I suggest that the boss in the starter system either be toned down, or the basic Freighter started out with Kinetic resistant shields.
Right now, he's one of the deadliest fights in the game for the player's expected tech and experience level. He combines speed, heavy firepower AND weapons immunity in one nifty little package. He can kill a Freighter that's been modifed up to Class II shields in 2 shots - and the basic Freighter is a single shot kill.
The weapon immunity is a particularly difficult mechanic to inflict on players this early. Most players won't have a targeting computer, and without one you have no way of knowing that he is taking little or no damage from their regular weapons. Players who don't even know about that mechanic could easily become very frustrated.
Given that Eridani is supposed to act as a tutorial sandbox for new players, he's a serious roadblock. I've killed the Iocrym at least 8 times, and this jerk killed me 5 times in a row when I tried to take him with a Freighter.
I have little doubt that he'll manage to scare new players off of the game pretty quickly in his current state. Hell - I'm going to just skip out of Eridani altogether next time I try to fly a freighter. He's certainly not worth the risk unless I get some great early gear to deal with him.
Eridani Boss Tweak
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Betelgeuse
- Fleet Officer
- Posts: 1920
- Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:31 am
I think he is more about trying out new things than just fighting it out blindly.
There are two easy ways of killing him.
One is use the items you where given when you took the mission. Those things can kill him without much trouble plus you don't need to install it just use it and it will install itself.
Two is lead him over to the friendly stations. They have partical weapons and the boss itself is very slow so you don't hard to worry about him catching you.
There are two easy ways of killing him.
One is use the items you where given when you took the mission. Those things can kill him without much trouble plus you don't need to install it just use it and it will install itself.
Two is lead him over to the friendly stations. They have partical weapons and the boss itself is very slow so you don't hard to worry about him catching you.
Crying is not a proper retort!
Oh, I can think of quite a few ways to beat him in a freighter - but that's not the point. The point is a BEGINNER needs to be able to figure out how to beat him while they are still having trouble figuring out which button actually FIRES missiles - much less how to fire them in roughly the right direction while being shot at.
Remember, a new player probably doesn't even know how to 'U'se an item to equip the missile rack they were given, or will already have two weapons equipped and can't load the missiles at all!
Even if they get past that - as a pretty experienced player I confidently waltzed up to him with a Freighter with upgraded ClsII shields and a fully loaded missile rack, and he annihilated me before I could get off more than two shots (both of which were intercepted by his incoming fire). I was kind of shocked to learn that his gun was strong enough to cut straight through my shield like that.
I can deal with the fact that his ship is tough, and the player needs to learn to use missiles to beat him - but his offense needs to be anemic enough to give the new player a chance to realize that their guns aren't working, and they need to run away and figure out another approach. They will NOT get that chance currently.
Remember, a new player probably doesn't even know how to 'U'se an item to equip the missile rack they were given, or will already have two weapons equipped and can't load the missiles at all!
Even if they get past that - as a pretty experienced player I confidently waltzed up to him with a Freighter with upgraded ClsII shields and a fully loaded missile rack, and he annihilated me before I could get off more than two shots (both of which were intercepted by his incoming fire). I was kind of shocked to learn that his gun was strong enough to cut straight through my shield like that.
I can deal with the fact that his ship is tough, and the player needs to learn to use missiles to beat him - but his offense needs to be anemic enough to give the new player a chance to realize that their guns aren't working, and they need to run away and figure out another approach. They will NOT get that chance currently.