tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60778689829492425662024-03-01T00:39:43.035-05:00The Battle Pirates ProfessorAn independent blog about the Battle Pirates game by Kixeye. Analysis to help you pick the best builds and strategies.The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.comBlogger209125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-68384914900822974552018-05-12T22:29:00.001-04:002018-05-12T22:29:14.449-04:00I'm Done<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well readers, it's been fun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But now it isn't.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy sailing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(I finally used my free name change)</span></div>
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The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-43437287296974735472017-04-15T10:23:00.001-04:002017-04-15T10:23:08.217-04:00Espionage - the Tough Love edition<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, there have been the usual set of complaints over the last month about how the new "skill" & "auto" hulls have been rolled out... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skill hull: Not enough time to build that fleet </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Auto hull: Very expensive for a non-top shelf hull</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In <a href="http://bpprof.blogspot.com/2017/03/ranking-rank-icebreaker.html" target="_blank">my last article</a> I described the Icebreaker as "rank" and wasn't sold on it. I think its performance in this raid has borne out my prediction - it is really only good in the 60s, not the 80s (note: using the "tier" terminology has gotten too confusing).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I managed to get 2 Monoliths completed with 74% rank for this raid too. But my favorite fleet for doing this raid is... the Punisher / Harlock Citadel fleet I've been doing the FM with for the last year. This is Kixeye's gift to us. Anyone with a decent FM fleet should be able to blast through A sets on this raid and not spend any coin doing it. There's lots of videos and information on the FB pages about how to do it, so I'm not going to repeat any of it here. <b>I like the Punisher even better than my Zelos tank</b> - the slower speed of the Punisher is a better match for the Citadels, and it also makes it easier to stop in the right spot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So <b>here's the tough love part</b>: <b>If you can't do this raid, you are not good at this game</b>. The universal piece of advice that just about every knowledgeable player agrees on is that you have to be able to do the FM to succeed in this game. Do you know any players that are good base hitters, good at getting Uranium and Base Parts, but just can't crack that FM? If you don't have a decent Pun / Cit fleet, or at least Novas with some sort of anti / tank spotter... what the hell have you been doing with your shipyard for the last year? Don't tell me because your answer is wrong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The most important thing to think about right now is that you need to come out of this raid cycle with a fleet that can do this raid cycle. </b>The Icebreaker & its weapon/special are kind of expensive at 40 million points for the second-rate hull, but think about getting a Harlock Citadel and Citadel build tokens ... OK?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm also going to talk <b>Monoliths for the top tier players</b>. The main reason I didn't like the Monoliths I built is that the shells were too slow. My build left off the High Velocity Rounds since I though the shells would fall fast enough with the built-in Projectile Speed. I plan to fix that as I build out my Monolith fleet. And <b>what about the Gridiron</b>? Read on...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously you need to stop out of range of the Coldsnap rocket turrets to succeed in this raid. And obviously you need enough antis on your tank. But beyond that, the <b>real skill part of this raid</b>, and the hardest part for me to figure out at the start, <b>is how to protect your back line remote targeting ships</b>. Kixeye has been playing around with this idea for a while; there was a TLC a couple months back that also posed that challenge using by priority targeting on the turrets. <b> I expect (without any actual evidence) that as the raid difficulty gets ramped up over this cycle, we will see it get harder to protect your rear line</b>. It may come though the return of Priority Targeting on the Executioners, or through an increase in the splash & damage of the Arc Missiles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is interesting in light of the <b>Gridiron Monolith field</b> - it doesn't protect the Gridiron itself like we all were expecting, but it <b>does protect the backline ships</b>, and that MAY be what Kixeye was thinking when they designed it like that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always, good luck in the raid & keep grinding.</span><br />
<br />The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-66665728867657865462017-03-18T16:44:00.001-04:002017-03-19T17:36:33.054-04:00Ranking the Rank Icebreaker<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's some great videos out there on how to do this raid. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://forsakencove.blogspot.com/2017/03/pimping-107-in-utopia.html" target="_blank">My favorite is Forsaken Cove's article on how to do the 107.</a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the 100, I do a loop for the long range turrets, a loop for the short range ballistics, a loop for the big launcher, and then pick off the outer launchers. I'm sure there's some videos out there from the last raid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All that assumes a ranked Harlock Cannoneer fleet... without that, well-driven Cannoneers can hit lots of targets in the 70s before repairing (I collected nearly 50 million doing that on Thursday night), and many Ironclads can do targets in the 50s with instant repairs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I'm going to write this article about the Icebreaker.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First off, you need to understand Kixeye's raid structure for the foreseeable future. It started with the Reaver Skirmish raid series, continued through this Scourge Siege raid series, and will continue with the upcoming garrison series. Each of those raids had a Skill hull and a Blitz hull. The Hellwraith and the Cannoneers are the skill hulls we've seen so far. The Tideseeker, Ironclad.and now the new Icebreaker are the Blitz hulls. So far, we've seen well driven skill hulls can do high end targets with no damage, and Blitz hulls have had mixed results (although I suspect the damage output of a Tideseekers with Calamity was an unforeseen combo on Kixeye's part). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So we need to think about the Icebreaker going forward. Each player should be able to assess their own game. On my part, I like the skill hulls, and have only built the Blitz hull with tokens. This raid we've seen the order from last raid flipped, and now we have the Blitz hull available at a high point price, and we can expect the skill hull to come up in a TLC soon after the raid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since I like the skill hulls, I'm not really excited about the Icebreaker in general, and at approximately 2 week build times per ship, I'm not going to devote my shipyard to building a full fleet of those (and note they have a stacking bonus). So I strongly considered not redeeming it this raid. I did and I started on. My plan is to build only one Icebreaker in the near term (see it below), and save as many tokens as I can out of this raid to be ready to build the upcoming skill hull ASAP. </span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c86124ad-e30e-d084-a3c6-e2192fba2847"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="508px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/1YeOvGk5-Ws2GWM7NRHBQxWIYkY9LZTBgK89nOzaOOSWh9aLzZ4gAWKCvVyxkfzbhpu16GIEQFg_KK2siWx3-K5nYcUIqFpKtViq8Ypssp9-yKlMmSuf5cT62jyahxxggS_xSRs7cQ0" width="589px;" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>(Important Note: I've heard that the Charged Armors are not currently working.... hold on buying & installing those until we know more)</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only real non-obvious part on this build is the High Velocity Rounds. Those give me building damage and help my rockets land quickly. Other choices could be made to increase damage. Agility 4 could easily be replaced with Guidance Scrambler 3 to save 5 hours of build time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You also need to be concerned about what we don't know in the upcoming Garrison Raid targets. I think the biggest question is whether you will want countermeasures. The way most players are attacking FM Garrison targets right now, we have a tank hull with countermeasures and mortar hulls to deal damage. But if you are blitzing with Icebreakers, anti-mortar defenses may not be needed, and whether or not anti-missile is useful will really depend on the target. We might even see a return of countermeasure specialist ships with the Icebreaker (I was always a big fan). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For that type of build, Frontline Countermeasures would replace the Garrison battery, Evade Upgrade or Deflection Upgrade SA (limited component I didn't see a need for at the time) could replace the HVR. Then I'd probably put 4 Gales or Hail D, 3 Phalanx 4, and keep one rocket.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So one more thing - let's talk about ranking these Icebreakers. The new Siege Rocket has a one second reload, a +100% built in rocket reload bonus, and then a +10% stacking aura reload bonus (per ship). So a solo Icebreaker gets a 110% reload bonus, and a full 5 ship fleet gets 150%. The means the reload time for 1 ship is 0.48 seconds, and for 5 ships it is 0.4 seconds. My long-time readers may remember when <a href="http://bpprof.blogspot.com/2014/12/cycle-time-rank-salvo-and-minimum.html" target="_blank">I demonstrated that <b>the minimum reload time for any weapon is 0.2 seconds</b></a>, and also may remember that rank bonuses are applied differently than hull/special/aura bonuses:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>reload = base reload * (1 - rank bonus)</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(note that the additional 0.2 seconds per salvo shot isn't affected by this)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So any bonus that puts your reload under 0.2 seconds is wasted. For the 5 ship fleet the math works out really easily </span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">0.2 = 0.4 * (1 - rank%) </span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Any rank bonus above 50% is wasted on a 5 ship Icebreaker fleet.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the 1 ship fleet - I broke out the calculator to determine that </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>0.2 = 0.48 * (1 - rank%)</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Any rank bonus above 58% is wasted when you only have 1 Icebreaker.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll leave the other cases for the reader. Also remember that <b>if you use Cluster Warheads to increase your reload bonus further, you will just max out your fire rate at a lower rank</b>. Keep in mind that this applies to Icebreakers using the new Siege Rockets D100S only. If using <b>other weapons or other hulls, you will max out differently</b> - <a href="http://bpprof.blogspot.com/2015/06/abyss-prizes-goresaber.html" target="_blank">remember Goresabers with Infernos maxed out at even lower ranks</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another case to consider is if you are using countermeasures. Those will not max out their reload at any rank, so <b>it may pay off to rank ships with CM all the way to legendary</b> (another reason to concentrate those defenses on one ship).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Good luck in the raid - keep grinding!</span><br />
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The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-62836538683331922202017-03-12T13:42:00.002-04:002017-03-13T09:07:28.654-04:00Navigating Utopia's Big Ole Store<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, if you buy into the whole consumerism thing and paradise is a huge shopping mall, then this next raid really will be Utopia for you. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since Kixeye was kind enough to <a href="https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/686826/p1" target="_blank">post the prize list early</a>, I'll try to make sense of this store and break things down. I'm NOT going to go with a full red/yellow/green breakdown... that's crazy.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm going to start with looking at it from my own point of view - a player who is pretty much caught up. For players like that, the <b>major priority will be to get set up for success </b>in the next raid series (which will be Garrison). Actually, that should be all players' priority. As the game has moved towards a very predictable rotation of target types, you need to try to jump on to that hamster wheel so set yourself up for continued success.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the first things to look at are the new equipment. We don't have full blueprints, but we have some general ideas.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To get the new equipment, you first need to take the <b>Empyrean </b>generalist hull. A valid question is - why do we need another generalist hull after the Zelos? The answer is that the Empyrean is a remote targeting hull, so that you can build up the Zelos as a tank, and use Empyreans behind that to rain down fire. With the new weapon and special being released for that hull (Advanced Imperial Mortar D100-Z and Advanced Trajectory Plotter) - the Empyrean will have remote targeting for mortars. My hope is that in the spirit of true 'generalism', that hull will ALSO remote target for missiles, but right now only remote targeting stats for mortars are shown in the raid video. (and a heavy weapon slot...) I also expect that new Imperial Mortar and Trajectory Plotter special will be relatively quick building and Generalist only (just like the previous Quake Cannon and Seismic Rounds released with the Zelos). Players who are </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">caught up are probably interested in taking the Empyrean only because they have to be. I'm plenty happy with my Citadels for remote targeting of Mortars, and Rhinos for remote targeting of Missiles, and I don't think I'll be devoting shipyard time to that hull. I've been quite happy with my decision to build no Zelos hulls so far.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead, I'll be devoting time to the specialized Garrison hulls - the first of which is the <b>Icebreaker</b>, which is described as the "Auto" hull. This puts it in the same genre as the Ironclad and Tideseeker, which means it will be sort of a 'charge in and blow stuff up' kind of hull. Released with the Icebreaker are the <b>Siege Rockets D110-S</b> and the <b>Garrison Battery Mk-X</b>. These rockets and (likely) explosive-enhancing special should go with the Icebreaker. Rockets haven't been really effective in this game since players were loading up Leviathans with Hydras and blitzing them into Sentinel missiles... but we will see how these look when we get the full blueprint. Right now we have some hints from the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nAuwaf_ytk" target="_blank">video</a>:</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>ICEBREAKER:</u></b> </span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rocket Range: +30%</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rocket Reload: +100%</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Explosive Defense: +80%</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Penetrative Defense: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+80%</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Field Resistance: +90%</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note the last rocket hull we've seen, the Goresaber, had +25% Rocket Range, +160% Rocket Reload, 50% Exp/Pen resist, and +67% Field Resistance. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>SIEGE ROCKET D100-S:</u></b></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Range: 57</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damage: 6672</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Splash: 20</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The previous generation of rockets, Dragonfires, Lockdowns, and Coaxial Firestorms (who remembers they fire rockets in primary mode?) all had range of 68. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Old school Siege Rockets have the 57 range. Dragonfires also have that 20 splash, although they are a low damage, fast firing rocket. If our targets have any deflection, Dragonfires will be near useless. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>GARRISON BATTERY Mk-X:</u></b></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Unknown</i></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So to start off with, players who are 'keeping up' will need:</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Empyrean: 15M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Icebreaker: 60M </span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Siege Rocket D100-S: 20M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Garrison Battery Mk-X: 10M</u></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Total (new stuff): 105M points</b></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's kind of a bare minimum, unless you want to take a 'high-risk' approach to this raid. That would be to wait for the Specialist hull, which should be released in an upcoming TLC. Even so, you may also want the Rocket weapon and Explosive special. You don't know how much time you'll have to do that TLC before VXP weekend (with a 6 day raid). I'll just suggest that the 'high-risk' approach is too high risk for me.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I looked down at the rest of the prize list and I saw a bunch of tokens I wanted:</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11d 3h ship build tokens: 30.9M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4x Liberator 25k VXP tokens: 24M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4x Oppressor 25k VXP tokens: 24M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>8x 2 day Structure build tokens: 32M</u></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Total (tokens): 110.9M</b></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would prioritize the Ship Build tokens very highly so I can get at least 4 Icebreaker hulls complete before VXP weekend. I also really want those Liberator VXP tokens... since I already armored those 2 of the 3 I've built (even the Prof makes mistakes sometimes). The structure ones I could probably do without if the points get tight.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also saw some limited items: </span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off are the new <b>Charged Zynthonite C1-X and C1-M Armors. </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These new armors add no repair time and have some stats released in the video:</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><br></u></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Charged Zynth C1-X</u></b></span><br><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Explosive Dmg Reduction: 10,000</span><br><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Explosive Armor Pool: 170,000</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Charged Zynth C1-M</u></b></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Penetrating Dmg Reduction: 37,725</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Penetrating Armor Pool: 700,000</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the scant description we have, these seem to work like some sort of 'pre-deflection' damage reduction, but I'm not going to attempt any detailed description or analysis until we hear more from Kixeye. But with the reduction of M & X damage, they certainly seem like they will be useful in these Garrison targets (which do primarily M & X damage). I suspect you'll want one of each of these armors on ships being built for Garrison targets. This means I'm going to want at least 4 of each ... if not 8 - 10. I also want to restock my Agility system IV and Hydraulic Resistors. I'm less concerned about Gales (Hail D is at least... useful) and Cobras.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4x Charged Armor C1-X: 40M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4x Charged Armor C1-M: 40M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5x Agility System IV: 5M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>5x Hydro Resistors: 7.5M</u></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Total (Limited): 92.5M</b></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, even not going for everything... <b>I really want a bit over 300 million points this raid</b>. and I think a lot of players will be in similar situations. WOOF! </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what else is out there?</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>If you are going the "generalist" route</b>, you will probably want:</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Empyrean Hull: 15M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Advanced Imperial Mortar D100-Z: 9M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trajectory Plotter: 6M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 15x Zelos 1 day Build Tokens (refit one to M/X defense): up to 30M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1x Charged Armor C1-X: 10M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1x Charged Armor C1-M: 10M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>11d 3h Ship Build Tokens: 30.9M</u></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Total (generalist): 30M - 110.9M</b></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lower end players who can't go after those big ticket items</b> should make sure they have <b>some sort of Garrison fleet </b>in order. If you can't get those Generalist hulls, then the Citadel / Punisher combination are the next best thing. Hopefully you've gotten the hulls from the low end FM tiers, but you should make sure you have the equipment you need for them too. If you don't have a Punisher tank (WHY NOT???) or Citadel mortar chuckers built, Berzerker build tokens are available. If you are in this category, I would plan your fleet / refits very carefully so you can take only the tokens you need. Note that the ship specific build tokens are cheaper than the general build tokens. Consider:</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 11d 3h Ship Build Tokens: up to 30.9M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 10 Citadel 1 day build tokens: up to 15M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 10 Citadel 5000 VXP tokens: up to 10M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Berzerker Hull: 0.75M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 10 Berzerker 3 day build tokens: up to 15M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Judgement Mortar: 0.9M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or Pandemonium Mortar: 0.6M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Explosive System IV: 0.6M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>or Combustion System 2: 0.6M</u></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>No total here - too situation specific</i></b></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lower end players who have been having trouble in this raid cycle</b> need to get a <b>Siege </b>fleet in order. The best plan here is Ironclads with Mausers - Cannoneers and Millenium Guns are too expensive. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you haven't been able to do the TLCs to win Ironclad/Mauser, get them now. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">High Velocity Rounds are worth the splurge (for mortar/garrison fleets too). Take build & VXP tokens to get them done.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 11d 3h Ship Build Tokens: up to 30.9M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ironclad: 1M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">High Velocity Rounds: 5M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 20 Ironclad 1 day build tokens: up to 10M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 20 Ironclad 5000 VXP tokens: up to 6M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mauser Cannon: 0.75M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Nuclear Accelerators: 0.5M</u></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>No total here - too situation specific</i></b></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br></i></b></span></div>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lower end players who have been having trouble getting Uranium</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> need a </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skirmish </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fleet. Hellwraiths or Tideseekers are the thing here, but since Hellwraiths are comparatively expensive in the store, I recommend the Tideseekers. The Conflagration Scattergun that is most effective isn't in the store, and neither are the concussive cannons, so torpedoes are the next best idea.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 11d 3h Ship Build Tokens: up to 30.9M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tideseeker: 0.5M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fire Twister Torpedo: 2M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Sealed Fire Charge: 1M</u></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>No total here - too situation specific</i></b></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br></i></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Going after Megas needs an Assault fleet, basically Apollos</b>. Phalanx 4 are preferred as your anti-missile solution, since switchblades can get overwhelmed, but they aren't available. If you don't have Phalanx, don't go all Switchblade, make sure to mix in some Blades to maintain offense.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up to 11d 3h Ship Build Tokens: up to 30.9M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apollo: 3M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blade: 0.6M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Switchblade Anti-Missile: 0.9M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Interception System: 0.3M</span><br>
