Starsector

[tawny wolf]

Not too bad a showing for an (end game content spoiler) ||Hypershunt Omega brawl||
Two cruisers, three destroyers, and one measly capital

The ||Ziggurat's|| brain breaks when presented with even a single extra smaller ship but its great for capital dueling
Dual gigacannons is a nice setup on it

And now, I can report, with sims ran
This Radiant can beat two other standard Radiants without taking any damage

I may well be ready for ||Threat hunting.....||

[wet finch]

that's a lotta [REDACTED] on that Radiant

[outer solar]

how do you feel about the Anubis?

[outer solar]

my

save

corrupted

again

[tawny wolf]

It's weird but effective Id say
You absolutely must use it as an escort
I have two paladins (as intended), an auto pulse laser, and two cyclone reapers on them each
So they can battle harriers pretty well, point defense like nothing else, and help finish big ships
They aren't the best, but they're a decent addition to the fleet

[outer solar]

i seeeeee

[shell schooner]

Is this a problem with the new autosave

[thorn nacelle]

Thoughts on a home for ag+soil nanites and an organics mine? Corwin looks pretty attractive methinks. There's a cryosleeper in range of all 3 of these, too.

[thorn nacelle]

Made it back to port in the nick of time. 😆

[tawny wolf]

I am contemplating a truly cursed setup for my escort manticores
Perfection in simplicity
I present to you
The Mudskipper M. III

[sudden rain]

Finally got a modlist I'm happy with, time to go poke things

[outer solar]

no

At least, I don't think so

It wouldn't have been an issue had I not deleted all my saves to clear things out

[outer solar]

extreme dislike of this

the mods are a good choice though

also speaking of cryosleepers

god i wish you could move them

If you can ||refuel the Gate Mover|| why can't we refuel the cryosleepers

[shell schooner]

there is a mod that lets you move em but I forget which one it is

[outer solar]

irst year of this new save is going well

[thorn nacelle]

Some nice kit in there.

[rotund palm]

That has about 10 fewer Shepherds than my runs have early on, it's weird to see

[thorn nacelle]

I do love me some shepherds and salvage rigs

I only just dropped my pair of shepherds on this run, lol. And regretting it actually, I don't have enough survey discount anymore to survey gas giants for 5 supplies.

So, something I'm wondering with the Abyss quest line - uh, how do I advance it? ||I've talked to the Tri-Tachyon acquisitions person and made an agreement to find more data and sell it to her. Or at least that's my recollection of the conversation.|| But I don't see anything about it in my logs, and no suggestion of where to go or what to do. Am I supposed to ||go blindly out into the abyss at random||? Or am I just blind and there is something in the intel screen I should be following?

I'm aware I could Google it/read the wiki, but that's a lot easier to accidentally spoil myself. 😉

[tawny wolf]

||If you have hit the point where the tritach lady is asking for Threatstuff, you have hit the end of the quest||
||Abyssal Hyperspace/Threat fleets are basically a freeform endgame combat challenge- if you want to get into a mean fight with your fleet, you fly around abyssal space until you find one||

[thorn nacelle]

Oh, ok

[wispy bramble]

yeah you ||go blindly out at random|| at that point

it's all ||randomly generated and non-persistent, you'll find enemies no matter what||

[shell schooner]

I love that hauler so much

[wispy bramble]

It's absolutely terrible at hauling, but it is a phase ship

Pain in the ass to get hold of without signing up for TriTach, is the main issue

[outer solar]

I found a handful of them in the new system

It is my favourite cargo ship

[shell schooner]

It just entirely kills your detection thanks to the phase ship bonus

[wet finch]

It's one of the Ashes of the Domain submods

[thorn nacelle]

I found & salvaged one really early in my run, too. Very cool ship.

[tawny wolf]

Every once in a while I think about trying a phase fleet
But then I wonder what I'd actually do with a super stealthy fleet

[outer solar]

smuggling
marine raids

[tawny wolf]

Why smuggle when you can just bounty hunt :3
But yeah I suppose raiding for tech items is nice

[narrow swan]

Oh right Phantom exists now

(And also the Revenant)

[outer solar]

also the Grendel

but it's a strange thing

Grendel really is the low-tech phase ship

Like, it's an armour tank, you use the phase to engage and disengage.

[tawny wolf]

The grendel is amazing when the AI knows how to use it
And probably hideously potent in the hands of a player that groks the flight system (not me)

And yeah the basic skinny is that its a shield shunt low tech cruiser that is immune to torpedoes

[rotund palm]

My issue with phase ships is the time adjustment during phase makes fights take so long

[tawny wolf]

When my officers actually Lock In and stay out of phase and lay in with their guns they've taken out onslaughts by themselves
Because they'll just zooooop behind it and lay into the engines with five assault chainguns

But other times they are poisoned by cowardice and let themselves get fluxed out hiding from like
Graviton beams
Which I think due to armor mechanics literally can't do anything to a grendel

[rotund palm]

That's why I love flying the Hyperion, triple Ion Pulser + expanded mags does the exact same thing but in half the IRL time

[tawny wolf]

I can see that, especially for someone who actually pilots their flagship

Get wolfpack tactics in there

[rotund palm]

Aggressive officers are actually shockingly good at piloting it too, but yeah, it's really a player ship at its heart

It can reposition so quickly as well once you've got the system expertise skill, you can fix problems anywhere on the battlespace in seconds

[outer solar]

holy SHIT

AND a mining world
AND a cryosleeper

[wispy bramble]

Damn, don't often see shades on a world with actually good farms

[outer solar]

All the damn pirate worlds keep decivving

nexerelin moment

bro

All the fucking factions keep working together to raid pirates and only pirates

[wispy bramble]

easy targets, presumably

[sudden rain]

The solution is to sell Paragon BPs to the Pirates

[outer solar]

at least im doing well

i want 5 mil in credits before i start colonising

i've got a good system picked out

the only thing im really missing is like, a mantle bore

[tawny wolf]

And it has extreme heat for cryoarithmetic engine
I would colonize this on sight

[outer solar]

I plan to

[rotund palm]

I think this is the best possible farming world? Time to feed the entire sector

[outer solar]

it is

plus i have soil nanites

and i will slap an AI core and story point on it too

oh and i have an admin with industrial planning

so that's, what

+2 from bountiful farmland
+2 from stellar shades
+2 from soil nanites
+2 from luddic majority, going up to 3 if you defeat the luddic church invasion fleets
+1 from the story point
+1 from the AI core
+1 from the administrator

[wispy bramble]

+size

silly video with lots of spoilers for some of the new enemies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLbhYrjV6Eg

[tawny wolf]

That is
A deeply cursed fleet composition

Though I admit using Atlas MK2 to deliver a Capital's worth of firepower for low deployment cost is pretty clever

[thorn nacelle]

This further proves to me that I am incapable of saving money in games, lol. "Capital is worth nothing if you don't use it" is my brainworm apparently, lol.

(I don't think I've had over 2 million credits at any point in this game)

[outer solar]

It’s really easy to get quite a lot of money if you follow all the Galatia quests

And do contracts from Alvyss in bulk

Aside from that, exploit surpluses and deficits, sell blueprints to anyone other than pirates, go remnant/derelict hunting and sell gamma AI cores

Colonies are where the real money come from, but they need a lot to get going

[thorn nacelle]

Well yeah, it's easy to make money

My point is I just spend it all. 😉

Typically as soon as I have >1 million credits I start building some upgrade or other on a colony. I still have lots of station upgrades etc... that can be done.

