1.7 Alpha 1a Update

New releases and announcements from George and the staff.
Bruno
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The changes to weapon power and resistance must have altered the damage vs survivability of Smartcannon vs Penitents.

For the first time ever I managed to fail the final tutorial mission for Benedict.
Took out the two small ships and was only starting on the Atomenent when Fiona went boom.

Might want to revisit difficulty of that mission.
Bruno
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And the other thing that has bugged me since, lets say 5-6 years ago:

When you happen to stumble upon the primary Charon Fortress in a sector with a Korolev shipping outfit, then you will only get the mission to destroy said station, no more escort missions. This is not fun. And it is surprisingly easy to find the Chaton station even if you try not to, depending on system layout and other happenings in the system.

How this bug or flawed design has persisted for all these years is beyond me.
shanejfilomena
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Bruno wrote:And the other thing that has bugged me since, lets say 5-6 years ago:

When you happen to stumble upon the primary Charon Fortress in a sector with a Korolov shipping outfit, then you will only get the mission to destroy said station, no more escort missions. This is not fun. And it is surprisingly easy to find the Charon station even if you try not to, depending on system layout and other happenings in the system.

How this bug or flawed design has persisted for all these years is beyond me.
If ObjIsKnown, you get that mission, if you did not find it, then things go on according to the math for the station on random mission selection.
This is not a bug.

However, you do have a point about it becoming the only mission which can get the player killed if they jump into a system and detect the station but are barely equipt to handle the missions let alone an actual attack on a well defended station.

The CharonBusters are good at what they do, esp. since Dying is part of what they do...
However there should be more of a weapons check on the player to prevent the mission rather then simply providing the an appropriate CharonBuster to go out with the player as "wingman".

Personally I don't try to take on a Korolov Mission without an Omni weapon,
or a handful of KM500.

At least not until I get a MAG and even then I rather have a good back-up weapon because the grenades can only do " so much ".

.......a solution to the "problem" ? a check for maybe a lvl 4 weapon and lvl 3 shields ...
If not found, then the KillStrongHold mission is skipped.
Flying Irresponsibly In Eridani......

I don't like to kill pirates in cold blood ..I do it.. but I don't like it..
shanejfilomena
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Bruno wrote:The changes to weapon power and resistance must have altered the damage vs survivability of Smartcannon vs Penitents.

For the first time ever I managed to fail the final tutorial mission for Benedict.
Took out the two small ships and was only starting on the Atomenent when Fiona went boom.

Might want to revisit difficulty of that mission.


I think the mission should , like the taking on of Arco Vaughn, make sure the Player has some Missiles.

I never found taking on Penitent ships worth doing without a pocket full of rockets, and even then they are a little bit annoying.
Flying Irresponsibly In Eridani......

I don't like to kill pirates in cold blood ..I do it.. but I don't like it..
JohnBWatson
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Theoretically, it already does that - the Benedict storyline forces the player to carry out Raisu Station's mission against Vaugn, which provides the player with some missiles. If it's still too hard, I'd go the route of spawning the aggressors moderately pre - damaged(and, for consistency's sake but a token 10 - 15% damage onto the freighter as well).
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TheLoneWolf
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I've once taken on Arco w/o missiles in a vanilla Wolfen.
Bruno
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Remember that the last Benedict mission is supposed to be a final "training" mission to also help relatively new players.
So it should be possible to take out these penitents, or at least have Fiona survive a bit longer, without having super-knowledge of what works best.


About the Korolev thing, I have now again had the displeasure of skipping escorting mission altogether. The orbit of the stargate in the system was asymmetrical, with stargate far out, causing the Charon staton to actually spawn en route from the stargate to the Korolev station! No escorting for me.
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TheLoneWolf
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Those Pentients KO you so easily. Vanilla starters are cardboard for them.
FourFire
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JohnBWatson wrote:Theoretically, it already does that - the Benedict storyline forces the player to carry out Raisu Station's mission against Vaugn, which provides the player with some missiles.
That is not correct: I've managed to get the mission without even meeting raisu station: being forced only happens if you say yes to the tutorial.
TheLoneWolf wrote:I've once taken on Arco w/o missiles in a vanilla Wolfen.
Alas, I've even once taken out Arco with the default outfit of the EI500 without taking armor damage.
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JohnBWatson
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FourFire wrote: That is not correct: I've managed to get the mission without even meeting raisu station: being forced only happens if you say yes to the tutorial.
Wouldn't skipping the tutorial(and all of Eridani, too) be a statement that someone is a returning player who knows full well what he's getting into? It's not as if we can stop the player from rushing ahead to attempt something they don't have the equipment for. While I do think the mission's asking a bit too much of a first time player either way, I think anyone who wants the missiles has more than enough opportunity to get them.
Alas, I've even once taken out Arco with the default outfit of the EI500 without taking armor damage.
The omni laser outranges his weapon, so it can definitely be done. It'd probably take quite a while, though, if he spawns with the enhanced armor. If you managed it against the version with Stilettos, you must have had serious skill at getting the turret to act as an improvised point defense system.
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TheLoneWolf
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The tuitorial can also be an easy way to grab the exotic Pentient cannon. Anybody got a working cannon from the tut? I once had a damaged one.
gunship256
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TheLoneWolf wrote:The tuitorial can also be an easy way to grab the exotic Pentient cannon. Anybody got a working cannon from the tut? I once had a damaged one.
I've looted an intact one several times. Because of its exotic damage type, it has a high powerUse for the amount of damage it does. Because it's notForSale, it doesn't sell for much.

The Penitents' shields and armor, on the other hand, are pretty useful.
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TheLoneWolf
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Its a tut. And a smartcannon is a reward enough. I propose that the wreck chance of tuitorial pentients must be made zero.
gunship256
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The SmartCannon reward is given before the final mission to defend the freighter. The only reward for saving the freighter is (1) the loot from the Penitents, and (2) knowing where the first Korolov station will show up.

If the Penitents don't leave any loot, the player would benefit the most from allowing the freighter to be destroyed, looting the freighter, and selling off the damaged equipment.
JohnBWatson
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TheLoneWolf wrote:The tuitorial can also be an easy way to grab the exotic Pentient cannon. Anybody got a working cannon from the tut? I once had a damaged one.
I did, but sadly its poweruse makes it less than useful. For the cost of a reactor that can run it, we can buy something that's much more powerful instead. It's primarily an NPC weapon designed to threaten players that rely too heavily on armor resistance.

gunship256 wrote:The SmartCannon reward is given before the final mission to defend the freighter. The only reward for saving the freighter is (1) the loot from the Penitents, and (2) knowing where the first Korolov station will show up.

If the Penitents don't leave any loot, the player would benefit the most from allowing the freighter to be destroyed, looting the freighter, and selling off the damaged equipment.
No worries, it'll eventually have an impact on the rest of Benedict's storyline. Presumably we'll need to win to be able to access the other missions.

That said, the loot is still pretty useful. Advanced Reactive armor is quite good.
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