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Nice piece of fish posted:So, anyone wanna critique my PVE Murderboat? PACs are cool and fun for the reasons you already stated. I also agree with lasers and multicannons in a separate firegroup to quickly dispatch smaller ships. I personally also put my multicannons in the firegroup with the PACs and nothing else in order to keep the pressure on without draining capacitor while lining up shots. Ammo dependence with those weapons really isn't so bad. They have enough to grind out a RES or CZ with only periodic trips back to a station to rearm and turn in your bounties/bonds. At risk of restarting a terrible derail, turrets are useful but ultimately a crutch if you can learn to make do without them imo. Or maybe tracking small ships is too obnoxious in a conda, I never really used mine for serious combat.
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Apr 29, 2016 17:29
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For murdering NPCs, turrets are fine. You can use directional and reverse thrusters to line up Vipers and such for gimbal or fixed weapons, but if the goal is to make an  comp stomper Anaconda then turrets will zap them into dust without issue. Against players I wouldn't use turrets since players tend to drop lots of chaff. You can configure turrets to fire forward, but IIRC they do a lot less damage than fixed or untargeted gimbals, so it's not really worth bringing them. But yeah, do whatever against NPCs because they aren't really challenging anyway. I've yet to see an NPC Corvette or Cutter. Do they show up in RESes? I want something new to FAS to death.
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Apr 29, 2016 17:56
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Man I wonder how quickly Frontier is going to cave on building rep with engineers to get access to upgrades  http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=13b2599b4f
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Apr 29, 2016 18:29
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Shine posted:I've yet to see an NPC Corvette or Cutter. Do they show up in RESes? I want something new to FAS to death. I think they only show up in conflict zones.
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Apr 29, 2016 18:32
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Nostalgia4Infinity posted:Man I wonder how quickly Frontier is going to cave on building rep with engineers to get access to upgrades Kind of thought they'd be doing some custom missions for each Engineer, not sure where I got that impression from though. Looks like they're just regular missions though, unless the 'initial contract' they mention is something special. e: whether your weapon upgrade includes a 'special effect' will be done by RNG. El Grillo fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Apr 29, 2016 |
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Apr 29, 2016 18:42
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Are they seriously going to require CQC for some engineer upgrades? Phasing Sequence looks good. Attack that hull directly through the shields 
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Apr 29, 2016 19:27
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Oh thank god, finally some mention of explorers. At least Frontier hasn't totally forgotten us.
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Apr 29, 2016 19:40
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I'm so glad that the Engineers are space wizards casting space magic on my ship with dice rolling against result tables to determine what upgrades I might get based on their WIS modifier and my ship's THAC0.
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Apr 29, 2016 19:46
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BMan posted:I think they only show up in conflict zones. That's what I've noticed too. Per the description it makes sense since you're only really supposed to see them if the Federal Navy is directly involved, but it's kind of lame for variety's sake. Have people seen NPC cutters in the wild anywhere? Maybe CZs in Imperial space?
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Apr 29, 2016 19:47
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timn posted:That's what I've noticed too. Per the description it makes sense since you're only really supposed to see them if the Federal Navy is directly involved, but it's kind of lame for variety's sake. I have seen one as an Assassination target.
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Apr 29, 2016 19:50
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Some advice would be appreciated. I'm in a fully loaded Vulture with A ranged everything, and am looking towards the FAS as my next ship. I have zero federation rank. I looked in the OP but may have missed any info on raising federation rank. What and where is the best way to do this, preferably while earning money at the same time? A quick google search seemed to find a lot of outdated and conflicting info.
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Apr 29, 2016 20:35
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BitBasher posted:Some advice would be appreciated. I'm in a fully loaded Vulture with A ranged everything, and am looking towards the FAS as my next ship. Doing donation missions is the easiest way to gain rank. Tun still works apparently.
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Apr 29, 2016 21:09
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Doing secret data deliveries also increases rank quickly and is more fun than scumming the bulletin board.
