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Post by ultravires on Mar 26, 2017 18:40:41 GMT
OK guys... I admit it... I suck at making engines. Anyone have a nice NTR/MPD Combo for Cap Ships their willing to share? I need some charity Hopefully using Methane fuel, but I'm willing to switch if something else is better.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 23, 2017 17:23:41 GMT
yeah dwwolf is right, you aren't giving your EFP enough distance from the target to form properly. Of course, if you give it too much standoff, then your EFP will start to dissipate before it hits. There's a sweet spot, you'll need to fine tune it based on the size of bombs your using vs. frags. I have not personally tried setting the frag to detonate prior to the nuke, so I can't say if it's better or not. Also, I find that Osmium works better than Diamond for the frags.
Something else I have noticed in my own game play: missiles don't always "point" at their target, sometimes when they are in close they will turn 90 degrees to try to get a direct impact, which makes them useless for EFPs, since the "projectile" of the EFP comes out of the nose of the missile. Have you noticed that? I've been playing around with the missile guidance system to see if I can get the missiles to "point" at the Target, but not much results so far.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 17, 2017 19:35:47 GMT
If he had turned physician instead of eco-ranger, he would have recommended two bullets in the head for a migraine cure. And of course he aims the two asteroids at two major historical and cultural population centres, because that's tradition at this point. When you're convinced humanity is the disease, the cure seems obvious. Name That Movie Reference... Kidding aside tho, I think it would be much better to storm, and occupy a large (high population) enemy station, rather than simply Nuke it/Gas it. Leaving aside Political/Social complications, most people tend to take it badly when you Murder their friends/family; and they have a long memory for things like Genocide (people still hunting for old Nazis for instance). Plus if your enemy was thinking about maybe having a truce, or negotiating... he won't be after you Nuke/Gas his people... it will be a fight to the death for both sides from then on... just taking turns Nuke-ing each other. The whole point of a War is that you want to win... and be alive afterward to enjoy it.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 8, 2017 6:39:57 GMT
Well you got me with the radiators RiftandRend, that would work like a charm on a Station- especially a big one like an O'Neil Cylinder. I guess I was thinking more of something along the lines of Vesta from the game. Take the "Vesta Overkill" mission from the game as an example: The Whole reason for the mission is that the USTA intends to "invade" Vesta. Vesta is large enough that it wouldn't really need radiators for thermal regulation. David367th is right that you could do the old fashioned Medieval Siege, in some ways that might be the most effective tactic. But as he suggested, it won't really work on a very self sufficient base. I guess the question of how hard easy/hard it is to capture a base, is how much of it are you willing to blow up?
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Post by ultravires on Mar 8, 2017 5:56:04 GMT
get into the station and release gas, you want the structure not the people. Disabling their life support systems would have a very similar effect with out necessitating gas carriers. Disable life support how? Blow up all the air vents/CO2 filters on the Station/Base? Send a Secret Agent in to poke holes in all the space suits? Use Incendiary Pigs against their walls? (that's a Total War joke ) There isn't just 1 module/system that you can blow up to completely disable a major system like that, and the bigger the base, the harder it would be. Who would be stupid enough to build a life support system that can be destroyed by one failure? Same problem with Gas, why would you build a space station/asteroid base with no airtight compartments? Admittedly, you might get some of the civilian population with Gas, but any Military Defenders (and anyone with a space suit) would be immune, even without airtight compartments.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 7, 2017 22:40:44 GMT
It occurs to me that we may have been thinking of the wrong targets to board. Presumably, the thing you would most want to take over would be space stations/asteroid bases etc, not so much enemy ships. Bases/Stations are large and expensive, so you want to take them intact- which means you can't nuke them (unless you only want to kill them, but that means you also loose the strategic position/production/farm facility etc.). Seems to me there are a lot more possibilities in that scenario.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 7, 2017 22:22:21 GMT
You may have me on that one Enderminion, My thought was that you could gain enough speed through gravity assist by burning down past the planet, that you could close the distance on the other side fairly quickly, not giving the enemy much chance to dodge. But that speed works against you too, the enemy only has to dodge a little and your speed becomes a hindrance making it harder to intercept. Gonna have to think about it some more...
