Ellen Degeneres: Horizons - AI Now Earns More Than Human Crew

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Ellen Degeneres: Horizons - AI Now Earns More Than Human Crew

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Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Fanzay posted:

gently caress me, that's dumb as gently caress

This is a good summary of Powerplay.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2015 09:16

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 03:14

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

TorakFade posted:

Actually, three

If the Cutter will be the Empire's Python equivalent,

e: apparently the Cutter is the counterpart to the Corvette, so probably more of an Imperial Anaconda. Kinda scary thought. Anyways I'm really happy we get significantly more ships, I still haven't found my favourite ship (ok for combat it's the Vulture but I can't settle on multirole - Python is too expensive, Cobra is too limited, Asp is for exploration, Clipper too big and clumsy for its shields)

I love my Gutamaya ships. Hopefully we get huge fixed beam lasers as well.

I really like the Courier, Vulture, Clipper and Python:

The Courier's a great little multirole ship that sounds and handles great and is probably my favourite overall of the small ships
The Vulture's a wonderful dedicated brawler that handles great, looks cool and is the best semi-cheap RES farming ship for a long time
The Clipper is a good cheap trader (for large outposts) with the best cockpit/engine sounds and is the best at ramming things
The Python is the best combat multi-role and outpost trader and is my current main ship

The only real downside the Imperial ships have is the rep grind to get them (which is admittedly really crap at the moment).

# ¿ Sep 18, 2015 01:03

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Zaardvark posted:

I may dabble with CQC, but the part of Horizons I'm most interested in will be driving a space buggy.

CQC is being released in 1.4 which is separate to Horizons and should be out very shortly. I'm not sure if Horizons is going to be released alongside 1.5 or slightly afterwards but you've got a while until you can drive your buggy so enjoy the CQC stuff in the meantime.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2015 00:19

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

TorakFade posted:

Also they will put bases and stuff on planets (maybe procedurally?) and related co-op base assaults also with air to ground, so I'm actually optimistic - it could even be fun!

Not to mention they already said that the larger ships are like flying bricks in the atmosphere so that could be another niche for the smaller and more nimble ships that were added for CQC but will make their way to the main game like the Imperial Eagle.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2015 22:44

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Drake_263 posted:

I think there's something going on with the servers, I've had long ~~hyper~~witchspace transitions, glitchy interdticions and gotten kicked out of the game while mining a couple of times today.

Yeah, I was getting the same thing last night where I was frequently in witchspace for 30+ seconds where normally it's about 10. I also had a few transaction errors when I tried out some mining.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 23:23

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Insert name here posted:

When in doubt, buy pulse lasers

They're really boring but work well

Actually it looks awesome because it looks like someone took two big ol' engines and strapped a cockpit to them.

And the cockpit looks like a helicopter gunship from the inside.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 02:53

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

chaosapiant posted:

What's the better smuggling ship between the Asp and the Diamondback Exp? I know the Asp is the better all-rounder, but since I was pinching pennies I went with the Diamondback so i'd have more leftover funds for A class equipment. I need gooncensus.

Asp has more and bigger internal slots so there's not really any contest.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2015 06:23

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

SynthOrange posted:

I feel like I've jumped in feet first and broken my ankles in a lake that's only a few inches deep.

Well, people haven't been describing E:D as 'mile wide and an inch deep' since it launched for nothing.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 01:22

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

LCL-Dead posted:

Is 70 million enough to get a decent fit (Maybe not an A class FSD) on a Clipper?

Someone quoted me about 120 mil for a good PvP fit earlier. If I can grab a Clipper off of this CG I'll buy a paint pack to join the other Flipper's out there, pending it's a viable thing to do rather than just stick to my Vulture.

10 more millions and I could potentially look into fitting out a FAS after running up some Fed rank.

The main expense on the Clipper is the shield if you put in a Size 7 one but remember that a 6A shield will still give you a good amount of shields when you couple it with boosters. The following should be pretty okay for PvP since each time you pop a shield cell it'll restore half of your total shields:
http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_clipper/06A6B5A5D6A5D4C1e1e27270n0404045t4f326o02020101.Iw18aQ==.IwBj4y2VyA==

It's about 76m normally and if you can I'd stretch it a bit to put A thrusters on it because they make the Clipper as agile as a vulture. With the upcoming discounts you should be able to get the Clipper hull for around 15m and then if you put the rest of the stuff on in a system controlled/exploited by Li Rong-Yui you'll get a 15% discount on all the modules and should be able to do the Clipper+A Thrusters for 70-80m.

e: you can also swap all the cargo bays for hull reinforcements if you're just doing PvP since you won't need the space. If you're aiming to do conflict zones you should drop the KWS for another shield booster and swap the multis for more pulse lasers so you don't have to worry about ammo.