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Apr 29, 2016 21:12
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H13 posted:So I picked up 9.5 Million bucks worth of smuggling missions from Robigo. If you're getting interdicted repeatedly, log out to the main menu and log back in and it will clear all the NPCs from the system you're in. Always make sure you're approaching the station (why are you docking at a station and not an outpost with your illegal goods? Outposts have no cops.) from planetside, not outside its orbit. The other option, especially if you don't have guns, is to use task manager to kill elitedangerous.exe before it completes.
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Apr 29, 2016 21:13
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Hexenritter posted:The other option, especially if you don't have guns, is to use task manager to kill elitedangerous.exe before it completes. Holy poo poo that works? I'm writing a program to kill it by pressing a keyboard button.
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Apr 29, 2016 21:26
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IAmTheRad posted:Doing donation missions is the easiest way to gain rank. Tun still works apparently. I do donation missions whenever I come in from RESsing. They just don't seem very common. Kramjacks posted:Doing secret data deliveries also increases rank quickly and is more fun than scumming the bulletin board. So just any missions with a Federal galaxy symbol next to them?
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Apr 29, 2016 21:33
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BitBasher posted:I do donation missions whenever I come in from RESsing. They just don't seem very common. At Tun and 17 Draconis donation missions are plentiful and easy to refresh by switching between solo and open mode. The missions I was talking about are specifically ones where you need to deliver a message somewhere, and getting scanned fails the mission. I think they are usually called "classified data transfer" or something like that. The further the destination is, the better the rank gain. And yeah, the ones with the Fed symbol for Fed rank. I don't actually know any systems that regularly spawn Fed missions of that type, I've only really done a lot Imperial ones from HIP 10716. Edit: I find its best to only take missions like that with destinations at outposts to be safe.
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Apr 29, 2016 21:43
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Thanks everyone, just got rank 2. I know I'm late to the party here but holy poo poo are these rank up missions rough. Solo killing an Anaconda? It's kind of a coin flip getting through these.
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Apr 30, 2016 02:14
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That's just the nature of the mission system in general. Once you qualify for a rank up you can safely reroll the bulletin board for something easy like delivering normal cargo or running a message.
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Apr 30, 2016 02:21
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BitBasher posted:Thanks everyone, just got rank 2. I know I'm late to the party here but holy poo poo are these rank up missions rough. Solo killing an Anaconda? It's kind of a coin flip getting through these. Do you have chaff? Do you use the directional thrusters? Between both of those, a Vulture is more than a match for an NPC Anaconda. The Vulture's directional thruster performance is just as impressive as its pitch speed, to the point where you can keep your guns pointed at an Anaconda while simultaneously circling (sphering?) around to avoid its front, which limits how much fire it can put on you (the front has both the C4 hardpoint, and the convergence point for all the C3 hardpoints). I like to pack multiple chaff launchers so that I can use one while the other is on cooldown, so there's no downtime between chaff release. Between that and cutting off the firing angles by keeping away from the nose, you shouldn't take much damage. And an A-fit Vulture has a shitload of shielding anyway. The FAS is basically a bigger, meaner Vulture that swaps excellent shields for excellent armor. You'll love it. Just don't let its puny shields rattle you; they're gonna go down all the time and your computer will scream at you about taking damage, and then after you destroy whatever you're fighting you'll have lost like 2% hull integrity.
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Apr 30, 2016 02:46
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Eldragon posted:Holy poo poo that works? I'm writing a program to kill it by pressing a keyboard button. Yes it does, I've saved myself from overextending my under-specced Python several times in RESes doing the same thing.
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Apr 30, 2016 03:05
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You can easily damageless kill any solo NPC in a Vulture without really trying. Insert yourself into their rear end in a top hat, 4 pip engines, open fire. You have the most maneuverability, they never get to shoot.
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Apr 30, 2016 03:57
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Shine posted:Do you have chaff? Do you use the directional thrusters? Between both of those, a Vulture is more than a match for an NPC Anaconda. The Vulture's directional thruster performance is just as impressive as its pitch speed, to the point where you can keep your guns pointed at an Anaconda while simultaneously circling (sphering?) around to avoid its front, which limits how much fire it can put on you (the front has both the C4 hardpoint, and the convergence point for all the C3 hardpoints). I like to pack multiple chaff launchers so that I can use one while the other is on cooldown, so there's no downtime between chaff release. Between that and cutting off the firing angles by keeping away from the nose, you shouldn't take much damage. And an A-fit Vulture has a shitload of shielding anyway. Thanks! I haven't tried chaff yet, I have been running anti missile systems. I will give them a shot.
