Thursday, December 22, 2016

Forsaken Mission prizes, Uranium and State of the game Winter edition

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

I was going to do a couple of different posts on this update, but with the holiday fast approaching, I do not want to take up any more of your time or mine. So I am going to cover the Forsaken Mission prizes. I will speak briefly on the changes to uranium, and then include the state of the game notes. We have a lot happening this weekend with the VXP and a TLC for the Mega hulls as well. I will try to keep it as brief as possible.

FM Prize first thoughts


Gargoyle 3 – 



The gargoyle got an upgrade in a massive way. It had a bit more range and huge damage increase. The Gargoyle 3 is going to be something that will force many attackers to stop and range it with that concussive damage. Add in the concussive special (expanded concussive charge), and you are looking at 80K concussive damage for a turret.

Here is the breakdown (as my Good friend George pointed out I made an error, that error was not calculating the salvo so sorry about that, That is why you should not do math before you have sufficient coffee :D)

80,000/10 (number of salvo) = 8,000 per projectile.

Kixeye shows us double the damage so we can half this amount to make it 4K per projectile.

Malice has 6,000 Deflection, which we have to cut in half as well so it is 3,000.

Subtract the 4,000 from the 3000 and we get 1K per projectile at 10 projectiles is 10K damage for a frontline turret on a hull that is designed for tanking concussive targets.

If you add in Transformer and siege battery that will change the numbers again. Attack transformer will add more damage or more range (I would go with damage) and the Siege battery 3 can reduce the turret damage up to 50% at R15.

Very nice upgrade defenders front line turret. Or, you could go with placing one or two of these next to your thermal to combat Subs that might try to prep you.

Hammer Cannon



I was excited to learn we had a new cannon then I saw it. I wanted something for my Cannoneer, and this was not it. Now, I know what you are saying “But specs that damage!” Yes. It has nice stats it is a beautiful weapon that will do awesome on my malice and Valiants. In other words, I see this Cannon as more of a PvP cannon than a PvE cannon.

The reason for this is that it has no splash, it has no piercing. Both of those stats are something I love to have to take out the tightly clustered buildings in the mining bases. Without those stats, it will increase the time I have to spend at each group taking out turrets.

That does not say it will not do the job, and it will. But, I wanted something more to upgrade the Arbalest or the PAC. It is a nice upgrade though for our defense and base hitting fleets.

Drum Reloaders –



What is there not to like about this special? It will match up nice with all our Ballistic weapons. I love the 30% extra damage coupled with 75% reload. This special will make all our ballistic fleets shine. It is one special I cannot wait to win.

Velocity Regulator –



Talk about a tune up to our mortar fleets!, Extra splash and a decent weight percentage. The only problem I see personally is that I have my next raid fleet being built right now and no shipyard time. But, I do love this for the potential I see with my Citadels vendetta and any rocket fleet you might have on the water. Maybe we get away from the Scatterguns coming up, and we will get a new rocket. The radioactive damage boost will be nice with the Retribution basers or even your Valiant with Launchers.

Our Uranium is changing –



Say goodbye to the draw Armada and hello to the Reavers! You will need your Hellwraiths, Tigers, and even Tideseekers going forward for Uranium. This change is to help make those fleets we just spent four months building the last longer and not seem like such a waste of time or coin. I have been using my Tides and Hells for the last few months to gather Uranium. They did as well if not better than my other fleets.

The great thing here is that we will still have our old draw armadas for another month. Also bonus of getting small bits of Uranium even outside of Yellow sector threat. That should help alleviate the problems with getting uranium.

State of the Game – 



First lots of information here. I am happy they outlined the changes to the Raid format. There was a problem of misinformation that players got through the rumor mill with the raids going to three weeks instead of four weeks. That was not true, the truth was we would have three months of the same raid type, and four hull stores a year. Also in the state of the game was the rotation (I think) and that we will see the following Skirmish, Assault, Siege, Garrison. We have just finished the assault style raid and before that was a Skirmish. Siege is coming in January, and that means a Garrison style should hit the scene around April.

