A Day in the life of a New Battle Pirate Player

Tier 3 of the FM and raiding

by Specs

It has been a bit since I updated this, mostly because of the time it takes to make any real strides in progress taking my approach. I am a level 45 now, and I have just reached Tier 3 in the weekly. Half my stands are level 4, labs are all level 10, four warehouses are level 11. I am working on finishing my DNX fleet for the weekly as I would love to hit Tier 4 before too long. I am close but need a few more pieces from the FM to make that happen.

The goal now is to try and take as long as I can to get to level 50. This goal will be reached by keeping my intake of resources low and researching needed technology. Needed technology at this point is Guidance Scrambler 3. Harden barrels 3, auto loader 3, Solid fuel boost 3, laser targeting 1 (could go to three, but only want the retargeting true for hulls that do not have it).

If you had spectres from two months ago, you could have gotten Tiger sharks this last raid. I did not participate in the raid with this account beyond testing the targets with my specs to see that it was doable, and it was possible to do the Tier 3 targets with a properly fitted fleet of spectre subs. This fleet needed Magnus (from the weekly), Bat 3 (or stealth attack system from weekly) and Ablative Armor 3 (from research). Coupled with your best torps, I will say that charons  (from raid two months ago, or this last raid, or the weekly) are the best torp to use with these subs. But, the new torps in the weekly will help you along until you get the better torps. Stay away from using the fire twister torpedo on the spectre sub; it will miss more than hits on targets that are moving.

Going forward, I will not be doing the raids on this account as there just is not enough time to do that on my main account and this one. I will try to test targets with the equipment I have to make sure it is possible to hit at least 3 million in a raid with seat time.

My FM builds with DNX

Video of me completing tier 3 for the first time in FM

I will say that I could have done Tier 3 sooner, probably two levels ago as I think 2 DNX fully fitted will do the 47 just as well. I just was lazy and did not bother with it until I had all four partially built. My next update will come as I get to Tier 4, or if you would like to see some of the campaigns let me know. I have done up to shell the shore to mastery.

Some changes to this build for 60's and 67 would be better Siege Battery, Siege Targeting, MX special. To go to the 80s, I will want MX-3, Siege Targeting and siege battery 3 and a better mortar like the Siege Mortar from the FM, or even the Chaos mortar in Tier 3.

I hope you find this post helpful and have a great week!

I like big ships and I can not lie...

You other Pirates can't deny...

By: George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon_Bane

OMG, Becky, look at her hull!

This past Wednesday, while perusing the release notes and the Mega-Hull information we received, my brain went a bit into overdrive with regard to questions about the Mega, mainly because mine is not done as yet and I had zero hands-on exposure.

In addition to this, I was already rather disheartened in the whole ‘Mega’ idea after speaking with several players that have built them and played with them. (Shout out to BP Prof and the The Battle Pirates Crib and Dirty Harry and Battle Pirates on BV for letting me pick your brains!)

Me being me, and loving to harass and geek out on occasion, I decided GD Raikan was the poor soul who was going to have to suffer harassment and an excessive amount of stupid questions… OK., not really, I only slightly bugged him… I promise!

It turned out that he had some time and decided to do a sort of ‘pre-show’ with the TFC crew to answer some of these questions (and a few concerns I had) and that meeting took a bit of a turn because of the varied perspectives of this fantastically eclectic group. There, there’s the intro...

I am going to try and impart as much of that information that I can in this article. Most will be about the Mega hulls and some other info that trickled out during the meeting. Much of this is to whet everyone’s appetite for a LIVE TFC interview scheduled Wednesday September 28th with Liam interviewing GDR. You can expect the information to be posted on the TFC Facebook Page as the date approaches.

[tl;dr] Liam is interviewing GD Raikan for the TFC on Wednesday September 28th @ 2pm PST – All about Mega-Hulls, what you need to know from the beginning and why they don’t suck as bad as we thought!

36-24-36, haha, only if...

Let’s first quickly go over some very, very, basic info of the Mega:

In order to build the Gantry, you need:

- Your R&D level to be at or above 20
- 120 Gantry Shards (Drops from a 91 Mega-Hull
- 42 Days build time
(Gantry fragments can be found on level 91 Mega-hull targets. They spawn only on the hour and half hour once the Sector Threat reaches Orange.)

In order to build the Hyperion, you need:

- A completed Gantry
- 120 Hyperion shards
- 49 Days build time
(Hyperion fragments can be found on level 91 Mega-hull targets. They spawn only on the hour and half hour once the Sector Threat reaches Orange. Hyperion fragments do NOT drop until you have begun construction of your Gantry.)

Let me also be very, very clear about the following; Mega-Hulls are an Alliance-centric mechanic. If you are not in an alliance, you are essentially going to be an alliance of 1. There are zero plans to make any sort of Rogue Player mechanic to allow un-tagged players to hive their Mega-Hull.

That said, Here are some resources I have found that go a bit further than the first blush I have written above.

So, we should start off with the original briefing that Kixeye released that DoomRooster posted. On the positive side, while it is chock-full of information, the negative is that it is SO chock-full of information that it became an inordinate amount of information to process in one sitting. So… Open at your own risk, and be prepared to spend a LOT of time absorbing this.

https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/648737

Next, we have the BP Professor’s blog that is essentially a beginner’s guide to building one of these behemoths. Again, a dearth of information, but I don’t know that it can be helped given the content of a completely new aspect of the game. Pretty sure I’d have been hitting the rum if I tried an article like this. Great walk through, be prepared to invest some time.

http://bpprof.blogspot.com/2016/09/mega-ship-builders-guide.html

Then we have some questions that were submitted through the TFC guys to GDR for further clarification. Mark, a/k/a TSM was kind enough to provide a PDF of those questions and GDR’s responses.

PDF DOC

[tl;dr] There is a LOT of info currently out there in a few places that you should think of perusing and catching yourself up on for the Mega-hull experience that is seemingly inevitable.

Baby got... info?

This part may seem, in fact may even be, disjointed at best. The reason is I don’t exactly think linearly so, they were asked, and now written, more in line with free associative writing…

First, some rules on the Mega-hull:

- You can not leave a Hive if you are going to ‘orphan’ or break off other Megas of your hive. (Even if you leave your alliance, you can NOT leave unless you are destroyed or the hive breaks open enough for you to leave.
- You can not leave a hive if the hive is under attack.
- When a Mega-hull is attacked and dies, it loses all its links to the hive.
- You can not be attacked if you are locked in the middle of a grid in the hive.
- If the hive is being hit by multiple Mega-hulls, linking abilities, if they can reach both, can only go to one battle, not both concurrently.


Ok, so now, we get to random points:

- Hives DO have an upper limit to the amount of Mega-Hulls that can hive around it. Currently (literally at this moment) that limit is planned to be around 40-60. THIS has not been finalized!! I hear one iota of complaint about tentative info not being 'accurate' and I will not share early info. Please don't make me regret trying to help.

- Linking abilities are planned to have range limits within the hive to encourage strategy. These linking abilities (like the drones) will allow one Mega to help another Mega with support during a battle.

