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McGiggins
Apr 4, 2014

by R. Guyovich
Lipstick Apathy
I always thought it was bullshit they could just flip and then continue what they're doing.

"Finally, some pirates to kill! Oh, wait, they changed their transponders right in front of me, now they're my best buddies the Independents! :downs:"

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Lprsti99
Apr 7, 2011

Everything's coming up explodey!

Pillbug

McGiggins posted:

I always thought it was bullshit they could just flip and then continue what they're doing.

"Finally, some pirates to kill! Oh, wait, they changed their transponders right in front of me, now they're my best buddies the Independents! :downs:"

Yeah, that's super annoying. Especially since we can't disguise our own transponders, and if a patrol tags you running with it off, turning it back on doesn't trick them in the slightest.

scuba school sucks
Aug 30, 2012

The brilliance of my posting illuminates the forums like a jar of shining gold when all around is dark

b0lt posted:

And then upgrade to a Medusa, the really big Wolf.

I run my Medusa with Tactical Lasers, Phase Lances, and Hammer Torpedoes and as many vents as I can cram into it with both Optimized Assembly and all the skills that give increased OP. I managed to handle this 70000 credit bounty just now without even calling in any of my backup.



Post your most lopsided victories from this new version.

Rorac
Aug 19, 2011

Lprsti99 posted:

Yeah, that's super annoying. Especially since we can't disguise our own transponders, and if a patrol tags you running with it off, turning it back on doesn't trick them in the slightest.

If you can get far enough away to break contact, can you flip it back on when nobody is around, or do you just take a rep hit anyways?

Lprsti99
Apr 7, 2011

Everything's coming up explodey!

Pillbug

Rorac posted:

If you can get far enough away to break contact, can you flip it back on when nobody is around, or do you just take a rep hit anyways?

I have no idea. The patrols are actually really intelligent about cutting you off to prevent you from giving them the slip. I had two fleets after me, and as soon as I got near an asteroid belt they spread out to cover both directions I could go.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Network Pesci posted:

I run my Medusa with Tactical Lasers, Phase Lances, and Hammer Torpedoes and as many vents as I can cram into it with both Optimized Assembly and all the skills that give increased OP. I managed to handle this 70000 credit bounty just now without even calling in any of my backup.



Post your most lopsided victories from this new version.

I'm not sure any Medusa based victory is lopsided. The flavor text straight up calls it out on its bullshit. Its easily better than most cruisers, especially under player control.

Welp, better get the hell out of Corvus. Jangala had a trade disruption dropped the price of gas to gently caress all and both Barad moons had trade disruptions cranking it over 200. Bought a Dram and made bank, infuriating the Hegemony.

dis astranagant fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Nov 23, 2015

SovietPotatoe
May 14, 2011

Master of the Duncspawn Taint
Speaking of cruisers, do any of them make for good player ships? I just got to the point where the hegemony will sell them to me but after running some simulations I'm really unimpressed. So far I've been running with a Sunder and three Wolf and had no trouble scoring perfect victories against 80k bounties with multiple cruisers and from what I've seen cruisers just don't bring enough firepower to the table to be worth it.

Rorac
Aug 19, 2011

dis astranagant posted:

Welp, better get the hell out of Corvus. Jangala had a trade disruption dropped the price of gas to gently caress all and both Barad moons had trade disruptions cranking it over 200. Bought a Dram and made bank, infuriating the Hegemony.


Welp, I look like an idiot now. Earlier today I was talking with a roommate that also has the game, that I doubted anybody has ever bought a tanker with intent to use it seriously. Now that a serious use is staring me in the face, all I can do is :doh:

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

SovietPotatoe posted:

Speaking of cruisers, do any of them make for good player ships? I just got to the point where the hegemony will sell them to me but after running some simulations I'm really unimpressed. So far I've been running with a Sunder and three Wolf and had no trouble scoring perfect victories against 80k bounties with multiple cruisers and from what I've seen cruisers just don't bring enough firepower to the table to be worth it.

