A thread for little questions

[Rince Wind]

It is right there in your screenshot: you don't have any bloodhounds that you could name.

[unarmed drifter]

It is right there in your screenshot: you don't have any bloodhounds that you could name.

but i have bloodhounds (and charms, meat and living space). why can't i "name" them?

[CPLT-K2]

The blood hounds you need are the kind you buy from black market, not the kind you capture on field.

[unarmed drifter]

@CPLT-K2: oh man, thanks a lot! kind of a bummer, though

[Solarius Scorch]

Dogs (of any kind) are loyal to their masters, not their captors.

[Rince Wind]

You wouldn't want your dog to switch to the other team for a piece of mutant meat either!

[OmniscientQ]

It is September 2605, and my research has stagnated for close to a year because I just can't seem to get my hands on two key techs: Science Vessel and Red Shields.

I know what to do about the Red Shields part. There's a Merc base on the map, and I know there's a commander just waiting for me to come pick him up. Last time I tried, I wound up killing him AND losing the entire squad trying to take out the last hovertank. I've got a new squad of Gals trained up and kitted out in Harbinger armor. I just need to work up the nerve to launch the mission.

The Science Vessel is even worse, though. They've become pretty damn rare. The only mission they seem to perform these days is Academy Propoganda, and they never land. And every time I try to take one down, it explodes into pieces. It doesn't matter how lightly I tap the damn things. I've turned off all but a single beam laser on my interceptors and just dealt with the shield regenerating, and they still leave no wreck. It's been frustrating enough that I resorted to savescumming when another one finally popped up on my hyperwave decoders. No combination of weapons I throw at it results in something my ground-pounders can assault. I know there's supposed to be a late-game weapon to force a landing, but I'm guessing it's locked behind Higher Studies, which I can't get to until I nab a Science Vessel. Did I fail to read some critical piece of the Bootypedia that would explain what's going on?

In other news: I finally got a Thunderhorse up and running, along with a Swordfish, a fleet of Prospectors, and a couple Barracudas for interception. (I like the idea of the Nightmare, but it has just 33% more HP and lacks that sexy dodge bonus. Plus, a Barracuda can shred damn near anything with those quad lascannons, while a Nightmare has - ew - missile slots.) My beaten-up Fortuna, which I somehow managed to not lose in 4 years of piracy, is starting to feel a bit superfluous. It has shields, which is nice, but not a whole lot else to recommend it. Everything it can do, one of my other ships can do better. Prospectors can handle space and underwater missions, the Thunderhorse is a better bulk transport, and the Barracudas handle the pew-pew. I mainly keep it around as a trophy, and because I keep hoping one of them !Raid Space Freighters! missions will pop up. I stuck a pair of STC fusion boosters on it to get the speed up over 3,000 just for that reason. Deliverators are space-capable, though. Is there any pressing reason to keep the Fortuna around, aside from nostalgia?

Also, when the hell are those Space Freighters supposed to show up? I've been watching and waiting, since I assume the "Guild Ship Officer" will be there to take care of my Red Shield problems as well.

[Rubber Cannonball]

Sounds like you're at the mercy of RNG.  I've only seen science vessels in academy propaganda missions, 2 per mission.  I think I've had 3 of those missions so far.  As for space freighters, I've only seen 1 and it was crewed by zombies.  I'm in Sept 2603 version J8

[Eddie]

I had a quick look at the ruleset to see what's the problem with the labship: It's that they are 100% hunter-killer, which often fight until destruction. Science vessel has 1800 hp, so you can't really blow it up on accident.

Iazo once wrote how to crash hunter-killers:
Have a vessel bait the hk so it will chase. Then attack with other ships, while the hk is still chasing. The trick is, the vessel the hk is chasing *cannot* be in the fight. Then the hk behaves like a normal UFO and will crash when at half hp.

I haven't tested this myself, so I can only tell you what Iazo said. Other than that, I belive there is a rng roll at the creation of a science vessel to decide if it will fight to the death as a hk or not. So you might have just gotten unlucky with rng so far.

[OmniscientQ]

I had a quick look at the ruleset to see what's the problem with the labship: It's that they are 100% hunter-killer, which often fight until destruction. Science vessel has 1800 hp, so you can't really blow it up on accident.

Iazo once wrote how to crash hunter-killers:
Have a vessel bait the hk so it will chase. Then attack with other ships, while the hk is still chasing. The trick is, the vessel the hk is chasing *cannot* be in the fight. Then the hk behaves like a normal UFO and will crash when at half hp.

I haven't tested this myself, so I can only tell you what Iazo said. Other than that, I belive there is a rng roll at the creation of a science vessel to decide if it will fight to the death as a hk or not. So you might have just gotten unlucky with rng so far.

I had a look at the ruleset myself, though it took me a while to figure out what string to search for. I had considered the possibility that the HK behavior was the problem, but there are tons of other vessel types with "hunterKillerPercentage: 100" in them that have no problem leaving wrecks. Megapol, bandits, faction escorts and fighters... I've splashed and assaulted them all. The only other vessel I've seen with this behavior of absolutely never leaving a wreck are the self-defense interceptors launched from enemy hideouts.

I'll be sure to give that workaround with keeping the HK target away from the fight a try.

EDIT: It worked! It nearly killed the one Barracuda it wasn't targetting, but the Science Ship is down! My Thunderhorse is already on its way.

[legionof1]

Snip
I stuck a pair of STC fusion boosters on it to get the speed up over 3,000 just for that reason. Deliverators are space-capable, though. Is there any pressing reason to keep the Fortuna around, aside from nostalgia?
snip

sorry to say *base* speed is the factor. Not a dynamic engine. Dioxine picked a value of 3k and then enabled all space capable ships above that for the freighter encounter.

[OmniscientQ]

Alright. Next little question. I'm planning to try Male Touch next game, and I was looking at the various trainings available. Do they allow your soldiers to break the normal stat limits for their soldier type? If you send them to MMA or Holy Warrior training before they've reached the normal limit, is the extra potential wasted? Should you send them to training as soon as they qualify, or hold off until normal training and field experience have run their course?

[Rince Wind]

Training doesn't increase the stat limit or let you go over it, so it is usually best to train asap.
To the contrary, if you went over the stat limit by getting lucky on that last increase training will lower it to the cap.

[Galwail]

I'm at the point, where I can research the EuroSyndicate deal. Up to now, I did all the game progression changing researches, but now I'm not sure, because the bootypedia article warns about shady missions. Are the EuroSyndicate missions fun, or annoying?

[Rubber Cannonball]

Are the EuroSyndicate missions fun, or annoying?

The missions have a lot of enemies but are also turn limited.  They also result in large negative scores even if you do well.  You get access to some nice but expensive weapons.  The loot is decent.  There is a later tech that will get you out of the deal, so you won't have to do the missions the rest of the game.

You may want to hold off on researching the deal if you have score or cashflow problems.  If you find mansion missions, supply ship missions and pogroms fun, you should find eurosyndicate missions fun.  If those missions are annoying to you, you might not care for eurosyndicate missions.