Diagonal Base layouts are bad

You should change it, and do that soon!

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

By now many of you have probably heard or even seen the base setups with diagonal land tiles forcing the limits of the base layout to ridiculous proportions. I want to warn my readers against this and give you ample time to swap the layout back to something else that is legit.

Yes. I understand that you can do these in the base planner and it will let you set it as a legit base. But, the Team has told the moderators that this is not an intended feature of the game, or Out Post 9. It will be fixed in a future update, maybe Wednesday, January 4, 2017, and you will not want to take that chance.

Why do you ask? The game has an auto-ban feature that looks for certain things when it does checks. This base layout could trigger the automatic ban and place a tag on your base that is easily avoidable. So, take this as a warning from someone that has talked to the Game Team and the Fair Play team. If you have done these to your base, swap it as soon as you can.

It is not a guarantee that you would get banned if you still have it when the fix goes in. But, it is possible the auto ban could decide to tag your base and have you go through the process of going through a Fair Play review to get your base back. This review could take a few days and result in you missing time to do your forsaken mission or even the first bit of the raid.

I hope you are all in good health when you read this, and you take this warning to heart if you are one of the few that have set their bases up in a way similar to the below base.

Vacation about over and time to get back into the game

What would you like seen tested?
By Specialist_AKA_Specs

My vacation this last 10 days has been pretty relaxing, but it is time to get around to playing Battle Pirates again. With that in mind, I am hoping we get a preview server this week, and I can test some builds for the coming raid. I think I would have time to test four builds. So, First build will be my current Centurion build.

The second build I will be testing is my Cannoneer build. It will not be a full build but a few Drac Arbalest, a PAC and then 2x armor. The issue I have with this build is that it is already at max weight. Would you like to see one with an engine and one with the Drum Loader from the FM?

That leaves at least two builds that I can test in the preview if we happen to get lucky this week. What would like to see? Please share the build ideas below and I will at the minimum share them in an article and hopefully video of them after the Preview is over (If I am allowed).
I will try to build as many different ideas as we can come up with this week.

Hope everyone had a great start to the New Year and had a wonderful holiday week.

Have a great Weekend all!

I just wanted to take a brief moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (or whatever you might be celebrating this time of the year)!

I wanted to let you all know that it has been humbling that the response to the blog has gone so well. I also thank you for understanding the comment moderation due to some spammers trying to flood the comments with sport betting websites and casinos. Because I cannot do much with them other than monitor all submissions the comments are sometimes slow to show up. With the holiday weekend fast here I will not be around much the next couple days so I might not get them on the blog until 24 hours after you post them. I do plan to migrate to a different platform next year that will give me more control over blocking the spammers.

With that said I hope you all have a great Weekend that is safe, and full of family. Enjoy yourself and I will see you all Monday!

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!

Raid wrap up and looking to the future

Centurion is the way forward, Cannoneer is the future and low levels need something to get to Centurion.

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

As promised I would get a build on Vindicator ready to do the current mining platforms. I think I have the build and while it is not new player friendly, it is low-level player friendly. You will need items from Tier 3 of the FM, and if you have been following this blog, you know how to go about doing that no later than level 45 (sooner if you play more than I did the test account). Everything in the Vindicator builds you can find in the Forsaken Mission, Campaigns, level 31+ Cargo, and your research lab. The build is highly specialized to do only one thing, and that is hit the current mining platforms. When we see the targets, I will know if it can do the Tier 3 targets.

Why Crossbow?

The targets for the mining bases are very susceptible to ballistic damage. The Crossbow does decent building damage, has the piercing stat of the arbalest allowing it to hit multiple buildings in a line. It can be fired now while on the move, making it far more useful than before. It is also the best weapon I could see in Tier 3 of the FM. Meaning that it is easy to obtain for those that are following the advise to prioritize the FM.

Other choices – Siege cannons, Earthshaker, Particle accelerator cannon, Arbalest, and Drac Arbalest.

