Resonance Capacitor, Resonance Battery - What happens after you touch them in their special place?

Visiting an old friend... that you really don't like... that annoys you after the second sentence out of his mouth.... that thinks he's funny...
but not.

By: George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon_Bane

Time to revisit this subject again it seems. Let's see if we can't clarify it a bit more than the quick overview I provided in this previous article.

I want, at this point, to give a warm Thank You to GD Raikan for taking time out of his day to answer some follow up questions and verify others. I know some few players get on the hate bandwagon with him because he's Kix, but he really is a nice guy and actually enjoys the game and community.

A few people expressed some confusion, and honestly, some outright hostility to the specifics in these specials, particularly to the math involved and the less than clear way in which they stack and with what fields. To that end, this particular article is going to be a little wonky in that I am going to try and answer questions that have arisen in conversation so the flow may not be as precise as I'd like. I apologize in advance.

Additional Basics:

There are in fact hulls that self-activate. If the field that the hull generates affects the hull itself, it can self activate. The Vendetta is the example that I have been, and will be, using.

Multiple fields:

It seems there are some players who hold the mistaken belief that you need differing fields in order for the stack to happen. This is untrue. If you have three Vendettas stacked for attack, you will have two Res stacks on each hull, not zero or even just one. Two. Clear?

You do not need to have differing fields, just different fields. Two Vendettas will only have one stack, not two. You need one to activate and any following fields stack. Just think of it as one to activate and any additional fields do the stacks.

The stack is completely separate from the activation. The math I will post is for the stacks, the activation math is straightforward.

So, Res Batt/Cap:
Ven1 itself activates the Res BattCap.
Ven 2 adds stack 1.
Ven 3 adds stack 2.

Two Vendettas will NOT have zero stacks. Identical TYPE fields DO stack. I don't know how to make that any more clear.

The Math

Yes, the math. I understand that many players are turned off by "Kixeye math", but in order to take advantage of some of the mechanics, you do need to review the math.

The stacks are multiplicative in nature, not additive.

This is a little convoluted because I can't figure out a way to simplify  the explanation of the math.

First we have the basic calculation of an Adjusted Value.

AJ = X + (X * (%))

This is a basic calculation we use all the time in the game. It is here just for reference for the real gobbledygook.


The formula for the stacking effect is as follows:

Stacked Stat = Base Stat + (Base Stat * (No. of activating fields * Stacking percentage))

So If say we had three Vendettas equipped with a Res Cap and a base speed of 35:

Res Cap Base Stat speed boost is 20%.
You have two stacking fields.
Stack bonus is 8%

Stacked Stat = 20 + (20 * (2*.08))
Stacked stat = 23.2%

So the stacked stat that you use to calculate your new speed is 23.2%
Using the Adjusted Value formula mentioned above
Adjusted Value: 35 + (35 * (.232)) = 43.12

Your new speed is 43.12 using a Res Cap.

To do the same with the Res Batt:

Stacked Stat = 20 + (20 * (2*.5))
Stacked stat =40%
New Speed = 49

Hopefully that clears up the math part of this. This is not as cut and dried or straightforward as many of us had initially thought. I'll be honest- I should have looked into this sooner. Sorry folks.

Additional Notes:

The defense effects of the Res Batt do nothing to hulls with a Defense Handicap 100%.
"Bonus All Damage" does mean "all damage" independent of what damage type.
The "Radioactive Damage" line is a display error and has no separate functionality or active code behind it.

Dark Reign Déjà deux?

The Dark Reign Campaign. A fond look back... er... forward... ummm... again?

By George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon_Bane

Did... did Kixeye do something universally liked?!?

Yes, yes, I believe they did. I don't know the last time they released a TLC that was this well received. Good work on short notice for both Kixeye and the TFC guys.

Let me first address a little by-line that was going on in the forums. Concurrent to an argument over level locking base hitting, there was another with regard to this TLC being level locked. Putting aside all of the arguments for either side - If you can do this TLC, just raise your level so that you qualify. The reason I say this is because the prizes in this TLC are fantastic and the difficulty level is quite reasonable given the rewards, so if you must, raise your level to qualify. Having asked a few Mods, this is, currently, acceptable to do. Start a resource heavy ship build, then cancel it. Repeat until you reach the qualifying level of 65. I mean something silly like this works:

Silly Rhino build

Now, on to Dark Reign.

Really, a lot of this has been seen before. I'll do a walk through for those that have not done it and want to familiarize themselves with it. I personally used 3 Apollos and a crew to go through all 5 levels. Remember: You have days to complete all levels. It's ok if you limp home after the end of a set with hours of damage. Repair and do the next one later that night or the next day.
The basic build for my Apollos is covered in this article: Basic principles of ship design.
So, let's do a quick run through of what you'll see and ways to mitigate some damage.

