Is Space Dangerous Yet?

[froggyluv]

Tempted to reinstall this game after the obvious shaky start as current comments on various game threads seem to point that the game is starting to come into it's own. Always thought the space itself was beautiful but the one main thing that bothered me was how utterly non-threatening it was. Meaning, I had no problem attacking monstrous sized carriers or anything really and if I didn't do enough damage, merely thrust away and come back to leech more of it's lifeblood little by little with very little counter response.

This felt gamey and utterly killed my sense that this was a real universe I was playing in in which a single ship could just start attacking in 'civilized space' completely unprovoked and the response being so minimal.

TL/DR? Is it safe to come back to deadly space yet?

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Actually people are whining that it's too hard now.
Can't agree with that myself, but I don't think that matters as I've been playing Egosoft's stuff for a loooooooooooong time.

[Artean]

There's a difficulty slider - put in on hard and space is much more challenging than what it was at release.

[Titan127]

Not sure how long you were away. But capital ships have full coverage shields like X3 again. Makes it a lot tougher to hit and run to chip away at the hull. As in you need to do enough damage to bring down the shield (quite hard just by yourself unless you bring a lot of missiles) and then damage the hull. Obviously avoiding damage yourself which is trickier as enemy fighters are certainly more capable than they used to be. Though still easy enough to boost away from.

Though I noticed a new missile type in the DLC which apparently disables boosters?!

New hazardous regions and rigged lockboxes also make exploration a bit more dangerous.

Overall I'd say it's still easy enough to stay alive if you pay attention, but your ability to actually take on capital ships and even numerous fighters is a lot more limited. Plus the new hard mode option that I've been on since it came out helps a lot.

[JDCollie]

Feels about right to me.

Spoiler

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Well, except for that horrible PMC station that sits right by the jump beacon in Wrecksville. I hate that thing. It's an unavoidable ambush and a half for capital ships heading to DeVries. >.<
/rant

[NZ-Wanderer]

Actually people are whining that it's too hard now.

Hehe, well I not whining, but I play on easy and I am finding it really hard in some instances. - Lots more fighters going around in groups and if you don't watch it they can strip your shields in nothing flat
My poor traders are now getting picked on a LOT more, and I have already lost one cause I couldn't get there in time to save it (I am very seriously thinking of pulling my remaining ones back to Transcend until I have fighters to protect them..)
But even transcend which used to be safe is no longer safe, which is a pity as I really liked having a place that was safe..

[froggyluv]

Thanks for all your replies Gents!

Sounds like maybe I should give her another run as a break from Star Citizen for a bit _ I love the combat but now need to make an Empire!

Any must have mods?

[NZ-Wanderer]

Any must have mods?

Check out my mod list HERE there are some really great mods now
My personal favourites are Transcend/Lost colony, and capital ship bridge mods, also the shipyard mod as well..

[froggyluv]

Hey thanks Wanderer -took your advice on mods and great to have that list.

[wwdragon]

Yes, OP.
Play it... PLAY it!

[Virtualaughing]

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE xENONS FOLOWING YOU NO MATTER WHAT UNLESS DESTROYED BY YOU OR ELSE... eVEN THROUGH THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE

tHERE IS SOME HAZARDIOUS AREAS WHERE YOUR SHIELD AND HULL GETS EATED.

Sorry for caps but im way too lazy to type all this shh again

[froggyluv]

Well I'm not here to denigrate the game as certain parts look pretty amazing -capital ship wars etc... And the Empire building also looks pretty interesting but pretty sure this game is not for me.

The player ship is just too strong and though I've not fought a capital ship in 3.0, I've watched a few videos from the game's creator and you can see the Skunk just kinda floating around directing his marines and targeting subsystems without any of the fear or adrenaline that should be inherent to attacking a weapon of that size. Like a pitbull attacking an elephant, that thing could stomp to death in one well placed hit.

The bumper car feel and too accurate flying of ship. Flying around a city, which are gorgeous, it feels like I am merely steering a camera rather than controlling a massively heavy spacecraft. Ok maybe heavy don't matter in space -but mass still does. The feeling of inertia, drifting etc is just not there and bumping into structures a non-event which takes away much of the fun. For instance last nite I hit full thruster directly into an asteroid, first time I merely bumped it with no damage at all, second time I glitched into the middle of it and couldn't get out. The latter is acceptable as normal bug, the former game design.
Mining could be so much fun if your livlihood was actually dangerous as is inherent to that profession.

As have only dabbled in the previous titles, it seems that empire building was the real draw of the game -not space piloting and realistic damage models. Rebirth also seems like it tried to bridge the gap a little and disappointed fans of both genres though apparently many are happy with the recent patches for the latter -which is good.