Apogee is basically a Medusa built to stand its ground rather than phase around. Ditto the Aurora, but the shield on that isn't as ridiculous. Doom is probably nasty but I haven't actually had a chance to use it.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
So I just learned that the investigation system doesn't work the way I thought it does. I THOUGHT that how it worked was that if you're friendly with multiple factions at once, they'll investigate you for your ties to each other.

Turns out that's incorrect. What happens is that if you get friendly enough with ANY faction, EVERY OTHER faction investigates you for your ties to that faction and gets hostile against you for it. If you get to welcoming with the Luddic Church or the Sindrian Diktat, enjoy having almost the entire galaxy hostile against you!

Independents seem to be the one exception to the rule, probably so that you're not COMPLETELY hosed if you allied with one of the smaller factions.

Rorac posted:

If you can get far enough away to break contact, can you flip it back on when nobody is around, or do you just take a rep hit anyways?

Best as I know it doesn't work for the specific patrol that was chasing you, presumably because they'd already seen your sensor profile.

"drat, we've lost track of the two Enforcers, three Lashers, and two Wolves we were chasing with their transponder off. I wonder where they could have gotten to...oh, hey, I just got a signal from an independent mercenary fleet of two Enforcers, three Lashers, and two...wait a minute."

Anyone who hadn't been tracking you earlier will ignore you, though.

FooF
Mar 26, 2010

SovietPotatoe posted:

Speaking of cruisers, do any of them make for good player ships? I just got to the point where the hegemony will sell them to me but after running some simulations I'm really unimpressed. So far I've been running with a Sunder and three Wolf and had no trouble scoring perfect victories against 80k bounties with multiple cruisers and from what I've seen cruisers just don't bring enough firepower to the table to be worth it.

I got an Eagle in one of my first playthroughs and was thoroughly unimpressed. Not necessarily because of the hull itself but because of how hard it was to outfit it with the weapons I actually wanted. Right now the markets (even military markets) don't support the best weapons and if you're not a high enough level, the larger ships' lack of maneuverability kill any player advantage they might otherwise have. If you get 10 in Combat, though, those bigger ships see huge bonuses.

The other, often overlooked, issue with the cruisers and capitals is that your burn level drops to the point that you can't reliably chase down anything. Once you drop below 8 or so, all destroyer or below fleets outrun you and you start bleeding supplies trying to maintain your bigger ships (not to mention fuel for E-Burns and/or hypserspace). Basically, I avoid the larger ships until my character level can support them and honestly, the jump from destroyer to cruiser really isn't all that big in some cases. I'll take a Sunder over Eagle or Falcon just about any day and even Enforcers can put out as much damage as either of those two.

I haven't played enough with Auroras, Dooms, or Apogees to judge them.

Gobblecoque
Sep 6, 2011

SovietPotatoe posted:

Speaking of cruisers, do any of them make for good player ships? I just got to the point where the hegemony will sell them to me but after running some simulations I'm really unimpressed. So far I've been running with a Sunder and three Wolf and had no trouble scoring perfect victories against 80k bounties with multiple cruisers and from what I've seen cruisers just don't bring enough firepower to the table to be worth it.

The Eagle is never a poor choice: good speed, maneuverability, and firepower. The Dominator is slow but has monstrous firepower and armor, it can face down capital ships and come out on top. The new Gryphon with the Squall MLRS and harpoons is the ultimate cruiser and capital ship killer but needs some escorts against smaller ships. These are the combat cruisers the Hegemony usually sells and they're all great (they also sell the Falcon and Heron, but the first is just a trimmed down Eagle and the latter is a dedicated carrier).