There is an overall strategy that can be incorporated throughout the targets:

1. Draw out the ships and engage them one on one at max range as much as possible. Good driving is rewarded here. This will allow you to maximize your damage (if using Switch Blades), allow your Phalanxes to take advantage of the distance to minimize the chance of being overwhelmed, and keeps the Heavy Cruisers from firing on you.

2. Another way to minimize damage when engaging these targets is to minimize Scatter Gun turret damage. The best ways I have found, with Apollos, is to get to speed and engage the turrets at oblique angles or charge directly perpendicular to them making their volleys over shoot you. Using a tank, the same ideas work - oblique angles or charges. Additionally, use the oil slicks to your advantage!!

If using the charging method, remember that you have to go beyond where the AI would make you stop if targeting the turret. Should you stop where the AI wants you to in a charge option, the Scatter Gun does not overshoot you enough to mitigate the damage.

3. Avoid torpedo damage. In the pictures below, I have starred where to go to hit the Torpedo towers without being hit by them.

Target 1:

Target 1 is really rather simple. You want to go to each starred point eventually to kill the torpedo tower.

Target 2:

Again, a simple target. Use the Retro-fit lab to re-target to the torpedo tower to avoid that damage. Sometimes you can hit the bottom Scatter turret from a re-target off of the Sentinel turret.

Target 3:

This one you essentially loop around taking out the ships and then the turrets. With careful driving the Scatter Gun turret can be had with re-directed fire.

Target 4:

The thought process here is the same as with Target 3. Loop around to mitigate damage. The Oil Rigs and their oil slicks can really help mitigate damage from the lower Scatter Gun turret.

Target 5:

Now we start getting into targets that can scratch you. This one does have to be dissected to mitigate damage. They way the fleet is set up for activation though can be ok. to speed it up so long as you can drive well enough and do enough damage to take advantage of it.

BOTH Torpedo towers need you to target the water structures in from of them in order to re-target properly to kill them without engaging them directly. Sometimes it doesn't work, but most of the time it will.

Target 6:

This is the target that can get you a dent or two if not careful. Again, start with the fleets, then turrets, etc. as we have seen, however, note that bottom island. That island's three turrets do as much damage as the rest of the target. Pinch these turrets before engaging and save yourself some damage!

Target 7:

(Level 5 Target 7 Thanks to Snoopy)

Ok, this target has 2 versions. The first, in Tier 3 and 4 is an old A set target. The one in Tier 5 is a slightly stouter 91 that we are used to seeing on the map.

If you have them- this is where you use the crews (you may even want to toss them on after the 3rd or 4th target). A Bullseye Brigade or Disciples of Skullduggery will help you more than any single other thing you can do. Period. Pinches are a close second. Use them, they only take 13 minutes.

In each of these you want to draw out the ships and kill them. Engage a few turrets so that you can clear a path to the mega hull. The best way to mitigate damage from the Mega, other than the aforementioned crews, is to use hit and run tactics. Target a Mega turret, once you are firing, wait a second or two and turn and run. This will keep the Mega's Scatter turret from engaging you and making you it's bitch. Once the Mega is taken care of, clean up the rest of the turrets and you're done.

That, in a nutshell, is the Campaign.

Prizes:

I will go over the prizes very quickly. I'll admit right now, I am lazy so I used Battle Pirates Cribs' slides. They came out nicer than anything I'd probably do. So, credit there. :) I am olny going to touch lightly upon them so I don't draw out this post. If enough people want, I can write something more about them.

CM Loaders and CM Equipment are always good to have in the tool box. Of note is the increased anti-missile accuracy of the CM Equipment but with a loss of anti-mortar accuracy.

Gale Defense Systems... currently, these should be must haves for everyone. They are so far superior to the Hailstorms of old that, should you have opportunity, you should strive to acquire as many as possible.

Resonance Capacitor... is a fantastic tool. It is a great add on to certain Conqueror hulls. For a quick redeux, you can read about them here:

Resonance Capacitor, Resonance Battery and those things that touch them in their special place...

Omega Behemoth... has been very useful in DUBs for many people running cannon Punishers.

Harlock's Citadel.... if for nothing else, this hull is one of the best base defense hulls out there. I ran this in a test server right after winning it and it was insanely good when used properly. It is fantastic in the 109's as part of a Citadel fleet, but I am keeping mine at home for now. I truly wish I could have won a second one of these.

Coaxial Firestorm, is a rather good weapon, but one oft overlooked aspect is the repair modifier on the armor it provides. Other than hulls, I believe, this is the best repair modifier for an armor in game currently.

Zoe's Apollo, is a custom tailored hull designed to significantly increase the efficiency of an Apollo fleet, and performed exceptionally well in the last raid set.

Tokens: These are self-explanatory, however, of note is that the Hyperion tokens only work on the actual building of the Hyperion. That's it.

The Vendetta. I can't tell you how much I enjoy this hull. I had stopped really base hitting for a while, but this hull has me doing more than my Alliance Points chores. Additionally, the idea of re-releasing this TLC to offer this hull was brilliant on Kixeye's part. Coupled with the tokens made available, players will be able to get a few out and participate in the upcoming War Games TLC, which, should it be as popular a second time, should make both players and Kixeye happy.
A look at the introductory level of War Games can be found here.

