Starsector - Waste no part of the Buffalo II [Preorder Alpha]

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Arrath: Apr 14, 2011

The whole sensor and transponder system has made it actually possible to get in and plant sniffers on comm relays, which is awesome. Having the edge on trade shortages and events is really nice. Same goes for sneaking into planets that may not like you so much, or to ones that do but just so I can sneakily use the black market for something. Once a patrol gets your scent, though, it might be a little hairy. The cat and mouse games through asteroid fields and other terrain are really fun so far, though.

Turning off the transponder is only one part of it, timely going dark and emergency burns will save your bacon.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 05:25

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 08:02

feedtheid: Oct 17, 2006; we get it, you're too busy fellating Gabe to put yourself into someone else's shoes

With even a reasonable size fleet I've found it impossible to try to slip in and bribe an investigator.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 05:47

Unreal_One: Aug 18, 2010; Now you know how I don't like to use the sit-down gun, but this morning we just don't have time for mucking about.

feedtheid posted:

With even a reasonable size fleet I've found it impossible to try to slip in and bribe an investigator.

But for 5000 creds, you can stash all but your fastest, quietest ship at literally any semi-friendly planet.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 05:52

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

How does the shadowyards barrago missile work? Sometimes it seems to go really slow, sometimes it activates a booster engine, sometimes it fragments into multiple (seemingly kinetic?) shards, sometimes it impacts for HE damage.

Does it just shoot random missile types at things?

# ? Nov 30, 2015 05:54

feedtheid: Oct 17, 2006; we get it, you're too busy fellating Gabe to put yourself into someone else's shoes

Unreal_One posted:

But for 5000 creds, you can stash all but your fastest, quietest ship at literally any semi-friendly planet.

I realized this as I was typing it, but it still feels dopey to dock your entire fleet to sneak quietly away and walk back in to bribe an official. Instead why aren't you just the rich-rear end mogul with a powerful and influential fleet bribing the dude to investigate a little less thoroughly?

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:06

Cirofren: Jun 13, 2005; Pillbug

Tarezax posted:

To get more or less guaranteed access to good ships and weapons you have to build faction rep, but occasionally you may get lucky on the black market. I always check the black market when I come into port for that reason.

Yeah after I got to welcoming with the Tritachs my ship and weapon availability woes evaporated in a couple of in game months. Thanks to whoever mentioned the Military market in Magec is gone and now the only one is in Hydrabasil's Ogma station.

They investigated me twice in quick session for ties to the Hedge though, I bribed them both times and then blew up a Hegemony patrol outside of Corvus to avoid a third investigation.

Hopefully someone mods in siege and capture of stations (I think an old mod had this) so my Mount and Blade in space fantasy can be complete.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:15

Arrath: Apr 14, 2011

Ship base sensor and signature values really need to be shown on their info cards.

Or am I just blind? I know I can mouse over the fleet strength/signature readouts in the bottom right and get a breakdown but that only works for ships in my fleet.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:20

Minarchist: Mar 5, 2009; by WE B Bourgeois

Cirofren posted:

Hopefully someone mods in siege and capture of stations (I think an old mod had this) so my Mount and Blade in space fantasy can be complete.

Nexerelin has this, it's updated to the newest version of Starsector.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:23

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

Arrath posted:

The whole sensor and transponder system has made it actually possible to get in and plant sniffers on comm relays, which is awesome. Having the edge on trade shortages and events is really nice. Same goes for sneaking into planets that may not like you so much, or to ones that do but just so I can sneakily use the black market for something. Once a patrol gets your scent, though, it might be a little hairy. The cat and mouse games through asteroid fields and other terrain are really fun so far, though.

Turning off the transponder is only one part of it, timely going dark and emergency burns will save your bacon.

I think one of the patch notes mentioned that investigations for planting comm sniffers have been temporarily disabled, actually. Dunno if that affects patrol ships passing by, I haven't tried planting a sniffer in full view of dudes yet, but yeah.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:29

Arrath: Apr 14, 2011

Tomn posted:

I think one of the patch notes mentioned that investigations for planting comm sniffers have been temporarily disabled, actually. Dunno if that affects patrol ships passing by, I haven't tried planting a sniffer in full view of dudes yet, but yeah.