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Post by ultravires on Mar 7, 2017 21:52:17 GMT
Some things I have come up with: The Rope-a-Dope: Catch the enemy orbiting on the other side of the planet (or whatever body) you are both orbiting. As the enemy moves around the planet, dive straight in to the planet with an anti radial burn. Shape your orbit so it will come around the curve of the planet to intercept the enemy. At some point the enemy will be on the opposite side of the planet from you (they cannot see you) launch the Missile/Drone Barrage of your choice, then burn like hell for the other side of the planet (to come out on the side behind your enemy's orbit). Now when you come out from behind the planet, your enemy either has a Drone/Missile Barrage in front of them, and an enemy fleet behind. He has to go past one to get away from the other. Plus you get a nice speed boost by burning past the planet. The Triple-Ripple: Offensive Missile/Drone Salvo in three waves set 2 mins apart. First Wave: High Velocity Kinetic Kill Missiles (priority targets are enemy laser boats/drone carriers). Second Wave: Ship-killers and high yield Nukes (this is where you should do most of your Damage). Third Wave: Anti-Ship Drones with long range weapons (rails/coils/laser/missile, your choice) to clean up the stragglers. If you time it right so that the waves arrive about 2 mins apart, then your next wave should be coming in right as your first wave is hitting home (and so on). Rinse and Repeat if needed. The Inferno: Defensive Missile/Gun Launched Bombs. Basically put the biggest Nuke you can fit into the missile or Gun launcher of your choice (I use the 2 MT Bomb from the Standards thread) along with an Osmium or Tungsten Frag warhead (I find Osmium works best). Set it to proximity detonate 1 Km at least from the target (fine tune based on the size of the bomb you use). Put at least 1 Gun/Launcher on each of your ships. When enemy missiles come in, hit ignore range/launch and watch the fun. If the Nuke Flash doesn't get em, then the osmium fragments will. Works best against Missiles, least effective against Drones (they can dodge more/have longer ranged weapons). The Porcupine: If you launch Drones and set them not to split from your main fleet, then if you go to the map screen and come back, the drones will have formed a circular screen in front of your main fleet. If you launch another volley of drones after that, go to the map screen and come back, the new drones will have formed another screen just behind the first one. Repeat at need to put as many drone screens out as you need. By careful arrangement of which drones are where, you can arrange them to bring max firepower onto the target all at the same time (longer ranged weapons in back) or set it up to get the first shot off (longest range weapons in front). Works for defense or offense. *Warning: you should do any major maneuvers with your Cap ships before you launch drones, to give them maximum Delta-V. I may have some more soon. Comments/criticism/ideas welcome.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 5, 2017 17:54:30 GMT
The problem with all Drones (drone fighters, boarders etc) Drones can be Hacked. Drone Control signals can be jammed/hacked. It won't do you much good to send your antipersonnel drone force aboard an enemy ship, if some tech savvy enemy breaks into your Drone Control system and turns them on you... or jams that control signal to make the drones completely useless.
Why do you think we don't already have Drone Bombers/Fighters in real life? Can the Taliban/Isis hack them? No. But Russia/China/Iran etc sure can hack or jam drones. The Iranians have already proven they can do it. Drones are not the end-all be-all weapons system that you guys seem to think they are. I can think of numerous situations where a good old fashioned human Soldier/Marine is gonna be your best bet. They can't be hacked, or jammed, and they can actually think independently... much better than any drone.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 4, 2017 18:02:38 GMT
I think some sort of an AI rebellion involving killing all humans would come sooner than any large scale migration from earth to space/other planets. And we don't even need researching into AI, just look at woldwide internet traffic summary and predictions on its growth. More traffic there is, more chance we have that something would spontaneously born from it. "KILL ALL HUMANS!!!!" Sorry... Futurama Flashback... On a serious note, my thoughts on the whole "space colony" issue are similar to some already expressed. The commercial possibilities of space have been mentioned, global warming making the Earth and unpleasant place to live has been mentioned, but not population. Or more accurately, living space. There are more than 7 Billion people living on Earth right now, in 40 years, that number will have doubled, 20 years after that it will double again, and so on, and so on; exponentially. How many people can even fit on earth? Let alone how many can actually be fed, clothed etc etc? At some point in the future having a job and living in a large apartment on a nice clean space station (or space colony) with plenty of food, is going to be more attractive than living in an overcrowded, environmentally damaged city with food/water rationing and rampant unemployment. This doesn't even take into account: education, crime, violence, war, disease, social unrest, and a host of other purely human related factors. I think at some point there will be no alternative but for humans to go out and live in space.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 2, 2017 22:25:02 GMT
For anyone who is interested: standard NATO tracers use Strontium Nitrate (Red) and Russian/USSR/Chinese Tracers use Barium salts (Green- not in the game), so the close-est would probably be Sodium Chloride/Copper Chloride. I use Strontium myself, though I do wish it was a little brighter. Real tracer rounds are mixed with Magnesium to give them more visibility.
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Post by ultravires on Mar 2, 2017 0:27:05 GMT
OK, so I'm not sure if this is a glitch in the game, or just my system being weird. Any time I fire a Nuclear Missile at something (stock or user made) everything works great, until just before impact. Right when it seems like the Nuke should explode, I crash to desktop. Tested with Stock ships, and Ones I've made. Only tested in sandbox mode tho, not campaign. EDIT: Fixed... did a file integrity check in Steam, that fixed it
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Post by ultravires on Mar 1, 2017 23:48:56 GMT
Here is a quick screenie of the new "Gunship" I'll have more in a little while Close up of the New Laser Turrets
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