<u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Counter Missile Extender: 0.6M</u><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>No total here - too situation specific</i></b></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br></i></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you want to get into <b>Base Hitting and PvP, the tier 5 Conqueror hulls </b>can still smash a lot of bases (just not the best ones). If you're starting from scratch, I'd recommend taking the Vendetta and at least one other hull type, so you can use 2 tanks and 3 remote targeting Vendettas. If forced to pick one tank, I'd probably go with the Spite, but Malice are decent too (if you equip with Radioactive Plate). All the "PvP" components are pretty cheap, so make sure you have weapons and specials to complete whatever hull you grab. </span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vendetta: 1.5M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spite: 2M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Malice: 1.5M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Base Defense</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> we have the Valiant and Vanquisher. Pick one and make sure you can equip it. Avoid the Alpha Behemoth and Cesium Scarab - they are really underperforming in most situations.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Valiant: 2M</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vanquisher: 1.5M</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether to get <b>Turrets </b>is an interesting question. The latest generation of turrets like Gargoyle 3, Hyena, and Explosive D99-S are not available, and they really are a step up in capability from previous versions. Cataclysm is available and worth getting. I expect more improved turrets will be available to round out the damage types, so unless you are desperate, I would focus on the 'better' Limited turrets in this store. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Glacial Launcher: 2M </span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Coldsnap Rocket: 2M </span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cataclysm: 4M</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ferox Fury will be a flagship for Fury hulls</b>. Without seeing it, it's tough to figure out if it will be desirable to build. Right now, the only people I could see really wanting it at its 40M point price tag are those who have a full fleet of Furys but are missing out on the Tier 6 Conquerors.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, although there are a lot of good prizes available at good prices, the massive size of the store and the high prices on new equipment mean that a lot of players will be wanting a lot of points. Remember it will be a 6 day raid and you should try to use all 6 days if you can. Also remember Alliance points reset on Monday, and so you'll probably be hit. Deal with it.</span><br>
<br>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-26162060782874366552017-02-26T17:24:00.001-05:002017-02-26T17:24:21.718-05:00Quick tips on Homeland<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm basically not writing scheduled articles anymore... sorry. But I've got a few quick tips on the Homeland campaign that I can't pass up on sharing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall my plan is to use my <b>FM fleet for missions 1 - 4 & 6</b>. I use <b>a conqueror fleet for Missions 5 & 7</b> (obviously).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My FM fleet has been bolstered by the 12 days worth of Punisher build tokens. I used those to convert 2 Punishers from Draconian Uranium Base focused Arbalest ships to more tanky ships I can use in the FM. With just one well built Punisher tank I could just about do a full round of the FM without stopping to repair. Two 6 day refits left me with 2 more Punisher tanks that aren't as good as the original but are still decent. I <b>burn through those weaker two tanks on the first four missions and then save my good tank for #6</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A <b>Long Pinch XL </b>doesn't hurt on some of those islands either. I don't use rockets that often these days... but why not?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bullseye Brigade </b>can also help a lot, but I hesitate to recommend rare or legendary crews as the key for anything, since many players can't count on having a specific one of those.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For mission #6, the Dreadnaught X can really lay down a lot of mortars and really tear you up. On my first runthrough it totally overwhelmed and destroyed my Countermeasure tank. The trick I used the next time.... I ran to the Southwest as I was engaging the other ships, and I was able to retreat before that DNX did any damage. Then I <b>came in with Hellwraiths</b>. Although that ship has thermal, my Hells were able to outrun the shells no problem and sink that bastard (it doesn't have much health). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the bases, on #5 I used a <b>Spite to spot for Vendettas</b>. After clearing the front turrets and the ship, I ran the Vendettas in behind - far enough back that they were not running into the fire pools. As the Spite got in range of the dock, the Vendetta let off a might blast of mortars ad killed much of the center turrets. My Spite took some damage on this.. but not too bad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On base #7... Metatech or whomever that is made a big noob mistake in their base layout:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, <b>prep that right side</b>. After that you can <b>prep those front four turrets </b>as well without coming under too much fire. Take your time because they have lots of health.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since I have a Pride built with its specials and a couple Ruin Scatterguns, I was able to blast through this base with nothing more than instant repair on any of my ships... after I went around that first bend I took it slow with the Pride to hit each turret as I went, then brought up the Vendettas again to finish it off. Without the Pride you'll be somewhat worse off, but look for something that can resist those Maxim guns.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope that helps you out with the Homeland campaign - you've got less than 2 days left to take some more shots at it. If you miss out on the Liberator... well I think there will be more Tier 6 Conquerors coming, so you won't be left out forever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-28888238124294432492017-01-13T21:05:00.000-05:002017-01-13T21:15:14.083-05:00Awakening - what to get<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Awakening has started - and it's definitely a have or have-not kind of raid. Cannoneers are working great. Ironclads were perhaps a bit oversold, and players with neither of those two ships are definitely in for a grind at best.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not going to go into much detail on tips - there are a lot of videos with driving & build tips on YouTube. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will share with you my final Cannoneer build.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="508px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/1g_WnIBCIr8D7rzBok7skGYvTc8KBV4FGtzoHgMnxk8oCBzVwzKMafHmJYqjbVgB8qs2Gvong048RgesWtCxFXNhqFv8pEkziiirLP9dQnqrdbwnlV-UK42Acr_t5k15B8KmD7OjDsQ" width="571px;" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I refit my 3 Cannoneers with the 8th Millenium Gun and the High Velocity Rounds after getting enough points to grab that special and enough tokens to make the refit cheap. After that refit, I can put a Creeping Death crew on, and go hit Tier 5 targets for the 40 minutes, earn 10-12 million points, and not have to repair during that time. This is a case where the high repair time works in our favor. I can hit a lot of targets, get a lot of points, and walk away to do something else while my fleet repairs for a few hours. This makes for a very cheap raid (except the LTOs and refits). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So in terms of what to get for this raid, it's clear that I've chosen the High Velocity Rounds over the UAV Overdrive special. The fact that players can't get every new prize is a clear sign that Kixeye screwed up in how they released the tech for this raid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In terms of what else to get... I think the next question on a player's mind would be </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>If I don't have the Cannoneer already, should I take it?</u></span></b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Maybe.</i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Although</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">there are only two raids of this style left, you could probably get two of these built before the next one, although you'll probably have to skimp on armor, and ranking might be an issue (more on that later). One or two Cannoneers are still effective in Tier 5, although it takes longer. Also remember this style target will probably be replacing the Draconian Mines after the three raids of this cycle are over, so you'll need to think about your future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Should I take the Harlock's Cannoneer?</u></b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Maybe.</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> This is the question I've been thinking about for myself - I started a 4th Cannoneer already, and so I'll need to decide if I want to build the Harlock's version after that. The only real flagship bonus is the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">60% Ballistic Damage, and I'm doing pretty good with what I've got already. I do expect the targets to increase in difficulty as this raid cycle goes on for two more iterations, so the extra firepower may be helpful. A blank build of the Harlock will not be helpful because it is very difficult to keep a flagship out of trouble with the driving style needed in these targets, so a fully built and ranked ship will be needed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Is the Millennium Gun good on ships other than the Cannoneer?</u></b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Yes.</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Don't miss out on this weapon. The Millennium and the Mauser are significantly more effective (from a DPS perspective) than previous ballistic weapons. If you missed the Mauser, you really want the Millennium</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> for any ballistic ship you are building. Even players with Ironclads are liking the Millennium (over the Mauser). The exception is probably base hitting - with neither splash nor penetrating, I wouldn't choose the Millennium to put on the Malice for base hitting... there I'd go Mauser. Of course with Level 9 walls... I think all Ballistics are pretty useless.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>What is Harlock's Ironclad good for?</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Meh.</i></b> One obvious option is to lead Ironclads. Another option might be is if you missed out on Ironclads and Cannoneers... just take this and build the one. You could put Earthshakers or PACs on it... <strike>or if you get another 6 Million put the Millenium on it </strike> <i>(nope... it's locked behind the Cannoneer. Everybody loves that)</i>. However, I think I'd rather spend the 30 million on the whole ballistic tree, and build a nice Cannoneer instead of a low tech Harlock's Ironclad.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>How about the Alpha Behemoth and the new Cesium Scarab UAV?</u></b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Maybe. </i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Without the UAV Overdrive special, I'm not super sold on this ship as a damage dealer, and the countermeasure capability is not unique to this hull. If you already have the Millenium Gun, I wouldn't skip the UAV though. It is clearly better than previous UAVs, and we will see if the rotating wheel of weapon love stays on UAVs for a bit longer to leave us a new UAV hull or other opportunities to use that weapon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>And how about the other stuff?</u></b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I always recommend <b>build tokens </b>if you are halfway decent at the raid.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Superhulls</b> (Ghostcrawler, ProtoNemesis, Man-of-War, and Hellstar) are pretty much obsolete, and I wouldn't tie up my shipyard building one.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>Gamma Behemoth </b>can be earned for just 4 million points - if you want an option for countermeasures in your base besides the Alpha Behemoth, here it is.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Vassago's Punisher</b> got cheap, but probably isn't worth building.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the lower tiers, I'd probably go <b>Punisher, PAC, and Nuclear Accelerator</b> if forced to choose. Punisher is the original generalist hull even though Kixeye calls it a Siege class.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Is the VXP token LTO any good?</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm kind of sick of the Limited Time Offers (LTOs). The Millennium Gun ones were good deals, but now I'm looking at the VXP tokens. I've got one Cannoneer left to build and maybe a Harlock. (But I do need to keep in mind that the "Cannoneer" tokens won't work on the "Harlock's Cannoneer"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A Cannoneer needs 47,425 VXP to hit legendary. So the 25000x4 offer for $29.99 will get two Cannoneers to Legendary. The 5000x10 offer for $19.99 will get one there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On a VXP weekend, a ship might get about 5000 VXP per hit (with a Salty Dog), and a Cannoneer will take 7 coin to repair, meaning it should take about 63 coin to get a Cannoneer to Legendary over that time. This means that ranking through the token offer will cost about 2-3x more than ranking through the VXP weekend. Sure those tokens may be a 90% reduction from coining the rank directly, but <b>I think I'll skip this LTO.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Well, the first raid of a new cycle is generally pretty screwed up. This one is no exception.</b> There were lots of problems with point awards in the first hours of the raid (some in players' favor, some not), that once more made it seem like Kixeye is doing ZERO testing. Like the last raid cycle, this one seems to be sorting players into haves & have nots. The campaigns are an effort to dull that a bit, but you can't get enough points through those to earn the needed tech.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Reaver Skirmish cycle went through three iterations before getting it into the current format which players accepted. I guess the burning question is - <b>How many iterations is this Scourge Siege style going to go through?</b> After all, we're only getting three shots at it.</span>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-20550826412140771312017-01-05T14:19:00.004-05:002017-01-06T20:58:43.742-05:00And then there was the Ironclad...<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've got another new hull available for the next raid cycle - the Ironclad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To win it, you need to beat the first round of the Iron Maiden TLC. The second and third rounds give you equipment that helps you fit out the Ironclad - the Cannon System 4 and the Mauser Cannon. I'm not going to go in depth on the stats of all of these... you can find that stuff on the Facebook pages and YouTube shows. If you watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmHcJ_vmhc" target="_blank">the Battle Pirates Crib show</a>, you can see a chart with the DPS and DPS per ton numbers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've also seen the Tips and Tricks post, giving you a raid preview. If you haven't read it, go <a href="https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/676424" target="_blank">here on the Forums</a> and read it now. I'm not going to summarize it here, but I'm going to assume you've read it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is a mechanic with platforms and land rising up out of the water as you approach, but that's not really what I'm going to focus on in this article. The key point I'm going to focus on is the descriptions of the weapon ranges and of the driving techniques. They describe Short Range & Long Range Ballistic Turrets and Short Range Radioactive Turrets as your main targets, along with a Very Long Range Tracking Radioactive turret and an EMP building. The quote "<span style="background-color: white;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">the real test will be skating the razor's edge with your ships's range</span></i></b>" is indicative that <b>if you are using Cannoneers, you will need to drive an a way similar to the last raid</b> (if you used subs). Your weapons on the Cannoneers, with max possible range, will likely just barely outrange the Short Range turrets. You'll need to drive alongside the turrets (instead of straight at them) to have the best chance of hitting them without being hit back.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Overall, it seems likely that the ranking of hull quality for the next raid (starting from best) will be:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cannoneer</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ironclad</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Centurion (with Harlock Centurion)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Centurion (without Harlock Centurion)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. Punisher</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6. Zelos</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But there's an exception - if you had subs with 88 range torpedos in the last raid cycle, and you still couldn't do the raid successfully because you couldn't quite get your subs stacked up and in range without getting shot up... then you likely won't be able to use the Cannoneer successfully in this raid cycle either.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not totally sure how effective the Punisher will be compared to the Centurion - it may depend on your Centurion retrofit level and how much splash vs. how much aimed damage we end up with. For now I think they are in the same neighborhood, and I'll talk about why further down in this article. For the rest of this article I'm going to talk about build strategies for each of your hull options, starting with the Cannoneer.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zelos, especially with 94 range launchers, will probably be in big trouble</b> as it will likely end up in range of the "short" range turrets but the launcher flechettes will take a while to land and build up a shockwave.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Cannoneer Build Strategy</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>UPDATE FROM PREVIEW: THIS IS ALL A WASTE OF TIME.... DO AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE UNTIL YOU GET THE NEW EQUIPMENT FOR CANNONEER.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've been building up a 3 Cannoneer fleet for the upcoming raid. My general plan was to build it with a mix of Arbalest and Earthshaker cannons, which is a mix I use successfully in Draconian Mines on my Punishers. My specials were Nuclear Accelerator, Alloy CL-3, Agility System 4, Siege Battery 3 and Drum Reloader. I planned to use a mix of D5-C and D5-R armor.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A couple things I learned from the Tips thread. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. I wanted all of my weapons (on the Cannoneer) to be 50 base range. Anything shorter might be useless, or at least be more difficult to bring to bear.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. I want more speed to keep me ahead of the tracking turret.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. <i>(not from the Tips thread, but Ren from TFC reminded me...)</i> Siege Targeting will put out more DPS than the Drum Reloader because the building damage bonus compounds multiplicatively.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So after last night's BP Crib show I did a few refits with FM tokens, and changed my build to:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3 Arbalest, 3 PAC, 4 D35-S</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Speed 5, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nuclear Accelerator, Alloy CL-3, Siege Battery 3 and Siege Targeting 3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3xD5-C Armor</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(still not done yet, but that was the plan)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I ran this through some mines, and found that mixing the Arbalest & PAC wasn't useful - the PAC projectile speed is much slower and thus the PAC wasn't doing much damage because the Arbalest would kill the targets before the PAC landed. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I am planning another refit to pull off the PACs, add one more Arbalest, and end up here:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-3c3a0246-6f88-3174-6f3b-274cb9714145"><img height="540px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/S1IaCIpF5W_N_EXUQ3ugaMCx21CaOFZD7IaVTxMGFuN8pfu3jlDHg0nGuMYqJLP5VR0ohmQQSL634bYWogiYsGdhd_ZAS4IVW0_MS7qn58BrTO8BXdF9fYz5SKQp77UGGqpbLgbh2U4" width="608px;" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The S cannons are just for speed - I don't have enough weight margin to add another Arbalest or even a D-110. I could fit a Crossbow 1, but I don't think it will be effective.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The<b> emphasis on Ballistic resistance</b> is for two reasons: one is that I will be using a HLNC to add Radioactive resistance, and two is that the Tips description sounds like the Long Range Ballistic Turret will be the one that will be least likely avoidable through driving. I also like the bit of deflection and lower repair time of the C armor vs. the R.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think <b>the biggest risk with this build is the lack of Agility 4</b>. Adding it back would mean removing either Speed System 5 or Siege Targeting 3... This choice will just have to wait until we see the raid targets. We don't know how much aimed weaponry there will be and what the range of the EMP blast will be. Another option would be to use Layered Armor 3 and Reflective Coat 3 (instead of the Alloy CL and (ST3 or SS5). That option would better if there is more aimed weaponry, but I can stay outside the stun range.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Ironclad Build Strategy:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The biggest features of the Ironclad are the <b>huge splash bonus (positive), and the low ballistic range bonus (negative)</b>. This hull will have to come into range of the short range turrets and the EMP, but it has the high ballistic/radioactive resistance and 100% stun resistance to offset that a bit. An Ironclad build should take advantage of the splash with the new special and cannon if possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First of all, since I plan to rely on the Cannoneer, but also plan to complete the TLC for 12 days of Ironclad tokens, I'm going to build this:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-3c3a0246-6f93-6511-f482-bf5ce7e69543"><img height="540px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/B0068ZohfJ2Af5mtTX1YADcTMDLtwU-Uzy9725aWtBgDzTKILdA64EEwQqdQLXpHtgC0pvJ2w9Q1yiaujucC2SPlThBHr5tumGudp0oVseQeJgD6lf1rwvLy3O2Dg7TPlmdz2vx3fl0" width="609px;" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With the lower ballistic bonus range, <b>Earthshakers at 47 vs. Mausers at 50 won't make much difference</b>, but the lower build time helps me get close to my 12 day build time goal. Other than Cannon System 4 being used to help my splash a bit more, the specials and armor choices are pretty similar to the Cannoneer. If finishing this build, I would try to <b>balance the Radioactive and Ballistic resistance</b>, since this ship will be taking both types of damage. I may play with the armor a bit - using more smaller R & C plates to fill my armor slots.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A <b>full-up, high end build</b> with all the goodies would look more like this:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-3c3a0246-6f9a-1927-2502-9a88faa17f95"><img height="540px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6NJKXejnxmgKOjc5p4hPylJ48mEpYKPtDtOhQZGMA0arwxWN3R31HEomOuPfo6VvY-4qHij0yTBQmm4Q5QTkGvriWTZTXMYKpGV3ihmEJPlphw1QKvyfbjnLMTogtAoPm7LRtnQKcLs" width="608px;" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Mausers (splash 7) are the weapon of choice</b> here, but if you can't get to Prize Pack 3 of Iron Maiden, then PACs (splash 6) or Earthshakers (splash 7) are also decent choices that will benefit from the splash bonus. If you need something REALLY fast... maybe even think about the D35-Z (half hour each)?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Centurion (Punisher) Build Strategy</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Without the full range of the Cannoneer, and without the huge splash bonus of the Ironclad, I think older hulls may be in trouble. I think for this hull class, speed is definitely needed, and PACs may be the best best - hope for the big boom.</span><br />