In the past the sniffer would always eventually be found and you'd get dinged for it, which I didn't much like. So this is good news!

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:33

The Chad Jihad: Feb 24, 2007

It'll be interesting to see how/if the AI handles transponder stuff when it's all added in, as it is when they single you out as smugglers drift by it's annoying

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:34

MShadowy: Sep 30, 2013; dammit eyes don't work that way!; Fun Shoe

OwlFancier posted:

How does the shadowyards barrago missile work? Sometimes it seems to go really slow, sometimes it activates a booster engine, sometimes it fragments into multiple (seemingly kinetic?) shards, sometimes it impacts for HE damage.

Does it just shoot random missile types at things?

The weapon was introduced in this latest dev version and is still in serious need of polish.

The actual idea was a three stage lrm, intended to be a noticeable departure from typical lrm behavior (which is basically just fly at target and explode). The first stage, immediately following launch, is a slow but rapidly turning missile which orients rapidly to target, and once oriented goes to the second stage which is go fast, turn badly. Once in very close range (and after the arming period) do stage three which is explode into a cloud of flechettes.

Unfortunately it's not working quite as planned, and in particular seems to fail on the first stage annoyingly often. I suspect this is a targeting issue arising from the staged nature of the missile; the custom ai is likely going to need an updated behavior to allow the missile to recognize targets beyond visual range as valid targets for staging up.

MShadowy fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Nov 30, 2015

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:34

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

MShadowy posted:

The weapon was introduced in this latest dev version and is still in serious need of polish.

The actual idea was a three stage lrm, intended to be a noticeable departure from typical lrm behavior (which is basically just fly at target and explode). The first stage, immediately following launch, is a slow but rapidly turning missile which orients rapidly to target, and once oriented goes to the second stage which is go fast, turn badly. Once in very close range (and after the arming period) do stage three which is explode into a cloud of flechettes.

Unfortunately it's not working quite as planned, and in particular seems to fail on the first stage annoyingly often. I suspect this is a targeting issue arising from the staged nature of the missile; the custom ai is likely going to need an updated behavior to allow the missile to recognize targets beyond visual range as valid targets for staging up.

After more practice it seems to work as you describe but only if I fire it from long range, otherwise it closes slowly to the target and then does a little boost and impacts with the whole missile.

In a sense it's actually rather versatile because it functions as a long range flechette missile and also a short range boosted HE missile. It's just a bit confusing.

It's also possibly a bit OP, the tracking/speed/flechette combination combined with it being an LRM makes it nearly impossible to avoid and very easy to hang back and fill the sky with them. I put one on an Enil gunship and with shadowyards' long loiter times I could kill wolves just using the missile by kiting around and building up a swarm of them.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 06:56

Fajita Queen: Jun 21, 2012

When I try running Starsector with MusicLib I'm getting an error, it's not finding a music file.

code:

5496 [Thread-5] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain  - java.lang.RuntimeException: Music file music-faction_pirate_market_03_friendly.ogg not found in music.bin
java.lang.RuntimeException: Music file music-faction_pirate_market_03_friendly.ogg not found in music.bin
	at sound.H.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.loading.H.void(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.loading.H.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.loading.SpecStore.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.loading.SpecStore.�O0000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.loading.SpecStore.�00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.loading.ResourceLoaderState.init(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Is the mod just not up to date for the most recent version of the game? I get the same error with or without other mods.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 08:14

Talkie Toaster: Jan 23, 2006; May contain carcinogens

Arrath posted:

Ship base sensor and signature values really need to be shown on their info cards.

Or am I just blind? I know I can mouse over the fleet strength/signature readouts in the bottom right and get a breakdown but that only works for ships in my fleet.

It's just done by hull size. Some ships have mods that note if they have a higher profile/higher strength than usual.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 11:20

dis astranagant: Dec 14, 2006

I've been messing with Fleaden lately and they're really neat. At first I thought they were going to be super overpowered but they're so specialized that it's not hard to gently caress them up. Every one of their ships is ridiculously fast and overgunned but they're super flimsy and their flux handling tends to be bad to mediocre. Their destroyer is basically a Tempest with a Sunder's weapon loadout and hitbox. Their weapons tend to be really slow burst damage affairs likely to get you killed if you ever miss.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 11:25

Anticheese: Feb 13, 2008; $60,000,000 sexbot

Apparently one of the new planets has a pirate military market.