- Attackers can still choose from what direction they want to attack. Defenders can not limit this regardless of placement in the hive, in other words, your position in the hive does not dictate, nor limit, in any way the attackers choice of attack entry point.

- If you attack a hive and select a Mega-hull to attack, you still only are attacking one actual Mega in the battle. You may have to deal with any linking abilities, but you only face off against another Mega, not multiple Megas.

- Drone modules have a ‘priority targeting’ geared towards attacking fleets FIRST.

- This is, first and foremost, an alliance feature. I can not emphasize this enough. Mega-Hulls are an Alliance-centric mechanic. If you are not in an alliance, you are essentially going to be an alliance of 1. There are zero plans to make any sort of Rogue Player mechanic to allow un-tagged players to hive their Mega-Hull.

- I said this on the TFC show on Wednesday, and I will reiterate it here. The mechanics of this, by their very nature, can not be tested by a handful of employees on a closed server. I urge some patience by the community as this game aspect is rolled out.


Now, that you have a good basis for reference, I would urge every player to tune in on Wednesday September 28th @ 2pm PST for the TFC's Interview with GD Raikan hosted by Liam. If all works out as planned, they are going to cover everything going all the way back AND the audience will have a chance to submit questions via the chat. Watch the TFC Page for the details to be posted up!!

Dial 1-900-Mix-A-Lot

PLEASE keep in mind a LOT of this is tentative info. It is absolutely going to change, but I'd rather give you guys a semi-heads-up.

- The next three hulls slated for release in the Oct., Nov., and Dec. raids are 2 Conqueror hulls and a Defender Hull. Will this change? Likely. I'm still hoping for our new Siege hull in December...

- Which is a perfect segue into this cool list that I have lying around:

Sept. - Dec. Raid: Skirmish
Jan. - Apr. Raid: Siege
May - Aug. Raid: Garrison

- And last but not least... The probability code for shard drops in a DUB were checked and the code itself has not been altered. That being said, since there are still reports of people hitting a large number of targets with no drops, they are going to continue looking into this issue.

Ask Specs Anything September 21, 2016

Lots of Questions due to Raid week

I took and picked five questions this week hopes they help a few more people 

The First Question comes from Alan Mosley

Curious Question, launch pad requires weapons lab. Tac Lab needs Naval and tac lab, does ad lab serve a purpose once all Prints are done?? Thought process is losing all those mentioned deny’s blood****. Sound thinking???? Would my base be weaker without them?

Hey Alan,

I have not deleted all my labs, but if you remove the weapons lab you lose the ability to build rockets. If you remove naval lab, I did not see anything harmed. I have not removed advance lab, and tactical lab you lose the ability to add new tactical modules to your buildings. The worst case is that you have to build them again if you scrap them, and they release something that requires them :)

Commodore Clambeard had a question

How do the Multi-shot weapons work?

Hey Commodore,

I know that I gave you this answer in a private message, but for the sake of our readers, I will point you all to the newest article that was posted this morning that gives even more, details than my short answer to the Private message.

The next question comes from fojofrekix

Hi Spec, you played on the preview. I have a short question. How long was the stun from the furies? And it triggers every 15K damage taken? Are there a lot of stuns?

Hey Fojofrekix,

Yes, the Fury did stun targets every so often. It was about a 5-second stun (less if you have the right specials) and I saw about 6 per base hit. Since the release of the Fury for the raid, they have reduced that number of stuns per base hit to around four on the last one I hit.

Fojofrekix asked another question later in the week.

Hey Specs,

Hulls with 100% defense handicap are affected by defense reduction auras? IF the field has a -30% ballistic then a hull with 0% ballistic defense will be unaffected, or the final result on the hull will be -30% ballistic defense?

Hey Fojofrekix,

I know I gave you the answer already, but since we spoke, I have had time to talk to the person that created this feature.

The Aura from the aegis does not convey a 40% resistance buff to a hull that has 100% defense resistance reduction. If the hull in question has a 50% defense resistance reduction, then 20% of that 40% would be applied to the defenses of the hull. So what this means is that the Aegis will not help conquer hulls that are 100% or even the Vanquisher. If this happens, it will be a bug and will be fixed eventually.

The next question comes from Randy.Dodson.54

Hey specs,

Is there someplace in-game that specifies what type of damage each target-type delivers? Impacts build now with the shift away from evading….

Hey Randy

Yes, when you go to hit a target you should get a pop up that gives you information on that target. The damage it deals, and what is weak against. If you do not get this pop-up, there is a button labeled info on the target that will present, this information to you. That will give you an idea of what you should be building in your fleet to tackle that target with the least amount of resistance.

Money shot for the Multi-shot.

Multi-shot: The confused weapon story.

By: George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon_Bane

So... my bon mots are getting worse. Give me some coffee, some ibuprofen and a shot of... er... yea, that'll be good enough....

Earlier today I had a weird convergence of randomness. I got a couple emails asking about Fury builds (with multi-shot questions thrown in) and a couple more emails and some messages asking about multi-shot and how it works with specificity. I sort of put all those off to the side (I needed coffee) and played with a Fury build for a friend of mine that had some limited tech.

While in Huggies , and comparing it to the in-game shipyard, I noticed a few odd things, and not one to pass up a chance to harass and pick the brain of Dave (a/k/a Huggy), I shot him a few questions since our math didn’t match and to go over an issue or two I had come up with (and I was annoyed at the in-game shipyard's obfuscation). After going back and forth for at least a couple of hours, we hammered it all out, got on the same track and Dave decided since he was making tweaks to his shipyard already, he wanted to go the extra mile and make his display interface for this better than he had it in the past (likely because the mechanic is starting to get used more). You should see an update to his site... soon. (In other words, the pics you see in this article will not match what you see on Huggies as of publication.) Edit: Seems he seriously doesn't rest. New full update is live! One at a time! Don't push!!!

Let me take a moment to say this- Dave busts his ass in some crazy ways for that site- for our use and pleasure. I can not stress how much work that damn thing is. (Nor how pissy I get when players on the forum get whiny and start making demands of his site.) Every time he and I have decided to scurry down a rabbit hole, this man goes full force to make sure his site is accurate and correct. I have never once worked with him and heard an iota of complaint either- and that's saying something. Not only that, he tries to ferret out a lot more than just the math if applicable, and THEN tries to incorporate it in the best way for the user of his site to use. I hope everyone is as appreciative of his efforts as I am. Dude rocks.

This episode brought me to ask on the TFC page if anyone would be interested in an article reviewing the multi-shot mechanic and specials. I was somewhat surprised to see a rather large immediate response in the affirmative. So... here we are.

Let us review a bit on multi-shot, shall we? An apt analogy for the multi-shot mechanic is a shotgun, in that when a multi-shot weapon fires all its little pellets fire off at once much like the shot in a shotgun shell. There are no salvos to address. It is one salvo made up of multiple pellets. Hence- Multi-shot.

So, let’s start using an example, yes? As we can see above, we have a damage listing of 2,220 with a multi shot of 6 and a reload of 9. What does this mean exactly?