<img height="508px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/zz0pH0x-WFpIyou-N2LtBMvJoJDj4TBf6iPEvjopUB8keewFKpcvYgQlWpea_Tv1zdHSCc-XZw7H_ywpJIsHZYiF7erralch7XO-j2KGx8R_C9IUDER1P_za77lzLK-hVKAT0dhAvJ4" width="576px;" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nothing else should be too new here if you've read the rest of this article. I chose Cannon System 4 over Nuclear Accelerator because the lighter weight lets me add more weapons. I don't think the +35% splash bonus will make much difference when applied to the 6 Splash of the PAC. Note the Accuracy Bonus of Nuclear Accelerator won't help you at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If planning to <b>use Centurions, you definitely want to try to get the retrofits</b> and a Harlock Centurion. Once you hit R5 on the Centurions in the Foundry, then build out the Harlock to run with your other ships, but until then, just build the Harlock with a single Hellstorm to get the Flagship bonus (differing speeds will be a disaster). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You will need a fully upgraded dock to build a fleet with 5 of these, but let's talk about... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Flagships:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The best flagship choice, the <b>Omega Behemoth, will be unusable</b> in the upcoming raid due to the PvE restrictions announced in the State of Game post. The next best obvious choice is the <b>Highlander Nuclear Cruiser</b>, and it can be built with just a single countermeasure to give the Radioactive Resistance. If you retrofit that hull to R5, its Flagship resistance bonus goes from 50% to 55%, which will cut your pre-deflection radioactive damage taken by an extra 10% (compared to R0 HLNC... trust me on the Kixeye math here.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If using Centurions, the <b>Harlock Centurion</b> is an even better choice if you have that available.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But... especially with the Cannoneer, it seems like the Ballistic damage might be the emphasis, so are there other choices?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only other one that looks potentially usable is... the <b>Avenger</b>. Remember the Avenger? It gives an effect like the Midnight Marauders, increasing speed, damage, and resistance as you take damage. Use some caution though.... if you are using multiple Cannoneers or another ship where you depend on stacking up precisely, your ships will diverge as they take damage and their speed bonus changes. It might be most effective with the Ironclad, but I probably wouldn't build an Avenger just for this raid cycle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Crews:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Don't forget to use crews!</span> Even uncommon crews (or their common versions) will help cut repair time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For Uncommon crews, consider <b>Steelheads </b>for Radioactive and Ballistic defense, <b>Creeping Death</b> (or the common <b>Wrecking Crew</b>) for Building Damage, or <b>Molotov Maidens </b>for Splash (Ironclads only). <b>Midnight Marauders</b> might help, but if you're relying on precision driving of Cannoneers... don't do it. <b>Sea Serpents</b> may be useful if there is significant aimed damage, and especially so if you also skimped on evade (like I plan to). Cannoneer, Ironclad, and Centurion are all Forsaken hulls, so they will get the 15% reload bonus from a <b>Salty Dogs</b>... but there's no VXP for doing damage in a Siege target, so think about that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For Rare crews, <b>Dead Eye Destroyers</b> give you +15% critical hits, but the 19% building damage from a Creeping Death will likely be just as effective overall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For Legendary crews, <b>Demolition Squad</b> will give Resistance and Building Damage. Disciples of Skullduggery will give you more damage at the edge of splash, but I'm not sure that will be totally useful here (and definitely Ironclad only).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>In closing,</b> I know there has been a lot of uncertainty about the next raid's emphasis, and also a lot of frustration about the lack of weapons / specials "for" the Cannoneer. I'm frustrated too, but if you think about how things used to be 6 months or a year ago... we would have even less advance information about a new raid format, and ZERO opportunity to build ships in advance. You'd build whatever came out most recently and hope it works. I'm not trying to be a Kixeye apologist here, but it seems like the dribble of info and equipment that they are letting out just makes us want yet more. Yes, the communication should be better and a WIP or other roadmap would really have helped us out over the last month. Kixeye tries (and doesn't always succeed) to tune the raid target damage to the equipment we have, so it might not matter in the end. As always, I'll do the best I can with the information I have in front of me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Huggy's link to all the builds in this article: <a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!y3307I01V1V1V342U6A6P2F232323233737373737370ZZ07J01V1V00004D2U346P2FAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK07J01V1V1V1W4D2U346P2F2M2M2M2M2M2M2M37373707401V1V1V1W1W4D2U346P2F2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C37dC" target="_blank">https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!y3307I01V1V1V342U6A6P2F232323233737373737370ZZ07J01V1V00004D2U346P2FAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK07J01V1V1V1W4D2U346P2F2M2M2M2M2M2M2M37373707401V1V1V1W1W4D2U346P2F2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C37dC</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, there's one week until the raid. Use it wisely.</span><br />
<br />The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-31705679184958784462016-12-16T21:16:00.000-05:002016-12-16T21:16:31.640-05:00Uprising - What did we do wrong?W<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ell, it's Friday night, I have about 60 million points... I feel like I should write an article.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I looked at the prize list, and the points/structure to get the Cannoneer, I feel like asking Kixeye what we did wrong. <b>Why are we being punished? </b> Is the Zoe Vendetta like the vegetables we have to eat before getting dessert? Players have never liked 'locked' prizes, where you have to get something before being able to get something else. When the prizes are related and laddered, we kind of understand, but having to get a niche Limited hull before getting the mainline hull before the next raid... well it just isn't right. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway I'll start off with my <b>process for doing the 107</b>. I use a 4 Hellwraith fleet, armed mostly with Fire Twisters (and a couple Mayhems). What I heard / read was that it was easier to do the bottom 'pancake' first and with some practice I found that was correct. My process for the 107 is:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clear the bottom five Scouts on the first two dive cycles. Do not kill the Hellstrike - the oil slick makes it more difficult to complete the rest of the target. (I find this also holds for the 105) Don't kill any drones either.... they will respawn exactly where you don't want them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">About halfway through the third dive cycle, there seems to be a spot where the drones seem to be clustered at or heading toward the top. This opens the bottom side of the Southeast pancake. I target it by clicking on it - I don't want to get too close or I'm seen by the drones above the pancake. <i>(your window is from about 7:25 to 7:15. Follow the last set of drones on in... but not too close)</i> Heading towards the right a little bit as you go gives you a little more time. Once it's dead I head back to the bottom.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clean out the ships that are orbiting the (now sunken) lower pancake. Also kill drones and then go after the four scouts that started between the Pancakes.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There should only be two groups of drones left. Wait until they are on top, then hit the remaining pancake from the bottom.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clean out the rest.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I can do a 107 for zero damage using this process, but usually end up with 2 - 4 coins repair. Sometimes I'll take a couple hits from drones when hitting the first pancake, and sometimes I mess up a little with the scouts. Again, just like last time, the <b>Scouts are best hit by sailing alongside of them </b>so you have more time to stop between your torpedo range and their thermal range.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So on to the prizes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>Cannoneer certainly will be the go-to hull for the next raid</b> with its resistances and ballistic weapon output. I think the real question is whether they will work best singly or grouped. I'm wondering this because when hitting mines, I find my Punishers are most effective when working alone. Since they have enough offensive output to clear turrets in two hits, much of the firepower they would have when stacked up is wasted. The splash weapons in the mines mean that the stacked ships just end up sharing more damage. When I use Centurions, they have less offensive output, and also have the stacking field for splash resistance. They work best stacked up so they can kill turrets faster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Cannoneer has the (new since preview) stacking field that provides speed and offensive output. Whether they will work better stacked or not will remain to be seen, and may even depend on the target. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>Zelos got better since the preview</b> (when I panned it). They've added resistance across the board, more deflection, combat speed, and more DPS. I think with the new launchers or with ballistics (and its +45% ballistic range), it could be effective in the new Siege targets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One point many have seen on these new hulls is they have i<b>ncreased repair and build times </b>compared to the times of many hulls since Kixeye made some reductions. The Cannoneer is back to the old one point per second repair time. I think what is going on is that we are getting back some power creep. The longer build and repair times are reflective of the higher power level (performance) of these new hulls. The alternative is to release hulls that are just as powerful as existing hulls, but the problem is that those aren't really very attractive to the players. Power creep is necessary, let's just hope it doesn't get too bad again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you're unsure what to get in this raid, and you won't have the points to get everything, make sure you come out of this raid with the right hulls & equipment to do the following:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Siege Targets:</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You need Radioactive and Ballistic resistances along with a weapon that won't get shot down. After the Cannoneer and Zelos, Centurion, Punisher or Crusader are your choices (in that order). If you're going with ballistic weaponry, the Arbalest is a great price this raid and still very effective. CL-3 Alloy is key, or go after Reflective Plate (and pair with Layered Armor). Also keep in mind that I, like many other players, expect some new Ballistic weapon + special to be released in the next FM or an upcoming TLC... so make sure you have a backup, but don't overcommit to ballistics right now. Launchers may also be effective, and the new Squall Launcher + Flechette Feeder will be the best of breed there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Reaver Targets:</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The latest raid target style with these Reavers is expected to replace the current Draconian Armadas as the primary way to get Uranium. Make sure you have the right equipment to build a fleet to go after these targets too. If you are using subs, the most important thing is to have 88 range torpedos. Mayhems are not available (coming from the FM Tier 5), but Fire Twisters are. You could also go with Tideseekers and either Calamity Scatterguns (if you already have them), or the Concussive Gatling Gun (available in this raid). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Conquerors:</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you want to hit bases and haven't gotten any conquerors yet... the Fury is the best all arounder, but the revenge is probably best against low end bases and the Vendetta will still be effective as a remote target mortar chucker against bases that don't have the new Cataclysm Mortar or Maxim guns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Base Defense:</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A whole lot of base defense weapons are available. Glacial Launcher and Coldsnap should be top priorities if you don't have them, but the Executioner and Drac Scattergun are still effective. The Wendigo isn't totally obsolete yet, but I wouldn't spend on it compared to many other turret choices.</span></div>
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The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-47241776029131988222016-12-11T12:40:00.000-05:002016-12-11T12:40:06.796-05:00Prepping for Siege Part 2 - the preview<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was a raid preview on Friday. I wasn't able to participate since I have to work during working hours, but I did see some of the outcomes, so I'll share some more thoughts as a follow-up to my last article on getting ready for the next raid cycle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all, I want to follow up on my progress from last time. I was planning some Punisher refits to specialize those hulls in mines. Those are complete and I'm pretty pleased with the results. With an Omega Behemoth flag, I was hitting Level 70 mines with a single ship and taking about 20 minutes damage. For Level 90 mines, I'm taking about 38 minutes damage when entering from the NE side, and sending one Punisher around in each direction. I've also been hitting 97s for about 1 hour 15 minutes damage with a similar strategy, but sending my third Punisher through the middle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also finished 3 (mostly) blank Centurion hulls - right now they have 2 PACs, 4 D30-R, Hydro Resistors, and Nuclear Accels. The build worked out to about 4 days 1 hour, so it was real convenient to build with the FM tokens.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Centurions have the splash resist field and <b>lower offensive output than the Punishers</b> - so I tend to use a different strategy with those. I keep them stacked up to kill turrets more quickly and buff each others' resistance. The hulls didn't look good in a Level 60 mine (pinged away at a single turret for over a minute) so far, but unranked and unfinished isn't really a fair comparison. The Arbalests on the Punisher works great - with 4 Arbs per hull, Siege Battery and Siege Targeting, two Arbalest blasts take down a turret and often damage another one behind it. See the builds from <a href="http://bpprof.blogspot.com/2016/12/prepping-for-next-raid-cycle-siege.html" target="_blank">the last article</a>. (if you do want to use that Centurion build, swap the AP shells for Siege Targeting and drop one PAC... better yet try Arbalests).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had guessed that this next set of raid prizes would be some new toys to help us in the Siege targets, and from the preview, I wasn't completely wrong. We saw some new hulls, but no new ballistic gear. The hull of most interest is<b> the Cannoneer</b>:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><img height="553" src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/15384351_10154212863881229_2563373605491179605_o.jpg?oh=9a8edb1f9d675e4de6b587602f0ba2fd&oe=58F51592" width="640" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best (or most alarming) stat on this hull is its <b>Siege Deflection of 900</b>. Compared to the 475 from a Centurion, or 500 from a Punisher, that's a lot of deflection for a PvE hull. It's alarming because that means that the Siege raid targets will be 'tuned' to give damage to a hull with this sort of deflection, so the Centurions and the Punishers are going to be hit HARD.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other significant stat of note is the <b>built-in ballistic range bonus of +50%</b>. This is the first 'open water' PvE hull we've seen with that boost, and it means that 50 range ballistic weapons (like Arbalest & PAC) can have their range boosted to 100 instead of 95.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another new hull we saw in the Preview was <b>the Zelos</b>, which was a called a "generalist" hull, which is a type we haven't seen before.</span><br />
<img height="573" src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/15419541_10154212863936229_6171045624968632795_o.jpg?oh=7a02d9bcb51e3df2db67a4aea96206ff&oe=58FBC73E" width="640" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has no built in defensive or offensive bonuses besides the 650 (high) deflection and the 300 (low) DPS. I'm thinking this hull might serve as a tank for PvE Targets, but I'm not sure it would perform better than a more specialized hull with built-in defense bonuses. With no weapon bonuses, Launchers (see below) might be the best option here if you are determined to build this... but it doesn't seem as desirable as any of the other options we've discussed as a raid hull. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also saw the <b>Zoe's Vendetta, which isn't relevant for the raid</b>. And for base hitting, I'd rather bring in a Harlock's Revenge. As more bases get Maxim Guns and Cataclysm Mortars, base hits with Vendettas ringing the outside are going to be a lot less successful anyway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The new equipment we saw is Launcher-related: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Flechette Feeder</u></b></span><br />
<img height="295" src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15390844_10154212863476229_7467866081478502859_n.jpg?oh=eb6031c419fe6395ded35917f1c5e842&oe=58F72708" width="400" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Squall Launcher</u></b></span><br />
<img height="400" src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15380303_10154212863521229_2605931116633776094_n.jpg?oh=2fd79a5d19c30dd72b13360ce98596c7&oe=58AEAC29" width="264" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This new equipment looks solid for launcher users, but not game breaking. The utility of Squall Launchers will depend on how quickly they build a shockwave. Launchers in general may be an alternative to Ballistics for Siege targets, but the slow speed of the flechettes means that you tend to take more damage when using launchers since they won't land on target as quickly as ballistics (similar to why the Harlock Citadel helps so much in the FM).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But given all this new equipment... what is a player to do? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The big decision I (and possibly some of you) need to make is <b>whether to keep working on Centurions or whether to go for Cannoneers</b>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's how I'm breaking it down. The build time of the Cannoneer hull is pretty short, and with another 9-10 days per ship needed to finish out my Centurions... and the ranking... I think I'd rather just switch ASAP to building the Cannoneer and only worry about those. If they aren't ready for the first Siege Raid, then my Punishers will do. <b>Because of the overall power boost (creep) associated with the Cannoneer, I really think I'll want them eventually, so why not start now?</b> If you are trying to make a similar decision, I think the key is whether you think you have something that's 'good enough' for now. If you don't, then maybe you should keep working on Cents.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm <b>not going to decide on a Cannoneer build yet</b>, since I still have a lot of time before I need to come up with it... who knows what Kix will release in the interim through the raid, through the FM, or even through a TLC. I plan to build 4 REALLY blank hulls as close to 10 days total build as possible... with 5 days of tokens (hopefully) from the raid I might be able to finish all 4 before VXP Weekend.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One more note on the Preview... <b>did they REALLY need to change the S targets</b>? They are supposed to be fast moving, high damage targets. If they felt the damage players were taking from the previous raid's S target was too low (on average), the answer should have been to revise it... not add a second one where the only players having success seemed to be those with Calamity Tideseekers (a pretty unusual build as far as I know). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-27785265425074345482016-12-03T17:10:00.000-05:002016-12-03T17:11:07.553-05:00Prepping for the next raid cycle - Siege <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's been a while since I posted... I've been busy, and I haven't been able to find the time to put together articles like I used to. So I was thinking about this, and whether I should put together a 'goodbye post'. But I had another idea... I'm not going to be able to do the sort of in-depth articles that I have been doing, but I still have stuff I want to say about this game. So <b>I'm going to try shorter articles </b>that are less based on math & graphs & more on opinion. Let's see how it goes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So a lot of people have been talking about the raid cycle that will be starting up after this final Reaver hull raid we've got upcoming. So far we've gotten pretty strong signals that it will be a <b>Siege-style raid, with targets that look a lot like the Draconian Mines</b> we've been hitting for a while. It's even possible that the new 95 & 97 mine targets are Kixeye's first 'trial' targets for the next raid type. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So we've also seen the Centurion enter the Foundry, and a new Harlock's Centurion be available through collecting shards. We also had the ballistic-based Malice Conqueror hull show up in a TLC. What <b>we don't know is whether there will be new ballistic gear, or potentially even a hull,</b> show up in the next raid to prep us for the cycle to follow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So with all that, I think<b> it's still a little early to plan a fleet and say "this is my next raid fleet"</b>. But I think it isn't too early to look at what you have, and the fleets for doing mines are the logical place to start. I never built a full fleet of Centurions, I only built a single hull and use it as a countermeasure platform with Punishers in a DUB fleet. In fact, after the Foundry Centurion upgrades, I messed up that fleet because of the increased speed of the retrofitted Centurion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What I have used for mines is a Crusader fleet that I refit from base hitters (way back when), and also the Punishers from that DUB fleet. The Crusaders were refit to improve their performance in mines, and they look like this:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-23d24a50-c6a6-0253-afdc-452b3cbcc86a"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="376" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/SFu2tOZ4_rogem8gzsVPCEjlR3rt_c3vmWW0m8iy4GYLdOR9hcptUTV-1q3sIcFOW-N3EhYIfyd71WSJxRNpdgFXpSKWxQBpBEY6HGjj561sjTJYIz6u6nGZ4R6M674fZrAqYpAgeoQ" width="640" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The armor wasn't really optimized, but these ships did all right, and since I didn't use them for anything else, I didn't mind if I took a while to repair them after getting shot up. The Alloy CL-3 was the key refit on these.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Punishers for the DUB look like this:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-23d24a50-c6a7-d660-0f9d-f01677088559"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="376" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/4gP5tfXx-GTSVRh4S3WxdU_5IICImCF4VV2igQNJvMikuskpc1vCJK9WqdJYETVaM8e-rjCHKyparo2Vi56cAuTrcRFzGPvIGo2n1IOsSf7u-35UvPbWQJFqQ56oyYgsCBqC5lZYN3c" width="640" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And even as-is, they would do better in the Mines than the Crusaders... deflection was the key. But I'm looking at a 2 day 5 hour refit on the Punishers that would look like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="376" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0NHM4Q6S8kNRoUfMQ2IafC-gfN87HFf-58KQ8Nw4WyHn66sqZCVbCvZqCRtfm4taDVoOlugtFgi6EglgJWiDcht9iU1N1S6paIhtAdKFvIR3q6d1gNitFTY77WLdv067CjjMlalwVWg" width="640" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Swapping the CL-3 for the MX-3 and adding 2 D5-R armors will really help me optimize this fleet for mine-style targets. (a D5-C might be even better with its bit of deflection, but would take longer to refit) I got all my Gamma Shards, so I'm not too worried about ruining this fleet's performance in DUBs (and I would have to find a new CM platform anyway). One week of shipyard time for the three Punishers will help me hit the early mine targets to collect Centurion shards with much less damage. My existing ships are fully ranked, so that will save me even more time since they will be all set to go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My first refit will finish tonight, so I may post a quick update comparing a refit Punisher against an old one and see what repair benefit I get. I'm guessing damage will be cut in half.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm still looking at Centurions, and after I finish the Punisher refits I will start building some blank Centurions to rank in the next VXP weekend. If it turns out that we get new ballistic gear in the next raid I'll take a revised look at my plans, but with no new gear I'd start working towards something like this:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-23d24a50-c6b0-0d6a-20dc-518a64cf09af"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="376" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/lqcVCwoJrhgii7mTwCzVi89ShVHfDcPhHzQLieXAfQw1J7sj97rQJOCQyl_iBLiEn9FbT3t3JFx1bUGhd32jYCU8QOHXJSJouPTvQ2froneJ0oS7iksyMFAHxasHlsKWxECVcmQYzcA" width="640" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Compared to my Punishers, these have slightly better defense (resistance AND deflection), but lower speed and lower DPS output. The splash defense field will be nice too. I used PACs instead of Arbalest on this build mostly for weight... with PACs instead of Arbalest / Railguns, I'm not sure the Armor-Piercing shells is the best choice.. I'm thinking Shielded Tactical System would be nice, but would add a lot of build time. Anyway, the whole point is <b>not to stress over a optimal build right now</b>, since we still don't know what else is coming. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One more note - although the mines do a lot of radioactive damage, the <b>Radioactive Plate will give you deflection in PvP targets only</b>. That deflection will be bypassed in the mines and upcoming raid targets. Don't use it for your raid fleet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's the Huggy's link for all the ships in the article:</span><br />
<a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B06G51R1R401R346A2U6P00232323232323230NH01W130Z342U6A5K2F23232323AKAKAKAKAK2C0NH01W1W1W342U6A6P2F23232323AKAKAKAKAK2C07401W1P1V1P1V382U6A436P2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C0ZZdC"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B06G51R1R401R346A2U6P00232323232323230NH01W130Z342U6A5K2F23232323AKAKAKAKAK2C0NH01W1W1W342U6A6P2F23232323AKAKAKAKAK2C07401W1P1V1P1V382U6A436P2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C0ZZdC</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway I hope this new article format works for you, I'm also going to spend less time sharing it... probably just in the the 3 'show' groups, so feel free to re-share as you see fit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(And would you believe this is my 200th post!)</span><br />