:stare:

# ? Nov 30, 2015 11:26

MShadowy: Sep 30, 2013; dammit eyes don't work that way!; Fun Shoe

OwlFancier posted:

After more practice it seems to work as you describe but only if I fire it from long range, otherwise it closes slowly to the target and then does a little boost and impacts with the whole missile.

In a sense it's actually rather versatile because it functions as a long range flechette missile and also a short range boosted HE missile. It's just a bit confusing.

It's also possibly a bit OP, the tracking/speed/flechette combination combined with it being an LRM makes it nearly impossible to avoid and very easy to hang back and fill the sky with them. I put one on an Enil gunship and with shadowyards' long loiter times I could kill wolves just using the missile by kiting around and building up a swarm of them.

Well, not terribly surprising there's a laundry list of things to do in regards to the Barrago. At the very least the possible OPness of the missile ought to be easy enough to fix; probably a combination of increasing the Ordnance Point cost, lowering the RoF, adjusting the second stages turn speed downwards and sharply reducing its acceleration so its more likely to miss (particularly small targets) and recovers less well from missing, and possibly reducing the number of flechettes and/or increasing their spread so it's less concentrated. Won't do much to help big ships, but smaller craft should see some benefit; I probably could also change the damage type from KINETIC so it's less effective against shields.

In any case, your feedbacks been pretty handy, thanks!

# ? Nov 30, 2015 15:17

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 got good news for anyone who was pissed about the faction investigation system.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 16:56

dis astranagant: Dec 14, 2006

I'm guessing that means relationship with everyone is capped til you pick one and piss everyone off but at least you don't have to worry about how much Hegemony rep you build up getting started.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 17:38

Glass Hand: Apr 24, 2006; Just one more finger, Trent.

Is there a way to mod the rep hits you get from hostile actions?

I've installed Nexerelin and it's great, but it's sort of crazy that you alone are responsible for the reputation of whatever faction you're with. Since your relationship with a faction is the exact same as your faction's relationship, it seems like your dinky little frigate attacking a picket or getting caught without having a transponder on does more damage to the relationship between your factions than one of your faction's AI fleets invading one of their planets. I'd like to be able to participate in a war without necessarily tanking inter-faction relations to -100 and keeping it there as if the actions of a lowly frigate captain are solely responsible for the continuation of wars in the sector.

Also, how am I supposed to use/equip the Shade? I found one at that one Independent planet with a military base, and I'm not really sure what the best thing to do with it is. I put two antimatter blasters on the hardpoints, three ion cannons on the turrets set on autofire, and managed to solo a Hammerhead in simulation, but I get the feeling it's the kind of ship that's not really meant for soloing.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 17:41

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

MShadowy posted:

Well, not terribly surprising there's a laundry list of things to do in regards to the Barrago. At the very least the possible OPness of the missile ought to be easy enough to fix; probably a combination of increasing the Ordnance Point cost, lowering the RoF, adjusting the second stages turn speed downwards and sharply reducing its acceleration so its more likely to miss (particularly small targets) and recovers less well from missing, and possibly reducing the number of flechettes and/or increasing their spread so it's less concentrated. Won't do much to help big ships, but smaller craft should see some benefit; I probably could also change the damage type from KINETIC so it's less effective against shields.

In any case, your feedbacks been pretty handy, thanks!

It's a neat missile, certainly a different type of LRM than the usual flock of slow drifty things that gently caress you up if you blunder into them. I guess it's just hard to balance an effective missile with near-infinite range and ammo supply, especially for a faction which appears to be built around taking all day to finish a fight.

If I had to suggest a change, possibly slowing down/narrowing the spread/extending the distance at which the missile fragments would help a bit. As it stands the spread is wide, fast, and close enough that once it pops, it's unavoidable, but also it's a bit hard to shoot down with short range frigate/destroyer PD before it fragments. I would think larger ships would actually have an easier time of it because they can probably shoot it down from further away with heavier/extended range PD.