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Apr 30, 2016 05:33
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BitBasher posted:Thanks! I haven't tried chaff yet, I have been running anti missile systems. I will give them a shot. Anti-missile is practically useless. I have not seen an NPC use a missile. The closest is hatch breakers, but with shields up they won't work. I have no cargo hold in my combat ships so they won't work even if my shields go down. Point Defense is REALLY useful if you are doing aerial strikes against planetary bases, however.
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Apr 30, 2016 05:35
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IAmTheRad posted:Anti-missile is practically useless. I have not seen an NPC use a missile. The closest is hatch breakers, but with shields up they won't work. I have no cargo hold in my combat ships so they won't work even if my shields go down. They would fire off a few dozen bullets every now and then, I assumed they were doing something useful... Also for some reason I have not tried landing on a planet yet despite owning Horizons. BitBasher fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Apr 30, 2016 |
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Apr 30, 2016 05:55
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BitBasher posted:Also for some reason I have not tried landing on a planet yet despite owning Horizons. BitBasher posted:Thanks everyone, just got rank 2. I know I'm late to the party here but holy poo poo are these rank up missions rough. Solo killing an Anaconda? It's kind of a coin flip getting through these.
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Apr 30, 2016 11:45
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IAmTheRad posted:Anti-missile is practically useless. I have not seen an NPC use a missile. The closest is hatch breakers, but with shields up they won't work. I have no cargo hold in my combat ships so they won't work even if my shields go down. On the contrary, I've not only seen NPCs use missiles, I even got blown up by a torpedo once. The rule of thumb is, if you put anti-missile defense on a ship, you probably won't see NPCs using missiles. But if you don't, every second one will spray them like they confused Elite and Macross. Or I'm just really unlucky. 
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Apr 30, 2016 12:24
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El Grillo posted:Part of what Braben was talking about in that interview a little while back, they're falling down on ways to lead players towards new/different content. I kind of worry that they'll never be successful, since when players are given a galaxy they'll all go farm Robigo because maximum ISK/hour
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Apr 30, 2016 12:27
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Strategic Tea posted:I kind of worry that they'll never be successful, since when players are given a galaxy they'll all go farm Robigo because maximum ISK/hour It's rather to be expected when gating content behind cash is such a common design. It hardly even matters how the individual game actually deals with the balance — players are pretty much conditioned to think of money as a barrier that should be overcome as quickly and effortlessly as possible to get to the fun bits. If by some odd coincidence, the quick earner also happens to be fun, then it often tends to get overlooked because hey, it's just the thing you do to get cash, and doing it a lot makes you seem like a money-obsessed grinder.
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Apr 30, 2016 13:03
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Nostalgia4Infinity posted:Man I wonder how quickly Frontier is going to cave on building rep with engineers to get access to upgrades The Grind is fine - and after triple Elite and getting Cuter/Vette ranks I know the true depths of madness - but the dice roll for special augments has got to loving go. Arach fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Apr 30, 2016 |
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Apr 30, 2016 13:16
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^^not entirely clear on how it's meant to work (whether there's a random chance of getting one of the 'special effects' or whether the random chance is how good that effect will be) but there is a poll up if you wish to register your displeasure. The Stockholm Syndrome brown sea crew are winning right now: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=245354&page=3&p=3819237 Strategic Tea posted:I kind of worry that they'll never be successful, since when players are given a galaxy they'll all go farm Robigo because maximum ISK/hour El Grillo fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Apr 30, 2016 |
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Apr 30, 2016 13:27
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I dunno. Beyond getting a ship with a decent jump range, is there really that much you can do in a Corvette that you can't do in a Cobra? I mean sure you can haul more stuff or kill guys faster, but the gameplay is the same. I spent a while always wanting to upgrade my ship, but after a bit I just realised that the upgrades weren't actually changing my gameplay at all, and I mostly stopped caring. (Would like a fer de lance though  )
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Apr 30, 2016 13:32
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Strategic Tea posted:I kind of worry that they'll never be successful, since when players are given a galaxy they'll all go farm Robigo because maximum ISK/hour Maybe if all those features weren't gated behind either the cash grind or one of literally a half-dozen different rank grinds, not to mention reputation grinds and material grinds, people wouldn't worry so much about efficient ways to grind. And it looks like Engineers are going to make that worse, not better.