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<br />The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-11022766202718603062016-11-11T14:33:00.000-05:002016-11-11T14:33:03.971-05:00Hellborn - What not to get<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No pre-raid post this time, but I'll just combine my "pre" and "one day in" posts here.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raid thoughts:</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hellborn is here and the raid looks just like the last one. The one notable change is the addition of the 74 "blitz target". This target is worth 600,000 points if you kill the Hellstrikes that run away. If you beat it in one hit, it can be <b>blitzed for a minimum cost of 5 coin, working out to 120,000 points per coin</b>. For me, I like to be able to do raids for 500k to 1 million points per coin, so <b>using blitz would work out to be a very expensive raid</b> by my standards, but your may vary. In terms of target diificulty, I tried a couple 74s with the<a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!BC7E0272726003839066M482H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H2HC7E0272726003839066M482H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H2H0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC" target="_blank"> two Tideseekers I built using the build and VXP tokens from the High Tide TLC</a>, and was able to beat it for 4 coin repair. The keys I found for using Tideseekers there are to avoid drones until ready to hit the mothership, and drive so that you are only engaging only one ship at a time. Basic stuff.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For most of the raid, I've been using my Hellwraiths to hit 105s and a Grease Monkeys crew to repair, and have just about completed the raid (64M points) using 2 GMs and less than 50 coin. I've been seeing mixed messages from players in the Facebook groups and such, but I've been having pretty good luck using the 100 Uranium crew rolls lately and I had 3 GMs stocked up. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most important tip for this raid when using subs is to<b> come alongside the thermal scouts when firing at them</b> - this way small differences in your ship placement won't cause you to be in thermal range. Note that the <b>motherships have lower thermal range than the scouts</b>, so you don't have to be as careful when approaching them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A couple other notes:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The yellow thermal rings seem to pop up a little more often than last time, even occasionally when I'm not near a thermal ship. I think the drones are involved in triggering those, but I'm not too sure. I generally try to hit areas that are away from drones until I have to.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When my Hellwraith fleet is full strength, it will kill a scout in one volley, so sometimes I will stop my fleet in front of a scout and let it creep into range... but your fleet may vary.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prizes:</span></u></b><br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The new prizes are the Valiant - a new defender hull, a Harlock Tideseeker for finding Phantoms, and a new Scattergun weapon and corrosive special. In addition there are two limited component prizes that will be available for only the first two days of the raid.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Valiant:</span></u></b><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-f6266d6d-544e-d0a5-b734-789be6fee6ee"><img height="457" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6yjUtZr5PiTEzx6Vp4xK1mSJtsDkSZM1zlPiuDmm-bGjIeeAuh7OfEKq5Df0xXg5J9dgfMio11MndK3ev5LV_6yiHF8aXbnmV8uuHQThTyGASB4I4rE94Iv1BtCps-pasv7UF4oGFhw" width="640" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This hull has pretty good armor, but not as good as the Vanquisher (100k vs 500k) - it also has longer repair time (3h vs 2h, cut in half when in base defender fleet slot). Instead, it has across-the-board deflection, which means that it just might hold up longer than the Vanquisher against a lot of attack types.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the weapon side, this hull gives range, damage, and reload bonuses across the board, which means there are a lot of choices available to the player on what to use.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first thing to look at is the range - Jefe put this chart together for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24qJz6DrhZU" target="_blank">the Wednesday night BP Crib show</a>:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2c6e2fb4-547e-49db-bd66-61579f605467"><img height="162px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lEUQrM4BngXomcYkPR779-1T3Ahbb0Og4ZP7-dxkNL5Rf0sMUu_ebKpSdECVZKONNJ-yZRo5yzn9J3yVK48nOxa4xO6esKXCuK6ULDhnsCwqbLVKUToRVs0LtsAECfhQTC1m3AyJqK4" width="249px;" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are pretty good options across the board, but the new Calamity Scattergun looks really good here, considering it is a weapon that does area damage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One more thought is that this ship with 1 speed (instead of zero speed) might be good for base prepping, this was probably more true with the stats from the preview, but the ranges as released are actually a little less than using Cyclone/D98-U launchers on a Retribution (103.4). And even with a bunch of speed boosts, it's REALLY going to be tedious to use it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Calamity Scattergun:</u></b></span><br />
<img height="422" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/eHG3qVmSz2YEoZ3vUu8mGNAn_wj6LmCLqRfh4qnj6P9RZWAfIR6wtZDP9zJJUX8on9hp4hEHvgPHstbnbqmP51ta3-1f5NMjdCAWhl6A9Di9EeuNQIRV5oyn69_H2JDUnPz9_0T_" width="640" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This Corrosive Scattergun has more range than any previous scattergun, and it also does a lot of damage with its secondary concussive damage. Having two damage types is particularly useful against conqueror hulls that have the damage-type specific deflection. In particular, the Fury and Spite have Corrosive deflection but no Concussive deflection (Fury gets 600 Concussive with Bloodthirst). A DPS comparison (again from Jefe) is shown below:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-c6ec2054-54b9-e000-671e-3aaf6e8ed733"><img height="399px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/kFMfIrJefZFTohq8aW80ymYPwHpr9XcUCG1mZurKkdf6QDOzyIYAWzLjACH-ytlvKbh-QZdqjJMUVHfKeH7YNfEliySwd4huOOSjMdgpCy5g6mwv73cYpaL2dLeRzrOm5Ln4lSdCy-w" width="608px;" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <b>DPS improvement from previous scatterguns</b> (both by weapon and by weight) is pretty astounding. Along with the range improvement, this is clearly the new "must have" scattergun. Although the focus right now may be on building Valiants, any <b>Furys you build would benefit from this weapon </b>as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Compressed Corrosion Canisters:</u></b></span><br />
<img height="268" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/s2mXzVFCRmYhSH7B-9zW-JHqjZoN88Znzqk-wf6zrxIIms3IkMEeb4v3Bl6hetBYjtaeosshT30VTo-bz47ze84kiyCADsUaYzYBLGwbHp9SHiXhzJnTgZTSjHmgzo7XDy_7yyg9" width="640" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again, I'm going back to the Jefe well on this one:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-c6ec2054-54b9-023b-548f-3d85e35736aa"><img height="122" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Li8cLCdFB38GEHIkVtQr_2o_rJAt3GVZ-DRqHpfOA34vJFlJw3rqXkUzxPuFKdhqZBkTt8aN0FAOqa4HL0OEDlM_Ddvyi-S_j9s44fYcQE0DVLbP4un-gj3TUoY2y1gF0KP8aP0wM4M" width="640" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From a pure damage perspective, improving the multishot though Heavy Barrel, or improving the concussive damage through Advanced Concussive will give more benefit than improving the splash damage through Compressed Corrosion Canisters. But you don't have to choose. Since each of those three specials affect different statistics, <b>they can be combined for huge damage benefits</b> (as shown in the "stacked" column). On the Valiant with 5 special slots, and no reason to use an engine or armor special, there is enough room to do it. But on Offensive ships where you may only have one special to allocate for your weapon boost, consider the other options and even the <b>Hydroxide Injectors, which will give the +1 multishot with the +25% corrosive damage boost</b>. <b>Adding to multishot is particularly effective with the Calamity Scattergun</b> because it only starts with 3 pellets instead of 6 for the Conflagration Scattergun. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Harlock's Tideseeker:</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-f6266d6d-54c7-4c77-747c-f7253fade1d7"><img height="458" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/PBE60qguE3YwGaHwYZeBr1wraOVV4FjwNMLjQhPHigpKMXFHFBJ9dlQVGFGKp4H9sJbebPCwy2exSJ1mJAuBmQtRmfl1Ym7MTzlGE54mLVC2GNuUBSK62nPdBAYeF5ESIZmQSu3gy9w" width="640" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the anti-sub ship we've been waiting for since the very first phantom sub was released. It can <b>see phantoms on the world map</b>, and it has the <b>thermal range to see them in combat</b>. The only defense subs have left to survive against these is speed.. and that really applies only to Hellwraiths. So when building Tideseekers, remember to <b>emphasize speed if you want to kill the subs you hunt down</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Limited Components:</u></b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm putting these together because they aren't worth any more time than that...</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-c6ec2054-54be-8385-19da-ffa9d2c4cd10"> </span><img height="369" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nRUlEN6A58yKNNxE_Yar0qK4R13XcLa6WBLq0Wc7ltd0qj4BmWa-3Fn4V3MwWJMnSvRMmPU0CGC-7jj7QJZturIcwERCOPe7UCTAhqxMn2p4VBjKDsNBnGBIPW5cGnCoDgvi9jXWJ_w" width="640" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Using Armor to get 10% Slow Resistance just doesn't seem that great. Better ways to get Slow Resistance are Agility System and Shielded Tactical System. For Armor slots on Conquerors, War Plating is a better choice. 1 Million points per piece of armor doesn't seem like that bad a price, but only for armor you'd want to use.</span><br />
<br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-c6ec2054-54bf-b36b-01b5-14e4bb5344c5"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="367" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/xqbLoB582BuLVwDBsYYCfsro2D6FT20kjldM5n-xE7kCnLtPSXEbk_lTioY8yERaQV6VmfWG7Q-WJVbPzd0JnnA3jsMEHUOaDcoAU6pEt_yl5Msu0bhDk4EEDJrCyQcPsSCkK6N4Rxg" width="640" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With only 20 points of deflection, I feel like there are more important ways to use your special slots on the (generally) PvE hulls that this special is limited to. If there were 100 points or so from this special, then it might be worth using. 5 Million points for this just doesn't seem right as-is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>What to get:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <b>new prizes are good for base defense... you want them</b>. At 30 million points they seem to be at around the same value point as other recent prizes. If you're a little short on points, leaving off the new special is probably the best choice out of the three.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Elsewhere in the main prize ladder</b>, the Enforcer (1.75M) and Charon Torpedo (900,000) are good deals if you are missing a defensive hull and a Scourge Torpedo.with 88 range. D98-U Launcher (900,000) is also a good deal if you are missing a 94 range launcher. It makes a great spotter weapon if you are building a tank-type ship, or even an alternative to railguns on a Punisher. Stealth Attack System 4 (350,000) goes well with the lower end sub hulls where you are limited on special slots. If you have to decide between the Tier 2 weapons, you'll just have to decide where you are weakest in capability and focus there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And <b>at this point in the raid cycle, I am less positive on the Hellwraith</b>, especially if you were able to pick up the Tideseeker in the first run of High Tide. If you don't have a good weapon for Tideseekers, the Fire Twister Torpedo (9M) is your best choice from this raid. The Concussive Gatling Gun (7.5M) is also available but seems a bit overpriced.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <b>Harlock's Tideseeker, at 20 million points, also seems like a good value</b> considering the brand new unique capability it brings to the table. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <b>two new locked limited prizes just don't seem worth it to buy or use</b> (as I mentioned above). The shards for "super-hulls" may be worth it if you have the commitment to save up... the Gamma Behemoth in particular only takes 10 shards (45M total points over two raids), so only 2 raids are required to complete that hull. Other than that I don't see too much use for the Hellstar, Protonemesis, or the Man-of-War. <b>Ghostcrawlers are fun and still useful occasionally</b>... but don't be leaving them sitting around anymore (speaking of which I just docked mine)!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the other unlocked Prizes, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Good Deals:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arbalest (1.1M) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Plating 3 (2M)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pick these up if you don't have them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Overpriced but maybe useful:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Styx Torpedo (6M)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Concussive Gatling Gun (7.5M)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Concussive Upgrade (3M) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nuclear Accelerators (4M)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Punisher (12.5M) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only pick these up if you are 'desperate' for the capability, but look for alternatives. For example, the Punisher is a great tank for the 109s in the FM, but many players are having success with the Tideseeker. The Styx Torpedo is 6 million points, but the Charon is only 900,000.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK pirates, play smart and have fun, and start sinking those Phantoms!</span><br />
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<br />The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-60053320193881848502016-10-12T23:58:00.000-04:002016-10-12T23:58:03.443-04:00Update - my schedule<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aargh - it's been a little crazy in the Professor's ivory tower lately (so crazy he's writing in the third person), and he hasn't kept up the blog to his own liking.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(enough of that third person)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently, I would have liked to write articles on: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The new round of FM prizes:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- put those Solar Reinforcements everywhere you have a free armor slot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Splash Dispersion seems cool but I think you'll have to overlap a few for it to be really useful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Shockwave Plate 3 & 4 are useful on those Conqueror hulls vulnerable to Shockwaves. Stack them up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The FM mission 109s:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Build a tank with M & X resistance. Countermeasures are key for that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Flagships are really useful. Harlock Citadel best for its projectile speed, then a Savage Kodiak for M resist, then maybe a Dante's Novastorm for X resist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And now on to the "what to get" article I should write about the next set of raid prizes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>On the new Raid Prizes:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- New missile based Conqueror stuff looks decent but I really haven't analyzed the DPS. Missile is just another option, and I assume we will see a ballistic conqueror sometime in this raid cycle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- The ballistic resistance on the Spite is a warning to those who overloaded on ballistic base defense. I've always kept a Revenge in my base hitting fleet to account for that. Spite will be another option.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- I would have loved the Spite if it had remote targeting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- A reduced build time Neptune with its high Siege deflection might be a decent tank option for those working their way up, but with no Assault Resistance it will be vulnerable to the Rhino's missiles. For Punisher tanks I generally advocate balancing M & X resistance, but on these you may want to emphasize M resist.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Hellwraiths are fun to play with, and they will probably be the best way to get Uranium not too long after this raid cycle ends. If you don't have them, and you do have any other conqueror hull, I would prioritize the Hellwraith over the Spite.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Scythe & Death Scythe never really caught on. Their build time is still really long (2+ days for regular Scythe, 3+ days for Death Scythe) and their flight time too slow to be worth it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- I'm not super excited for the limited ST armor or Ampacity upgrade... just not good enough compared to the alternatives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK that's all - good luck in the raid. I won't be publishing again (or on the Crib show) for two weeks at least. Awesome stuff happening IRL but busy busy busy... I'm hoping to have enough time to do this raid, but won't get too bummed if I can't.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also won't be advertising this article in the FB groups or Kixeye like usual - but of course feel free to share it yourself.</span><br />
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<br />The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-32108281403530108512016-10-01T11:02:00.001-04:002016-10-01T11:25:15.405-04:00Lets get the fun back... with metrics?<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm a professional software engineer. Software Systems actually, I have never written code for a living. Anyway, in the software world, metrics are a controversial topic. For those who aren't familiar with metrics, they are ways to measure your work. For example, to measure productivity you measure lines of code written per hour. To measure test effectiveness you measure number of bugs found in a series of tests divided by the number of bugs that are found later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who remembers this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's sort of anti-metric... (and if you're mad at a certain CEO, freeze it at around 2:37)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But do metrics work? And if you're working on a game, can you turn fun into a metric? My experience is that metrics only work when you can measure what you really want.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well sometimes we say that BP is getting less fun, so I started thinking - what can we measure to figure out "fun"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I came up with three things: difficulty, time, and engagement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Difficulty:</u> This is actually easiest to measure... just how much repair time per target (or per points). I've been talking about this lately in my raid articles - when I saw that this raid cycle was giving me about twice as much repair time per point as the previous cycle, I concluded that this raid was about twice as difficult. Players generally want this to be as low as possible, and Kixeye increases their revenue (ignoring participation) as this increases, but really there's probably a best value for this somewhere in the middle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Time:</u></b> This is also easy to measure... how much time does it take to beat a target? Longer times result in players feeling like this is a grind, but targets that are too quick result in players not playing and getting bored (as well), since they don't get much time in actual gameplay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Engagement:</u></b> This is the hardest of the three metrics to describe and thus hardest to quantify. I'm thinking about engagement as ... how interesting are the targets to hit? Are they boring or fun? Time can enter into that, but the measure I thought of for this metric is time-independent. To measure engagement, you can determine the ratio of damage taken on auto (when beating a target) to the damage taken when driving skillfully. This metric should generally work out as higher is better, since a target that can be beaten on auto is not that interesting and takes no skill to fight. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As an alternative, clicks (user input) per time might be a decent engagement measure. Sitting and waiting for a cavatator field to blink off isn't too engaging.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I'm sure some of you are thinking - this is silly, these numbers are going to be all over the map for different players. But since we are looking for a good user experience across the whole community, Kixeye really can measure the average and see how the player base is doing overall. They could split it by level or coin spend. The Engagement metric is a little tricky to measure from live data, but probably could be measured in the test environment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Averaging makes it even more powerful... one on the theories batted around is that the changes in the Reaver targets are based on the fact that players could use Ghostcrawlers and prep out targets for free points. But if the number of players doing that wasn't too high, then the averaged metrics wouldn't be affected too much... and we can all just move along with the raid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But just to play around with this, lets think about some of what is going on with our current BP targets through this lens. Although I don't have access to player data, I can make some generalizations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Rise of the Warlords:</u></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The latest event featured targets that were pretty much vulnerable to subs only and alternating cavitator fields to force some careful driving. Much of the damage in these targets was driven by death explosions, forcing some strategy in deciding how many subs to bring around. For players who kept up and had at least 2 Hellwraiths to work with, the way I would assess the metrics is:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Damage:</b> Somewhat high but not totally unreasonable</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Time:</b> A little long for A sets, the careful driving forced by the cav fields caused the targets to take a while to complete</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Engagement:</b> Very good (using ships on auto wasn't a good strategy) but maybe also a bit too high, as the problem solving combined with the time required just limited the useful play time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The latest changes we saw in the VXP targets, unfortunately, seem to be moving these metrics in the wrong directions... Damage went way up (obviously) and Engagement went down, basically because there was no smart way to drive against those targets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Civil War cycle:</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The last raid cycle featured Mega Hulls surrounded by a mix of turrets and ships. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Damage:</b> By the end of the cycle, I think damage on this raid was right around the 'happy medium'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Time:</b> A little long for A sets, and this was driven by massive maps. It drove people to hit S sets (except on the last event of the cycle where damage got turned up to unreasonable, and so many people took more time to hit As.)</span><br />
<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Engagement:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Here is where this style shined - the targets were autoable, but good driving and strategy did allow a lot of damage mitigation.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Base Hitting:</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For those who don't do it - you're missing out. Base hitting is really fun, and I think it's getting even more fun with the crop of conqueror hulls and the options available.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Damage:</b> It was getting out of control for a while there, but 30 minute - 1 hour repair times on Conqueror hulls have really turned this problem around. Defense turrets and guard fleets are doing some damage, so base hits aren't free if you are hitting a player of comparable 'power'. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Time:</b> 5 minutes max... with many hits being done in less than 3 minutes. Higher ship speeds is helping. A base hit is usually quick & satisfying. Preps that would drive up the time are a lot less common these days with the rise of sub defense and the nerfing/obsolescence of sub-based prep weapons (launcher / deluge). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Engagement:</b> You can't auto decent bases, and the strategy of base hits has really grown with the variety of damage types, deflection defense, and remote targeting. Mixing up fleets and thinking about which ships to bring forward is the norm among good base hitters. Click-the-back-of-the-base isn't happening too often, although some Fury owners are having success with this right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Furies aside, I think base hitting has been right in the sweet spot for a while now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Weekly Forsaken Mission</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We just had a shift from the 107s, where the avoiding the Angry Arc missile was the significant strategy driver, to the 109s, where most damage is incoming from missiles that are difficult to shoot down and Coldsnap rockets that are impossible to shoot down. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Damage:</b> Players were getting it down with the 107s, but the shift to 109s has ramped this up a bit. With just a single tank taking the brunt of the damage, it is much more difficult to knock out the mission in a single evening without coining a repair. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Time:</b> Pretty good here - 3 109s and a few more points will get a round done instead of 5 107s. The complaints about targets being gutted is really about time... if you are hunting around for a target to hit, it simply takes longer to get the mission done.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Engagement:</b> Pretty good here, some thought should be given to approach angles and pathing through the targets to avoid some unnecessary damage. Engagement in any target like this will go down over time as it becomes more and more of a rote pattern.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This post isn't going to help you play the game any better, but hopefully this helps us (and Kixeye) think a bit more about the fun (or lack of it) in this game, and WHY some targets are more fun than others. I still owe you pirates a good look at the new FM targets and the latest crop of prizes, but I thought this article was a little more important to put out there. </span><br />
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The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-57278149052921142882016-09-24T12:01:00.003-04:002016-09-24T13:22:28.915-04:00VXP Weekend - New Reavers<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With this VXP weekend, we've seen some new Reavers that are much harder to kill. We've also been told that those are a preview of the targets for the next raid. I'll leave my thoughts on that for the a bit later in this article, but first some numbers that might actually help you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you should know by now, the <b>standard way that VXP are awarded</b> to each ship in a battle is:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Up to 10 VXP for taking damage.</b> 10 VXP are awarded for losing all heath, and less are awarded if you survive the battle, in proportion to the damage taken.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Up to 10 VXP for dealing damage</b> (to ships). 10 VXP are awarded for dealing damage equal to or greater than your ship's health, and less are awarded (in proportion to damage dealt) if you do less damage than that.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Salty Dog crews will multiply those numbers by 2 or 3 depending on the type of crew.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has been theorized (and I think mostly correctly), that the <b>increased VXP targets will award experience in the same way</b>, but with a multiplier applied, so that the "10" in the description above becomes some other number. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wanted to find out that number for this new crop of targets, so <b>I took some hulls that had very few weapons on them and ran them into these targets</b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's what I found:</span></div>
