Aliens Suck!!!

[shallowthought]

50 weapons in hold. They boarded me, tried duelling but they were winning, I got down to about 3 crew when I surrendered. Managed to do a fair bit of damage to the other ship but no way would I have won.

[Deleted]

A. How many crew did you have when boarding?
B. You should have had over 100 weapons in hold. You still wouldl have had room for more than 80 water fuel
C. What officers did you have?

[shallowthought]

Ship was in perfect condition at the time of attack, so 155 crew. Military officer, bounty hunter and mechanic on board. 100 weapons would only leave 86 hold left, I need about 20 metal for the mechanic and a few luxury rations to keep morale up. That would leave about 60 fuel, not really enough.

At the moment I have a spear cutter with Advanced bridge system, titan components and sail command probe. That lets you outrun pretty much everything.

[Deleted]

I stated before that with a hold of 130 or more you should get the batleship upgrade. It would have increased your max crew number to over 200, plus it provides an additional resistance bonus vs. Boarding. I also said to have the military officer as well as the templar and veteren. The templar officer provides an addtonal bonus vs. Boarding, so you should have had him in place of the mechanic. When trying to focus on combat, you don have room to store up on metals because you need the space for weapons, so you shoudve had the bounty, templar and militaryofficers and without a mechanic you wouldn't need metal so you could've carred more weapons. You should cary 101 weapons with the haringber carrier which would give you room for 80 water fuel an 5 luxury rations (even without the water tank), the battlship would have given you a crew of over 200, and the templar would have gven you a boarding bonus. If you did it this way, there's no way you would have lost via bording. Its physically imposible. I've very rarely lost even more than 40 crew in a battle with this strategy, and never lost more than half. And with this strategy, as long as your lv30 or higher, keep intimidate tactics warrior all equal, keep pilot and stealth 4 to 6 higher than intimidate, and don't use your xp for negociate or explorer, you should still be able to do contracts. You just need to make a stop or two. Your contracts shuldnt expire as long as you accept contracts that are reletively close to each other. And by lv40, you can carry 111 or even 121 weapons withut worrying about fuel.

[Deleted]

The only thing you have to worry about is death by ramming. Even when somebody torps you, just advance to zero range, board, and you'll defeate them with one shot. The ships big enough to sustain damage long enough for you to close in to board. And if keep pressing advance and you don't advance. Retreat. If that doesn't work, press torp about 10 times then try to advance again. Sometimes you'll be able to advance after trying to fire at the enemy. The only downside is the speed is slow,so ill be hard fighting smugglers or merchants because they will run away, unlike pirates bounties and militaries who will fight you. Also it'll be hard for you to run away from enemies. BUT, you will dominate every battle by boarding.

[captmo]

Took Starfixer's advice. Ship, upgrades, weapons, all that. Went up against level 178 alien. I was level 44. Got smoked in 5 turns. My point is proven. You can't defeat an alien that is 4 or more times your level.

[Cory Trese]

Jun 30, 2012 15:55:15 GMT -5 captmo said:

Took Starfixer's advice. Ship, upgrades, weapons, all that. Went up against level 178 alien. I was level 44. Got smoked in 5 turns. My point is proven. You can't defeat an alien that is 4 or more times your level.

Depends on the type of Alien. Each one has a unique Crew / Captain / AI.

I wouldn't expect anyone to survive a Terrox at 4 * Level.

I don't understand what you mean by "My point is proven" at all ... what does that mean?

Trying really hard to stay positive, understand the feedback and turn it into something actionable that will improve the play for all users without sacrificing the core tenants of the design.

[captmo]

Cory, my last post was not intended to offend. I love your game. I probably spend more time on it than I should. I started this thread to try and find out why the hostile aliens I encounter are always 4 or more times my level. The point that I tried to make was that I didn't think it was possible to win that fight. Like I said in the beginning, with one exception, the alien

[captmo]

Has too much XP to be defeated. This has been my experience. Others disagree.

[Deleted]

Jun 30, 2012 15:55:15 GMT -5 captmo said:

Took Starfixer's advice. Ship, upgrades, weapons, all that. Went up against level 178 alien. I was level 44. Got smoked in 5 turns. My point is proven. You can't defeat an alien that is 4 or more times your level.

Upon the fight against the aiens, what was your ship and how many crew/weapons did u hve? Was your ship fully repaired and fuly staffed? What officers did u have? What were your stats (warrior strength tactics etc)? What were the upgrades? I'm just trying to figure you what you did/had to see if there was something you mightve done wrong

[captmo]

I had Harbinger Carrier, 208 crew, 50 engines, 44 sails, 110 weapons, military, templar, and veteran officers. Battlestations, fired torpedo, missed, he advanced, guns missed, he advanced, tried to board unsuccessfully, he boarded me, crew wiped out, killed me in 3 turns. I was level 44. 50 pilot, 40 warrior. Alien was level 178??? Dunno how to proceed. Let me know what you think.

[Cory Trese]

What difficulty level?

[Cory Trese]

Avoiding the Alien is really key for higher difficulty level games -- using the Zoom Map to look out for, and avoid Alien and Radiation Storm Rumors. Avoid flying over gas giant (Dead Worlds) planets on the map. Stay in Green Zones as much as possible.

Carry as few Artifacts, Weapons and Electronics as possible. Those Cargo units can attract the Alien, increase Ship Signature and increase the risk of accidents.

[captmo]

Insane level. I do normally follow the advice you listed to avoid aliens. Was just playing around to see if Starfixer's plan for hunting aliens actually worked. Didn't work for me. I got massacred. Oh, and my last defeat was at the hands of the Terrox alien you mentioned earlier. It was quite violent.

[Deleted]

Well you did most things right. Because the sails and engines were equal, it wouldve been better to get advanced sails upgrade, but I doubt that really would matter in boarding, more to help you evade torps, which is harder for big ships. You had the right officers, carried the right weapons, had the right number of crew... I assume you had the hyperion upgrade to increase your armor to 25, was fully staffed and ship fully repaired in every way?
First, did they attack first (torp gun ram) and then board, or was boarding their first action of attack? This strategy is mainly for boarding, so if they attacked in any other manuver which damaged your ship or lowered your crew, it would affect your boarding strength. Also, them boarding you is a no-no. If an enemy boards you, you take more damage than if you boarded, so the second your at short range, board board board. Don't gun, escape,etc. board should be your first move once in short range. Also, once boarded, keep pressing board. Gunning whle boarded, or trying to escape will increase damge to you, so after you board them, just keep pressing board.
Lastly, your XP could've caused your defeat. Negociation and explorer should've been at 1, as neither helps combat. Also, intimidation tactics and warrior shoudve been the same, with pilot and stealth only 4 more than them. You had pilot 10 more than warrior, which is bad. The xp you invested in pilot could've been invested to increase tactics warrior and intimidate. Just like if warrior pilot and intimidate is 100 and tactics is 120, thats bad because all that xp used to invest tactics coulve been used to invest in intimidate warrior and pilot. I hope I'm not confusing you