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Love it
Jul 28, 2016 16:14:09 GMT -5
Post by tomdini on Jul 28, 2016 16:14:09 GMT -5
Quick rules question - I understand Tactics is tied to your Captain's special ability range, with a max range of 3 tiles for Chaplains and Naval Vets and 6 tiles for the Exo-Scout Officer.
The Tutorial Squad Captain begins with 3 Tactics and it appears this maximizes the special ability range right off the bat for the Chaplain and Naval Veteran. Thus, you must raise it higher if you want an Exo-Scout Captain to gain his full special ability range, and with such a useful skill the ability to provide an AP boost at a distance is definitely desirable!!!
What is the math for calculating how much Tactics you need? I assumed it would probably be 1 for 1 - since I started with 3 Tactics, my Chaplain captain has his max heal range before gaining even 1 XP. But my Exo-Scout Officer needs more Tactics!!! But it would seem she does not require 6 Tactics to maximize her range to 6 tiles. Near as I can tell, the formula must be: (Tactics) + 1 = Special Ability Range
But only because of one older thread I found in searching the forum in which slayernz stated that your Captain has a minimum special ability range of "about 2." Not sure what "about" could possibly mean unless fractions are involved in calculating the special ability range. But if your Captain starts with a special ability range of 2 tiles with Tactics at 1, that means you need to raise an Exo-Scout's Tactics skill to 5 to maximize the AP Boost special ability.
I've looked for a definite answer but otherwise came up empty.
Tom
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Post by tomdini on Jul 1, 2016 15:45:10 GMT -5
Just added my first weapons specialist to my roster - a Templar Hydra!!! Haha, I'm such a luddite - I had no idea what a Templar Hydra (a la Star Traders officers) was in relation to other Templar before now. So much fun to fill a room with plasma blasts and watch the xeno combust!!!!!! This is a really addictive and fun game, I'm incredibly pleased with how much satisfaction comes with battling the Alien and defending humankind from their demonic incursions. I will totes check out the Patreon link. As someone who played a lot of MechWarrior, Privateer, Alpha Centauri and other such games growing up, your games remind me of what it was like to be truly terrified while playing a video game, back when there was no auto-heal, medkits were limited, sometimes a couple bullets would drop you and you needed a Plan A, B and C just to stand a chance of making it through the next mission. Tom
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Post by tomdini on May 27, 2016 22:24:10 GMT -5
Just a quick note to say I finished the tutorial campaign in RPG and bought Elite right away. I was all like, "I'ma play the free version and explore it and stuff, take my time yeaaaahh" but that never works out with your games, they're way too cool. This is only my fourth TB game after ST, CK and AoP, so I'm way behind the curve but I'm sort of obsessive about games and I'm always away from home so TB universes are where my imagination lives these days. Anyway, TA is amazing, I love it!!!! The tension is incredible, by the Maker, when I realize we don't have enough ammo to hold them off and the monsters are closing in from all sides and we clench our collective Storm Fists together, utter a Shalun battle mantra and prepare to clobber our way out of the four-person room to the extraction zone.... I can hardly breathe, haha!!!!! The atmosphere is incredible, the gameplay is diverse and entertaining, the difficulty curve is right on and the range of effective tactics is impressive. My current favorite squad is a melee-focused expeditionary force led by a Chaplain, one reverent Captain Astynax. My general strategy has been to train my outermost two Templar, Captain and Berserker, (assuming a common line formation down corridors) into titanic melee monsters, and the innermost Templar are better shooters but still very capable in a brawling tangle of xenoforms. Sometimes I like to put a sniper (Exo Scout with Leviathan Cannon or similar) in the third position so he can still cover the tile in front of the Captain if an enemy won't go down in the defense phase, or take a pot shot to soften up a tough xeno coming up from the rear. I'm toying around with the idea of creating an all-scout melee squad who can sprint about with a free move, beat the crap out of stuff, snipe at long range and in general outmaneuver and outmuscle the crap out of xenos. I tend to use lots of ammo kit wargear to compensate for my generally mediocre but workable shooting skills, so I can spray bullets everywhere if I start to lose control of the situation, but generally we slice and crush our way through the Quadrant. Replacing the Berserker in the fourth position with a Neptune Gunner or a Hydra also makes for an unstoppable maelstrom of devastation. In general I'm a fan of tactical strategy games so CK and TA are right up my alley. I'm still totally learning this game but it is ridiculous amounts of fun. Astynax is my third Captain and I'm already duking it out on Crazy in the Moderate campaigns. Tom
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Post by tomdini on Feb 15, 2013 23:46:24 GMT -5
My two primary characters are a bounty hunter for Cadar and a Javat smuggler-explorer.
