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Post by contributor on Jun 20, 2013 14:23:56 GMT -5
This is probably more of a question for people who either wrote or decompiled the code, but I'm getting a serious case of the haunts from flying around in red sectors continuously with 100 artifacts on board.
I'm trying to get all of the awards unlocked and have only have the Hive awards left. I'm starting to do some pretty crazy things but still not having any luck. I've got a pilot going on Hard, who has been flying for at least 150 years in red sectors with a hold full of artifacts and I have yet to encounter a single alien or hive and I'm a little worried about his mental health. There year is around 270AE. Are there things that would prevent me from encountering a hive?
I've been working on the assumption that what attracts aliens attracts hives as well, such as having a Xeno Vet, lots of artifacts, flying in the red, away from any green, staying away from [1,1], flying around alien attack rumors etc. I also have low stealth (6), but I have yet to turn up a single alien or hive with all my "trolling." Is it a mistaken assumption that what works for aliens works for hives? I also have higher sales (55 with a 24 hull) and my ship is fast. Would a slow ship be better? Does a pilot officer help avoid aliens/hives? I keep my morale up around 10 all the time. I've got weapons and spice on board and a templar officer. Is the probability of finding aliens/hives built in to individual games and maybe this one just has a really low probability.
Anything that might help would be appreciated.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2013 23:58:52 GMT -5
Aliens and narvs are over independent dead planets more than anything. But I don't know if that includes hives. According to the help, hulks are found over feral planets (planets with only wilderness landing option). So maybe patrolling over independent feral planets far away from (1,1) with a xeno vet, lots of artifacts, high tactics and ship speed and very early in the game will land you a hulk encounter. Patrol success is determined by (from most important to least important): Time, ship speed, tactics, wisdom, bodyguard. As time goes on, patrol gets harder and turns up less and less ships. Artifacts probably attracts hulks as well as aliens and narvadians. I haven't ever gone hulk hunting so I wouldn't know if this would work. And there's also the problem that hulks are often 30X your level so even on the rare occasions that you encounter hulks, its normally physically impossible to catch upto it.
Prehaps a rumour about hulks gathering would be helpful for people trying to complete this award. Or better yet, a rumour about damaged hulks gathering, which not only increase hulk encounters but would decrease the level of encountered hulks.
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Post by contributor on Jun 22, 2013 8:58:59 GMT -5
Thanks for the advice. Problem is I'm trying the insane strategy of keeping my player at level 1 so that I'll have the chance to defeat a hive if I find one, so patrolling is out of the question. I've tried it, but haven't found anything, though I never tried over feral planets. I'm at the year 300 something now and still have yet to encounter anything, despite moving back and forth of the Hyperion Demonic Nebula with 100 artifacts on board. I do have the artifact isolation chamber and I'm starting to wonder if somehow there is a bug and it is masking all of my artifacts.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2013 17:18:51 GMT -5
Thanks for the advice. Problem is I'm trying the insane strategy of keeping my player at level 1 so that I'll have the chance to defeat a hive if I find one, so patrolling is out of the question. I've tried it, but haven't found anything, though I never tried over feral planets. I'm at the year 300 something now and still have yet to encounter anything, despite moving back and forth of the Hyperion Demonic Nebula with 100 artifacts on board. I do have the artifact isolation chamber and I'm starting to wonder if somehow there is a bug and it is masking all of my artifacts. nope, no bug. patrol over dead planets will get you way more aliens then going back and forth in hyperion denomic nebula, especially early in the game with good ship speed and high tactics. I assume it would be the same for indy feral patrols but im not an expert in hives so maybe cory can be more of a help if I were you, id start over and try a strategy that allows you to be better in patrols as well as good in changing range (pilot). also keep in mind that you may have to patrol a really long time to find a hive. at least thats the case when patroling dead planets for aliens |
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Post by contributor on Jun 22, 2013 19:04:23 GMT -5
I get what your saying about tactics and patrol, but if I'm going to be able to catch a hive, I can only boost tactics so much before I go above level 1. I just find it weird that I haven't encountered any aliens or hives with the strategy I'm using now. Most games I will get a random encounter with a hive or alien by this point but this time flying in red with loads of artifacts I get nothing.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2013 21:06:29 GMT -5
whos to say you wont get lv15 hive at lv1? keeping your lv down keeps hives lv down, but they can still be much above you. there isnt really a point in keeping your lv down for such a reason
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Post by contributor on Jun 22, 2013 21:42:26 GMT -5
Sounds like you've got it all figured out.
