Post by starfixer on Aug 13, 2013 23:23:13 GMT -5
With posts all over the forum about how captains are dying from aliens or are trying to find and kill aliens, I decided to make a short guide to help the alien hunters and the alien avoiders.
Aliens
Aliens are the most fearsome enemies in the game. As such, they only appear in difficulties demanding and higher. Aliens' LV are twice as high as normal enemies' LV on average, they have better than normal ships like fast/quick ships with 1000 crew or fast ships with 100 sails and 100 torps, and some of them have special powers such as more powerful crew, the ability to make your weapons useless, the ability to turn artifacts in your hold into weapons against you, the ability to turn your engines against you etc. And it's not only their insane power that's fearsome; if you surrender or lose to aliens, they'll execute your captain and all your crew!
Avoiding Aliens
Although there will always be a chance that you encounter aliens, there are ways to decrease the chance of you encountering them. When trying to avoid aliens, keep the following in mind:
How good are you in avoiding encounters? (see encounters page)
Aliens are most found over dead planets
Red sectors and Independent space is where aliens are found second
Aliens are found least in green sectors and faction space
How many artifacts are in your hold?
How far away are you from coordinate (1,1)?
What difficulty are you playing on?
How many turns have been played?
Did you encounter an alien very recently?
Overall, aliens are least likely encountered in green sectors/faction space, on lower difficulties, with no artifacts and when being good in avoiding encounters (high stealth and ship speed, no contraband on-board, low crew, low hull etc). Aliens are most likely found on the highest difficulties, over dead planets or in red sectors/Indy space, with lots of artifacts and when being horrible in avoiding encounters (lots of contraband in-hold, high hull, high crew, slow speed, no stealth etc)
Finding Aliens
Although aliens are deadly and powerful, they also have very salvage values. Normally, destroying an alien ship gets you over 20k credits in salvage, 40k credits with a Templar officer, 250k credits with a Veteran officer and 270k credits with both a Templar and a Veteran officer. Aliens also provide a challenge to combat-oriented captains who are already more powerful than all their enemies. Just like there are ways to avoid aliens, there are also ways to find aliens. If you want to find aliens, patrol dead planets and keep the following in mind:
How good are you in patrol?
How many turns played?
Is there an alien rumor where your patrolling?
How many artifacts on-board?
Is it an Independent dead planet?
Do you have a Veteran officer on board?
What difficulty are you playing on?
How far are you from coordinate (1,1)?
Overall, the best way to find aliens is to patrol dead planets when being good in patrol (early in the game, high tactics and wisdom, high ship speed and sails), over a dead planet with an alien rumor, with lots of artifacts and a Veteran officer on-board.
Fighting Aliens
Because aliens are so much more powerful than normal enemies, can have much better ships and can have special powers that put you at a disadvantage, its best to come up with a strategy that can best defeat such enemies. Overall, board and ram is going to be the best for surviving alien encounters, while gun and toro is not.
For Boarding vs aliens, Warrior, Strength, crew numbers and weapons are extremely important. Tactics, Intimidate, boarding upgrades, officers and morale also help you win boarding. The Templar officer provides a special bonus vs aliens to help you win boarding by significantly increasing the damage done to the enemy captain (killing the enemy captain faster) and decreasing HP loss (preventing you from being killed). A veteran officer can also convert artifacts in your hold into weapons vs aliens. 1 artifacts = 2 weapons with a Veteran on-board vs aliens. Keep in mind that artifacts can also increase alien encounters and alien attack power, but if you have an Artifact Chamber upgrade, you can carry unto 25 artifacts with no alien penalties and all the Veteran anti-alien bonuses.
For Ramming vs aliens, Warrior, Pilot and Ship Agility are most important. High Strength, Engines, Military Officer, Battle Prow, Reinforced Prow, Ancient Reactors, Torpedo Battle Prow and morale also help you be successful in ramming. Hull and Armor is important for increasing damage done to enemy ships and decreasing damage done to your ships when ramming. How much of a role Pilot plays for ram depends on ship agility, but overall those who want to be best in ram are best investing more in Warrior and Strength with a Military Officer and Pilot skill being secondary. This is because Strength doesn't count towards leveling up at all, meaning you can invest twice as much in Warrior as other skills, and every point in Warrior is a point in Strength. Pilot skill is best for ram with ships that have QUICK agility, and is practically useless for ram with ships that have LOW agility. Pilot officer and advanced bridge increase pilot, which will help for ram. Titan components provides a combat bonus at medium range, which will also help for ram. Lastly, the Veteran officer provides a combat bonus for all actions vs aliens, including ram attack.
