Starsector - RT 2D indie space goodness

[Black]

I like using a smallish one with interceptors as an escort while piloting a huge capital. Provides enough PD to cover my ass and it has a decent deployment time, unlike frigates that have to fuck off after a few minutes.

OTOH a squadron of Tempests with ace pilots can take down pretty much anything short of battlestations, which the AI is super garbage at fighting against.

What the hell

 

[PapaPetro]

I've had a lot of success with carrier fleets, especially with taking out stations. Just park them in the back and be diligent with your Fighter Strike Orders; taking out the targets that pose the most threats to your carriers with swarmed focus fire.
The best makeup is using cheap and easily replaceable drone/PD carriers to overwhelm the enemy's defenses, and bombers to hit them hard while they are vulnerable. Keep the makeups exclusive to the individual carriers, so one ship has all the fighter bays being PD drones and the other is all bombers (perditions or longbows).

Treat bomber carriers as missile slots in terms of design philosophy: they can reload missiles infinitely, and they have better range and targeting than lobbing them from your ship. The trick is to distract the AI's targeting with those overwhelming swarm tactics of cheap and quick fighters/interceptors to create an opening for the bombers to shit all over them.

 

[Black]

Is there anything special to make [redacted] stuff? Or just like with anything, you're good if you learned the blueprint?

 

[Damned Registrations]

Most of their stuff can't be piloted. What tech they do have that you can get blueprints of, works normally though.

 

[PapaPetro]

You can get their weapons and LPCs (fighters) from drops, but you can't capture ships or get the blueprints for them or their weapons/LPCs.

This mod should allow you to board them.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=15609.0

 

[Black]

Most of their stuff can't be piloted. What tech they do have that you can get blueprints of, works normally though.

Aight, I was looking at my blueprints because I swear I had at least one of theirs and it wasn't there. I guess I loaded a save and didn't find it.

 

[fantadomat]

Fuck the combat is so bad,it is painful how stupid the AI is. Most ships just run around and do nothing.

 

[adrix89]

Fuck the combat is so bad,it is painful how stupid the AI is. Most ships just run around and do nothing.

The game doesn't need that much AI.
The enemy will simply crush you with simple fleet composition.
As for your own fleet, that's what command points and Officer Traits are for. Even then it's more about fleet composition and survivability.

 

[Fedora Master]

I seem to have figured out the combat controls now. The rest of the game is extremely fun, been spending my time exploring the outer reaches of the sector.
Got like 3 mil in the bank and probably should buy some bigger ships but so far I've not really seen any dedicated ship wharfs where they're available, any trick to finding capital ships?

 

[PapaPetro]

Prism Freeport is a solid place to buy capital ships, but I forgot if that is Vanilla or requires the Nexerelin mod.
Going on derelict ship salvaging, though it's mostly luck of the draw.
Otherwise it's building relationships with factions to have access to their capital ships. At least with the Independent faction, I don't think you need a commission, just high relationship.

Since you have 3 mil, probably a good time to start a colony, putting those blueprints to good use and build your own capital ships.

 

[Damned Registrations]

If you want capital ships you're going to need to look at larger colonies, preferably ones tagged as Military, and check their black market. Even then they'll be rare. If you take a commision with a faction you can access their military tab which tends to have the best quality ships and weapons, provided you get your rep with them high enough.

 

[fantadomat]

Fuck the combat is so bad,it is painful how stupid the AI is. Most ships just run around and do nothing.

The game doesn't need that much AI.
The enemy will simply crush you with simple fleet composition.
As for your own fleet, that's what command points and Officer Traits are for. Even then it's more about fleet composition and survivability.

It is very lacking,you can't position your ships and then your ship AI is really bad. I run with mainly big/medium ships,but they are far too stupid,they just get lost and don't attack because they are too big and slow. In the mean time my smaller ships get fucked up. It is really annoying that i can't just quick battle every battle and have to lead in some fights. My lead ship have 4 long range lazers but she is just sailing forward and ignoring the battle while getting pounded in the ass.

I am not talking ass a butthurt faggit that looses battles,i do win all of them without much of losses. Still the battles are more of chore than a fun thing.

Another bad thing that i noticed is the save system. I just fucked my self hard by spending 100,000 building a colony and ended up low on supplies fighting some 200,000 bounty with low battle readiness (for some stupid reason) in the middle of a unexplored system,far away from colonies. Oh well i do hope that manage to win and scavenge the needed supply for the return trip . Still getting that low readiness for no reason is stupid!

 

[PapaPetro]

Are you using the command screen to issue orders? Having your small ships escort the bigger ones, setting up waypoints and defensive picket lines, issuing eliminate orders on select targets, issuing retreats to vulnerable and wounded units?
In late game, I rarely personally fly into battles and just command it from the screen; using the speed mod to resolve it quickly.

