New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

Well I'll say one thing for the new patch. It completely screws playability.

Shame you didn't test the interaction between the AI, Pirate Weapons Load, and Pirate Tactics.

Scenario - You jump through a warp point. Waiting for you are 4 pirate cruisers and 3 destroyers.

Three of the cruisers have their usual compliment of weapons - 3 iconic pulse missiles, 4 anti-proton beans, 1 point defence cannon, and their usual ability to shoot down ALL incoming missiles fired from greater than 20ls - I wish I hand that ability.

So there you are in your battleship with 3 pulse missiles, 3 tachyon cannons, 2 High eneryg magnifiers, weapons damper, and 2 point defense cannons.

The fight is initially rather quick and you dispatch the 1 cruiser and 3 desrtoyers - because they bother to come closer than 160ls to attack you.

By now you can't go anywhere even should you want to because the consistant hits of those Iconic missiles from the other cruisers means your engines don't work. Oh and the cruisers now don't come closer than 110ls, and they always fire the missiles in 3's, and since they have point defense cannons your missiles are useless, and so there you sit with your phased shields at 100% and your armour at 100%, unable to do anything, except wait for the intervention of a passing friendly cruiser.

Well it took me 1.5 hours real time to get out of this one. Either revoke the iconic missile fix, or sort out the pirate weapons load - how about making them obey the same space and enery rules that player ships have to, or make point defense cannon work properly for player ships.

I'm not sure whether I'm going to bother playing any further.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

What are you talking about? The patch didn't do a thing to ionic weaponry exept to add the weapon damage resistance field, which doesn't make a difference because they didn't get enough to withstand even a low-level point defense hit. Haven't seen the shoot-down issue either, actually.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

Little messing around and I've found that some Pirate cruisers will be generated with nothing but 3 Ionic missiles..could be your problem. Not sure what in the patch could cause the behavior you described except maybe the response range fix.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Before the patch ionic missiles had little or no effect. I've dealt with the situation described before without to much dificulty. Now its impossible.
All it takes is about 8 hits to disable over 5000 points of propulsion which is greater than required to give the max 600 speed on a battle ship (5 engines give 517 points - if you want to do the calculation I've got 4 lvl 15 and 2 lvl 16 quantum engines fitted).
Once your engines start to recover, it takes just a single hit to flatline them again, and since your facing 8 or so iconic missiles in a barage you stand no chance.

As regards the shoot down issue, you've never fired 2 missiles at a pirate at 40ls range and watch both missiles get shot down, but been on the receiving end of at least 1 hit in the same situation. And both my point defence cannons are lvl 16.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

One idea: Were you chasing the enemy ship when they shot down your two missiles, and you couldn't shoot down their one? Because what you're describing makes total sense if that is the case.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No. Absolutely stationary. Couldn't go anywhere. No engines!

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

However, if they are moving away when you fire your missiles, they would have plenty of time to shoot them all down. Whereas, if you are stationary, their missiles would take much less time to reach their target, giving you much less time to shoot them down. Having no movement is a definite disadvantage when dealing with missiles.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">So does flying onto incoming missiles but the AI still manages it.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Only because the PD doesn't work. If you have an incoming missile from 120ls and the PD has a range of 40ls then the PD fires to intercept at 40ls (ie what the AI does for AI ships, not starts firing at 40ls - which is what it does for player ships.

If there are multiple in bound missiles then each is allocated in rotation to available PDs. Once a missile is destroyed the PD becomes free and the next missile/fighter is allocated to it.

Since 2 hits from iconic missiles now render you stationary and pirate cruisers generally carry 3, you're dead in the water as soon as you get close to one. And since the criuser will then stand off at 120ls just firing iconic missiles at you in 3's - you can never go anywhere, and your missiles are useless against them because they can always shoot them down.

Ergo the game is unplayable.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

What level are you? Playing at 12, (expert difficulty) two ionic missile hits killed 50% of my speed, not all of it. And I still haven't seen an abnormal number of missile shoot-downs in testing, though the PD difference you say is there is certainly possible.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

I run an equal mix of Scattering and Stealth armor. It's maxed out at 95% effectiveness. The engine sapping missles have very little effect. Also, the missles are too slow when you're chasing someone. Their relative speed allows them to be shot down easily or they time out and self-destruct. I only use a bLast of two at point blank range. One might get shot down but the other piles into the target. Oh, and I practice the stay close on his rear strategy and just bLast his behind off. Even Battleships (or Dreadnoughts) go down fast. Keep you ship well stocked with electronic countermeasures. I double up on Scanner Jammers (multiples are still allowed), and the one each allowed MasterComputer and Neural Combat Net. Even in large clusters of enemy ships very little actually hits me and they're all kind enough to stay far enough out of the action to let me pound the backside of the first victim before switching to the next.

[ January 31, 2004, 04:19: Message edited by: Otter ]

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

Missiles are pretty silly in stock SF; I've actually killed myself with them before. They aren't any faster than destroyers, so if you fire them and continue on the same heading they are, when they self-destruct at max range you'll be hurt.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

Not only are they slow, their range is ridiculously short. I've recommended at least doubling the range of all missiles (and extending the range of torpedos at least somewhat) but MM seems to think the current setup is good enough.

Because so many races use seekers of one sort of another I've not found ECM or other defensive components like stealth armor to be much use. I make sure to stock up on lots of PDC and shield rechargers, and go for organic and emissive armor whenever available.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

I found exactly the opposite; as you mentioned seekers are fairly ineffective. I just dodge them or run long enough for them to explode from shoot-downs or out of fuel.

Its the beams that kill. And to a lesser extent the bolts.

Re: New Patch - Lack of Testing
 

Bolts are fairly easily dodged at more than point-blank ranges. I sort of wonder why they are given such short ranges since range would appear to be their only possible advantage over beams.

Seekers can only be out-run in the stock game, which I rarely play. I have modded many things to suit myself, including bolt and beam speeds.

[ February 01, 2004, 20:52: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]