Thank you for your posts so far.
I find Novalith spamming only of limited use..... if you are lucky you get off a few surprise shots that kill a few colonies..... before your enemy enacts counter measures. With the money spent on the Novaliths, you rarely will be capable of going offensive with your fleet.
That leaves lategame..... where even 5 or 6 Novaliths do little more than to make a slight dent into the enemy economy.
Especially against TEC Rebels, who have access to the planetary shield generator, too, which counters all but the most vicious Novalith hail quite good.
Now with social upgrades the effect is likely more noticable..... but it is still far to weak to FORCE your enemy into attacking you.
As the Anklyon below Level 6 is a terrible ship for offensive purposes against fortified enemies, there is very little you can do.
Your enemy often will not choose to sacrifice his fleet on your mighty defenses, instead he will ignore the annoying but non threatening Novalith fire until he has the fleet necessary to wipe you out, even with 2 Starbases.
That strategy also denies the Anklyon XP and so it may never get access to Inspire and Impair.
Their early game is great...both akkan and marza are fantastic leads and cobalt is solid LF...they have great repair and can get all early ships with only 2 labs...add on best corvette ability and they have solid early game for frontlining...if in eco, they have akkan colonize, modular architecture, tier 2 trade and a host of awesome economic techs....add on nova spam and better ability to quickly rush defenses, and you have an excellent faction at all stages and in all roles in a game...
You mostly name general TEC things with the exception of Corvette ability (see above) and Nova Spam. (see above)
In what way TEC Loyalist can better rush defenses?
I am not certain about that to be honest.
Vasari defenses with OP Disruptor Nanites, Phasic Trap on Hangar Defenses and mobile Orky + the ability to recall the entire fleet within 1 minute to any besieged system imho is at least equal.... if not superior.
Twin Fortresses suffers highly from being just as vulnerable to bomber spam as one starbase. And even two starbases can be easily avoided in most gravity wells, forcing you to fortify every backyard world too. Which becomes way to expensive, even for TEC.
TEC Loyalist mostly shine in "The last stand" type of engagements where the enemy can neither avoid the planet or fly by the starbases. There well supported twin fortresses + Anklyon can inflict grievous losses even in 2v1.
At least until they enemy realizes you are down to one planet and that he can culture kill you.
Not to mention that this situation does rarely happen in normal games.... nor you wish it to happen as it means you are basically loosing.
they also have the best corvette in the game.
Agreed.
TR is the problem faction....in eco, they have TAR which is either boom or bust depending on how many eco players you have and how much feed you need to provide early....best case scenario, TR are better than TL in mid-game eco...but TR's titan is the worst titan in game, their corvettes aren't as good, and they don't have any nice end-game strategy like TL do....
Without TAR their eco is just as good as TEC Loyalist eco..... not a particularly strong weakness... if one at all.
Yes, their corvettes are average.
I am uncertain about the Ragnarov being weakest titan to be honest.
The only weapon on the Ragnarov that suffers from a somewhat limited arc is the - underpowered (for its size) - railgun.
The Gauss guns have pretty good arcs.
Even without those... it should be noted that the Ragnarov has arround 74 % of the sidewards firepower of the Ankylon.
Being LEFT or RIGHT to the Ragnarovs muzzle does hurt 74 % as much as being broadsides by the Ankylon.
In terms of sideward firepower the list goes the following:
Anklyon: 99
Vorastra: 90
Ragnarov: 74
Eradica: 65
Kultorask: 50
Coronata: 13
The autocannons are quite powerful and more often than not they are supported from the frontal gauss guns, bringing the level probably up to Ankylon broadsides.
Both TEC factions have the advanced maneuverability upgrade, making their Titans comparable agile. Without TEC Loyalists Corvettes, outmaneuvering an Ragnarov is not exactly easy, especially as the only real weakspot is from behind.
On higher levels of scattershot and explosive shot, most frigates die quite quickly while the armor debuff makes massacring high priority targets far easier.
Dont focus on snipe that much anymore.... unlike earlier it is no longer the "end of all" but a long range weapon designed to hit the enemy on the approach and to pulverise fleeing capitalships.
Add overcharge to Scattershot or Explosive shot and your fleet is in a world of pain.
Certainly the Ragnarov can be AM drained too.... but unlike the Ankylon or Kulturask, it does not become helpless prey afterwards. The firepower of its weapons is more than enough to force that level 6 Kortul into retreat or destruction, something the Anklyon can never hope to achieve.
The only real weakness of the Ragnarov is its somewhat fragility on LOWER levels.
As TEC are the durability and repair experts of this game, this issue is usually quickly solved..... and there is nothing fragil anymore about a Ragnarov Levels 3 and above.
Imho Furios Defense should grant the Ankylon a small AM regeneration.... just enough to mitigate 1 or 2 AM draining mid level Kortuls.