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<img height="139px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/JTxQcqIY1wk7Vgw5mURadUEEs4zPseyYp5QbO-Ec96cOqi_EMlRi-dbaY5o6X6oV_-ExtUvYUVxuSf0vlyi_hMWK_XFSdrdU5-8O1IAKgNulJJCZE8yHRF62Mrkl0xJYbrna5hBP2tk" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" width="450px;" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The third column in the table above is my actual data, and the 4th column is my best guess on what the base VXP number (instead of 10) is for that target. The real interesting thing is that <b>the level 80 Legion target paid more VXP than the level 112 Reaver</b>. Don't ignore those. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>114s are real wicked</b>. The Scouts have thermal that outranges your torpedoes and they fire deadly explosive torpedoes of their own. I predict utter and complete disaster and revolt if those show up in the raid unchanged. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what's the best strategy for getting VXP?</span></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have subs with weapons: Hit 114s</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To maximize your VXP in the 114s, you will want to deal some damage. One thing I've been doing is to make a hole in the ring of scouts (hint - take out the ship without thermal at the bottom), then you can pick off drones for a while and do your damage. If you can't get to the drones and do any damage, it may payoff a bit better if you hit 112s and do some damage. You'll have to experiment for yourself.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have surface ships with weapons: Hit 80s</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hit the Legion 80s and do some damage. If you can, retreat occasionally to kill it in stages so that you don't hit the "dealing damage" point cap.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have ships without weapons: Hit 114s</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Go die in a 114.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have a Ghostcrawler:</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Damn it's expensive to level those. They don't do well in these targets. A single hit on a 114 put me up 3 ranks, but costs a bit over 22 coin (no armor, no GM) to repair. I saw a comment that buying rank would be cheaper, but I did check the price and a single rank cost 86 coin. My plan for the Ghost is to put on a Salty and grind out URFs.. we will see how that goes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Edit: </i><b>On hitting URFs with a Ghostcrawler:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've hit a couple (points are without taking damage, without Salty Dogs & without armor): </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Threshers/Avenger (86 VXP): The Avenger does have thermal with decent range. Come out of Deep Dive in range & kill it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mercuries/Sea Scorpions (86 VXP): The Mercs have some thermal, but you can kill them from outside thermal range.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Cudas/Banshees (64 VXP): You'll see them, they won't see you.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No matter what (Hopefully most players know this already, but I'm saying it anyway):</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Use a Salty Dogs crew... Rare triple Salty Dogs if you have it... roll for uncommon double Salty Dogs if you don't. The double Saltys aren't that hard to get from 1000 Uranium rolls. If you are repairing ships to grind out lots of VXP, use a Grease Monkeys on a fleet slot in your base and repair back there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hopefully this helps you out. I think the info on the 80s isn't really well known, so I wanted to get this article out in front of you pirates. Stay salty!</span></div>
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The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-86192374141958907852016-09-17T10:46:00.000-04:002016-09-17T10:46:05.834-04:00Rise of the Warlords - Two days in<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've had some time to make some first impressions of this raid, and I think the biggest surprise we got just before the raid started was the point awards:</span><br />
<img height="208" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/oyxAVbKnTHFFTc2LA5nG530-mu_ALaVfNgJdWN3_hzkk3d_PVXbS7uoBtHyLdHOZxlsRZk9ch2w9X52z1KQi_6D4GC1f7fbar5nsQh0N9JNwVOeT_W9WNCxoFJf4pC-xTQKhd2O_0Vk" width="640" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The reduction in points paid out to a Tier "5" (that's an A set for those that don't adapt well to arbitrary name changes) for players above level 80 is unprecedented. It makes some weird incentives. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just to set the stage, for this raid I'm running two fully ranked Hellwraiths with the following build: </span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-3892-449c-23af-450b401727f0"><img height="408" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/DYSWGdyUQRz7ynG6CdDtSt12wPBDF-_qNcfH8a94MvmybEkd4DqFG_8S4khEDNeL4tkownBQu81YBMxfCWWz7qsQwfY_qqid7W8n9cPv6499ZOSYMjx5gZWyp8-MhRsDBXHijqWaPQk" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some people like Mimicus, some don't... some prefer X armor for this raid, some don't. Anyway, the biggest advantage of this build is that the extra Concussive Resistance cuts the penalty when you screw up & surface in range of the enemy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So with that build, I can do an A set for 3 coin (no crew) and earn 1,725,000 points, which works out to 575k points / coin. The weird thing is that if I do a B set, it costs me 2 coin to earn a little less than 725,000 points, or 362k points / coin. But since the health on the B set targets is lower, I can blow through 2 B sets faster than an A set (where you really need to be careful and pick your way through).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As another reference, I was earning about 1 million points / coin on the previous raid cycle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the result is that ... (for high levels), <b>the A set is the "grind" target, but the B set is a more costly, quicker point earner</b>. That's the wrong progression through the targets, and a real indicator that Kixeye hasn't correctly balanced the time / difficulty of the targets. In fact, it's the time/tedium factor that bugs me the most about this raid. A targets are just too slow to complete. It's been a theme in raids lately as the target maps are too big to do quickly. Higher speed ships like the Hellwraith and Apollo help, but for players without the top tech it's a huge problem.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I haven't talked about the S set yet - I'm hearing about players doing those for 8-12 coin (300k - 460k points / coin) with no crew, which is a bit lower but in the same neighborhood as other targets. I'm doing those as well, and I'm doing them cheaper, but I'll say my experience isn't average or repeatable for most players. You may recall (I've mentioned it once or twice) that I recently earned and built a Ghostcrawler. Although the high repair modifier on the GC means that taking damage from death weapons is expensive to repair (1.5 coin for each scout), I've been using the GC to prep for myself. Since a Ghost never surfaces, it can drive right through these targets and attack whatever is convenient as long as you keep a decent distance from the drones (I'd estimate 50-60 range or so). So the technique I'm using is to <b>prep all of the ships in the S target down to a sliver of health with the Ghostcrawler</b>, wait for a timeout, then come in with my Hellwraiths and blast through and finish everything off. I end up with about 4 coins repair on the Hellwraiths (and nothing on the GC if I do everything right). Since my GC isn't ranked yet, this takes a while (2 cycles in the S, so 20 minutes), but it's the cheapest way for me to do this raid, and doing an S set like this is also faster than doing 2 A sets (which would pay about the same points). By the way, mixing the GC and HW in a single fleet doesn't work too well - the surfacing of the HW draws drones and can get your GC spotted, you can avoid <i>most </i>of the Hunter Killer Mortars by sitting the HW in a corner but not all of them, so I'm playing it safe and using the extra time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">FYI here's my Ghost build right now (not done yet): </span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-3893-62cf-4e15-83bfdd78383b"><img height="403" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nWVHng8ZPmlvoD3AvgbkEpQnty09IrcPhTkYKTXyBc7f-3HfktyusCc-kycafHLfFxdwk3jsmQNoBJHWtN9Fs9PpTRLwX9jlx3k_TDLYq0_yjMQHsOzLVdhm2R62C38-2CJ5f9SRMqo" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So in the end... <b>how upset should we be at Kixeye for this raid?</b> I've often tried to remind players that Kixeye is a business that has to pay its employees, and they do need to make money somehow. This raid is about 2-3 times as expensive as the last raid cycle (if you've been planning for it... near impossible if you haven't), but I have no idea whether Kix is making a "reasonable" amount of money on these raids or not (and any player who does say they know is full of crap). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I can comment on whether these raids are "fun" and whether I feel like they are providing "value". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the fun factor... the real problem I have with this raid, like many others lately, is that it feels tedious. You have to pick your way through the random cavitator fields, wait for the blink on and off, or get destroyed. Removal of the retreat button makes it even worse, since unlucky drops of those fields may result in a really long drive or even no safe path at all. Frankly, <b>the last raid style that I found really fun was the Scourge</b>. Although those targets were really hard for many players, I think they were fun and the targets were not nearly as tedious as the current crop. If those raids were introduced like they are introducing targets now - with lots of previews and information to get fleets ready, I think there would have been a much lower shock to the player base, and we wouldn't have reacted as poorly (yet justifiably at the time) as we did. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the value factor... <b>I've always thought a reasonable amount of spend for a raid is about 100 coin ($10)</b>. Also remember for a four day raid, you have 96 hours to repair your fleets which works out to having 192 coin if you can use all that time effectively. Even if you are on the lower end of the "doable" points / repair spectrum - 3 coins per million points, 100 coin gets you 33 million points, which is enough to get the top prizes (but not the tokens). As always, the problem is for players that aren't prepared. If you need to spend $50 to get caught up to current tier tech, that's a bit tough to swallow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So in the end, <b>I'm not mad, just disappointed</b>. (I think I've said that one before). In order to improve the player experience, Kixeye needs to try harder to balance the points, damage, and TIME these raids are taking. I think that we can have fun AND coin enough for Kixeye to pay the bills, but we're still waiting to see the right balance.</span><br />
<br />The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-40413375951590792902016-09-14T22:22:00.004-04:002016-09-14T22:22:49.992-04:00Rise of the Warlords - What to get<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A new raid cycle is upon us - the Reavers have returned with Drones, Scouts, Hulks, and a whole lot of Sub Cavitator fields. If you've paid any attention at all over the last month, you've seen that subs really are the only viable option for beating these targets. I was sort of intrigued by the idea of trying V2H or a similar ship with Concussive Reciprocators, but these Reavers deal out enough damage that I wouldn't want to rely on that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Raid Briefing is here: <a href="https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/659299" target="_blank">https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/659299</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Raid Video is here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai6b7L8-P08" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai6b7L8-P08</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>(it's more entertaining than usual by the way)</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To take these targets on, you will need to use your subs, pick off the scouts when their cavitator field is down, then go for the Hulk(s). For targets without the hunter-killer mortars, patience is key. If you do it really well, the only damage you will take is from their death weapon. In early versions of these targets, you were able to avoid some damage from that explosion by turning & running before the target died. In what we've seen lately, the splash damage is the same no matter how far you are from the explosion, so it makes more sense to ignore the splash and just think about going for the next target quickly. Most of the damage is explosive from these explosions, so X defense is key. Some is plasma and just can't be resisted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the S target (only?) when the hunter-killer mortars are in play, you will really want to go after the mothership and hulks that fire the mortars ASAP. Then once you've rushed through that... then you can slow down & try to pick off the rest. We've also heard that the retargeting range of the hunter killer mortars has been reduced. Hopefully what we will see is that you will only need to face the mortar from one enemy at a time instead of all four.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have Hellwraiths with Fire Twisters, <b>using one sub at a time is the general strategy</b> to minimize the splash damage. However, if you have weaker subs and the Cavitator field comes back on before you can kill your target, you might want to use more subs and stack up so you can complete each target in reasonable time. In this case you'll want to stick with the lower level targets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let's look at the new prizes:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Fury Conqueror Hull</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-265a-0f0a-b560-cc6c3006b602"><img height="270" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/tpzkT_3elmtuHwIUJXdJm3Fi7b6wN6j8pSD7CdGYnjvJcgMdVZRbHOWZxFrJroHjnWm463xTvbT_zzQPiwOeaAALe9YfF7Xb2liXl0A884bH9Dp1VIo0CqPugzP0mX6ZTpUd8NbwvjI" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This Conqueror hull is in the same class as the other ones we've seen, but this time the rotating wheel of weapon love has landed on Scattergun. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has a powerful overload that will buff your other ships, as well as briefly stunning nearby targets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has <b>very high deflection against Penetrative, Explosive, and Radioactive</b> Damage where it will basically ignore any weapons of that type. It has some built-in corrosive deflection too, but not enough that it will ignore corrosive weapons. Bloodlust will get this ship some additional Ballistic, Concussive, and Corrosive deflection, but this hull will really have to watch out for Blunderbuss and Miniguns.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When building these, consider that they have the <b>100% defense handicap</b> we've seen recently on a lot of hulls, but they don't have any built-in turret defense. I recommend <b>Siege Battery </b>on any build of these for the Turret Defense. Resonance Capacitor could also get you some turret defense, but I don't think you can count on being in a field all the time with these hulls.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You also will want to look at your Evade stat. You start at -50%, which means that with an evade special and armor, you can get that into a decently positive range. Perhaps the only weapon you'd face where you care about evade is Javelins, but you might want to be able to delay Shockwaves too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With a bare hull build time of a bit over 2 days, this hull can be built for a reasonable amount of shipyard time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Conflagration Scattergun</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-2665-b9bf-5f37-29b2ba39e526"><img height="308" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/pAg6_Wr1A54sdRe4wiN4soKWGU5YKCYtjYWOQEXH0Z8zk2FTxx5Gwbfb0jhb_a3uEWKpxF8SuoXh8Rp_ncIc7BFcbd-dgqFd_okBOwEt_Lt-KpUrr-W3omJvH5JueYPJ7OjArB8PleI" width="640" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This new Scattergun has higher damage and better range than other light Scatterguns - it is definitely preferable to the Cobra and the D81-M for dealing damage. It also has a death weapon that will start making your battle look really pretty once ships start sinking. The actual amount of death weapon damage isn't too high.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One thing to remember on the old D81-M - it was Kixeye's experiment with making weapons have a uranium cost, and although it has shorter range and less damage than this new Scattergun, it does have a much shorter build time (about 3 hours vs. 10) and it adds combat speed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Hydroxide Injector</u></b></span><br />
<img height="284" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/F2I3pE4MJw1EBCMs9u3rHd0wO_ITQnnTNEgt2FxdHop17YVNQD5AGHHsVXk7FkHogGSbsMklgiridhAr3RnM0CLeZfxSi_37bAn3th5ObJW1MfksM5qx_oYMIWNj-FJrZIeK85zF" width="640" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This special adds multishot and corrosive damage. It is ideal for light scatterguns (like the new Conflagration), but Barrel System 3 still does better for your heavy scatterguns.</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c3de3621-2663-e16c-c05e-5e61cf8693b1"><img height="234px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/MNbzFScdhS7BjFL4pNPBGbptV6dnG8o2sZNoijq3L-ufq-Eai1J2NE0OH_iMUSkW1DPt28zOae0UmxMxsCKHmYl-bk82vW18KuO5CZXB45GG9EzcIf1wIDIBquMCB3T4pIuSOCJbRew" width="504px;" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>What to Get:</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The prize list is not too massive, so I'll try to be comprehensive this time:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>MAIN PRIZES:</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="background-color: lime; font-weight: bold;">Fury:</u> The conventional story on these sort of blitz hulls is that they don't have very long useful lifespans. I think the story might have changed a little bit, since most of the conqueror hulls are run like blitz fleets nowadays - you don't outrange the front line turrets anymore, remember? This hull has a nice overload when damaged, so when fitted with a launcher for spotting, it can be swapped in for Retributions or Revenges as spotters for Vendettas and be a nice addition to your toolchest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: lime;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Conflagration Scattergun:</u> </span> It's probably the best weapon to put on your Fury. Concussive repeaters also come to mind, but without the damage bonus, those weapons are probably best on Revenges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: yellow;">Hydroxide Injector:</u></b> Adding 46% to your DPS is a good thing, right? If you are using the Fury to spot, that might not matter too much though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="background-color: lime; font-weight: bold;">Hellwraith:</u> If you don't have these yet, I HIGHLY recommend them. Of course, getting 15 million points this raid might be tough if you don't have these already. They will be the critical hull to get in this raid cycle, and we expect to see these types of Reaver targets somewhere for a long time after this raid cycle. If it is a question of "Fury or Hellwraith?" I'd strongly recommend Hellwraith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="background-color: lime; font-weight: bold;">Fire Twister Torpedo:</u> These torpedoes deal lots of damage, but the excitement for these was damped a bit when we saw they are "dumbfire" instead of aimed. Coupled with Hellwraiths and Sealed Fire Charge, it really isn't much of a problem, but on other hulls you might not want to depend on these.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="background-color: lime; font-weight: bold;">Sealed Fire Charge:</u> These go nicely with the FTTs, giving splash and speed bonuses. Critical hits are great against targets with deflection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="background-color: yellow; font-weight: bold;">Tiger Shark:</u> I'm not scrapping mine just yet, but these subs are noticeably less effectivein this raid than Hellwraiths. If this is all you can get (for a much lower point total than the Hellwraith), it might be a nice step-up to build these, but I'm not sure they are worth the build time in comparison.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: red;">Heavy Cruiser:</u></b> These just don't seem like they have a place in today's game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: lime;">Charon Torpedo:</u></b> Cheap at 900,000 points, these are the best alternative to Fire Twisters</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: red;">Scattergun D81-M:</u></b> I'm not sure where you'd really use these. They were a cheap/light way to get some combat speed when they were introduced, but the nearly weightless/instant building Siege Cannons do that now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: lime;">Stealth Attack System IV:</u></b> Again a good pickup for cheap, and usable in some combinations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><u>Barrel System 3:</u></b></span> Best for "Heavy" weapon multishot of +6, you're more likely to want this special to be use with the Thermonuclear Launcher than the Heavy Scattergun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>LOCKED STORE:</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: yellow;">Interception System:</u></b> I liked this one in Tigers with my Styx torpedoes, or possibly on a ship with Antipode Launchers, but I'm not sure this is a must-have these days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="background-color: yellow; font-weight: bold;">Railgun D-110:</u> Not bad if you have a use for it, but the Arbalest is better in Mine and FM targets. This might be decent on the Gamma Behemoth if you are going that way - it has better speed than the Arbalest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="background-color: lime; font-weight: bold;">Gamma Behemoth Shards (limit 5):</u> Since you only need 10 shards for the Gamma blueprint, this raid could get you halfway there. As a hull with significant buffs for ballistics and countermeasures, this hull has a place in many high-end guard fleets. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><u>Proto Nemesis / Hellstar / Ghostcrawler / Man-O-War </u></b></span><u style="background-color: yellow; font-weight: bold;">shards x5 (limit 20 shards):</u> You already know whether or not you want to get these... just remember that you will need 250 shards to actually redeem the blueprint. I still consider the Ghostcrawler useful. Not so sure about the other ones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>UNLOCKED STORE:</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: yellow;">Ship build tokens (limit 5 days 10 hours):</u></b> Just make sure that you are getting a positive return on these before you redeem.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: yellow;">Fusion Charger:</u></b> Not sure where you'd use this currently, but it sure is cheap.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Good luck in the raid pirates!</span><br />
