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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Lucrehulks

« on: August 23, 2017, 06:48:53 PM »

Are we playing the same game lol!?!?! You're talking about the little dingy with lasers and crappy turbos? I feel the Nebulon B outclasses the hell out of it in literally every category. Am I missing something?

Don't diss mah boi the Arquitens ;_;

Mostly comes from my bad experiences with the Carrack with its 50 ion bank (kills militia so slowly), but yeah: cheapest starting frigate in the game with good enough weapons (22 turbo, don't care about laser). No one's disputing Nebulon B comes first, of course, as strong frigates are the NR's signature; but in terms of cost-efficiency, I love the Arquitens.

All I can say is this: trying capital-less expansions (except for the first free one you get) with all factions, PA's Arquitens swarm gets me to 6 planets the fastest and "feels" the best. NR's still good but expensive (though they last longer to blunt the first enemy wave), IR's is complete shit with Carracks, and EoTH's Frouro swarm not as good as just massing Syndics.

Think about it: with the other frigates, you're paying for their extra weapons banks of ion (Carrack), laser (Nebulon) and laser/squadron (Frouro), plus random abilities (Ionic Disruption, Dodge and Blockade Runner, Range Extension). None of these kill militia very well. With Arquitens, you pay 180 and get exactly what you need (passable turbo) without all the frills, allowing you mass them up fast.   

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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Lucrehulks

« on: August 22, 2017, 07:13:46 PM »

Ahh, PA is probably swarming you pretty hard, and their ships are always many levels higher than yours so your starting capitals will melt, Lucres or not. As you said yourself, you'll need to hide behind your defensive walls until you get out your titans (as IR) or your fleet of New Class ships (as NR).

I play exclusively Emperor, and online with all matchups. The only really one-sided balance issue I found and expressed on the forum (taking faction matchups as whole, not comparing individual elements) was EoTH's ineffectual "ethos" (their supposed speed) in the Sins engine and thus their issues lategame. Corey addressed it a bit in the beta by extending EoTH weapons range.

Hence, if you really feel Lucres outclass ISD-Is and MC-80s too much for a starting capital, you can list the reasons why and I'm sure the devs will at least read it through.

My opinion of the Lucre is this: extra health wasted as a starting capital during the expansion stage when you really want to kill and expand fast, 2 weapons banks only means poor scaling with levels (and again, poor starting utility), but most importantly, lacking that one signature ability/abilities (Syndic's Cloak, Jump, and Megamaser, MC-80's Boarding Party, ISD-I's Mole Miners if you go Pallaeon) that scales it into the lategame (Bulwark is its "best" ability and it's already underwhelming). In my opinion, one of the worst starting capitals... which is fine because PA has one of the best starting frigates, the Arquitens.

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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Lucrehulks

« on: August 22, 2017, 03:16:56 PM »

It could also be the PA AI; some people have remarked that it's excellent at sending a swarm of capitals. What difficulty are you playing against?

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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Lucrehulks

« on: August 21, 2017, 10:19:59 PM »

I wouldnt say the lucrehulk is over powered at all, the only reason why they are viable late game is because of their bombers.

That's my understanding as well. My note for them is literally, "get these if you want Skiprays late, otherwise no."

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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Lucrehulks

« on: August 21, 2017, 03:01:46 PM »

Did they change some stats or abilities around or something? My impression was that they're tanky but otherwise one of the worst starting capitals. I'll look at them tonight.

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6

Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Ascendancy Daily Screenshot Thread

« on: August 05, 2017, 08:14:14 AM »

PA ships are too freaking beautiful, plz nerf Ansel Hsiao. I've always loved the Venator's design, and with the Secutor, Praetor, and Bellator, I just have way too much eye-candy; I literally can't micro because I keep zooming in and salivating over them, which is quite a serious balancing issue. If we could somehow get the Assertor Star Dreadnought (I don't even care if it was just the model with no weapons or hull), I'd be PA for lyfe. Just hand-wave and say Kaine wanted to pimp his ride and ditch the boring Executor It's not even cool anymore, like, everyone has an Executor but at least Daala's is black lol.

Also, I feel like you guys shouldn't have made the EoTH Peltast, now the other EoTH ships just make me want to cry I guess it was two different artists who worked on the initial roster and the later Peltast; very different design choices. EoTH's strikecraft are to die for, however, simply gorgeous and a shame since you forget to zoom in on SC most of the time.

Love the IR's Allegiance reskin, looks stunning; I think the World Devastator could use one as well, or maybe just deviate from the Rogue Squadron design since, to be perfectly honest, whoever made that model wasn't a very talented designer (great game though); and I wish we could've picked some other ship than the Torpedo Sphere because it's a Torpedo Sphere, and it doesn't matter how cool the lore is if the designer just said "how about a hard-boiled egg that bombs planets? ayylmao muh concentric rings of proton launchers doe, das creative"

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7

Ascendancy Discussion / Re: "All-Around" SC (and weapons banks question)

« on: August 05, 2017, 07:33:50 AM »

The lasers on something like a TIE Bomber and TIE Fighter aren't any different except in some damage and sometimes firing rate...

Very cool, thanks Corey! That's interesting then, since TIE Bombers have something like 8 laser to the Fighter's 2; within their immediate vicinity, they could probably do an even better job clearing enemy SC. I'd imagine "researched" interceptors are the ones with increased firing rates.

Since SC tend to oscillate back and forth along an axis between two opposing carrier groups, and the inefficiency of "fighter"-coded SC having to wheel about and chase other SC (unless they're significantly faster)... "bomber"-coded SC could actually be a lot more useful as they can engage enemy SC en-route along the axis, snipe enemy SC as they are remade at the source, and put damage on enemy ships as well.

I guess you can't really mod SC speeds; in SoGE I remember being confused by the E-wing having the same tooltip stats and speed (tested by racing two squadrons end-to-end) as the X-wing despite being a researched, "superior" fighter (and I still don't know in what way it's superior). Otherwise, having elite interceptors be noticeably faster would really help them chase down enemy SC more efficiently and gain air superiority before the bombers have done all the damage they can do and the battle is already over. 

In some of Sins' earlier builds, people used to recommend all-bomber squadrons due to the inefficiency of SC-to-SC combat, and relied on flak for point defense. I think that changed as we came up to Rebellion when fighters got a buff to damage against VeryLight bomber armor, and could really "strip the skies clean".

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8

Ascendancy Discussion / "All-Around" SC (and weapons banks question)

« on: July 31, 2017, 04:05:46 PM »

That is, the supposed "ultimate" strikecraft like the NR's K-wing and IR's TIE Defender. Note that both of these strikecraft are coded as "bombers"; they prioritize targeting ships. 

My question is, do these strikecraft still take down enemy SC during their bombing runs, despite their behavior? I also notice other SC like TIE Bombers have laser weapons as well; I guess these lasers differ from the lasers on a standard TIE (i.e, I can't imagine TIE Bombers shoot down enemy SC en-route)? Just wondering if I should still mix in TIE Interceptors with Defenders for proper SC defense, given the Defender's "bomber" behavior, or if the Defenders do a 2-in-1 job of shooting ships and enemy SC both (but just prioritize movement towards ships).

In the same vein, many ships have 2 banks of the same weapons (e.g, turbolaser, turbolaser, ion). Are they different weapons the same way a TIE Bomber's laser (I'd assume) differs from a TIE's laser?

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