Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

Back when that list was being formulated, it was sort of an "just say what you think is an exploit". It led to a lot of discussion back and forth, when all that was wanted was a simple list for poeple to pick and choose from when setting up a PBW game. The point is, that these are things that at least someone once thought was cheating.

I'm picturing a PBW game, where someone gains a slight advantage, and someone else demands to know how it happened, only to find out there was a tiny fundemental aspect of SE4 that they didn't know about. When they find out, instead of having an, "Oh, I see" moment, thay continue to biatch about it.

Those old threads are a good read.

[EDIT]
Here's where Fyron trys to just get a{list},
and here's discussion -- {talk}.
Here's one I tried to start to write an Encyclopedia Malfadorica article{Wiki}, and people said I was trolling. {the discussion}

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

Religious isn't quite the exploit you may think it is. Actually, against the AI it is unbalanced. But in multiplayer games, very often non-religious players will band against a religious player to wipe him out before he gets the Talisman. If he can survive long enough to get the Talisman, the fight is more even, but that doesn't happen very often at all in PBW games.

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I've just started my second game (with DN4 mod). I ended up going with a berserker min-maxed race with ancient race & organic traits. I'd like to go with the crystal trait for the armor & maintenance facility but it doesn't really fit with my race concept. Also, I was wondering if its allowed to replace the race portraits on the shipsets? I'm using the SEV shipset and I'd like to replace the race portrait with the render from my sig ... is this allowed at least for personal use?

Hehe, Not anytime soon, still getting the hang of the game mechanics. But I keep you all posted about my future faliures. =)

Thanks,
Xorkh

Edited for typos.

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

For personal use, yes. I have done such a thing myself once. Nothing wrong with it.

**********

Nope. Armor regen regenerates all armor on the ship. In Adamant, Organic races with Inherent Regeneration (or something) get an Auxiliary Control (IIRC) component with Armor Regeneration ability, but which does not have the Armor ability itself.

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

The Crystalline Armour lacks any regeneration ability, so it won't get regenerated: you must have some sort of regeneration to benefit from the OA ability; whether a component is an armour or not is irrelevant here.

Devnull does have Biocrystal armour though, which acts as the CA, with built-in regeneration, but it's not exactly the same thing (and it is a mod, of course).

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

Newbie question, is armor really all that important in the game? From my understanding in most multiplayer games, people use heavy weapon mounts and 150kt of resistance doesn't sound like much. I would think that the space would be better used for extra shields.

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

Armour is paramount: Stealth and Scattering Armour give you a huge bonus to defence, and those are definitively worth it.

Now as for Armour vs Shields... I'd rather not engage in that debate. Let's just say shields are more expensive, Shield Depleters do a lot of damage against them (and are otherwise worthless), but shields give more hitpoints per kt. There are other differences, but I would need to write a paper on the matter, so I won't do it right now.

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

That is, until the shield skipping weapons come into play..... or when the enemy weapons get so heavy (*cough*massive-mount-WMG*cough*) that your shields are depleted in a few shots.....

On the whole, it's best to have a good mix of shields and armor, and perhaps some shield regenerators if you've got room. If you're playing stock, however, don't repeat do NOT use emissive armor, as it's useless against everything save for long-ranged shots and (small) fighter attacks.

Hey, I wrote this before Alneyan posted, and clicked "Continue", but apparently it didn't process. Weird. Oh well.

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

Emissive armor is extremely useful in stock if you're relying primarily on armor for defense. Yes, only shots for damage less than the ability amount are completely negated, but shots for more than that also get reduced by the ability amount. If everyone's still using ships smaller than battleships, even against large mount PPB V's at point blank range, that's still about a 25% reduction in damage. In combination with crystalline armor on really big ships, emissive is critical to taking maximum advantage of the shields from damage ability.

Re: What Traits / Tactics are considered cheap/che
 

Emissive Armour has only one huge drawback in stock: it has only 50 hitpoints, which means it can be taken down rather easily, especially if using CA/OA. Still, it is worthwhile if you are using mundane armour, since a 20 or a 25% damage reduction is better than putting more armour on your ships.

Emissive Armour is also great against those players who like Lightning Rays and/or Destroyers (say, RexTorres): in this case, the Emissive Armour will absorb most of the damage, ruining the day for the other player.