RedThread™ - Newbies get PvP questions answered here

[GDPR 302420]

Hello there! Pull up a chair and sit down for awhile! [Insert rough scottish accent here]

For those who do not already know who I am, I am AltAlert RedAlert_007. 4 year PvP veteran, Australian shitposter and "That guy who used to be in Vaygr" at your service.

So me and Thingie were talking about ways to improve interaction between Mentors and the rest of the community, so the idea we came up with was threads for each mentor where newbies could ask questions to a mentor in that field of expertise.


So what is RedAlert's field of expertise? Well I am knoweldgable in almost all things PvP, i've been doing it for most of this games existance and I love it.

So if you are an aspiring PvPer but don't know where to start, you have come to the right place!

Spoiler: Obligatory list of specific areas of gameplay I have knoweldge in

Player verus Player Combat
Factional Warfare
System Balance
Meta PvP Building
Faction diplomacy in times of hostility
Shitposting like a true Australian would

So for all intents and purposes this is a Q/A thread, ask me about PvP and I will try my very best to assist you, the community.

If you are not confortable asking on a public thread, you are more then welcome to send me a PM on this site as well.


FAQ

WIP - Watch this space!​

 

[The Judge]

If someone kills you does that mean they're hacking.
My Dad owns Starmade and he'll ban all the hackers.

 

[Brokengauge]

Well I've played the game a while, but not PvP.

How would you balance a 5k mass ship for speed, defenses, and offenses? At what point would an interior handicap a ships performance in these areas? How would all of this differ from a 10k or 15k mass ship?

 

[GDPR 302420]

If someone kills you does that mean they're hacking.

Nice shitpost ))))))

No.

How would you balance a 5k mass ship for speed, defenses, and offenses? At what point would an interior handicap a ships performance in these areas? How would all of this differ from a 10k or 15k mass ship?

For a 5k ship, I would prioritise agility and offensive capabilities over defences.

For a smaller ship, meaningful defences are very difficult to create, especially against larger ships. As a result, I would dedicate most of my systems to speed, 50% Overdrive effect and "oversized" weapons to allow the ship to punch above its own weight.

Weapon scaling outclasses defence scaling by a very large margin, thus for a ship this small you would be better off making use of speed for defence, combine this with radarjamming for best effect.

This kind of build requires some skill and practise to get right, but once you get a hang on "Speed Tanking" builds they are by far the most effective build for smaller ships.

Defences do not scale well, thus shield should not be a priority at all. I'd say you only need 10% of your systems dedicated to shield, although do take note that sometimes a maxed out Ion effect with a smaller capacity can be more block efficient then a larger capcity with no ion effect. However 10% if my personal preference, and I would encourage you and anyone else reading this to experiment, trial and error with different ratios of speed, offence and defence and find the one that you think preforms the best.

How much interior will affect your preformance ultimately depends on the shape of your hull. A "fat" design can allow you to make use of interior without a notably loss to efficiency but a "thin" design would have interiors be a major detrment to your defences.

It also depends a lot on where your interior is, if you place your interior in a position within your hull that would limit your ability to make long power lines (the most efficient way to generate energy until you hit the softcap) then you are only hurting your preformance, however if the interior is "out of the way" then you can likely get away with it.

So to answer your question, if your ship is a "fat" design then you can likely get away with a small interior without compromising too much of your PvP capabilities, however this is also dependant on where your interior is.

As for how this would differ to 10-15k ship, it would be mostly the same. Small ships in generaly are better suited to the kind of build I described above.

 

[Brokengauge]

Ok, at what point would have a "moderate" sized ship, or a "large" one, and what would be a rough guideline for a "balanced" build.

You've got experience with PvP (I mostly just play with myself) so I'm curious if you've ever observed a "practical standard" regarding a ships size and it's role, or loadout.

What I've built thus far, though I try to make as optimized as possible, all have huge interiors, so I have no doubts that they couldn't handle a PvP ship even a third their size lol.

 

[GDPR 302420]

Ok, at what point would have a "moderate" sized ship, or a "large" one

That question is impossible to answer as an answer does not exist, its all subjective opions on size and "class"

From personal experience, a point where non-speed tank builds are somewhat viable starts at about 150k give or take, however unless the meta changes due to balance changes in the game, a speed-tanking "weapons that punch above their own weight" build will almost always be more viable then a "balanced" build

rough guideline for a "balanced" build.

