new stations and shields

[Betelgeuse]

I love the new ordering system.
I also love the new shield. (it may be a bit overpowered seeing as it is just as resistant as a plasma shield and alot easier to get plus look at its hp )



edit: its not just that shield its the outfitters. Those sell great things and they come just after St. K

[george moromisato]

I'm interested in hearing what people think of the Mammoth shields (in non-modded play).

The trade-off is that they do not regenerate nearly as fast as normal shields.

[Betelgeuse]

well just look at this pic 8) (the hp of it)
Well at least this is the first shield where it is worth more to enhance its hp than to put reflecting on it.

[SparcMan]

I can't help but get the impression that George is getting us ready (equipment-wise) to venture beyond Heretic.

[Yugi]

Yeah....I've had that feeling too....

[dvlenk6]

I'm interested in hearing what people think of the Mammoth shields (in non-modded play).

The trade-off is that they do not regenerate nearly as fast as normal shields.

Slightly modded play (ship is between freighter and sapphire yacht in all statistics):
I think the 100MW one seems too powerful, though I haven't been much past sanctuary yet. Don't think I'd want to use any other shield at this point.

[Clear Air Turbulence]

I haven't had a chance to get very far in the game, but might better shields be a way to balance the increased deadliness of bases? Before 0.97 there were bases I'd have no chance at all of destroying without hiding just outside their range and pounding on them that way. Now that the bases can pound back, we may need stronger shields, especially against Teratons and those Ares bases with all the orbitting archcannons.

[Clear Air Turbulence]

Well, I've played farther (just got to Sanctuary system), and I'm really liking the changes and the new gear. I seem to be a lot more powerful than I normally am at this point, but the bases are a LOT more challenging now.

Here's my current loadout - I hadn't played with a Sapphire in a while so I decided to start 0.97 with one, and have been pretty happy.

Reactor - Nova 100. I also used the new 50MW one earlier and have been eyeing the 150MW. I like the wider availability of reactors.

Shield - Mammoth 25MW. 200 very slow regenerating hit points, I was concerned about the slow recharge rate but it's pretty tough, it stays right in the high 190s with quite a few small ships plinking away at me and when you do start taking heavy hits, you usually have time to get away.

Armor - Advanced Ceralloy (90 HP). I was surprised to see this available so early, I'm pretty sure I got this before St. Kates and it's level VII.

Weapon 1 - PK25 Morning Star cannon. This fires a cloud of projectiles that is really handy when fighting clusters of ships or when you have fast pursuers who are staying between the angles you can fire in. Also excellent for keeping missiles and other projectiles off of you. It does a max of 25 impact damage, but I have that beefed up by 75% with a cannon accelerator. I hope I find more similar weapons at higher levels.

Weapon 2 - Urak Howitzer. This is a nice multi-function weapon. It does 4-48 blast in 4 directions around it when it detonates, which it does on proximity to enemy ships. It can do damage to bases from a long range, but is also good when you are being chased because you don't have to hit the target directly to do a lot of harm.

Weapon 3 - NAMI Missile launcher. We're all familiar with this one.

Even with all this, it's not always easy to take out bases. You have to watch your shields closely because it will take you a while to get out of their range and they will keep hitting you from far away. Sung Fortresses need a couple of trips to be taken out, I can't bring one down before it takes my shields down so I have to run, recharge, then come back. The big Charon base was also a somewhat tough nut to crack.

I like the ships that will follow you if you destroy their base. It gives base attacks some more strategy - no longer is it always the best idea to destroy all the ships defending a base before you take on the base, with these guys it's good to swoop in and take out the base first, then some will defect to your side and they aren't bad little fighters.

I also enjoyed the Charon quest. At one point after taking out their fortressI was being chased by about 9 Drake missile ships that took a LOT of pounding to take out (I wasted a lot of time trying to kill them with my howitzer before I figured out the kinetic damage from the Morningstar is better). I really had the feeling that I had pissed off these pirates and they were doing everything they could to take me out before I finished off their last fortress. Even with the beefy gear it was touch and go for a little while.

All in all, I'm really enjoying all the changes. This game keeps getting better and better.

[OddBob]

I'm interested in hearing what people think of the Mammoth shields (in non-modded play).