Each time this weapon fires it will fire 6 pellets all at once.
Each pellet will do 370 damage. (Yes, this is how it works. Really.)

(For some reason this seems to confuse people so I am trying to explain it clearly. If some of this is not clear, contact me with your concern and I will try and make it clearer.)

So, lets use the Fury as an example so we can see how hulls and specials affect the multi-shot weapon.

First, a picture from the shipyard:

In this pic we can see the total damage of 2,775. Math time!!

From above we remember the following:
6 pellets @ 370 each. (why do I break it down to pellet damage? It will be easier to explain things to come.)

The hull gives us a 25% boost.
.25 * 370 = 92.5
370 + 92.5 = 462.5 (per pellet damage)
462.5 * 6 = 2,775

Kosher so far? Now we get into some more math and an explanation of Kixeye display... peculiarities.

So, the new special gives us both another 25% damage as well as a +1 for multi-shot.

Let's do the math for each pellet first. In order to get the actual damage total, you have to get the additional damage by multiplying the base damage by the special's multiplier.


So we see again:
.25 * 370 = 92.5

We then take this additional damage amount and add it to the hull calculated damage (from above):
462.5 + 92.5 = 555
555 * 6 = 3,330

Copacetic results, yea? Matches the yellow circled total right? But wait... what's that niggling little +1 Multi Shot in the blueprint? And that +1 in circled in red? Ah yes... another little confusion point that I wish were handled differently in the in-game shipyard- but have no fear, Huggy's is here (to help me explain more clearly!)!

See the thing with multi-shot is this: For every multi-shot addition that a special gives you, you get an exact EXTRA COPY of any pellet you are firing (this holds true for any multi-shot special for each additional pellet it imparts) . So, in the current example we have:


6 (pellets) * 555 (calculated damage)

The bonus +1 Multi Shot now gives us:

7 (pellets) * 555 (calculated damage) = 3,885 total damage.

Remember the red circled +1? In the in-game shipyard, rather than give you the total damage, your additional multi-shot is recorded on another line for you to do the math. I don't know about you, but Kixeye math makes me irritable sometimes. I want to do less of it, not more. Now you see why I do the calculations at the pellet level rather than the whole.

Yes, this is really how it works. You do not lose damage per pellet using this special.

Really.

One other thing to note: At full rank the reload on a fury comes down to 1.13 for a cycle time of 1.33 for your DPS calculations.

Overview:

2,220
6 shots
370 per shot base damage value

base damage value + hull bonus + special bonus = calculated damage value
370 + 92.50 + 92.50 = 555

+1 multishot = 7

7 * 555 = 3,885.

For comparison, with a Barrel3 setup you get a 3,700 calculated damage value.

Now to juice it up a bit....

Building damage with Hydroxide Injector, SB3 and ST3 (my numbers are at R15 so we will have a discrepancy):

Base building damage: 4,440
Per pellet: 740
25% for each the hull and the special
740 * .25 = 185
185 + 185 + 740 = 1,110

ST3: .93 * 1,110= 1,032.3
SB3: .74 * 1,110 = 821.4

1,110 + 1,032.3 + 821.4 = 2,963.7
2,963.7 * 7 = 20,745.9*

*Because of Kix's rounding I can't see in-game what the actual R15 numbers are, but since Huggy does, I can check for the actual number, which is 20,721. Yay Huggy's!!

I hope you have followed me this far. I want to make a quick note however. The theory behind multi-shot carries straight over to turrets as well, BUT... the display issue there is a little different:

See the discrepancy? In the case of the turrets, you need to know that the 'stock' multi-shot count is 10 and that the special is 2 so you can do the math. I'll leave that for another time when I have a turret to play with and have examples.

I hope this has cleared up some of the mystery and confusion in your time of change... er.. I mean in these changing times.

I did it all for the LULZ!

Initial thoughts and tactics on Rise of the Warlords

By:Jon Irwin   &   George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Specs    &    a/k/a Dragon_Bane  

George:

Lets start with the really good news:

Players one and all bemoaned the psychedelic floating mortar. Before Tuesday's TFC show, Kixeye announced that they had revisited the mortar due to our feedback.

I immediately got some "fan" mail accusing me of 'ruining it' for everyone in sharing my Vanquisher tank use in a previous article. As I said to them, and on the show, 'Wait and see, you might be pleasantly surprised". The change was not to punish the tactic, the tactic showed the over-exaggeration of the mechanic, at least in my opinion.

I'm hoping everyone is. While the new range of 160 is 10 more than my initial guess, the reduction in damage from 100,000 to 1,500 should have everyone doing S sets sending a big 'Thank You' to Kixeye for doing a very reasonable adjustment. This should also start allaying some of the concern that 'Kixeye never listens".

Additionally, there are no Psychedelic floating mortars in the A sets. That all said...

Time for the cold hard truth of this raid...

Jon:

I want to start out with the following statement.


I am not happy that the Tier 5 targets have reduced points for those level 80+. This opinion was passed on, and I am not sure they will change it for this raid. While I can understand it from a business point of view, and I was ready for this raid. I do not like it from a player’s point of view. It is not like these targets were able to be done without substantial downtime for repairs (I could do a complete set in a single run for 6 hours of damage) for the single set I did. This reduced points would have resulted in 4.2 million points a day and 16.8 million for the raid for zero coins.  No, that did not sit well with me as a player. I do not mind grinding, but there has to be some reward for spending most of my entire day on the game hitting targets. 4.2 million points per set every 6 hours is not rewarding for a non-coiner.

George:

As you can see from this little tidbit, we have some transparency issues. I have serious concerns with this because of three things:

1. A sets have always been top tier targets for top tier players. There should never be a punishment for hitting the targets designed for your tier of play, let alone a 70% penalty. The ability of a Hellwraith fleet is not 70% more effective for a level 81 player over that of a level 75 player so why does the 81 player lose 70% of their points?

2. While most top-tier players moved to the S targets, that tier is slated to change to a 2 target set. With the nearly doubling of cost for this tier already over what we have seen for most of the year, adding another similarly damaging target will essentially quadruple the cost most players have associated and come to expect, from the S tier, while concurrently adding more time to complete. These targets were never supposed to be a grind- quite the opposite in fact.

3. We were JUST told in game that communication was a 'thing' and was a priority. Clearly, it is not. Kixeye has, besides the forums, several outlets they can reach out to now. They did not.


That said and out of the way…

Jon:

So, with that in mind to get my raid done in a decent time and save my ass from being sore sitting in the chair. I had to tackle the level 100 targets, which filled me with dread after dealing with that single Tier 5 set I did at the start.

I used the same tactic I did during the Time Limited Campaign, and tackling the 100s on the map for that one preview we had recently. I took a gun boat lead into the target to absorb the first volley of Smart Mortars that do quite a bit of damage. This tactic gave me about 40 seconds to get to the big mother reaver and take it out. The next step was to take out each of the hulks. With those four targets taken out, the missiles/mortars were removed from the target. Now this might not seem smart to those reading, but it did help.