Balanced by definition means equal of all objects, so a perfect balance between defences, offences, speed and utility. The "jack of all trades, master of none" build however will almost always be outmatched by a specialised build.

"practical standard" regarding a ships size and it's role, or loadout.

Practical loadouts in the current meta:

• Long range "tanky" alpha damage boat (See: Vaygr Empire Despoiler)
• Mid-range speed-tanking boat (See: Almost everything Veilith builds)
• "Spaghetti Ships" (See: Veilith's 5k Spaghetti Build)

Practical sizes: Unless it is tiny (less then 1k mass) any ship can be "Meta" for its size, however don't expect a meta 1k ship to kill a 1m mass titan.

Practical Loadouts:

• Select Fire Turrets in general (The current goto for damage, manual fired weapons suffer from a lot of disadvantages that Select Fire turrets are not concerned with)
• Manual fired Cannon + Cannon + Stop (Good utility and can also be used to shoot down missiles in a pinch)
• Beam + Beam Select Fire Turrets (Good long range, cannot be evaded unless it misses due to instant travel time of "projectile" Good hitscan)
• Beam + Beam + Stop (Only needs 1 block per weapon "part" you are not using it for stop, you are using it because stop weapons unjam any target it hits, usefull if your scanners fail, Beam + Beam will only not have an effect if you miss or you try and shoot out of its range)
• Missile + Beam (Good alpha damage however suffers from drawbacks such as high capacity requirement, low sustained DPS, however can be made to work very well as an alpha damage platform to accompany a more "sustained DPS" weapon)

What I've built thus far, though I try to make as optimized as possible, all have huge interiors, so I have no doubts that they couldn't handle a PvP ship even a third their size lol.

Keep at it! The more you experiment and try, the better. Don't be afraid to try new ratios of systems if your current one is not failing. Experiment with different ideas, if your current build isnt working, then consider trying a new one rather then improving the existing one.

However, if we are thinking of the same "huge" I would advise you cut down on the interior, space taken up wtih interior is spaced not used for systems.

 

[Brokengauge]

However, if we are thinking of the same "huge" I would advise you cut down on the interior, space taken up wtih interior is spaced not used for systems.

By huge I mean my stuff is practically hollow lol. I'm mostly an RP builder, BUT I've been wanting to try my hand hand at more practical designs. Thank you for all the info!

 

[GDPR 302420]

By huge I mean my stuff is practically hollow lol. I'm mostly an RP builder, BUT I've been wanting to try my hand hand at more practical designs. Thank you for all the info!

You are very welcome!

 

[Non]

How i shoot gun? Does good damage? is big

 

[GDPR 302420]

How i shoot gun? Does good damage? is big

Which gun are you reffering too?

Non pls

 

[Non]

Which gun are you reffering too?

Is reffereeing to big good damage one. need do good big damage to kill pvp men

 

[GDPR 302420]

Is reffereeing to big good damage one. need do good big damage to kill pvp men

What kind of weapon is it? A manual fired weapon or a docked turret?

Non pls, stahp

 

[Non]

Fine Ill stop

 

[GDPR 302420]

Although I intended to announce my resignation as a mentor position here, it seems that Schine did away with it while the forum was read only, so I guess the next best thing to say is:

This thread will no longer be maintained, direct your questions elsewhere.

 

[Zerefette]

This thread will no longer be maintained, direct your questions elsewhere.

Sad, I wanted 2 learn.

 

[GDPR 302420]

Sad, I wanted 2 learn.

As much as I wanted to continue helping others, Power 2.0 among other in this games development and community killed any motivation myself and many other veterans had left to continue to support this game.

I have lost all motivation to push the limits of the game and thus I don't feel I am qualified to assist others any further. I may return to this game at some point in the future, but it seems that Empyrion Galactic Survival has replaced StarMade for me, I managed to get several StarMade vets to join me and the 410 hours I have played Empyrion has been better then the thousands of hours I put into StarMade over 5 years.

 

[Ribbons0121R121]

can you make a mine layer that automaticly places mines and armed them? or do i have to do that manualy?

 

[TheDerpGamerX]

can you make a mine layer that automaticly places mines and armed them? or do i have to do that manualy?

This thread will no longer be maintained, direct your questions elsewhere.

 

[Az14el]

hey red how do i get as b& as you lmao