There was an auto-resolve button in previous verions (pre 0.6 I think) but the dev removed it because it could be cheesed. You can still auto-resolve pursuit battles though by letting your "Second in Command" handle it.

 

[rashiakas]

Fuck the combat is so bad,it is painful how stupid the AI is. Most ships just run around and do nothing.

The game doesn't need that much AI.
The enemy will simply crush you with simple fleet composition.
As for your own fleet, that's what command points and Officer Traits are for. Even then it's more about fleet composition and survivability.

It is very lacking,you can't position your ships and then your ship AI is really bad. I run with mainly big/medium ships,but they are far too stupid,they just get lost and don't attack because they are too big and slow. In the mean time my smaller ships get fucked up. It is really annoying that i can't just quick battle every battle and have to lead in some fights. My lead ship have 4 long range lazers but she is just sailing forward and ignoring the battle while getting pounded in the ass.

I am not talking ass a butthurt faggit that looses battles,i do win all of them without much of losses. Still the battles are more of chore than a fun thing.

Another bad thing that i noticed is the save system. I just fucked my self hard by spending 100,000 building a colony and ended up low on supplies fighting some 200,000 bounty with low battle readiness (for some stupid reason) in the middle of a unexplored system,far away from colonies. Oh well i do hope that manage to win and scavenge the needed supply for the return trip . Still getting that low readiness for no reason is stupid!

Do you try hard to be this retarded, or does it come naturaly to you?

 

[fantadomat]

Fuck the combat is so bad,it is painful how stupid the AI is. Most ships just run around and do nothing.

The game doesn't need that much AI.
The enemy will simply crush you with simple fleet composition.
As for your own fleet, that's what command points and Officer Traits are for. Even then it's more about fleet composition and survivability.

It is very lacking,you can't position your ships and then your ship AI is really bad. I run with mainly big/medium ships,but they are far too stupid,they just get lost and don't attack because they are too big and slow. In the mean time my smaller ships get fucked up. It is really annoying that i can't just quick battle every battle and have to lead in some fights. My lead ship have 4 long range lazers but she is just sailing forward and ignoring the battle while getting pounded in the ass.

I am not talking ass a butthurt faggit that looses battles,i do win all of them without much of losses. Still the battles are more of chore than a fun thing.

Another bad thing that i noticed is the save system. I just fucked my self hard by spending 100,000 building a colony and ended up low on supplies fighting some 200,000 bounty with low battle readiness (for some stupid reason) in the middle of a unexplored system,far away from colonies. Oh well i do hope that manage to win and scavenge the needed supply for the return trip . Still getting that low readiness for no reason is stupid!

Do you try hard to be this retarded, or does it come naturaly to you?

I will ask you again. Who are you??? I never see you on the forum talking about games,but you constantly come out and call me retard for talking about game that i am interested. So i wonder why are you that butthurt faggit,did i fucked your wife or something??? Normally i do stay way from take women,men's solidarity and all that jazz. But sometimes you just can't know that it is taken,and in a underground metal bars there is not much room for talking. Soo,did she complimented my curved dick or something??

 

[Damned Registrations]

Still getting that low readiness for no reason is stupid!

If you were low on readiness, you burnt it somewhere. Running out of supplies does it, but so does using afterburners, not having enough crew (can sneak up on your if you lose crew in battle or recover a ship), space storms (randomly hits individual ships, usually only a big deal on big ships, especially civilian ones) or being near a star/black hole/neutron star/etc.

As far as the AI thing goes, I find it pretty impressive. Sounds to me like you don't have sufficient escorts. If you don't have fast ships to cover your ass, the enemy will exploit it. The AI is very good at flanking and skirmishing. Often it'll purposely stay out of firing range to lure ships out of position so an ally can circle around behind it or so that another fight elsewhere can be more lopsided.

 

[fantadomat]

Still getting that low readiness for no reason is stupid!

If you were low on readiness, you burnt it somewhere. Running out of supplies does it, but so does using afterburners, not having enough crew (can sneak up on your if you lose crew in battle or recover a ship), space storms (randomly hits individual ships, usually only a big deal on big ships, especially civilian ones) or being near a star/black hole/neutron star/etc.

As far as the AI thing goes, I find it pretty impressive. Sounds to me like you don't have sufficient escorts. If you don't have fast ships to cover your ass, the enemy will exploit it. The AI is very good at flanking and skirmishing. Often it'll purposely stay out of firing range to lure ships out of position so an ally can circle around behind it or so that another fight elsewhere can be more lopsided.

Yeah i know mate,i have supplies even if very few,maybe i hit 4 by mistake and not 5. And i do agree that enemy AI is not bad,shame that my side doesn't have any. Also no way to choose a fleet strategy/doctrine etc etc. You just get the fleet out and they just move forward shooting most of the time. It is true that i almost don't have any escort,a few class F Cerberus and that is mostly. Still i do rarely loos ships and always get more scavenged than i loose. Now talking about this,to me it seems that economy is kind of fucked up. A ships is worth less to sell than the supplies that are needed to fix it. The supply price is too high in my opinion.

