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[ductape]

Hey so, i solved my graphical issues and started making my way through the tutorial. The game is indeed fun right now, so I am glad I tried again.

The inventory screens are a bit weird, and the tutorial said to transfer specific amounts of items you do a control+click+drag action. I tried that and it just transfers half of the stack as soon as i click, the drag part doesnt seem to do anything. How do you transfer/purchase items by specific amounts other than 1 at a time, half the stack, or the whole stack?

[Shooer]

Hold shift and hold the mouse and move it left and right.

[Aklyon]

Hold shift and hold the mouse and move it left and right.

Or hold shift and spam click.

[forsaken1111]

also in case you didn't know (I didn't, found out by accident) ctrl-clicking will fill or empty your cargo. Like if you have 1000 metal plates and only room for 700, ctrl clicking on the plates in your hold would automatically put 300 of them into the other interface, either to eject or sell. Same for filling. If you need 38 more men and you ctrl-click on the crew in a station it will pull 38 into your inventory to purchase/transfer

[Frumple]

Though do be somewhat careful with that. Ctrl-clicking again will move whatever the auto-fill thing didn't get, and happily move stuff over if you're already full of it. If you happen to double click or click on something you're already full on unintentionally (this can pretty easily happen if you're sifting through a derelict ship graveyard or something, and get in a groove of stripping supplies/fuel/whatever), you may find yourself with a few hundred items you didn't intend to have in your hold.

... also helps over stuff on supplies, heh. Minor speed penalty usually isn't a big deal, and the excess fixes itself fairly quickly regardless.

[ductape]

I think I am having fun now. Is it viable to play this game tactically without much actual flying of spaceships in combat? I am terrible at it and this is why i stopped playing this game way back when. It seems that now you can use the tactics layer pretty effectively, but is it effective enough through the whole game?

[Draignean]

I think I am having fun now. Is it viable to play this game tactically without much actual flying of spaceships in combat? I am terrible at it and this is why i stopped playing this game way back when. It seems that now you can use the tactics layer pretty effectively, but is it effective enough through the whole game?

In most cases, yes. Remnant Battlestations are absolutely insane to try and kill, but everything else should be able to be handled by subordinates while you watch. Soak up all the 'fleet' skills, and hire a lot of good officers. You'll be fine.

[EnigmaticHat]

If you use the autopilot and the camera-to-target function you can watch the combat pretty well too.

[Frumple]

Yeah, it's mostly possible. Just expect to take worse losses than you would with some manual intervention, and take some time in the simulator to work out what does and doesn't jive well with autopilot AI. There's some setups that do pretty well with humans (just about anything involving high speed, or mixed long/short ranged weapon loadouts), that the AI humps the idiot ball over.

I do a bit of both, most of the time. Don't mind letting autopilot handle a lot, and the AI controlled stuff usually does a decent job of staying alive,* but sometimes you just have to take the wheel to get the ruddy ship to actually engage, instead of flap around the outskirts of a fight with their thumb wedged in their nethers, venting CR and time into space.

Officers definitely help a lot, though. You often want to do a lot of fighting just get them more XP, so you can nudge 'em in the direction of whatever sort of ship you want them piloting.

All that said, you can also set yourself up in a support role instead of trying to dogfight. Get in a carrier, load yourself out with missiles and PD/long range weapons, that sort of them. Fix up your ship so you don't have to aim or move all that much, heh. Lots of autofire on a heavy ship can manage something similar.

*Sometimes it does rather more than that, actually. I've had a time or two I was off chasing a wolf or kite or somethin', then came back to one of my larger ships soloing a multiple or two in tonnage worth of enemies.

[Draignean]

Human piloting is usually better in ships where the sum of the flux output of their weapons >> the ship's dissipation. Humans know not to fire ALL THE GUNS at the same time, and if you do you typically know you should back out.

Same idea applies to weapons where the initial damage >> sustained damage. Antimatter blasters and autopulse lasers are good examples. The AI is a bit gung-ho with high alpha-strike weapons, and will barrel in without an exit strategy very, very frequently.


Any ship that relies on cleverness and daring (a wolf strapped with an AM blaster, most phase ships, etc) will do better in human hands.

Conversely, the AI is insanely good at handling multiple turret arcs, OMNI shields, and most all kinds of missile arrays.

[Sergius]

also in case you didn't know (I didn't, found out by accident) ctrl-clicking will fill or empty your cargo. Like if you have 1000 metal plates and only room for 700, ctrl clicking on the plates in your hold would automatically put 300 of them into the other interface, either to eject or sell. Same for filling. If you need 38 more men and you ctrl-click on the crew in a station it will pull 38 into your inventory to purchase/transfer

Likewise, if you ctrl-click your stuff (such as fuel) and you're overburdened, it will sell the excess. I think.

And like Frumple pointed out, doing it a second time will just buy/sell the maximum amount possible.

[Hanzoku]

I will say that an agressive officer in a phase ship makes an excellent skirmisher - far better at handling phasing and venting then I am, at least. That said, phase ships are gimicks that can't match up with regular ships.

[Zangi]

I am still very horrible at piloting in this game.  At the least, AI ain't gimped.

[forsaken1111]

I am still very horrible at piloting in this game.  At the least, AI ain't gimped.

Hit U and let your autopilot blow shit up. I've been enjoying just watching the fights.

[EnigmaticHat]

I am still very horrible at piloting in this game.  At the least, AI ain't gimped.

The AI is better with hardpoints and humans are (relative to the AI) better with rotating turrets.  For a new player I would advise against using any missiles apart from autoreloading ones and sabots (as sabots are very ammo efficient, almost immune to PD, and they'll either overload the enemy's shields or EMP all their weapons).  For energy weapons I would use autofiring lasers (PD lasers, burst PD, and tac lasers in particular).  If you must use the ball style energy weapons I would advise setting them to manual use on a rotating hardpoint and then never firing them unless the enemy's shields are down or close to down.  Ballistic hardpoints are generally the most noob friendly IMO.  Energy and missile hardpoints can be hard to score kills with and easy to mess up.

I would advise getting a frigate or destroyer with a lot of kinetic weapons (needlers or railguns in particular if you can get them) and then a relatively weak way of piercing armor or EMPing things, like say a couple tac lasers or an assault chaingun.  Its not always the most optimal way to play but being able to pierce enemy shields at range is a nice safe way fighting style.  One or two AI wingmen in sturdy frigates should be enough to keep you from being surrounded.