Sorry for the newbie questions but...

[spoon]

Originally posted by Shoujo:


2) I've been seeing a few threads about emissive armor, but most of them had too many numbers and tables for my liking (I'm not a math person). In a nutshell does Gold make emissive armor useful? Are they the all-purpose armor, or does regular armor III still have a use?

Probably worth it in the early mid game, before everyone gets heavy mounts, and if you plan on using the other defensive armors as well.

3) One thread mentioned how Meson bLasters and Torpedoes were viable candidates for the early game. Back when I used to lurk around these forums regularly, these weapons were hardly ever mentioned. Has something been changed about these weapons to make them more useful? I've always preferred DUCs in the early game... What reasons would I have to switch to Meson BLasters? (Torpedoes get a +hit. Fact or rumor?)

Meson bLasters are fine early game if you start at mid tech level and don't have to waste points researching them. Maybe Talisman players can use them later too, until they get a better weapon researched

5) Has crystal tech been given a boost of any sorts to bring it up to par with the other racial techs?

No boosts. Still underpowered compared to the other Racial Techs. The armor is good, but not worth the 1500 points, in my opinion.

6) Two fairly long threads talked about the horrors of playing against players using the Talisman. Hopefully, PBW hasn't suddenly become filled with Talisman Users... Roughly, what percentage of PBW players use the Talisman?

It is really the Talisman/High Defense combo that is the problem, not the Talisman itself. I think more people will be playing it now, since it recieved some publicity. But I think they won't fair as well as they have been, because everyone is paranoid about their potential power and will likely (for their own sake) team up and take out talisman players earlier in the game. Just speculation, of course. Not sure of the actual numbers, as most the games I'm in are pretty far along... I would guess about 5-10%, or one in every other 10-player game.

7) Is the Allegiance Subverter & Computer Virus combo still as nasty as it was pre-Gold?

Still forces your opponent to build more expensive ships with lots of PD, yes.

8) Do seekers and fighters have a place in a fleet, or are they generally still considered PD fodder?

Seekers are always great to put on new generation ships when all you have been using are direct fire weapons - but they still aren't viable as general use weapons. I've had some success with using fighters as cheap defensive warp-point blockers, but again, only if they aren't expected...

9) Gold supposedly adds new stellar phenomena (or is it -non?). Do these significantly alter gameplay in any way?

No

10) WPs get better range? Are they useful now as planetary defense?

I use them, but only as a deterent against small-fleet invasions. They still won't stop a big fleet from having its horrible ways with you.

11) For a non-organic race, is there any reason to not decrease farming when making a race?

Nope.

-Spoon

[Shoujo]

Many thanks for all the replies. *sigh* Well drones don't seem to be what I expected (hoped) they would be Expensive, unrecoverable, useable only as weapons. Was hoping to use em for recon. I take it they can't go through WPs either?

Well I came up with a few more questions while sitting around thinking about SE IV...

1) Engine killers can be stopped by shields, but not armor, and a ship with no engines/supply can't fire weapons...? So an organic race would have to rely on shields to counter engine killers? Or would adding supply storage to every ship be enough?

2) Is multiplex tracking any use? I don't recall multiplex ever being any real use pre-Gold. Threads that I've looked at seem to indicate that at least in strategic combat a ship with multiplex fires on at most two targets if you're lucky

Well thanks again. Can't wait for my copy of Gold to arrive...

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Shoujo:

1) Engine killers can be stopped by shields, but not armor, and a ship with no engines/supply can't fire weapons...? So an organic race would have to rely on shields to counter engine killers? Or would adding supply storage to every ship be enough?

Shields are always a good idea, and will keep your ships from being stranded. It's a good to keep one supply storage on so your weapons still fire, many TDM modpack races do this. Bummer if it gets shot out while you still have weapons. There was some talk of letting weapons have a few shots worth of supply storage.

2) Is multiplex tracking any use? I don't recall multiplex ever being any real use pre-Gold. Threads that I've looked at seem to indicate that at least in strategic combat a ship with multiplex fires on at most two targets if you're lucky .
..

Yeah, that was the latest consensus. But then again, how many targets do you really need. For a few ships, it's nice that it keeps fireing once one ship is dead. But do you have enough guns for a third?

Even on tactical, do you really need multiplex 5? How much piddling damage do you want to spread around? How many big guns does even a large ship have to really do something? I don't even research it, once I've got my ECM III I'm done.

[Puke]

Originally posted by Arkcon:
Even on tactical, do you really need multiplex 5? How much piddling damage do you want to spread around? How many big guns does even a large ship have to really do something? I don't even research it, once I've got my ECM III I'm done.

starbases, and very big ships from some of the mods, live and die by multiplex tracking. if you have a starbase with 10 massive mount weapons, each one could kill a single small ship.

on other designs, you need at least multiplex 2 to make sure your point defense fires after your weapons (or the other way around).

[Grandpa Kim]

on other designs, you need at least multiplex 2 to make sure your point defense fires after your weapons (or the other way around).

Is this something new? For me, PD has always fired irrespective of multi-plex. In fact I often have PD equipped ships before I have any multi-plex and they take out the missles just fine while the beam weapons take out the ships. The only possible exception could be PD firing at satellites. This may restrict the direct fire weapons to firing at the satellites too.... but I don't think so.

Kim

[Andrés]

How do I become a pro?
No one is being payed just to play and answer questions

PDC requires counts like a normal weapon (for tracking purposes) when fired manually.

You'll need multiplex tracking if you're using big ships against small ones.

This may be an extreme example but in my UVS mod multiplex tracking is what limits the firrepower of largest ships, Massive Worldships usually have most weapons unfired after killing 5 targets.
Hmm.. next time I edit that mod I should add stronger MT.

Drones can jump wp but as you can not order them to go to a planet to resupply, and they are destroyed when they run out you cant send them very far.

[rdouglass]

Originally posted by Grandpa Kim:

quote:

---

on other designs, you need at least multiplex 2 to make sure your point defense fires after your weapons (or the other way around).

Is this something new? For me, PD has always fired irrespective of multi-plex. In fact I often have PD equipped ships before I have any multi-plex and they take out the missles just fine while the beam weapons take out the ships. The only possible exception could be PD firing at satellites. This may restrict the direct fire weapons to firing at the satellites too.... but I don't think so.

Kim

---

IIRC only if you're targeting them (the sat's) manually in Tactical - I don't think it matters in strategic. If you manually target a stack of units (for instance, if you move into range, then target), it does use up one of your multiplex targets. If fighters or seekers move into range (then PDC fires), it doesn't.

P.S. I was one of the early adopters of the Talisman (been a favorite for over a year now). I used to use it all the time 'cause of the guarenteed hits. However, I think I'll change now......

[ September 06, 2002, 17:50: Message edited by: rdouglass ]