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<br />The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-53583287229110985282016-09-05T22:46:00.000-04:002016-09-05T22:46:08.518-04:00Mega Ship Builder's Guide<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've got my Mega. I was unable to beat any of the Clash of Titans campaign. Part fo my problem was that my Mega was completed too close to the start of that campaign, but I did have a little bit of build time to work with before the campaign ended. If I knew a little more, I might have been able to do better. I still haven't done much with my Mega - I don't consider myself an expert in Mega Ship Combat, but I'll share what I know and hopefully this article will help you avoid big mistakes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first thing I want to get out there is that the Hyperion Build tokens only work as your Hyperion is being built in the Gantry. Once complete, those tokens are useless for building and refitting modules on your Hyperion. BOO Kixeye!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The basic view of the Hyperion looks like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="406" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/KhS_g1PeI8Fn0QMy3Nt6B1F4B7yu512jwhqYXw8KzKFkzab9yISZgPWNVlWNLrIaj717QEr3GawcLJ0HArfLOW9yH7Q0jqGi6E9Y4-_P4JJWTehZKskWp7NuBbhH6pUUuo6lQoWPHAI" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can see that there are 10 slots for Weapon modules, and 1 slot each for a Bridge and Engine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Upgrade Options:</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Within a Weapon module, you can upgrade the module, or upgrade the weapon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Upgrading the weapon will make it hit harder - the Level 1 to Level 2 upgrade looks like this:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-f1e0-47f3-432b-56305213e26a"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="355" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KbW5gNix_pPLk4FqHCbQeP-S6hzFEz7T2mPFj86BqZPOvAz9ZRAlaH7chOdeFcUbQ9vO5oeSLtqFsDFmLGUXaIPvf4I5SzJzz0cbdTSRa05dQ4RBXptTM31gtlUUyHIHkx-fRQHlLJI" width="400" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This upgrade shows about a 25% increase in damage. (I'll summarize costs & such later)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Upgrading the module will allow more equipment to be mounted to the module</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-f1e2-92fd-d566-ba714c6059b9"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="356" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/x1iR-PBSkSxsSyrkBs14E-far_h7q01HIYp3LFuWYxqnPxBR027PxO41r65cIBkQU-7kWapZ31MBLEWh-c7z81I_Bn3sXaNwvSeJ3KdF8yb9mFAsPjLWf39USNVIX9aoYx8BZJoRrUk" width="400" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This upgrade increases the armor (health) of the module by 25%, increases the number of weapon & special slots by one each, and also increases the maximum weight allowed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Building a new module starts with two basic weapon options: the Culverin Cannon and the Titan Mortar. Conger Rockets were available from the campaign.</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-f1ea-6999-ae0f-c0da21b4bb1e"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="283" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/4q9VlSH7IZMznjYPd_eLGZPQRuUbqKA_DNvtDUo2wlWdcKhf4-jzseKzvEqoMo2mJ1aBYgu2dKDN9cLToOOSjC5oPbeKowSminBkqr5ZQKLqYWs_Cw940ir1zbuI55B9TRX21z0TsbI" width="640" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Cannon isn't too difficult to understand:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-f1ee-3e42-240c-1e9562c47f92"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="370" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZueLXz38p99JFEnGvwbNzfIhW6_DUD2R4ZOJdznHzOEt-t9I9-FsVxPcSprH3gJqtM1HChoQAuwjC3Kz0jBDSz6sFds9X1MTalVPtMIabrtigcMIKx_E7BrlikIsCCTwE0j_tGtfeU8" width="640" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is a splash (un-aimed) cannon weapon that shoots with a small amount of splash and a lot of range. 8110 damage is nice, but in the big picture, it isn't too much all by itself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Mortar weapon is a bit more tricky to figure:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-f1ec-6706-8772-022c0fed85d5"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="360" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/pG1vBi6MPJTHGEskpLDv6mJjkP66qD_qb9hpvNk5-Des_kN2juesRFg3J6eBUflaHTKQW7BrWU6OEafKLrhv-pqud19PdKMcI-agGJtk2ZNa3q5mMDm2VaV-Cx2efwhjibcv0zgW74g" width="640" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Titan Mortar needs a bit more study. At a glance its damage looks huge, but the damage will be spread over its projectiles, and those projectiles will be spread over much of its firing area. With 4 simultaneous salvos of 15 projectiles, its damage per projectile will be 288,800 / (15 * 4), or about 4800 each. The weapon also has a large reload time of 30 seconds. Without having seen this weapon in action, I can't tell yet whether it will be more or less effective than the cannon. Even against moving targets, if it covers a large enough area, the shells may be difficult to avoid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Overall, I would count on the Mega Ship weapons to be more effective against other Mega ships, but <b>to deal with the incoming "regular" ships we can see in Mega ship combat, you will need to mount "regular" weapons to your Mega Ship modules</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The interface to add regular weapons and specials to Mega Ship modules is accessed through the "refit" command.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">NEED PICTURE</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This interface feels more like a traditional ship building interface, you can add weapons and specials (but not armor). You are limited by weight. Adding each weapon will cost Titanium. The Titanium costs can really add up - weapons generally cost 5,000 - 30,000 titanium each, and specials can cost 6,000 - 40,000 titanium. Build times look like the build time needed when mounting on a regular ship (without any R&D or officer bonus).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u><b>Build Strategy</b></u><b>:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So without much experience, I can't be sure what's best, but I'll share my initial thoughts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One more note: a module that is building, upgrading, or refitting will not fire. So consider that before starting any combat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Right now, it seems like the real hazards in Mega Ship combat are the incoming regular fleets. Defending against those has to be a priority. When adding regular weapons to a module, I plan to specialize a weapon type per module, in order to take advantage of the synergy between specials and weapons. I'll go through some of the options:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most hulls we see incoming will be Apollos, or other conqueror hulls. Deflection is expected to be their primary means of protection. It looks like weapons mounted to Mega Modules get 100% defense bypass, so high damage per shot is desirable to overcome any remaining deflection. Old school DPS calculations may come back into play here when choosing weapons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Radioactive:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Cyclone Launchers</b> are your best bet here, and adding <b>Atomic Targeting</b> for accuracy and damage is also a good choice. For a second special, a multishot booster like <b>Emission Generator</b> is desirable, but also titanium expensive. In comparison, Barrel Loader costs an outrageous amount of Titanium.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Ballistic:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I tried some <b>D33-DR</b> cannons in conjunction with <b>Concussive Reciprocator</b> weapons - I wasn't too thrilled with the results. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Bypass Chainguns </b>are sometimes used effectively against incoming Conqueror hulls and could be a good choice here - most lack ballistic deflection. <b>Nuclear Accelerators </b>add accuracy as well as range (and a useless speed bonus), so they present an advantage over Hardened Barrels (which cost more anyway). With no rank bonuses available, decreasing your reload time with <b>Auto-Loader</b> is a good play. <b>Armor Piercing Shells</b> aren't too expensive here as a third special choice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Missile:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Switchblades </b>are the intriguing weapon to use here here. Not only do they do a high per-shot damage against ships, but they also give the anti-missile defense which could help against incoming Apollos. <b>Guided Missile System</b> is a must for range and accuracy. For a damage boost, <b>Strike Warheads</b> are the top choice, but awful expensive. <b>Interception System</b> and <b>Enhanced Warhead </b>are much cheaper. <b>Anti-Missile Proliferation System</b> would help your defense if you prefer that route.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Mortar/Rocket:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since your incoming targets are fast movers, Mortar & Rocket weapons probably are not the way to go on your Mega Ship Modules. If you want to try these, the <b>Coaxial Firestorm </b>is a much better deal than the Judgment Mortar.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Depth Charge: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was hoping for great things from my <b>Concussive Reciprocators</b>, but have been disappointed so far, even against the computer-controlled targets that sailed into range. I mixed them up with ballistics, so maybe concentrating them with <b>Strike Warheads</b> (<b>Concussion System </b>is the value play) and a splash upgrade like <b>Combustion System 2</b> would be the thing. Note that CS2 is a better deal than <b>Explosive System 4</b>. I think that these have potential due to their Wind Up capability - remember your Mega Ships do not get a rank bonus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Scattergun / Thrower:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The short range of these weapons makes them unlikely to be effective in most combats.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Countermeasures:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Phalanx </b>might help against incoming missile fleets like Apollos, and <b>Gales </b>might help against incoming Vendettas, but I'd start with some offensive-focused modules before turning to these. I'm really not liking the long build time of the Phalanx in this context, maybe stick with the cheaper, faster <b>Switchblade </b>for Anti-Missiles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>UAV/Torpedo:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Can't use these.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Defense:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although armor specials won't affect these modules (Defense Handicap), evade... might. Just keep in mind Mega Ship weapons aren't aimed, so evade upgrades like <b>Guidance Scrambler </b>would only help against incoming aimed weapons from regular ships (and I'm not 100% sure they would do that, although the evade statistic does show up in the module defense block).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I collected this data from my Mega - I am at R&D Level 30 with a shipyard officer- I'm not sure what effects carry over from the shipyard to Mega Ship refits... .at a quick check vs the in-game shipyard, it looks like none of them do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Weapon Cost Summary</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-f6c4-3594-757d-49efa0657bab"><img height="308px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9Q3t1gdb5fwj2n2tcDZ4X0Mi0FlVXYfGQVuvJF40M_26bj1-833LqzfQ-mjJbZjGVYdtAQV0plea51i6jVV9OSlu_eSDREc7g_mm1O2qlE50No5HkIWjR2i77INt_xtR6uB5i7EW0AA" width="421px;" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Special Cost Summary</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-f6c5-3c6c-61fc-0019b9a5ec8e"><img height="461px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nWDxnNVtJCmOI1EFJoTHu2cuG8hGhdbzhsuu7m7n-c0MSuBs14OYFBLKRN-0iYIED6DA8yyS2KnR1kytlkPQmWFUydtKOafW4wg6lxYIoHerrnzUYCB2evSHq6GDIEFcOkkLSnhj0m0" width="421px;" /></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Economy:</u></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mega Ship improvements are mostly Titanium-based (with a little Uranium too). Titanium is collected from 91 Mega Ships (currently), or looted from enemy Megas. At 8,000 per 91 target, <b>collecting Titanium is a slow process</b> (but not too damaging) for most players and I think that is the biggest slowdown to try to improve Megas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The other two basic resources are Advanced Components and Metal Alloy. These are produced from Titanium and Uranium (for Alloy only). This is done through a new Manufacturing tab in your Outpost R&D interface. </span><br />
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</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Advanced Components</b> are relatively cheap, but take a full day to build. <b>Metal Alloy</b> takes 25,000 titanium and the same amount of Uranium, but only takes half an hour to build. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The following table summarizes the basics:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-f34b-5d7d-c8d4-911c5118aaff"><img height="168" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KsKdI9iBKQ2yCPEwrmYrs_UE8wWKnOZlbm4rO4AnwmTJ27RrxMAj8mYLF0VT_3VwbbMQJOAREeqFT7sSJVkNm4GaaE3cTW9Ex_1Of1tSMcQphxN1hSTLmLU-7hj2cgrIyJtwOIUQWbU" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Further upgrades past level 2 may take more resources and/or time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Upgrade Strategy:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These are my random thoughts about how to increase the effectiveness of your Mega the most quickly:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- With Advanced Components being (relatively) cheap but long to build, I try to keep my Manufacturing busy building those. If I can build up a surplus, then losing them won't hurt too much. Losing the resources associated with the Metal Alloy will feel more painful (I think), and the Advanced Components are going to need to be built up in advance anyway. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Building a new Mega Module seems like it will add more damage output to a ship than improving an existing module. It's cheaper and faster too. So I likely will build out my modules before doing much improvement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Like I said earlier, building a single weapon type within a module will be the best way to optimize the weapon effectiveness. I think I'll be building out the weapons on each module before building another. After I get enough regular weapons to hold off a regular fleet, I may change that strategy, but I'm not sure how many weapons that will be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope this helps those of you with new Mega Ships figure out the basics. I'm going to need a lot more experience with Mega combat before being able to tell which items are really the most effective... so watch those hulls!</span><br />
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The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-88112152717874141912016-08-28T22:04:00.000-04:002016-08-28T22:04:37.099-04:00Catch up on the new FM prizes<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello pirates - I've been doing a bit of travelling, and then when I got back I was having a bit of connectivity trouble on my main computer so blogging has been a bit difficult. This game has also been pretty time consuming lately ... I'll get to that. But right now I want to catch up on some of the FM Prizes. I'm not going to give them a full treatment since I'm about a week and a half late, but I'll share a few thoughts on each.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Mimicus System</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-dd03b724-d3ef-8a4c-2674-4cfecb037843"><img height="365" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/wpBijdagwCJFubpbNt0m_w6e0kXE0kKKSTSy6KKjFA48sM0rhwOdoILprYVvV4qQl81B72rxnmpYl-NJzP72vvZzXSmm0lC8uy95OauKhfi3d6u8-jve2KsXSm9AgIuJO7uwgP0ZZOs" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was really looking forward to this special for Hellwraith builds, and I wasn't disappointed. Although its stats aren't quite as good as the specialized Cat Drive or Battery when those are retrofitted, I like this quick-building combo special. It lets me use Hunter special to increase torpedo damage on my Hellwraith build.</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-dd03b724-d3e4-9e7f-f373-48d4f727c768"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="377" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Tpe4DbbPBYkIxyWKjDl28obHMcCsc7MMcRij4ks0g-NFkUUo8VO7lmj1azD3kn2AZW6aOgBO7MAB0lYMKgcXZGJNEFl47zuwMvjbgITMNqFSWJiVarnNx505wdxiGe6Z1PYSqZnHq3Y" width="640" /></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0ZZ0NK0292A292A386S6T066EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQC000C00NK0292A292A386S6T066EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQC000C00NK0292A292A386S6T066EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQC000C00NK0292A292A386S6T066EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQC000C0dC" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0ZZ0NK0292A292A386S6T066EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQC000C00NK0292A292A386S6T066EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQC000C00NK0292A292A386S6T066EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQC000C00NK0292A292A386S6T066EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQC000C0dC</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although I show 4 subs in that fleet, I only have one completed right now. The single sub was able to beat this latest set of Reaver Holdouts with about 40 min repair time per target. Who got a Ghostcrawler blueprint completed today? THIS GUY.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Blunderbuss</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-dd03b724-d3f0-3b68-a706-d619edf82d77"><img height="374" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/tThCO7liW4EPTggNyechwA2xwKaHyFC9t-7VbMa7YymJ6KcqxKjxfa8j6gBpwEOFcQWHOToDMDsoBXylWX1JLizo8ZrIUI9kzxpaWXiJRpzWJ5i-kWx0obimYPiOLYpAw5B9bzyr8ts" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This weapon in in a similar class as the Frostbite & Scattergun turrets we have received lately for frontline base defense, however it is a ballistic weapon. This is quite interesting because both the <b>Vendetta and the Retribution (even at full bloodthirst) have no ballistic deflection</b> - the only Conqueror hull (right now) with ballistic deflection is the Revenge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a ballistic turret, the first special that comes to mind to mount on these is Depleted Uranium Shells. That special gives +50% damage and +40% accuracy bonus. However, this is a splash weapon, not an aimed weapon, so the only advantage from that special is the 50% damage. My Blunderbuss build looks like this:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-dd03b724-d3fc-215d-be71-f7811e8896bf"><img height="497" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Cq5uzmNXPKsd7dp5L994Vrbjaale0ISjIi1Xl2Q9iTEGNmN7XtGJg7tP1DP04-7-aBRlSkUM8CwHJ2xNZ-mUXzJZ07r5EAWxnhXsABi3hbnchV2Mbm0Oxxy15CEUyXBL8oSeK8-rjxU" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead of DU Shells, I used the Supercharged EM Rails. This special gives me a 25% chance of a 300% damage bonus. This effectively adds 75% to my DPS, instead of the 50% added from the DU Shells. For my other special, I used the Expanded Concussive Charge - the +60% splash should help against moving targets. Possibly Eruption Pyre wouldn't be a bad choice either, but I liked the much larger splash vs. the Pyre's projectile speed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Anti-Missile Proliferation System</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-dd03b724-d3e9-7c77-a477-59d4e13a13d7"><img height="369" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/wGV2szPnA5Cm5YIbHpvlfHI_MkfPQKF7AlPcPvsq5DjPL-MIUy1UqIqIAjXIVSyZhpwVWqSWYJ33OGQpTQN5-ngjjesGIhg5C-MPok-Q5F54DMpe1c2UO_JxL5geF2J6mISzVpaKshU" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This special <b>seems pretty specialized for Switchblades</b>. The extra accuracy with the extra shot makes the Switchblades more effective since they can have multiple shots at a single incoming missile... this makes it <b>much less likely you will be overwhelmed </b>by incoming missiles - always a risk with Switch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At a second look, I compared this special to Countermeasure Equipment 3. When retrofitted to R15, that special gives the same range and accuracy bonus to anti-missile, does not have the multi-shot bonus, is 1% lighter, but it has about 12 hours extra build time. <b>So even for a Phalanx-only countermeasure build, this special might be a good value </b>worth considering.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Corrosive Draconian Armor</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-dd03b724-d3f2-5135-32e7-890e278fead9"><img height="363" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/fgCoUqg3D1CDgVzkhLhGJM661pE-6SXZhCmBlFeXBSeirjfsyt9EJlZuNZM-F2gF64vmhklKdD7Df0beiOTQ0fX0IrWr0GSkSkujRGp5YkEC6qoV_O7hKM4jQWPRzwyV7oPlE-AMYE0" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This armor series isn't too different than the other Draconian armors we have seen lately - but it is the <b>first armor we have to improve corrosive defense</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It might be very useful if you are still tooling up to fight 91 Mega Hull targets. And even if you have collected your Gantry shards, and then collected your Hyperion shards... you still aren't done with those targets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You could build something like this for 91s:</span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-dd03b724-d404-5f42-d085-bc888e1acd7c"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="376" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/kkEAlutV7qpdWdaY-Uc_h8ccE30agsN48V7TqHpRHQth5jof7Y3y2JlOAPM9U5jNZhoTCHxSpOXjmJ0xgWoPnoth8ibb8vXXQPIQJHnqY0D_C3ksmLnmPWQB356Z0xivnSXqqGm5Yl0" width="640" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B07902G2G0U2G00386U350C032E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E0ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC" target="_blank">https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B07902G2G0U2G00386U350C032E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E0ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This ship would be quite effective with other Apollos or as a lead for Rhinos. Would I spend the nearly 4 weeks of build time on this? Probably not <i>(Remember - I won a Ghostcrawler today). </i>But if you are considering a Zoe Apollo... there you go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I finished my Mega Hull very recently and found they are very Titanium hungry - once you have a Mega, if you want to keep adding weapons and upgrading it, you will quickly find you need to keep collecting titanium to continue. You get 8000 titanium from beating a 91, but adding weapons or specials to your mega modules will eat that up quickly. Manufacturing the resources to upgrade or add new Mega modules is also pretty Titanium intensive... so what I'm saying is two things:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- you're not done with those 91s once your Hyperion is started</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- <b>My Mega Hull build guide is coming soon</b> (and not like Kixeye "coming soon")</span><br />
<br />The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-90632659902354930132016-08-14T12:57:00.000-04:002016-08-14T12:57:00.202-04:00Schism - 3 days in<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yeah, I'm late. Been playing this game... Battle Pirates. You might have heard of it...it's kind of a grindy game right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I really don't have any unique insight for this raid. The S sets were MUCH harder than last time, so many players who had been hitting S sets before are now grinding away at A sets. The pre-raid word from Kixeye was that the targets were going to be pretty much the same, so many players were pretty upset when they discovered the big increase in difficulty to the S targets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like many other players, I shifted my focus to the A targets. Like most players with Apollo or mixed Apollo/Rhino fleets, I can do them fairly cheaply. They take me about 15 minutes per set (going carefully). Since I wanted about 89 million points... you can do that math on playtime at 2.7 million points per set. Although I would like to be able to do these targets faster or higher end targets cheaper, I do understand the reasoning behind the change. For the previous few Civil War raids, the only reason to go after the A sets would be if you didn't have sufficient countermeasures to stop the missiles from the Mega. Just about every other player would have faster time and lower costs doing S sets... they actually were too easy from a balance perspective.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Players that are having success with the S sets in this raid are tending to use Disciples Of Skullduggery (Legendary) or Bulleye Brigade (Rare) crews.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the way, I'm not going for the Vassago Punisher - I may be sorry about that later, but I'm just not feeling it right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The short answer on the changes to the S is that the <b>Zoe Rhino got a very high damage missile (10,500 per hit), and the Heavy Cruiser got a long range corrosive cannon (1000 damage per hit)</b>. More information is available at: <a href="http://www.thedarkalliance.org/forum/threads/988-August-Raid-Trickery">http://www.thedarkalliance.org/forum/threads/988-August-Raid-Trickery</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I <b>tried using a Vanquisher </b>to tank/spot in the S targets - it did pretty well against the HC, but still got torn up by the Zoe missile. Yes, <b>Bullseye Brigade can be used with countermeasures</b> to mitigate that one, but I also had some trouble with entry points. When I entered at a point where the ships started off screen (then they jump into screen when the battle starts) the Vanquisher would not spot for my Rhinos, even though it would fire & take damage. Yes, one more bug for the list. Between that problem, and wanting to enter out of range of the land turrets and the mega's fields... I didn't pursue that strategy too hard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've seen a lot of questions about builds for the Hellwraith. I'm planning to build 2 like this by the VXP weekend:</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-89c1-b839-5078-da5fac1e2da8"><a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0ZZ0NK000000000386S000000AQAQAQ0000000000000000000NK029150015386S1G0640AQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQ0ZZ0ZZdC" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="540px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/pL3eZdAgcMkCg-itvVQAwWUCd5_WXmCaq4EQ2Va9N3mI2hSC3g3ZB2qL3CF2JfXgbKdngmDGq_3JgEt41XWpBjEUsyiBsRuUCIRGCPKpb19PF71WjeKmmaqypfqAjiY3gTGrsa-NYJE" width="318px;" /></span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those will be free (using raid tokens too), and I should be able to finish them by September's raid. A few torpedos will help them deal some damage & rank faster. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you follow the Huggy's link on the picture you can see where I would go with this build TODAY. But <b>I'm not going to think about it too seriously until I see the new Mimicus System</b> special coming in the Forsaken Mission post-raid. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other thing to keep in mind about this new equipment is that the <b>Fire Twister Torpedo is a non-aimed weapon</b> (some call it "dumb fire"). It fires at a spot instead of following the target & using its accuracy attribute. The blueprint for this weapon shows accuracy of 100% and no spread attribute, which I think indicates that it always ends up at the exact spot the target WAS at when the torpedo fires. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This attribute makes it difficult to use these torpedos against fast ships, even when accounting for the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">speed bonuses of the hull & special. It seems to me that the plan of "build the Hellwraiths for the raid and keep my Tigers untouched" would have been best - I did refit the AA3 & Magnus 2 on the Tigers, and probably won't use them in the raid if I have 2 Hellwraiths done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So Pirates, keep grinding, use your crews, and stay salty!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-62021522545422870952016-08-10T22:56:00.000-04:002016-08-10T22:59:47.742-04:00New Raid Prizes - Hellwraith creeping up<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hate steering my readers wrong... but between changes to the 70 Reaver Armadas and the preview of the new upcoming raid prizes... <b>my last article is obsolete</b>. I gave 4 options for doing the next raid:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Wait for new raid prize subs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Refit Tiger Sharks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Refit / Build low end subs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Refit surface ship like Frosty, V2-H, or Proto-Hunter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>changes to the 70 targets added defense bypass</b> - this nullified the resistance advantage of the surface ships, and made that option almost useless. The increases in target health also made the higher end Reaver Armadas much more difficult with low end subs. I did complete my Tiger Shark refit (at 2 days 7 hours per sub), and have been having more success against the Armadas... although it took some practice too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But when we saw the results from the prize preview, the new Reaver sub, weapon, and special were looking quite destructive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll do some comparisons and number crunching and see if we can figure out where the big advantages are coming from....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Hellwraith</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13957560_10153609408226809_1535012067_n.png?oh=f488b488b1bf77de5de3eb1010a317ee&oe=57ACB7F1" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Comparison below:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="535px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GTYUNYut6yfOooXicP7Zwby5pYRb3mRUVustvKAAkCasnUvc1PZQv58Mkrq8fHdCJnISAKd9NXrai4n2qL6t5uqDOzwDJaF4lXi9V37mQVZlN-5AOm6yLAMsvqAAP56luH5MLW2-ZgA" width="526px;" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's not all bad for the Tiger Shark in comparison, but I think the Tiger's DPS won't make up for the huge torpedo damage bonus, and the Assault Deflection will help the Hellwraith in comparison to the slightly higher submerged resistances. I'll put those statements to the test in the next section.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>very high speed of the Hellwraith </b>is certainly worth mentioning and will really come in handly - choosing range is often key for victory. It will more than make up for the shorter dive/surface cycle.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fire Twister Torpedo</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13957378_10153609409391809_2094524_n.png?oh=6f1fb6103befd93f37444e0e6c049fcb&oe=57ADACA6" /></span><br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The chart below compares the effectiveness of different combinations of attacking hull (generic, Tigershark R0, Hellwraith) & torpedo (Fire Twister, Charon R0) against different targets (Tiger R0, Hellwraith, and Cavitator Scout from Reaver 70s).</span><br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ff9a76bb-725c-0ca8-70c7-3862043b30ff"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="414px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/r2QYSCq7yGt-fcXOx2CnJBvpvVlZQipVgmpisLK0Vy2dU_AON_hE0IJ9rUc9EBcVaOuvVoDmpd6P29ptc9LYbmnTN1amZ1JJmTog637Bq3TRH8-8WrTLhunP-a11h1OcBzJuUjxj10Q" width="574px;" /></span></span><br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The numbers vs. the Reaver Cavitator Scout show the Fire Twister is about twice as effective as the Charon (R0), and the Hellwraith is about 50% more effective than the Tiger Shark This matches the destructiveness we saw in the preview. But against player targets with high concussive resistance, the Assault DPS built into the Tiger Shark beats the extra torpedo damage of the Hellwraith, since the Assault DPS doesn't get resisted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So my conclusion is that <b>although the new hull/weapon combo will be much more effective than older hulls in this raid, it might not actually drive FvF power creep</b>. This hull will not be changing sub vs. ship or sub vs. sub outcomes significantly compared to older hulls.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The new torpedos are a big improvement though</b>... 50% more damage and lighter weight than Charons.</span><br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b>