I played my last game exclusively with Mammoth generators after my Class I (which I kept until St. K's).

I'm liking them so far. Sort of. THe 100MW takes so long to recharge that I don't know if it was ever at full strength, usually it hovers around 200-300, or it's down completely. Earth slavers are a real big threat when it's five minutes back to full strength.

I'm not sure I'd keep even the 100 MW more than a few systems past St. Ks, however. I died in the system where I first encounted Taikon(?) stations (the ones that use rins). A fight with 5 or 6 Ranx gunships would take my shield down 200 points, and forget about trying anything more powerful. It's almost too weak, unless you rest between fights, but then spawned ships just pile up until you poke your nose out from the planet you were hiding, fight them off, lose another 200, rest again, fight the spawn, etc.

Mostly that cycle means that I probably won't be buying another, but I'll still be using them if they're loot or otherwise cheap.

I think I'll be going back to the Invincible (which was my shield of choice pre .97)

[Clear Air Turbulence]

I think the Mammoth shields are for base-busting, and the faster recharging shields are for fighting spaceships.

What is the strength of the Mammoth line? They can take a continuous beating longer than the smaller shields, and they can absorb multiple hits from very high power weapons before going down. What is their weakness? That it can be worn down by weaker weapons because of it's slow recharge rate.

If you have a 75 strength shield that recharges at 6 points every quarter-second, essentially you can take that much damage continuously without ever having to worry about your shields wear out, even if they'd be worn down in a couple of seconds if it wasn't for that recharge rate. So if you are fighting a bunch of ships in open space, weaving around and dodging most of their shots, they are unlikely to be able to overcome your recharge rate - they have to do more than 24 points per second continuously to even come out ahead. You may get a big hit every now and then, but if you can keep the damage under your threshold a few seconds, you can recover.

So put that awesome indestructible shield against a base that hits for considerably more than your recharge rate. The base is sitting still, so you can't dodge away and then fire as you fly backwards as it chases you - you have to stay in it's line of sight and can't move around too much, so it will hit you. And you have to shoot this base a LOT to kill it. That 75 point shield is going to be down within a few seconds of you opening up on the base, unless you run away after getting a couple of shots off. Attacking a base in 0.97 with old-style shields can take a long time or some very fancy flying and dodging.

With the Mammoth shield, you just fly up to within range of the base and start pounding. It will hit you, but your shield will be able to take it a lot longer. When you see your shield getting low, you run out of the bases range, let it recharge, then return. It's a lot faster and doesn't require as much skill (though skill + Mammoth is even better, of course). But swarm that Mammoth shield that recharges 2 points every second with a bunch of small, accurate ships. Just one of those ships, if it's hitting consistently, can overcome your shield's recharge rate and wear it down, and in many situations you can't run away like you can run from a base. You have to take all the attackers out relatively quickly or they are going to be hitting armor soon. With an old-fashioned shield, you can turn on autopilot if there's a couple of fighters plinking away on you and ignore them, but with a Mammoth you'll die.

This is really good game design. I was concerned about the increased range of bases but I think it's been balanced well by the changes in shields.

[Atheist_Chuck]

My favourite shield is the Invincible-class.

It really is invincible, until you meet Earth slavers and citadels. Still, with a shield enhancement ROM, the Invincible has 108 hit points, and whenever i'm doing battle, it never drops below 90. , especially after i found that omni ion blaster in that Marauder compound.

I've not tried the Mammoth shields yet, but i'm sure they're good.

[Clear Air Turbulence]

My favourite shield is the Invincible-class.

It really is invincible, until you meet Earth slavers and citadels. Still, with a shield enhancement ROM, the Invincible has 108 hit points, and whenever i'm doing battle, it never drops below 90. , especially after i found that omni ion blaster in that Marauder compound.

I've not tried the Mammoth shields yet, but i'm sure they're good.

Yeah, that's what I ended up trading my Mammoth 25MW in for, I'd never had the Invincible available to me in a game before so I guess it was made more common. It is a really good shield, but Ranx can take i down pretty quick...BTW, my strategy of getting an Akan turret and using it for most of the game didn't work so well in 0.97 as the Ranx are a lot less common (they're my primary source of shells).