A Developer Tries to Reach the Core - Episodes 2 and 3

[george moromisato]

Note: I'm out of town this week so I won't be live this Thursday (6th of August). I'll be back for another episode on the 13th!

Meanwhile, here are episodes 2 and 3:

Episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DgavqCKT2E
Episode 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mZn6Qx9eFk

[Note: There's a glitch in episode 3 about 20 minutes in; looks like we lost a little of the session, but not much.]

[gunship256]

The frigate is hard to kill with that combination of weapons and armor. I usually save up all of my money and spend it on one segment of blast plate, mounting it at the front. That way I can shoot at the frigate, shoot down its missiles, and distract it from the freighter at the same time. Then I use Sustain to run away when the armor starts to get worn down.

The PK Morning Star cannon that showed up at the weapons dealer is great for shooting down missiles - the spread and cloud effect create a shield in front of the ship. It's also pretty good at taking down internal compartments because the cloud creates so many particles. After a reactor upgrade, it's the weapon I try to get and hold onto until St. K's.

If the frigate's willing to chase me, it's usually easier to kill it by luring it to a friendly station, hiding on top of the station, and watching the guards blow it up. If the frigate blows the station up, it's free loot.

[gunship256]

It's also a good way to get loot in midgame. I'll sit between a Ferian colony and a friendly station I don't need to sell things to, destroy the Ferian colony with a howitzer, and run to the station and sit on top of it. The Ferian warriors will blow the station up but will be weaker and easier to kill after having done so.

With enough of a head start, a Wolfen can use Sustain right before the station blows up and run to the next station that the Ferians can blow up. There's lots of loot to go around after that happens.

[Atarlost]

Comments on episode 2:

~5min:Being aggressive was the right move when you had ammo. Being aggressive with no ammo and no ammoless gun worth using was not.

~9:30: You're selling stuff in the wrong place again.

~16:45: just a reminder, please make neutrals that are trying to kill you count as hostile. You shouldn't have to muck about with targeting to defend yourself with seekers or turrets.

~19 min: Again, go to the corporate enclave in Eridani. Almost everything you have sells for more their and you can unload your contraband. Turn off your shield if you're worried about the fuel cost.

~20 min: Identifying is expensive. Unless you've changed the risk reward ratios on relics since CC was released they're a pointless noob trap and if you have I don't think you've mentioned it.

~21:20: I hope it was organic acid.

~23 min: Except that you can almost never find them when you want to because they wander aimlessly.

~25:40: This is exactly how you don't engage Charon Fortresses. You sit yourself 70 lights away and hammer them with longbows and run away whenever the drake comes out. That way you don't have to fight everything at once and not under the station's turbolasers. ... And you don't want to use stilettos. The drake is just going to drop longsbows or maybe starbursts.

~26 min: You stopped firing your smartcannon to fire missiles. You don't want to do that. They have the same targeting and smartcannon ammo is cheaper and probably easier to replace (it can be farmed from independent merchants).

~34:20: You shouldn't carry illegals unless you know you are going straight to a place to get rid of them with no stops along the way. You can sell them at the corporate enclave in Eridani.

~36:10: And one of those mistakes was being timid at the wrong times.

~46 min: I don't think you looted the Charon station.

=======

episode 3:

9:25: If you'd sold stuff in the Corporate Enclave instead of the startons you could have your shield or armor upgrade already.

10:30: Carrying illegals again. Not good.

~15:20: No, you do not want a slam cannon. Slam cannons are terrible. Morningstars are very good, but need a bigger reactor. A turbolaser might be a workable stopgap.

~27:30: Go for armor and weapons, not shields. The HPI is a good low draw shield and you should stick to a low draw shield until Rigel, at which point if you want to go for shields you'll skip to a Ceratops.

35:50: That med station is your income source. Haul it all to the Corporate Enclave in Eridani. Shut down your shield for the trips to save fuel.

48:40: Go back to I think it was Eridani for the other two segments of blast plate. Or see if any's on sale in Rigel. The sale from the enhanced adv reactive should cover the second segment. Disable your devices and the fuel cost for the trip will be negligible.