As always, I hope this helps some players. Feel free to comment, ask questions of even mail me ideas you'd like to see written about.
DragonBaneBP@gmail.com

Ask Specs Anything August 20, 2016

This week’s question is late, sorry about that. Been a busy week and I did not have much time to get through my chores and writing.

This week question comes from Uncle Si

Specs, how do I stop vendetta fleets? I do have the Vanquisher, and I am about to start a build. Can you help me with something that will help me defend against that ship?

Hello Uncle Si,

The Vendetta is a very excellent base hitter that many are using to great success against a majority of bases. They are strong against Missiles, Launchers, and Corrosive. So, the way we were stopping Revenge fleets will not work against them. They are fragile against Explosive and Ballistic though and that is what you want to put a sample of in your base to help stop them. Lucky for us the other Conqueror hulls are weak against Radioactive. So, here is what I would build. I know you have most of this, so I tailored the build to your gear.

Vanquisher build

What if we do not have all that Specs? 

Now I know that my readers might not have all of this technology. You can use D98 in place of the Cyclone. You can use Hail 3 in place of Gale 3, and you can use rockets in place of the firestorm coaxial. Place 1 or 2 rockets and 2 to 3 mortars on the hull. The key is to try to keep the anti-mortar in sufficient numbers to help slow them down and give your base and fleet time to kill them.

Couple that with your turrets. You will want a mix of Apoc turrets, or go with another mortar that you have. The Javelin and Harpoon, are an excellent choice to fill this need. But the standard Ballista is better. I would not use the Deadeye ballista on every layout, but can work in some. Those with a few Executioners and Glacial will help back your defense fleet up.

Frontline turrets you will want the Coldsnap, but you will also want a couple of Corrosive. The new blunderbuss could replace two of the Basilisk turrets. I would recommend Four to five Apoc/Mortar turrets, four to five executioners, four to five ballistic, You will want 12 to 15 max for this combination of towers. This spread of towers provides you a good mix of damage types. Add in your Glacial turret and that will bring you to 13 to 16 towers. Leaving you four to 7 that will be for frontline and middle towers. The middle would be the ColdSnap turret, and frontline would be blunderbuss, frostbite, Draconian Scatter, and Basilisk.

The major takeaway here is to study and identify the weakness of the hulls you are facing in base attacks. You will want to deal with subs, and that is why I recommend the hydrodynamic shells to help your rockets/mortars damage them.

With this knowledge in hand, I have stopped a majority of those that have hit me.

A day in the life of a New Player August 16, 2016

Schism Wrapping It Up

By Jon Irwin

Specialist AKA Specs

With raid wrapping up and I am sure many are wondering what to take for their prizes. The answer is not so simple and will depend on the person in question. However, the following advice can be generic to all individuals that play the game, and I am going to break it up into point plateaus. This article will help players that are new still, do not have a sub fleet already, and need to prepare or September Raid.

1 million points or less

• Spectre – I like it better than Barracuda, as it has good combat speed (16 combat speed), good explosive and concussive resistance (needed for the September raid) and three special slots. You can get stealth attack system 2 in the weekly easy enough, so I would not worry about that.

5 million points

• Spectre –
• Stealth Attack System 4 – This is a great special to use on the Spectre sub. It combines a bonus to concussive damage with 40% submerge time. You can retro it, and it is close to having Battery 3 on the sub with around Six-second difference in dive time.  At 3.5 million points easily one of the best prizes to take if you had limited points.

10 million points –

• Spectre 
• Stealth Attack System 4 –
• Charon -  The second best torpedo in the game, and while this will not always deal with those pesky drones in the Reaver targets. It will give your sub fleet an excellent punch and much better than any other torpedo you can get at this moment.

16 million Points –

• Spectre –
• Stealth Attack System 4 –
• Charon -
• Magnus 2 -  As you only have three slots on your Spectre this engine will allow you to use the Ablative Armor 3 special to boost that explosive damage resistance. If you do not get here, you will need to use Cat 3 and your best speed system to make the fleet work. 

I know what you are saying at this point, But what about Tiger Shark! I agree the Tiger shark is a great hull, but if you happen to be limited to point total it is in my opinion, better to go with trying to flesh out the best sub you are capable of getting everything. The Tiger is not that great of a sub if you cannot get the Charon minimum, Stealth attack 4 and the Magnus 2. So, the next plateau we are jumping a bit.

25 million points –

At this point, if you got this many points then you will want to consider the following to make your September event a success.

• Tiger Shark – Same dive time as the Spectre, four specials, great combat speed, turn speed, better resistance. Just an overall better sub. Built right I think it will help you achieve some great success.
• Stealth Attack system 4
• Charon 
• Magnus 2

Couple those with the Ablative Armor 3 and you have a great sub that has a chance to succeed in the new raid.