<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sealed Fire Charge</span></u></b><br />
<img src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13941067_10153609409761809_1881719265_n.png?oh=12b98bd3236568257c75555d23fc2529&oe=57AC9859" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Sealed Fire Charge is an unconventional weapons improvement - with the increase to critical damage, it gives a <b>20% DPS bonus </b>- more if the target has deflection. Splash and projectile speed are nice too (if you are using the Fire Twister). The Cloak Efficiency hit shouldn't be too bad if you are using it on a Hellwraith, since those have a built in Cloak Efficiency buff. So far, 70% - 75% is a good cloak efficiency target vs the Reavers.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vassago's Punisher</span></u></b><br />
<img src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13989568_10153609409961809_1229893730_n.png?oh=24a8808a0c80887f07e9a32c6ec9e979&oe=57AC84D1" /><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not going to spend too much time on this ship - it looks like it will be really good in Mines and pretty good in DUBs too. However, with no Penetrative resistance and no Assault Deflection, this hull is not what you'd want to bring into a Forsaken Mission Stronghold. With an <b>18 day buildtime</b>, there are a lot more economical ways to beat a mine or a DUB.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Overall on the Prizes</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>big must-get is the weapon, not the hull.</b> The Fire Twister makes all the other torpedoes obsolete. The Hellwraith will be significantly more effective in the upcoming raid cycles, and it has some unique advantages with its high speed, but I think that players who can't get 50 million points for the new gear should shoot for 21 million to get Tigers & Fire Twisters, or even 12.9 million to get Spectres and Fire Twisters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My plan is to pick up the new prize hull and start building ASAP. My goal is to have at least two (mostly empty) hulls to rank during VXP weekend. Two Hellwraiths should be at least as effective as my Styx Tiger fleet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>On the rest of the list</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not going to go through each of the other prizes - there are just too many. I'll try to hit the highlights:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Hulls</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Subs:</i></b> Getting the best Sub hull you can is probably a priority if you don't have any. I don't really like the Nighthawk over the lower build times and point cost of the Spectre, so the major ones to consider are the Hellwraith (30M), Tiger Shark (9M), and Spectre (900k). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Chores: </b>The Punisher (12.5M) is clearly the king of the chores right now but Apollos (12.5M), Centurions (9M), and Rhinos (1.75M) are also options.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Conquerors:</i> The Revenge (15M) is the only conqueror available in this raid. Most players would have rather seen Vendettas, but no luck there. If you don't have any options, and you really want to get into the base hitting game, pick up Revenge and the Concussive Gatling (7.5M) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Flagships:</i></b> The Omega Behemoth (11M) and the High-landers NC (4.5M) are the best flag options for chores. The Savage Kodiak (10M) is also worth considering to enhance a Rhino fleet. The Destroyer ECM (40M) is really a vanity hull - sonar protection doesn't help against thermal. Vassago's Punisher (50M) just doesn't seem worth the build time or points right now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Turrets</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The limited Coldsnap (15M) and the Glacial Launcher (15M) are both very key pieces of a high end base defense. The Apoc Mortar (12M) can be useful against some fleets, but really needs the Level 6 turrets (two specials) before it can shine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Weapons</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As said above - the Fire Twister Torpedo (12M) is the prize of choice this raid. Most of the other weapons can be useful if you have a build in mind, but none leap out as must-gets. The D98-U Antipode Launcher (5.5M) has been offered for the first time in a while, so you might want to pick that up. Avoid the Styx and the UAVs... the Styx is not useful in the upcoming raid cycle vs. these targets with corrosive resist, and the UAVs simply lack a good hull to carry them at this point in the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Armors</u></b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Streamlined Cadmium (7.5M) lost its lustre when ships repair times came down. D5-X (3.5M) is good for its deflection bonus as well as defense.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Specials</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Sealed Fire Charge (9M) will be useful in conjunction with the new hull & weapon, but I'd avoid it otherwise. Other useful specials out there are the Barrel System 3 (5M) and Stealth Attack System 4 (3.5M) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Tokens & Shards</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Up to 11 days of tokens are welcome. So are Ghostcrawler shards.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Good luck in the raid! Remember that it is a 6 day raid. Use the time wisely and don't get frustrated early. Don't forget your crews.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-77639691014657601452016-07-31T16:26:00.000-04:002016-08-07T15:59:48.806-04:00Preparing for the September Raid<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was going to write about the rest of the new FM prizes next... bigger Stealth Armors, Limited Minigun Turret, and the Expanded Concussive Charge. But I think it's more important to start thinking about what to do for the September raid.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First - just some quick thoughts on the FM prizes:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stealth Armors:</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All we've had for a long time is D2-S. Now we get D3-S through D5-S. They all give the same Cloak Efficiency increase... 5%, but the larger ones also have some explosive resistance. I'll come back to this later in the article.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">New Minigun Turret and Special:</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>new Minigun turret and the Concussive special clearly go together</b>. You could also use the new special effectively on Gargoyles (if you think they will fire), or possibly even any non-concussive turret just for the splash (+60% splash is a lot). The <b>Minigun has 150 range </b>to cover a big piece of a base's channel from the center island (compare to 131 for a Glacial and 140 for a Coldsnap), and this can even be improved if you use the AT:R Transformer. <b>Build it if you get it.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>On the September Raid:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most of us have seen videos (at least) from the preview, and hopefully you have tried the new Reaver Armada targets. Also, subs have gone into the Foundry under the Skirmish Category. So to prepare for the next raid, you've got quite a few options to think about, depending on what you have:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Build / Refit 3 Special subs (Cuda / Spectre / Nighthawk)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Refit Tiger Sharks </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wait for August Hull Raid prize</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Build / Refit a surface ship with Concussive Reciprocator</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The targets have a couple pieces to them... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First there is a central Reaver Hulk. This ship spawns drones (in the Reaver Armadas) and also fires a mortar that lays down Subsonic Cavitator fields. Subs that enter a Sub Cav field are surfaced and then have to wait for their dive timer to reset before diving (even if they leave the field). The drones are pretty fast, and if you are not pretty far out from the center when you surface, they will catch you and fire a concussive splash cannon.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The other ships are Reaver Scouts that emit a Sub Cav field (occasionally) and have some sonar too. If the scouts see you (when close enough), they will start moving and fire at you with a concussive splash cannon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All of the ships also have an explosive death weapon that has a larger splash radius than torpedo range.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My general strategy (not that it's unique) for dealing with these targets is to find a gap in the initial sub cav fields, kill a few Scouts, kill the Hulk & Drones, then kill the rest of the Scouts. Patience pays off - I usually sit outside of the Scout Sub Cav range, wait for it to come on then blink off, then go ahead and enter my torpedo range. If you are in range when those fields come on, then you'll take fairly heavy damage from the cannons, and it is also tough to get out of range when the ships explode. I have found that on my build, it takes 5 volleys to kill a Scout, so I count those volleys and try to be pointing the other direction and moving away when that 5th volley fires. This minimizes my damage from the death weapon. Each player's sub build might deal damage differently, so I recommend that you count volleys for yourself so you understand how your subs perform.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that we understand the enemy, lets look at our options.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Build / Refit 3 special Subs</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I lump the Cuda, Spectre, and the Nighthawk together because now that they all have three specials, the builds are pretty similar for each. If you have none of the subs built yet, I recommend building the Cuda, since it is the quickest build & shortest repair (and still pretty effective).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The upgrades for each sub as brought into the Foundry are nice, but the additional Retrofit upgrades aren't very good (for R1 - R3 at least). R4 tends to give more resistances and the DPS starts to get noticeable (maybe)... but it's going to be a long grind to get there.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I show a few builds in the following Huggy's link:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B02IA001G3440C0C0C0C0C0C002U50000001G3440C0C0C0C0C0C00LI50000001G3440C0C0C0C0C0C00002IA00064140C0C0C0C0C0C00ZZdC" target="_blank">https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B02IA001G3440C0C0C0C0C0C002U50000001G3440C0C0C0C0C0C00LI50000001G3440C0C0C0C0C0C00002IA00064140C0C0C0C0C0C00ZZdC</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Notice the Basic Cuda build is just about 1 week per ship, so there is still time to build these before September's Raid. Even the Magnus version is under 8 days (no officer, tokens, or R&D upgrades)</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The basic build uses Speed 5, Cat Drive 3, and Stealth Attack System 4 (Use Nautilus Battery 3 if you don't have SAS 4).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As an upgrade, using Magnus 2 & Ablative Armor 3 will give you more resistance against the explosive death weapon at the expense of some turn speed.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You could use Styx, but I think these enemies have decent corrosive resistance. The DoT damage just doesn't seem as effective as I am used to on other targets. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you don't have any Scourge torpedos, then you could use Assault B, but you might want to use some Stealth Armor in that case, since you will need to get closer to the enemy to fire.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Refit Tiger Sharks</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my case, I have some Tiger Sharks that I've been using for a while, and I've been fairly happy with them.. until now.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is my build:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0NG015150R0R1G341D6D292929294B4B29254B4B0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151516161G341D2RC1C1C1C14H4HC1C14H4HdC" target="_blank">https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0NG015150R0R1G341D6D292929294B4B29254B4B0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151516161G341D2RC1C1C1C14H4HC1C14H4HdC</a></span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The Sonar ship was built for Anti-Scourge (and it worked well for that). The Phantom uses mostly Cobras, but I was never motivated enough to build an all-cobra fleet. Anyway, that fleet will do a Level 70 Armada, but take 3-4 hours of damage, mostly from the Death Weapons. So to improve it, I plan to refit it in a similar way as I described above... replace the Speed 5 & Cat Drive with Magnus 2 and Ablative 3. I don't think I'll be giving up offense to add more Stealth or Concussive Armor. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also notice that I didn't suggest building these from scratch... at over 13 days each, even with weapon build time reductions, they are a bit long to build. That's why I talk about the next option...</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Wait for August Hull Raid Prize</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you are building from scratch, we have had it confirmed that there will be a new sub hull prize coming in the August Raid. If you've been successful in the current Assault raid cycle, it may be worth while to wait & see what that sub is like, then build & rank them (maybe even just one) for the September Raid. Some players have been successful with just a single sub against the Armada targets - it might take a while, but splash does less total fleet damage against just a single ship.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u><strike>Build / Refit a surface ship with Concussive Reciprocator</strike></u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><u>EDIT: </u>THESE SURFACE SHIPS DON'T WORK WELL ANYMORE WITH THE TARGET CHANGE</i></b></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This one is a little radical, as these new targets are "designed" to be hit by subs. But watch this video:</span></div>
<div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CrK7_25VJ9w" width="560"></iframe>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ruube's build is here: <a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0N80292929293863066E392G2G2G2G2G2GC0C0C0C00ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC">https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0N80292929293863066E392G2G2G2G2G2GC0C0C0C00ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was pretty effective - I noticed a couple things:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- He mounted Resonance Battery on his build, and used the static Sub Cav fields to trigger it. He stayed within that area to keep his battery triggered.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- His shots generally fell behind the target - a projectile speed boost or a slowdown field would help.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- The Reciprocator is nice because it has the longest spinup decay time of any of the concussive cannons available.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On that build, I would replace the Agility System (where Evade & Stun/Slow resist isn't helping vs. those splash weapons) with a special like Combustion System 2 or Explosive System 4. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even before seeing this video, I was thinking about trying it, and it's nice to see it being used effectively. I was thinking about builds like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0MI02929292938066M6E2G2G2G2G2G2G2G2G0M6E2929292938066M6E2G2G2G2G2G2G2G2G06S02929292938066M6E2G2G2G2G2G2G2G2G0N602929292938066M6E6L2G2G2G2G2G2GC0C0C0C00ZZdC" target="_blank">https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0MI02929292938066M6E2G2G2G2G2G2G2G2G0M6E2929292938066M6E2G2G2G2G2G2G2G2G06S02929292938066M6E2G2G2G2G2G2G2G2G0N602929292938066M6E6L2G2G2G2G2G2GC0C0C0C00ZZdC</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All the ships share:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Concussive Reciprocator </b>to deal damage. Its long decay time and high damage at medium range make this a better choice than the Concussive Gatling.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>D5-CT armor</b> gives Concussive Resistance (which is the main source of damage in this case) and also some Assault Deflection, making it worth the build time.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Hydraulic Resistors</b> give more Concussive Resist - use Speed 5 if you don't have this available</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Ablative Armor 3</b> resists the Death Weapon</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Strike Warheads</b> add 45% additional concussive damage (use Concussion Warheads if you don't have this... or to save build time)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Combustion System 2</b> gives more projectile speed & splash</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Your hull choices also result in some tradeoffs: </span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Frostburn Interceptor </b>has the field that debuffs your enemies' speed, defense, and fire rate. But it has lower Concussive Resistance than the other choices. (and the field will clear the Sub Cav fields)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>V2-H Interceptor (R15)</b> have the highest Concussive and Explosive resistance of these options and also adds Assault DPS.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Artemis </b>has the mines which you might be able to use effectively (although I suspect they will be spotted from range and may just add repair time). It has the highest speed, but the lowest defenses of the hull choices here.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Prototype Hunter</b> has an extra special slot that could be used for Resonance Battery (20% Speed, Offense, Defense) or Resonance Capacitor (20% Speed, 36% Offense). It also has extra built in Assault Deflection and slightly higher built-in Concussive Damage (50% vs. 40%) than the other choices. With fewer surface weapon slots, torpedos are needed to make up the DPS difference.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One more idea with these - I was thinking about building just one and sending it solo (like Ruube did). But another idea is that if you have some of the newer Conqueror or Defense hulls that put out friendly fields (like Vendetta, Vanquisher, or Retribution) you could bring those ships with the solo ship, and use those </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(overlapping) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">fields to really juice up a Resonance Battery... Obviously you'd need to use that instead of one of the specials on my builds (probably the Combusion System).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not really sure what will work the best... I'm leaning towards the Frosty with its field, but I've heard good arguments for the V2-H and the Proto-Hunter. I think each player will need to decide based on what they have available to try.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well... those are my thoughts... if you have something else to add, please leave a comment below!</span></div>
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The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-15690005942678615252016-07-25T23:04:00.000-04:002016-07-25T23:04:00.325-04:00New FM Prize - Reciprocator vs. Gatling Gun<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well I had a nice vacation week - and yet still managed to rank my Vanquishers on VXP weekend through Photon Browser (someone unplugged my home router before we left & I couldn't use my preferred method of Chrome Remote Desktop).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway we have new FM prizes to run through. Given my time constraints and the lateness of this article, I'm going to write an article on the new weapon, and try to give it a good comparison against the CGG. Later this week, I'll write another article on the new Minigun Turret, and compare its effectiveness against common attackers.</span><br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Concussive Reciprocator</span></u></b><br />
