Don't forget Light Frigates are paper to LRF's while Carriers are still tough to kill even for LF's and easy to retreat to a repair bay. If the enemy has a decent amount of LRF's it's probably a bad idea to build Light Frigates. If the enemy builds nothing but Carriers then Light Frigates will dominate them.
Funny. I did write about the Egg being another overpowered cap but deleted that as the thread was about Marza. I do think it's way too much that a single cap gets colonize, siege and powerful hull eating / cap busting abilities. I have yet to see an experienced Vasari player pick a cap other than the Egg. The Egg is an "Evacuator" so by definition it should be more defensive in nature. Just like the other two colonizer caps.
The thing is Marza's do win the game. The game comes down to fleet vs. fleet and lvl 6 Marza destroys fleets. Even if you interrupt the Missile Barrage it is still very likely to inflict enough damage with the first few volleys to tip the balance. No other cap can do that including a lvl 6 Radiance with a similar ability. Not to mention a single enemy Marza forces you to build caps with counter abilities. The amount of Marzas you see in multiplayer is a good hint at the cap not being
The Transcencia wouldn't probably be able to pull that off on its own though. That would be the perfect way to attack with a Starbase: build it next to your enemy and bring in the intimidation factor. They would have to deal with the Starbase or face the consequences. Culture war and propaganda go well together with the idea of entrenchment. Culture is really easy to fight as it is but it would be great if you could at least lower an enemy planets allegiance even if you couldn
[QUOTE] A. It is appearant to me that building hostility, or upgrading for destruction is A+ #1 strategy in this game. I have now triend alsmost everything i can think of to start out getting economy booming and then massing a fleet quickly rather than just spamming a bunch of ships and racing off to an nme homeworld. For some reason the winning start always seems to be the guy with the most ships. I was really hoping that this expansion might offer a couple more ways to win than just
I would rather see Starbases with less upgrade slots. Weapon and Defense upgrades are pretty much mandatory so they shouldn't cost upgrade slots at all. And the remaining "customization" slots could be one time deals giving more bang for the buck. Having 2 step upgrades for Trade, Culture and Frigate Factory etc. seems like an unnecessary complication. Don't like the idea of giving Starbases XP as you have no control over what they fight or don't fight.
[quote who="MindsEye" reply="20" id="1999122"]I forgot to mention the PJI structure needs to be extended to entire well so you can place it near your sb and defensive structures. It should be possible to take it out but exetremely hard and not without losses. That means you have to get in range of the sb.[/quote] This sounds good. The PJI should probably be more expensive though.
It's very impressive they can build faster than a fleet of ships can destroy. [e digicons]:|[/e] Like.. building a house when there's a row of tanks bombarding away at you. Funny topic.
Antimatter doesn't count. The Carriers will retreat after losing their Strikecraft. At that point, every ship the strikecraft destroyed will cost resources to rebuild while the Fighters are free. Unless you manage to hunt down the Carriers they win the game eventually. You have to be really aggressive against Carriers which means you have to follow them where the player takes them. Which puts you into a disadvantage already. I can only imagine what it will be like when Carriers can re
Flak is a bad ship because it only kills Fighters and Fighters don't cost anything to rebuild.
Marza deals so much more damage overall than any other cap it's not funny. It's best anti-fleet even though it's a siege cap. It's a beast from level 1 with the massive frontal DPS. Speaking of which... The Kol's "impressive" quadruple frontal laser beams actually have less DPS than a Cobalt Light Frigate. I can support making most other caps slightly more powerful. Especially their low level DPS. But I still think Missile Barrage needs a target cap.
It really shouldn't take half a fleet to destroy something in construction. I made a post earlier about a game where the AI decided to start building a Starbase in the middle of a fight. First the constructor "starts building" right before it is destroyed, simply disappearing and making the damage done irrelevant. Annoying. Then the 6 Destras and the high level Radiance with Cleansing Brilliance who turn focus fire on the "construction site" are unable to destroy the base befo
Basically all upgrades that customize the base or make it useful in a special way (civilian tech or ability) would cost half what they cost now. The idea is that it would be faster and cheaper to build a base that makes a difference. Weapons and defenses wouldn't cost upgrade slots because it's pretty much a given you'd want all of those anyway.
I'm starting to think the Starbase build time was deliberately left that fast for the beta. It makes no sense if you compare it to other build times, Superweapons especially that actually take quite a bit longer to build than Starbases.
Carriers might have their fleet supply cost set too low. Strikecraft behave differently from all other ships in the game. They are expendable. They cost nothing to rebuild. This gives a huge economic advantage to a carrier fleet if you know how to keep the carriers alive. And that's not too difficult with their massive hull and shields, advent especially. Carriers also have flexibility no other ships has in the ability to choose whether to build Fighters or Bombers. They can a
[quote] The thing is, if enemy is so ignorant that he lets you ff for building 3 marza and getting them to lvl 6 - h deservs all that is coming his way. its like letting people tech for RA or percevasive eco...[/quote] That's besides the point. People can be ignorant in thousands of creative ways and it doesn't have to involve a Marza. The point is that Missile Barrage is so grossly overpowered it makes all other TEC caps obsolete.
I think mines should be cumbersome to sweep. What's the point otherwise? They are meant to delay fleets and blow things up. But the minefields need to be reasonable and limited in size instead of nonstop spam.
I still can't picture a Starbase, even Vasari, being built under hostile conditions. Bombers from a single Hangar Bay would completely destroy everything faster than you could possibly build. This has to be represented by a really long build time and a targettable constructor frigate. Even the Superweapons take much longer to build than a Starbase, the biggest most powerful thing there is. Weird I say. If the Vasari absolutely must have the ability to build Starbases i
1 Tactical Slot per minefield would be good. 1 Minefield per Minelaying ship would also be appropriate. The Ruiner can have anti-structure weapons as an upgrade so it has something to do after the mines are laid.
No other level 6 ability instantly decides a big battle once you get it off. The new Missile Barrage was a fun novelty for a while, now it needs to go. I'm sure we'll miss it. [e digicons]:'([/e]
Had a pic, couldn't post it, nevermind.
I also thought about Starbases having XP but came to the conclusion that it's pointless since they are defensive in nature. Your enemy can choose not to fight your base hence base never getting any XP and staying weak. If the base gradually gets XP for free that's no different from build times.
ARGONEV CLASS STARBASE Base values: Hull 9000 Armor 6 0 Shields, no mitigation Laser batteries (Short range, can target strikecraft but less accurate than Flak) UPGRADES | 4 SLOTS (note that all upgrades don't cost a slot and metal and crystal prices aren't listed) Weapon 1: Heavy Laser Beams (Medium range) [1800 credits, 0 slots] Weapon 2: Missiles (Extreme range) [1
[quote]- The long range weapon should hit all ships except defense busters.[/quote] I'd say the extreme long range weapons needs to outrange everything including the defense busters. Defense busters would still be able to take down all other planetary defenses without taking a shot. With the new improved planetary defenses I'd say that's no small feat. The Starbase would be able to fire back but with only one weapon so the defense busters would still be able to wreac havoc. Ta
Balancing the Hangar Bay upgrades for Starbases would go a long way to deal with Bombers. Also for Bases that are built in asteroid fields etc. It just doesn't feel right that the lasers don't fire against swarms of enemy Bombers. Same with Caps, they just sit there and take the punishment without pulling the trigger.