Anyway all that discussion aside i do really like the game ,maybe that is why i do see its negatives.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Scavenging ships is meant to be a way to get rare ships or cheaply get damaged ships for your fleet, not a way to turn a profit. The profit from combat comes out of commissions, and maybe selling excess fuel/supplies/metal to a colony that just got demolished. Although you can get a small profit if you focus on the salvage skills; they make a pretty big difference. I generally don't bother salvaging ships though, I like my fleet to be shiny.

My only real gripe with the AI is that it's bad at judging when it has a target dead to rights. Often it'll get a ship it's fighting with to 96% flux while it's at only 50%, and then it'll back off to cool down instead of pressing the advantage. Infuriating with frigates that don't have time to waste. Other than that it's random weird nitpicky stuff- ships occasionally ramming eachother or being retarded for 5 critical seconds that gets them killed when they were doing fine for 5 minutes in the same battle. Also terrible use of missiles. But once you learn the strengths of the AI and exploit it on your end, you can just start fights with half the points of your enemy and let autopilot tear everything apart.

If your ships are just blobbing forward like retards tell them to defend a spot on the map or focus on a target or something.

 

[fantadomat]

Scavenging ships is meant to be a way to get rare ships or cheaply get damaged ships for your fleet, not a way to turn a profit. The profit from combat comes out of commissions, and maybe selling excess fuel/supplies/metal to a colony that just got demolished. Although you can get a small profit if you focus on the salvage skills; they make a pretty big difference. I generally don't bother salvaging ships though, I like my fleet to be shiny.

My only real gripe with the AI is that it's bad at judging when it has a target dead to rights. Often it'll get a ship it's fighting with to 96% flux while it's at only 50%, and then it'll back off to cool down instead of pressing the advantage. Infuriating with frigates that don't have time to waste. Other than that it's random weird nitpicky stuff- ships occasionally ramming eachother or being retarded for 5 critical seconds that gets them killed when they were doing fine for 5 minutes in the same battle. Also terrible use of missiles. But once you learn the strengths of the AI and exploit it on your end, you can just start fights with half the points of your enemy and let autopilot tear everything apart.

If your ships are just blobbing forward like retards tell them to defend a spot on the map or focus on a target or something.

I agree with you mate,still it is retarded that a whole space ship would be cheaper than a few tons of supply. I would have preferred it if the ships were 10 times more expensive but really hard to salvage. I do have max salvage skills,i am focussing on resource and fleet wide skills. I haven't dipped in the equipment part of the game,for now i am just using the ready layouts and hope for the best. It just have too much microing.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I haven't dipped in the equipment part of the game

Oh you poor, poor motherfucker. The difference between the kinds of weapons pirates use (which is what is most commonly available, especially at shitty ports) and the good shit is night and day. If you're having fun it's all good though.

 

[fantadomat]

I haven't dipped in the equipment part of the game

Oh you poor, poor motherfucker. The difference between the kinds of weapons pirates use (which is what is most commonly available, especially at shitty ports) and the good shit is night and day. If you're having fun it's all good though.

I auto outfit my ships only in high level colonies and mainly in hegemony space. Also i keep all the expensive weapons and mods i find.

 

[Damned Registrations]

To be fair for all I know the auto outfit might actually be passable. I only ever use it for spending the last few OP on fuel tankers I give no fucks about on a large fleet. I love getting new weapons and tinkering with things to get the most efficient setups.

 

[fantadomat]

To be fair for all I know the auto outfit might actually be passable. I only ever use it for spending the last few OP on fuel tankers I give no fucks about on a large fleet. I love getting new weapons and tinkering with things to get the most efficient setups.

I could see my self doing it on a few capital ships,but outfitting every single ship will be painful. Also is there way to save it as template? I just choose an template that i am lacking and use it. Also where do you get officers and can you conquer colonies in the latest version?

 

[Damned Registrations]

You can save templates, the UI for it is a bit weird, you select Custom I think and then select use current or something like that to overwrite it. You get officers at stations, the first option will give you a list of people to talk to, officers will be available at most stations for hire. You can't conquer colonies in vanilla, but Nexerelin lets you do it, probably a bit too easily tbh.

 

[Fedora Master]

Here's my current "fleet" such as it is. Mostly using ballistics and missiles but so far I've not really had any reason to fight during exploration. I can swat away smaller Remnant fleets and outrun the bigger ones. My #1 problem is access to supplies, I always tend to run out really early from all the prospecting I do. I suppose all I can do is get more cargo space to fill it up with supplies, right?

Other than that, any ship I should particularly look out for? Any weapons I should keep an eye out when in the outer sector?