Lets get the fun back... with metrics?

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.

Who remembers this?

It's sort of anti-metric... (and if you're mad at a certain CEO, freeze it at around 2:37)

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.

Well sometimes we say that BP is getting less fun, so I started thinking - what can we measure to figure out "fun"?

I came up with three things:  difficulty, time, and engagement.

Difficulty: 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.

Time: 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.

Engagement:  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.  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.

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.  

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.

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.

Rise of the Warlords: 

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:

Damage: Somewhat high but not totally unreasonable
Time: A little long for A sets, the careful driving forced by the cav fields caused the targets to take a while to complete
Engagement: 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.

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.

Civil War cycle:

The last raid cycle featured Mega Hulls surrounded by a mix of turrets and ships. 

Damage: By the end of the cycle, I think damage on this raid was right around the 'happy medium'.
Time: 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.)
Engagement: Here is where this style shined - the targets were autoable, but good driving and strategy did allow a lot of damage mitigation.

Base Hitting:

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.

Damage: 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'.  
Time:  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). 
Engagement: 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.

Furies aside, I think base hitting has been right in the sweet spot for a while now.

Weekly Forsaken Mission
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. 

Damage: 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. 
Time: 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.
Engagement: 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.

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.  

Revenge Changes and Pre-raid info

As I suspected, it has been tough to find the time for timely, regular posts, but I'll try to run through some thoughts on the changes to the Revenge, and some thoughts on what we've seen about the next raid (Civil War) so far.

Revenge Changes:
On the changes to the Revenge, I'm going to start with the ironic observation about all the players who take to the Kixeye forums and Facebook bitterly complaining that changes to the game involving Deflection Bypass were not communicated well enough.  They are using the very means by which the changes were announced!  And they expect people to pay attention to them!?!  I know that all of you readers of this blog were well informed... right?

I said it in my last blog post - read the pinned posts.  I don't think it is too much trouble to go to the forum once per week, maybe on a Tuesday evening after the release, and see what's there.

A lot of the early reports on Revenge fleets were that the performance on base hitting was very underwhelming, so Kixeye trialed some changes on a test server to make the ship more powerful.  After that, they dialed it back a bit, most notably they decided to leave the Unreactive stat untouched, so that the hull was still vulnerable to Shockwaves.

The changes they did make are summarized below:

• Evade increase from 10% to 35% 
• Penetrative/Ballistic Deflection increase from +2110 to +3700
• Explosive Deflection increase from +2240 to +3920
• Repair Time Decrease from 2h 45m to 1h 10m
• Bloodthirst Corrosive/Concussive/Radioactive Deflection up to max +750
• Removed 600 Siege Deflection
• Removed 400 Assault Deflection
• Removed Siege/Assault Deflection from Bloodthirst

The Siege and Assault Deflection removal is made up for by the increased deflection available via Bloodthirst, and increased Pen/Ball/Exp deflection numbers.  Increased Evade can help somewhat against launchers, and the reduced repair time is always welcome - hopefully it increases base hitting activity.

With these changes we are seeing a little more base hitting activity, and I'll try to give some general tips for both sides of the base-hitting game:

• Offense: The Gatling Guns deal a lot of damage on the Revenge, but can be foiled by walls.  Launchers or Mortars may be a better choice for an all-Revenge fleet.
• Defense: Use as many walls as you can, especially to protect key turrets & guard ships.
• Offense: Spreading out ships on the attack can blunt the damage from Shockwaves, but watch out for Apocalypse Mortars.
• Defense: An Enforcer with 98U Launchers, Fusion Charger, and Interception System can really chew up the Revenge.
• Offense: Evade Armor instead of Shockwave Plate Armor may be a good idea - try to avoid Shockwaves instead of soaking them up.
• Defense: Scattergun turrets are also an effective choice against Revenge.
• Offense: Consider Launchers over Gatling Guns as a good weapon to use if spotting for Citadels or Rhinos.  Gats only spot at the short 68 range.

Pre-Raid Info:

Some more info has come out related to next week's raid, so I'll try to go through what we know.

Preview Server Friday: https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/631655

May Event Tips: https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/631706

The tips post does have a lot of solid info this time so I suggest you read it (it is pinned after all).

I'll share some of the info here where I have some thoughts/opinions to add:

Map Targets: No fundamental changes seem good to me, I think players are comfortable with the A/B/C/Elite format.

Mega Hulls: We don't know how hard or easy these will be - it will really depend on how Kixeye tunes them.  If you get into the preview server, PLEASE give feedback.  Use of weapon arcs should give some opportunity for strategic driving.  More info suggests that Missiles (penetrative) and Scatterguns (corrosive) will be the major weapon types.

Prize Tiers: It looks like the prize list is going to be narrowed again.  Hopefully the focus will be on prizes that will be useful for the current (Assault) raid cycle and the new Forsaken Mission (Garrison) format.  Having to work your way up from Level 4 is a resurrection of an old idea, but when we had it before, the tiers were reached by hitting certain targets, not by spending points.

Apollo Hull: 

This looks like an upgraded Mercury to me (and it's another name from the Greek Pantheon).  I expect this to the the Tier 6 Prize.  It is a missile & countermeasure hull, and Kixeye says that it will be good for fighting Mega Hulls in this event cycle.  This does seem to be a trend from Kixeye - the first hull awarded in a series of events is particularly good for use in that series.  Another conclusion that I would draw from this info is that Countermeasures (Phalanx) will be useful against our upcoming targets.  Make sure that your planned Assault fleet is ready with those.