[tawny wolf]

The big money maker for me historically is turning AI cores into tritach
I don't want to deal with inspection fleets so I only need alpha cores to captain automated ships, so
Cha ching

[rotund palm]

Buffalo Mk2s are ridiculous - 3x small missile + 1x medium + converted hangar for 4DP is so much more efficient than anything else in the game

Plus they still have four more small slots for PD

[rotund palm]

Whenever I notice my cash is above 2m I dump it all into colonies, I have a very spiky credits graph

[outer solar]

buffalo mk2... is... not bad...?

are the pirates just dumb?

[rotund palm]

It's held back for them by fleet size limits and the blueprints they have

If it can sit behind a frontline of ships that aren't terrible pirate cruisers and use actually good missiles it's very mean

I personally don't like to use it because they will constantly fall apart when a frigate wanders by, but if you don't mind the attrition...

Oh, apparently 0.96 changed converted hangar so it increases DP cost, so the specific build might be a bit different nowadays

[tawny wolf]

Yeah I'm astonished by this also
In my experience buffalo mk2s just spit flares out then explode

[outer solar]

same

[thorn nacelle]

Isn't buffalo mk2 the one without a shield? IME they just evaporate when someone looks at them funny...

But I've completely avoided using them in my own fleets because of that

[rotund palm]

Yeah, and the AI plays them as a real destroyer, so it loves to charge forward and evaporate

Especially if they've got Hammers or the like

[outer solar]

hmm

any ideas on what to put on a centurion?

these guys and monitors are great

damper field and fortress shield

what i have rn is two railguns, two assault guns, then two vulcans for PD and sabots

[outer solar]

starsector friends what's the accessibility you consider too low to bother colonising

[thorn nacelle]

I think if I couldn't get accessibility >70% with a megaport I probably wouldn't bother. Depends, though.

[outer solar]

I need tips on what to outfit the Onslaught Mk. 1 with to serve the same role as a normal Onslaught would

as it's 1) my only capital 2) build as an anti-fighter/missile ship isn't what i need rn

this is what i have currently

and pilot skills

[tawny wolf]

You won't be able to get the Hephaestuses and side maulers on a forward target here- what I usually do is mount heavy mgs and devastators there, both for the obvious point defense use and because that's a kinetic/he mix that can take out smaller ships hugging its side, or at least drive them off

Heavy PD on the sides is especially nice because of how it's vambrace modules work
Anything less than a torpedo barrage will just get shrugged off, so being able to eat torpedo barrages is good

[outer solar]

I changed it to uh

Hellbores

And a Mark XI auto cannon instead of a needler

Also annihilator rocket pods instead of breaches

[tawny wolf]

Hmmmmm
Still not how id do it but whatever floats your boat
For forward guns id probably personally do a mix of hypervelocity drivers and heavy needlers in the medium mounts and a hellbore in the big one
Hellbore strips any armor section it hits, so you can rely on the drivers and the big fuck off flak guns to do hull

I can't really comment on missiles because I think I have resonator mrms on mine lmaooo
But annihilators seems fine

[wispy bramble]

yeah the thing about ballistics is that kinetics scale down better than explosives do

300dps of kinetics is 300dps of kinetics, whether it comes from two small kinetic guns shooting three times per second or a medium gun shooting once per second. high explosives work a bit different because their job is to penetrate armor, so per-shot damage matters a lot more, and bigger guns tend to have more damage per shot

[tawny wolf]

The primary means of medium he being heavy maulers is so sad
Assault chain guns chew things up and spit them out but
They're also basically a knife

[wispy bramble]

(technically this does apply to kinetic weapons as well - a MK IX autocannon will punch through the armor of small ships much better than like, a Storm Needler or whatever. But neither does much against the armor of other large ships. Whereas railguns work just fine against the shields of any ship.)

[tawny wolf]

That's why I like hypervelocity drivers so much
Extremely reliable and long ranged kinetic DPS, that also has per shot punch that lets you smash through smaller ships

[wispy bramble]

I tend to prefer heavy autocannons or a certain new spoiler weapon for kinetics but the HVD sure is reliable and long ranged

[tawny wolf]

Mhm!
You can get the flux deficit in your favor by starting to shoot first
But auto cannons are good too

[rotund palm]

I will note that the armor floor means you do care somewhat about per-shot damage on kinetics, a Light Dual MG will strip exposed hull on capitals a lot slower than a Light Needler despite having higher DPS

[wispy bramble]

true

though admittedly machine guns are pretty extreme in terms of damage/shot

[rotund palm]

Yeah

[tawny wolf]

I feel like in practice the situation is
If you are relying on light dual MGs to kill that overloaded Legion in your face
What's going on
Is everything okay

[outer solar]

I have An resonator MRM

[rotund palm]

You're right, you should be using Vulcans for that

[rotund palm]

With the major caveat that I haven't actually gotten around to doing the abyss yet, knowing how AI cores play, I would probably go for some mix of Storm Needlers, Assault Chainguns, and Thumpers

Toss Expanded Mags on there and let the alpha core go facecheck the world

[tawny wolf]

Yeahhhhh the Mk1 is
The AI core is going to get its enrichment with that reckless AI
For some reason I hadn't considered assault chain guns but I can actually see it going well if you get heavy ballistics integration and targeting unit
You still want SOME range just for if they try and back off

I have a like
Bizarre
Setup rn
All the forward medium guns are Thumpers
I figure with expanded mags (desirable for the flak cannons anyway) they can just brute force past shields then ruin hull once the hellbore knocks a hole in armor
Seems to be working well in sims?
Low OP cost, respectable flux footprint
The vast swathe of thumper bullets constantly emitting from the ship doubles as frontal point defense

What if........
Breacher SRMs x2
Hellbore
That's armor damage handled
Then......
5x HMGs????
Torpedo-B-Gone and shield killer
Then youve got the twin bfgs for killing hull

And you can extend their range further with that point defense skill....

[rotund palm]

Thumpers are really just very solid weapons, much better than expected from their OP cost

[rotund palm]

Yeah, my thoughts were ITU + Storm Needler/Thumper can just eat destroyers/frigs that try to outmaneuver it, and it's probably fast enough to dive cruisers and larger, but as mentioned I haven't actually used it yet

Unstable Injector could be fun too

[rotund palm]

If you're running 5x HMGs, consider: Devastator + S-modded Integrated PD AI

Er, elite Point Defense skill, not PD AI

[outer solar]

Persean colony crisis done

I angered the heg but that's fixable, I joined the persean league to get rid of vengeful, left, gave them a bunch of beta and gamma cores to get out of inhospitable

back to friendly

oh i forgot to get rid of the commission whoops

there we go

[rotund palm]

Playing a paperwork shell game to get rid of your bounty then bribing their officials until they like you, life in the Persean sector at its finest

[outer solar]

well i mean

I blew up their battlestation around their capital
Stole their pristine nanoforge, their prized thing that gives them the edge over the hegemony
Destroyed the fuel fleets supplying their otherwise insurmountable attack fleet
Then strolled into their leader's office, said "hey i stole this and defeated your fleets now stop trying to extort me into joining the league and recognise me for the independant power i am", joined them briefly to make them happy, immediately rescinded both the membership and their commission, then dumped a bunch of AIs on their commander's desk

and as for the hegemony, i dropped off like 4 prisoners and now we're back to 40/100

but now tri-tach are starting shit

i need to go blow up their merchants now

[rotund palm]

My faction relations just randomly creep up over time, since I've colonised one system right beside a Legio Infernalis system and another near the Trinity Worlds

So whenever there's a faction bounty open the slow-burn war there gives me free relations

[tawny wolf]

I have devastators on the sides already, but I'm not sure about using one on the front
Hellbore is dirt cheap, is the best for single shot armor cracking, and is useful when standing off at max weapon range, unlike the devastator with its scatter and early detonations

[outer solar]

I’m still kinda dreading the luddic crisis

I don’t want to lose luddic majority but also like

invictuses :(

[thorn nacelle]

For the luddic crisis, don't you just blow up all their fleets and then get a buffed luddic majority?