Mercurius fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Oct 19, 2015

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 23:02

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

SynthOrange posted:

I wouldnt be so negative if this game did anything right. I enjoyed playing it but after while the half assed... everything just gets hard to ignore.

At least I had a pretty spaceship for a little while.

I know there's a lot of stuff that is still questionably designed or flat out broken (like all MMOs amirite) but the game does do lots of stuff right (flight model, combat, exploration) and has been getting considerably better over time. It's a sandbox game and we've all described it as 'a mile wide and an inch deep' but due to the nature of the game you sort of have to do your own thing. I don't know if you've gotten involved with any of the Diamond Frogs stuff we've been organising out of the PGS thread but I know I personally find actually having a goal and doing stuff with other people a lot more interesting than just 'grind credits for x hours' so maybe give that a try if you haven't already.

At the end of the day E:D is basically a B2P MMO so you can put it down and come back to it when they've added more stuff that interests you. Even if you won't get some of the flagship features if a new expansion's been released they usually fix up the base mechanics to be at parity so the general baseline experience may well be better at that point and you might enjoy it more.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 00:34

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Kavros posted:

If I'm fighting for anime princess for her shield, can I still do the undermining for 15/kill?

Yeah, just make sure not to do it to other imperial power ships or you'll end up losing 10 merits a kill instead of gaining 15. You can shoot Fed/Alliance/Independent ships all you want though.

I'm probably going to re-pledge to Aisling about a month before Horizons comes out but I'm going to be lazy and just move printers the week before the month ticks instead of grinding 750 merits through interdictions :effort:

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 03:28

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Parallelwoody posted:

So what exactly do I need to do to get my rear end in a clipper? I'm at master empire rank, do I need to keep grinding that or is some community events lowering requirements? Do I need to haul something somewhere to have that apply to me or is it for all players? Also what's this about a discount in certain systems? Do I need to be pledged towards a certain faction for it to apply?

The Clipper (and Courier/iEagle) is currently available without a rank requirement thanks to the community goal for the donation of gifts for Arissa's coronation. As I found out last night, the rank reduction is for all stations selling the Clipper and there's also a 20% discount on the ship everywhere which handily stacks with the powerplay discount bonuses. The best pricing is currently buying the Clipper from a Li Yong-Rui controlled/exploited system for a full 35% discount bringing it down to 15m for the hull.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 22:45

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

SciFiDownBeat posted:

Oh snap, do you know of such a system off the top of your head where I can grab one of them?

I got sick of not being able to find a Li Yong-Rui system selling the Clipper and ended up buying it from a Patreus control system instead (10% discount instead of 15%, it's less than 1m credits difference). Just go into the map and look at Patreus Control systems and then go to http://ed-td.space/en/18/Find+Ship and plug them in until you find one listed as selling the Clipper.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 23:23

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Parallelwoody posted:

Thanks for all the info, I have some sothis bucks burning a hole in my pocket and I've been wanting to give the clipper a go. Can the courier take down larger ships or should I stick to something larger as well?

Courier has similar shield capabilities as the Vulture but it's got 3 medium hardpoints instead of 2 large. It's a pretty great ship for how cheap you can fit it out but it's not as good at blowing up larger ship hulls as the vulture. It has better lateral thrusters/yaw than the Vulture but its overall handling is slightly worse.

The Clipper is basically a big Vulture with a courier strapped to it and if you put A class thrusters on it it'll handle about as well as a Vulture, too. It's an absurdly large ship (nearly as big as an Anaconda) that handles much, much better than it has any right to. Slightly worse shields than a Vulture but more weapon options, internal slots and a slightly easier time fitting stuff. Vulture's a pure combat fighter, Clipper is a proper multi-role.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 23:59

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Wee Tinkle Wand posted:

The extra money from a KWS really isn't that much in the grand scheme of things. More shields means less downtime means more bounty hunting, if that's what you are into and then later when doing missions or CZs you don't have that wasted slot. Gotta dance with those triple clipper wings and the like in a HazRes so you can get those big bucks and a KWS doesn't help.