I was always a big fan of the Mercury (as well as missile/countermeasure ships), so I am really looking forward to seeing this hull - along with having some sort of speed bonus for moving, this hull seems like it will really fit my favorite playing style.  So much that I'll leave one more idea here...  Professor's Apollo.  (Too pretentious?  Sorry.  Had to put it out there)

Switchblade Anti-Missile:

Short range countermeasures with long range missiles.  We've been mostly disappointed by previous tries at multi-mode weapons (Trident, Drac Coaxial Turret), but we will see if Kixeye gets it right this time.  I expect this prize to be on Tier 5.

Counter-Missile Extender:

Improved CM and Missile ranges - likely Tier 4.  Assuming this special won't stack with the missile range increase from Solid Fuel Booster, Strike System, or Guided Missile System... I think I'd rather use Guided Missile System.  Improved CM range helps a little, but I'd rather have more missile accuracy.  Some sort of Strike System 5 (on par with Speed System 5) seems like it would be more popular.

Limited Components:  These components are just "higher numbered' versions of the limited components that were supposedly retired after last raid.  We are all assuming that they are just improved versions.  If so, I think that's a really cheap shot - all the players that assumed they wouldn't be able to get these capabilities again and stocked up  will find their stockpiles much less useful.    Will Cobra users want to refit to Cobra 2?  At two days each, those weapons were EXPENSIVE, and the only improvement I would look for on those is a reduced build time.  And I bet Fallout Armor 4 still sucks.  Basically, I think it would have been better if we WEREN'T told that the limited components weren't returning, then players might have planned for the short term instead of the long term.  Oh yeah... and Kixeye - please don't start falling back into the power creep thing.  You're doing so well so far since the weapon rebalance!

Player Mega Hulls:  This was mentioned in the May WIP, not the event info, but I did want to comment on this upcoming feature.  Mega Hulls will be able to be owned by players, and there will be a new Gantry to build that is needed to construct these hulls.

This feature was discussed in the Town Hall meeting, and although we can't share any more details on it, I will tell you this - our feedback was that this should be an end game feature.  If a player isn't able to get a Mega Hull right away, it shouldn't hurt the rest of their game, but it should be something to work toward.  This did seem to be the direction Kixeye was taking on the feature, and we will need to keep our eyes on this to be sure it plays out in that manner.

I'll come back next week when we get more solid raid info.

Read the Pins & New FM Prizes

There's a lot of changes going on in the game right now.

It's been confusing for a lot of players, and those that don't understand what's going on are getting frustrated.  Last night on comms a player said something like "oh great look what Kixeye did.  No more VXP weekend."

Now, those who are paying close attention know that the discounted buying of rank was this weekend, and VXP weekend would be next weekend.  But not everyone can do that.  Here's what I'm going to say about it, and unfortunately, the readers of this blog probably aren't the people who need to hear it.

Read the Kixeye pinned forum posts.

I get that a lot of the posts on the forums are complaining or noob questions.  But every Tuesday we see the weekly release notes (except when they aren't on Tuesday... see the pinned forum post about that).  You should read them, and look for any other info pinned there too.  Read the pinned raid briefings.  I know that Kixeye has neither been the most clear nor the most consistent communicators... I have spent a fair amount of time trying to pick up the pieces.  But they are trying, and if you can only read one thing, the official Kixeye communications are a good place to start.

If you want more in-depth opinion and analysis, there is this blog.  There are three weekly YouTube shows if you prefer the video format (BP Crib, Battle Vortex, and Forsaken Council).  There's a blog starting up that's targeted at newer players.  They all have their place.  But if you can only read one thing... read the pinned posts.

I'm not going to be able to touch the Foundry for a while (and the Crusader is the only relevant change for most players anyway), so go read the pinned post if you don't get it.

OK, on to the new Forsaken Mission Prizes.

Combusion System 2:


This is the new FM item that I was most anticipating, and I left empty spots on my Citadels & Revenge hulls I'm building (in prep for the upcoming VXP weekend) for this special.  Now that it's here, it seems to continue Kixeye's practice of making new items NOT the greatest, but competitive.  

The choice between Combustion System 2 and Explosive System 4 is not obvious, as you can see in this chart:

(If you saw this chart on the BP Crib show, the build times have been corrected)

My opinion on this is that the increased spread and extra splash will really help the new Gatling Gun.  I see a lot of players planning Revenge / Gatling builds with Strike Warheads... but with the high built-in concussive damage bonus on the Revenge, the marginal amount of extra damage might not be worth the weight/slot for that, and the Combustion System would be more helpful instead. For Citadels, where you are often firing at the longer remote targeting range, the higher speed of Explosive System 4 might be more beneficial.  I like having shells land sooner, so my enemies stop firing sooner.

Alloy Armor CL:


This alloy special protects against Ballistics and Radioactive damage at the expense of leaving off Penetrative & Explosive protection.

This one might be good in a few specialized situations:

• If you want to build a ship/fleet specifically for mines, those deal out exclusively Ballistic and Radioactive damage.  (try just a single ship in 60s & 70s by the way)
• The new Revenge hull is weak against Enforcers and Shockwaves - this high radioactive defense may help, but you will set yourself up to be weak against ship's missiles.
• The Citadel hull has high (70%) built-in Explosive & Penetrative Defense but 0% Ballistic and Radioactive.  This special balances out those weaknesses.