I rarely used cruisers in the past because of burn speed but now that that's pretty much leveled cruisers have basically been turbobuffed. Are those bounties you're chasing pirates (i.e. not faction deserters)? If so, then they're probably (D) ships and aren't representative of how real ships perform. In addition, having cruisers on hand is nice when factions start turning hostile (and they will if they haven't already if you're able to buy cruisers from the Hegemony) because even patrols will often be vastly stronger than bounty fleets. The first time you get run down by a patrol with 4 Medusas and a bunch of Wolfs, Tempests, and Affllictors is gonna hurt.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
I think the thing about cruisers is that they shine most in fleet engagements. On their own they're not usually that impressive and can't pull off the kinds of lopsided tricks that you can with a Wolf or a Medusa, but in a fleet they provide a bulwark of firepower that your lighter ships can retreat behind whenever they're getting stressed. A Medusa or a Hammerhead CAN kill an Eagle if well-piloted, but it takes time, care, and space to maneuver - all of which tends to be lacking in large fleet engagements with frigates dashing out to pressure you and destroyers getting in everyone's way. If you do well against the frigates, the cruiser can provide enough firepower to force you back long enough for the frigate to recover. If you do well against the cruiser, the frigates can dash out to provide enough additional firepower to turn the tide. The two combined are tougher than they would be alone.

Also, while cruisers may not necessarily have an exponential leap in firepower, it's important to note that their firepower is more "compact" - that is, you can put more fire on target for the given use of battlespace. A pack of frigates or destroyers can outgun a cruiser, but they need more space in which to operate. Again, this isn't as important a factor in smaller battles, but in large fleet engagements when things start getting crowded, being able to effectively concentrate force on a small section of the line can matter where the more dispersed firepower of smaller ships can't get in a decisive blow.

For what it's worth, big ships also seem to take longer to run out of peak CR, so in a sufficiently large or long battle cruisers can start turning the tide just because they're still operational near the end. Assuming you can keep the cruisers alive that long, anyways.

Bold Robot
Jan 6, 2009

Be brave.



What is the best way to gain rep these days? I'm trying to boost Tri-Tach and it's getting annoying waiting for bounties from them to pop up. Is it just bounties + commodities missions or is there other stuff you can do?

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

And then you finish slobbing Tri-Tach knob and charge around in a Paragon like you own the place.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands

Bold Robot posted:

What is the best way to gain rep these days? I'm trying to boost Tri-Tach and it's getting annoying waiting for bounties from them to pop up. Is it just bounties + commodities missions or is there other stuff you can do?

Bounties and commodities seems to be basically it. You can also sell the majority of your loot at faction planets so that you get a trade bonus, but that tapers off after a while. Joining their battles helps too, but it's not reliable.

Come to think of it, if you have enough money it might be possible that you'll gain rep from making huge but unprofitable (or only marginally profitable) trades. Buy a couple of cheap freighters, spend some time just dumping giant loads of cheap consumer goods on places that demand it and eat the tariffs. Again, there's a cap to trade reputation, but that might not be a bad way of trading in money for rep until you can't get any further instead of relying on bounties all the time.

If you think Tri-Tachs are bad, by the way, try grinding rep for the Sindrian Diktat sometime. :gonk:

MShadowy
Sep 30, 2013

dammit eyes don't work that way!



Fun Shoe
Wellp, my odd tendency to beat better modders to the punch seems to have emerged again, though it comes at the cost of not having all the content for this release in place. So have a dev release of Shadowyards I guess, Goons.

Galm
Oct 31, 2009
The Sindrians and Luddic church have 0 presence outside of their single systems. That leaves the Hedgemony and Tri-Tachyon as the only real options. Well, aside from pirates.

Actually, gently caress it. I bought an eagle from the black market after all my smuggling tanked the stability of Chickawhatever. I'm gonna go pirate, and then smuggle all the organs into the Godsquad and Dicktwats for all the Hedgemoney.

edit: Great, first mod, anything new or is it purely a compatibility thing?

MShadowy
Sep 30, 2013

dammit eyes don't work that way!