Emphasis in both cases is on making money. Loyalty to the home faction plays a part in my decision-making, but basically if you pay me enough I'll do the job and pick up the pieces later. Even though my bounty hunter is quite the noble warrior, a fair fighter but vicious and uncompromising, ultimately he's out for himself.
I'd say my bounty hunter is Lawful Evil and my smuggler-explorer is Neutral Evil. Even though I kind of paint them as good guys in my mind... they're not, upon further thought. I just like them a lot!!!! They are the shrewdest kind of mercenaries and have zero qualms about sending their men on suicide missions, as long as Shalun's signing the paychecks. If they are alive at the end of the day, sipping vudka cocktails in a lavish spice district with a veritable harem of entertainers piling into the suite, it's all good.
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Post by tomdini on Feb 8, 2013 4:34:00 GMT -5
Yeah, I hadn't thought of hybrid builds until you mentioned it. Now I find myself toying with the idea of other, weirder builds if for no other reason than it is an enjoyable challenge. An Explorer-Pirate comes to mind...
My Javat smuggler-explorer just bought himself a new ship with his riches... the Admiral Liner! Decently high engines for harvesting, many a sail for fleeing pirates and bounty hunters who give me trouble, and a pretty massive 80-unit hold and 80-man crew capacity.
I have upgraded this ship with the Omni-Stealth Array to aid in quick, quiet runs through dangerous sectors, as well as the Military Crew Retrofit which gives me 104 men for exploration missions. I also have a Weapon Cabinet and Spybank, which sort of makes up for the Fuel Tank I wanted but forewent in favor of more bodies in the form of the Military Crew Retrofit. Those two specialized cargo upgrades give me plenty of additional space for fuel and other goodies. I actually don't trade in Weapons anymore unless there is a shortage (and have a couple solid caches filled with Weapons in the event one arises), and keep the Cabinet stocked to assist in defending against hostile hull boardings. Usually I significantly outnumber my enemy so I can win against faster pirates quite handily.
I haven't decided on the Databank or the 20% Cargo Hold upgrade for my structural upgrade... the 20% hold boost will raise the hold to 96, like the Cargo Prow but without the specific bonuses and penalties... I use records to keep my men alive on hostile worlds, as well as enrich my finds and make explorations quicker and more profitable. Not having to dedicate my main hold to 25 records would be incredibly useful so I think I'm likeliest to install the Databank. I'm usually hauling in around 60 artifacts and 30 electronics per run, with a pilot skill of 30 that makes my ship's 18 hull look paltry so I barely need fuel to get my goods to market.
I have a Tradesman, Political Officer, and Exo-Scout onboard so I'm pretty well-equipped to find buried treasure and make some money! If I can find a Pilot or Mechanic, I'll probably swap out the Tradesman but he makes it so easy to boost my rep with Trade Alliances and dig myself out of the many holes in which I find myself, in terms of criminal activity... so we'll see.
So far, so fun.
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Post by tomdini on Jan 26, 2013 18:54:10 GMT -5
What about Explorers? They get a similar, but less than Smugglers, cache protection bonus. Do the ratings still pertain to Explorer caches?
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Post by tomdini on Jan 24, 2013 19:25:46 GMT -5
Your buying guide seems about right. Those are basically the numbers I utilize when deciding to purchase in bulk.
I really enjoy exploration because it is essentially free goods. Sure, I lose a leg here and there or find a parasitic beetle in my neck, but that's what Technologists are for. And yeah, my crewmen get vaporized or eaten at regular intervals but at least the almighty credit stays in my pocket. The money I make selling artifacts and electronics more than pays to recoup the costs of a solid expedition.
Plus, it is terribly exciting landing at all the wild and fringe worlds I never used to visit when I was suckling the teats of factional princes for a living. Quite harrowing, pure Star Traders magic. The mysteries of the Quadrant's lost worlds never cease to amaze. So scary!!! What if my whole team gets slaughtered and I end up having to flee the planet under-supplied, with failing morale and no goods to show for my misadventures?!?! Will I survive the inevitable mutiny or a chance run-in with a veteran bounty hunter or cutthroat pirate?!?! Worse, if I'm low on credits how am I going to get back on the horse and give it another go without a bulk sale of restricted cargo to line my pockets??