Zynthonite Armor D5-C:

This has the same general stats as the D5-M & D5-X we've seen, but with Ballistic protection.  

I was hoping this armor would have reduced build times compared to the other D5 deflection armors we have seen (because C armor got a build time reduction compared to M & X), but D5-C has the same build time as D5-M & D5-X (1d 17h 24m with officer).

Even so, this may be a tool for builds in some situations, just like the rest of the D5 armors.  One caution though - when deflection bypass becomes a thing in PvE targets, the only place we expect deflection to be useful is in player bases.  So the extra 20 deflection compared to the huge damage numbers going around there might just not matter at all.

Until next time... stay Frosty.  Or Revenge-y.  Or Punish-y.

An irregular opinion piece

I haven't written in a while, and there's been a lot going on in the game.  Usually I can get my random opinions out there in the weekly Battle Pirates Crib show, but we kind of flaked out this week (sorry) and I'll just put this stuff out here.

The Anti Hack update:
The big anti-hack update is a mess.  I hope it works and I hear it is (mostly) working so far.  But everything else that was messed up from this update is pretty poor.  Now I know that a fundamental architecture change (which this change was) is difficult, but the level of chaos in-game following the update is just not good.  If fixing the integrity of the game were not so critical for it being viable in the long run, I'd be a lot more upset.  But I guess I'll take the couple weeks of chaos, as long as this change works.

I've seen a few posts here and there suggesting that "the hackers only exist because Kixeye is so greedy."  I think that is a real load of garbage - Kixeye has created this game, and they are allowed to charge what they want for it.  You're certainly allowed to think that they charge too much, but the fact is that nobody ever makes you pay.  You can always choose to walk away today, spend nothing, and play tomorrow.  Some people disagree with Kixeye's management of this game, but if you buy a hack, then you're paying a thief and there's no question on that.

The Double Dragon campaign:
On the prizes - each of the turrets is absolutely worth getting.  For the anti-rocketeer turret, going from 50% to 75% accuracy means that an incoming rocket is half as likely to get through, so I think it's totally worth it.  Defending a ship or turret against two incoming Daisy Cutters or Bunker Busters is much easier than against four or eight.  Or with a 75% chance to shoot down a Pinch, pinching that key turret mid-hit and continuing on your way is a much riskier proposition.  Although Kixeye is letting players run the mastery round twice, I think one of these turrets should be enough for most bases.

For the campaign itself, my biggest complaint is that the best way to win seems like to be using subs.  That isn't really feasible for ACTUAL base defense.  My next biggest complaint is the HUGE range on the carriers for encounter 3 - that also requires a non-realistic base defense to beat.  I had to move my Outpost far away from the center island turrets in order for it to survive (long enough for my subs to sink the attackers). 

The thing I like about the campaign is that I have all week to beat it.  I beat encounter 5 this morning, so I'm slowly working my way through without spending much at all (just a few coins here & there to fix my dock so I can start fleet repair before going to bed).  Yes, like most other successful players I'm using subs.  My fleet has four Tiger subs with Styx torps & a Phantom Tiger with Cobras.  I also suggest that if you want more intel, find one of the You Tube videos showing the campaign so you know what's coming each wave.

More on the turret update:
Kixeye should have implemented the turret update later - the week of the raid or even the week after, and given us a little advance notice (so that we still knew the importance of winning this upcoming hull).  Game's been a bit boring last couple weeks, right?

I thought about doing a DPS roundup post-change, but it doesn't mean much until we know more about the PvP hull stats, so stay tuned.

Raid this week:
The Hull raid is coming up this week, and I'll say it again, the most important thing to go after is the new Revenge hull so that you can get into (or back into) the base-hitting game.  I expect it to have at least 1000 siege deflection, and possibly more (2000+?).  The interesting thing I'm waiting to see is how that hull is tailored to stand up to the new turret statistics, while also standing up to guard fleets, but not being overpowered in the PvE game.

Early info post:  https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/625227

Kixeye calls it Tips & Tricks, but the only tips relate to the new Man-O-War target.  Some of that early info coming out about the Zoe's new "super hull" is kind of interesting, but making that target only pay out Uranium seems sort of weak - players would be much more likely to hit it for shards, event points, or other blueprints.  I guess Kixeye hasn't said it won't pay out shards or prints - we will see.

I'll be posting next when we get some more specific raid & prize info - I expect that to be available with Tuesday's update (as usual).

The Game Changed! What now?

Yes, the game changed.  You can complain about it or not complain about it, but no matter which you choose, if you want to keep playing, you should plan for the future.  I will use my professorial crystal ball and try to make some suggestions about how you should get ready.

If you haven't seen the post from GD Raikan explaining the changes, you can find it here:

The most important parts are:
- Resistance is going to be (continue to be?) most important in PvE targets going forward
- Base Hitting just got a whole lot harder, but it's only temporary.  "PvP" hulls will be released to make base hitting reasonable again.

One important note - when Kixeye is talking about PvP - I'm pretty sure they are talking about Base Hitting.  Fleet vs Fleet combat on the map may be a whole separate story.

So if you want to be able to keep up in all aspects of the game, you are going to need a PvP hull.  None exist yet, but the first one we know about is the "Revenge" to be released in the next hull raid.  We don't know much more about it than its picture, but if it is the first PvP hull out there, then that's what will be the most critical prize to get in the next raid.  Everything you do in-game for the next two weeks should be aimed at enabling you to be able to do that raid & win that hull.  Out of game, if you're going to be prostituting yourself for Facebook cards, that's your own business and I won't be giving any advice there.