Luddic fleets are pretty crap aside from the invictuses

[tawny wolf]

I'm convinced retributions are worse than atlas mk2s
Which is a shame because I really want to like them

Invictuses are genuinely kind of a pain in the dick though, I get the apprehension to face down a ton of them

[outer solar]

Retribution is a player only ship

AI cannot use them well

Players can use them scarily well

[rotund palm]

Hellbore is very solid, I just like any excuse I can get to use Devastators

[tawny wolf]

I want to like them, but I think the AI kind of breaks using them
Since a ship, even a reckless one, typically wants to engage at the furthest range it can (while still firing all its weapons), most of its shots will miss or self destruct
I suppose a solution with the reckless AI is to slap an assault chaingun in there so it feels obliged to get into its tiny range
Since reckless always tries to Fire All Guns

[rotund palm]

With the big frag guns on the Onslaught Hellbore is probably just correct though :(

I suppose reckless on this might be less naturally right in their face than on a standard Onslaught with its burn drive

Hadn't considered that

[tawny wolf]

In my experience it tends to start things off with a ram but as dudes naturally back off it won't pursue fast enough to stay point blank
It doesn't have the 'lunge' factor of a proper onslaught

Anyhow, time to actually implement the changes discussed here
TBH a lot of my fun in this save file nowadays is just tinkering with ship loadouts
Kind of like building mechs in AC6

[tawny wolf]

Okay yeah it's pretty good
Did three tests
Tested against a normal Onslaught, a Radiant, and four cruisers at once
It had the most trouble with the cruisers but survived each with only minimal damagge

[ocean mulch]

some part of me really wishes there was starsector pvp

I love the combat but I'm not super hot on the game surrounding it lol

[outer solar]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/792632642662432768/1360686971478868018/Onslaught.mp4?ex=6800a33e&is=67ff51be&hm=d6ad6963e689f49594331f40476ecbf48e3836139fd75ffbd75beec695607699&

[thorn nacelle]

pmuch

[rotund palm]

I think there have been AIvAI fleetbuilding tournaments, and there have been mod projects to support multiplayer in the combat layer before

But none that are fully-featured and up-to-date

[thorn nacelle]

Onslaught mk1 does make a pretty great sledgehammer, it's very hard to overextend.

[rotund palm]

It's not "overextension", it's "bringing more weapons into arc"

[thorn nacelle]

I regularly see mine pulling the old "drive me closer so I can hit them with my sword"

Why should I turn off the combat burn? I've only rammed them 3 times so far.

[tawny wolf]

You're honestly encouraged to dive in and get surrounded on three sides yeah
The vambraces only take hits from the side and all that

Also today is the day I learned polarized armor doesn't work how it usually does on phase ships and shieldless ships
My Grendels are in shambles

[rotund palm]

I did a playthrough once where I stacked hull/armor buffs, regen, and mass increases from 10 different mods on a ship with a system that was basically Burn Drive + Damper Field

It was extremely imbalanced, but also very fun to spend the entire game playing pinball

[rotund palm]

That's really weird that it doesn't

Oh, wait, I misread that, I thought you meant the Onslaught mk1 doesn't get the armor buff

[outer solar]

Tri-Tach have been told to piss off and I now have a good deal with them

Now it's just the one I'm really worried about

[tawny wolf]

So basically, on ships without conventional shields, their hard flux for the purposes of polarized armor is always 50%
Cuz they can't actually get hard flux due to no shields
Which lets them benefit, but doesn't let them max the bonus out
For a long while I thought it was just flux, not hard flux, and therefore phase ships would really like it

[fallen blade]

damn I'd love that ngl

that sounds like it would really fuck

[ocean mulch]

it'd be sick

[fallen blade]

you may like istrolid, tron?

[ocean mulch]

(the twisted part of me that wanted to play bad neb conquest also wants like, stratmap starsector pvp)

[fallen blade]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/449140/Istrolid/ @ocean mulch @wispy bramble etc etc

Steam

Istrolid

In Istrolid you design your own unique spaceships from a large number of parts to fit your strategy and play style. With no set units or factions you are free to create a fleet where each ship has its own balanced strengths and weaknesses, from basic fighters and bombers to hulking battleships and speedy destroyers.

Challenge your strategies and…

▶ Play video

[ocean mulch]

I have played so much istrolid

[fallen blade]

LOL <3333

[ocean mulch]

a younger me loved that game

[fallen blade]

an even younger you?

terrifying to envision

[ocean mulch]

my dad introduced me to it when I was... 12? I think? smthing like that

[tawny wolf]

Yeeee that does sound fun
Starsector PVP that is
Enemy fleets are typically working with all the same tools as you

[rotund palm]

Phase/Temporal Shell would be a bit awkward

But not unsolvable

[ocean mulch]

yeah

no pause is also a little rough

[rotund palm]

Especially on high-mobility ships

[ocean mulch]

I think phase (idr what shell is) would be pretty easily handled by just having you pilot the sped-up version

[rotund palm]

I always pause immediately after teleporting on the Hyperion to let the camera catch up

Temporal Shell is a ship system that speeds up time by 3x

[ocean mulch]

??????

is that some like

[Classified] stuff or smthing

[rotund palm]

Or maybe have each player have some limited pool of slowdown available to them

[ocean mulch]

I haven't got super far in the game

[rotund palm]

There's a couple high-tech ships with it

[ocean mulch]

well, in the story, I've played a ton of starsector

it's just been a minute

ah

[rotund palm]

(And also some [VERY REDACTED])

[ocean mulch]

I think limited number of pauses and yeah maybe limited slowdown pool or smthing

I feel like I've seen games which slow down time near the thing slowing down time but have the rest of the game work fine

[fallen blade]

we need starsector pvp with bkb and blink daggers

[ocean mulch]

no getting slowed down from across the planet

[ocean mulch]

okay this is funny but like

unironically

[fallen blade]

i aint joking!!!

[ocean mulch]

starsector is the dota of mount and blade

[fallen blade]

😤

it IS

[ocean mulch]

it's certainly got blink at least

bkb like... fortress shields, maybe

[rotund palm]

Phase Scepter of Divinity

[ocean mulch]

lol

phase is euls

or glimmer maybe

[fallen blade]

low 👏 tech 👏 ships 👏 with 👏 harpoon

[ocean mulch]

lmao

[rotund palm]

https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Eul's_Scepter_of_Divinity

[ocean mulch]

that would go crazy

[rotund palm]

You could definitely do some fun metagame stuff in a PvP Starsectorlike

[fallen blade]

alex wanna make a godot game

[wispy bramble]

ships if they had 3-4 special systems and extra spicy hullmods and weapon load outs...