49 million –

I know this is a big jump and if you got in between here and 25 million you could think of the Apoc Mortar for your base defense. Or even get all the tokens you can so you can speed up a few blanks for vxp weekend. But, if you reach this point total you will want to consider the new toys.

• HellWraith
• Fire Twister Torpedo
• Sealed Fire Charge

Once you get beyond this point total you will want to go for tokens first, get all you can. This will set you up for the next raid even much easier and have you with a couple blanks to rank next weekend. A blank for the subs would be the hull and havoc 1. This is the lowest build time weapon you can put on a sub (Thud 1 for Tigers or Cuda).

I hope this helps you make up your mind, and please begin to prepare for the next Event. We only have about a month to go, and it will come fast.

Special Request: Hellwraith build

I got my Hellwraith now what?

By Jon Irwin

Specialist AKA Specs

This article is going to be quick to cover some questions I am getting about a Hellwraith build. I am enjoying the raid, even if it is a bit of a grind for me. If you have yet to start I suggest you hit the A set targets, try the elites if you wish. Just realize that it is going to take more than a single fleet for most of the player base.

Now on with the Hellwraith

If you have not done so, you should read the article by Dragon Bane (George) about the twister fire torpedo. It will put this build in a brighter light on why I chose what I chose. Also, understand that I did participate in the open preview server and got to see an iteration of the targets we will be facing. This build takes that into account, as well as my need to hit player fleets on the open water.

With that knowledge in mind, I have decided to go with a mixed approach to my Hellwraith. This build will be able to tackle the raid, help me defend alliance mates from attackers, and just be helluva a lot of fun.

My Builds

Raid build

PvP theory crafting

Why these components

You can get by without the Assualt torpedos; they were added to give me a few more speed. They should never fire, but instead of 63 combat speed, it will be a swift 67 combat speed. The charon torpedo is pretty close to damage of the new fire twister torpedos, only a couple hundred difference and no splash. So, I should still hit pretty hard on that initial volley. 

Magnus 2 was enough with the stealth armor to keep me undetected from the Reavers, and the only issue was if I ran into a subcavitor field. The Ion Thruster 3 is there to help me with turn speed. These two components help give me an excellent combat speed, and good turn speed. The Stealth Attack 4 is there for my dive time and added damage boost. Sealed fire charge is there so that I can increase my projectile speed, and give a little more splash. Of course, we have to have Ablative Armor 3 for the death explosions.

All of this will give me a 14 day 9 hour build time, and I have enough weight available that I could go with more D3-S armor if I need more. I will be able to fit five of these in a fleet, as I do plan to get the Phantom Hellwraith when released in the future.

Summary

There are many different builders, and they might have a different take on the Hellwraith. We are not 100% sure what the raid will bring, and if you do not want to hit player fleets with the new hull, then you will be okay with just the fire twister torpedo. Hopefully, this will help you make up a few decisions when you weight what others have said, and what you wish to accomplish with your new submarine!

You want me to twist WHAT???

What's the twist on the Fire Twister torpedo???

By: George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon Bane

Well, this is in fact a blog, and I, in fact, am drinking my coffee dreading getting on to prep more S targets. Before I do, however, I decided to write a quick little snippet about the new torpedo. I do need to get back to raiding...

This is not going to be a polished article. It is going to be my quickly written thoughts. I am only writing this because of the apparent consternation and confusion currently happening over the torpedo.

Let’s start with this:

THE NEW TORPEDO IS NOT CRAP.

Folks, the sky is not falling. I have no idea why everyone is freaking out over the Fire Twister. As I mentioned on the test server and on here before – it is a dumbfire weapon. This means it does not track its target, but rather, fires at the point that the target was at. This is a specialized weapon. It has specific uses. It is not junk. Please keep that in mind.

The torpedo is made to work in conjunction with the new submarine, the Hell Wraith. The sub has additional projectile speed built in, and the new special has even more to add to the mix.

They also have been tailored for the new Raid meta coming out next month.

Performance wise- there is no more powerful torpedo in the game. It is not, however, made for any sort of serious PvP action. It will devastate a target – so long as it is slow or not moving. If you try and use these torpedoes on anything like an Apollo, you will be highly disappointed.

In the test server, I did purposefully build a few subs to test these. I also activated the Reavers purposefully to see the difference in performance. The torpedo, on a proper build to take advantage of its design, worked fantastically. When the targets were activated, they did struggle a little, taking about double the volleys to kill a given target.

Some testing has been done with them against Apollos, Retributions, Vanquishers and a few smaller hulls, and they either outright struggle to put damage on or completely fail. As I said – not for any serious PvP. Projectile speed is VERY important for this torpedo!!

That said, this all goes back to design. How, and for what, do you want to build these for? If you were planning on putting these on a Tiger Shark with the new special and want them JUST for the raid, you probably will be ok. If you are looking for these to replace your Charons or Styx for PvP engagements, you will be sorely disappointed. This torpedo is a specialized design and EXCELS at what it is meant to do.