What does that all mean? Well, we can see the Mining base change in March or April. The Forsaken mission targets should change June or July. Just so that you are prepared for this and that you begin work on those mortar fleets as soon as you finish your Siege fleets. We will need them for the Garrison raid format.

With the changes to the format comes changes with allowing Conquerer and Defender hulls in PvE targets. Starting February, we will no longer be able to use our PvP fleets (conqueror and defender class) in the raid targets and then when the targets change for our daily chores. That one change means that you will want to get a proper PvE garrison fleet built by June/July.

That change also leads us to the new Tier 6 Conquerer hulls. Yes. We got the OP 9 upgrade and with that came the massive power to base defense. This new class of Conquerer should have been on your radar. What we will get for the first one? Not sure, but they are coming as soon as the January raid format and with them is the reason why they are going to limit them in the PvE targets starting with the new raid format. That also brings us to the red-headed stepchild of the PVP world.

Megas are not going anywhere. Yes.  You might be way behind because you just do not want to do it. The great news is that you do not have to do this part of the game. It does not look like they are going to put tech for other parts of the game into the TLC for the Mega Hulls. But, with that, they are not going away, and they will be getting more features as we move forward in the game. That means that you can please stop asking for a scrap button, the chance of that happening is on par with getting a dry dock.

Summary –


Lots of great changes, really excited about a couple of FM prizes and looking forward to the Tier 6 conquerer hulls and working with the four hull stores in 2017.

Hope everyone enjoys their family time and Merry Christmas!

16 comments:

  1. Will be interesting to see if they put out a new Ballistic Flag ship. Since the Omega is defender, and changes say, No Defender class in the PVE in the near future? No more Omega/Pun fleets? lol

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    1. Yes. I think we will see a Cannoneer flagship.

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  2. Disagree with you some on drum reloader. At first look drum reloader looks interesting and may be useful for base def but I dont think it is good for the upcoming raid targets. Lets look at a cannoneer. Am I going to give up speed V or hydraulic resistor to have it; nope speed is vital. CL-3, nope need that defense boost to lower repairs. Agility 3/4 probably not, evade may be useful and need that stun resistance boost to get rid of the penalty. Siege battery 3, no for the siege targets I need that turret defense and the building and wall damage boost is awesome as well. Nuclear Accelerator, no way in @#!! am I give up that range boost or even the speed boost. So imho the new drum reloader will be good for base defense and maybe fleet versus fleet if you don't need countermeasure improvements or turret defense. Leaves me feeling a little disappointed.

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    1. My only issue is that we are not 100% sure what the target will be. Do we need all that combat speed? I like to go fast as much as anyone, but will 25 combat speed and the Nuc Acc be just fine? What if we do not need the Stun Resistance or evade?

      I do understand your disappointment, I like to look at it as a possibility that what we have considered the targets to look like might not be at all.

      Also, I have a spare slot on my malice that this would go nicely in, as well as my Valiant Ballistic defender. So we agree there.

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    2. I am with unknown on this also. I tried to throw on the drum reloader on a centurion build I am doing. Giving up a slot for the special just does not seem justified to me either. My Agility Sys 4 is what I would have to lose to add this special. Not only does my evade drop 30 points, but I also lose the stun and slow component. Hard to justify that knowing we will be fighting ballistics that will rely on evade and radiation that creates ice fields to slow us down.

      Maybe on a ship like the cannoneer where you can see forgoing an engine special I could see using this special.

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  3. My thoughts exactly about the Omega. That really bites as it gives nice ballistic defense and reload that I have relied on for Drac Bases with my Punishers since I don't have that Vassago's Punisher.

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    1. I am hoping that it means we get some better Flags down the line, it will hurt to give up the Omega when it takes full effect.