Yeah, just to reiterate that Wee Tinkle Wand's fitout will be really, really good in conflict zones which is what the Diamond Frogs do a lot of if you're involved with that stuff. It has only has 'good' shield strength (compared to the Python/FdL/Anaconda) but the sheer number of shield cell banks you can cram it full of combined with its awesome handling and speed give it really great staying power.

I'm still waffling back and forth between using a Clipper and FdL for Diamond Frogs stuff and can't make up my mind :sigh:

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 00:59

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

SciFiDownBeat posted:

oh gently caress sweet, thanks. So I don't need any rank this week to buy it? No special preconditions?

Nah, it's a global reward that's happened because of the CG finishing. You didn't need to participate in anything.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 03:34

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

SciFiDownBeat posted:

How long does it last?

We don't know, there hasn't been anything official.

Adult Sword Owner posted:

iClippy thoughts

* Clipper is massive and I keep hitting poo poo I think I'd miss. I can finally orbit asteroids a bit but it took a while.
* Still power hungry with 4x lasers pouring out
* Ramming guys who are at 50% while you have full shields is in fact hilarious and effective
* Seriously thinking about swapping out my Large for multi-cannons just so I can pour damage into power plants when shields drop, which is maybe 25% of any given fight even with two mediums constantly firing. I don't mind reloads because its < 1 LS of a jump and I prefer a break so I don't do something stupid and lose a ton of turn-ins
* I have like 20m left and that feels bad

Sadly, large multicannons don't exist. I'd personally recommend large pulses and medium multis if you're going that route. Basically, Vulture firepower but with an added bite once the shields are down.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 04:25

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Paramemetic posted:

My current Clipper is the Come on and Slam, with Kurr piloting the sister ship, Welcome to the Jam.

Topical:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-dMSstLDqM

A modern interpretation of a timeless classic.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 21:20

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

timn posted:

Im playing around in one with three fixed pulses for practice and with the best distributor and 4 pips it still drains down after a moderate amount of sustained fire. Beams are probably a no go unless you're firing like just one by itself.

Edit: to clarify for a PVE build where you're permanently affixed to your targets that's where it breaks down and doesnt make sense to have a weapon scheme you have to stop and recharge constantly. Maybe PVP could be a different story.

I've always been a fan of the tried and true pulse/multicannon combo for agile ships that can stay on target and beams/cannons for ships that can't out-turn their opponents.

In the Courier's case I'd do gimballed pulses on the wings and then a fixed/gimballed (depending on preference) multicannon on the chin mount. If you're hunting larger ships in RES with the Courier I'd recommend swapping the chin mount to either a cannon or plasma accelerator as they punch above their weight and do full damage to large hulls.

For something like a Python which isn't quite as agile as a Courier/Vulture/FdL/Clipper I'd suggest the good old KakerMix special where you use gimballed beams in all the large hardpoints with two fixed cannons in the mediums. You can fire a single large beam to strip shields (probably the one on the chin mount) which actually regens energy with 4 pips to weapons and then bring all three lasers to bear in bursts against the hull. You can fire the cannons at large hulls with no damage penalty so effectively you always do max damage to anything. A++ python fit, would fly again.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 00:40

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

If you really like black holes and giant blue stars, the stellar nursery area NGC 7822 (about 3k LY from the bubble I think) has a shitload of both. I made notes the last time I was there so if anyone wants really pretty stars in a nebula with lots of black holes to scan, here's where they all are:

code:

S171 2 - 1 black hole (11k Ls)
S171 3
S171 4
S171 5
S171 6
S171 7 - 1 black hole
S171 8 - 2 black holes (23Ls and 383Ls)
S171 9 - 3 black holes (80k Ls)
S171 10
S171 11 - 2 black holes (both 9k Ls, possible accretion disc at some point on one of the 9ks)
S171 12 - 1 black hole (217k Ls)
S171 13
S171 14
S171 15 - 2 black holes
S171 16 - 1 black hole (2.9k Ls)
S171 17 - the star is loving huge
S171 18
S171 19 - 1 black hole (312k Ls)
S171 20
S171 21 - 1 black hole (190k Ls)
S171 22
S171 23 - 1 black hole
S171 24 - 1 black hole (5k Ls)
S171 25
S171 26
S171 27
S171 28
S171 29
S171 30 - 1 black hole
S171 31
S171 32 - 1 black hole (4.5k Ls)
S171 33 - 1 black hole
S171 34
S171 35 - 1 black hole (60k Ls)
S171 36 - 2 black holes (50k Ls and 7k Ls, possible accretion disc at some point on the 7k)
S171 37
S171 39 - 1 black hole (50k Ls)
S171 40
S171 41
S171 42
S171 43 - 1 black hole (300k Ls)
S171 44
S171 45 - 1 black hole (17k Ls)
S171 46
S171 47 - 1 black hole (7k Ls)
S171 48 - 2 black holes (450k Ls)

