Pirate Station Woes

[WalkerGain]

Hey guys!

Ever since I've started playing Starmade, I've noticed people complain about the hostile pirates to be pushovers.

Now, maybe I don't understand how the game is supposed to go, because I've run into no such predicament. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I planned to test out the new fleet system, and the newest ships I made, on a pirate station in the local system. I'd prodded it's shields to test how much damage I could do, and I'm fairly certain I could take it out in a reasonable amount of time.

So I created 5 of my ships, put them in a fleet, and flew the flagship to the pirate station.

I knew there would be significant resistance, and ships called to aid the station. I just didn't plan for the 35+ ships that arrived over time.

Not only did the game slow drastically, the fleet ai was very buggy/ineffective, and my fleet was hopelessly swarmed.

Spoiler

As all the turrets on my other ships were disintegrated, I piloted my own towards the station, resting the ship's door against a hole that had been formed in the structure. I thought I could take my cutting torch, and take out the faction block. It worked, for the most part, but the fighters kept being called by the station.

I didn't count just how many ships there were, because they literally ripped apart their own space station just trying to kill me. And eventually they did.

So, while the station is no longer in one piece, it didn't happen exactly the way I had anticipated.

I'm just wondering, has this happened to anyone else? Where did I go wrong? Is the only effective way to take out a pirate station to build a massive ship and do enough damage to destroy it in one hit?

Do you think this is a problem with the way the game works, or my own fault for not planning the attack correctly.

I'd appreciate all the input I can get! Please, be gentle though. I just want to understand what other people do to combat these stations, and what you all think of the current system.

 

[jayman38]

This is how the game works. The pirate station is constantly calling in backup, which means it is continually spawning waves of pirate fighters.

Make and mount heavy turrets to engage enemy fighters. (Don't forget to use mass enhancer blocks to keep your turrets moving smoothly as they grow in size.) I also recommend guided missiles (m+b) as main weapons on your ship, so you can target-lock enemy ships to assist your turrets in cleaning up the area.

Maybe set up multiple secondary fleets and AI-driven defense platforms (thruster-less ships) to engage enemy fighters as they arrive.

There is probably one or more additional pirate stations a few sectors away, detecting you and "sending" (spawning) more fighters to send your way. I recommend building up more and more defense platforms to create a 3D "fence" around you as your sphere of influence grows.

Take note of any holes that develop in your "fence". this probably indicates one or more nearby pirate stations that need to be cleared out.

 

[StormWing0]

The general idea when killing pirate stations is to locate the faction block and shoot it until it's dead ignoring anything else aside from the turrets.

As for the huge waves of pirates make sure to have enough turrets of your own to deal with them and a metric ton of shields to tank whatever they throw at you. One of my favorite things to do is to make mobile defense platforms and put them in fleets. This way I can order them to get into position around the target station to deal with any fodder that show up.

Another strategy could be to deploy defense stations in the nearby sectors so you can farm the ships that show up. Just make sure they have enough shields and firepower to deal with anything that turns up. Normally I do this with a ship that has ion weapons on it and one block less than 100% effect strength so it'll call the pirates so they get blown up.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Well I see that for 1 not all of those pirate vessels are default Isanths meaning they are probably a lot tougher. 2nd The stations themselves are largely pushovers (The Alpha Pirate station has a decent heavy hitting missile though.)

The easiest way to deal with fighter spam is to take a large ship equipped with heavy hitting turrets and fly around letting them pick off the fighters.

 

[Az14el]

If you want to demolish the stations you do need at least a moderately tanky ship with good block destruction (not just dps)
Several missile turrets, wide/deep output cannons/beams, nukes, that sorta stuff. An extremely easy way to farm lots of pirate waves solo without a massive powerful ship is to use swarmer missiles, or missile supported with missile, really bad idea if you want to use drones (swarmers are heat seeking and will target any nearby uncloaked entity) but incredible at wiping out many smaller ships at once.

 

[DrTarDIS]

just log off, count to 20, and log back in. Spawned pirates are now gone.

 

[Lukwan]

What you describe is normal pirate station behavior. You don't need a massive ship. I find 30K-50K (blocks) is plenty. You need two things with your Ship/Fleet:

1) The ability to absorb serious damage.
2) The ability to deliver consistent, heavy damage. DPS!

It sounds simple and it is...everything else is negotiable.

 

[StormWing0]

just log off, count to 20, and log back in. Spawned pirates are now gone.

Only works only multiplayer and even than only if someone else is logged in at the time.

 

[Tamren Shade]

Low ROF high damage, high block removal weapons for attacking the station. I prefer nukes for station demolition purposes, Missiles + Damage Pulse + Explosive and a secondary swarmer battery for dealing with swarms of small ships. The Harvest of Fire is a small 22K mass missile destroyer that was the first ship I finished that actually could take out Pirate Stations reliably.

She has 1.8 Million Shields and a main battery of Vertical Launch Swarmers divided into 6 silos with 2000 Missiles 2000 Missiles 2000 Explosive on a 15 second autofire timer, and a pair of twin heavy torpedo launchers, two weapons systems with 1000 Missiles and 1000 Damage each. For tertiary weapons, she has a small 2000 block prow mounted quad autocannon and an array of 16 AMS turrets.

It's an older ship and needs a refit, since then I've gotten much much better at power generation and storage systems and I want to completely rework the detailing and weapons, but feel free to check out what worked for me by grabbing it off the dock.