Posts by Hubris

Please clarify...

I understand the Kossac is banned. \

Is the Lagg banned as well or is that still legal to purchase...

seems like a nice alternative to a shroud for someone that wants something a little lighter.

Thanks!

osiris - I subscribe to the classical greek definition of Hubris rather than the diluted modern interpretation that Webster has chosen to use.

Odyseus was a classic characterization of Hubris - Belief in one's self and determination to question the status quo and challenge even the gods - often leading to tragic deaths when the gods decided to put the 'smack down' on them. <grin>. Hopefully I won't carry the characterization that far as I would hate to invoke the wrath of OP and wake up one day to find myself in a starflyer in the middle of DK space

yeah, the codenames are great. they're more balanced against the lvl 9 guns though too. They weren't created to replace dogfight weapons, but for a different purpose.

Each has a flaw. all over them have lower muzzle velocities (600-700). The also have shorter ranges (600-700). Average damage (=rate of fire x damage) usually comes in around 2400, versus almost 3000 for the PPC/GC guns.

These slower, heavier projectiles are best used against cap ships or freighters. They are really tough to use in PVP dogfighting...if you can do it, then I tip my hat to you, because I can't

This leaves room for two loadouts...LVL 9 guns for dogfighting and LVL 10 codenames for smashing big slow targets.

By creating guns that have more power than codenames and are actually better (faster & longer range) in dogfighting than lvl 9s, this creates a situation where you don't have to compromise or make decisions about how to load your fighter. Because the best gun for busting cap ships is also the best gun for dogfighting.

ha ha, you misunderstand my desire...as a player in a game, I like to exploit the full potential of my fighter just as much as any other person. I will work for every opportunity to give myself an edge in combat. I've looked at and tried almost every VHF out there to figure out which one is the best. The fact is, there is no BEST fighter. There are a whole bunch with slight variations that allow each person to pick one they like without feeling like they are giving up a competitive advantage.

[example] if OP made the Redemption a PC fighter, I'd go out and buy one right away. It carries 6 class 10 guns, has 20% more armor, it's 12% faster and it's about 15% more maneuverable than any other VHF in the game. In the hands of equally skilled pilots, a Redemption would give a clear advantage. As a player would I like one? He** yea...Do I think that it would be a good idea for OP to add it to the game? NO. If he did that, then soon everyone that wanted the best would be flying Redemptions and then we'd all be asking OP to create a Shroud Mk2 and a Saracen Mk2, etc.

[BACK ON TOPIC] are these guns kool and well thought out? Yes, he put a lot of thought into their design and I think they'd add variety to the game. Most of these guns, or at least the essential diversity, exist already in class 9 guns. If we want more diversity in weapons choices without giving up the competitive edge against our opponents...why don't we look at the reason(s) that the diversity has been limited already? PPC & Coali Gatling. They deal out almost 3000 points of damage/second, have a 1500K range and a muzzle velocity of 1000K.

Wasn't the Coali Gatling even more powerful before? There were two choices, lower the power of the C.G. or raise all of the other weapons up to match it. Which one happened?

Don't worry, if the guns take too much power...we can always ask OP to produce a Weapon Power doubler to compensate...

of course then we'd need Armor Triplers and Shield regen of 40%.

Do you see a theme here? LOL???

corsairs do seem to jump around a bit much...it's not lag either, because it happens in SP and in MP, even when everything else is smooth. I guess they need the help to survive, but it's awfully eratic.

Funny I got to the same point..I couldn't get past the "kill the satellite" mission...the Kusari ship didn't pack enough punch and the Anubis turns like a brick...couldn't keep up with the liberty ships. Up until then I was doing pretty well.

hey Blaster, you are totally right on!

This is the best !@#$ FL mod I've ever played. I love it, I play almost every day and I plan on continuing to do so.

- It has an amazing universe to explore
- pretty darn close to flawless coding (great job OP...hope you got my donation I sent via paypal)

Most of all though, it's the community that makes this mod great. I've met a lot of really great people...even the ones I fight are friendly after we shoot each other to bits.

If I didn't love it so much, I wouldn't have bothered to even start this dialog. It's because I love it, and because I was laying awake in bed last night thinking about it, when I should have been sleeping, that I started this conversation in the first place.

(OP no more "ubers" I promise )

LOL! well, I wasn't going that far...although, a pea, accelerated to a respectable velocity would do a lot of damage...remember it would be frozen solid

LOL...not quite...

CA and the rest of the Design team have been working their tails off to create the ASF vs CSF overlay campaign. it's really cool and one of the things it's going to do is actually make it dangerous to fly around again. Transports are going to have to plan for escorts. There's going to be this great sense of nervous energy as ships make runs across enemy territory for the best trade route or to raid a neighboring system. We're all going to be watching and planning our moves based on where our opponents are. we're going to get to plan team incursions because one of us alone won't be tough enough to make it through.

I guess when it gets down to it, all I'm asking, is...if we weren't all flying around in kitted out ships, wouldn't some of this excitement already be present, already built into the core game? I remember playing SP and actually being fearful about running through systems that I wasn't friendly with for fear of being jumped by the local defenders...This is exactly what CSF vs ASF roleplay is going to do.

@Azadur...

Great idea, so to fix the problem that all the players are flying uber fighters, we give the NPCs uber fighers too...