You can do these targets a couple of different ways. One you can take my approach which is to take each section of ships one at a time.  This tactic results in less roving scouts, and more driving. You can also send a hell wraith to each of the mortar tossers at the start of the battle. This tactic will activate all the scouts, but you can take out the mortar throwers in the first minute giving you less damage over all. You will have a harder time with the timing of the cavitator fields, though.

The level 100 is doable and the most it cost me was 15 coin per 100. While not great, it is not nearly as bad as my fears were going in. Using the second tactic I was able to do the taget in one go at a cost of 7 coins with no crew.

I will contribute some of that lowered cost to the fact the killer hunter mortars (that is what they call them) have a reduced range for the remote targeting. I peg it at around 500 range, as opposed to the 2000+ they had in the preview of these targets. I am not 100% sure on that range as I cannot see clearly trying to dodge the scouts and drones, but the best guess is based on seeing the hunter killers blow up in midair while I am still approaching the targets. It looks like they are on a 90-second timer as well. Cannot be 100% sure on that and I am going to try to catch it on video if I can get EZ vid working.

Build

The other thing I will contribute my lower costs is to the fact the Hunter Killer morts are doing less damage than they were. Instead of killing an HW in a two dives, I am surviving almost the entire target with all four. This lower damage on those mortars is a key to the lower costs. It still takes me one full fleet and a partial, but far better than my fear going in.

George:

I did not try the A set. Nor the B. Nor even the C. Because of the type of raid, and the desire to mitigate all top water fleets, this raid is a grind regardless of the tier you choose. I chose the S targets this raid (again). For the damage and time investment, it seems the only logical choice. Unfortunately, since I am a lazy pirate, and I did not fully rank my subs, I take more damage than I should be and likely it is costing me in time (and coin). After speaking with Jon about this, I can absolutely attest a lot of my damage could be mitigated by ranking up and if I was fully ranked I am fairly sure I could do this in one fleet.

For these targets, I use the split blitz tactic. This means I send one sub to each mortar chucking hull in the target. This does activate all the ships, and you do have to drive pretty well if you want to take advantage of this. I AM still annoyed at the psychedelic mortars, even with the nerfs, it is just damage that a player just can't mitigate. We already have that with the deathsplosions. It was an attempt to further ensure no surface fleets were used and that was countered the second time I went into the target. Sorry, not sorry. Please get rid of it.

I have found that since it takes me a full fleet in the initial hit, I take out those first mortar chuckers and then I stack my subs up. At this point, if the target has stacked the scouts up, I target the lead ships in the stacks, or, alternatively if they are spread out, I just go around and target hulls individually- the goal is the same- lower the health of every ship to past half health. This allows me to die and have the target set up perfectly for one HW to come in and clear the target.

As I said, I did not get around to trying the smaller targets. Thankfully, Jon DID take the time...

Jon:

This advice is going to be geared towards those that are struggling and do not have Hellwraiths yet. My alt player base is level 44 and has the good fortune to have spectres and the Charon torps. He was able to Tier 3 targets. It is going to be a grind, but if I feel up to it, I can at least get him 3 million points this raid.

Now I know what you are saying, great Specs but what should I take for so little points? Well, to be honest, that depends on your needs at the time. It is almost guaranteed that tigers will be available each month of this raid cycle. So, you could save yourself some time and get the Tigers and all the stuff below it this month. This move will allow you to either try for the Hellwraith by December raid or take the other prizes on the other side each moth adding to your list of Blueprints.

For me, I am leaning towards the Heavy Cruiser. I need a better tank for my Forsaken Mission fleet, and while I am on number three DNX, I still need something more hearty to help me in that endeavor. So, I will take the Heavy cruiser for that reason.

Final thoughts:

George:

One of the things a lot of players do not realize is that you can offset the Twister’s ‘dumb fire’ aspect by closing the distance to your target. With good driving and timing, you can get through all of the scouts and start killing several before your fleet dies (or if you are more patient than I, perhaps even finish the target with that one fleet).

Quite honestly, this raid has very clear delineations between the have crowd and the have-not crowd. If you do not have the Hellwraith, you are going to have a hard time of it, and likely not to get better in the coming months. While I love the concept, I do not think the execution was as precise as intended. This is simply not a fun raid style. I do blame that on the insistence of designing the preclusion of surface fleets rather than simply barring them from the targets.

That said, as for prizes, if you do not have the Hellwraith, try and get it. As I said, it is going to be a hard boring 4 months. Additionally, as I mentioned in this article, these targets are likely to become our uranium targets (for at least 8 months) and as such, the HW also becomes a chore saver later on in the game.

Additionally, keep this in mind: Expect the A set to get harder and include the psychedelic floating mortars next month. As I mentioned in another article, I would MUCH rather have Kixeye eat an easy raidset rather than alienate more players. Sadly, I do not think they are listening yet. I was 'sold' an advantage at a premium price last raid (4x the price actually). I truly despise its mitigation already, never mind the future mitigation that seems planned. Anyway...

The Fury... I loved it in the preview server. A lot of players are planning on using it in their guard, many are planning on using it as a spotter or tank and a few would love a 5 fleet set. So far, from what I've seen I love it.

The special, in doing the math, and as we discussed in a TFC show, does better DPS-wise than BS3. This is enough for me to want to grab it for the toolbox.

The weapon seems like a very well-balanced weapon for the hull to which it is intended. ;)

I do not want to take away from the fact that I really do love the idea of this raid. I love subs, or at least how they were. I am just very concerned at the knife-edge that this raid style has brought us to.

Jon:

Tier 5 is there for those that cannot hit the Tier 6 targets. While the reduced points suck for us, players 80+. It might be the best choice you have due to your available technology. You will still get 1 million more points per target over the Tier 4. This point reduction will require you to hit 17, and a partial of Tier 5 sets to get 30 million points. Compare that to 43 sets of Tier 4 for the same points.

It is a daunting task for certain, and while I wish they had not neutered us in the Tier 5 targets, the best we can do if we want to do the raid is hit what we can and do it within our budgets.

R&D Common Asked Questions

R&D Common Asked Questions

By Laredo BP Mod

I found this on the forums and Laredo gave me permission to share it. You can find the original here.

What are the basic things needed before I can start a research?

To do the R&D new objective system players need a Level 6 Outpost and are level 50 and higher.

If your OP is damaged, you can't start a new research. 

If you OP is upgrading, the research can't be started till the upgrade is complete.

If attacked while researching the current research will still continue as before while the OP is repairing, you will just have hours added to the research time.  The amount of hours added depends on the amount of hours that can be awarded from a base.  Example, if a base is worth 4 R&D to the attacker, if the OP is killed the defender gets 4 hours added to their R&D time.  The same goes for a base worth 16 hours.  Attacker can get 16 hours off their R&D and the defender gets 16 hours added to theirs.

Can a OP upgrade be started with a R&D currently going?  YES, it can.

Can a R&D be started with the OP upgrading? NO, it cannot.