Not here to start flame war between ED, SC or Rebirth but I guess I'm spoiled by damage model and sheer joy of navigating asteroids which could crush me, to mask my heat signature in SC. Not much else there at this point besides combat, so maybe Ill give ED a whirl

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Maybe you should stop using Sidewinter engines and give Supercharged engines a serious try, and use default cockpit, to feel more like "flying a spaceship".
Also, there's some inertia and the speed physics is slightly more realistic than in previous games (takes lot of playing and some experimenting to notice, but it's definitely there).

[pref]

Don't see why a spacecraft couldn't have proper thrust in every direction.

Anyway its not that easy to take out a capship now - sometimes alone its escorts can be dangerous. Just 5-10 of those can kill a stationary skunk in one attack run.

[NZ-Wanderer]

The player ship is just too strong and though I've not fought a capital ship in 3.0, I've watched a few videos from the game's creator and you can see the Skunk just kinda floating around directing his marines and targeting subsystems without any of the fear or adrenaline that should be inherent to attacking a weapon of that size. Like a pitbull attacking an elephant, that thing could stomp to death in one well placed hit.

Trust me when I say that taking on a Capital ship in 3.10 is NOT the way it used to be, nearly everyone I know that has taken one on since 3.10 was released has FAILED (at least a few times) - everything has changed, sure you still control your marines etc, but without the boarding mod I fail every time...

[laminblake]

The player ship is just too strong and though I've not fought a capital ship in 3.0, I've watched a few videos from the game's creator and you can see the Skunk just kinda floating around directing his marines and targeting subsystems without any of the fear or adrenaline that should be inherent to attacking a weapon of that size. Like a pitbull attacking an elephant, that thing could stomp to death in one well placed hit.

Trust me when I say that taking on a Capital ship in 3.10 is NOT the way it used to be, nearly everyone I know that has taken one on since 3.10 was released has FAILED (at least a few times) - everything has changed, sure you still control your marines etc, but without the boarding mod I fail every time...

I was able to capture 2 Tarnis's with 50 recruits and a 3 star. What you need to do is reduce the hull to 5% and destroy every turret and shield generator. Most importantly, destroy the drone bay.

[Snafu_X3]

NOW UPDATED HERE in Spoilers forum

Trust me when I say that taking on a Capital ship in 3.10 is NOT the way it used to be, [...] everything has changed, sure you still control your marines etc, but without the boarding mod I fail every time...

Is this still true NZ? Do you guarantee to fail every time?

Here's a brief boarding method for Tits. It's a bit time consuming & the numbers may vary depending upon how many marines you have & what experience (level) they have, but it works for me:

• Assignment: Boarding a Titurel
  
  Assets: 50 rookie marines & a reasonably decent Marine Officer (MO): 4/4/3 (search with smalltalk until you find one). Skunk has Mk2 weapons except for Mining Laser which we can discount for obvious reasons. I'll not use missiles in this boarding as it's a waste of money IMO, but if you want feel free to use them. Have a captain & /good/ (4-5*) engineer ready to deploy
  
  If you're confident with using a hacker drone (ie playing the minigame), go ahead; if you're not I suggest you sell the drone(s) to a friendly dealer nearby to prevent Yisha from telling you to use it
  
  Preparation:
  
  Find a Tit a fair distance out from any stations & patrols. This should be fairly easy with the new game methodology in Albion: there are Tits appearing all over the place! With decent radar coverage you should be able to find one at around 20-35Km away from any station, with its command 'Patrol'. This is ideal! Remember any ships squadded to you wil automatically fire on the Tit as soon as it lands a hit on you, so unsquad them and/or send them away as soon as you find your target
  
  Method:
  
  • 1. Knock out it's engines as quickly as possible, preferably without taking the associated local shield generator (qv). This gives you a safe place to hide, & you'll be coming back to knock out repaired engines probably at least once. It also prevents your target from coming within range of other ships who may call on their local patrols or stations to help to destroy the hostile
    
    2. Start by taking out turrets (/not/ shields!). Use the Apache method: pop up, destroy a few turrets that are shooting at you, then pop down again to recharge shields. Work your way forward using this method until you've destroyed all turrets (check in the target details screen), then position yourself near the JD. Take it out now to save time later
    
    3. Now it's a matter of time & patience. Check the target's boarding resistance in it's details screen; for the boarding loadout I've suggested at the top of this post you'll want it below 40, preferably around 25 or so, but that may change depending upon other things. You may notice some hostile drones flying around. With luck these are the Tit's own Constructor drones, repairing it; LEAVE THEM ALONE. Any hostile drones that shoot at you, take out ASAP ofc
    
