Messages

1801

XPZ Strategy/Tactics / Re: Piratez starting guide for new players

« on: April 18, 2016, 03:32:50 am »

It's actually strange that all these freighters land so often in an open field...

I think the number of landings vs shootings is good. Maybe you just lock the freighters to "land" in the more industrial/urban tile-sets like the dockyard? Even the farm is alright thematically, if perhaps a bit too rich due to apple occurrence.


Sway government runs are a much more limited threat in this mod compared to vanilla. Here the governments are not the primary funding. Hell they just offset maintenance and even then a single government or 3 are not particularly valuable.  I lost i believe 2 nations in my current run before i got to the prevention tech. I didn't feel any appreciable pinch in funds except when i was forced for a few month period to rely on seagull missiles because i had lost my primary factory base to a stargod landing that came up pure grey robes.

1802

XPZ Strategy/Tactics / Re: Piratez starting guide for new players

« on: April 18, 2016, 12:40:35 am »

Landed only is a viable path early and even good play funds wise. But at some point you have to shoot down craft to expand your pool of capture targets to advance tech. A landed only run is possible if you get bases from every faction but then you need minimum one base per faction in addition to affording buying leaders from the mercs(do you have 550 million laying around?). I feel at some point you must step up into the air game and spend money to make money/progress at anything more then a snails pace. Game is a long one as it is, slowing yourself down when you can afford to play the air game strikes me as silly.

1803

XPiratez / Re: Quirky bows

« on: April 18, 2016, 12:29:19 am »

Bug free because they dont need direct hits is not exactly bug free.

1804

XPZ Strategy/Tactics / Re: Piratez starting guide for new players

« on: April 17, 2016, 11:48:20 pm »

Note some smugglers do land just not all. Smugglers are very rng. They can have almost anything but its small amounts so it only really pays off when its rare goods like guns, data discs and similar items.

Some fighters do land if they spawn for missions like survey or conversion.

The only real thing you would miss out on hitting only landed craft would be gold freighters since they never land. However without hyperwave you can't tell a gold transport is active so....

1805

XPiratez / Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod

« on: April 17, 2016, 11:40:02 pm »

Mid game you are right eddie Missiles trump Hellirum. However when you start using it for fuel, craft ammo, Armor, grenades, weapon ammo, and some weapons the need adds up. Add in that late game some the needful craft have shit mileage and you need multiple flying against an increasing rate of targets. The mod has a natural curve in usage of material. The early game is a scramble to get something/anything better then what you have. Mid game is the econ stage you can make efficient stuff yourself and save up to invest in real production and all the other things. Late game you go back to spending economy just with different priorities and a huge budget.     

1806

XPiratez / Re: questions about item stats

« on: April 17, 2016, 11:29:30 pm »

I think that in 3.1 or 3.2 it will be possible. It could be per unit or item, for each use power will drop and after turn it will raise again.

This bring me next idea, if each armor have power source that can be used by energy weapons. Wen you depleted it you will need switch to conventional weapons.

If you had power source armor mechanic(great idea for something like loader armor in this mod)wouldn't that just be ammo in a different flavor? The weapons would need to be special or very good to justify needing backup ranged weapons taking up inventory. In this mod inventory is already reduced.

1807

XPiratez / Re: Craft weapons

« on: April 17, 2016, 11:17:55 pm »

Sounds like the next step up for you, is laser tech, which requires capturing an engineer alive. After that the second stage of laser tech is to interogate an academy engineer after diplomacy tech. 30mm 50mm and gauss can indeed be looted from landed ships along with small amounts of ammo. Military transports also occasionally have craft gun parts. However one should not be relying on guns to do the majority of damage in the air in the early stages of a game. Invest in missiles. You get a range advantage over most of the smaller craft. Stingray missiles you can produce yourself pretty cheep and come 15 to a production item. The launcher holds 5. 

1808

XPiratez / Re: The various types of interceptors

« on: April 17, 2016, 11:02:19 pm »

Skipping is certainly a valid choice in response to how the tech works out. The merc fighter is however very expensive for it capabilities. I try no to use it except as a stop gap.

There are 3 somewhat parallel progressions for crafts. The first is normal interceptors like the predator. These are fast, have missile slots, but are quite frail. These are much like normal interceptors in vanilla
The second type is what i term heavy interceptors. The kraken is the first such. Pretty slow but have high hp, Heavy gun slots, no missiles. Intended for tanking fire in a multiple intercept situation.
Third type is ships like the bonny. Comparatively slow, multiple guns but the main feature is there large troop capacity. Much like the skyranger in vanilla.
This mod has a alot of bleed-over since everything has some troop capacity. There are also various utility craft like the pigeon that fill some support role.