A failed expedition can snowball into a string of chaotic mishaps that will really push your strategies and decision-making to the max. Ya never know what's going to happen when exploring planets, and that's half the fun.
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Post by tomdini on Jan 24, 2013 17:56:12 GMT -5
Ugh, it's taken a couple gnarly weeks (in the real world) to get a foothold on this build on the Insane difficulty, but it was worth it and I learned a lot more about how to play this game in the process. Amazing that I am still picking up strategies and techniques after playing for just over 18 months. A testament to Star Traders' richness and depth.
I tend to play combat-oriented captains, especially bounty hunters and pirates. I don't do a lot of hybrid class builds and when I do, they are usually rather bloodthirsty so as to be able to fight their way out of a sticky situation.
I've read about Cory's smuggler-explorer hybrid several times in the forums and thought I'd give such a build a try. My vision was for a rough-and-tumble Javat captain, an unflinching negotiator, contractor, and adventurer with no fear and unparalleled instincts on the bridge of a starship. The idea was to create a character akin to a smuggler in our world... ducking checkpoints and military patrols, clashing with other smugglers and pirates (no honor amongst thieves) and generally taking advantage of trade wars, ensuing embargoes, and shortages to make a fortune while mostly eschewing combat in favor of stealth, cunning... and the ability to tactically retreat when necessary. Essentially, a lawless merchant. And a pacifist. Capable in a fight, as might be expected of a member of the criminal underground, but not inherently violent or looking for trouble.
Obviously, I chose the smuggler class.
My early game strategy was to fly the Neutiquam Erro and get my explorer skills to 10 right off the bat. The Neutiquam Erro is a fine ship, not particularly fast or agile but not slow, either. Mainly I wanted the massive cargo hold and its fuel economy (.96 in faction space, 2.07 in uncivilized space) despite my utter lack of piloting skills, which I would not raise for a few levels. I dumped points into stealth to help keep my signature down and survive on feral planets, and bought only one ship upgrade because the plan was to ditch the Erro as soon as was feasible. I grabbed the additional quarters because it's cheap (I think I purchased it for $3400 or so on Javat Prime) to give me more men for my expeditions.
I ran a few contracts for most the factions in civilized space, purchasing trade permits to keep pirates off my back and give me as many potential markets to sell to as possible, and then hit the Big Three near Javat space... Zat Ogotthara, Caabhosi, and Rift-Leporis 4. I dispatched crewmen until my own wounds were too grave to risk further work, or aliens had begun to swarm the area, stirred up by our reckless disruption of the natural order. With an explorer skill of 10 and a stealth skill of 10, usually only 2 or 3 men died at a time and I would take a wound every 3 or 4 runs. When my hold was filled up, I'd dump the goods into a cache and keep exploring until my crew was decimated or I'd attracted enough xeno attention.
I got lucky, with two nearby weapons shortages as well as chemical, metal, and vudka shortages rippling through Clan space, and racked up a half million credits in no time flat. I grabbed a Javat Templar and took to the stars once again, running contracts to raise my explorer skills, while increasing my pilot and tactics abilities to give me a fair chance in a fight.
Up until this point, I surrendered to most nearly every indie pirate who came my way. Sometimes I could outrun them on a sheer lucky dice roll, but mostly they'd torp my engines and sails and leave me with thousands in repairs while STILL taking my cargo. Bastards. The early high stealth skill gave me solid odds of making undisturbed runs with electronics and artifacts piled into my hold, however, so mostly I only ever got caught with water-fuel and unrestricted goods and therefore, the loss wasn't too bad. The weapons and metal shortages more than made up for what I lost in other stolen goods.
All the trade permits I accrued gave me immunity to warship searches and factional privateers, so I really only had to worry about independent pirates (and the Song... early misunderstandings kept me from a good reputation in their courts for several years).
Currently I am in the galactic frontier, embroiled in factional politics and trade conflicts, and ravaging ancient city ruins on long-forgotten dead worlds as often as I can, and raking in massive dough. It's a lot of fun. Even with the stealth array upgrade and a legendary stealth skill, every run with a hold full of artifacts is terrifying. Never know who might manage to stumble on your ship. Might be a military officer munching down an Ormox beef sandwich from the luxury rations supply and more than happy to wave you through after viewing your permit... or it could be a fringe pirate who's succumbed to too many weeks without clean water-fuel, and has void spirits whispering dark lullabies into his brain... it's awesome. Feels just like Han Solo. Even I get boarded sometimes...