Gun vs aliens puts you at a disadvantage, because unlike ram, you're very vulnerable to being boarded while gunning. And with such high LV, ships with 500 or 1000 crew and special powers, gun vs aliens is even more dangerous, and should only be done A) vs aliens that are not that powerful and B) with a high enough gun attack strength. For gunning, Pilot skill and ship agility are most important. Tactics, Engines, Guns, Hull, and upgrades will also help. Pilot officer and advanced bridge increase pilot, which will help for gun. Titan components provides a combat bonus at medium range, which will also help for gun. Lastly, the Veteran officer provides a combat bonus for all actions vs aliens, including gun attack.
Torp vs aliens puts at even more of a disadvantage because Stealth, the most important skill for torpedo attack, is counted twice towards leveling up as other skills. This means investing a lot in Stealth will restrict your other skills from going up a lot, and you cannot invest in Stealth as much as other skills. There is also no officers that will help for torpedo attack except the veteran (which helps for all attacks vs aliens). With aliens being at very high levels, your only hope is to make one or two of your skills higher than the aliens. For board, its Warrior and Strength, and for ram, its Warrior and Pilot. But with torpedo, its extremely hard to make your Stealth higher than aliens because of their insanely high level unless your playing on a lower difficulty. If you encounter an alien and have high Stealth, FAST speed, lots of sails and low Pilot and Warrior (and hence can't do anything except torp), try torping. Just don't be surprised if the enemy alien changes range on you, boards you and kills your captain.
Maximum Alien LV = (average captain LV + 10) *2 (more or less). So on crazy difficult where the average enemy is stated to be 150% your level, the maximum alien LV is 320% of your level.
How high each enemy skill is on-average = enemy level X .55 (this can differ depending on how early you are in the game and chance)
Aliens
Aliens are the most fearsome enemies in the game. As such, they only appear in difficulties demanding and higher. Aliens' LV are twice as high as normal enemies' LV on average, they have better than normal ships like fast/quick ships with 1000 crew or fast ships with 100 sails and 100 torps, and some of them have special powers such as more powerful crew, the ability to make your weapons useless, the ability to turn artifacts in your hold into weapons against you, the ability to turn your engines against you etc. And it's not only their insane power that's fearsome; if you surrender or lose to aliens, they'll execute your captain and all your crew!
Avoiding Aliens
Although there will always be a chance that you encounter aliens, there are ways to decrease the chance of you encountering them. When trying to avoid aliens, keep the following in mind:
How good are you in avoiding encounters? (see encounters page)
Aliens are most found over dead planets
Red sectors and Independent space is where aliens are found second
Aliens are found least in green sectors and faction space
How many artifacts are in your hold?
How far away are you from coordinate (1,1)?
What difficulty are you playing on?
How many turns have been played?
Did you encounter an alien very recently?
Overall, aliens are least likely encountered in green sectors/faction space, on lower difficulties, with no artifacts and when being good in avoiding encounters (high stealth and ship speed, no contraband on-board, low crew, low hull etc). Aliens are most likely found on the highest difficulties, over dead planets or in red sectors/Indy space, with lots of artifacts and when being horrible in avoiding encounters (lots of contraband in-hold, high hull, high crew, slow speed, no stealth etc)
Finding Aliens
Although aliens are deadly and powerful, they also have very salvage values. Normally, destroying an alien ship gets you over 20k credits in salvage, 40k credits with a Templar officer, 250k credits with a Veteran officer and 270k credits with both a Templar and a Veteran officer. Aliens also provide a challenge to combat-oriented captains who are already more powerful than all their enemies. Just like there are ways to avoid aliens, there are also ways to find aliens. If you want to find aliens, patrol dead planets and keep the following in mind:
How good are you in patrol?
How many turns played?
Is there an alien rumor where your patrolling?