50:50: Never sell illegals at the BM. That's like taking coal to Newcastle. Sell illegals to Corporate Enclaves (unless you bought them from a BM; the three pipe drug station is fine) or smuggle. In your case smuggle. You have the three pipe drug source and lots of startons and that's one of most profitable routes in the game. I think only the militia (max rank)->BM route may be better. BM->starton is also very good even if not quite as good.

52:50: Prior to St. Kat's particle is a lot better than blast. Everything really nasty is wearing some variety of reactive. There's a Sabel in that Rasiermesser shop and probably some particle weapons in Rigel if you want a tier 2 type, though you should be able to comfortably reach Sanctuary with a good tier 1 like a morningstar, dual flenser, or x-ray. The first two you've seen in shops. Don't settle for a slam cannon. They're the second worst weapon of their level behind the absolution cannon.

[Song]

Admittedly, the absolution cannon is way off in front with its own little parade of flags and trumpets and stuff. But yeah...the slam cannon is a freighter weapon for NPCs rather than a player gun. The heavy version isn't too bad though.

[gunship256]

Go for armor and weapons, not shields. The HPI is a good low draw shield and you should stick to a low draw shield until Rigel, at which point if you want to go for shields you'll skip to a Ceratops....

Prior to St. Kat's particle is a lot better than blast. Everything really nasty is wearing some variety of reactive. There's a Sabel in that Rasiermesser shop and probably some particle weapons in Rigel if you want a tier 2 type, though you should be able to comfortably reach Sanctuary with a good tier 1 like a morningstar, dual flenser, or x-ray. The first two you've seen in shops. Don't settle for a slam cannon. They're the second worst weapon of their level behind the absolution cannon.

I agree. I normally dump the shield if I have a patcher arm and spend all my money on armor, reactors, and weapons instead. Sometimes I'll get the class V deflector from doing Korolov missions, which is quite good, and I don't have to spend any money to get it.

Another way to save fuel is to use the looted fuel in your cargo hold. The hull plate ionizer doesn't drain much power, as Atarlost said, so there isn't much of a reason to carry lots of fuel rods around, which take up cargo space, slowing the Sapphire down. Sometimes I'll re-fuel cheaply at fuel stations and sell my entire stack of fuel rods.

Particle weapons are pretty good in the early game. They're not strongly resisted, and some of them have a rapid rate of fire that can take down internal compartments pretty quickly. The dual particle beam weapon, in particular, does a lot of damage, fires 12 shots a second, and can outrange most other weapons, so you can snipe at stations without having to use ammo.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, the only thing in the early game I don't like the Morningstar for is trying to kill the Slicer (and Sapiens, if they happen to show up). It's a slow process taking down level 5 to 7 armor with that weapon. If I see a dual particle beam weapon or some other rapid-fire particle weapon like a Shuriken, I'll usually switch to that at Rigel.

[Xephyr]

Hmm, you might get hung up a bit trying to reach the core after you reach Heretic. Unless, of course, this playthrough will also coincide with the release of part 2...

[gunship256]

I tried the technique of sitting on top of the station today, and it doesn't look like it works any more in 1.6. It looks like the AI is better: Ferians avoid firing on stations that are friendly to me, although they still get the guards pretty mad if I get behind the station and use it as a shield (or sit on top of a planet next to the station) instead of sitting on top of the station itself.

[JohnBWatson]

Just finished watching episode 2. I was really rooting for you against that station, but I guess that's roguelikes for 'ya.

It's worth it to avoid leaving the shield on outside of combat. The savings are vast and add up to become extraordinary. In addition, the Smartcannon should never be your primary weapon. It's an excellent swarmbuster, but using it on hardened targets is far too ammo - intensive. Kinetic weaponry is also, with the exception of the Flenser, very subpar due to their slower projectiles with potential to be shot down. It would have been smart to install one of the laser cannons you looted in place of your recoilless cannon.

As far as trading goes, titanium and water ice are nign - useless to take. I just leave them be.

Also, you should totally have bought 2 segments of blast plate when you had the chance to do so.

On a development note, it would be interesting if wandering ships had a tendency to check out dropped crates near them and take anything with a good cost - weight ratio. Perhaps station guards would instead confiscate any illegals they find? It'd certainly add immersion, forcing people that take more than they can carry to find a more secluded dumping ground or a destroyed station and it would limit the usefulness of dumping drugs next to a station and picking them up later.