Now – will Kixeye change the raid format at some point from September to December and throw in some moving targets that the Fire Twister can’t hit? I have no idea, but I AM informed about its specific mechanics, as I hope you all are now as well.

Please feel free to post questions or comments – any help to the community on this issue, before the raid ends, may help someone decide what to get.

Late edit: I did end up building my subs with almost all Fire Twisters. They worked really rather well and the because of their speed, the 'dumb' part can in fact be mitigated by closing the gap between you and your target.

The Underbelly of the Uranium Beast

A look at Uranium availability, the Apollo, the Hell Wraith, and the upcoming new Uranium targets.

By: George Argyropoulos
a/k/a Dragon_Bane

With the current raid upon us, and the new raid set looming, I thought I would take the time and do a review that is a bit off center about the Apollo, the Wraith and what they mean for players with regard to Uranium availability.

Currently, if you have an Apollo, you should be able to fill yourself up on Uranium at will. If you are having problems driving, you can watch these videos showing how to do the 75’s with 1 Apollo or 3.

1 Apollo run:

3 Apollo run:

Ease of Uranium gathering should bring a pleasant effect to your game if you take advantage of it while you can (more on this below).

• You should be filling up at any time you have free time.
• You should be rolling and storing only the best crews and be topped out.
• You should be pressing forward with your Research & Development.
• You should be upgrading turrets and anything else that needs Uranium.

Why should you be doing this right now if you have Apollos? Well, come January, or at the latest, February, we will be bidding farewell to the loveable Draconian Armadas. From then on, the Apollo seems to only be ear marked for Legion Assault Force (LAF) targets and 91 Mega Hull targets.

The next raid set is the oft tweaked Reaver Armadas as seen in the various iterations of the ‘test’ Armadas on our World Map. Additionally we have seen a few variations on the Test Server, and these likely are what we will really see going forward. What does this mean?

Well folks, welcome to the new Uranium targets we will see early next year- as early as January. As you can imagine, if you can not do the next raid set, nor get the Wraith in this raid, your ability to reap uranium will be severely impacted.

I think this is a rather significant pivot point in the game for the access to Uranium (barring Drac Uranium Bases). This really is significant going forward in the game. Crews are likely to become a HUGE mitigating factor in the new targets going forward, particularly in the Uranium configurations (I expect bypass to be removed for these as it will not be a raid target at this point). Additionally, there seems to be a massive push by Kixeye in the new area of the game with regard to Player-based Mega Hulls. Mid-level players have been slow to start in this aspect of the game. From various feedback, it seems a goodly portion of this is the exorbitant amount of Uranium needed for the Research & Development requirements. This will be compounded going forward should your Uranium availability be compromised.

I have heard a lot of complaints about the cost of the Wraith. I can see both sides of this, however, I would hope the cost would have come down a little. The apparent need for this hull to remain current and relevant in game is rather significant because of the secondary game-play issue of Uranium and the easing of in-game play with constantly available Uranium.

I, and I hope others, also understand that it is a hull raid, the next meta hull is coming out in an easier raid a month early, the raid is a week long, AND that you can potentially save 30 days/1,440 gold worth of refit time getting the Wraith now as opposed to getting it in September. Additionally, and importantly, I think that the Torpedo, even as a dumb fire weapon, would improve any sub dramatically **for these targets as we have thus far seen them**.


So… does that mean all hope is lost should you NOT get the Wraith? No. There are many options going forward. Your life will be made MUCH easier getting the Wraith and new torpedo however. That all said. In your own interest as a player, I strongly urge you to get -at the minimum- the new torpedo. Even though it is a dumb fire weapon, it does fantastic in these targets thus far in the iterations presented to us.

The best bet for you as a player is to plan ahead. One of the great folks, and Admins, over at The Forsaken Council, Mark (TSM), made a Hell Wraith Build Clinic video, covering various builds for the new Wraith as well as other sub options should you not get the Wraith. Yes, that was an incredible run on sentence, but I need coffee. You can watch the Clinic here:

I hope, as always, that this has helped some of you. Hopefully this can help some players plan through their raid and ease their play over the next few months. I appreciate all the feedback I have been getting.

Ask specs anything August 10, 2016

This week question was from 10 individuals to my email.

This week there was ten questions for me to answer, and they all centered around one thing, and they came in this morning after people saw the prize list and costs for August raid. So, I figured I would discuss the raid that is starting Thursday, August 11, 2016. This raid is called Schism and is the last in the civil war series in the game of Battle Pirates. This raid you will want to use your Apollos if you have them as it is a hull store raid and the prizes have a hefty cost.