    ATM Drones add to the target's BR; the more it has (currently (v3.10x) even Constructors or Cargolifters) take the BR up by quite a bit If you destroy the drone bay the drones not in use are all lost, meaning you won't repair quickly (constructor loss) & will lose efficiency & profitsss (cargolifter loss). If you find you need to shoot the drone bay eventually, (if the target has some attack drones on board, for instance), try to take it below 25%, when it'll be disabled but not destroyed (this doesn't apply to Yisha's directions; nor does it detract from the BR of the number of drones available, unfortunately)
    
    4. Take the Tit's Hull down to around 20% (by all means use other ships here to back you up if you're sure you can stop them /instantly/ - shots in flight & drones take a few seconds to respond! Yes I know that's a boring 10min of playtime, especially when I've told you not to shoot at shields, but the reward!.. NOTE: if you have the Pulse Maser Mk3 (or Mk2 I think) its DPS vs Hull is remarkable & persists for about 5s after you take your finger off the trigger, so don't go overboard on approach to the target!
    
    5: Check the target's BR. If it's above 36 expect to fail (with the above assets): take the hull down some more (but /not/ below 5%, just in case..). If below 36 take out repaired engines again. Last check for active (repaired) turrets & to make sure you've got all squadded ships ignoring you (run from battle, fly elsewhere, whatever)
    
    **SAVE - no point in losing a 20 min preparation to a whim..
    
    6. BOARD option! Since you've destroyed all turrets the BPs should be safe in transit. No losses there
    
    7. NOW it gets interesting. Since you've destroyed all turrets Yisha's 5 directives will be to destroy other surface targets on the ship. Hopefully that will /not/ include the Drone Bay, but we'll have to go with what the game scripted There may be a time limit on how long you take to accomplish each of Yisha's tasks, but we're not given any clue as to what that may be
    
    I can say (with little evidence) that destroying a capship shield gen (Tit has 2) takes quite a while & may be a little too long to do without help (from missiles or other ships) but I haven't really tested it. You may well come up with a better solution, such as taking them out before starting the final boarding command. This would reduce the number of options Yisha has to give you (ie better chance she gives you drone bay to destroy), but it'll make the operation quicker to complete.. your choice. You may like to consider taking them down to 20% before the board command, as it's the shields that take the time (& screw Yisha's timing if she gives them as an option).. whatever..
    
    If you accomplish all Yisha's tasks you'll take minimal casualties. Marine strength has nothing to do with casualty rates atm [citation needed]. Failing Yisha's tasks means you'll take a guaranteed drop in marines (with a commensurate drop in BP, possibly leading to failure of the op depending upon how far along you were), leading to a commensurate drop in cash (for replacements)
    
    8. RESULT!: You have a not-so-shiny Tit to add to your fleet. Enter the backroom & tell your engineer & captain to work elsewhere, then (after a few seconds) join them on the Tit to congratulate them & retrieve your MO. You will have lost around 11 marine greenies (depending on BR & how well you did with Yisha's game); another 11 may have levelled up to Vet, & the rest.. well you know the game now
  If you got lucky & Yisha didn't tell you to destroy the drone bay, the (previously marked hostile) Constructor/Welding drones will still be repairing your new captive.. & they will be assigned to you. Also if you want to transfer drones from another ship for whatever purpose this will be possible (as you didn't destroy the drone bay)

References: JoeTheDestroyer's boarding calculations For more general background see CBJ's comment on skills and may also be useful for general officer calculations, plus another dev's post (CBJ? Benrd)?) explaining how the new boarding works..

[edit] I'm now fairly happy with this, but I'll hunt down that other reference when I remember.. [/edit]

[spankahontis]

It's the Miners in your fleet that are the most vulnerable, sitting still in hostile territory getting picked off by Xenon K's and Plutarch/Pirate Destroyers.

Have your miners escorted by destroyers.

[pref]

Depends on ship - a taranis or titurel is easy. Just kill all on the surface and bring hull down to few %, then even 50 rookies can take it.
Arawns have min 100 BR as i saw, so for that you need 10+ elites.

If you clean up the ship properly before initiating boarding, then Yisha will not pester you during ops (unless you have a trojan rov, then you will get a hack mission). Take some rockets with you for the shield generators and hull.

I mean vanilla, not sure what that mod changes - i thought it just displays your boarding attack strength.

[jasonbarron]

@Snafu_X3--that was a great post.