Luckily, we have seen the preview for the next raid.  Not so luckily (for many of us), it looks a lot like the last two raids, with the exception that the Mega Hull was nowhere to be found - replaced by a Level 110 Siege Target.

You've got two weeks to tweak your best siege fleet to be ready for this raid... what can you do?

Start with understanding the enemy:
These siege platforms combine elements of the Mines, DUBs, and some missiles thrown in for good measure.  You have to defend against incoming Ballistics, Cryo Throwers (with ice fields), Coldsnaps, Torpedo Towers, Mortars (from Turrets and Citadels), and missiles (from Turrets & Zoe Rhinos).

Hulls: 
Punishers are a good start for your hull platform, since you want both Assault & Siege Deflection.  The targets are not segregated enough to be able to separate the ships from the turrets in separate hits.  Drac Carriers or Heavy Cruisers are your next best option.  

Aura flagships can also enhance the durability and offensive power of your fleet - a Highlander Nuclear Cruiser or an Omega Behemoth is worth the ship slot it occupies.  An Aegis will spend a lot of time being suppressed by Coldsnaps, so it probably isn't worth it.   Same with trying to rely on Centurion auras.

Weapons:
Arbalests are probably the best weapon option, since they can pierce walls and get turrets down quicker (and they are better against buildings than Railguns). PACs with their blast aren't too shabby either.  D98U Launchers aren't a bad option either.

Defenses:
Siege Battery or FLCS is going to be key, but after that, you can't load up with resistance against any one damage type, since you could see all types.  Evade helps but isn't as key as it is against many other enemies we've seen.  Countermeasures should be tilted towards anti-mortar, but don't ignore Phalanx either.

So when I look back at what I wrote above, you need a little bit of everything.  

DAMN THE INHUMAN KIXEYE EMPLOYEE WHO DESIGNED THESE THINGS!
Sorry... I'm sure he's human.  

Anyway... you've only got two weeks in your shipyard so you're going to have to work with what you've got.  Rank is key since you need to deal out a lot of damage against these targets... start there.  I'll be working with the fleet I'm using for mines & DUBs.  It is a bit flexible, with three Punishers carrying mostly Earthshakers, then I use another slot for a flagship & the 5th slot for a support ship.

In the Flag slot, I may try both the HLNC & the Omega, but I suspect an Omega-led fleet will do better since I need the firepower.  For the Support slot, I've tried an Aegis, Centurion, and a Neptune.  In my case, the Neptune carries all the Gales, so it is my best choice, but it was reworked for DUBs and has very low evade.  In the preview it was torn up by missiles.

My other issue is that the Punishers use CX alloy, so they are also a bit vulnerable to missiles, specially since I have no Phalanx in that fleet.

So my key work over the next two weeks will be to tune up the armor & countermeasures in the fleets I have to be more balanced against these raid targets.

Here's where I'm going:

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B06L000000000000000000000000000000000000000PNH0131W0Z346A2F5Y2UAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK2CPNH0131W0Z346A2F5Y2UAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK2CPNH0131W0Z346A2F5Y2UAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK2C07002525250V250U345R6F4468251A2A565657565555555500dC

If you keep track of all my fleet builds, you'll notice that the Punishers are tweaked a bit from what I've been using.  

For the Punishers - I used to have a D33-DR in the slot where the PAC is.  I've accepted that these ships are going to be totally useless against fast targets, so the PAC helps me offensively - the occasional blast is always welcome.  I've replaced the Autoloader with Siege Targeting - at high ranks with the salvo 3 Earthshaker, the extra damage helps me more than the quicker reload (again, not against ships).  I've also slowed them down a little - I need the balanced resistance from Heavy Plating, and the slower speed also helps me build the support ships a bit stronger (without having to worry so much about speed boost).  What I really don't like about this Punisher build is the weight.  Having so much weight to spare means that I'm missing out offensively since weapon power is so closely tied to weapon weight.  A more ideal build would use heavier ballistics like Arbalest in place of some Earthshakers, and then maybe get speed back with D6A instead of Heavy Plate.

The Neptune also reflects some compromise - it's been through a few cycles of refit since it led my Rhinos into Strongholds & Player bases.  I have a few Phalanx I'm adding, but mostly sticking to the Gales.  I'll just admit it - the hodgepodge of armor sizes & Gales was driven by the cycles of refit & making the weight work (and the early Gale drops), and not really any sort of optimized plan.

The Omega isn't really empty, but it's staying away from the fight so it doesn't matter. OK?!?

Well - that's the best I'm going to do for this upcoming raid.  Stay focused - hit 200 salvages next week if you have to.  PvP hulls are coming!  I wouldn't start anything major in my shipyard until there's a little more clarity as to what is next.


And the personal note:
I'm starting a new job soon... with a much longer commute.  I'm very excited for the new opportunity, but the loss of 10 hours out of my week means that something is going to have to give, and I suspect that some of it will be Battle Pirates related.  I will very likely be less able to give timely commentary.  I'm still committed to playing this game, running this blog, and being on the Battle Pirates Crib show, but we will have to see.  

This change is all about my career, and has nothing to do with "the state of the game", Kixeye, or the Battle Pirates community.  For the community in particular, I really appreciate all the readers of this blog, and the encouragement, thanks, comments, and even corrections that you provide.  As you may know, the community can be a bit pirate-y at times, and when I started this blog I was expecting quite a bit of salty response. All I can say is that I don't get much saltyness & I get a whole lot of positivity... even when I think I deserve a little more salt.