As a player of this game, the question that many have is probably on your lips too. 30 million points for the hull that is supposed to be the best in the September Event is a massive hike from the 15 million points for the Apollo this last raid cycle. What is the player supposed to do with such a high amount of points needed for just that one hull? Not to mention the 12 million points for the weapon and 7 million points for the special (which is required to make that gun shine). This large point total means that for the first time in the game of Battle Pirates the top three prizes are 49 million points! That is going to be out of the reach for many in the game. That is 18 sets of A targets, so it is possible for those that followed the right path and built Apollos over the month to achieve that. For those that have not, well there are two things I would recommend.

In case you have not seen the prizes here they are from the Shipyard with build times

HellWraith

With Fire Twister Torpedo

With Sealed Fire Charge

First step for those without the Apollo

The first thing a player that does not have any submarine at this point, they should aim for one of the other submarines in the prize list. They have added all the right ones to the list, and they will help with the September raid. If you have tiger sharks already, then aim for the weapon and special. Do not take the gun if you cannot get the special too. The reason for this is that the twister fire torpedo is a dumb fire weapon, and it acts more like a mortar under the water than a standard torpedo. The special gives it a nice boost to projectile speed to help it get to the target without missing.

If you do not have the tiger, then aim for the best sub that you can get. As well as Charon torpedoes at the minimum. If you follow this advice, you are looking at 6 million to 14 million points for the raid. This many points will help give you something to aid you in the September raid. The Charon will be just as valuable as a good submarine due to the damage it deals. Styx does not have the same punch and relies on specials to boost the DPS of that weapon. So, I would recommend that you take the Charon and then the best sub you can reach.

Second, step for those without Apollo

The second thing that the players can do is to ask for a mercenary to help you with the raid if you pay for the repairs. Often they do this for a set dollar amount. While I prefer to do as much myself, this event the point total to get the top three prizes is going to be out of reach for most players. This type of player can usually get you 10 million to 30 million points for your deposit. It should be viewed as a last resort and only if you are comfortable with doing so. ask around your sector for someone that is trustworthy.

Think of it as renting a fleet and a captain for your raid and that you will get the benefits of an elite fleet to aid in your development. You would only have to do this once to get to the point of being self-sufficient if you follow sound building advice for your fleets.

The preview

I was lucky to get a spot in the preview server for the September raid target and the new hull. You can find the video on the gaming channel. Be kind and forgive me as it is the first time I have used that program or streamed something. Any tips would be welcomed to make that experience better for all involved, me in producing it and yourself as my viewer.

Summary

If you have the Apollo try the elite targets, but worse case my build shared here will help you do the A sets, and you would need about 18 of them. If you cannot get the special and weapon, do not just take the weapon unless you already have the Charon torpedo and submarine like the NH or Tiger. Tiger is the next best choice for the next raid cycle that with the Charon would be 14 million points. Worse case you could hire someone to help you with the raid if you find it out of your range. Many charge a flat rate for so many points and if you are willing to pay for their repairs far more will be ready to help you meet your goal. I would use that as a last resort and only if you want to get somewhere that you otherwise cannot.

Thank you for reading and any questions feel free to ask in the comments below.

A day on the Life of a Battle Pirates Player, August 5, 2016

As promised, I am going to share my mauler build that is getting me to Tier 2 in the Forsaken mission at the moment. It has no armor yet, and barely any rank. Once I have completed those two things, I will try this build in a 60 as I work on getting things together for a strike cruiser build.

The account is level 37, and it took me five weeks of playing a couple of hours a day to get to this point. This time spent means that if you applied yourself a bit more than I did, you could get to this point in about a week of gameplay.

To rehash the targets

The Forsaken Missions require explosive, and missile resistance and they are weak against explosive damage and splash are very helpful. While I have recommended and even built Punisher in other posts, I am advising all new players I coach to go the mortar route to speed up the process of getting through the mission. It takes far less tech to get a decent mortar fleet together, than a decent ballistic or even launcher. Being low level hinders us from those other means at this time, so we will go with what we have.

My Mauler Builds no armor

My Mauler builds with armor

My Mauler builds with refit time if you go no armor

As you can see it is not too bad of a build, and once you are done with ranking and shipyard time, only an extra two days to get it refitted with armor. With any luck this fleet will do the 60s I can make a push to Tier 3.

Video of the build in action with my entry points

Please note that I enter from around 1 o'clock and then exit to reenter from around 9 o'clock. This decision I made, is to make use of the shortest distance to the targets I want, and cut down on the time the missiles are hitting me.

I do hope you find this useful and please share it with any low level player.

Mega Hulls, Gantry, and Mega target farming!

How can you get your Gantry done and get started with your mega hull?

With the Gantry getting more love this week, and the mega hulls making a splash on the scene. Many people are going to want to have a more efficient way to hit the level 91 mega hulls that spawn during orange sector threat. With that in mind, I wanted to share my Apollo build, it is a little different in that it does not use Switchblades, is not heavy on armor, but heavy on resistance. This build is not a new player friendly build, though; you will need some technology that has taken me a few years to gather.

First things that we need to discuss, read this article by George. He goes over much of what I would have, and this will save me some space in this article.