No other Titan in this game is so vulnerable to AM draining..... and attacking and digged in Vasari with Disruptor Nanites is pretty much impossible..... 5 minutes without abilities make the Ankylon as good as worthless.
And the only TEC Loyalist endgame strategy is Novalith spamming... which doesnt do much against a late game economy of a player with remote understanding of the game.
Quoting Sinkillr, reply 4Are you trolling?
Give me one that's worse and I will tell you why it's not....[/quote]
Ankylon
- Favourite target of all AM draining ships
- Incapable of doing anything meaninful to said AM draining ships due to lack of firepower or powerful AOEs.
- Helpless against Kortuls
- Can be ingnored below level 6 until your forces have bombed the planet back to the stone age.
- Must be played extremely agressive in the earlier stages to gain XP, preferable without capital support.
- Needs basically all abilities at level 4 and all weapon and amor upgrades, too.
- Disruption Matrix does not enough damage to be a damaging AEO, but does not disable abilities for long, either.
Ragnarov is good for only one thing: focus firing...it's main "AoE", scattershot, is generally easy enough to avoid...I'm no micro expert, and even I can easily micro my LFs around the Ragnarov, keeping them away from the front...while you might get a lucky shot with it, most players are smart enough and capable enough to outmaneuver the ship and avoid scattershot altogether....the armor debuff from scattershot is nice, but since you are likely only going to hit a few things with it, it basically is another ability that helps focus firing (by debuffing the target you are trying to kill)...
Why would you use LF against a Titan? I somehow doubt that this will work against Titans above level 2 or so.
Assuming you can avoid the front for a while..... how long will it take until a competent player will try to counter that?
I think you should try Scattershot and follow with a possibly overcharged explosive shot..... not much left of most fleets afterwards.
Enemy Titans and capitalships will likely have significant trouble in staying away from the Ragnarovs front.... and as long it can use its abilities..... it is indeed the most deadly Titan from the front.
is an AM hog and at low levels won't getting too many snipe shots off..
Dont use snipe on low levels for anything but opening shots and nailing fleeing ships of importance.
You cannot compare snipe to Unity Mass..... Snipe is a long range attack... Unity Mass is a short range sledgehammer, on a Titan that only has Supression Aura as another useful ability.
Another sad thing about Ragnarov is that other than its frontal DPS, it's total damage is actually subpar...
Is it?
It does certainly beat the Ankylon.
TOTAL FIREPOWER (all weapons, all banks)
Ankylon: 286
Ragnarov: 333
Coronata: 388
Eradica: 483
Vorastra: 372
Kulturask: 356
FRONTAL FIREPOWER:
Ankylon: 46
Ragnarov: 150
Coronata: 216
Eradica: 291
Vorastra: 180
Kulturask: 194
AFT FIREPOWER:
Ankylon: 43
Ragnarov: 37
Coronata: 146
Eradica: 18
Vorastra: 12
Kulturask: 63
LEFT OR RIGHT FIREPOWER:
Ankylon: 99
Ragnarov: 73
Coronata: 13
Eradica: 65
Vorastra: 90
Kulturask: 50
Unity mass does have higher damage though, but its easily balanced by the fact that its damage is dependent on the number of ships surrounding it, which is definitely something that is easier said than done due to the game's horrid ai/pathfinding...
To be fair.... having enough ships in the rather generous radius is rarely the issue.
https://www.sinsofasolarempire.wikia.com/wiki/Unity_Mass
It maxes out at nearly 9000 damage points,..... that does leave a mark... even on high level Titans.
Maw still works against all ships (bug?)
BUG, already on the fix list.
Generally speaking, a defensive faction needs to have some incentive for the enemy to try attacking the fortified worlds, fighting the war on the terms of the TEC Loyalists.
The developers knew this... and so they invented Novalith deregulation.
The problem is... the novaliths are not up to the job. They dont do enough damage to force an attack..... and they dont do enough economic damage to grant your fleet significant numerical superiority.
There is a certain imbalance in the Novaltih defense.... leaving the planetary shield generator aside, there is nothing but a starbase that counters it. So without starbases it is actually quite powerful.
But once starbases come up.... it goes from powerful to basically useless and at best slightly annoying.
What could be done to make the Novaliths of the TEC Loyalist more useful?
Suggested general TEC Loyalists Balancing adjustments:
- Make Furios Defense regenerate a bit of antimatter/make the Anklyon (mostly) immune to AM draining
- Add a halfway acceptable anti bomber defense on TEC Loyalist starbases.... maybe with the Twin Fortress Upgrade? Late game large bomber fleets make Twin Fortresses mostly a waste of money at the moment.
- Militia Weapons should grant a 30 % range increase of all weapons... or at least on starbases. 30 % more range is not particularly useful in ship VS ship battles.... but it would make it a lot more difficult to avoid starbases.... especially if there is an Akkan present, too.
- Make Novalith a reason to engage TEC Loyalist on their home turf.
again
What could be done to make the Novaliths of the TEC Loyalist more useful?