Fun Shoe
It's mostly just compatibility, but there's a new ship, the Clade, which is a heavy destroyer with a very trolly ship system. It's kinda similar to the Sunder, but harder to pin down. There are also two weapons. One, the Trishula, is a boring laser--basically just a slightly punchier, shorter ranged TacLaser. The second is the Barrago type LRM, which I think is actually kinda cool, though the sprite for the launcher is temporary. Probably not quite as good as the standard Pilum though.

Voyager I
Jun 29, 2012

This is how your posting feels.
🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥

Tomn posted:

I think the thing about cruisers is that they shine most in fleet engagements. On their own they're not usually that impressive and can't pull off the kinds of lopsided tricks that you can with a Wolf or a Medusa, but in a fleet they provide a bulwark of firepower that your lighter ships can retreat behind whenever they're getting stressed. A Medusa or a Hammerhead CAN kill an Eagle if well-piloted, but it takes time, care, and space to maneuver - all of which tends to be lacking in large fleet engagements with frigates dashing out to pressure you and destroyers getting in everyone's way. If you do well against the frigates, the cruiser can provide enough firepower to force you back long enough for the frigate to recover. If you do well against the cruiser, the frigates can dash out to provide enough additional firepower to turn the tide. The two combined are tougher than they would be alone.

Also, while cruisers may not necessarily have an exponential leap in firepower, it's important to note that their firepower is more "compact" - that is, you can put more fire on target for the given use of battlespace. A pack of frigates or destroyers can outgun a cruiser, but they need more space in which to operate. Again, this isn't as important a factor in smaller battles, but in large fleet engagements when things start getting crowded, being able to effectively concentrate force on a small section of the line can matter where the more dispersed firepower of smaller ships can't get in a decisive blow.

For what it's worth, big ships also seem to take longer to run out of peak CR, so in a sufficiently large or long battle cruisers can start turning the tide just because they're still operational near the end. Assuming you can keep the cruisers alive that long, anyways.

The other big advantage of larger ships is range. They get significantly better range bonuses from the relevant hull mods, and it's really hard for faster ships to abuse their speed advantages when the big guy can just shrug their shoulders and open up on them at 1350 su.

You are correct though that larger ships do much better in fleet engagements. They won't look great in simulators against faster ships because the enemy can just pull range and fly circles around you all day, but in a real battle you're going to have your own fleet supporting you so hostile frigates won't be free to dance about while you're trying to engage the enemy main forces. I still wouldn't bother with the expense of a Cruiser unless I was routinely engaging fleets large enough to justify having one along, but they aren't bad ships by any means.

Voyager I fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Nov 23, 2015

Lowen
Mar 16, 2007

Adorable.

Bold Robot posted:

What is the best way to gain rep these days? I'm trying to boost Tri-Tach and it's getting annoying waiting for bounties from them to pop up. Is it just bounties + commodities missions or is there other stuff you can do?

Tip: Don't ignore the per ship bounties, and remember to look for raiders in hyperspace near the star system with a bounty.
I regularly see multiple huge fights between convoys and raider fleets in hyperspace around Hybrasil, it's a great bounty hunting ground.
You can gain rep from regular trade on the open market as well.

Just beware of trading in that one system that has both tri-tach and hegemony in it, one will dislike you if they see you trading with the other.

Minarchist
Mar 5, 2009

by WE B Bourgeois
After struggling with the early game all drat day, I finally got a break in Magec when the Pirates were looking for Rare Metals. Got a bunch of missions all wanting anywhere from 10-100 rare metals which Tibicena sells for fairly cheap, enough to make the in-system trips back and forth worth it. Went from struggling from system to system with barely 3000 credits to almost 200k now in fairly short order, and I bought a hot Sunder (and pulse lasers! :getin:) from Port Tse. I had my transponder off so no one's noticed my shiny new ship so far. Getting pirate relations back up from -75 is horrible, after all these missions I'm still only at -61.