I also liked the idea of destroying early stations with missiles rather than just tapping at them with my main weaponry. Making station internal HP more powerful against non - WMD weaponry would make the early game quite a bit more interesting and would make picking up one's first non - ammo WMD weapon a lot more rewarding, giving the player the feeling of becoming significantly more powerful.

[Atarlost]

Kinetic weaponry is also, with the exception of the Flenser, very subpar due to their slower projectiles with potential to be shot down. It would have been smart to install one of the laser cannons you looted in place of your recoilless cannon.

This is terrible advice. Kinetic weapons with the exception of Centauri junk and the flensers always does more damage than its laser peers. You won't lose enough shots to collisions to be an issue for most kinetics. It's a problem for the smartcannon because shots are money and for the ballista, but not for any of the others.

That laser in particular is the third weakest weapon in the entire game and will barely scratch the paint of most enemies. Only its omni version and the centauri recoilless do less damage over time. In damage per projectile -- and therefore ineffectiveness against enemies with resistance (or armor that isn't level 1) -- it ties with its variants and the mining laser for second worst.

[gunship256]

I also liked the idea of destroying early stations with missiles rather than just tapping at them with my main weaponry. Making station internal HP more powerful against non - WMD weaponry would make the early game quite a bit more interesting and would make picking up one's first non - ammo WMD weapon a lot more rewarding, giving the player the feeling of becoming significantly more powerful.

This is interesting. I feel as if the current weapon dynamic with internal compartments is interesting in midgame. Particle weapons are weak against a lot of enemies, particularly the Dwarg, but they have a rapid rate of fire that seems to make them more effective to take down large enemies than blast howitzers, and much better than slam cannons, which have hardly any WMD.

I modded a turbolaser that reaches a (hypothetical) level 6 tier 1 DPS, not by stronger projectiles, but an extremely rapid rate of fire. It's basically a dual lancer but only has a range of 60. Despite its low damage type, it takes down stations and capital ships, including the Dwarg, faster than any other level 6 weapon I've tried. In principle, a laser weapon seems like it shouldn't be able to take down stations better than a blast howitzer, but it does.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. In theory, WMD should make us want to keep one weapon to fight small ships and another to blast capital ships and stations. But in this case, weapons like the Morning Star and lancer cannon continue to be useful against large ships when other level 4 and 5 weapons really aren't.

[Ferdinand]

Here are some of my opinions after seeing the three episodes so far

In these early systems and certainly if you need credits to buy stuff, when there are Arms dealers and Armor dealers or Tinkers in the system loot EVERYTHING!! They will buy the damaged stuff from you and although they sell for less, there is usually a lot more damaged goods available to make up for the price difference. You probably would have had enough credits from damaged goods alone to buy a new reactor at the end of the second episode. (probably a 50 MW or better)

When smuggling, Buy as much as possible (spend all the credits you have) from a single (best is the most expensive) item and sell that at the Victoria, repeating as often as neccesary. If you do this about three to four times, you sould have made enough profit to buy the entire inventory of the BM and sell it at once. Your Credit troubles will be over.

Have to agree on the previous posters, buy and install the blast plate and go for better primary weapons. Don't buy the Slam cannon, go for a good Laser (Turbo or X-ray), kinetic (Morningstar or Flenser) or particle weapon (most of them are good for early systems) if you don't want ammo. If you prefer blast then go for ammo and take the (upgraded)Akan 30. Should you find a Cannon accelarator then you could even consider keeping the smartcannon until after St. Kats. Only upgrade your shield if you have credits to spare (or get the Class V for free from doing missions at Korolov)

Make better use of your targetting system and select priority targets. All to often you are chasing an enemy (drake/frigate) and firing at it, but the missiles and cannonrounds select a different enemy target that is closer to your ship. Never stop firing your tracking weapons when you are in battle until your target goes BOOM. And don't wait to attack something hostile coming to you (you're often doing that). Shoot the pirates before they reach your freighter, don't wait until they are on top of it.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

Constantly switching shields on/off is SOOO tedious; I can't believe you guys play that way- what a pain in the butt! (It doesn't help that you have to do it through the se menu since there's no single button press for it.)

