ICS is too weak than Phobos

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DigaRW
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Iocrym Command Ship as last boss is seem questionable. Rather than Phobos, ICS is easily to destroy. Though they have advanced defenses beyond human technology, but they just like a big cake. Most of player will snipping from distance with Lamplighter and/or heavy launcher will take down ICS. Even spawning their sentinel isn't help enough as long as player have Iocrym virus. Quantumsphere may terrifying, but it will be done with missile defense auto cannon. Their deadly weapon also have shortest range, so player can just keep away from that deadly weapon as they can shoot them.
I suggest that they should add fourth weapon that have medium range or maybe Kytryn launcher.
So player have three difficulties
Easy: ICS only shoot Quantumsaphere if player in longest range.
Medium: ICS will shoot Quantumsphere and mid-range weapon if player in medium range.
Hard: ICS will shoot deadly short-range weapon if player in nearest range .
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gunship256
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JBW is working on a mod that give the sentinels a linked-fire weapon with a longer range. I haven't tried the mod yet, but I'm guessing it makes the fight with the ICS more challenging.

https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic. ... 3&start=45
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TheLoneWolf
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I second you Dig. I tried playing thru the game as a Phobos. Everything died.
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gunship256 wrote:JBW is working on a mod that give the sentinels a linked-fire weapon with a longer range. I haven't tried the mod yet, but I'm guessing it makes the fight with the ICS more challenging.

https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic. ... 3&start=45
From what I learned writing that test mod, I think the best solution for the current ICS is to give the Sentinels a jumpdrive of some sort, which I do plan to do(or at least attempt; It seems fairly simple assuming there's a means of telling an AI ship to use an installed device) once I get some more free time. That said, I do believe that the Iocrym as a whole are due for a rework, as was discussed in a thread a while back about buffing the ICS.
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There is a mod at Xelerus called Extreme Iocrym made by (^o^). After the player kills the ICS, it self-resurrects and becomes... hyperactive to say the least. Its second mode combines aspects of bullet-hell shooter and Doom 2 arch-vile flame attacks. It is a novel mod, worth trying at least once.
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DigaRW
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Nah, I just wonder why ICS seem like that. Usually after we disable the quarantine, this is give us unlimited time to preparing a battle against ICS. We can backtrack to improving our weapon, shield and other equipment.
Again, we have most advantage that can knocking down that boss.
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I agree with your point. I think the main flaw in the design of the ICS is that the disintegrate weapon is so negligible. It has so much potential, but if the player is firing back they can just shoot and watch the disintegrate bullets vanish as they get hit by the players bullets. My suggestion would be to make the player's bullets ignore the disintegrate bullets so that there is more danger of being disintegrated.
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Song
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Disintegration is almost impossible to balance. Back in the day the Q-sphere was exceptionally dangerous....which got it nerfed progressively over time..it's better the way it is right now, but in general the weapon is never going to be a good, well balanced thing. Instadeath effects are like that.

And in terms of not being to be hit....this would completely negate the point of point defense systems in the endgame. Which are already crippled by a series of horrible bugs. Because of the shared systems, any weapon-beating Q-sphere shot would also be immune to point defense...which would make it unique among tracking weapons, and not in a good way.

If there's one gun in the Iocrym lineup that makes no sense, it's the repeller....I wouldn't say 'no' to it getting reworked into something with some actual range that can assist in the fight (I'm in the 'sentinels are just fine as-is' camp). But then again, it'll never be able to beat a player who can exploit the AI. Because AI exploits are reliable against everything.
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Ah, well that's sad. Although I feel like it could be reworked so that it feels like more of a threat, because when I'm facing the ICS, I don't really feel that threatened by it.

I also don't really remember it being that op in the past. Which version of the game are you talking about? I'm not sure when I started playing, but I know it was about 7-8 years ago. The oldest version of the game I still have is 0.98b, but it is on my old and slow desktop which I haven't used in a year or two.
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Shrike wrote:If there's one gun in the Iocrym lineup that makes no sense, it's the repeller....I wouldn't say 'no' to it getting reworked into something with some actual range that can assist in the fight (I'm in the 'sentinels are just fine as-is' camp). But then again, it'll never be able to beat a player who can exploit the AI. Because AI exploits are reliable against everything.
Wasn't the point of the repellers was to prevent the player from camping on top of the command ship, safe from its other weapons? In other words, exploit/rules patch. It is a lame weapon (for the player), but does the job of shoving the player away from the command ship (and safe spots) very effectively.

Repeller makes more sense as a missile defense device that can also target ships.
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sun1404
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I've said this once, but the Repeller as a missile defence makes the ICS virtually invincible. The Repeller's fire rate means it can effectively defend against just about every missile launchers in existence, and of course you can forget about howitzers.
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gunship256
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With the rework of plasma weapons as cloud-based weapons, would they still be able to get through if the repeller were used as point-defense?
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Not all plasma weapons are clouds. The repeller is one of the few that is still a bolt. Baihu archcannon (in Eternity Port), updated to 1.7, remains as a plasma bolt, not cloud.

@ sun1404: I only said the repeller would make more sense as missile defense. With four or five of them, in addition to Iocrym cocoon, it probably would be too effective a defense. Missile defense would make it more useful to the player though. As-is, the repeller is rubbish for the player (but good for the ICS).
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I am sure I won't get yelled at for adding MY feature thingy here :

If you take down the AI : the take down shuts off the Heretic stargate: nobody gets in, nobody gets out: Gems are useless to return to Heretic once used to get out because you require an active gate to get back in.

So, no more running from a fight, have it with you or get toasted.

I took down the ICS in a FREIGHTER with an IM90 my first time going that far. So remember, it's not made to beat US, it's made to beat up on the less experienced player playing stock : once you beat it you are no longer the Pilgrim of Old, which is why there is going to be a bigger and better killer waiting in the next Boss fight, I am sure.
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I managed to take down the ICS with an enhanced starcannon back in 1.08b
But I considered that difficult.
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