I wish the Hegemony realized having a transponder on at all times is a horrible risk and that I'd be glad to have it on if I wasn't getting jumped left and right by pirate armadas in space they supposedly control :argh:

McGiggins
Apr 4, 2014

by R. Guyovich
Lipstick Apathy
If you're looking for a single heavy cruiser than can "do things" and "do them well" while still playing the early game, you're looking for the Shadowyards Strike Cruiser (Apologies for forgetting the name!). Basically, it's a fighting Heron, even more than the actual Heron (which is hard to beat, considering a pre-officer AI Heron can and will solo it's AI Eagle cousin), and is usually my personal toy.

With fighter bays and decent weapon load outs, you can use it to flank like a hammer while your main fleet engages head on, and do a poo poo ton of damage. I never have to worry about getting flanked myself, either, because the constant fighter reinforcement spewing out your mouth ensure you keep in good company.

Strike Cruiser is best Cruiser!

MShadowy
Sep 30, 2013

dammit eyes don't work that way!



Fun Shoe

McGiggins posted:

If you're looking for a single heavy cruiser than can "do things" and "do them well" while still playing the early game, you're looking for the Shadowyards Strike Cruiser (Apologies for forgetting the name!). Basically, it's a fighting Heron, even more than the actual Heron (which is hard to beat, considering a pre-officer AI Heron can and will solo it's AI Eagle cousin), and is usually my personal toy.

With fighter bays and decent weapon load outs, you can use it to flank like a hammer while your main fleet engages head on, and do a poo poo ton of damage. I never have to worry about getting flanked myself, either, because the constant fighter reinforcement spewing out your mouth ensure you keep in good company.

Strike Cruiser is best Cruiser!

That'd be the Charybdis, aye. And I definitely tend to go for it a lot myself... which I guess isn't really surprising considering it's essentially a ship I put together specifically so I could fly it.

Voyager I
Jun 29, 2012

This is how your posting feels.
🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥
If anyone hasn't tried running a Medusa with Safety Overrides and twin Heavy Blasters, do yourself a favor and try it out. It probably takes some support skills to really shine but at the end of the day you can have a ship that zooms around like a frigate while passively venting 1,500+ flux per second (for 100 seconds).

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Voyager I posted:

If anyone hasn't tried running a Medusa with Safety Overrides and twin Heavy Blasters, do yourself a favor and try it out. It probably takes some support skills to really shine but at the end of the day you can have a ship that zooms around like a frigate while passively venting 1,500+ flux per second (for 100 seconds).

I did that with a triple pulse laser Sunder, with 2 light dual autocannons to help punch shields. Vents far more than it uses, letting power grid modulation 10 shrug off pretty much anything smaller fleets can throw at you. Nasty little raider.

dis astranagant fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Nov 23, 2015

McGiggins
Apr 4, 2014

by R. Guyovich
Lipstick Apathy
It's just such a good cruiser.

I normally let the AI do it's own thing in my fleets, usually in multiple squads of Hyper Velocity Herons escorted by two PD Camels, but the Charybdis just does the whole role in one ship (minus cargo from the camels), but isn't more overpowered than any other late game cruiser...

A good design.

OwlFancier
Aug 22, 2013

What do high resolution sensors do? Wondering whether I should get an Omen seeing as they seem to pack them for some reason. I already want to have an apogee as my flagship when I can afford one but it might have to be an SS+ thing because the vanilla map just doesn't offer any places for good conflicts supporting high end fleets.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Nothing worse than finding 2 Medusas on the black market, having more than enough money to buy and equip both of them, and having sweet gently caress all for energy weapons to kit them with.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands

dis astranagant posted:

Nothing worse than finding 2 Medusas on the black market, having more than enough money to buy and equip both of them, and having sweet gently caress all for energy weapons to kit them with.

At some point I will learn to save and store the cool weapons I loot instead of selling them off immediately because I can't be stuffed.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Tomn posted:

At some point I will learn to save and store the cool weapons I loot instead of selling them off immediately because I can't be stuffed.