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  4. So a little summary on the negative aspects of the release notes/State of the game:

    1. Punishers without Omega behemoth will (probably) be obsolete in the upcoming event as a viable option and from april on when the new targets replace the drac mines

    2. A cannoneer fleet without an omega behemoth flag will be worse than a centurion fleet with harlock centurion flag, therefore the Cannoneer NEEDS either the omega behemoth or a cannoneer flag to make it usefull (or rather the best hull) in the next raidseries

    (both points could be fixed by switching the omega behemoth from defender to garrison class)

    3. I have 1 H.Cit to run the FM with 1 pun tank, and I think that building a complete Citadel fleet (aka 3 citadels to fill the space in the fleet) is a waste of SY-Time, as in march a new Garrison specialist hull will be released, which will be better than the citadel in terms of fighting the new Garrison target from April onwards which will be the new FM targets from July onwards.

    So generally speaking with these proposed changes (3 month raidsseries) the total shelf life of a specialist hull is 1 year, 3 month raid, 9 month PvE map targets.
    Which means we have to build 4 specialist fleets a year (ofcourse generalist fleets with some refits will work as secon best option) and some PvP hulls/fleets and Defenderclass ships, lets hope they really hand out these tokens as promised.
    And by the way, what about the Raiders revenge TLCs, it needs PvP-hulls after all? *confused*


    But enough of the negative aspects lets focus on the good parts:

    1.Like you said this new gargoyle (together with the newly released mortar turret) will make turrets usefull in bases again, because lets be honest the only real dmg dealers right now are a propper base def fleet. One thing im unsure about though is the dmg: it says 50k but a salvo of 10 means 5k or rather in true numbers 2.5k/shot so some hulls like the malice will tank this if my math is correct

    2.nothing much to say about the velocity regulator, it will replace the splash upgrade on my H.Cit

    3.The cannonen is like you said a PvP-cannonen for the malice with the biggest advantage that it has no repairtime, so a fully equipped malice will have 75k HP and 30 minutes of repairtime (add crossbows for high walldmg/piercing and 0 repairtime), a drastic improvement over the fury that went from 90kHP/30minutes to 93.5kHP/1hour8minutes30seconds because each scatterguns adds only 500hp but a huge 5.5minutes repairtime

    4.the special well its clearly tailored for the malice and should be used there, I really dont see having a slot on puns/cents/cannoneer fleets for this special

    Well thats it for my summary/opinion on these current and upcoming changes

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    1. Well put, want to write more than a single reply? I will always give people that are passionate about the game a space to write their views if they wish to share :)

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    2. I am always willing to provide help and usefull ideas whenever its possible :) So yes I would/want to write more if it helps

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    3. If you can send me a PM on the forums and we can get it worked out.

      Thank you

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  5. I am sorry but the gargoyle has 10 salvo so your 40 ks of damage are reduced to 10 shots with 4 ks each with deflection of 3 ks only 1 k per salvo will pass though so from your 37 ks, we would go to 10 k max

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    1. Yep. Forgot the salvo this morning while writing that section and waiting for coffee. It was fixed probably around the time you posted this as George brought it up before.

      The article was updated with the correct numbers and a good lesson on why maths should not be done before fully awake or proper coffee levels.

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  6. The new special is an upgrade to out mort fleets? The existing splash specials we have all outperform the new special so I won't be refitting to the new special any time soon. Besides, the description on the special points to it being useful for launchers.

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    1. But, not everyone has those other specials yet :) This will be an upgrade for some.

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    2. https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!907800000005Q42342F2U2B2B2B2B2B2B2B2B0ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC

      this is my current H.Cit build, which needs 1-2 salvos for each platform in a 109

      I cant stack ES4 with CS2(which I dont even have :P ) or ES4 with incendiary shells to improve my splash, thats why I am using the splash uprgrade, but what I now can do:
      stack ES4 with the new splash special (I tested it in the SY, it is possible) to massively improve my splash
      So in my opinion this new special is a very big upgrade for our mort fleets

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