Each time you reach a lock, the requirements reset.  What that means is, if you look at this list and say hey, if I do like 20 level 80 FM targets I'm good for most of the R&D levels that need them... FALSE.  The reality is, doing things that are locked or past the next lock in your R&D ladder will have to be redone in order to do that level of R&D.

Full list

1 - Return 100 mil res to base, have Weapon lab 10- Bring in Resources from anything till the 100 mil in resources is returned to your base. All Lab Upgrades have to done before research can be done for the level you want to research. Cost 100,000 Uranium.

2 - Destroy 1 x Level 87 Drac Stronghold - FM level 87 Drac Stronghold Cost 140,000 Uranium.

3 - Have Advanced Lab 10, repair 50k ship armor- Repair your fleet till this is completed.  Cost 151,900 Uranium.

4 - Destroy SSB (Drac Base) - A SSB a Sub Sector Base, we all know them as Drac Bases.  These have to be 100% killed to count.  Cost  164,812 Uranium. SSBs  can be Co-op'd for credit.  The first player in will get the credit as long as they don't die, don't leave the battle and it's 100% destroyed.

5 - Return 100 mil res to base, have Naval lab 10- Refer to #1.  Cost 178,820 Uranium.

6 - Destroy 1 x Level 87 Drac Stronghold - These are the FM level 87 Drac Strongholds.  Cost 194,020 Uranium.

7 - Complete Fractured Empires Mastery 1 time  This can be done early and banked.  Cost 195,960 Uranium.

8 - Return 125 mil res to base, upgrade Warehouses to level 10.  Cost 197,920 Uranium.

9 - Return 125 mil res to base, repair 75k armor.  Cost 199,899 Uranium.

10 - Destroy 5 x Level 60 Armada.  Cost 201,898 Uranium.

11 - Destroy 1 x Level 80 Drac Stronghold.  Cost 203,917 Uranium.

12 - Complete Snowfall Mastery 1 time - Refer to #7.  Cost 205,956 Uranium.

13 - Destroy 2 x SSB - Refer to #4.  Cost 208,016 Uranium.

14 - Return 225 mil res to base, have Weapons Lab.  Cost 210,096 Uranium.

15 - Return 225 mil res to base, repair 125k armor.  Cost 212,197 Uranium.

16 - Destroy 1 x Level 80 Drac Stronghold - FM level 80 Drac Stronghold. Cost 100,000 Uranium.

17 - Have Advance Lab Level 11, return 125 mil res to base, repair 75k armor.  Cost 140,000 Uranium.

18 - Destroy SSB - Refer to #4.  Cost 151,900 Uranium.

19 - Destroy 1 x Level 87 Drac Stronghold - FM level 87 Drac Stronghold.  Cost 164,812 Uranium.

20 - Destroy 3 x Level 60 Draconian Armadas, return 150 mil res to base, repair 100k armor.  Cost 178,820 Uranium.

21 - Have Naval Lab Level 11, return 175 mil res to base, repair 125k armor.  Cost 194,020 Uranium.

22 - Destroy 1 x Level 75 Draconian Armada.  Cost 195,960 Uranium.

23 - Destroy 2 x SSB - Refer to #4.  Cost 197,920 Uranium.

24 - Destroy 2 x Level 87 Drac Stronghold - FM level 87 Drac Stronghold.  Cost 199,899 Uranium

25 - Destroy 2 x Level 75 Draconian Armada, 200 mil res to base, repair 150k armor.  Cost 201,898 Uranium.

26 - Destroy 2 x Level 80 Drac Stronghold - FM level 80 Drac Stronghold.  Cost 203,917 Uranium.

27 - Destroy 3 x Level 75 Draconian Armada.  Cost 205,956 Uranium.

28 - Have Dock level 10, 225 mil res to base, repair 75k armor.  Cost 208,016 Uranium.

29 - Destroy 2 x Level 80 and 2 x Level 87 Drac Strongholds - FM level 80 and 87 Drac Stronghold.  Cost 210,096 Uranium.

30 - Destroy 5 x SSB - Refer to #4, 250 mil res to base, repair 200k armor.  Cost 212,197 Uranium.

The Upgrades of the required labs can be done at any time as long as they are completed when you are ready to research that level.

The Resources returned to base is at the time the level is open for you and is part of the pre-research objectives.

The FM targets and Armadas are at the time the level is open to you to complete the pre-research objectives.

What do I get from each level?

1 - Critical hit chance increase +2%

2 - 50x Aegis Shards & Wolfpack Crew

3 - VXP modifier increase +4%

4 - 50x Aegis Shards and Fearless Blitzers Crew

5 - Map Speed Modifier +25%

6 - Ship repair Modifier -2%

7 - 50x Aegis Shard and Wharf Rats Crew

8 - Crit hit chance increase +2%

9 - VXP modifier +4%

10 - 50x Aegis Shards + Midnight Marauders Crew

11 - Map Speed increase +25%

12 - Ship Repair Modifier -2%

13 - 50x Aegis Shard + Salty Dogs Crew

14 - Critical hit chance +2%

15 - Ship Build modifier -3%

16 - Critical hit chance increase +2%

17 - Map Speed Modifier +25% and Irradiated Cutthroat Crew

18 - 50x Artemis Shards

19 - Map Speed Modifier +25% and Irradiated Cutthroat Crew

20 - +4% Refit Speed

21 - Critical hit chance increase +2%

22 - Map Speed Modifier +25% and Irradiated Cutthroat Crew

23 - 50x Artemis Shards

24 - Map Speed Modifier +25% and Irradiated Cutthroat Crew

25 - +4% Refit Speed

26 - Critical hit chance increase +2%

27 - Map Speed Modifier +25% and Irradiated Cutthroat Crew

28 - 50x Artemis Shards

29 - Map Speed Modifier +25% and Irradiated Cutthroat Crew

30 - 4% Ship Repair Speed, 3% Ship Build Speed

What's the research time for each level?

1- 2d 0h 00s

2 - 3d 14h 00s

3 - 6d 11h 12s

4 - 6d 15h 24m 29s

5 - 6d 19h 23m 36s

6 - 6d 23h 28m 41s

7 - 7d 3h 39m 54s

8 - 7d 7h 57m 24s

9 - 7d 12h 21m 20s

10 - 7d 16h 51m 52s

11 - 7d 21h 29m 10s

12 - 8d 2h 13m 23s

13 - 8d 7h 04m 43s

14 - 8d 12h 03m 21s

15 - 8d 17h 09m 26s

16 - 2d 0h

17 - 3d 14h 24m

18 - 6d 11h 31m 12s

19 - 6d 15h 24m 29s

20 - 6d 19h 23m 36s

21 - 6d 23h 28m 41s

22 - 7d 3h 39m 54s

23 - 7d 7h 57m 24s

24 - 7d 12h 21m 20s

25 - 7d 16h 51m 52s

26 - 7d 21hr 29m 10s

27 - 8d 2h 13m 23s

28 - 8d 7h 4m 43s

29 - 8d 12h 03m 21s

30 - 8d 17h 09m 26s

Shards, what are they?