That'd be nice if I actually found weapons that weren't assault chainguns, arbelests and small slot ballistics/missiles. Clearly I'm fighting the wrong guys.

Cathair
Jan 7, 2008

Tomn posted:

At some point I will learn to save and store the cool weapons I loot instead of selling them off immediately because I can't be stuffed.

I've resorted to cheating- use LazyWizard's Console Commands mod, gives you a 'storage' command that remotely accesses the abandoned station in Corvus from anywhere.

Would be really cool if someone made a mod that made all purchasable storage tabs route to one unified 'container', would give me a lot more reason to buy storage access in various places.

Rorac
Aug 19, 2011

Where are people getting Afflictors? I've been looking for one, but only finding one Tri-Tac military base way up in the north. Am I missing one in a system I haven't visited, or do they just not sell them anymore? Or am I just unlucky and not finding them?

Zudgemud
Mar 1, 2009
Grimey Drawer

Rorac posted:

Where are people getting Afflictors? I've been looking for one, but only finding one Tri-Tac military base way up in the north. Am I missing one in a system I haven't visited, or do they just not sell them anymore? Or am I just unlucky and not finding them?

Black markets in Tri Tach space.

Also, safety override ships with ammo feed are the poo poo. What we need are an eagle like ship with this system.

Anyone know if there is a bug with boarding? Ever since I bought marines I have yet to be able to board things, as in, for +10 battles destroying almost a hundred ships, I have yet to get the prompt for boarding, which is strange as I got it a lot before getting the marines and the big fleet.

DatonKallandor
Aug 21, 2009

"I can no longer sit back and allow nationalist shitposting, nationalist indoctrination, nationalist subversion, and the German nationalist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious game balance."

dis astranagant posted:

I did that with a triple pulse laser Sunder, with 2 light dual autocannons to help punch shields. Vents far more than it uses, letting power grid modulation 10 shrug off pretty much anything smaller fleets can throw at you. Nasty little raider.

Sunders are really fun now that you can give them skills with officers. I got a nasty fire support one - Tachyon Lance, 2 Graviton Beams with both of the range mods. It's just giant chain EMP damage bursts from screens away.

On the boarding note, I'm also getting almost not boarding events whatsoever. I have almost 200 marines, but nothing to use them on.

FooF
Mar 26, 2010

Zudgemud posted:

Black markets in Tri Tach space.

Also, safety override ships with ammo feed are the poo poo. What we need are an eagle like ship with this system.

Anyone know if there is a bug with boarding? Ever since I bought marines I have yet to be able to board things, as in, for +10 battles destroying almost a hundred ships, I have yet to get the prompt for boarding, which is strange as I got it a lot before getting the marines and the big fleet.

A.) Alex considerably nerfed the probability for the option of a ship to get boarded from previous versions
B.) Boarding is guaranteed if you have enough marines (though marines are expensive)
C.) There is currently a bug that guarantees you lose at least 1/3 of all your marines not matter how many crew (even none!) are leftover on the ship being boarded

Moral of the story: boarding ships is not worth it at the moment.

Alex found the bug and fixed it but we have to wait for .7b. Just my own anecdotal evidence: I've probably had less than a dozen ships come up as being board-able in the 5-6 hours I've played. Most of them Kites and Lashers (from hunting pirates) but I've yet to see a destroyer up for grabs. Also anecdotal, the ships that looked board-able had mostly engine damage. I have no idea if board-ability has something to do with where the hull gets hit, though that would actually be kind of cool if it did. I rarely carry marines anyway so it doesn't matter. To lose 10 marines (~5000 credits) to recover a ship I can sell for 1200 makes no sense and there are reports of people losing 20 marines boarding ships with 1 crew member left due to the bug. :stare:

FooF fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Nov 23, 2015

Jinx
Sep 9, 2001

Violence and Bloodshed
I never understood why boarding was always so obnoxious in this game. It's bizarre that the crew of a defeated ship would always rather be blown up than surrender control of a ship - it makes no logical sense and seems to be a gameplay mechanical gently caress you to the player. Admittedly if boarding were made more consistent this could become a problem when pirate bounty fleets with 4 Medusas an a Apogee spawn; if you can beat such a fleet, it's unlikely you're hurting for money or ships.

