*Dwarg Dwarg*

[Sheltem]

These are my, maybe not personal problems with dwargs

"You are the master"
When you have convinced some 'tropies, they often stick very close to you. They should hold some distance from you, so that you don't always accidentally destroy them when you start to shot on something. Don't know if this still applies to wingmen too, as I don't find wingmen often ...

The performance-problem
Always when there are Dwarg Colonies on the map, the autopilot starts bucking. This is connected to their amount. I tested it now in a system with these stations: 1 Dwarg Colony (4 stations), 3 Ferian miner's, 1 Dwarg fortress, 2 Sung Citadel, 1 Sung fortress.
One Ferian miner was destroyed by a near auton dealer. After destroying both other Ferian miner's, it gave just a slight improvement. Then I destroyed the sung; slight improvment. Then I was destroyed by a shields down + Nandano bolt *g* ...

So I revived before killing everything and started to kill the dwarg instead : nearly as smoothly without dwarg & ferians on the map. By destroying the rest of the two living Ferian miner's I would have come back to no-lag ....
on a prior system - Sanctuary - there was much Nebula around and 2 Dwarg colonies (8 stations). After destroying both there was _no_ lag anymore, so Nebula does not cause problems only Dwarg do.

This bucking makes fighting nearly impossible although it just seems that fps are regulated down, as the relation of game-time:real-time appears to stay the same. I have a P4 512mb 1,9ghz Xp .... should this not be enough for transc ?_!
Using the /dx command didn't help either.

So I actually always have to kill them which brings along other problems - dwarg-master problems.
First I met them with a defIII, that was very deadly, so I was happy to find an ion-resistant nephren P25 ... but I turned out to help nothing. As the cycnodyst shots track, you get every hit. Without escaping, taking cover or firing something in their line this brings down Nephren and Yoroi MX easily. So you have to face the spawn. As you aproach the Zoanthropes help getting down your shield. If this happens you will get stunned. As more bolts hit you, the stun lasts minutes. So your deathbill is signed.

I can deal with them although, but they still have a good chance to kill me, too. This made me mad, and stopped me playing transc for months. As it seems that they only spawn from the gate as b-liners when I killed one of their station I would avoid them but as described above I can't let them live >_<

Why has the ICX such a high error rate on the cynodyst bolts ? They require ammo as most weapons do the ICX is useful for.

[Arisaya]

I'm running transcendence on a Pentium Dual 3.2Ghz 4GB ram XP as well as a Pentium M 1.4Ghz 512MB integrated ram XP (laptop).
I've experienced the "bucking" only once on my laptop, interesting that the transition was gradual for you. My experience was that once I brought the number of enemies down below a certain threshold, autopilot suddenly worked fine again.

[F50]

I used to have bucking problems until the ferrian fix, now only a few Dwarg-heavy systems cause this.

As for Dwarg Masters, I suggest the invincible deflector (enhanced a little bit will work very nicely) or the Mammoth 50. Anything less than that, and yes you are doomed. There is always at least one of these shields at a CW fortress.

EDIT: I suppose not *always*, but nearly so.

[Sponge]

My strategy is always to hurry through any system with a strong Dwarg presence and come back later with a better shield. However, the ion cannon they use is SO long ranged that they can bring down any shield short of an MX before they're even on the radar. While I think they're a good enemy, I wouldn't be opposed to the range on those cannons being reduced a bit. There's been times where I jump through the gate and as soon as I do so, there's cynodyst bolts all around me before I can even see a Dwarg on the map. Long story short, they show up at levels where strong enough shields to combat them are unavailable, and they can take down weak shields from across the system.

[F50]

This isn't a bad thing IMO, that's why I made the hard mod.

[Sheltem]

btw, bolts often manage it to evade things in their line of fire. They even evaded a Earth slaver lately. What is this nonsense supposed to be ? Let them react as normal projectiles !!

[Bobby]

if only the icx could actually hit the bolts... i had to make a super icx to get any kind of result against the Dwarg cnidocyst cannons, the thing consistently hits slam cannon rounds!

EDIT: perhaps lowering the bolt's maneuverability would make them more easily avoided or shot down with an icx.

[Arisaya]

if only the icx could actually hit the bolts... i had to make a super icx to get any kind of result against the Dwarg cnidocyst cannons, the thing consistently hits slam cannon rounds!

EDIT: perhaps lowering the bolt's maneuverability would make them more easily avoided or shot down with an icx.

blue etherium anyone? I think that the corperate trade posts are usually avaliable prior to seeing the first dwarg.

[Sheltem]

How should I know what blue etherium makes ? I never found it. I even did't know that it exists. That's why I save up trade post - as I might still find something more worthful.
Let me guess ... blue etherium makes shields ion immune/reflecting ~~ ? Don't need an answer on that .....

edit: Well, transc ought to be a rouge-like so not knowing an item is normal for "newbies" like me. As I played 0.96a and half of 0.98b I don't know much about the "actual" transc. I'm sry for that

[Arisaya]

the blue etherium field crystals are pretty cheap. just type in "blue" for the search parameters.
yes, it is ion reflect. yellow is positron and green is particle. They are actually very useful devices. Ion reflecting mammoth is made of epic win and a positron reflecting ion reflector will is virtually immune to the ares (except the occasional shot that gets through and those pesky micro nukes)

[Sponge]

I usually find Dwarg well before Trading Posts, but that could just be my luck. I try to order a blue as soon as I can, but the greens are always pretty enticing, too. Those nasty Sung and their Citadels are made very easy by a green crystal.