Honorable mention: Squall, or Antipode launcher.

Why the Evade armor?

The ballistic guns in the target do most of the damage; the glacial type turrets only fire once by the time you get into range, and you can target them first. So, by getting evade up, you can have most of that direct damage miss you. I am not sure that I would go with another type of armor as I want to raise the evade, and I only have three special slots. You can get this armor in the shell the shore campaign prize package 2.

Why those specials?

We only have three special slots. The siege battery is the best choice at tier 3 FM, because of the 50% it grants at the R15 retrofit lab. This special will make your Radioactive resistance at around 75% and Ballistic around 50%. It also adds building damage bonus which is a huge benefit.

You need the engine and Speed System 4 is the best choice for those that get to Tier 3 in the FM.

Harden Barrels 3 is chosen mostly because I am not 100% sure you could get the best in class Nuclear Accelerator. You need the range boost to kill the stands as soon as possible.

Honorable mentions: In place of Harden Barrels 3, CL-2/CL-3 will boost your resistance and stack with the Siege battery making it more efficient. Your range will be shorter, but you will survive longer.

This is a theory build I have not tested it yet so it might be that I have to go with a different build after I test them. You will want to make sure you are ranked, and I will be putting it to test by the weekend after I get some rank on the fleet.

Centurion –

If you happened to have been successful in the raid and got the 2.65 million points, you will be able to do the nuts and bolts of this build. This build is the one I have used to get my base parts since the level 97 mining bases were released. Many will try to argue with the use of PAC, but there is a reason for this weapon above the others. It has a special ability that triggers every .3% of the time. This ability will level large sections of the platform and the more PAC you have in the fleet, the greater your chance of triggering this ability. I have witnessed a steady secondary blast almost every 10 to 15 seconds within a level 97 mining base.

Everything else in the build is just an upgrade of the information I provided for the Vindicator. The difference is that I went with more resistance and used D5-C and D5-R armor.

Cannoneer – 

I will admit that I am not 100% sure what the new siege targets will bring. But, as usual, I try to put faith in GD Raikan and the telegraphing of what we can expect. They offered the Stun armor and increased the amount we could claim this last raid. That tells me to expect something that can stun our ships in the new targets. That is the reason for the Agility system and the stun armor and the 41% stun resistance.

Why Squall over PAC?

I chose Squall for a bit of flavor, and I want an AOE damage type of weapon, and while I love my Centurion PAC fleet, I wanted to see how this weapon did in the new targets. I think that it might be a benefit to a fleet and help clear buildings out or weaken them. The range is a little short compared to the Arbalest on the ship. But, I can get into range without sacrificing much with the defenses I have.

You will notice I went with a few D33-R, the reason is that it grants a bit more ballistic resistance and I had some weight to spare. I tried to fit a PAC to get that bonus damage so often, but the weight would not allow it.

The rest of the items should make sense and if they do not please ask and I will explain why I chose what I did in this buildout.

Summary

With many questions left to be answered, the cannoneer might need a refit after we see the targets. But, I will build it out as shown and go from there. The Centurion should be ready for Tier 4 targets, and if you can get the Harlock Centurion from the level 97, mining bases might do Tier 5 once we see what we have to work with. I am concerned with the push to offer so many stun resistant armors and I might have to refit that once we get into the new raid format. The vindicator is just a theory build to help low levels move through the foundry that join the game after this last hull raid. If you got the centurion, I would build that, even with the weapons I suggest for the vindicator it will do better and allow you a hull that can be refitted in the future when you get better stuff.

All of this might be mute once we see the Ironclad and how easy that is to get. It is being billed as the tiderseeker for the January raid series. That means for those that do not like to drive, it might be the hull to get as it will auto the Tier 5 targets at least.