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 23:45

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Major Isoor posted:

Good lord! How does it compare to the FAS? Better or worse, would you say? Since that's what I've been saving + grinding ranks for, however that price for the Clipper sure makes it a tempting alternative...

The Clipper is a large ship rather than medium and is more designed around shields than armour. Other than that they seem to be basically the same.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 06:47

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

sincx posted:

Asp with 116t cargo capacity.

I use whatever is the most convenient route from:
https://eddb.io/trade/loops

Which is right now trading indium and imperial slaves between
Fischer Orbital in Timbarichs
And
Safdie Terminal in Orang

3,300 profit per ton roundtrip times 116 tons times 6.7 roundtrips per hour is about 2.5 MCr.

Edit: there needs to be a bank in ED somehow. If I can borrow the money for a Python, I can make money to pay it back so much more quickly.

Edit 2: Ahh screw it, I'll switch to a Type-7 and suffer until I get a Python.

Something to keep in mind about the Type-7 is that it's limited to a Large landing pad so you can't land on outposts and might end up making significantly less credits per hour even with the larger hold. It also handles like a cargo container with thrusters (which is literally what it is) and as much as I dislike the Asp's handling the Type-7 is worse.

e: I dunno if you managed to buy an Imperial Clipper during the discounts but it's usually slightly better than the Type-7 because it handles better and can take slightly more cargo.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2015 02:05

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Gestalt Intellect posted:

That's some dumb poo poo. How is that suit sitting in an office thousands of light years away even going to know you're taking pictures of a giant cloud of space particles he supposedly owns. I was thinking of visiting the east/west veil nebula too when I'm not so burnt out on exploring.

Thargoids

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 04:18

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

Insanely excited to check out the new ships tomorrow.

Same. Imperial Cutter :getin:

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 01:46

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

LCL-Dead posted:

What is the Conda's layout?

4x sub-C3 weapons seems kind of stupid to me, especially with only 1 C3 on the ship given it's size and apparent use as a "corvette/frigate" sized ship.

The anaconda has the same 2xC1, 2xC2 layout but it has 3 C3 hardpoints as well as a C4. I actually really don't like the Anaconda's hardpoint placement (the C1s, one of the C3s and the C4 are all on the underside of the hull, the two C2s are on the sides and two C3s on the top) so it'll be interesting to see where the guns are on the Corvette and Cutter.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 20:38

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

Also the Cutter will have 2x C3 and C2 and a C4.

Reddit has declared it hot garbage.

The hardpoint layout seems reasonable given it's basically a slightly larger Clipper with a huge hardpoint. The only thing they didn't mention is the shields but I'm very excited to try it out in the next couple of days.

One thing they did mention is that it's fast. You know what that means? Ramming Speed :unsmigghh:

# ¿ Nov 10, 2015 21:01

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

The thing has an absolute poo poo ton of engines stuck to its rear end so I'm imagining it is fast as hell.

A lot of people are hating on it for looking like a bigger Clipper but I'm in love.

Same. Really digging the different ratio of nacelle:hull than the Clipper, looks kind of like a futuristic Imperial Blackbird. Should hopefully be a bit easier to manoeuvre through the slot, too since it looks to be longer and taller but not as wide.

The Clipper already has my favourite cockpit in the game (all that unbroken canopy :fap:

) and based on the footage they showed the Cutter is basically the same but bigger. Given the size of the engines I'm also hoping it sounds like a supercharged Courier :getin:

# ¿ Nov 10, 2015 21:24

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Professor Bling posted:

The Cutter hardpoints were apparently mis-stated, it has 1 huge, 2 large, 4 medium, and 8 utility mounts. That sounds better but I think I'll stick to working towards the Corvette.

4 medium

. Well, beams on the large and 4 multicannons it is.

E: or 2 large beams and 1 huge/4 medium cannons for maximum hull damage :getin:

# ¿ Nov 10, 2015 22:02

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Space Skeleton posted:

The Clipper is supposed to be "fast but not maneuverable" but in reality once you hit the magical 720t with A rated thrusters it starts turning like an Eagle. I wonder if the Cutter will be the same.