Some benefits to the smuggler class in terms of blending exploration with smuggling... my caches are ultra-protected by my class abilities, and ending shortages or surpluses or scoring ridiculous profits on restricted goods generates trade records which can be used as exploration intel on feral worlds. So I hit a feral world, dig til my hold's full, drop the goods into a heavily-shielded cache, repeat til aliens or other Rogue Traders show up and start disrupting my operation, and then find a shortage world or hit the nearest indie planet to dump my goods and get rich. Usually, I collect records from the transaction, and either return to my cache to do it again or head somewhere else and utilize the records for even better finds at the next dig site.
I find the spybank, databank, and weapons cabinet upgrades useful in this regard for obvious reasons... you can carry more of the good stuff!!!!! I considered putting a Battleship Architecture upgrade into my Javat Templar (which I christened "Thrillseeker") to give me a massive crew for harvesting and explorations but with 62 bodies, I am finding my expeditions to be proceeding smoothly enough and I think the water-fuel tank will prove more useful by giving me even more space to cram with restricted cargos. I haven't decided yet, though.
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Post by tomdini on Jan 15, 2013 15:17:50 GMT -5
I did a search for "space strategy game" on the old Android Market, hoping for something turn-based as I am a huge fan of Alpha Centauri, Galactic Civilizations, and other sci-fi strategy games. With a job that keeps me away from home a lot of the time, and my laptop whisked away into the hands of an ex months ago, never to return, my gaming fix was in need of an alternative to my usual PC and console inclinations.
ST was the first app I paid for although I was quite new to the concept when I found the game. Since then, I have paid for a number of other games and apps but I feel it was Trese Brothers who showed me how a mobile game ought to be designed and maintained, as the gold standard for all future purchases, which made me comfortable in appraising other mobile media franchises.
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Post by tomdini on Jan 8, 2013 15:33:53 GMT -5
I think the idea is that the target has spoofed their identity, perhaps in an effort to call your bluff and get you to call off your attack rather than fire on a ship which, as far as the Central Database is concerned, is flying your faction's flag.
That is part of the benefit of playing a military officer, bounty hunter, or upgrading a ship with the Predator Tracking Array. You can utilize intelligence gathered from a surveillance op to let a target slip away from you, if he spoofs his identity to a faction you don't want to fight, and allow him to grab another ship for his fugitive activities so you can make another pass at him... hopefully in a ship he hasn't hacked as a friendly.
Certain officers will let you know when the enemy has forged their factional allegiance.
Then again, it makes sense that if a Cadar captain has pissed off Price Valance or the boys in the UTF, just like the player can, they'd send one Cadar captain after another to see Shalun justice done.
But I don't think that actually happens in the game. I think when you are facing a ship of the same faction which handed out the contract, you're dealing with a fake identity.
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Post by tomdini on Jan 7, 2013 18:18:25 GMT -5
Usually I am selective in my contracts, depending on my profession and the character's individual RP. I like bounty hunters and captains built for bounty hunting. As such, my favorite contracts are capture missions. They are usually very difficult to complete and make my bounty hunters feel like REAL bounty hunters... not dispensing Shalun justice the easy way by blowing them to smithereens, but sending them in chains back to a court of law to face the music for their offenses.
I like delivering passengers, too... you bump into some pretty hairy bounty hunters along the way. The thrill of trying to duck or battle through faction duelists and surly military officers while getting your human cargo to their destination in one piece can be quite the challenge.
Sometimes I'll stack up message courier missions so I don't have to worry about being boarded, if I am running low on cash after a new ship purchase or a flurry of upgrades, and have to traverse through hostile space to get back to friendly sectors. But if my hold is brimming with weaponry and electronics anyway, that's kind of a moot point.
Surveillance is fun, too. Quite tense lurking about a sector, gathering information and hoping to the Maker a fleet of warships don't show up on a house-cleaning operation. I really haven't done much blockading because I haven't built a character yet who would be any good at it.
I usually take my contracts from the Spice Hall... dunno why. My characters tend to be nefarious types, more comfortable around dancing girls and bottles of vudka than surrounded by dignitaries and honor guards.
I think the game could use some new contracts, maybe for high-level or high-rep captains. I've certainly seen some excellent suggestions around the forums over the past year.
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Post by tomdini on Jan 7, 2013 0:45:12 GMT -5
Totally think the new First Mate is the ultimate badass. Definitely the best of the new officer art revisions but they are all high quality.
Your skills continue to grow and impress, Andrew. Totally night and day from the earliest releases of ST.