The Aegis is composed of 250 blueprints. Levels 2,4,7,10 and 13 pay out 50 Shards each and adds up to 250.  With that you get the print to build the hull print.

Aegis note: Since this is a limited hull print the max capacity was 5, this is being raised to 6.

The Artemis is also made 150 blueprints.  Levels 18, 23 and 28 completions will win the Artemis hull print.

What is the total buffs I can get?

Critical hit increase = +12%            

VXP increase for ranking = +8%

Map speed modifier = +200%  This greatly helps out the banshee owners

Ship Repair Modifier = 8%  This will help the Mega Fleets the most.

Ship Build time Modifier = 6%

Ship Refit time Modifier = 4%

All buffs are permanent once researched. All buffs stack.

The amount of Uranium needed:

The amount of Uranium needed starts at 100KU for level 1 and steps up from there with level 15 costing 212,197 in Uranium. At level 16 the Uranium cost rests back to 100KU and cost the same for each level as 1-15 did.

I hope this helps clear up some questions.

BOOM!

 Well, the raid is almost here. Are you ready? Me? I hope so. lol. But as we all know, the proof is in the pudding, so i guess we will see.
  In this new raid set, we will be facing a new type of weapon, several actually. As always, no real defence to it either. But do not loose hope! Build the best you can and you may be surprised! If you did the Phantom camp, you will have seen as well as the reaver armadas, they can be done. Now, the last target in the Phantom camp proved to me a S.O.B. Not much we can do about the hanging mort with ungodly re target range and speed. but maybe we can change the amount of damage sustained from the when we surface. Walk with me a minute and lets see what can be done.

  Are these all good builds? Yes, in my own opinion. Will they all work? Most definitely. Now, what is the best build? All of them. "Say what?" you may ask? We all have a different driving style. Each hull in this lot of 4 is for a different driving style and will act differently for each player. No one knows your style better than you do. Each one will do good in the raid as they sit. Now the fun part, what style are you? Me? I lack finesse. lol. I am the number 1 hell wraith. mine is a go in and do damage, screw the damage taken. Others who like to finesse may like one of the others. Choose wisely as this is your life line for this raid cycle.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!90H00000I010NK02A272A2741406S065SAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQ4H4H4H4H0NK02A2A2A2A066T346S6EAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQ0NK02A2A2A2A066T346S6EAQAQAQAQAQAQC0AQC0C0C0C00NK02A2A2A2A066T346S5VC0C0C0C0C0C0C0C0C0C04HC0dC

  Lets see what you got. Good luck in the raid and keep battling.

Hello, fellow Pirates.
  It has been awhile since I last posted, but I have not forgotten the struggles we are all going through.
In the modern game, it is often forgotten how the lower level/new players have to fight against the new tech. Fear not! You can do it!. Lol, Sorry, my enthusiasm got the better of me. lol.
  Always remember first and foremost, all of us higher levels were there once too. In this blog and all of Specs and Georges to you will find many useful hints and tricks to maximize your playing experience. You will get frustrated at times and wanna give up. Don't! The best is yet to come as you will get better and stronger. Even noncoiners can be tough! I have a few easy low tech builds for ya that can do allot of the camps, raids, and weeklies. With these builds, try and max out your retro on the specials, weapons, and hulls that you build. Most are 1-day retro's and low on Uranium till you get higher in the retro.
  This first build is for the raid set we are entering. There will be several hulls to choose from to build. You will need high as you can get explosive and concussive defense. These particular hulls are for lower level with research tech and one with some advanced tech for those that have the Nighthawk will have a few of the newer things.


   First is the specters. This is an extended surface and dive time sub. But do not let it fool you, it is a tough s.o.b. Specs has a single one that can do a 30 reaver like you will see in the raids. As always and with all hulls, use the best for what you have.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!90H00000I0102U01515151G0I1D4H4H4H4H4H4H02U01515151G0I1D4H4H4H4H4H4H02U01515151G0I1D4H4H4H4H4H4H02U01515151G0I1D4H4H4H4H4H4HdC

  The next are the cudas. They have a shorter surface time but also a shorter dive time. The significant advantage is the repair and build times are low. And as the specters, they do well with research/low tech.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!90H00000I0102I0151G0I1D4H4H4H4H4H4H02I0151G0I1D4H4H4H4H4H4H02I0151G0I1D4H4H4H4H4H4H02I0151G0I1D4H4H4H4H4H4HdC

  And lastly is the Nighthawk. These are for more of the upper low-level players. I you have these, you probably have some of the newish techs. This hull is a longer dive time than the cudas and longer surface time than the specters. It has more firepower and pretty durable, but not at tough as the specters.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!90H000034010LI01515154140064H4H4H4H4H4H4H0LI01515154140064H4H4H4H4H4H4H0LI01515154140064H4H4H4H4H4H4H0LI01515154140064H4H4H4H4H4H4HdC

  There are options for lower level players. When in doubt, just ask. And always remember that we are here to help you enjoy the game.

  Always remember, Keep the retro lab BUSY!. Lol get your retro's up and the hulls and their abilities only get better.

Phantom Warfare - Psychedelic Mortars and MOAR!

What Ghost up, must come down...
say like...  psychedelic floating mortars.

By: George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon_Bane

Bad pun? Yup. Absolutely. I need some levity this morning. After playing around with some things, I need to giggle at something stupid rather than cuss.

So- Kixeye has released the Phantom Warfare TLC for us to strive against. My overall impression was that it was O.K., and that's about it.

Let me start with my own personal pet peeve, and... ok, live edit: I'm going to put both rants at the end of the article. If you want to see me rant, read through.

The progression was a little steep in that the first 2-3 levels were, well, exceptionally easy (depending on your tech). The next two offered reasonable damage, and the last was cranked up (as expected now). I'll do a quick run-through of some of the targets, but like most players I've spoken to, I'm going to focus on target 5.4. I am including a few vids from different players. Jon (a/k/a Specs) has vids for me of the first three levels (hopefully the 4th soon). He did it a little differently than I which is great as you will get to see alternatives.

I've been told be several people that they could do level one with Punisher tanks and Rhinos. Not exactly the point of the targets, nor what Kixeye wants to see- and that is something to discuss later, somewhere else. What I did below for the first few levels was just use the first targets of each level so you will have a grasp of the difficulty progression of the targets.


This is Target 1.1 and the damage I received:

You can in fact run through almost the whole of the campaign using one Hellwraith. In the last target, 5.4, I can't recommend that. Personally, I did the whole thing using my not-as-yet ranked Hellwraiths and cycled through them using my best ranked one for the last targets. Jon did it a little differently than I in that he brought in more than one sub and stacks. No significant deleterious effects for this run doing that.

Specs running through to get the Phantom 'Cuda.

For comparison, this was the target and results of 2.1:

As you can see, a little bit more in terms of target and difficulty as well as damage. I had all sorts of bad luck on this run- I think I triggered just about everything, but again, minimal damage to your sub. Expectation-wise, the entire level is on par with this representation. As before, Jon's vid:

Specs running through for the Phantom Spectre.