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Post by xdesperado on Jun 23, 2013 0:20:26 GMT -5
Bumped into a Damaged Space Hive with a level 3 Iinsane Captain exiting Gamma-Javat II in a freshly acquired Pirate Skylift that I'd just upgraded with an escape shuttle, external crew pods and titan components. Figured it was either my lucky day or a horrible one. Turned out to be a non event. Entered combat screen. Tried to advance first turn and it fled the battle.  Same captain flying a Tiberia Dark at level 7 encountered a Narvidian and blew out the engines in 4 turns. Got 2 units of W-F and a second unlock for killing an alien with hull 20+...  If you hunt them they'll never appear, if you want nothing to do with them or don't care they'll pop up out of nowhere. I've never had luck chasing rumors. Always seem to run into them in places they're not suppossed to be.  |
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Post by slayernz on Jun 23, 2013 0:35:55 GMT -5
I hate it when those slimy aliens just run when they encounter you. what sort of amoebas are they?!? Fight, damn you, fight!
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athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611 
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Post by athios on Jun 23, 2013 1:32:54 GMT -5
I ran into a level 2 hive during the last community challenge, my captain was level 5 at the time. Ran into another one when he was level 10-ish, and the hive was level 72. It was just plain luck though.
Also, despite defeating and destroying the hive, I did not get the award (already reported as bug), so you may not want to sink *too* much time into this until that is resolved (assuming it's not just a problem with my phone/system).
I assume aliens and hives work the same as all enemies and will come in a *range* that is scaled to your level. So even if you are level 1, the hive could be level 2 or could be 30-something. If this is the case, I would keep level low, but not necessarily at level 1. You'd want appropriate stats to be as ridiculously overpowered for your level as possible (then dump everything else into Strength). I used a similar strategy for getting Hardcore Elite. Might work for hive hunting too?
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Post by Cory Trese on Jun 25, 2013 15:36:37 GMT -5
I would agree there is no advantage in keeping your level low.
Patrol dead planets.
I like the idea of a Hive Rumor.
Logged ST #1564 to add this.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2013 19:44:06 GMT -5
I would agree there is no advantage in keeping your level low. Patrol dead planets. I like the idea of a Hive Rumor. Logged ST #1564 to add this. works for hives also? I thought it only worked for aliens and narvs. and it says in the help that hives are over feral planets, not dead planets. Are they found for both indy feral and indy dead planets? |
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Post by Cory Trese on Jun 25, 2013 20:04:00 GMT -5
I was wrong. Looking at the code, there is currently no "double hive" conditions.
They're just insanely rare.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2013 22:38:24 GMT -5
I was wrong. Looking at the code, there is currently no "double hive" conditions. They're just insanely rare. so theyre over neither feral nor dead planets? what about the artifact isolation chamber disabling enemy artifacts as well as yours? this way, enemy hives won't have ridiculously high levels with the artifact chamber. plus, when they're near you and their artifacts go offline, they'll probably try to find the party responsible, aka you. so it would increase encounters as well. or perhaps the vet could do such a thing. |
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Post by contributor on Jun 26, 2013 23:19:56 GMT -5
Thanks Cory for the input. I've got a few follow up questions/comments.
1) Just to clarify on the chance of finding a hive. There is nothing that affects that, including red/green sectors, artifacts, xeno vet. The rate is static regardless of all variables? What about across time, do encounters become more likely later in the game?
2) I still think there may be some advantage to keeping your level at 1. I still have a shot at defeating a ship that is level 7 or 8 when I'm level 1, especially with a fully tricked out ship and the right hold-goods, but defeating a level 70 or 80 ship when I'm at 10 is impossible. Every time I've heard about someone defeating a hive on the forum it's always been at very low levels.
3) This is actually related to the first question, but I just thought of it now. Would my stats in anyway increase my chances of encountering a hive? I'm thinking that mostly Stealth might play a role. Maybe really high stealth would help us approach one unnoticed?
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