I like the fact that the spirit of the first generation officer portraits are still intact. The First Mate, especially. The dashing 'stache and gruff scowl give him a lot of character. Duty-bound, very serious, down to business, ready to distribute vudka, manage shifts and assign crew bosses.
Nice work.
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Post by tomdini on Jan 3, 2013 15:42:38 GMT -5
Currently been working on the exemplar contractor and hardcore captain awards, so my starting ship is very important as I will be holding on to it til after level 20.
In general, I tend towards ships with a fast and/or agile rating.
Probably the two most common starting ships for me are the Danti Cautela and the Vark Mordi, with the Picky Beggar a close runner-up. I really like the Mortifer Telum as it is kinda the flip-side of what the Danti Cautela has to offer, but takes some upgrades before it is as combat-ready as my strategy requires. I play bounty hunters, pirates, and zealots almost exclusively and tend towards a torp-heavy strategy as it allows me to obliterate armor and weapons systems without having to chance a savage ram or board from the enemy while their ship is still mostly operational.
The Danti Cautela is my favorite, overall. Even though it's not billed as a combat vessel, I find it to be devastatingly effective in the role of a strike cruiser. The high engines keep pirate rams at bay and give my guns greater accuracy and potency, and its medium speed rating paired with appropriate piloting skill makes it a decent headhunter for running down merchants and smugglers. The nano-solar coating and sail command probe put the sails over 20 for excellent fuel consumption and pretty solid long-range combat abilities. With battleship architecture, you get a massive crew of 65 for the early and mid-game, and a weapons cabinet or leviathan system upgrade provides a bounty hunter or pirate a vicious advantage in hostile hull boarding.
The starting ship I use the least frequently (other than the merchant vessels, because they don't really serve my purposes as a combat-oriented captain) is probably the Aeternam Vale... I like the fact that it has a very large crew for boarding purposes, and is extremely quick with good torp capacity, but the low agility means I usually get wrecked when within 10km. I tend to put the Titan Components upgrade on the Aeternam Vale to give the ship more of a fighting chance at medium and close range, plus even with 16 engines you have 24 crew for boarding purposes and with a weapons cabinet and water-fuel tank, you can pack significant punch and range, respectively. It's possible, however, that I haven't quite figured out the best character build and strategy for utilizing this ship most effectively.
I really enjoy unlocking awards in this game... new ships should be unlockable, the starting ships as-is are pretty nice and cover just about anything you'd want for a new character, but I guess you could always add some more to the Elite edition too. I'd prefer unlockable ships.
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Post by tomdini on Dec 20, 2012 17:21:46 GMT -5
Ah, you're right. I lost that permit ages ago and never renewed it. I was wondering why they were giving me a hard time. Yeesh, paperwork in the Quadrant... reminds me of the DMV...
I was going to specify that fixed number upgrades should be added before percentage upgrades but that's just math, not game engine specific, and figured it was intuitive. I assumed starfixer was asking if there was some kind of performance boost for getting them in a certain order since none of the upgrades he listed play off of each other, mathematically speaking.
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Post by tomdini on Dec 19, 2012 15:26:58 GMT -5
1. A ship is a ship. Although it seems intuitive based on the game world that a battleship from a Cadar shipyard might have more armor and guns than one from the Javat shipyards, it does not. A Carnifex Cruiser is the same, in terms of stats and performance, regardless of where you buy it.
2. The order in which you get the upgrades doesn't matter.
3. I have seen warships from my own faction (while holding military rank), and factions with whom I have good relations and rank, demand I surrender my vessel for inspection when flying a ship not of my own faction. I'm assuming it just looks dodgy to have a registered Cadar captain at the helm of a Javat Cutter, so the military wants to ensure I'm not spoofing my identity or otherwise up to no good. As far as my experience indicates, that is the only disadvantage - factional entanglements due to an identity conflict.
4. I dunno about guns, engines, or sails, but I know for a fact different worlds provide different levels of quality for armor refits. And even if you get your armor from a planet with good star docks, such as Thulun Prime, the Syndicate Capital or Cadar Pavonis, if they are short on metal or in the midst of an outright metal shortage, your armor will still be of inferior quality. Meaning if you get nailed by a torpedo or raked by a particularly vicious barrage (or rammed by an amateur privateer), your armor plating will blast to bits like so much peanut brittle. I have seen clear differences between backwater indy armor and quality syndicate stuff... with excellent armor, often a torpedo will do zero damage or a barrage from a 30 or 40-gun ship will be virtually ineffectual, chipping away at my armor one point at a time, while I obliterate their superstructure with superior tactics and gunfire.
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