few questions.

[guest]

1. I like running as small a ship as i can, but always seem to gravitate on the azure defender(the mok one incase i got the wrong name) because of its 7 officer capacity. So my main question is, is there a single viable build for that ship to take on any ship i might encounter. Specifically can one build handle the best of both terrox and Jyeeta ships without getting hit on hard difficulty or do i need to go bigger? I normally do 2 range 3 railguns with boarding talents. how much command do i need at hard difficulty also, I've reached Jyeeta era twice and had about 150-180 both times. I can manage Terrox effortlessly and managed a smaller jyeeta without damage but one or 2 of their small craft did hit. never actually fought a desacrator yet but I dont think i would have made it.

2. I know some people have their captains going for 100s of years, how do you manage everyday skill tests? On hard, by the time I'm at 50-60 years im struggling to fly through anything danger 8 and above no storm or xeno rumors. their rolls for ops and electronics are about 60-70 strong + whatever weak dice and i just barely break even on most of those. with 4 elec, ops, pilot saves, a run through thogs loop is barely doable. another 20 years and i'm not sure how i can even keep flying. I had the best components i could fit.

Large 4slots: bridge 4; mok cargo bay: large fuel tank: traveler engine;

med 7slots: 3 shielded officer suites; 2 mk7 railguns; plague ward/interrogtion chamber(one or other); is there a small craft defense medium piece, probably that.

small: 8 or so javat defence, 1 mass reducer, 1 pilot mk 4; c tak interceptors? + other small craft defence / offence for rest. about 70 elec dice 50 pilot

3. what can that small rychart 6officer 2400 mass ship do? i really like it in theory but cant see how to pack enough crew on it to do anything. does anyone have some builds for that?

This is an amazing game, the best sandbox space game ive ever seen.

[fallen]

@guest - thank you! Hope you'll leave a review.

Skill rolls def get harder with time and for some ship configurations, you'll need to dedicate a slightly larger percentage of your Talents to auto skills.

You're component spec sounds like you're planning to fight carriers? Unless you are gunning for them, I'd suggest fleeing in a ship that size and focusing on using your speed/agility and components to only try to face enemy capital ships.

[guest]

Thanks for the quick response. So what you're saying is that the azure defender might just be to small to take on the jyeeta carriers and normal cap ships (including terrox) without any change in component design? What size ship should i be considering to be able to take any terrox or jyeeta ship without component changes or second ship?

Regarding crew combat against jyeeta, my normal build is
1. swordsman/bodyguard/wing commando
2. captain assassin/zealot/swordsman
3. doctor/medic/mo
4. xeno/exo/bh
I can take anything up jyeeta with this relatively easily but out of the 2 times i've made to crew combat i just get stomped. lack of init in the 4. spot seems to hurt a lot choosing between unfaltering ire/grenade/rifle attack. With a 32 init captain roll half that is gone after the first grenade toss. I have tried a snubber in position two with the same jobs to really specialize against xeno but they just get focused down way too quick with normal enemies, much less xeno. The bladesman survive longer, but by round 2 the jyeeta have buffed so much that they're unhittable and they just slowly wear me down while i wait for unfaltering ire to come back around. What is a good build for jyeeta (on hard again)? i could avoid them, but everything else is pretty effortless by the time jyeeta appear.

Thanks again for the quick replies.

[fallen]

@guest what you're going ot have to change is based on where you are struggling against them. That is going to depend on the exact component, skill and talent strat you are putting together.

When you're facing the Jyeeta in ship or crew combat, have you identified why you are losing?

[guest]

For the ship combat, I haven't actually lost, but I took a bit of beating when a few small craft made it to my ship. Now that was a small jyeeta ship, not the desecrators. I'm fairly sure that while I might survive one of those, I would take way too much damage for it to be fun or worthwhile and there is the chance they would hit the engines or something. Mainly trying to avoid getting hit by conventional fire, and defending against their small craft was the big problem. I fight at range 3 to avoid the warpdarts, sadly I was taken by surprise when they boarded me. Ship combat I can handle, even if I just have to go to a larger hull. I just wondered if there was any way to build the 6000mass mok ship to reliably handle anything that may get thrown at it from cap ships to carriers? Obviously I could specialize in one or the other, but I was looking to be able to take both on with the same ship.

For crew, that is different. I've fought the jyeeta 3 times and lost every one of them. Same reason each time, their buffs. I know blades are at a disadvantage for attack and are used for defense against xeno mainly, but with just one blade user, the other fighters go down almost instantly. With 2, than I survived for 7 - 8 turns, but i never hit them and they just chipped away at me. the rifle guy was the only one that could hit them, but he was just spamming unfaltering ire so they would not start one shotting my guys. This is not a complaint at all by the way, I'm just looking to refine my strategy.

I always go 4 officer combat teams, I guess my question would be, do people normally use a snubber in 2 or a bladesman when fighting jyeeta?
If snubber, how do you keep him alive?
If blade, how do you get the damage output to take them down, since from everything i've seen blades are defense against xenos but poor at offence for this very reason?

Also, in general, between moving and buffing, how do you build to actually hit the jyeeta in the first place. I can survive way longer than I need to in order to win, if i could just hit them. I get you can't let them go crazy in buffing, but other than unfaltering ire, it seems you need to hit them in order to remove the buffs and I have trouble getting to that part.

thanks in advance for the help, you have the best dev communication i have ever seen.

[fallen]

You'll always find fighting xeno in melee to be hardest, because Melee Skill contributes to defense against melee combatants. So, skilled melee vs. melee can be lead to more misses. You're at a major advantage to use ranged.

If you can hit them with ranged, consider all the types of ranged attacks that can strip buffs or add debuffs. Many options. I know Exo-Scout Plas-Charge Slugs is a big fav among xeno killers.

Grenades may also be helpful.

Bodyguard may also come in helpful to help protect the rest of the team.

Thanks for the encouraging words, glad we could help.

[guest]

Thanks very much for the helpful replies. One final question I have is: Is starting as an assassin and cross training into spy for combat feasible? It looks like the starting traits would be perfect for that. I've tried it with moderate results, and will try it again, but I am trying to get a feel on whether I should evenly build between blades and pistols; assassin and spy, which is what I have done before. Or just go all out on pistols and if so what would a third job for either build look like. I will eventually try both ways but I'm not sure which seems the most effective route, and what 3rd job would go best for a pure pistol build. Pistoleer is the most obvious but doesn't work with stealth at all, maybe that really doesn't matter? 150hrs in the game and it feels like I've barely touched some things, thats pretty amazing.

[Cory Trese]

That job mix certainly is feasible. Captain in Crew Combat can be pretty high risk. Another option is to use a larger ship and use some of the 7 officer slots for combat specialist officers and reserve the Captain for more "not dying" activities