What is in the 91?

The 91 mega hull is similar to the 86 in the Raid format for the current civil war theme we have going on. Which means that the targets deal corrosive and missile damage, those resistances are the key to success. They are also susceptible to missile damage and retargeting true. Evade is useless for the targets, as I have not seen the Rhino missiles miss, and I shoot down most of the Sent V missiles, and I shoot down all the missiles from the mega ship. So, with that said I ignored Evade.

The player will want to hit these targets to get the gantry started, build the Hyperion, and then farm materials to add weapons and engines to their mega hulls. Yes, it is a major undertaking and will take you time to complete all these steps. Couple this with the fact you need level 20 in Research and Development even to get started and level 30 to get the benefit of the mega hull.

Here is my build

First up the CM Tank, this is what I always build first for every fleet I do.

DPS build

As you can see no switchblade or the special that came with the Apollo. This development has not hindered the build at all, and I will show you the fleet auto on the level 91 in this video.

Full build in Huggies

With George's article and build, and my build and videos showing them in action. Hopefully, this helps sort your own fleets out for the upcoming challenge of hitting level 91 Mega Hulls!

Thank you and have great Weekend!

Basic principles of ship design.

How the hell did you come up with that?

By: George Argyropoulos
a/k/a Dragon_Bane

There are always questions asked about how one comes up with a ship design. Many times one of us posts a video or screen capture or we have a bunch of people watching us auto something like a 91 Megahull and the invariable messages come in: ‘What’s that build mate?’, ‘Will you share that design?’, ‘How many ships and what’s on them’, etc, etc.

Now, there are times when we don’t share the builds right away, or, we know some info that we really don’t want out there immediately. What I’d like to see, is more people trying their hand at shipbuilding themselves- or at least come up with a solid design instead of just begging for a design.

A lot of what goes into a build is the understanding of the interaction of your selections of weapons and specials as well as the understanding of the mechanics of the game with regard to these interactions.

While there are several things we could discuss about design, I am going to use a recent Apollo build and go through some of the BASIC thought process behind them.

1. The Blade missile selection and placement.

Placement is key in this instance as the weapon speed is the same as the Switchblades, thus, in most instances, they will lead the barrage of missiles from this hull. The result of this is that the enemy wastes Phalanx shots at missiles with flak evasion first, hopefully missing and wasting their Phalanxes while maintaining a higher dps for you. You can see the Blades leading the Switchblades in the picture below.

Addendum:
Final build for the Apollo fleet:
Apollo fleet
You will note the third Apollo has one additional Phalanx 4.

2. Phalanx 4 selection.

You will also note in the picture above, the Phalanxes firing while the Switchblades stay in missile mode. The Phalanxes have a longer range than the Switchblades. This means that you can take advantage of a game mechanic itself - how the missile counter measure works. Since it has a longer range, and you can only fire at each missile one time, using the Phalanx countermeasure allows the Switchblades to stay in missile mode, taking advantage of the higher damage output. With careful driving, you can keep the switchblades firing in missile mode constantly.

Of Note: Using Switchblades comes with a cost. I believe there is a glitch in the game causing ALL Switchblades to go into CM mode when even just one does, so while they have a better DPS over standard Blades, it comes at the cost of necessitating superb driving in order to take advantage of the increased offensive potential.

3. Switchblades over Blades.

This is a choice that has both merits and disadvantages, and in some ways, grows controversial in heated all-important, world-shattering internet arguments.

The Good: The Switchblade has more one-shot damage and better DPS than the Blades. It also, in a bad situation, can switch over to anti-missile mode.

The Bad: The Switchblade can switch over to anti-missile mode, and when it does, they ALL do (currently), not just the ones that shoot at a missile. (Is this a glitch? As previously mentioned, I think so, but I can't get a clear answer on this from anyone.)

This build is not for lazy pirates. If you don't want to pay attention to your driving, go with Blades. This build necessitates concentration and good driving to maximize these selections. Personally, I love it. It can in fact auto the 91 Mega hulls very well for acceptable damage. See:

4. Appropriate specials.

This is where a build can fall apart on you. Each special is chosen as a balancing act. These three are rather easy because of either their percentage attributes and/or their space saving nature because of the duality of their purpose. In reviewing these choices, I hope the reasoning behind them is apparent. If not, please ask.

5. Meta applicability.

The ability to adapt a build to a change in meta OR design towards specific goals. There are times that you want an all-around build like an Arblest Punisher fleet, and then there are times when you have something built more towards a specific meta or target, such as these Apollos. The choice of Reactive Armor III reflects the nature of this build to be towards the Raid/Mega Hull meta and targets. Likewise, in the next meta, Ablative Armor III will be one of the items to choose to adapt to the newest Raid Meta.


Hopefully this helps some people understand the basics of what we think through when designing a ship or a fleet. Likewise, I hope this also helps people understand the layers that are looked at when starting this process. The mechanics of the game are constantly being overlooked, and sometimes one can find you some very peculiar, but very effective builds.

