PvP rant

[StormWing0]

Some people say it takes about 30% the mass in ships of your target to kill it with numbers but I'm still on the fence about that.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Some people say it takes about 30% the mass in ships of your target to kill it with numbers but I'm still on the fence about that.

Actually, what I meant was; Do the AI fleet craft actually do a good job at fighting? ...or do they just drift lazily along like the stock pirate ships?

 

[StormWing0]

If you make sure they are maintaining their right settings they can take on a player rather easily. As for the flying off to lord knows where thing, it gets solved by occasionally checking if they are still in the same general area and ordering them back to it if not. The Fleet AI does tend to stick to the area around where they are guarding, attacking, or sentrying though.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Cool. This sounds right up my alley then. It's time for me to go make some anti-capital/PVP units...

Thanks for the tips StormWing0.

 

[StormWing0]

lol as for getting rid of base campers attacking your base, a few Gun Stations of some kind might be useful.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

lol as for getting rid of base campers attacking your base, a few Gun Stations of some kind might be useful.

You mean like this?

 

[StormWing0]

You mean like this?
View attachment 24009

Ooooo Pretty light........*BOOM!*

 

[Gasboy]

You mean like this?
View attachment 24009

What the heck is that?

 

[Dr. Whammy]

What the heck is that?

BM-1 Anti-ship orbital defense platform (WIP)... Reach out and crush someone.

This is a 3500 mass, free floating turret with 360 coverage on all axes. It fires high explosive armor piercing shells, and powerful missiles from more than double the default weapons range. Deploy one of these and you offer a convincing reason to stay out of range of your base. Deploy a group of them and local shops are going to make a killing in repair fees.

Armament
- Burst rail gun: cannon/beam/explosive 1:1:1; 120,000 damage/burst 4 second reload
- Auto-cannons: cannon/cannon 1:1 damage 240 per shot x 4 guns x 100 ms reload
- Medium range guided missiles: missile/beam/explosive 1:0.5:1 up to 150,000 damage/missile x 4 missiles. 30 second reload

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I recently got to test a few of these orbital cannons out. On the first test, they were very slow to turn. Apparently, mass enhancers must be installed on the turret base and not necessarily the parent ship (possibly both?). Somehow, I managed to squeeze just enough of them into the 'turret base' portion of the weapon. I had to scrap the advanced armor and revert to basic hull plating on most of the 'gun barrel' assembly but it now effectively tracks enemy ships and engages. When it does, the result is pretty impressive. I've also given them the ability to confuse enemy AMS units.

I've started deploying these turrets in orbit around my planet to destroy NPC pirates and deter weaker player pirates. Yesterday, a player visited my planet to use one of my public factories for crafting and accidentally fired a missile at my planet (be careful where you click). Had my faction been set to auto-war-dec when shot, the 3 orbital guns near my planet would have torn his 6000 mass 'cruiser' in half. In fact, it would have taken only one shot from the rail gun to knock his shields offline. That's before any of the missiles hit.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

Some people say it takes about 30% the mass in ships of your target to kill it with numbers but I'm still on the fence about that.

Obviously is depends on a couple of variables, like you need a few ships before this rule starts to work (no idea where the cut off is) and you need a sensible weapon set up so the AI doesn't just fly away. But it definitely works, once the group of smaller ships take the bigger ships shields down it starts a snowball effect as they take out more and more turrets.