<img height="371" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_LI_s_cqOUMqruAglyWyDx6X5ab4H0x3s0tdDaLVu1YjaXAYOYuL4UOCJhWc9FS2IFZmgNC63zSFhNPBsAeto9bMtIhDr4ZY8-dEoCWPdBdprWKFR_dJbD0wx3jjauKmOBJPglfkZ2s" width="640" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It does seem like a little brother to the Concussive Gatling Gun with lighter weight, but its only fire mode with an 86 range will do the same amount of damage per salvo as the CGG will in its 68 range primary mode.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The following chart shows a comparison of the weapon performance when mounted on a Revenge with fully retroed Siege Battery 3 and the Strike Warheads.</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-678a5020-2508-a2f9-e1ff-ce56bd44e3c1"><img height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NLFdhdxc5yp9-Lf-CXeBdYFXMG3G6rZyxuC-cZBowpcSA3tkRX8jhH0h1h5Xa4XxVLW-J2d9Z8Jw2jP2LcZIfS2g6m7fKIGGchH159_gVdU42QY43aRzIeKLv16mKPrM5rDuECZU6Sw" width="448" /></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-678a5020-2501-b3ea-9900-d81d0712152b"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Above the black line, I did a standard DPS comparison while ignoring the windup. Below the line, I tried to compute the time each weapon (mode) would take to deal out 50,000 points of blueprint damage. I chose that number because it was 1/20th of 1 million points of damage, which would sink a Vanquisher (remember half damage). The interesting thing is that although Kixeye seems to have gone into some effort to choose stats for windup and reload stacks, the minimum reload time of 0.2 seconds and the salvo time really are what seems to drive DPS over time for these weapons.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the results are that the <b>Secondary mode of the Gatling takes the longest to do a given amount of damage</b>, but it can do so <b>at the longest range</b>. The <b>Reciprocator does the most damage with shorter range</b>. It also has the longest decay time, so it has the best chance of staying wound up for the next target.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So if building a Revenge, <b>which weapon should you choose</b>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For now, I don't think the weight matters too much - the Revenge with some armor and the heavier CGG isn't quite at max weight, but if you are weight-sensitive, the Reciprocator is significantly lighter... so keep an eye on that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The range of the Gatling is extremely valuable</b> for sniping targets at long range, and it is tough to pass that up. When driven well, it can even outrange 105 range turrets due to the varying footprint size of ships vs. turrets. Just keep in mind that if spotting for Vendettas, you cannot remote target off of the 104 Secondary range, just the 68 Primary range. You'll want a launcher for spotting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Reciprocator does really good damage at medium range and it won't cool off </b>like the Gatling's primary mode (which does similar damage). But you'll have to utilize more of a rushing driving style in order to take advantage. The Reciprocator also has a shorter build time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall, you'll have to pick the weapon that suits your attacking style. I consider this a benefit considering the new BP philosophy to control power creep. Each new weapon should NOT obsolete the one before it. But the flip side of that benefit is that shipbuilding is getting more complex, and you'll have to think carefully when building your fleet, instead of just picking the newest blueprints you have.</span>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-62789993837329417502016-07-13T23:58:00.001-04:002016-07-15T22:13:45.110-04:00Quick post on Allegiance Prizes<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sorry dear readers, but I don't have time to give this raid a write-up at the level of detail it deserves. I'm not going to promote this article, but if you come here looking for ideas, here they are. I'll share some quick thoughts:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>The Vanquisher:</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The hull is sort of weird - you have 500,000 armor points, but no resistances and no capability to add resistance. With only a 2 hour repair time for those armor points, <b>do not add armor to this hull</b>. All you will do is add a small percentage to your total armor, but you'll multiply your repair time greatly. Not worth it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the offensive side, <b>Launchers and Countermeasures</b> are your best bets. The new <b>Cyclone Launcher</b>, with its high damage per shot (but low Shockwave) is the best way to damage the Revenge. It still doesn't do enough damage to crack the 9000 deflection of the Vendetta, but adding Cryo Battery may slow them down enough for explosives to land more effectively.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For Countermeasures, use as many Gales as you can - you want to hold off those Vendettas from doing damage. I would start with an offensive ship before CM though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!907A00000006D6L466Q392F2F2F2F2F2F2F0ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC" target="_blank">Here's what I'm thinking for a damage dealer in your base</a>: </span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-678a5020-e781-c919-b8cb-bf2b60c3a0a2"><img height="374" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/anb1etuJReYlVQ409N_liV9wjJYV0vRrgR1UL9BbQSXfhZO2SeKE8v4FMy-1ADBSTpNT1RY9wRxZ12egBQNsIfW_i-vplmnSgH_dDWZNqN7c1hV8hPIKAVwUlWvnzECfRVaDf9_wn5w" width="640" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>Emission Generator</b> increases damage by increasing the multishot (more launcher flechettes doing the same amount of damage each). It and the <b>Interception System</b> may also increase shockwaves, but I wouldn't rely on it. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cryo Battery</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> will slow and debuff the enemy. </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Agility System</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> reduces the pinch vulnerability (Shielded Electronics is too heavy with the weird armor). </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Resonance Capacitor</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> increases damage even more. I'm not sure if the ship's aura will activate itself, but the Vendetta's aura (I'm using one in my guard) will.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Emission Generator</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This special obviously enhances the Cyclone Launcher, but it also will help <b>Cobra Scatterguns</b> with both multi shot and DoT damage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Prizes:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In terms of what to get, its tough to recommend against the Vanquisher and that side of the prize list. This ship will be key for base defense going forward. If you go the assault route to "catch up" with the Apollo, you're kind of too late - this will be the last raid of this format and you might as well stick with Rhinos for Assault targets. <i>(whoops - as said in the comments.. we probably have one more raid in August of this format)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Raid - Harlock vs. Zoe</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Players will need to choose sides: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Harlock gives more defense at the cost of offense.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Zoe gives a similar amount of offense at the cost of defense.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think <b>the choice depends on how you do</b> against the targets. I use R4 Rhinos that deal a huge amount of damage. Most of my targets sink quickly, so I'll be choosing Harlock since I can handle a little less offense when I get extra protection. Players who find they have to shoot at the enemy for a while before they sink will probably be better off choosing Zoe. You'll have to make your decision based on your assessment of the fleet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Good luck in the raid pirates - If you're looking for more info - check out some of the YouTube shows out there - links to their sites are in the right sidebar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-51801861993605861942016-07-08T20:29:00.000-04:002016-07-08T20:30:54.732-04:00Dark Reign and New Flagships<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The new <b>Dark Reign Time Limited Campaign</b> (TLC) is here. It brings lots of limited goodies - Gale Anti-Mortars, the Omega Behemoth, and 2 new flagship hulls.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There really isn't much to say about the campaign targets that hasn't been said. They are basically targets from the raid, so <b>Apollos & Rhinos are still your best options </b>for fighting it. I've gone through the first three runs so far with <a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0M000000000000553400003737373700000000000007700U0U0U0U0U031738440C532A2A2A2A2A55554Q4Q06V01W1R0V1R1R2L6F35346D54545454545454545453535352525206V01W1R0V1R1R2L6F35346D54545454545454545453535352525206V01W1R0V1R1R2L6F35346D545454545454545454535353525252dC" target="_blank">my current raid fleet</a>: the Savage Kodiak, Apollo tank, and three R4 Rhinos. I've had mixed results with the Savage, but since I got it to legendary on the last VXP weekend, it matches speed & turn with my Rhinos and so it has been much easier to keep it out of trouble.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I know some players like to rush through these sort of things, but I see no reason to coin repairs if I don't have to. I've been slow repairing my fleet after each run - my third run was about 6 hours to repair. With my fleet setup, my repairs are basically dependent on how well I drive to keep my non-Apollos out of trouble. Some of the targets are setup to get ships coming in from different directions and so get some damage through to my rear ships.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If I have to coin some repair on my Apollo to complete the last two campaigns, I guess it won't be so bad - I feel like these ships can be acquired more cheaply than they would have been if they were limited prizes in a raid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let's get to </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">reviews of the p</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rizes ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Gale Anti-Mortars:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most players are pretty familiar with these by now, but if you are not, these limited anti-mortars are significantly more effective than the Hailstorms. Yes, you want them. If you are a beginner player and missed out on these, you will really want to try to work through the first couple campaigns to get a few of these. If they are the only ones you have, concentrating them on a ship built for countermeasures would probably be your best option. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />For higher level players, these are really more of an annoyance, since when you have all of the prizes in a campaign's prize pack, you can skip it and start at higher levels. In this case, the limited prizes mean that all players have to do every level of the campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Omega Behemoth (flagship):</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again, most players should be familiar with this hull. When it was released, it was a great option for base defense, with its powerful ballistic capability against ships and good thermal detection for sub spotting. These days it is mostly used as an empty shell, providing its aura effect to enhance ballistic fleets when hitting Forsaken Mission, Mine, or Draconian Base targets. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This flagship hull has a 6 day bare hull build time. (remember this in a couple paragraphs)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Harlock's Citadel (flagship):</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-678a5020-c89a-7e63-f4d4-4426df68e02d"><img height="447" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/8VKXCVjWfs-CxM8oiPWNSs6ynwQGlGnCfn2G0GirE39ULpPL3mNVHHIzYoVF3RvkflW51J9nOE_nLoL0gJ562DJI_oPaRBGapyQS34AlDhKATG90Qh_Gt3N2k314IeeDdN86oldrzD4" width="640" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-678a5020-c899-ce3e-1b08-e7f3afb4febc"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This enhanced version of the Citadel is described as a frontline spotter. I don't like the Citadel in general as a spotter - its defenses are too specialized (Explosive & Penetrating only) and its assault deflection isn't very good compared to the Punisher. Its 50% defense handicap means that trying to add defenses isn't too effective. But with its limited range aura effect, it would be <b>great in a group of other Citadels</b> when using another ship as spotter. Also note that it does not have any sort of enhanced repair time over a regular Citadel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">+200% Explosive Damage and +200% Projectile Speed results in <b>triple damage and a projectile that lands three times as fast </b>as it otherwise would. In fact, with that much speed bonus, adding a combustion system-type special isn't really helping your speed much, since the actual landing time difference between a projectile at +200% and +240% speed isn't that large. But you would still like the large splash bonus... so don't go pulling those ES4 & CS2 specials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The limitations of the aura are its 100 range and its effect on Citadels only.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <b>most puzzling trait of this ship is its build time</b> - about 15 days (no bonuses) just for the bare hull. By comparison, build times on other high-end (at the time) limited flagships like the Grimshine's Berserker are 13 days 22 hours, and the Harlock's Aegis is 12 days 3 hours. I would argue that those hulls were more 'dominant' at the time of their release than the Harlock's Citadel is in today's game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not going to try to make a build for this hull now - I would want to specialize it too much. My one piece of advice would be to <b>use Combustion System 2 over Explosive System 4</b>. CS 2 has higher splash and adds to the spread instead of subtracts from it. When doing the aura-boosted amount of damage, I think doing it over the maximum possible area is the best idea. My previously built Citadels use Explosive System 4 because I wanted to maximize their projectile speed when firing from remote range.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could see this hull in a couple roles - artillery (enhance offense), FM spotter (use Evade armor), or base defense (remember Vendetta have no Explosive deflection). For mines, you'd want to try to add radioactive defense and probably field resistance. Maybe you can spend the coin you saved by doing the campaign over a few days on speeding the build?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Zoe's Apollo:</u></b></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-678a5020-c8ac-9456-e888-4102eae42e86"><img height="459" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/84yjyBTPIFH1sDiWHhdyuqrr24uiPVCTqRyrospQEmVUs5kMuUUPv4JiB_bPK6-IINGlH5yNUU-cmsnzxpYB7ginSIL3tvQKugqbvy6SdvmzJbbjCm2Eq2_FDSFSa2JGzvvnJzqBppE" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This version of the Apollo is designed to run with other Apollos - it has a shorter (40) range aura that<b> affects Apollos only</b>, giving them better defenses & Penetrative Reload. The aura isn't a whole lot better than the (unlimited range) Savage Kodak, but it also gives Corrosive Defense. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This version of the Apollo has +1 multi-shot, which will make the Switchblade more effective in antimissile mode. It also has a slightly higher Anti-Missile Accuracy bonus (+40%) than the regular Apollo (+35%). On the negative side, this hull also has the same +50% Defense Handicap as Harlock's Citadel (to offset better built-in defenses).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It gives better repair (in a way) by maintaining the same hull repair time (1h 30 min) as the Apollo with more armor points (15,000 instead of 12,000).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, like Harlock's Citadel, Zoe's Apollo also has a punishing build time at nearly 17 days (no bonus). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Really the use and builds of this ship are very simple - build it the same as the Apollos you run it with, and use it for the same tasks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>In closing</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These new hulls seem really cool, but I think a lot of players will be turned off by the <b>extremely long build time for non-game changing capability</b>. By comparison - the other long building flagships I mentioned like the Grimshine's Berserker and the Harlock's Aegis were game-changing when released. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will be working to win these hulls, but I likely will not build them. My advice to most players would be to consider very carefully whether you would build these before working (spending coin) to win them. Remember <b>you're going to need a sub fleet very soon</b>. (My general recommendation there is get some hulls built to start ranking, but wait & see if the component build times drop.) Overall, hull build times have been going down but these two flagships have really bucked the trend. Let's hope Kixeye gets back on track with the next batch of hulls we see.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6077868982949242566.post-63220547164185234222016-06-26T23:19:00.002-04:002016-06-26T23:19:46.338-04:00Concussive - New FM prizes & next raid cycle<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In this article, I'll catch you up with the new FM Prizes and also give some thoughts on what to do with the next raid cycle - we've just seen a preview of the targets that are being considered.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Zynthonite Armor CT</span></u></b><br />
<img height="360" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/uMBCBoD-6LDhtgtizUjR9yqjCHDud7mkHab-SYMNGYZ_1tSDr8tna8Zy3VMISdfGJJqxhHcyjliLxTYPJdZnzZ0VNcsKwDKmZc2ti20kZfm0RJIC0Egkll2uN1SInXcybsxqUKnj" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" width="640" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The new Zynthonite CT armor is pretty much like any other single-resistance armor, except it resists concussive damage. It is really <b>most like the R armor</b>, where the smaller versions have lowered resistance. It also has the same build time as the equivalent sized R armor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So whether you want to use this armor all depends on whether you have a ship that expects to be shot at by (mostly) concussive weapons. The two biggest potential uses are for an anti-sub fleet (hopefully they have no Cobras) and an anti-Revenge fleet (with Concussive Gatling Guns). Maybe you want this armor for your <b>base guards</b>, but I'm not super excited for this one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Oh, and a two letter name for a single resistance is silly and inconsistent. There's no T in concussive. Of course, this all stems from whomever made the bad decision to use "C" for ballistic waaay back when. Bad design decisions come home to roost. On the plus side, the picture looks cool - probably cooler than is warranted for a ho-hum armor.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Concussive Platform Plating</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="360" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/OyamkgkandV1zYctf6FH4qrrW6k9JNZUjyWjwewc4Hqnr_y-Jf8MS1IKGMoW7LmGucPhozURpVketdagOiLtJ9dPXDmypmu6rdtWCTXDoN1BrUluYJxMumnfZKkIVOSG6a9G1Z9C" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This armor could go on your turrets to help defend against concussive damage. This would result in a very specialized defense against the Concussive Gatlings - but that is still the number one threat to your base. The question is whether this armor would be as effective as the current best alternative - Permacrete. The armor points given by the CPP is the same as the Zynthonite Reinforcements that provides resistance, but like those plates, the <b>armor provided is way short of the 52,080 armor points provided by Permacrete</b>. The power is a small bit higher than the other Zynth options (955 vs. 925) but not as good a value as the Permacrete (1665 power for Permacrete gives you less than 2x the power draw for more than 3x the armor).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So will it defend well against the CGG?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well the biggest sized plate gives 60 deflection, and let's just consider the best case on a Level 7 turret with 3 armor slots. So my choices are 328,120 armor with 180 deflection on a CPP-defended turret or 436,240 with no deflection on a Permacrete-defended turret (280,000 health comes from the turret itself).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On a revenge, the Concussive Chain Gun is rated at 700 building damage (in long range mode) with salvo 2, but the hull has a +315% damage built in. So it does (700 / 2 * (1 +315%) ) = 1452.5 points of blueprint damage per shot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When shooting at the Permacrete turret, you do 726.25 points of "real" damage per hit, resulting in 601 hits needed to kill the turret.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When shooting at the CPP turret, you do (1452.5 - 180) / 2 = 636.25 points of "real" damage per hit, resulting in 515 hits needed to kill the turret. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So this means that if you are defending, <b>a Permacrete turret will perform better than a Concussive Plated turret</b>. Also keep in mind that the calculation above was the "best case scenario" for the Concussive Plate... many Revenge have a damage booster like Siege Battery or Concussive Warheads, which makes the deflection even less effective. Or if you have a lower level turret, you have less built in health, which means that the ratio of the health difference between the Permacrete and Concussive will be larger, also making the Permacrete perform better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So -<b> for anyone who has Permacrete, Concussive Platform Plating is useless.</b></span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">AT:R Transformer</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img height="360" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/PUHNLnL-xhr6zV1uM7f0-CSB8ZW5PxmdihwqqSGxENhp6g4CCVOVBYpys5LlliwajEx5hzDb9FDsk1GLZU1y3XvJ5icVRiFJBkiDGpt9ntBWJawA8Rt5sTLOZOEjmenP5aDyDosp" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is our third Transformer option for a Level 7 turret. The other two give increased damage at the cost of resistance (A-T), or increased resistance at the cost of damage (D-T).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the current game, <b>high Damage per shot is critically important when defending your base</b> because it is needed to overcome high deflection stats on the Conqueror hulls. That means that I choose the A-T (Offensive) transformer on my frontline turrets over the defensive - I want to make sure that the shots fired will count. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So when looking at this turret, which cuts damage AND resistance to get range, you have to think carefully about where it might be useful. I think the answer is on those <b>mid-range turrets that lay down (or suppress) field effects</b> - The Glacial Launcher, Wendigo, and the Coldsnap are all likely candidates for this transformer. I find that it is particularly challenging to find a good spot to put the Glacial Launcher and that extra 10 range may come in handy. I know that some players really like the damage done by the Glacial, but for me it is the ice fields that slow enemies nearly to a stop and set up a huge amount of resistance bypass that I like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll just say that this one is an option to keep in your toolbox, but think carefully before using it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Reaver Holdout Targets</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In this latest VXP weekend, we got a first look at the "Reaver Holdouts", which was claimed as a sneak preview of the next type of raid target (coming in September).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So the way the target worked, is that you are faced with 3 Reaver Scouts and 1 Reaver Hulk. The Scouts have a Cavitator field (surfaces subs) that blinks on and off, and fire a concussive cannon. The Hulk has a multishot mortar that sets up permanent cavitator fields when it lands. The Reaver ships also have very high resistance to damage types besides concussive and corrosive. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The intended way to engage these targets was by using subs. If you could <b>watch the Scout Cavitator fields</b>, you could come in and kill the Scouts with just 1-2 torpedo volleys while the field is off. The other key is to be able to <b>watch the Mortar shots</b>, estimate where they will land, and stay away from that area. I did two Holdout targets with my Tigershark fleet to get an idea of the difficulty, and I was able to complete the target both times for under 2 hours repair - and all of that damage was done by the ships exploding. You were able to retreat and re-enter to erase the Mortar Cavitator fields if they got too inconvenient - I did take advantage of that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Just in case you're wondering </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">what I'm using on my Tigers</b><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0NG015150R0R1G341D6D292929294B4B29294B4B0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151500001G341D6DC1C1C1C14Y4YC1C1C14Y0NA0151516161G341D2RC1C1C1C14H4HC1C14H4HdC" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here's my build</a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I use Styx with Interception System to maximize my DoT damage, except one ship that has Sonic Targeting for spotting other subs (remember the Scourge?). The Phantom has a few Cobra Scatterguns, but I never really put the shipyard time into those. You'll also note I didn't max out my stealth armor... that's just a design choice that most players didn't make.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Looking at the resistances, it is possible that a Scattergun fleet could be effective too, but I don't know anyone who tried that. Those targets with their concussive damage might also be best attacked with a ship using the new CT armor, but you'll still need to do some damage... once more, my head returns to V2-H with Concussive Gatling Guns. I'm not saying you gotta go out & build those... but it keeps tempting me as a refit.. let me know if you try it. And next time I get on a preview server, <a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0ZZ0M6F282828281A385B682D2D2D2D2D2D2D2D0M6F282828281A385B682D2D2D2D2D2D2D2D0M6F282828281A385B682D2D2D2D2D2D2D2D0M6F282828281A385B682D2D2D2D2D2D2D2DdC" target="_blank">I just might give it a shot</a>. On second thought, CGGs might have some trouble against fast moving ships.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most people used these fleets for ranking - killing a full health ship on these fleets gave about 4k VXP (per ship, no crew), which was a very nice payoff. But we want to understand how to beat these targets going forward, so let's look at what we know from Kixeye... They put these targets out early so that we can get a taste for them, and so that they can start to learn about how we would approach them. There will probably be changes between now and September. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What we do know is that the September raid target will be Skirmish-type, and probably sub friendly. We will probably also see Skirmish ships go into the Foundry. We may also see build time reductions for the hulls and some of the related equipment (Scourge torpedos desperately need a build time reduction). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What Skirmish hulls might we see in the Foundry? Looking through the Skirmish tab in the Shipyard at the non-limited hulls we have:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tier 4: </b>Tiger Shark</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tier 3: </b>Nighthawk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tier 2 - 2.5: </b>Stingray, Interdictor, Spectre</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tier 1: - 1.75: </b>Sawfish, Battleship, Battlecruiser X, Battlecruiser, Barracuda</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It is very <b>possible that the Skirmish Foundry hulls will be sub-only</b>, resulting in the Barracuda, Spectre, Nighthawk, and the Tiger Shark being the choices. If you have nothing built yet, the Barracuda on Tier 1 might be quite intriguing (as a quick build), especially with the likelihood that its stats will be improved to the R10 version with extra weight. I would probably choose that hull over the Spectre on Tier 2 just for the extra special. The Spectre would need more speed and an extra special slot to be chosen over the Cuda... its submerge time is nice, but I think in most anti-ship situations, I'd rather have a Cuda fleet. (<a href="https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0ZZ02IA151G3440C1C0C0C0C0C002IA151G3440C1C0C0C0C0C002IA151G3440C1C0C0C0C0C002IA151G3440C1C0C0C0C0C0dC" target="_blank">like this?</a>) My thoughts might change when we see the Foundry updates.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In the short term, you might want to <b>start some hulls for ranking</b>, but I wouldn't go overboard until we see the Foundry release. When I built my Tiger Sharks, I did the inital build with Vortex Torpedos just as a quick way to get them in the water. The DPS stat took care of damage dealing for a while. In addition, spending Uranium to retrofit the sub hulls probably isn't a good idea. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">For the long term, it looks like<b> you will need a sub fleet</b>. You will do better in that upcoming raid cycle with subs, and then it is very likely that the target we fight in the raids will move to the world map to replace a "chore" type activity (in early 2017?). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall, I'm kind of looking forward to these targets - they were creative and a change. The thing I didn't like was that the only time they do damage is if either... the player messes up, gets surfaced, and dies ... or ... the ship does some damage when they die. The nature of sub warfare in BP has always been like that - subs win easily or die horribly. The raid design will be quite difficult, since they will need to find some middle ground - cause enough damage so players won't do it for free, but don't just destroy fleets. Good luck Kixeye!</span><br />
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The BP Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08447249453861085905noreply@blogger.com0