Broadly speaking progression is in 4 stages.
First stage: Bonny, first interceptor(hunter-killer?) starting or near starting tech. More or less don't bother unless the bonny bites it.
Second stage:Kraken, Predator. Beginning of diversification and real ability to fight in the air. Still dependent on 3 items from the black market for building. Still probably better off using runt hours else where. And sticking to a chase to landing game.
3rd stage: Further diversification. Craft of this tier can 1v1 fighters and escorts without needing missiles range advantage. Some ships of this stage need fewer types of black market items. Here one can actually start hunting small targets in efficiency and safety. Caution if your craft weapon tech is lagging. Warships are still off the table but anything below gunship is fair game.
4th stage: Ultimate level craft. Black-market no longer involved except for fusion torch clips. These ships are the pinnacle of their types. Fighters are blazing fast, Heavy's are sturdier the the majority of ufos. Transport capacity is a barracks by itself. Fighting warships is possible with multiple interceptors and a heavy to tank. Note that warships will always have range advantage of at least 15km so the tank is absolutely needed. 

1809

XPiratez / Re: Probe Missions

« on: April 17, 2016, 10:23:04 pm »

The temple is fairly rewarding now in 98c since dioxine changed how gemstones work as loot. It was okay before but most the value was in processing the bodies into well selling merch but that takes runt time so was not always the most useful. Do be warned though deep ones and there blue buddies are very sturdy and spawn in higher number then average factions.

1810

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.98C - 17 Apr - Mad Mansion Missions!

« on: April 17, 2016, 10:18:05 pm »

I've had little trouble with the view range on my I-7 @ 2.3 with only 12g ram. Maybe a little stutter on occasion but nothing detrimental to game-play.

@ Meridian I would cheat in some arrows if it was me. A weapon going from no ammo to ammo using qualify for balance cheating to keep presently active games from grinding to a halt. Like one quiver per gal.   

1811

XPiratez / Re: Are Academy Engineers male or female?

« on: April 17, 2016, 09:34:52 am »

I figured it was something like that. Makes sense that way to me.

1812

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.98C - 17 Apr - Mad Mansion Missions!

« on: April 17, 2016, 04:45:50 am »

WOOT new version. Now someone explain to me in baby steps how to set view range back to 30.

1813

XPiratez / Re: Are Academy Engineers male or female?

« on: April 17, 2016, 04:41:14 am »

  pronoun trouble? Though i do believe the techs are dudes by model but gender delineation with these sprites..... if the gals didn't have big hair on the battlescape and tits in the inventory screen....

1814

XPiratez / Re: questions about item stats

« on: April 17, 2016, 04:36:03 am »

To each there own. I'm a tad more stringent in bravery since i have a rather slow paced "safe" tactical style. My maps run quite long so decay is a concern. I also don't play at high end difficulty so target richness suffers in later stages of a map.

1815

XPiratez / Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod

« on: April 17, 2016, 04:23:21 am »

if we are speaking about a certain 6000 top speed craft and mission yes it does exist in a technical state but that interception profile is....... Nigh impossible, given scan cycles are 30 mins. Ships at such speed can go across a hyperwave area without detection. And unless it drops to less then half speed interception is impossible until near end fighter tech. even then needs to drop speed a reasonable fraction to allow an intercept. And hope the intercept doesn't vaporize it cause its damn frail compared to your normal target profile. Lesson learned me . A balance factor that is just as hard as the normal route(or harder YMMV) is not a balance factor. It is only another path.

I'm quite happy the path exists don't get me wrong. Doesn't sufficiently alleviate the issue of rng blockage though. A full run of this mod is a significant time investment on the player's part. How long is meridian's LP in published time and off camera? If what we the players acceptis a long haul game makes itself longer through without player input it feels pretty bad. My current run had a 2-2.5 game year period of me merely not losing, with no really tempting bait on the hook to keep my interest. Just cutter/sentry/escort/etc run  I stuck it out on stubbornness, out of game knowledge, and what the mod had shown me so far. I'm the type of player that hammers at a problem till it gives. The type that keeps trying things that everyone else says give up on. The kind that games like Dark Souls are the target audience for. IS this the kind of player you want to be the majority of your community?

Dioxine, you even said to restart to me at one point. You at the time agreed that i had been given the shaft and changed that particular piece of the mod. Different precise circumstances, same general problem. Consider carefully what your design goal is.

Either way this mod is a spectacular piece of work and has my adoration and support.

EDIT: WELL FUCK ME AND CALL ME SHIRLEY. new version posted while im writing this wall o text speech. Ignore me and im gona shut up now. Still great work.