Thank you pirates - you keep sailing & I'll keep publishing.

The Professor's Two Year Anniversary

This blog published its first article on January 30th, 2014.  

And just in case you are wondering, that first article was a review of a new hull - the Sawfish.  The Sawfish was released in the Forsaken mission - along with Agility System and the D33-D cannon.

Going back over that article, there was one real interesting sentence I wrote that really illustrates how the game has changed over the last 2 years:

This hull is the lower end ballistic hull that we were all expecting.  It is in the same vein as the Mercury, Mauler, Mako, or Rampart, with reduced capability compared to its bigger brother hull, but also reduced build time.  The Sawfish compares fairly closely to the Stingray, but is it worth it?

And again, just to refresh some history for those readers without a steel-trap memory, the MCX, Dreadnaught X, Thresher, and Goliath were the "big brother" hulls.  Each of the the littler hulls (except the Mako) had reduced build time & reduced capability from the higher end hulls.  Those hulls were released to be appropriate for up and coming players, and they are STILL relevant to up and coming players.  Why?  Low hull build time.  

But the point is that we expected low-end, little-brother hulls because that's what Kixeye was doing.  When was the last time Kixeye released a hull that was not targeted at the top-end players?  Was it January 2014?

After that article, the Nuclear Cruiser & Launchers were introduced in the February raid, and the Atlas Carrier & Hornet UAVs were introduced in the March raid.  In April we saw the first Limited Hulls - Grimshine's Berserker & the High-Lander Nuclear Cruiser.

It really seems I started my blog just as Kixeye decided to kick off the flood of content and start to ramp up the complexity of the game with new weapon types, and it really hasn't slowed much since.

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For my 1 year anniversary, I did a look back & tried to highlight some of my most useful articles.  For my 2 year, I'm going to do something different.  I'm going to try to explain how I play Battle Pirates.  Certainly over the last two years the "whales" have been emphasized more & more.  Players will spend thousands of dollars on this game - then get extremely upset when they realize they are not having fun.  Essentially they realize that they didn't get VALUE for the money they have spent, and then the rage quit in a blaze of glory.  Or just walk away without a peep.  

I will say that it is really tough to compete in this game without spending a cent.  I played free for a couple years, then spent a little bit of money in a raid to win the Strike Cruiser (when it was new).  Once I got those built (about 2 months later) I actually had a competitive fleet, and by continuing to spend a little bit ($10-30) per raid I have been able to continue to keep up.  For those players who fiercely choose to say that you won't give Kixeye a cent, but keep trying to "get over the hump", I suggest that you aren't ever going to get there.  It's tough to get value for nothing... consider what this game is worth to you.

And for those players who spend thousands, you also need to consider what this game is worth to you.  If you have the disposable funds to spend that much money, and you choose to, that's fine, but you should also consider what else you could be spending that money on and decide if Battle Pirates is the best way to spend that money.  If you decide that it is... good for you, but don't get upset when you realize that you haven't received thousands of dollars of value for the thousands you've spent.

I highlighted the same phrase twice up above - both in relation to whales and free players.  CONSIDER WHAT THIS GAME IS WORTH TO YOU.  Be willing to spend that much, but not much more.

So I continue to put in about $50 into this game every other month, and I think many players out there would say that you can't compete while spending that little.  I will admit that I generally can't crack the top bases, and I can't defend my base against the top fleets.  But I have fun playing this game.  I don't feel like there is any part of this game that I just can't do.  To go into more detail:

• I hit bases to get my alliance points every week.
• I keep a guard fleet and nobody walks through my base (less than 25% fleet damage).  I have been in the range of 250 - 300 medals for quite a while... without going "medal hunting" or "medal shedding".
• I play every raid. I get the top prizes but not always the limited prizes.
• I sometimes help other players in raids.
• I do Elite Tier in the Forsaken Mission twice each week without coining repairs. 
• I continue to work on the new R&D - I'm working on Objective 6 now.
• My retro lab is constantly busy - specials & weapons I use frequently are R15.
• I use VXP weekends to get my key ships to Legendary.
• I beat the TLCs without coining repairs, but usually not all 5 Mastery rounds.
• I compete in the FAT when I feel like it.
• My arena rating is 1514 but I haven't played in it for a long while.

So what's the key to playing like that?  Having good fleets.  Some players will tell you that a ship is obsolete a month after it is released, but a well designed fleet will be useful in this game for much longer than that.

My overarching philosophy towards fleet design is that you need to start with a good fleet design, and build it.  It seems sort of obvious, but some players just jump from building ship to ship without a plan, and then have a bunch of mismatched, ineffective ships.  It can be tempting to build the newest, shiniest hull, but having three half-done fleets is less useful than one fully completed fleet.

Let's look at the last few full fleet builds I've done, along with the hull's release date:

Hellstrike - Dec 2013

Nuclear Cruisers - Feb 2014

Harlock's Atlas - May 2014 

Interceptor V2-H - Sept 2014 (build is a bit of a guess - I did some refits & forgot the original build)

Crusaders - March 2015 (Monarch added later)

Rhinos - August 2015 (with Aegis / Neptune / Proto-Hunter)

Tiger Sharks - October 2015

As a side note - the only major builds that I started and abandoned along the way are a Greta's Nuclear Cruiser fleet, and a Goresaber fleet.  For the Greta Nukes - I started those with F launchers but no armor.  I got fair use out of those in the Frost/Snow series of raids running them behind a Jugg X tank, but never finished the fleet, especially when I learned how bad the F launchers compared to others once ranked.  I have two Goresaber hulls done with a few Dragonfire rockets & specials, but saw those falling out of favor very quickly, and decided to stop those in favor of the Crusaders.  I never got much use out of them, although I continue to suicide them occasionally in Reaver Assault Bases for rank.