Zelos: The Power of Jack

I present Zelos the Mini Cannoneer

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

The December Raid event is going to feature a generalist hull. A new launcher to go with that ship and a special that helps the launcher achieve its full potential. For 30 million points should this hull, weapon and special be a priority with so many other things to take? Players might not want to make a few different ships due to shipyard time being at a premium. This single hull could help ease the stress of the Shipyard and give a player that has little time to play, a fleet that can do the PvE chores. I will present the information about the hull and some of the features of the Squall launcher. Finally, I will share my mini-cannoneer build.

About The Zelos

Countermeasure abilities

Built in Dual countermeasures makes this hull one of the few that can be created without any weapons to start. The fact it has the means to counter mortars and missiles as an ability without using any weapon slots is interesting. This ability is accompanied with four weapon slots dedicated to Countermeasures only. Giving the player a chance to load ten weapons without fear of dropping damage potential to deal with incoming attacks.  Using one slot for your Countermeasure equipment, Frontline Countermeasure, or Countermeasure loader will boost the capability of all countermeasure weapons on the hull, including the built in Counter Measure system. That means that it will be short work to make this ship able to handle various PvE duties with its dedicated ten weapon slots.

10 dedicated Weapon slots

The ten dedicated weapons slots are for surface weapons only. Players will not be able to place UAV or submerged weapons on this hull. Of course, the Game development team is calling the Squall launcher as a perfect match for this hull. Many will look at it and see that it does not have any benefits to lower the reload time or extend the range of the launcher. So why would it be best when it gets a boost to the ballistic range? Well, the Squall grants a boost to resistance for one. That bonus will offset the lower resistance the hull has for the base build. Secondly, it does not need a range-increasing weapon special to get it to 90+ making it a great weapon to spot for remote targeting hulls. The downside is the reload at 11 seconds and the information on how many are needed for a boom. The Squall does have nice damage stats for buildings and ships, so it should fill the need of a Forsaken Mission hull if a player does not want to go the Garrison route. It could also fit the Siege roll if a player does not want to build a second fleet of specialist hulls for that. I guess what I am saying is that if you want just to build a single fleet and then refit for each raid series, this hull would be a good pick up for you. Its special slots make it suitable for any task.

Squall Launcher

I know the questions on the amount of Flechette for the boom is a big issue around the player base. The launcher class of weapon has always been 120 stacks per 10 seconds to get a boom. This feature holds true for the Squall. It also has a 30-second duration on the stacks, meaning that the player will not have to worry about overloading a hull with the launcher. With five salvos on the weapon and all of them hitting 24 of them would be needed at the minimum in the fleet to get a shockwave every time it launches. That is decreased with reloading, of course, at 50% you would need 12 Squall for example. For the article purpose, the build I am suggesting will have 6 per ship.

Five special Slots

The Zelos does not have a boost to reload, but the Flechette special offered does have a 50% reload, and it does have x3 shockwave boost. So with the Squall weapon, you would have one slot dedicated to this special, it is needed for it to function. With the base resistance for everything at 30% and the 3% boost from the weapon, you could get resistance up decent enough for the forsaken mission with little effort. If you had ten of the Squall, two gales 3, two phalanx 4 and the Limited D6-A, you would have 80% missile, 78% explosive, 73% ballistic and then 47% everything else. That is some decent resistance and damage potential for a single hull with no extra armor. From there you can raise resistance based on the target you want to take on. Toss on the Reflective coating 3 and now you have 68% radiation resistance. If the build is this general, you would only spend little time refitting armor based on your needs for the raid series.

Five Armor Slots

Granted the build I am talking about is heavy, it is pushing the max weight limit, and with it, you would only be able to fit four of these in a fleet. But, even the D1 armors can help you push your resistance in a given area to 80% and with the built in siege deflection and assault deflection that would be a strong hull that can take some abuse. The build I am going to share is a theory build and solely based on nothing more than what I can discern right now.

