them. Plus probably my favorite method of balancing is buying up a whole bunch of Blackrock ships and going on a rampage through Rasht. Speaking of which, I need to update my mod at some point...  :P


For some time, the Valkyrians were the faction I'd go smash my face against for a gud fite. Now it's the Templar. I wonder how those two factions would compare. I imagine Valks could wipe the floor with most Templar ships by sheer volume of fire but then again, Jesuits emp-phasing through the Valks and getting behind them would surely spell the end of any Valk ship due to ridiculous immobility on the part of the Valkyrians.
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HELMUT

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1554 on: March 23, 2015, 10:21:38 AM »

The new re-balanced Valkyrians aren't as strong as they were, they can't really go toe to toe with Templars ships, unless we're talking about the bosses ships.

After playing with the Templars quite a bit in Nexerelin and a very long campaign against BRDY, i can say Blackrock don't have many answers to the white bricks of death.

BRDY weapons tends to have shorter range than vanilla and getting close to a Templar ship with no shield to overload is not a good idea. On top of that you don't have the shield efficiency nor the armor to survive the encounter.

The biggest weakness of the Templars are missiles. Their built in PD system is pretty underwhelming and they rarely use the integrated point defense AI hullmod (which work very well with their weapons BTW). Unfortunately the biggest missiles BRDY can mount are the voidspears (perhaps the scalaron pulse?), which aren't strong or spammy enough to threaten them. Strapping a bunch of Gauss cannons and lrms is probably the best bet against a Templar fleet. Kitting is the only strategy i can see working against them. You can still try to go ninja on them with a fast ship but i doubt even the fastest BRDY crafts can outrun Clarents.

Speaking of Clarents, having a phase ship in your fleet is a must to bait those. The Asura isn't exactly the best at this due to its limited phase cloak but it's better than trying to tank a bunch of Clarents with your shield.
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orost

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1555 on: March 23, 2015, 12:16:38 PM »

I have some complaints about the large weapons. Ferrocannon seems extremely underpowered, with DPS that would be on the lower side even for a medium weapon. Accuracy and muzzle velocity are nice, but hitting doesn't mean much when the hit does so little - it has little effect on anything bigger than a frigate. I use Mk IX Autocannons on my Karkinos instead. Also its sustained DPS is for some reason higher than peak DPS.

Ironweaver ADC also feels very weak (not that much better than a volley gun, a small weapon!) but I think something's off about it in general, because its DPS and flux stats in the stat card are completely absurd (more than 2000 for both) and obviously untrue.

The Squall Battery actually plays fine, but its displayed DPS is incorrect (about one third of what I think it should be, as if it were counting only one barrel).
« Last Edit: March 23, 2015, 12:18:19 PM by orost »
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Silver Silence

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1556 on: March 23, 2015, 03:16:34 PM »


BRDY weapons tends to have shorter range than vanilla and getting close to a Templar ship with no shield to overload is not a good idea. On top of that you don't have the shield efficiency nor the armor to survive the encounter.


Well, they DO have a shield but it can take SO much gawd damned punishment that they can walk through anything short of repeated Gauss Cannon hits and almost completely ignore it.


The biggest weakness of the Templars are missiles.


Hrm... I think I have a bunch of salvaged Exigency missiles laying around at one of the stations, at SHI's Euripedes in Anar because of that crazy market capacity they've got going on there. Might have to try flooding the map with mini-missiles.


....but it's better than trying to tank a bunch of Clarents with your shield.


I can attest to this. Even Neutrino ships cannot hold against Clarents well, especially when an Archbishop is around and the Teuton attacks are endless. If you're in fighting range or at least visual range of the Archbishop, Teutons literally just leave their carrier, dump their missiles on you then go nestle themselves back inside the carrier. Just about the only PD that works is anything akin to Burst PD. It does the damage fast enough but it can still only take down 1-2 missiles at best due to overkill and the brief pause in switching to new targets. The Burst Repeater Beam, which I believe comes from SCY, is amazingly good. 15 shots with expanded magazines, that reload as fast as the vanilla Burst PD can fire is great. However, the really good range of 800 also makes them pretty unwieldy as they have better range than most medium slot weapons despite being a small and have only marginally shorter range than capital ship guns. They constantly waste shots on actual ships and the Templar really do not care for any beam weapons except their own.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1557 on: March 23, 2015, 03:53:07 PM »

*note to nerf the burst repeater beams a bit*
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Nanao-kun

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1558 on: March 23, 2015, 04:03:44 PM »

*note to nerf the burst repeater beams a bit*
The 800 range makes it a bit hard to use. So yeah.
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Silver Silence

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Re: [0.65.2a] Blackrock Drive Yards v0.7.3 - New star system!
« Reply #1559 on: March 23, 2015, 05:49:28 PM »

@Tartiflette

If there is a weapon tag that enforces missile PD only, that could work. Then other stats could be left be and OP could maybe get knocked up a bit. Then you have an expensive solution to missile defense, assuming ALL you want out of that slot is premium missile defense. As it stands right now, the repeater beams can be used as dual-purpose weapons in frigate-frigate combat as it's highly unlikely a frigate will spit out enough missiles to overwhelm the repeaters, providing a viable anti-ship weapon that outranges most frigates' guns but is really heavy on the flux for frigates to use for any length of time. Then they get more unwieldy as you get into bigger fights with higher missile volumes and the fact that they probably still outrange your actual guns forcing you into fights with flux already built up unless you actively toggle them as and when, instead of simply leaving them autofiring all the time. In capital ship fights, the fact that their range only just lags behind weapons like the HAG, the Mk IX or the Mjolnir while outranging the Autopulse means they start firing almost the same time your main guns do and beams do little to ships of this size unless you really go overboard (see beam Paragon or Templar Longinus) and the ones that can't even withstand repeater beams are likely also the ones that aren't suited to combat anyway so at this point, they're only depleting their charges unnecessarily and driving your flux up.
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