I would expect so. The Clipper is loving huge already (it's nearly as big as an Anaconda) so the Cutter isn't going to be that much bigger and I assume it'll be one size larger on most of the internals leaving the performance roughly the same. I'm expecting the Cutter's hardpoints to be similar to a combination of Clipper and Courier with the C3s in the nacelles. C2's on the wings and the huge under the nose.

My only concern for the Cutter is the shields because the Clipper has kind of garbage shields in comparison to stuff like the Python but given how high the Courier's base shield values are maybe it won't be a problem.

Insert name here posted:

I'm a little disappointed at only a single large since I was hoping for a straight up better version of my Cannonconda gunwise (C4 cannon + 3x C3 cannons ), but a more maneuverable Anaconda is extremely my poo poo

The Corvette seems really good to me. From what I can tell, it has much better hardpoint placement than the Anaconda (which I think is horrible as most of you know by now :v:

) and if they ever put in C4 beams or multicannons in it'll be an absolute monster. They also said it has decent shields so I'm hoping for somewhere around the FdL level. I also think it also looks better than the Anaconda.

I'm thinking at this stage that the Anaconda will be the best all rounder of the large ships (and the best at exploration/cargo stuff), the Fed Corvette will be the best at packing straight up firepower (especially against larger targets) and the Cutter will be the best at ramming things and looking/sounding the best.

Mercurius fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Nov 10, 2015

# ¿ Nov 10, 2015 23:51

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Paramemetic posted:

It's an imperial ship, what does ur heart tell u~~

That Gutamaya is the best and my Cutter is going to be a giant ramming dildo of doom :getin:

3 posted:

Though I'm a little disappointed that the flight cabin appears to be a copy-paste of the Clipper's cockpit.

I don't get it, how can you improve on perfection :confused:

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 00:14

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

3 posted:

To clarify, I didn't mean it was an exact duplicate, I was just hoping for more than just the two front seats for the Imperial Babby Capital; the Anaconda and Corvette both have essentially naval bridges.

Yes but Gutamaya cares about important stuff like allowing a slightly offset captain's chair to still look like it's in the middle due to the exceptionally awesome canopy without support struts :smug:

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 00:43

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

ps am no frog posted:

I can't wait to do bombing runs with my dual C4 PACs and just gently caress poo poo up.

Given how many hardpoints the Anaconda has on the underside of it (1xC4, 1xC3, 2xC1 and the 2xC2s are on the sides and could shoot at stuff underneath it) I would think it will be exceptionally good at flying over bases and providing air support if they end up doing that sort of thing.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 01:58

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

ps am no frog posted:

Sure it'd probably pretty effective but it's not the same as buzzing the tower and blasting towers with gigantic balls of plasma.

I hope C4 PACs are a thing.

They already are, yes. That's the purple blobs that NPC Anacondas shoot at you that take massive chunks out of your shields/hull.

Currently the only C4 weapons are Plasma Accelerators and fixed/gimballed Cannons. We're hoping they'll add more in with Horizons (like Beams and Autocannons).

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 02:11

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Ursine Catastrophe posted:

And yet in E:D, a sufficiently skilled player in a properly-kitted A-rank iEagle (clocking in at maybe 1-2 million) can shoot down someone in a kitted-out Anaconda (clocking in at half a billion). And I'm pretty okay with that, but I can see why some people wouldn't be; it's just a difference of if you come into the game with the expectation that credits == experience == progression, or if you just come in to fly ships and shoot mans and don't give a gently caress about "grinding levels" beyond getting what you need to shoot mans a different way.

Well, you can do that to an NPC Anaconda but Player Anacondas usually have so many shield boosters/shield cell banks/hull reinforcements that they only way you would be able to kill one in an Eagle would be if they were AFK and their shields were down. The Eagle pilot only has to screw up once to get vaporised and if the Anaconda is packing turrets (which lots of people do on the small/medium hardpoints) then it's even less of an issue since the smaller turrets can generally track pretty well.