A wider spread so that more of it misses smaller ships could also work, as well as an earlier detonation/slower projectiles would probably help reduce its effectiveness against smaller ships while boosting it a little against larger ones, and also the possibility of making it turn slower in the second stage would allow it to be dodged a bit easier. There's definitely a niche for that kind of LRM, just as you say could do with a bit of a polish.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 17:48

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."

I really wish there was a missile that was just a long range delivery system for the slow unguided bomblets the Piranha drops. Basically a long range instant minefield.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 18:29

Ceebees: Nov 2, 2011; I'm intentionally being as verbose as possible in negotiations for my own amusement.

Glass Hand posted:

Also, how am I supposed to use/equip the Shade? I found one at that one Independent planet with a military base, and I'm not really sure what the best thing to do with it is. I put two antimatter blasters on the hardpoints, three ion cannons on the turrets set on autofire, and managed to solo a Hammerhead in simulation, but I get the feeling it's the kind of ship that's not really meant for soloing.

My opinion on how to phase frigate is as follows:

As many forward antimatter blasters as you can fire at once without actually overloading yourself.
Some PD or whatever in the slots you have left
Ghost behind enemy and shoot them in their unshielded asses.
Optional but recommended - bring durable distraction chumps to make lining up rear end shots easier.

Joyous edit:

Tomn posted:

I got good news for anyone who was pissed about the faction investigation system.

Can't come soon enough.

Ceebees fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Nov 30, 2015

# ? Nov 30, 2015 20:33

FooF: Mar 26, 2010

Tomn posted:

I got good news for anyone who was pissed about the faction investigation system.

Now that's pretty cool. Perhaps you have to take on a commission to get your rep above "friendly" or something like that but that puts a lot more control in the player's hands and doesn't make the other factions hate you automatically for merely existing. I wonder if a "commission" is a one-time deal or if you have a falling out the other factions will let you in. Alternatively, maybe it's like a letter of the marque where you hunt down enemies of the faction for both rep and credits.

Hey, I'll take it over the existing system, though.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 20:51

Zudgemud: Mar 1, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Glass Hand posted:

Also, how am I supposed to use/equip the Shade? I found one at that one Independent planet with a military base, and I'm not really sure what the best thing to do with it is. I put two antimatter blasters on the hardpoints, three ion cannons on the turrets set on autofire, and managed to solo a Hammerhead in simulation, but I get the feeling it's the kind of ship that's not really meant for soloing.

It is a fantastic solo boat, arguably better than the afflictor, though it depends on personal preference really.

I usually fit mine with two or three antimatter blasters in the turret and some torpedoes in the hardpoints. If you fit two blasters you could add an ion cannon in the remaining turret.

The great thing about the shade is the emp ship system, it is very very good at disabling ship engines, turrets and incoming enemy missiles, and the short cooldown makes you able to permanently flame out non omnishield ships.

The bad thing about the shade is the slightly inferior stats compared to the afflictor, and that if one of your engines become disabled you spin like a top.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 20:53

Gobblecoque: Sep 6, 2011

Glass Hand posted:

Also, how am I supposed to use/equip the Shade? I found one at that one Independent planet with a military base, and I'm not really sure what the best thing to do with it is. I put two antimatter blasters on the hardpoints, three ion cannons on the turrets set on autofire, and managed to solo a Hammerhead in simulation, but I get the feeling it's the kind of ship that's not really meant for soloing.

A bit unconventional, but I've had one AI-piloted Shade that I equipped with SO, dual LMGs, IR pulse lasers, and an ion gun. It lacks decisive punch but it's completely AI-proof and with the LMGs and ion gun it can rapidly overload and cripple ships at no risk to itself. In addition, the SO makes flux build-up a total non-issue for it. A great strategy is to order it to wade into a mess of enemies where it will hold them up forever while the rest of your fleet goes to work dismantling the enemy piecemeal.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 21:11

Tanith: Jul 17, 2005; _{Alpha, Beta, Gamma cores

Use them, lose them, salvage more

Kick off the next AI war

In the Persean Sector}

Reposting my favorite afflictor build ever.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:18

RuckusRouser: Sep 28, 2015; Theres a lot of close ups of landing gear

Is the only way to get rep with a faction to do one of the following:

-Kill pirates in their system/bounties they put out in other systems
-Non-blackmarket trade with one of their stations that is in need of supplies/food/etc
-Doing random delivery missions for their stations

Is there an easier way? Right now it seems that gaining rep to a good level is almost MMO amounts of grinding.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:40

Artificer: Apr 8, 2010; You're going to try ponies and you're. Going. To. LOVE. ME!!