[fallen blade]

wanna make a godot game that only requires sprites and like no level design

[rotund palm]

Fleet composition and loadout makes for a lot of knobs you can adjust between encounters

[wispy bramble]

Is definitely the sort of game that requires tight audio design

[fallen blade]

oh whoops I tripped and dropped the entire AI War graphics library, which is explicitly free for all indie designers https://forum.thegamecreators.com/thread/160865

i'm such a klutz

[wispy bramble]

Idk I could try and fiddle with something like that, might be a fun challenge

More conventional control scheme than most of the things I've done

Could use something novel to work on maybe

[fallen blade]

https://arcengames.com/free-graphics-for-indie-developers/

[fallen blade]

that does sound like something you'd enjoy working on yeah

you love starsector, you've wanted to do more simple godot stuff, and it'll let you play with udp networking

[rotund palm]

If you do work on that and you'd like a hand, let me know, I've been meaning to try out Godot and learn more about realtime networking

[fallen blade]

fuck yeahhh

power to both of you

and I think @sudden rain does godot stuff as well

[sudden rain]

I have the engine downloaded but mental health is taking priority rn

[fallen blade]

<333 super understandable

[tawny wolf]

Huh
I've been having conniption fits bout my officers piloting ||Ziggurat|| like total clowns and looked it up
I was expectin it to be normal AI phase madness but
Apparently .98 might have outright broken the|| Ziggurat's|| AI

[south vine]

I've been banging my head against godot for a while. There's enough little things that are different from unity that I've been really aggravated. I've actually started building out the core logic of my game in "raw" C# because I'm sick of tossing UI progress in the bin over and over. 😔

[outer solar]

this fleet is the worst

the luddic themed fleet? easy
the wolfpack fleet? easy
THIS FLEET? nightmare

[ocean mulch]

6 Dooms

why tho

[rotund palm]

Amusingly this fleet was actually horribly matched up into my current setup, I've gone with almost entirely beam capitals for this playthrough so the phase ships got demolished

(They probably would have eaten my carriers and frigates alive, but without any capitals of their own there's no reason not to just go capital-blob, so everything below a cruiser took a day off)

[rotund palm]

They couldn't afford a seventh

[ocean mulch]

I just don't like the doom lol

[tawny wolf]

It's something from a colony event, predetermined
||Tritach puts a hit out on you and three themed fleets always try and claim it- a ludfic low tech fleet, a frigate swarm Wolfpack fleet, and an all phase fleet||

[ocean mulch]

it's possible I've been building them wrong, and it's been a while since I've got far in a playthrough, but I feel like they're just too slow for a phase ship

also too big

[rotund palm]

I'm not much of a phase ship player, but you could toss Unstable Injectors on 'em

[tawny wolf]

I prefer the Grendel for its role, as its mounts can really shine with safety overrides, which also fixes the mobility issue

I have been trying to get my mitts on a doom this save to compare and contrast though

[rotund palm]

AFAIK the main strength of the Doom is the system, being able to hit your enemy when they can't interact with you is pretty good

[ocean mulch]

the mines are neat

[tawny wolf]

Yeee, mine strike also really fucks with AI

[rotund palm]

It also evaporates fighters

[tawny wolf]

Nothing else in the game really does 'there is now a bomb behind you'
Omnishield ships freak out

[ocean mulch]

it's been interesting starting a new run, there's so much more weird stuff in the game (positive)

[rotund palm]

I just prefer to play Hyperion and do 'there is now a capital-killer behind you' instead

[ocean mulch]

the hullmod that makes your beams do hard flux

[rotund palm]

Safety Overrides HSA is delicious

[tawny wolf]

I've been wondering what sort of ships to build that on

Safety overriden..... Tempests? But then you're really riding the OP limit

[ocean mulch]

I have just normal HSA on my apogee

[rotund palm]

Phase Lance Wolf is a fun one

[ocean mulch]

it just kinda sits there with omnishields and beams

[rotund palm]

I'm actually not much of an SO user though

Low PPT stresses me out

[tawny wolf]

I've done it on apogee before yeah
High intensity, tactical, and graviton
I always get a little spooked sending a sluggish ship that far into close range though

[ocean mulch]

that's what the dedicated targeting core is for

[tawny wolf]

Well yeah
But your range is still getting cut down enough that the bad guys typically can focus fire

[rotund palm]

It's still so short range with HSA though

[ocean mulch]

it is significantly weaker against anything bigger than it, but it is very good at killing things its size

[tawny wolf]

I wonder if you could do like
Paragon
With its Super Targeting Core built in

[ocean mulch]

paragon hsa is probably evil

[rotund palm]

Fortress Shield also lets it close range better

Extremely kitable though

Aurora might do well with it, it has the mobility to jump its targets

There's also potentially a silly Omen build with HSA, Hardened Shields, and Tactical Beams

Just being tiny obnoxious chip damage machines

[tawny wolf]

Ooooo yeah Aurora or Fury might do

[outer solar]

https://tenor.com/view/grendel-starsector-tahlan-shipworks-gif-942308979712480175

[outer solar]

This is why I’m super wary of battle stations and star fortresses

Especially the high tech ones

They get Doom mines

Meanwhile Midline and Low Tech just get minefields

[outer solar]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/559487902728585216/1362751775811309709/Average_pirate_warship.mov?ex=680388fe&is=6802377e&hm=9af63c8daa2953a14fb907d325720cee3906b228645e41ed6168f4b61c31fe18&

[thorn nacelle]

accurate

duct tape and bubble gum

I always shake my head a little bit at the game

"I know you've got the top-tier unique hulls and a fleet full of s-modded ships, but check this out! You could salvage some pirate variant hulls with 5 d-mods!"

[south vine]

If you've got that perk that buffs D-mods the pirate horde is a v fun strat.

[rotund palm]

You would think that at some point in a non-D-mod-run I would learn to just press the "skip recovery and go to salvage" button after battles

But no

I still have to open the menu every time, even when I know I won't recover anything

[ocean mulch]

I do like being able to restore stuff

[south vine]

I am personally partial to the talent that removes D-mods over time, so salvaging is more of a "well this could be good later..."

[thorn nacelle]

Me too, tbh

You never know

The d-mod remover skill is clutch imo

[rotund palm]

"I'm actively trying to prune my fleet, which is entirely s-modded out, and have a very specific composition I'm working towards, and I know the only thing I fought was Falcon (P)s, Venture (P)s, and Hounds. But what if."

[rotund palm]

CR bonuses, my beloved

[south vine]

I also tend to play with mods like industrial revolution and nex where you can take a bunch of your ships and make a detachment fleet to go do stuff.

So it's a nice way to expand your capabilities.

[fallen blade]

https://bskye.app/profile/amosolov.bsky.social/post/3ln47zbc4zs2l @wispy bramble @sudden rain

[sudden rain]

Oh thank god it's save compatible

[fallen blade]

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=31536.0

[rotund palm]

Adjusted one of Menes' eyes by about a pixel, which somehow makes a huge difference.
Whew, I'm glad that got fixed

[fallen blade]

omg forgot to ping lark i'm a dummy

[outer solar]

Fixed the right armor module on [a unique ship] being less protective than the left

i knew the right vambrace broke more than the left

[tawny wolf]

lmaoooo
I didn't notice until now but yeah the right one almost always broke first

Ohhhh I know what the ziggurat loadout changes are, I saw those happen in the forums while researching the weird AI issues I had

||It's just swapping plasma cannons out for tachyon lances iirc||

[outer solar]

||not sure how i feel about that, it's probably better than plasma cannons tho||

[south vine]

What do folks like for a long range/standoff style fleet composition? Assume no modded factions.
I tend to deprioritize missiles for endurance reasons, but I dunno if I'm just a dummy.

