Pirate station missiles

[Gihzmo]

The new pirate stations are amazing, the guys who designed the new stations are just incredible. Between the pirate stations, the derelicts there are all some of the best designs I have ever seen in Starmade.

I do have a question about the asteroid pirate station. We attempted to assault the station, with what we thought were fairly strong ships. Not huge dreadnoughts, but smaller ships but well armored and shielded. The ship I was in has about 9k shields and is the weight is around 200. It has piercing cannons and pule damage enhanced missiles.

The problem we have found is the station is launching something, I assume a missile, but we never see it. Not once when we died did we see a trail or anything from a missile. The damage to my ship was pretty crazy, it blew through the shields like they weren't even there and destroyed have the ship in one shot.

So, my question.. is this super death missile correct? Is it a bug? Or doe we just need to bring huge capital class ships against that type of station with 100k+ shields and massive cannons and missiles? The beam cannons on the station seem to be fairly weak, even when all of them are focusing me.

Any suggestions?

 

[KiloZulu]

I believe it is a bug. I've fought the base on numerous occasions, and destroyed it more often than not. I know exactly which turret launches the missile, as well as exactly where to hit the base to neutralize the faction block with minimal damage. The times that I've been killed have been because the missile launched but did not appear visually on-screen. To my memory, this mostly coincided with the base being slow to load visually, as well. I was forced to move closer and closer to the base in order to identify it, so I knew where to attack. As I drew closer, my eye always on the base, I would suddenly get nuked.

Also, be aware that missiles are invisible when seen through glass and other transparent blocks. It is best to use a camera with a direct view of space when you are in combat.
[DOUBLEPOST=1421783569,1421783087][/DOUBLEPOST]Some tips on dealing with the missile if you think it could be out there:
1. Keep your speed up and orbit the base: The hulk missile is slow, so you can out-run it if you keep moving - forcing it to run out of fuel. Doing so while orbiting keeps you in range for your own weapons.
2. Use anti-missile turrets. They'll fire on the thing even if you can't see it. Give the turrets a unique weapon color so you can readily identify when they're firing and warn you that a missile is inbound.

 

[Yetimania]

This probably isn't the issue, but there's a bug that causes missiles not to render through glass. Are your ship cores/cameras looking through glass? If so, that's probably what's making the missiles invisible.

I haven't actually seen one of these new stations yet, so forgive me if my tip was embarrassingly useless.

 

[Runeseer]

Ahhh yes the Alpha Pirate station…

Yes this station is equipped with a nuke (long range high DPS missile). This station is responsible for many player deaths on my server.

I believe the root cause is this station can see you (and launch a missile) before you can see it coming. I don’t know the exact strength of the nuke, but I do know it can cut through 30K shields like they were not there.

Rule of thumb… Leave the Alpha alone unless you have a nuke hardened ship.

-Runeseer

 

[Thalanor]

I think missiles that are launched in a different sector than you are in will be invisible to you, so especially the super long range missile/beam combination is prone to wipe out targets without a warning.

 

[Gihzmo]

Thank you so much for the replies. Really helpful info.

One thing, I knew about the glass issue, which is why I have my camera out in the front of my ship with no blocks in front it of. I have a backup camera behind it, behind a block of advanced armor in case of an emergency.

We have done as several have suggested. We are leaving that station alone, until we can make a dreadnaught or cruiser class ship that can take a 40k+ hit without loosing shields. We are a ways away from that though as we are still gathering resources and have just really started getting into something bigger than a large fighter.

Thanks again for the help!