Dark Nemesis Advice

[rudeboy]

Changing your ship might result in your warrants getting dropped - which might "start the clock" over again. If the warrants aren't still listed (with the Jolly Roger icon) on your Faction status page with your trade permits and ranks, you may have lost 'em?

I noticed the ship picture glitch last night, too - but thought it was just me being up too late...

[oldalchemist]

Oh man. I need two wanted flags? I thought I needed 'criminal' rating for two factions.

I've got one flag...for the syndicates. Do I have to piss off everyone for this award or just one faction from the houses and one from the syndicates. Right now I'm so tight with all three houses I don't know how long it will take to get them mad at me.

[rudeboy]

Yeah, pretty sure you need two separate warrants - one from the Syndicates, and one from the Clans - which means you'll need two Clans and two Syndicates to be reasonably upset with you. It can get a little brutal out there with only one friendly House and Syndicate apiece.

Try some repeated Surveillance of a currently friendly sector - that'll tick a faction off enough pretty quickly (especially if there's a Spy Battle raging), and you can build up some cash selling the records while you're at it.

[oldalchemist]

Nuts. This isn't going to end well, is it?

[absimiliard]

Well, I finally beat this bloody achievement. Took me many, many, upgrades to ST: RPG while I tried again and again to not die. (largely unsuccessfully) I think my worst moment was when, after 24 years of "I'm EVIL!!!!" I went to get the award and couldn't, turned out I hadn't understood that you needed a warrant from BOTH the Syndicates and the Houses. (and I'd been making nice with one side and pissing on everyone from the other, I tried amending it but got eaten by Narvidians long before I could get enough time w. both sides hating me)

In the end I won it by going high-Quickness with a pirate. I took a little Warrior and Intimidate, just to get an initially good ship. Then I jammed on Quickness-Pilot/Stealth and basically shot own every target I could see.

Politically I went with the theory of "Piss off two factions (Cadar/Steel Song) and make the other four at least happy with you." This kept the number of undesired encounters on the lower side of crazy.

I think the biggest factor is one I'm going to complain about though. I found the new change, allowing me to steal torpedoes, was EXTREMELY powerful. As high pilot/stealth I was designed to shoot torps at the drop of a hat, and I was positively Cadarian in my technique for saying "hello" to someone. In previous runs on Dark Nemesis that strategy was powerful but expensive, due to the constant need to restock torps and the shifting around from port to port in pursuit of restocking from full wharehouses. By allowing me to restock from enemy ships my credits really piled up a lot higher than in previous runs, and those piles of credits made getting new ships stocked and repairing battle-damage a LOT easier.

So while I'm grateful that the change let me finally get Dark Nemesis I must question if it's a change I approve of. (and I think the answer is that while I like doing it I think the implications of restocking torps from enemy vessels are ones I don't think make the game better)

So, Cory, if you read this let me say two things.

First, and most important, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I Love This Game! It totally fills my single-player EVE fix."

Second let me follow-on with, "I think you might want to reconsider the impact of looting torps, possibly they should be nerfed a bit on damage or hit-chances if you want to keep the mechanism, which is a cool mechanism."

-abs

[Cory Trese]

absimiliard -- Well reasoned and very considerate post. Thank you very much.

I have been testing a lot and I agree -- this change is unbalancing. I made some adjustments regarding torpedo quality, but they're already at "terrible" and they still seem pretty good -- you've got a bunch! =)

I am considering something like "Captain may loot 20% of the enemy's torpedoes" or perhaps something related to upgrades (Prow / Aft / Pods ONLY may be re-armed with generic torps)

[Cory Trese]

but, obviously, I cannot remove the button -- people would cry foul and throw vegetables at my beloved game,

[oldalchemist]

I'm blockading Steel Prima and watching my Javat reputation sink like a stone because of an alliance. I feel dirty. Shady McGurk is like a superhero to the Javat Clan.

Only two more decades of shame and maybe I'll get this award...