Hydra MDEMs seem goofy as hell.

[outer solar]

quad beam paragon for your capital

eagles are a good option

[outer solar]

no idea how to fight ||threat|| fleets with ||even a single fabricator unit||

[shell schooner]

Reapers

The answer is always reapers

[tawny wolf]

The two approaches I've heard discussed are basically
||Rush fast units in early to tie it up while its printing the first wave||
||Or park a battle line a ways away and shoot down any ship that comes your way until the fabricator runs out of CR||
||The latter needs REALLY good point defense to take out the reclamation wings that ship CR back to the fabricator on death||
||The best approach is probably a mixed approach where you push up in a dense block slow and steady until your in its face- if you go in too fast and your big ships smash face first into a mass of threat ship they won't make it||

[outer solar]

||so i want point defence heavy ships that can steadily progress... just like the onslaught mark 1||

[tawny wolf]

||Yeeee the onslaught mk1 is deliberately loaded out to be the premier anti-threat ship||
||Paladin PDs and Devastators are your friends||

[outer solar]

What ships other than ||the onslaught mark 1|| then

Manticores? Pegasi?

[tawny wolf]

Well
If you're at the point where you're fighting ||Threat,|| snagging a ||Radiant|| isn't out of the question and those can mount a pair of paladins and a brace of burst pd easy peasy
Other than that, uhhhhh
Legions can pack xiphos wings and devastators, manticores are indeed a solid escort

The Anubis is purpose made to be a big lump of PD with a strong shield that can't do much else, and it can also pack Xiphoses and/or Sarrisas

[hard lance]

That'd be one of the Ashes of the Domain (AotD) modules

That was awhile ago my bad

[wispy bramble]

more ||onslaughts||

devastators are good

[outer solar]

that's a really good point

I feel like bundling the Anubis with this update was intentional, considering it's strengths of escort and point defence

[wet finch]

yeah, i agree, it very much seems to be intentional. especially given there wasn't really too much call for a big PD/escort-focused cruiser beforehand

[outer solar]

agreed

not very many fleets that aren't the players use fighters as much as ||the threat||

[outer solar]

No idea what else to put on this

Tachyon lance? Autopulse? Plasma? What about the medium uni slots and other hullmods?

[tawny wolf]

I do auto pulse and sabots myself
Solid support weapons

[outer solar]

sabot pods?

[tawny wolf]

Yes!

Hell considering paladins do energy you could just mount a third one if you want more PD and less flux madness
They can kill small ships alright

[outer solar]

the anubis are useless

wow

they just die the second an ||overseer|| engages the ||assault units'|| ability

[tawny wolf]

What do you have them escorting?

[outer solar]

The onslaught mk1 and the automated onslaught

[wispy bramble]

That does seem a bit redundant

[tawny wolf]

I could see those bein too hyper-aggresive for the Anubis' frail, vaporous constitution
They have really good shield stats but a narrow arc and the Cursed Flux Stats
So they're better off as escorts for a more standoff sort of ship

[wispy bramble]

(I have no particular experience with the Anubis, as it's not a style of ship I find remotely interesting, but Onslaughts don't need much help with point defense, usually)

[outer solar]

I had a Pegasus

[tawny wolf]

Pegasus seems a solid fit
Poor PD potential and a pretty bad shield (iirc), but a much longer range
Pegasi in my experience can clean up vast swathes of smaller ||threat|| ships with hydra mdems but have a hard time dealing with the bigger dudes by themselves

[outer solar]

yea that's what i was thinking

my NEW plan is just

capital spam

paragon, xiv auto onslaught, onslaught mk1 (150 DP)
pegasus and an anubis (68)
22 left, bring a pirate falcon for denying objectives and scouting

[rotund palm]

Paladins being able to shoot over allied ships is surprisingly decent for increasing the amount of firepower you can bring to bear, if you've got an agressive frontline

[outer solar]

240 DP is just too small man

it hurts

[rotund palm]

I should really get around to doing that quest

I finally went and found the ||Onslaught Mk1||

[fallen blade]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=806YRiPWb60

[wet finch]

oh Ludd

[thorn nacelle]

Lark was right about the Buffalos 😩

[frail sequoia]

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo

[outer solar]

decided to get a lot more cruisers

how do i build auroras and gryphons for AI use

because i am completely stumped

[shell schooner]

Old starsector players know to fear the buffalo mk2

[fallen blade]

@amber gorge

[amber gorge]

Thank you

[tawny wolf]

Gryphons are a bit of a crapshoot cuz AI missile discipline is remarkably scuffed
When I find one I usually slap a hammer barrage on front and sabots on side, fill the rest of the slots with what pleases you (likely more sabots)

I don't think I've ever used an Aurora unfortunately
They look like melted plastic

[tawny wolf]

(hammer barrage cuz the scatter catches more agile ships while capitals are big and slow enough that they usually eat the full volley)

[rotund palm]

Hmm, Hammer Gryphon is an interesting call - I tend to avoid them since even outfitted entirely with standoff missiles they love to find their way into facechecking enemy brawlers, Hammers might at least let them punch back

[tawny wolf]

I just see all those forward hard points and go 'ah yes, torpedo barrage'

[shell schooner]

Hammers are good in general to make brawlers not get up in your face

[tawny wolf]

I do love hammers
Reapers are almost certainly better in each respective size bracket but

[shell schooner]

Better for burst, I like the sustain hammers give though

[outer solar]

I'm planning on putting them with a Pegasus

so I may just have them both as squalls and something else similarly long ranged

so i can have a quad hurricane pegasus

[vale seal]

Oh my gosh. That's actually so STUPID! I'm still trying to work out how to even deal with the ||large threat groups|| in my playthrough. Let alone large bounties.

[outer solar]

finally found a build im happy with for these two

[outer solar]

first Hegemony inspection dealt with

im reasonably confident i can take the second on my own

the third though
I need to resist

[outer solar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_4i-yOUmXY

[outer solar]

it's done

[outer solar]

||HE IS SO MAD||

[tawny wolf]

I require a reality check:
Selling heavy blaster blueprints on the black market so pirates start mounting it and overheating themselves
Genius or the opposite of that

[wet finch]

genius, unless you melt before they do

although i don't think too many pirate ships have energy mounts

[rotund palm]

I feel like pirates aren't too upset to get access to a short-range strike weapon, considering how aggressive their doctrine is

Though the only ship that springs to mind that can mount it is the Wolf(P)

Give them an Ion Pulser BP instead, it will be Fun!

[wet finch]

!!FUN!!