Ask specs anything August 3, 2016

Two Questions this week; collective thoughts shared by many due to the recent announcements

This week we have two questions, and that means this will be longer than normal. I normally do not do this but, as there seems to be a lot of changes coming people are anxious, and I am getting more questions than normal about the same two subjects.

First one is from Greybeard

FM is changing, will the punishers still work?

Hey Greybeard,

No one can say for certain what the changes will mean. We only have brief insight and that is that the 102 will be easier, and the 109 will be harder. What this means for the Punisher build and more importantly my single Punisher build that could take the 107 I am not sure yet. I will work on solving the 109 for the cheapest and quickest possible build once I see the targets. 

What we can be sure of, and if you have shipyard time right now, is that mortars will still work. This change in the FM means that garrison type hulls will be good no matter what, and fitting mortars will be the best damage dealer. Keep with the same concept as the CM/Tank I gave out that could do the whole 107 and I think with some Citadels, Berserkers, Nova and even DNX behind it will help you until we can see what we have. I will attempt to use just Citadels when the change happens in the 109; I will have a minor refit that can be taken care of with tokens from this week and the raid. So, I will be ready to go when the change happens. At that time, I will share my build and video of my success or failure.

For now, if you have something mortar particular around. I choose the Citadel (being the best option for 109 I think), but you will want to refit your best mortar (Judgment or Firestorm coaxial being the best). Use the best engine, 4 to 5 of the Judgment or Seige mortars rest hail B/Gale 2. Then use either siege bat and CM loader 3, or Frontline CM and Siege Targeting, with something that increases splash. That build should help you mitigate most of the change and put you in line for a minor tweak (once we see the targets) on your best mortar hull you have.

The Next question comes from Wardog

I want to do the September raid, what should I look for this hull raid?

Hey Wardog,

We have a hull store coming up, so good idea to think ahead on what to grab to help you in the future. A new sub is available in August raid along with new torpedo and special. So, if you can, I would aim for those three prizes. You could try Proto Hunters if they have them in the prize store, they have great concussive resistance and plenty of weapon slots and hybrid slots to help you build a fleet to take on the Reavers. From what we have seen from the preview videos and the targets we have hit on the live server. You are going to want explosive resistance, concussive resistance and combat speed. You will also want to deal concussive damage. With that in mind, that should help you at least plan for what you need to have based on your technology level in the game. 

For subs, you will want dive time, speed, and explosive resistance. So that is battery 3 (or similar to increase dive time), Magnus 2 (fastest engine we have with enough cloak to keep you undetected) and Ablative 3. From my experience, those three are a must. 

Surface fleets I have not tested a lot of, but you will want concussive based weapons, combat speed, high evade, explosive resistance, and concussive resistance. You need a bit more with them due to not being able to hide and not take damage at times.

When I get a better idea of the targets and see what we have, I will provide a more substantial build and advice to dealing with them.

Thank you all for the questions and feel free to hit the inbox with more if you need to

Have a great week!

Busy Pirate this week, FM strongholds changing soonish!

Summary of a very busy week!

Been a very busy week for me. I have not had a lot of time to really dedicate to the game, let alone the account where I am testing new player game play. So, here is what has happened this week.

First – I was promoted to moderator on the forum. This was a big change for me and has taken some time to get adjusted to the new powers and trying to remain helpful on the forums. Which has taken away a few hours a day from my playtime. I am settling in now and able to actually juggle both playing and moderating the forum. I am excited about this change as it allows me to help more people than I have been.

Second – My low level base is coming along, it is level 36 and will finally get the 4^th Mauler done. I think that it will allow me to get to Tier 2 in the weekly starting this week as I can hit 47s right now with the 3, the fourth should allow me to do hopefully 2 before repairs. I will have 5^th done in about 3 days 10 hours. I have been upgrading turret stands the last two days, goal is to get them to level 5 as soon as I can.

Third – We Got word tonight that the FM is being changed slightly. We are getting rid of the 107 and spawning a 102 and 109 instead. The 102 is going to be easier and allow you to grind with lower end fleets more easily. Word is probably close to 35 million points per target, but we are awaiting final confirmation on that. The 109 is going to be worth more points and a bit harder than the 107. I would assume that means maybe 4 targets for the 350 mil? Again, all speculation, will need to wait for final confirmation but I would be happy with those target points. I do believe these are being released August 17^th. Again all this could change between now and the time they are released, just keep it in mind :)

Lastly – Raid is confirmed for August 11, 20116. This will be a six-day hull raid and we will have a chance at some really nice hulls. I will have prize redemption list out as soon as the prize list is finalized and we can see what we have to choose from. Many are excited about the hull raid, as they get to claim hulls they missed out on and this month we get a new sub! A reaver sub at that, which many wanted for as long as I can remember.

Not much I know, but I will have more later in the week once we see what is going on. Have a great week!