Tanith posted:

Reposting my favorite afflictor build ever.

What kind of missiles are those?

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:40

StringOfLetters: Apr 2, 2007; What?

RuckusRouser posted:

Is there an easier way? Right now it seems that gaining rep to a good level is almost MMO amounts of grinding.

You can also fight hostile factions besides Pirates in a place where they can see it. Attack Hegemony/Tri-Tachyon fleets raiding each other in hyperspace, or around Valhalla.

Is there any way at all to gain reputation with the Luddic Path?

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:43

RuckusRouser: Sep 28, 2015; Theres a lot of close ups of landing gear

If I destabilize a planet or station and then kill off the response fleets, will a rival faction eventually come in and take over the station?

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:48

Arrath: Apr 14, 2011

RuckusRouser posted:

Is the only way to get rep with a faction to do one of the following:

-Kill pirates in their system/bounties they put out in other systems
-Non-blackmarket trade with one of their stations that is in need of supplies/food/etc
-Doing random delivery missions for their stations

Is there an easier way? Right now it seems that gaining rep to a good level is almost MMO amounts of grinding.

Like the other guy said, bounties apply to any enemy of the faction issuing the bounty, not just pirates. Go after Tri-Tach when a Hegemony bounty is going and so on.
The amount of xp and rep gained when trading scales with the volume of the trade, so as you grow it'll go faster.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:53

McGiggins: Apr 4, 2014; by R. Guyovich; Lipstick Apathy

RuckusRouser posted:

If I destabilize a planet or station and then kill off the response fleets, will a rival faction eventually come in and take over the station?

They will if you use Nexerilin, but you don't even have to destabilize the place.

Sometimes an invasion fleet will just rock up, trash the place, kill the spawning response fleets and just take the whole shebang.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:57

Kenshin: Jan 10, 2007

Artificer posted:

What kind of missiles are those?

They look like Annihilators.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:59

Tanith: Jul 17, 2005; _{Alpha, Beta, Gamma cores

Use them, lose them, salvage more

Kick off the next AI war

In the Persean Sector}

Kenshin posted:

They look like Annihilators.

Yep. Alternating fire if going after frigates, linked if Charon is doing his job and smoking cruisers

# ? Dec 1, 2015 00:30

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

MShadowy posted:

Well, not terribly surprising there's a laundry list of things to do in regards to the Barrago. At the very least the possible OPness of the missile ought to be easy enough to fix; probably a combination of increasing the Ordnance Point cost, lowering the RoF, adjusting the second stages turn speed downwards and sharply reducing its acceleration so its more likely to miss (particularly small targets) and recovers less well from missing, and possibly reducing the number of flechettes and/or increasing their spread so it's less concentrated. Won't do much to help big ships, but smaller craft should see some benefit; I probably could also change the damage type from KINETIC so it's less effective against shields.

In any case, your feedbacks been pretty handy, thanks!

Is it intentional that the Raksasha bomber wing has a burn speed of 6?

# ? Dec 1, 2015 01:23

MShadowy: Sep 30, 2013; dammit eyes don't work that way!; Fun Shoe

Lprsti99 posted:

Is it intentional that the Raksasha bomber wing has a burn speed of 6?

No, that's an oversight :doh:

# ? Dec 1, 2015 03:36

FooF: Mar 26, 2010

.7.1a patch notes (so far)

Commissions explained and they seem at first glance vastly superior to the investigation system currently.

# ? Dec 1, 2015 04:08

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 08:02

The Chad Jihad: Feb 24, 2007

quote:

Easy difficulty in campaign:
+50% damage dealt
-50% damage taken
+500 sensor range
+50% extra salvage
Halved enemy officer level
Extra starting money (10,000)
Extra starting ship, with officer

# ? Dec 1, 2015 04:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Starsector - Waste no part of the Buffalo II [Preorder Alpha]

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