[outer solar]

just don't give them any ships that can happily run heavy blasters

do pirates have heavy needlers by default?

what other medium slot ballistics would ruin them

[tawny wolf]

Thumpers

This did remind me that pirates in my save do have furies (somehow, must have misclicked selling a blueprint)
So uh
Maybe no heavy blasters for them

[rotund palm]

They already have Thumpers, I think

They don't have (m)any kinetics though, so they'd quite like needlers

[outer solar]

needlers would be really strong in pirate hands

[tawny wolf]

So, what's your favorite non-special capital ship? As in, not automated, not unique
Refining my fleet comp- Pegasus is amazing but for disintegrating a first wave in huge battles but has low staying power, so I'm trying to build a 'second wave' that can brawl normally with leftovers after the missiles run dry and the pegasi either pull back or blow up

[rotund palm]

Astral and Odyssey are my picks, for basically the same reason - they're both able to provide firepower where it's needed, though by different means

Which I find is generally the most important thing for the player to be able to do

Other officers can brawl fine, but identifying and responding to places your battle line needs help they're less good at

Conquest can also do that, and it's a fun ship to build, but it's too fragile for my tastes as a capital

[wispy bramble]

2-3 onslaughts with good officers and S-mods (with some escorts) solve an awful lot of things in the game

it's hard to pick, though

I like the Conquest, sometimes, and I like the Retribution, sometimes

and the Invictus, sometimes

[tawny wolf]

Retribution is a wild pick
I'm convinced that most of your average retribution is actually painted aluminum foil

I'm interested to hear your thoughts though cuz I want to like it

[wispy bramble]

I mean

[rotund palm]

Oh, I had misread the question as favorite player capital ships

[wispy bramble]

as long as you have a single anchor in your fleet (can be an Eagle, a Dominator, an Onslaught, a Paragon or whatever), you kill the things that are smaller than you, then flank the things that are your size while they're busy

I definitely prefer the Onslaught most of the time, but the Retribution is probably the best ship in the game for killing cruisers and down (and then focusing down the bigger targets)

like, yeah, you're made of paper, you're a battlecruiser, not a battleship

you lose fair fights, so you don't fight fair, which your ship system helps a lot with

[tawny wolf]

I seeee
So you are looking at it as something you drive with your human brain while your AI hold stuff down

[wispy bramble]

oh yeah I wouldn't give it to the AI

[rotund palm]

Basically the same as an Odyssey, then

[wispy bramble]

yeah all the battlecruisers are pretty similar in function tbh

mostly just the Conquest has the option of being a standoff artilley platform

[rotund palm]

It's also tanky enough to entrust to the AI I cannot read

[tawny wolf]

I wish I vibed with pilot controls enough to do the fancy stuff with phase ships and retributions and such

I may try champions with gigablasters or something
Do massed cruisers over capitals for that second wave
I've done enough diktat hunting to have an arbitrarily large supply of their unique weapons

[rotund palm]

To answer the question that was originally asked, I'm honestly very partial to the basic XIV Legion

A bunch of armor and good weapons arcs makes it a solid frontliner, while eight Longbows and two large missiles solve a multitude of woes

It's one of the very few ships with a forward mobility system I don't expect to charge forward and die pointlessly in AI hands

[thorn nacelle]

Mood... I usually just pick a beatstick...

[tawny wolf]

My captain is 'commanding' a salvage gantry and does not deploy into battle lmaooo

[tawny wolf]

XIV Legions with HMGs and Hammer Barrages................................
I just need to like
Find some
My luck has been atrocious with those this run

[rotund palm]

I usually go longer-ranged, with Hurricanes or Squalls, but in-your-face Legions work too

I don't recall if Longbows work with the carrier hug though, or if they'll hit the carrier after staging

[tawny wolf]

For brawling legions I usually use Sarissas or Xiphoses
More Xiphoses

This is.......
huh
Ventures supported by military escort destroyers with wolfpack tactics
Maxing out fleetwide skills

I have a deep love of escort manticores so wolfpack really appeals to me

[hard lance]

This'll probably get within engagement before your Pegasus but Legions have good staying power ime

Normally the one cleaning up the chaff would be me in a Retribution or Nova but on days when I have to turn myself into an IED (this is a genuine tactic I do; I use a rebalanced skill system but lean towards Derelict Operations) I know my Legion has my back

[hard lance]

Semi-related, I thought the same at first until I got used to using strafe lock (where your ship automatically turns to face your cursor) - have you tried that route yet Namo?

[thorn nacelle]

Oh yeah, I find strafe lock a lot more intuitive too.

[outer solar]

I really like the legion ngl friends of mine turned me onto it

Though that’s the base legion not the XIV

I go full bomber on it

Dual tridents and daggers, for Atropos spam

I agree that if I was going brawler id go for sarissas and xiphe with DTA though

[tawny wolf]

A bit, but it still gets weird once you're to the sides or above your target

[outer solar]

https://youtu.be/UDk1MCzW-bs?feature=shared

[rotund palm]

Toggling the default mode to strafe lock and using autofire instead of manual are both necessities IMO

(Though you'll still want to toggle autofire on/off to manage flux and not waste ammo, but not having to worry about aiming makes piloting a lot more accessible)

[outer solar]

also use hold fire by pressing X every now and then

it has it's uses

[thorn nacelle]

I usually keep the "main" guns on manual fire, especially if they're hardpoints/have charges (autopulse lasers etc...)/are very high flux, but everything else on autofire for sure.

I've been really enjoying the radiant, but the nose hardpoints make it difficult for me to aim properly unless I'm controlling them.

Come to think of it, the difficulty there is seeing the weapon arcs... I think there's a mod for that.

[rotund palm]

There is! I sent in a patch for it once

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=13535.0

[tawny wolf]

Well, I've cleared the second coronal hypershunt of the save
Still have found no sleepers

[rotund palm]

Is this where I can find the tautology club?

[tawny wolf]

No, that's an indeterminate number of doors down

[hard lance]

The Knights of Ludd as a mod scares me

I dived into the singing black hole system it adds only to get jumpscared by ||[REDACTED] but ""music"" fans apparently...did I mention they were 4 large swarms, enough to give my 550 DP fleet bonus XP each, and a fifth following suit as I ran?||

I thought I was hot shit with my unique ships and kitted out Nova but that sure humbled me

Only managed to flee with my life because More Combat Terrain Effects makes Solar Shielding cancel a black hole's time dilation effect (meaning I had the fortune of fighting one of the swarms while they crawled)

[rotund palm]

The Elysian Abyss? I haven't gone there yet, but been very much enjoying the rest of the mod

Just started poking around the black pulsars today, these fleets are even ruder than the ones at the Luna Sea, it's great

[mortal hamlet]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/730725141524512839/1365657189754212362/starsector_hullmods_m2-res_1080p.mp4?ex=68120f5e&is=6810bdde&hm=5688706847916d0a517ef4edd46de5ee23ddbcee5ff7597a85bb4bafbab20ce0&

[wet finch]

Oh boy, story blog! Really liked this one (both the questline and the blog post)

https://fractalsoftworks.com/2025/04/29/writing-false-idols/

Spoilers in that for the latest Luddic Church quest, as a heads up, though the post itself mentions that

[fallen blade]

hey guys, approaching infinity just launched - I think of interest to starsector players who also like turn based stuff

https://store.steampowered.com/app/551620/Approaching_Infinity/

Steam

Approaching Infinity

Embark on the limitless cosmic adventure that is "Approaching Infinity," a procedurally generated space exploration roguelike with a nostalgic feel and modern sensibilities.

Think "Star Trek the roguelike", or "turn-based Star Control 2".

…

Price

$16.19

Recommendations

390

▶ Play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egqb_c62jD8

[wintry oyster]

Now, I'm not seeing the connection to Starsector but BUY IT YOU GITS IT'S AWESOME

The dev's an absolute legend

[pseudo crow]

i am on a fucking starsector DEATH MARCH

midline BEST LINE

i snagged the 14th battlegroup conquest and sunder blueprints from chicomoztoc (before i conquered it and made it my own puppet state) and ive been having a blast

escort package lets the sunders do crazy death star shit out to like, paragon ranges, with super tanky shields

and the shroud hullmod makes it so that the usually paper thin sunders can HEAL THEMSELVES and get forcefully pushed backwards when their shields pop

it gives me great great joy. i am going to take over the entire sector

and probably kill everyone

ive kinda beaten the game at this point so all that's left is the true endgame of nexerelin 4x grand sector invasion

[vale seal]

Um. What's a shroud hullmod?