If there was more control over fighter squadrons it would be awesome to have assault shuttles (ala MOO2) fight for control of a ship during combat.

Currently the economy in the base game is screwed up - got a dude to level 30, with ~300k cash without too much effort and I still can't access anything better than a Sunder or Medusa because nobody sells anything good, even with high influence with Tri-Tachyon corp. Ugh. Losing a ship in the early game is such a pain in the rear end for this reason; it's not the cost, it's the rarity of decent anything anywhere.

Beer4TheBeerGod
Aug 23, 2004
Exciting Lemon
I really hate the faction mechanic stuff, especially investigations about my involvement in a group that nobody cares about.

SovietPotatoe
May 14, 2011

Master of the Duncspawn Taint

Tomn posted:

I think the thing about cruisers is that they shine most in fleet engagements. On their own they're not usually that impressive and can't pull off the kinds of lopsided tricks that you can with a Wolf or a Medusa, but in a fleet they provide a bulwark of firepower that your lighter ships can retreat behind whenever they're getting stressed. A Medusa or a Hammerhead CAN kill an Eagle if well-piloted, but it takes time, care, and space to maneuver - all of which tends to be lacking in large fleet engagements with frigates dashing out to pressure you and destroyers getting in everyone's way. If you do well against the frigates, the cruiser can provide enough firepower to force you back long enough for the frigate to recover. If you do well against the cruiser, the frigates can dash out to provide enough additional firepower to turn the tide. The two combined are tougher than they would be alone.

Also, while cruisers may not necessarily have an exponential leap in firepower, it's important to note that their firepower is more "compact" - that is, you can put more fire on target for the given use of battlespace. A pack of frigates or destroyers can outgun a cruiser, but they need more space in which to operate. Again, this isn't as important a factor in smaller battles, but in large fleet engagements when things start getting crowded, being able to effectively concentrate force on a small section of the line can matter where the more dispersed firepower of smaller ships can't get in a decisive blow.

For what it's worth, big ships also seem to take longer to run out of peak CR, so in a sufficiently large or long battle cruisers can start turning the tide just because they're still operational near the end. Assuming you can keep the cruisers alive that long, anyways.

I've been testing out a Dominator and it really doesn't do any of these things. It has about the same sustained firepower as a Sunder while offering more range. However, the lack of accuracy means against frigates and destroyers it still needs to close in at which point the abysmal speed means it will have a lot of trouble closing range or disengaging. And with the low maneuverability chances are once you get in close you'll just be outmaneuvered and swarmed. What's more is that it has more sustained firepower as opposed to burst, which is bad because it means enemy ships are able to disengage and vent and dance about at max range without you being able to do anything about it. It doesn't help that bounty fleets seem to scale with your level and/or fleet size, as all the fleets I've seen seem to suddenly have half a dozen destroyers and twice that number in frigates and fighters. Add in the massive drain on supplies and I'd go with two more Sunders over a cruiser.

I also don't see a particular need for "compact" firepower. Quite the opposite, in large fleet engagements I find it more important to be able to either outmaneuver the enemy so you can prevent him from encircling you and dictate the terms of the engagement or have enough width to form a cohesive front. If you're going with the latter approach a cruiser might be viable (note I don't mean it would be better than two destroyers, just that it would be viable) but even then being able to engage, dish out a ton of burst damage and disengage is much more useful than sustained fire. And in terms of supply efficiency you are always better off with a small fleet of fast destroyers that can just break out to the side and hit the enemy in the flank.

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Gobblecoque
Sep 6, 2011

SovietPotatoe posted:

cruiser stuff

Yeah but on the other hand:


(not mine, was posted by someone on the official forums)

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