How many artifacts on-board?
Is it an Independent dead planet?
Do you have a Veteran officer on board?
What difficulty are you playing on?
How far are you from coordinate (1,1)?
Overall, the best way to find aliens is to patrol dead planets when being good in patrol (early in the game, high tactics and wisdom, high ship speed and sails), over a dead planet with an alien rumor, with lots of artifacts and a Veteran officer on-board.
Fighting Aliens
Because aliens are so much more powerful than normal enemies, can have much better ships and can have special powers that put you at a disadvantage, its best to come up with a strategy that can best defeat such enemies. Overall, board and ram is going to be the best for surviving alien encounters, while gun and toro is not.
For Boarding vs aliens, Warrior, Strength, crew numbers and weapons are extremely important. Tactics, Intimidate, boarding upgrades, officers and morale also help you win boarding. The Templar officer provides a special bonus vs aliens to help you win boarding by significantly increasing the damage done to the enemy captain (killing the enemy captain faster) and decreasing HP loss (preventing you from being killed). A veteran officer can also convert artifacts in your hold into weapons vs aliens. 1 artifacts = 2 weapons with a Veteran on-board vs aliens. Keep in mind that artifacts can also increase alien encounters and alien attack power, but if you have an Artifact Chamber upgrade, you can carry unto 25 artifacts with no alien penalties and all the Veteran anti-alien bonuses.
For Ramming vs aliens, Warrior, Pilot and Ship Agility are most important. High Strength, Engines, Military Officer, Battle Prow, Reinforced Prow, Ancient Reactors, Torpedo Battle Prow and morale also help you be successful in ramming. Hull and Armor is important for increasing damage done to enemy ships and decreasing damage done to your ships when ramming. How much of a role Pilot plays for ram depends on ship agility, but overall those who want to be best in ram are best investing more in Warrior and Strength with a Military Officer and Pilot skill being secondary. This is because Strength doesn't count towards leveling up at all, meaning you can invest twice as much in Warrior as other skills, and every point in Warrior is a point in Strength. Pilot skill is best for ram with ships that have QUICK agility, and is practically useless for ram with ships that have LOW agility. Pilot officer and advanced bridge increase pilot, which will help for ram. Titan components provides a combat bonus at medium range, which will also help for ram. Lastly, the Veteran officer provides a combat bonus for all actions vs aliens, including ram attack.
Gun vs aliens puts you at a disadvantage, because unlike ram, you're very vulnerable to being boarded while gunning. And with such high LV, ships with 500 or 1000 crew and special powers, gun vs aliens is even more dangerous, and should only be done A) vs aliens that are not that powerful and B) with a high enough gun attack strength. For gunning, Pilot skill and ship agility are most important. Tactics, Engines, Guns, Hull, and upgrades will also help. Pilot officer and advanced bridge increase pilot, which will help for gun. Titan components provides a combat bonus at medium range, which will also help for gun. Lastly, the Veteran officer provides a combat bonus for all actions vs aliens, including gun attack.
Torp vs aliens puts at even more of a disadvantage because Stealth, the most important skill for torpedo attack, is counted twice towards leveling up as other skills. This means investing a lot in Stealth will restrict your other skills from going up a lot, and you cannot invest in Stealth as much as other skills. There is also no officers that will help for torpedo attack except the veteran (which helps for all attacks vs aliens). With aliens being at very high levels, your only hope is to make one or two of your skills higher than the aliens. For board, its Warrior and Strength, and for ram, its Warrior and Pilot. But with torpedo, its extremely hard to make your Stealth higher than aliens because of their insanely high level unless your playing on a lower difficulty. If you encounter an alien and have high Stealth, FAST speed, lots of sails and low Pilot and Warrior (and hence can't do anything except torp), try torping. Just don't be surprised if the enemy alien changes range on you, boards you and kills your captain.
Maximum Alien LV = (average captain LV + 10) *2 (more or less). So on crazy difficult where the average enemy is stated to be 150% your level, the maximum alien LV is 320% of your level.
How high each enemy skill is on-average = enemy level X .55 (this can differ depending on how early you are in the game and chance)
, so I think the guy is perfect for trying the new anti-Alien upgrades and some of these tactics hints!