[pseudo crow]

new thing in the new update from spooky enemies in the abyss

[south vine]

Try introducing shroud to the church of ludd for some fun

[pseudo crow]

im saving their introduction for when i plan to raze their worlds and take them for my own, so the rep penalty doesnt matter

funnily enough im doing the pilgrim's path quest and they dont seem to care about the shroud ships, I guess because they're in orbit and I come down to the temples alone

[hard lance]

Do we think now's a fine time to return to modding Starsector? Or Starsector in general?

[dim bloom]

Yeah the new update has been out for awhile so most of the mods will have been updated

[thorn nacelle]

Things are good in the latest update.

[wet finch]

Just don’t mind the unspeakable horrors beyond human comprehension

[frail sequoia]

I'm sure the mod community will make even more horrible things

probably not even 'will', it's probably 'already'

[shell schooner]

HMI already had ||Eldritch meat ships||

at least I think it was HMI

[wet finch]

I think so, HMI has a lot of that kinda stuff

And there’s the one mod that just adds actual creatures around hyperspace

Symbiotic Void Creatures, that was it

[wet finch]

modders know what the people want-

[rotund palm]

False, that's not the legendary Longslaught

[hard lance]

Share your blessings I beg of you

[shell schooner]

Oh this is fun

I really should get back into starsector

[hard lance]

Oh wow

[hard lance]

Yeah same

[wet finch]

ooh, right, the new Ashes of the Domain thingy

that looks cool

[hard lance]

This is from AotD? Sweet

I've been meaning to start a new PT of that

[pseudo crow]

what does aotd even add?

is it compatible with nexerelin or does it just replace it?

[shell schooner]

compatible yes, and it adds a ton of stuff

https://www.ashesofthedomain.info/#Modules

[hard lance]

Was very fun dealing with its additions, especially with a sprinkling of the other exploration mods out there

[pseudo crow]

i dont think the game intends for you to make this much money

this is my current fleet

[south vine]

Goddamn. Are you running colonies? Because if not, you can definitely afford to now!

[pseudo crow]

ive taken over the majority of the sector

[wet finch]

😋
(Spoilered for references to the [super redacted])
|| https://vxreddit.com/r/starsector/s/lfWPjMemhS ||

[fallen blade]

https://twitter.com/amosolov/status/1941960263952892229 @wispy bramble @sudden rain @rotund palm

Alexander Mosolov (@amosolov)

First round of a community-run Starsector pvp tournament! Super cool to see all the different builds and how it all plays out.

(The Anubis, hmm.)

https://t.co/cqQhowPGjJ

X · Jul 6, 2025, 8:39 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJK75eSpWo8

[tawny wolf]

It's so funny to see Ymfah in these
Famed Fromsoft Maniac, with a competitive Starsector side hustle

[sudden rain]

[hard lance]

Oh what they're THAT Ymfah? Damn

[shell schooner]

There's a couple of funny ones like that

like dean hall mods space engineers

[ocean mulch]

Starsector pvp 👁️

[shell schooner]

it's been a thing for many years now, it's great fun to watch

it's one of the ways modders figure out balancing too :v

[pseudo crow]

Is it just player-selected AI fleets? Or do they like somehow manually command both sides

[cold sequoia]

first option, it's ai v ai in the driver seats

[outer solar]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/976888456670224445/1402313398368075816/shuffle.mp4?ex=689cb01f&is=689b5e9f&hm=d3e2346ee77d9bdba3994a66145576f83d5ecc0c24ae85f26469360970d56dd4&

[fallen blade]

https://youtu.be/Yy7BHjIb7vc

[wispy bramble]

https://fractalsoftworks.com/2025/08/18/officer-flexibility/

[wet finch]

Alex continues to cook

[south vine]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/396806074461585411/1407130970293010482/weakest_onslaught_mk1.mp4?ex=68a5a516&is=68a45396&hm=f1f05bd9e4aa745ad975605c765d7bcdc6e5b99952998ec47349f8bfe7199487&

[thorn nacelle]

Accurate

[sharp sedge]

"I only have two things I am concerned about, and that is if I am going fast enough, and if I am hurtling towards a target."

[fallen blade]

https://youtu.be/RO4_Hha12v4

[wispy bramble]

https://fractalsoftworks.com/2025/12/08/support-fleets/

[hard lance]

"Oh, and speaking of things that are going to be in the next release – we’re adding a quick and easy way to lose the game."

Not at all ominous

And I like this addition

I have the tendency to hoard around the endgame so something to help with my endeavors

[fallen blade]

https://youtu.be/V1uc7RKbNtE

[fallen blade]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeHsQm6wnIA

[sudden rain]

UAF UAF!

God that Noveria redo is amazing

[wispy glade]

hello all

question
what is good for skills
I feel like bulk tran and salvage is just objectivly good, but then trying to take anything else somewhat curtails yours possible development paths

also, most of the hullmods can be unlocked in game

[pseudo crow]

depends on ur playstyle

if you command your own ship u should invest in the red skills, you can also get the top blue skill if you want your combat perks to apply to two ships in your fleet

otherwise invest primarily in the yellow blue and green skill trees

it was really fun when i had a neural linked pair, one aurora and one radiant

[shell schooner]

The one that lets you emergency burn for free is huge both for running and intercepting

I play with modded ones nowadays so other than that I'm not sure what's vanilla and what's not anymore

[wispy glade]

main issue with choosing any reds is that your flagship choice is very limited

[rotund palm]

How so? Some reds are style-specific, but a lot of them work well with anything

[wispy glade]

Say I choose ballistic mastery
that wont be worth much on a high tech ship

and that eliminates several options for capitals

[shell schooner]

yeah that's my eternal problem with red skills in general and is why I grabbed a mod that reworked skills

[wispy bramble]

you can respec, so it's not that big of a deal imo

like, story points aren't free, but they're not exactly rare

and maybe you jump ships all the time but I tend to change fairly rarely

[shell schooner]

iirc respec gives 100% bonus xp anyway so might as well be free

[rotund palm]

Sure, as I said, some are style-specific. But things like combat endurance or the maneuverability one or +damage to capitals are all universally useful

Honestly I find it pretty hard to justify not getting at least those three, plus maybe System Mastery, just because a well-piloted flag gives you so much more flexibility in the risks you can take

[wispy bramble]

yeah it's almost like the developer has gone out of his way to cut down on feel-bad scenarios such as being locked into a build you don't like

[wispy bramble]

yeah it's an interesting dichotomy

and is part of why the dev doesn't intend to like, have separate skill point pools for combat versus other types of skills

[rotund palm]

I do adore the bonus exp system, it makes story points feel so much better to use

[wispy bramble]

officers can get combat skills too, but they don't combine all of these with the force-multiplier that is a sapient and skilled player

but a lot of players do drift towards fleet-supporting skills because you're probably always gonna have a fleet and it's going to feel better if that fleet is like, capable

[rotund palm]

Yeah, combat skills in the player's hands are functionally economy skills, since they get you extra salvage and let you spend significantly less on combat ships

Honestly there are very few skills that aren't just good for most playstyles

[wispy bramble]

yeah, very intentional design

never found a mod for it that I liked better than the vanilla

though, hmm, I usually have more points in the industry and technology for the first half of a run than I do by the end

a lot of the logistics skills do kinda become less relevant when you have really good colonies

which I think is a small flaw, but I'm not sure how you'd fix it

[rotund palm]

The one thing I usually mod is the cap at which some of them diminish, since I usually run increased fleet and battle sizes

[wispy bramble]

yeah fair

I used to run increased battle sizes too, but then the vanilla ones went up by a lot

[rotund palm]

But that's me messing up the baseline lol

[wispy bramble]

used to be you'd have what, a max of 100 per side?

which was like... two capitals and a destroyer per (assuming low-dp capitals)

[rotund palm]

I forget, was the +dp from objectives still there? If so you could probably get three cheap capitals!