I also think I used a Frosty / Mastodon fleet for a while in there somewhere...

I've also built a few more hulls here and there, sometimes for Base Guard (like Enforcer, Goliath, or Omega Behemoth) or for other specialized tasks (Juggernaut X to tank, Mastodons for fire support).  But you can see I've skipped a lot of hulls too.  I didn't feel like playing too much with Reaver hulls and their 150% repair modifier.  I missed out on Nighthawks, Kodiaks, Fusion Cruisers... just to name a few hulls that were "worth building" yet I never did.  I also never got into the slow weapons like mortars, and the short range weapons like rockets & scatterguns.

I'm still finishing out the Tigers, as well as working on a few more goodies (like a Harlock's Aegis), so I still don't know what the next hull I would build around is going to be.  If I were ready to start today it would be the Draconian Carrier (not the Heavy Cruiser).

When I look back over those last seven fleets, four of them (NC, V2-H, Cru, Rhino) have been generalists.  I used those fleets in Forsaken Missions, Raids, Campaigns, and Base hits.  The Hellstrikes were mostly useful in Base Hits only (I still used MCX for other areas), the Harlock Atlas were not useful in FMs, and not very good base hitters without a Grimzerker, and the Tigers are obviously more specialized.  Whenever I've built a non-generalist fleet, I've always had an existing fleet that I felt was still a useful generalist.

My latest generalist fleet (the Rhinos) really benefits from having more specialized tank ships - the Proto-Hunter is optimized against ships, the Neptune is optimized against land targets & provides anti-mortar coverage, and then the Aegis provides anti-missile & more defense. I foresee being able to continue to use that fleet effectively by replacing the tanks and/or Aegis with upgraded ships while keeping the Rhinos (saving me shipyard time vs. building a whole new fleet).  My Punisher tank finished yesterday, so we will see how much of an upgrade that provides.

One of the benefits of not building every hull, and not doing it as soon as it has been released is that I watch other players to see what works and what doesn't.  I also get the benefits of being able to utilize tech that may not have been available when the hull was first released.  V2-H with Siege Missile Z is a good example of this.  I also was able to take advantage of using a HLNC with my NC fleet since that limited hull was released before I had a 4th NC built.

One of the drawbacks - You don't have every fleet type.  Nighthawks were often real effective yet I didn't have any.  Kodiaks were great once the Siege Z missile was released (and remember Strike B Kodiaks when bypass was reversed?).  But since I've always been able to play this game effectively, I never felt too left out.

So let's get back to where I started - how do I play this game for around $25 per month?

Where do I spend my coin?

Raid repairs:  200 coins has been my "average" raid spend for a while.  This is how I gain access to the tech I want.  I never have a build that I can't do because I don't have the blueprint. The most recent exception to that was when I didn't get the Harlock Aegis on its release.  That first Scourge raid was HARD, and I was not willing to spend the coin or time to get me those points.  I did pick up the Neptune even though I didn't have an immediate need for it... but it has turned out to be a real useful hull for me as a tank.

Ship builds:  For the amount of money I spend, I can't coin up full fleets, but I will speed up the last day or two if I want a ship done before a raid, and I'll speed up a few hours if it will be finishing overnight or some other time I can't access the computer.  Coining some Interception Systems on my Tiger Sharks before the December raid was a great investment to reduce repairs taken.  Really, I'd rather coin a build than a repair but it quickly gets too expensive.
Dock repairs: This is pretty rare.  More often I'm willing to walk away from the game & do something else.  

Where don't I spend my coin?

Non-raid ship repairs: I won't say never, but it is pretty rare for me.  I don't usually feel like it is worth it to me to spend money just to hit a base.  Campaigns, Missions, Uranium... it all can wait.  One very important case of this - snipers.  If someone is out hitting fleets with a Ghostcrawler or Phantom, I will absolutely bring in my ships and walk away.  I'll let the snipers stare at an empty blue ocean & have fun with that.

Research: It can wait.  Once in a while (like ship builds), I'll speed it up it if will be completed overnight as I do like to keep my retro lab busy, but more often I can wait for that extra retro level.

Buildings: Again, it can wait.  I defend my base, but I don't have an "ego" about my base.  If someone smashes it, I am perfectly fine with hitting repair & moving on with my life.  

Rank: Rank is super effective for increasing your ships' firepower, but it is too expensive for me to see the value in coining it.  Before VXP Weekend came around, I would grind away to the 45% - 60% range for my mainline ships... then be ready to move on to my newer fleet by the time I got there. Now I can get them to Legendary without too much trouble.  On the Reaver Assault Bases I use old outdated ships (like those Hellstrikes or Harlock Atlas) to tank while the other ships blast away at Hellhounds & rack up VXP.  I also generally do my ship builds by building them with partial weapons & specials first, then taking them out to rank while the rest of the fleet is building.  This lets me start ranking them earlier and gives me a general idea of their effectiveness.  My interim Tiger build was surprisingly useful.