Level 3.1 was more of the same:

In this, I happened to try it with no kids around, I had some patience and hit it perfectly. The same can be said for the rest of the targets. You can take a significant amount of damage here, but generally speaking, another easy-ish set. Jon's run again for live action footage!:

Specs run to the Phantom Nighthawk.

Level 4.1 we see the difficulty mount precipitously.

Yes, I took the wrong screen shot. It was about 32 minutes of damage. I drove a little like ass in this, I'll admit. Things did not go well again, but not too badly. This is the level in which I started swapping out subs in earnest.

I'm going to have the videos linked from here on in open in the article. This is where it is worth the time to watch and familiarize yourself with the targets and see what you would do the same or change. Jon's run for the Phantom Tiger Shark:

Now we get to the doozy level. Level 5.

Break out the earplugs for the kids and tell everyone to leave the room so you can concentrate (Yea, this annoys me as well).

This was with some pretty damn good driving. The level requires swapping or stacking. Either way- 8 coins for the level. Might have been just 6 if I took the damaged hulls in and died off, but I wanted to be at full health for some of the shenanigans I was planning.

Level 5.4.

The new Elite target. With my favorite psychedelic floating mortars.... this is where Rant 2 goes..... anyway...

Let's start with shenanigan number 1. I'm sure this is going to be a big hit soon....

How do you mitigate my faaaaaaaaaavorite mortar? Let it hit something else. In this case, I have two HW's at the top of the target while this little beauty takes the mortars and the Hellwraith behind it deals with the annoying damn drones.

The other way to mitigate the mortars, aka shenanigan number 2, takes advantage on one of their mechanics - they can't hit underwater. Now, there is a good reason for no pic of this- it's a PITA and you are doing so much at once... yea, no picture, but it works. You drive close enough to the drones so that you are seen when the morts are either activated or are in the air and they will target the closest thing to them. If your sub happens to be submerged at the time... no damage. The timing of this is seriously aggrevating and I literally was fed up with trying all of this so I went and activated everything while killing off the big boats firing the mortars. Took a lot of damage BUT, with the combination, I would have gotten through on the one fleet. If I didn't get a call.
And instinctively stack my fleet up against the edge.
And not realize the subs were closer than the Vanq.
And answer the phone (it was the school).
And die.
So I had to coin a sub (3 of the gold) to finish this ghastly abomination of a target. All said, in complete honesty, it wasn't THAT bad. For having to do it once. I have HUGE reservations having to do this for three days...

I honestly have no pics that would give you the true scope. I suggest watching a video of the target on YouTube, of which I have conveniently linked one herein...

Price is Wrong from the Battle Pirates on BV page was kind enough to let me link to his complete run through of the entire campaign, so you have a one-stop video reference if you need:

That's it. Rather straightforward targets but for the last. That one requires some skill and a lot of patience or a bunch of coin and swearing.


Below are my rants. You can feel absolutely free to skip them. In fact I encourage you to skip them. I just needed to let the words ooze out of my brain and onto 'paper'. Relieve the pressure of thought from my brain. They are my rants, my opinions. I really don't think I am going to debate them in comments below. You can find them elsewhere in a better avenue for discussion and debate.

RANT 1:

I have posted this up on the Forsaken Council's wall on Facebook. I did not cross-post it on the BV page or the Battle Pirates Crib page because I didn't want to look like a wacko and I didn't want any of the pages getting mad about spamming their page. That said, begin rant (IOW: you can skip this if you'd like):

There has got to be some solution to the retreat button. The excuse given that Kix does not want us to 'game' the system by exiting and re-entering until we get a good 'drop' of cavitator fields is a pretext. It does not hold true under scrutiny. You still have to drive and time your entire engagement. From the players perspective we have:

- Forced into a playing style that many players outright disdain.
- Continued backlash from the player base with regard to the deathsplosions.
- The need for a much higher level of concentration / less 'wiggle room' for errors in targets.
- Add the absolute hate towards the psychadelic death mortars that no one wants to see in the raid.
- The grind-y feeling of every damn target.

This makes the frustration levels that are already high even higher. Into that mix you throw in a little bad luck in a target and this is what the players feel when that happens and there is no retreat button- it exacerbates that bad luck so you can easily go from bad, to worse, to smashing-your-keyboard-because-you-died-pissed. PARTICULARLY if you do not have the built in protections of a Hell Wraith.

Without a retreat button, you now have zero mitigation of errors while easily compounding them. It is a mistake, plain and simple, in not making it available in these targets (raid included). We won't even begin to mention the difficulty of prepping a target for others... When, as a company, you weigh the benefits of not having one against the player psychology of having one, particularly given the current environment, it seems a rather simple equation...

RANT 2:

The psychedelic floating mortars- their existance and their peculiar timing...

It was interesting trying to come up with a way to mitigate these abominations. If this is the result of our endeavors on the test server to try and break the targets, it makes me contemplate not trying as hard next time. Sorry Robot, I do love fencing with you vis-à-vis ideas, but damn man, why you gotta mug me now??

As we are driving subs-
- This mortar has splash (duh).
- You are already multitasking your ass off (and no in-game control macros).
- They have a 'shelf-life' of over 12 seconds (longest I could find) of floating magically in the air.
- There is no retreat button to easily mitigate this mechanic.
- You have dead fleets if even you are a tiny bit off on your timing and stacked or, heaven forfend, you encounter lag... in this game? Perish the thought...

I am vehemently opposed to these things, just for the above reasons... but I found another rather insidious looking reason:

The timing of these things struck me as a little odd. Rather than fire off immediately upon entry, there seems to be a 3-4 second delay. From what I could gather in the target, the mortar goes off approximately every 40 seconds. Tracking from the start of the target (because I can only muti-task sooo much) I have times of 9;57, 9;17, 8:37 and 7:57 for launches against the game clock.

The initial delay struck me as a bit odd, until I looked at a Hellwraith fitted with a mimicus system (or un-retro'd SAS-IV or Naut Batt.). The surface time for that is 9:09 against the game clock (~9:08 for the other two un-retro'd).
That's 8 seconds. Trying to mitigate the mortars by letting the scouts see you is a rather difficult exercise while concurrently watching the drones, your location, your positioning and anything that you may have activated or could activate. See the complexity? Was this intended? Idk, but I know if I were coding it, this would not have been a random decision.

Can it be done? Yes, of course. Does it add yet another layer and time on to the already grind-iness of the target? Undoubtedly. This is not what we have come to expect of an S/Elite target.

Ask Specs Anything September 7,2016

Great Questions, only so much space!

Have a few questions this week, and these questions were all pretty quick answers, and I am going to share them all instead of trying to provide in-depth details for one or two. If you have more questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I will either answer right away or if I am unsure I will seek further clarification through official channels.

The first question comes from Thief

Hey,

Is defense bypass like defense handicap in the sense that 50% will cut down the enemy defense of a certain damage type by half?