I can see where you're coming from but basically the larger ships are intended to be used as Corvettes in fleet fights and E:D is not balanced around 1v1 in the normal game. I'd say Chrysophylax's assessment of the main game being Co-Op PVE is spot on and if you're really interested in balanced PvP there's always CQC.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 23:16

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

AndroidHub posted:

Yeah, a player who knows anything about the game will at least just whip their conda around in FA-off and vaporize you in one salvo. And I don't have the exact numbers on hand, but a pvp conda is gonna have in the range of 5k-10kmj worth of shield cells packed, with anywhere from 1300 to 1800 base shields. And even in the off chance you did somehow get them to their last legs (or their shield down), they can just jump away, they don't even need to highwake, because they are in the biggest ship and you are in one of the smallest. Even a fully kitted python or clipper is gonna have a hard time out-attritioning a fully A-ranked pvp conda.

Judging what you can do to players from what is possible with npcs is extremely foolish, because while npcs can pose a threat under extreme circumstances they are still very basic, things like shooting up their powerplant and being dead in the water only happens because npcs don't have any power priority settings, for instance. Don't get me wrong it would be kind of cool if it worked the way you say, but there are so many factors that make it difficult to punch above your weight class.

e: really the way I think FDev considers ships balanced is because anything short of a type_ can just run from a conda or a python (highwaking aside). That's why ships like the clipper are considered so powerful, it's because they are as fast a fighters, but can mass-lock most of the ship s in the game.

Pretty sure that it's also because they literally are trying to remake the old Elite games in HD and have used the persistent universe MMO thing because it solved a problem for them (procedurally generated milky way with consistent contents shared among all players that doesn't require number crunching on the clients to maintain) and didn't even consider the multiplayer aspect of it because they were basically expecting people to play in solo since that's how the old games were. I expect that what they really intended was that the NPC fleets would be there and the player in their ship would fit into the 'role' that ship had (fast/agile fighter, heavy fighter, gunship, corvette) in the fight and that was it.

I really don't think they even considered the player vs player aspect until it was brought up in alpha/beta once they'd built the underlying tech of the universe. Remember that it took them until the second major release after launch for wings to even be a thing.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 00:35

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

tooterfish posted:

Nah. They're definitely trying to balance it, as evidenced by their reasoning for the small weapon damage penalty (so they can make large weapons effective against large ships without one shotting the smaller ones). It's just they're a bit cack handed at it, and seem to be learning as they go.

It's not all bad news, they aren't totally adverse to changing things if something is clearly hosed up (check out the tears in the old Python nerf thread for evidence). If they got rid of stacking SCBs (or just SCBs altogether), it'd go a long way towards helping. If they allowed FSD interdictors to prevent a drive charging in normal space, that might help too (imagine, smaller ships could actually work as interceptors!).

They're trying to balance it now, what I'm saying was they didn't realise it was a thing they needed to care about when they were originally speccing out and building the game :v:

PvP-wise, I really just wish they'd limit the number of SCB modules you could have in a ship to one like shields/fuel scoops and then fix shield recharges so they aren't so incredibly stupid. I'd also kind of prefer them to also change shield boosters to modules that make your shields recharge faster or something other than just 'more shield capacity' and provide some way for similar regeneration of the hull so that ships like the Core Dynamics Federal ones aren't completely screwed.

Now that I think about it I'm pretty much describing exactly how EVE's armour/shield tanking works, aren't I?

Mercurius fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Nov 12, 2015

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 02:40

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

Cutter looks good on the ground:
http://youtu.be/TmrkDO9iFyw

The engines :allears:

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 20:32

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Need a grilldos assessment on the Cutter, stat.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 22:44

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

grilldos posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmrkDO9iFyw

I could gently caress in a lot of ships and locations recently revealed to us for this space game.

Thank you for your quick assessment, friend.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 23:21

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 03:14

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

Number comparisons for those interested (taken directly from the beta):

A rated internals, E7 shields
Imperial Cutter: 462, Anaconda: 455, Federal Corvette: 516

A rated internals, max rated shields, no boosters
Imperial Cutter: 943, Anaconda: 595 , Federal Corvette: 738

A rated internals, speed
Imperial Cutter: 299/366, Anaconda: 209/278, Federal Corvette: 215/279

There is mention of both the Cutter and Corvette being able to carry two fighters in their descriptions. I'm not sure how many the Anaconda can carry.

timn posted:

So is it just hype right now or does it really seem like the Anaconda will end up being the red-headed step child of the big 3?

The Anaconda is still much better for exploration because the hull weighs a lot less and I suspect will be the best of the three at doing the planetary landing stuff in Horizons.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2015 23:38

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Ellen Degeneres: Horizons - AI Now Earns More Than Human Crew

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