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Apr 30, 2016 13:58
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Main Paineframe posted:Maybe if all those features weren't gated behind either the cash grind or one of literally a half-dozen different rank grinds, not to mention reputation grinds and material grinds, people wouldn't worry so much about efficient ways to grind. When CQC came out, a lot of first reactions were "it's really fun, but there's no point in doing it because you don't earn enough credits!"
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Apr 30, 2016 14:08
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tooterfish posted:
The only reason I've participated in CQC is to keep Angrymog happy :3
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Apr 30, 2016 14:34
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There's a line to be drawn between what is a 'grind' and what is just having to do stuff to get stuff. If Frontier just released the update with the engineer locations marked on your map and the upgrades on offer right away for free, it would feel weak and shallow. There is probably no game in existence where the gameplay can't be broken down into individually mundane tasks building up to a reward. The difference is made by how well you dress it up with purpose, variety, and spectacle. Frontier is also fighting an uphill battle with that since everything is more or less procedural. The engineers is actually a departure in that sense by creating unique people in unique locations offering unique stuff.
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Apr 30, 2016 14:37
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As far as grind; the base gameplay is so compelling because of the great design, I reckon if they actually utilised it well - through things like proper design variety for missions, better player interaction/in-universe PVP, keep on with the QoL improvements (in-system jumps or choice of start when jumping in, etc) - grind wouldn't be a problem. The problem is right now, there's not much to do except to grind. The only way to get over that is either to add a wider variety of more interesting missions/encounters, or to facilitate player-generated content (whether it be player organisations or more player-based economy or whatever). I think right now they're still making the same mistakes a lot of MMO developers make when they're starting out; adding big new headline features instead of fleshing out and fixing what they've already got. Although the mission UI fixes are a good step in the right direction. The unique  side of it is that their big headline features also seem to be simultaneously niche, lacking in broad consequence/applicability (Power Play, Engineers), and geared towards really bleak grinding.e: Basically, flying around is great and shooting spaceships is great, I would be so happy if they added some variety to the 'flying around' and 'shooting people' gameplays (more stealth mission types, interesting combat locations/objectives etc.) I have a little hope, because console/VR will continue to bring in people who aren't as sperg-tastic as the brown sea crowd. El Grillo fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Apr 30, 2016 |
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Apr 30, 2016 14:59
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El Grillo posted:The unique
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Apr 30, 2016 15:05
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Main Paineframe posted:Maybe if all those features weren't gated behind either the cash grind or one of literally a half-dozen different rank grinds, not to mention reputation grinds and material grinds, people wouldn't worry so much about efficient ways to grind. And it looks like Engineers are going to make that worse, not better. That's just it - there are no features. There are only more ships, and while I love spaceships, once you have a decent jump range having different ships doesn't open up any new gameplay at all.
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Apr 30, 2016 15:21
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Bhodi posted:I find it really weird that there are still only 3 station types and still nothing to do while switching star systems. You spend SO MUCH of your time either docking, in supercruise, or in that 10s system jump. With no autopilot the least you can do is let me play with nav settings or something. Also, cache all systems within 1 jump so that it doesn't take 10 seconds to bring up the local system map, please I would add to this: The chargeup + jump sequence represents a large~ish contiguous chunk of player downtime. It would be handy if the jump sequence did not pull the player out of the galaxy map / systems menu / galnet. Is there a reason why they make you sit there and watch the jump sequence instead of allowing the player to do something else?
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Apr 30, 2016 17:53
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