Shields do have lower fuel consumption when they're up but not recharging; every time you turn shields off and then back on again you're paying extra fuel to get them back up. I'm sure that the numbers favor turning shields off for long trips, but what a pain!

A proper solution would be for George to either lower shields' resting fuel consumption or to introduce an optional device or command to automatically toggles shields when enemies appear on radar for people are who really concerned about saving every last penny.

One last thing about fuel (which other people have mentioned): refueling should round down rather than up when selecting the number of rods. Advanced players always try to scrimp by refueling with one less than the suggested amount so that they don't have to pay for a rod they're not getting full use out of- again, a tedious extra step.

George has special affection for the slam cannon, it's been around since the very beginning of the game and it also appears in Anacreon. Regrettably, right now it's just not a good or interesting weapon.

[JohnBWatson]

Another note: In escort missions, get between the frigate and the freighter and use the target leading algorithm to your advantage by weaving left and right. The shots won't hit you, and you'll distract its fire from the freighter.

---

This is terrible advice. Kinetic weapons with the exception of Centauri junk and the flensers always does more damage than its laser peers. You won't lose enough shots to collisions to be an issue for most kinetics. It's a problem for the smartcannon because shots are money and for the ballista, but not for any of the others.

That laser in particular is the third weakest weapon in the entire game and will barely scratch the paint of most enemies. Only its omni version and the centauri recoilless do less damage over time. In damage per projectile -- and therefore ineffectiveness against enemies with resistance (or armor that isn't level 1) -- it ties with its variants and the mining laser for second worst.

I've always used it over kinetic starters until I found a better laser weapon. It's agile enough for taking on the many lightly armored enemies that appear in the very early game, something that cannot be said about the recoilless cannon. Of course, the Oromo's weapon is an exception to the general rule for Kinetics due to its excellent DPS if you can't find a turbolaser first, but in general the upgrade path of laser > dual laser/fast fire laser > turbolaser > omni turbolaser works perfectly for me. Of course, looking for a turbolaser(likely by hunting Vikings) ought to be a priority.

---

This is interesting. I feel as if the current weapon dynamic with internal compartments is interesting in midgame. Particle weapons are weak against a lot of enemies, particularly the Dwarg, but they have a rapid rate of fire that seems to make them more effective to take down large enemies than blast howitzers, and much better than slam cannons, which have hardly any WMD.

I modded a turbolaser that reaches a (hypothetical) level 6 tier 1 DPS, not by stronger projectiles, but an extremely rapid rate of fire. It's basically a dual lancer but only has a range of 60. Despite its low damage type, it takes down stations and capital ships, including the Dwarg, faster than any other level 6 weapon I've tried. In principle, a laser weapon seems like it shouldn't be able to take down stations better than a blast howitzer, but it does.

I've noticed that too. Honestly, it may just be nostalgia, but I liked the old system. A lucky shot with a non - WMD weapon could kill a capital ship, but it better captured the feeling of desperately pelting a massive hull with a light weapon in hopes of hitting a weak point, as well as the feeling of tearing through the heavy armor of a warship and then annihilating the internal structure with a thermonuclear missile. I'd like to see something similar for large stations, as well; I can't imagine a particle beam focused on a single area wiping out an entire space - city in a matter of minutes.

---

A proper solution would be for George to either lower shields' resting fuel consumption or to introduce an optional device or command to automatically toggles shields when enemies appear on radar for people are who really concerned about saving every last penny.

I like this quite a bit. Lowering resting fuel consumption also lowers the immersion - breaking potential of all of the ships that just sit there fully shielded. Coupled with a buff to the price of late - early to midgame armor repairs(at present it's practically free for blast plate up to late game stuff), it could make defenses a lot more balanced.

---

Finally, I think episode 3 shows the importance of sending frigates away after the mission completes.

[PM]

I usually prefer laser over kinetic prior to St. K's because the most common enemy, especially during Korolov missions, are Charon pirates, and their Vikings can tank kinetic with ease thanks to their reactive armor.

Slam cannon is weak, and it needs more WMD.