Hey Thief,

Yes, and no, it does not cut the damage in half. What it does is reduces the resistance in half on the ship. Or in the case of negative resistance, it can add to the damage done. This ability makes PvE hull useless in base hitting as they rely more on resistance than deflection. The only special that you could add to your hulls to be useful against Turrets and cut the damage done is the Siege Battery, Frontline CM, and Resonance Capacitor (thank you for reminding me of the name in our conversation). The three specials mentioned have the ability to cut turret damage in half or close to half and they cannot have that reduced through defense bypass.

Follow up questions from Thief talked about weapons like the Harrier with a particular damage bypass. The weapons with an appropriate damage bypass work the same in that they lower the target's resistance to that damage type and help you deal more damage.

Thank you, Thief, great questions!

The second issue comes from Lettie and concerns the 109

Hey,

I heard the 107 is going away eventually and will be replaced with the 109, Will my Berserkers work?

Hey Lettie,

Yes. The Berserkers will work and might require a small refit to them so they could optimize the 109. You will want to make your explosive resistance as close to 90% and over if possible. The second resistance you will beef up is the missile resistance stat. Your next course is a good mortar the best choices are Judgment or Firestorm Coaxial. Other mortars can work such as Pando, Siege or Chaos depending on what you have available. The best hull for the target, of course, would be the Citadel, and if you do not have the Berserker or Nova will help you get the frags and shards you need to obtain that blueprint.

Thank you Lettie great question!

The third question comes from NVME007

Hey bud,

What did you have to do to become a mod?

Hey NVe,

You need to show some knowledge of the game. As well you need to be helpful on the forums. I am not sure if some trolling helps, but having the ability to shrug off the insults and verbal attacks others throw at you is helpful too. For me, I was asked when the spot became available. I accepted of course because I came back after my two-week break with a resolve to be helpful to the community and try to share my love of this game. This new attitude I had showed the team I was willing to put aside my snark and trolling behavior at times to be a benefit to the team.

 If you can show these things, you can also approach CM Doomrooster and ask him if they are looking for new mods. This action will at least put you on his radar for a possible mod in the future when a spot becomes available. 

Thank you Nve great question!

The last question comes from Dutchrudder88

Hey Specs,

Does the multi shot from Blunderbuss turret get its critical chance for each projectile, so 12 chances for critical?

Hey Dutch,

Yes, that is how that works. Multishot means that the weapons will fire all the projectiles at once, and that would mean the damage is divided among the shots. This ability also means that if you add EM Rails to the blunderbuss, you could get 12 critical if the RNG god’s love you. 

On my blunderbuss, they are all getting the EM rails three minima just for this chance at seeing some nice damage done to attacking fleets.

Thank you Dutch great question!

Summary

To keep this article short I thank all the questions this last week. I know that I did not answer all of them, and apologize to those I did not select. They were great questions I just felt these four were more important than sharing build advice I gave you. I would like to try to keep your build, your build a little while longer.

If you would like to ask me a question and have it answered, please feel free to contact me through the email link specsworld.co or Kixeye forum. Thank you again for the excellent questions this week you guys kept me busy.

Avoid choking on Choke Point Elite

Refusing to make jokes of the TLC title in this article...

By: George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon_Bane

I know this is late. I honestly just got to start doing this TLC last night and am actively running it concurrent to my writing this article. (Author's note: Not one of my better ideas.)

Choke Point is another revisiting TLC that Kixeye has decided to let us take another crack at. I'm going to try and make this really rather brief so that people have a chance to try some of these things out if they have the fleets.

I do not have time to try a bunch of different things, so I am going to give you the Lazy Pirate's version since I am a Lazy Pirate.

Option one: Hellwraiths.

I am actively refitting my HWs so I only have 2 available, and only partially built. That said, they can run through all of the first 6 targets with some serious concentration on driving.

That's it. That's all I have at the moment for the HW's (and one refitting). Caveat: When I did try going through the first 5 with HW's alone it WAS with three. The tactic used to avoid taking too much damage is to separate a target from the pack and concentrate on one ship at a time. Do NOT surface within range of any of them and do NOT be in thermal range of anything when a Kodiak is within range. You will die.

I will share a little 'trick' I use though.

If using the HW (and if you are like me and are not using the Sealed Fire Charge special), and you want to mitigate the 'dumb' aspect or the Twister torpedo, close the gap on your target. Yes, this means you have to drive a bit more skillfully and pay attention where all the targets are, but you kill your intended target far, far faster up close than if you are trying to kite them. Keep in mind, the longer your engagement with the V2 targets the more damage you will take from their torpedoes and the better chance the Kodiaks have of getting within range which would mean your immediate and horrible death...

That all said, that leaves the last or last two targets to do in a traditional manner of Tank/ Rhino. Unfortunately, I am lazy and do not like any of these options, so I ultimately went with this:

This is Fleet Lazy. I like Fleet Lazy. Why? Because Fleet Lazy can do the whole damn thing with a Bullseye Brigade crew in one go and in just over 30 minutes wile I write an article concurrent to playing through the TLC. Sometimes I use a sub in place of the Apollo in the first few targets to activate everything, but with a Bullseye Brigade crew, this fleet does amazingly well in both iterations of the TLC. Since the HAegis does not really move other than to hide behind the Vanquisher, a regular Aegis will work just as well.

In the first two runs of the TLC I actually used the subs first and then came in with Fleet Lazy using a one star Sea Serpents crew, so these ideas can be tweaked to what you have available.

Pulling in the first target is easy.

Target 2:

Straightforward. Activate the ships near you. Then, you can hug the wall, get behind the targets and activate from the far left and run back. With the BB crew you can safely kite the Kodiaks on the way back.

Target 3:

Really one of the targets I like using a HW to trigger. The Lazy Pirate in me hates driving back and forth activating this. The Lazy Pirate in me also forgot to chain the Apollo back to the safety of the group and lost his Apollo while typing away in this article. -_-

Target 4:

Kill the little boats right off with the Apollo to save a LOT of time, or near the end, chain along the bottom and left edge to catch them at the top left of the target screen.

Target 5:

I hated this one during the raid. If I remember correctly it was the 83. I HATE 83's...

That said, do use the chaining ability to save yourself some trouble and grab those slow poke little bits, otherwise you'll be sitting and cursing the timer...

...and while you're there say hello to anything you can kite after activating. Save gas, multitask!

Target 6:

Not much to say here. This target drives to you. You can sneak out and kite the HC's to save yourself some damage and help your Vanquisher go the distance... Oh my.... I promised I wouldn't...
Additionally, make sure you use the Shift-0 option when multiple targets converge on you. It does help mitigate a little damage.

Target 7:

Ah... target 7. I fondly remember sniping out the... oh, wait... nevermind....

This one is really easy with Fleet Lazy.

Come in at opposite corners, active the fleets then just drive right into the center and kill the Mega.

The good thing about using the BB crew is that you have some leeway with time and option going in. It also does it very quickly and cheaply. (Author's note: Don't try doing the TLC whilst writing an article. Sometimes you forget you sent an Apollo to trigger something and it sits there to die horribly, cursing it's captain as it sinks...)

Sorry it took so long. I was doing other chores and had some other things to take care of and I am just getting to this now. Hope it helps even if it is late...