A couple questions

[unmerged(148104)]

Hey all, been playing quite a bit more of the game lately and have a few questions:

1) What are the icons in the middle of weapon listings used for? [the ones that toggle between a circle, reticule, and something else] I am guessing that means how the weapons target [eg: just fire towards the enemy, only fire if targetted, or something along those lines]. I have figured out [I hope] what the second set of buttons is [target priority: PD, CR, LV, DN {Point Defense, Cruiser, Leviathan, Dreadnought} - very nifty looking to use Bursters as PD, it is like a flak barrage.. though not very effective against swarmers with their slow track/fire rate]

2) Drones - I assume these are built when the drone carriers are built, but how do you specify which drone model to use [for example, I have researched the tech for using Heavy Drones, how do I have my carriers equip them instead of the standard drone?]? Do drones "run out" and have to be restocked? I have run into combat situations where I hit the launch drones button [either per ship, or the "Launch Riders" button in the top right corner when multiple ships are selected] and nothing has happened, other times the drones launch - very frustrating. Also, is there a way to "retrofit" the type of drone a carrier uses after being built? I would like to change my current carriers to use the Heavy Drones versus the standard drones but I don't see a way to do this [I may be dense, or it may not be an existing option]

3) Battle Riders - I assume that the color coding of the "mission" text of the battle rider in the "Battle Rider Manager" screen is so that you can quickly identify what role the battle rider is in right? If so, then why can I not seem to equip some battle riders to the ready launch pads [rather than reserve]? For example: I have 3 types of battle rider designs - an Interceptor, a Patrol, and an Escort. I can easily equip the Interceptor to the main launch pads of the carrier, but it won't let me equip any of the other 2 designs [I can put them in the Reserve slots though]. Is this a limitation of not being able to mix/match types or something else I am missing?

Thanks in advance

 

[unmerged(408859)]

Hi Carlosjuero,

I'll see if I can answer these for you.

1. The icons represent how that weapon system will fire. Circle is normal i.e. fire at will. The concentric circles is ripple fire i.e. 1 turret fires, then the next etc etc. The arrow is Alpha Strike i.e. all weapons fire at once. I tend to use ripple fire the most as it allows constant barrage but they are all useful in different situations if you've got time to change them.

2. You specify which drone the drone carrier will use when you design the carrier, but if you want to choose your own drone you must design it before designing the carrier. To design your drone use the arrow buttons to change the ship design type from crusier to drone. You can then choose the drone type as you would a ship section and also define its weapon payload. Save the design then design your carrier and you will be able to select your drone design by clicking on the drone icon in the carrier section.

3. I'm not sure I've encountered this problem. I've always been able to mix and match different battle rider types on the same carrier. It may be a bug or new addition in the latest patch, I'm not sure

 

[HighLigerBimBam]

I always thought its only possible to use a single BR model for each carrier!?

 

[possumGFX]

Edit: No you can place any sort of battle rider into an empty slot. Mix them if you like.


Hey guys, i got some questions too and i hope the thread starter wont mind if i use this one here to ask them.

1. Swarm Queens: Iam a bit annoyed by them. But what do i have to do to get rid of them. In every single game i start there is one system that is producing swarm queens like crazy. The situations is that i got one fleet fighting them whenever they appear but as soon as i got rid of the beast - another one appears. The pre battle screen shows mostly 3 or 4 of them in the system but i can only fight one at a time. As well i see the red "incoming" markers that tell me more are arriving but i got all systems around already under control. I cant figure out how to find the hives as there are none to me. Just the giant roach that is really getting on my nerves by now. Can i actually salvage that thing? I never had a salvage project for them. Any suggestions?

2. Pirates: Its funny that sometimes i got a game that is totally bugged with pirates raiding and marauding no matter how many police cutters i place in a system. Basically they dont do much damage as i always got my trade stimulus high and freighters are quickly replaced but hell i would love to blast those guys out of the sky. The problem is that they of course attack the lone freighters and i dont know where those will be placed in pre battle screen. Q ship dont seem to work at all. I as well doubt they will be able to deal with the pirates as they in later game stages got some pretty good ships. Now how do you deal with them and can i actually salvage pirate ships or take them over?

3. Diplomacy: Iam not sure if thats a bug or something but it seems the "peaceful" battle solution doesnt work. There are sometimes missions done by AI fleets that contradict the actual treaty i got with the race owning the fleet and when they arrive, they carry out for example a strike mission ignoring the non agression treaty i got with them. The battle takes place no matter what option i chose at the solution screen...peaceful or agressive. How to handle this?

4. The colonizers: I got a question regarding the difference between transport and biome colonizers. The description say that the transporters are meant to supply colonies and the biome just give a headstart in terrforming. Are both equally effective in supplying a colony or should i have a special transport colonizer fleet to provide support for my freshly started colonies?

 

[unmerged(148104)]

Thanks for the replies

I figured out the drone carrier thing, you can also retrofit your carriers to carry different drones [it costs nothing to do so, just updates the ship design without needing a prototype when using "Retrofit Design".

As for battle riders, I double checked and the game will allow me to place only single "types" of battle riders in the launch positions. In other words, I can have 3 Interceptors [Sol Force first level CR battle rider carrier] or 3 Escorts or 3 Spinals [etc], but not a mix of the types. I can mix and match in the reinforcements slots but that is it.

Thanks again for the help

@possumGFX - I have the same issue with Swarm Queens. One of my systems is attacked every single turn - I at most get a 1 turn "break" from attacks before 4-5 more swarm queens decide to pop in for a visit [always starts as one, but every turn for 4-5 turns another appears [or, in one case, 4 in one turn]]. Sensors are useless detecting them coming in too apparently [unlike SotS Prime where you could see the swarm incoming] - either I don't have the right techs or sensors just can't detect anything but other player [AI] ships. It has become such an annoyance that is has forced me to quit playing a game I was working through - getting annoying fighting swarm queens every single turn [and, of course, now the outlying sytems are populated by swarm hives :/]. Swarms are a much bigger nuisance than in SotS Prime :/

Pirates also bug me - though for me they never seem to attack systems that have a police cutter force present [go figure].

Re: Colonizers - I am guessing they would both be effective in supporting a colony, with the Biome Colonizer providing a much bigger startup boost [and possibly a larger support boost]. The downside is a much larger cost for the ship module itself.

 

[HighLigerBimBam]

As for battle riders, I double checked and the game will allow me to place only single "types" of battle riders in the launch positions. In other words, I can have 3 Interceptors [Sol Force first level CR battle rider carrier] or 3 Escorts or 3 Spinals [etc], but not a mix of the types. I can mix and match in the reinforcements slots but that is it.

This is exactly what i thought is how it is supposed to be. Just a single type of design.

Pirates only attack systems with a civilean station. So build police there will stop them to appear.

 

[possumGFX]

Okay i checked it too. It seems you cant mix inside the slot set but you can put different types into the replacement slots. I misunderstood that. Sorry.

What about the other questions? Swarm Queen?

 

[HighLigerBimBam]

There is a bug with Swarm Queens which let them spawn multiple times. Maybe fixed in next patch tomorrow.

 

[unmerged(148104)]

There is a bug with Swarm Queens which let them spawn multiple times. Maybe fixed in next patch tomorrow.

Ah, that is good to hear. Hopefully it will be a savegame friendly patch so I can go back to the game I was working on [I am sure I will still have to deal with any existing swarm queens that are populating my system though].