I hope this summary helps you understand where I come from in paying this game, and how you can spend a little bit of coin to get a lot of enjoyment from this game.  One key - I don't let my ego get in the way... I'm always willing to walk away.

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One more announcement... you may have seen this on Wednesday's Battle Pirates Crib show (or elsewhere), but Kixeye has started a series of meetings with a small group of experienced players called a Town Hall (as a closed group I'm not sure that's the best term for it, but so be it).  These meetings are with the Kixeye Battle Pirates leadership & staff.  The first meeting was last week.  The players participating were Dead Sinner, Boba Fett, PriceIsWrong, Dirty Harry, & myself.  Attending from Kixeye were Michael Murguia (VP/GM), Paul Preece, CM Doomrooster, and approximately 15 more staff (whom we didn't see or meet).  Our first meeting was a bit of an orientation, but we also were able to discuss some substantive issues, such as the overall complexity of the game, as well as build & repair times.  I can't go into full detail, as all players participating were asked to sign an NDA, which I take very seriously.  We plan to have these meetings every other week going forward.  It is early to make any conclusions, but I am optimistic that they are interested in listening to what we have to say.  Although I would prefer an even more public forum, I hope that this format allows for 2-way, frank discussion where we can suggest concrete, realistic actions that will improve and sustain the game going forward. 

Since I announced this Wednesday - I would like to add two more notes: 

• I'll say this first one bluntly - I (and the other players involved) are not doing this to be your suggestion box.  We each have been playing a long time, and have ideas about what makes Battle Pirates fun and what makes it not fun.  We have all been involved in the community and know that build & repair times are a drag.  Fair play (no hackers) is critically important.  Our issues are your issues, and we don't need our inboxes bombarded.
• Price brought up a concern about announcing this group, and I share it.  It's an issue that both he and I have run into previously - We don't want to be Kixeye's propaganda tool.  If I write an article about something, or when Price talked about something on the BV show... we were (and still are) always concerned about pumping up something that really isn't very good.  I don't want my announcement of this group to be taken as some sort of rosy statement that everything will get better.  If it is just for us to bring up the same issues that have been brought up over and over in the Kixeye Forums and various Facebook groups already, it won't be very useful.  We will need to get the 2-way discussion with Kixeye going, under cover of the Non-Disclosure, in order to make any progress at all.  I want people to know that there is potential for progress, but we will have to wait and see what develops.

Rant Update and New FM prizes

My last article - WTF Kixeye, got a lot of views and a lot of responses.  Thanks for your support.  

The update on Kixeye's response is:

I messaged CM Doomrooster and eventually got a response.  I would have preferred to publish the exact exchange, but he asked me not to.  There really wasn't anything proprietary, incendiary, or shocking in the exchange, and I would think he would rather have his exact words published instead of my summary.  But we can't really understand a lot of Kixeye's behavior, can we?

He started off saying he could not speak about the difficulty increase, and I tried to follow up and press some more:



Doomrooster (essentially) repeated the same responses, with a little bit of clarification that the subsequent reduction in difficulty (not the initial increase) was supposed to increase engagement, and again said that he could not discuss any further.



Doomrooster's response was that he had not given permission for me to publish his responses in a public forum.  I have decided to respect his wish here, and hopefully he feels I have not misrepresented the content of his responses.

Now, I feel a little bad for him - my assumption is that he doesn't make Kixeye's policy, but he has to follow it.  Like I said above, I would really have preferred to speak with someone about it and try to understand if there was something going on besides "players aren't coining enough".  I WANT to hear their side of the story.  Without it, it is becoming more and more clear to me that Kixeye does not care what we THINK, they only care what we DO.  Please remember that short-sighted view the next time you are considering opening your wallet for this game.

I'm still willing to talk with anyone at Kixeye that is allowed to actually speak with me.

So... on to the new Forsaken Chore Mission Prizes.  We have two new prizes in Tier 3 and three new prizes in the Elite Tier.  With the 3 mission - 1 raid cycle, this means that players who only do the Elite Tier once per week will not earn Ship Build tokens from the mission on this cycle.  The focus of many of these prizes continues to be on Missile technology.

Disruption Missile D53-D


Why is this one called a D53 (like Assault Missiles), and not a D52 (like the Harrier Missile), when it is clearly similar to a Harrier missile?  Those wacky Draconians... OK moving on.

This missile has the same Damage/Reload/Accuracy/Bypass statistics as the Harrier Missile, but it adds the slowdown capability (5% per hit up to 35%) at the expense of more build time and more weight.



Some players may consider the Harrier a waste now that this more capable missile has been introduced, but with the extra weight, the best way to use these Disruption missiles is in conjunction with the Harrier.  7 hits is enough to max-out the slow effect... with the high accuracy and the likelihood that you will be using Laser or Guided Missile System as well... 15 is the max per fleet that you would likely need even against very high evade targets.  I may even plan to use fewer.

However, if you don't have the Harrier, the Disruption Missile is the next most efficient in DPS/hton, so it isn't a bad option.  One more advantage of the Disprution (and Harrier) missiles is that they have a faster projectile speed than previous missiles.  Siege & Strike Missiles have a projectile speed of 110, and the Harrier/Disruption have a speed of 180 (I haven't been able to confirm the Disruption speed yet).  This means that they will reach (and kill) their target sooner than other missiles.