But we can't because that would make SP even more difficult than it already is.

besides, that would just start another round of power escalation. That's exactly the opposite direction that I'm suggesting we look towards.

@CA, that's really cool!

Tell me about your pure fighters? what weapons besides PPCs or Coali Gatlings have you found that make for good primary weapons? Cuz I've been looking all over, I've tried Nomad guns - too slow 600m/s can't keep up. I've tried Named weapons - most of them have a refire rate of 2 and the ones that are 3.03 usually only do around 650 dmg.

I'd sincerely love some other suggestions for how to load out a combat fighter...are there any weapons that I haven't found that have at least a refire rate of 4.00 that stand a chance against PPCs?

Yep CA...you're right...but there's that whole escalation issue again...now the NPCs have to fly shrouds to have a chance.

I parked in the middle of New Tokyo - at the time the Kusari Police and Navy didn't like me much...I walked off and made lunch...when I came back, I'd been jumped by 4 Kusari Navy heavy fighters...they were throwing everything they had at my ship and my shields were regenerating almost as fast as they could do damage. Even if they had knocked my shields down...they still had over 20000 points of armor to get through...

What about one day where all the top players pick their fav Vanilla ship, with their fav vanilla weapons loadouts? Maybe a special event like a smuggler hunt. I bet that you'd find that it would be just as much fun, the PVP would be just as challenging and you'd actually have to watch out for that random flight of Unioners or Blood Dragons.

CA...you're probably right...I'd just have to invite some m8s along to help me out...that would promote team play

Again, I agree...when I first tried CF in singleplayer, I sent you an email OP. I complimented you on an amazing mod but said that I was a bit overwhelmed trying to survive in a starflyer against a pack of liberty rogues...you took the time to send me a response back...

You told me that CF was really balanced for MP.

So, there's two distinct levels of play right now...

A) you're a small fry new player (or SP) and you get trashed by NPCs because of their regen abilities against your wimpy class 3 guns

B) you're an MP player with a killer VHF, class 10 guns and all the other toys and NPCs (not including DK) are just targets without a chance of actually winning.

All I'm proposing is a middle ground where players in normal fighters can have challenging fights against NPCs.

I'm thinking that if you put CA, Argos, Gunny & StingRay in Drakes or Patriots and they duked it out in PVP...the fight would be just as intense and just as fierce as it is now in Shrouds, Saracens and Karaks.

The difference is, when they weren't PVPing and were just flying around, they'd have to at least be a little worried when they got jumped by a pack of 6 corsairs.

Gosh Blood... I hope you're joking...I'd hate to think that the community is so set in it's ways that even discussing new ideas is verboten.

I totally agree OP...MK2 fighters shouldn't be introduced. The reason for needing them in MP could be fixed if Player equipment wasn't so incredibly powerful relative to NPC universe.

PPCs use way more energy - but not so much that I can't shoot all day and never run out of power as long as I have a power booster.

Equipment is more expensive - show me a dedicated player without a train and a couple hundred million in cash reserves sitting around? Since the NPC pirates are no longer a threat to PC trains, they can run around all day making money with no risk.

It's great the DK are all over the server, but there's all these other NPC factions that don't stand a chance...what about Rogues? Mollys? Corsairs? Blood Dragons...all of the traditional NPC factions are simply fodder now. If the Players weren't flying nearly indestructable (from an NPC standpoint) ships, then you wouldn't need to keep inventing stronger and stronger NPCs to keep up...this is exactly the Power Escalation that I was referring to.

yeah, they're a pain...

but DK are supposed to be REALLY dangerous Bad-A$$ creatures...maybe even something you that wouldn't try to take on alone.

the point is, you shouldn't have to fly all the way to the edge of the universe to find an NPC that is actually a challenge.

That's exactly the issue...The only place where there's a challenge is in the extreme cases. If you eliminate the extremes, then the mid-level stuff becomes more challenging and more fun.

When's the last time you got stopped by NPC pirates in the core systems and got a little nervous, wondering if you were going to survive the fight? If you're all kitted out then all you do is complain that they slowed you down by shutting down the trade lanes and ignore the fighters.

I keep hearing the quote from Disney's The Incredibles...the quote goes something like "When everyone has super powers, then nobody is super"

If you're with me so far, we've gotten rid of Boosters, AND we've reduced the effects of Bats & Bots.

Guess what? we don't need Uber weapons anymore. Let's face it, ask ANY veteran player out there what weapons they mount and there's really only two choices for primary weapons - the "Uber-Guns" = PPCs and Coali gatlings.

There's a TON of really cool class 9 weapons out there that go totally un-used because the Uber-guns are so much better.

Sure, they are expensive and hard to get, but again, getting enough money is only a matter of time and every veteran player has enough time and money to get them, so everyone uses them.

Wouldn't it be more interesting if you went into a PVP not knowing for sure what kind of primary weaps your opponent would have? Some may have slow firing heavy hitters while others might choose high rate of fire gatling-type weapons. Right now this doesn't happen. I bet that 9 out of 10, if not all 10 of the players you face will mount one of the two Uber-guns.

Get rid of them...since everyone doesn't have Boosters, you don't NEED Uber-Guns to PVP anymore.

We don't use them in PVP, and we don't need them against NPCs...

What if you just got rid of them or reduced the number that ships could carry.

Then you could reduce NPC Bat & Bot use and reduce NPC shield regen.