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16

XPiratez / Tech tree frustrations

« on: April 11, 2016, 10:36:35 am »

Okay lodging a complaint here about two specific parts of the tech tree.

1: A live Reticullan Elder is needed for a branch of voodoo and other subsequent techs and a tech that rather alters game-play. However as far i can tell they are only feasibly targets on base defense where taking them alive is not always reasonable given their rather frail form and base defense collateral damage potential. Retcualians only spawn relatively small vessels outside of crackdowns and crackdown vessels sufficiently big to have an elder are pretty hefty foes to shoot down(crackdown ships don't land). Weakest of the potential is a Corvette. According to the tech tree there is an alternate path to the tech via a get one free path. However that path requires a reticulan elder. Circular tech path....WTF. So difficult and rare occurrence with no functional bypass or alternative. 

2: Broken prisoners. There are a fair number of bottlenecks resulting form needing to break certain low frequency foes(guild master, Academy Provost, etc) There are NO substitutions and breaking a prisoner requires 2 live captures. Bad RNG can leave the game in an tedious and possibly unwinnable state. In my case I have seen less then 20 academy ships in 5 game years. Shipping 890 just appeared. 2.25 percent academy or thereabout. One tech and one provost that i can recall all game.

17

XPiratez / Sorta stuck advice appreciated.

« on: April 07, 2016, 02:45:07 pm »

So been really enjoying the mod so far, however after surviving for around 2.5 game years i have hit what feels like a severe impass. I have actually exhausted my available research options but for the occasional captured foe.

I lack the means to shoot down anything above medium targets(excepting freighters) in a cost effective manner. I lack laser, plasma, and Gauss weapons but for what i scavenge which has been extremely limited.

I have actually fairly high number of plasma type weapons lying around  from standing off a reticulan base attack but cant research or use them.
I have also been suffering in the funding department all game and it has been exceedingly slow going getting coverage.
Ive also had very limited encounters with some factions which may be part of my problem. Ive seen probably less then 10 academy, church, or spartan ships in 300+ contacts. Raiders less then 30. Smattering of humanist.
On the other hand ive got reticulans, star gods, and traders coming out my ears. The star god ships are still out of reach in the air and the ground situation is pretty bad as well unless i resort to overwhelming levels of explosives which leaves very little behind. All my star god ground battles have been in jungle or heavy forest so explosion spam tends lead to fires hindering rapid progress and magnifying the morale problem. (Stand in fire or get seen and mind controlled). Every single one ive ventured so far has ending up aborting.

Also what gives with the grey robed star god units and missing more then 100% accuracy gun shots. And cat girls not existing for melee in diagonals to their facing. And really funky sight lines although i guess that's kinda intentional. Also i guess cat girls are more or less immune to stun since ive had ten gals beating on one with stun sticks to no effect. Single bullet on other hand.....

Armor is also an issue since nothing i can produce feels worth the TU penalty or the production time investment(need time for grog production to stay solvent most months) when anything i can bring down is almost a cake walk in outfit gear. So gals in guerilla outfits is what i have. Got battle rifles with PS ammo and long bows in support. Quality Grenades are relatively expensive since my chemical supplies are almost entirely tied up in craft missile production and im about to use up the last of my scrap piles so even that use may dry up.

Keeping rating up so far but at the mercy of what flies by has lead to some very close to failure months(about 1 in 3).

What should i do??? Do i risk everything and throw everything i have at a difficult target and risk wiping myself out either with casualties or to many expended items leading to lack of crucial supplies at some later juncture. Wait around until rng drops what i need in my lap??? Any ideas what tech im missing to produce laser weapons? what targets do i hunt?