[absimiliard]

Hey Cory,

I'm not sure tying torp-looting to upgrades will really work. If I only shoot off 1-3 torps in a fight, which isn't terribly unusual in a "torp and close for engine-targeting" style of game, just being able to reload the upgrade-granted torps won't really slow me down. After all, if I can pull in 1-3 torps per fight that's all I need and most upgrades will give at least 3 additional torpedoes to the ship.

I think the alternative you suggested, looting gives ~20% of the torpedoes, is a better one. It would still allow for looting of torpedoes, which does "feel right", but would still mean that most of the torps you shoot off will probably be bought in port. (thus restoring the "I need to find a new port where the wharehouses aren't empty of torpedoes" factor to the game, and keeping the costs associated with a torp-shooter up as well)

Maybe having the "Re-arm" button trigger a per torp check to determine if the torpedo is damaged during the shift from one ship to another would work? You could then change the toast to say something like "We successfully loaded 3 torpedoes onto our ship, alas 10 were damaged during loading." Heck, you could even tie the percentage to some stat, maybe having a First Mate aboard to help loading operations could increase it. (since I hate almost everything else "Ol' Turdlip" does that might make me fire him a little more slowly than I currently do . . . . .)

(and may I say how cool, and relatively rare, it is to see developers respond so quickly to comments. Maybe I'm too used to EVE's world where if you're not on the council anything you say seems to drop into a black-hole)

-abs

*Blast, just came to me that I'm dragging us off-topic by going down a torpedo-related rathole. You might want to consider moving this comment to the updates thread for the recent update, or I could start a new thread if this is too distracting for potential Dark Nemesi looking for advice on how to succeed at this achievement.*

[spike]

I agree that the torp looting gives a lot of extra weight to a torp-heavy strategy. It would make some sense to restrict it, e.g. if using ARES torps to apply whatever the normal probability factor that the victim's torps are not suitable. Maybe you have to bribe / torture the defeated Captain for the control codes to the torps. Etc etc.

However... I was also thinking that the issue of Solar Sails folding in Orbit is already a big drawback against the long range, Sails 'n Torps tactic. Especially if Orbit means "sitting on a planet square" and not just "in transit right now to an Urban Zone / Wild Zone".

For me the Solar Sail issue means that a Sail/Torp tactic is not viable, you are gonna get caught in Orbit and you are gonna get burned. Which means sticking with the vanilla Engines/Guns/Boarding tactics. Fewer viable options = dull. So don't nerf the Torp looting upgrade too much, is my view.

[oldalchemist]

Don't torps hull the enemy pretty often? You've still got to close and board if you want their torps.

HEY! I got Dark Nemesis! After I chapped the Songers, I checked in at a hall and the award popped up. I think it just checks to see if you've made it 22 years and have 2 flags, not that you've had both flags for 22 years.

Also, The Serpent's Tooth is a bit of a crappy ship, isn't it?

[slayernz]

LOL - but you have the award at the very least, prize notwithstanding.

With all torps that you pilfer set to "Terrible", you should be able to get Torp upgrades at the military base. You get an officer coming to you and saying "Hey, I noticed you had the model E17 torps in your launchers. They're not much better than a small stone in terms of damage and effectiveness. Want me to fix em up so they actually work?"

Cory, if you took the "Re arm" button away, would a tomato be a vegetable or a fruit? ... I'm not fussed if it is taken away or not because with Ares launchers, you have 16, and that lasts a handful of encounters at the very least (or two if you are Cadar).

[oldalchemist]

I just wish the Serpent's Tooth at least had a cool graphic. As it is, it's just kind of a slightly different V.V.

Even a palette swap to green would have made me feel better about it.

[Cory Trese]

oldalchemist -- I'll ask andrew

[Cory Trese]

Andrew has come through in a major way.

Several new ships in tonight's release. I put on of them on the Serpent and it seriously makes me happy.

Looks great. I think you'll enjoy.