[wispy bramble]

yeah iirc

[rotund palm]

I should do more Derelict Operations runs

[pseudo crow]

i return to starsector

it looks busted up because i just got out of a fight

having lots of fun timeskipping around lobbing nukes at people

it feels kinda evil

[hard lance]

Oh I was wondering why this Doom looked a bit different lmao

Where's the Nightwalker from?

[hard lance]

I've yet to try majority phase yet, the supplies it costs and the limited storage puts me off a bit

[tawny wolf]

If you haven't tried the Grendel yet, I very much recommend it
Safety overrides, anti armor chainguns, and HMGs
Very fun little killbots

[pseudo crow]

ship/weapon pack

[pseudo crow]

i have concocted a new Utter Bullshit flagship for my personal enjoyment

a Versant from diable with 6 smods and my level 40 player character with every elite skill

edge capacitors + energy weapon mastery make the cryoblaster and built-ins pump out actual capital-level DPS from a frigate, but only if you're on the razor's edge of overloading

i usually die but its very impressive

in other words i have created the HA tokugawa

[fallen blade]

@wispy bramble

[pseudo crow]

ough

voidblasters really are just busted

[pseudo crow]

all the modded bs and i find myself gravitating towards the voidblaster autopulse radiant all the same

[rotund palm]

I'm the same way, I'll be running 100 mods but still flying an Ion Pulser Hyperion

[pseudo crow]

i havent tried the hyperion, but my experience w/ the versant makes me want to give it a shot

[rotund palm]

It's definitely my favorite ship, very satisfying jumping in behind a capital ship and just executing it

[sharp sedge]

Started out as a smuggler, built up a ragtag fleet and went picking fights with the Luddic Path. Got rammed by a fuel tanker and exploded.

10/10 average Starsector gameplay

[tawny wolf]

Fighting the luddic path is fun because they're The Worst AND their ships are extremely good salvage

Luddic Path Manticore my beloved.....

[outer solar]

also even their big fleets tend to go down like a sack of bricks if you're strong enough

because they're all d modded to fuck and tend to have a lot of the point cost in the big ass fragile prommy mark 2

just watch out for the pather manticores and brawlers they still hurt

[pseudo crow]

i had to crack an enormous pather fleet as part of an IBB bounty and it was thoroughly fun

the voidblasters were putting in work for sure

im at the point where ive got a bunch of the one-off IBB ships and i've salvaged my two favorite ships in the entire game, upgrades of the aurora and odyssey

im slightly bored at this point because even w/ all the cool mod ships i still just sorta settle into the aurora and odyssey w/ my endgame fleets

[shell schooner]

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=35147.0

It's happening

[tawny wolf]

LMAO

Is the grendel saved........................

[nocturne summit]

it'll probably help a bunch

super interested in what appears to be a full on diktat civil war

[wispy glade]

Is the best idea to get a big flag?

Also how good are carriers

[outer solar]

carriers are good

they're good for filling in gaps in your lineup

bombers for alpha strike damage and finishers
fighters for harassment and shield damage
interceptors for point defence and escorting

with some strange outliers like the xyphos and sarissa being good for a battlecarrier because it basically acts as both a point defence turret and an ion cannon (they also cannot leave the proximity of the ship they're being carried by)

Mining pods also work like that but they're awful don't use them

[nocturne summit]

the primary purpose of mining pods is to cost no OP to install and soak up hits

in most cases where ships have bays, you want to actually utilize the value of those bays beyond what mining pods can offer, so theyre rarely ever worth it

[nocturne summit]

the player's capacity to intelligently pick fights basically gives you the most important edge
having a powerful flagship is important too, though it doesnt strictly have to be a capital ship

with more mobile ships you can more easily dictate engagements or support existing ones, and usually those tend to be smaller

battlecruisers tend to fill that role pretty well too, like the odyssey and the retribution (the latter is not easy to use tho)

[rotund palm]

Hyperion is my favorite flag in vanilla, being the most mobile ship in the game with the firepower to mince capitals

[tawny wolf]

I've never been able to gel with Starsector piloting but I do love the Grendel a lot
Which is a shame cuz afaik the Grendel is one of the ships with the biggest difference in effectiveness between AI and player control
The bots really don't like the whole 'phase vs armor' calculus they just spam phase and flux out

[rotund palm]

I think a recent patch was supposed to improve that? And IIRC Reckless officers help as well

But yeah

[pseudo crow]

i always end up settling on the aurora

in my modded save im running a Dawnstar (one-of-a-kind modified aurora you get from a modded bounty) with like four cryoflamers

auroran edge capacitors is sort of a safety overrides sidegrade that gives you more fire rate, flux regen and speed at high flux levels. So you sorta just go in like a Tokugawa and cryoflame everything to death

[outer solar]

Player controlled flagships are the best way to use them

except for Those Two that need to be AI controlled

||radiant|| and ||onslaught mk. 1|| also technically the AI controlled ||XIV legion capitals||

[nocturne summit]

Every time i play i kinda veer towards a new different flagship, with only a couple of exceptions

[nocturne summit]

That one is pretty! I have never actually beaten the bounty itself due to being easily sidetracked though

[shell schooner]

ai controlled flagships need a mod to make them smarter to be worth doing

especially broadsiders

[rotund palm]

Do you mean capitals?

[shell schooner]

ah yeah capitals

[rotund palm]

Yeah, you can do some build tweaks to make the AI better at using broadsiders but it has issues with a lot of setups

[shell schooner]

there is a mod that entirely rewrites the ai iirc

it also stops ships from just fucking off by themselves

[nocturne summit]

AI Tweaks is pretty nice yeah

It also makes burst laser pd really strong if you allow the option to make pd beams switch targets after destroying its previous one while still firing

Which....probably shouldnt be a thing lmao

Its there so that the rift beam actually makes use of its rifts

[nocturne summit]

Shoutouts to the onslaught ||mk. 1||, that thing only knows how to close distances and maul stuff

[shell schooner]

And then get several reapers up the exhaust

[wispy glade]

How do I update the game?

[narrow swan]

Like the old days, go to the website and download the latest version

[wispy glade]

how di I transfer save?

[narrow swan]

There is a folder for saves but AFAIK saves aren't back-compatible

[wispy glade]

how many changes did the last updae make anyways?

[pseudo crow]

it is a very tough bounty tbh

[nocturne summit]

Most importantly it added things to do in the outer reaches pf the sector

You cant really carry saves over, not without missing out on stuff and likely also not without running into bugs

Or CTDs

[tawny wolf]

People just making games in other games now,

[wintry oyster]

It's what happens when a game doesn't come out for 15 years or so