One more topic to discuss is the Bypass statistic.  The Strike B and the Achilles have some bypass which I usually ignored.  The Harrier and Disruption have 40% bypass which is making me start to pay attention.  Bypass reduces the defense percentage of your target by the bypass percentage.  So a target with Penetrative Defense of 60% has that defense reduced to (60% * (1 - 40%)) = 36% against the Harrier Missile, and then instead of 40% of the damage getting through, 64% of the damage gets through, and so your effective DPS is increased by over 1.5x.  The chart below shows the effect of 20%, 40%, and 49.5% (new missiles with Bypass Missile at R15) bypass on DPS as resistance increases:



Speed System 4 & Speed System 5
Of course, the week after I recommend that anyone who doesn't have Speed System 3 yet should pick it up in the raid... Kixeye releases better versions in the FM.  I am comforted by the idea that most players who did not yet have Speed 3 are probably unable to reach Elite Tier and also probably have a lot of items left in Tier 3 making Speed 4 an uncertain proposition... right guys?



Although the additional speed and evade from these higher level speed systems could have been expected, the other big improvement on these is that there is no accuracy penalty.  Lets see how they stack up:



The build time for these newer systems also remains relatively reasonable.  Other than the slight 1% weight increase, these have no significant drawback.  Players using Speed 3 would be well advised to refit these onto their ships as soon as received.  If the weight is a problem, weapon tweaks would be the first place to look, since the accuracy "increase" will add to your DPS (for accuracy-based weapons) anyway.  With the recent emphasis on speed for newer hulls and specials, I think every little bit you have will help in upcoming events.

Compound Engine Systems retrofit also applies to these new engines.  That was already one of my favorite "Advanced" retrofits so even though it is one of the more expensive ones, it is probably worth investing Uranium into it.

Guided Missile System
This new special combines Solid Fuel Booster 3 with Laser 2.5:
 

This is particularly useful on the missile hulls which do not incorporate retargeting, such as the Rhino or Mastodon.  Especially for those players who might not have a lot of hulls, I see some using the Mastodon as a "front-line" ship, and opening an extra special slot (or replacing Strike Sys + Laser with Speed Sys 4/5 + Guided Missile System) will be really helpful on those builds.  To compare it with the previous options:

 

The total weight (19%) of GMS is less than combining the previous Laser + SFB options (22%).  For those players who were not using Laser, just SFB, the accuracy increase will make it worth the increased weight due to the increased effective DPS against targets with good evade.

Also note that this new Special is already in the Retrofit Lab under "Missile Systems" giving increased Accuracy bonus on retrofit.

Interception System



This special is really interesting.  It is sort of like Nuclear Accelerators for missiles or launchers, where it gives a Weapon + a Speed boost... but it is less critical.  For Ballistics, you absolutely need the range boost, so using Nuclear Accelerators is a no-brainer over Hardened Barrels.  For Launchers, although a Fusion or Gauss special is really nice, it isn't quite as critical.  For Missiles, using Enhanced Warheads isn't all that common, except on "Fire-Support" Mastodons.  Here's how it stacks up:



Against the Fusion Charger, it gives the same Supercharge with less weight & less build time.  It loses the Shockwave damage bonus, but gives that extra speed... I'd certainly want it for any open water ships over the Fusion Charger, leaving the Fusion Charger as most valuable only for base guards.  Since Launcher builds don't need a range special, this Interception System will certainly be earning a place on many Fusion Cruiser / V2-C builds.

For Missile Ships, the key to using this is having the special slot available... if you've got it, then the special is a nice addition.  With 5 special slots available, the Rhino will be a hull where this is used quite frequently.  Given the very high inherent combat speed of the Rhino, some players were even talking about using this and leaving off the engine special in order to use special slots for other tasks.  This would result in a 19.2 combat speed... which isn't terrible but is still a bit slow compared to many newer hull builds.

As far as I can tell, this one is not in the Retrofit lab (not even under Compound Engine like Nuclear Accelerators), so you might want to keep that in mind if you are comparing it to Gauss (under Launcher Systems) or Enhanced Warhead (under Missile Systems).

Overall: 
It seems the rotating wheel of weapon love has stayed on Missile for a little longer.  If you planned a Rhino build during the Raid, you will want to rethink it based on these items.  My original plan was to build a fleet with a Grim Wrath lead, 2 Rhinos with a mix of Siege Z and Harrier missiles, and an Aegis.

Now, with the new items giving the Rhino a higher speed, the Wrath just can't match the speed. The unreactive capability of the Rhino makes it nearly impossible to get a shockwave on it.  My new build plan is to use an empty Savage Kodiak for the missile reload boost, 3 Rhinos, and an Aegis (now with Reaver Scout Engine so it can keep up).



https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!50M000000000000000000550100000000000000000006V01R1R1W0V1R685B6D343552525252525252525252525253535306V01R1R1W0V1R685B6D343552525252525252525252525253535306V01R1R1W0V1R685B6D343552525252525252525252525253535306M01R1R0M0M2B0O5Z011B1B1B1B1BdB

I'm using 3 Disruption Missiles per Rhino for a total of 9.  This fleet may not have enough armor points to beat high end bases, but 33 combat speed!?!  Awww yeah!  (lower quality link for non-US)

The new "Sea of Flames" campaign is out too... but that will have to wait for another post.  In short, the Templar is only a little bit better than a Crusader... I wouldn't go scrapping all mine for that new hull.  But if you are missing items from the first two prize packs, you should think about trying to go get those.  Raids are a great time to do that at half repair.