Mini-Cannoneer

With all that explained and I realize that some of the stuff I show in the build was not covered. Feel free to drop me a message if something is not clear. But, this is how I would make the Zelos handle siege targets in the current game and possible next raid. We do not know exactly what that event will hold for the players, but if we go by the stats on the hull being deemed the top of the line for that raid format all of this makes the most sense. I would not expect this hull to do the next raid above Tier 4, maybe Tier 5, but that is highly unlikely. I think the Centurion will be key to Tier 5 with the IronClad and Cannoneer able to do the T5 and T6 for a lower cost.

The Zelos can be created for numerous tasks. It has the weapon slots, the defense capabilities, the special slots and armor slots to make it pliable to anything the game has to offer. It will not be as good as the specialized hulls, it will take more time to repair, but if you do not want to spend all that time developing new fleets you could build a single fleet and then refit it for your needs based on the raid cycle.

Have a great weekend!

4.4 million can change your game forever

Raid Prize list priorities for Non-Coiners

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

The raid is fast approaching about 24 hours for those in world Alpha, and I am positive that everyone is preparing the best way they can for the weeklong event. By now I am sure everyone has seen the prize list and are drooling over many of the fantastic prizes being offered. I am sure there are just as many grumbling at the price point on the Cannoneer. There are a few reasons that I am telling my guys why that price point and conditions is not a bad thing for them. I am also recommending that individual players attempt to get different hulls, specials and weapons based on where they are in the game. Priorities are based on some basic ideas that I have shared for the last seven months on the blog.

The reason the price on the Cannoneer is not so bad is that it helps guide players that are not at end game to grab prizes that will help them now and shortly next month. The Cannoneer will drop in price in January so grabbing something to help with that and getting the Forsaken Mission done easily is the utmost priority.

Below level 60 players

The general advice I am giving to my players below level 60 and unable to do this raid set easily or get to T4 of the FM is to get 4.4 million points.

For 4.4 million points a low level could get the Centurion, Particle Accelerator Cannon, Nova, and Pandemonium Mortar. This path forward would give said player their January raid fleet and a boost in their FM production with the possibility to get to Tier 5 in the weekly mission with some researched components and other items from the Forsaken Mission and campaigns.

But if you can get more than that here is my general advice.

Not able to get to Tier 5 of Forsaken Mission

Points required minimum 6.5 million
Hulls in order of Priority.

Citadel – (7.5 million points) this hull is the king of the Mission, with a proper tank you can do a 109 100% with little effort.

NovaStorm – (750,000)  this hull is second only because it cannot take as much punishment as the Citadel. But, it is a good hull to pick up, and you can hit the outside platforms to reach Tier 5 as many others have done.

Weapons –

Coaxial Firestorm – (3.5 million) I am putting this ahead of the Judgment because of the price and only the price. It will make either of those two hulls that much better at completing Tier 5 in the Forsaken Mission.

Pandemonium Mortars – (1 million) great mortar if you do not have enough points, will get you through the weekly with a bit more effort, but well worth the price.

Specials –

Incendiary Shells – (5 million) – Great stats for explosive weapons and the fire patch can help if you fight the ships in the targets.

January Raid prep

Minimum points needed 8.65 million
Hulls in order of importance

Centurion – (1.75 million) Yes. This is a priority if you cannot get the Cannoneer. It has all we will need for the January raid, can be quick to build and will help you do the mines for base parts. I do not think any other hull should be a priority if you are looking to do the raid in January.

Weapon –

Particle Accelerator Cannon – (900,000) best weapon on offer for the Siege. The blast that happens about every 10 seconds is well worth the cost.

Squall Launcher – (9 million) the love child of a Cyclone and Antipode this weapon should do OK in the Siege raid, my launchers do OK in the current targets. OF course, they could make the targets have some resistance to radioactive that is why I am listing it second.

Specials –

CL-3 (6 million) You could go with the reflective coating 3 as well, either will be beneficial to you. Although, this one is the best in the show due to the two resistance we will need for siege raid targets.

Fletchette Feeder - (6 million) - If you go with the Squall, this will be a much-needed boost.

Thoughts on the Zelos

 You will need 30 million points for this hull.

The Zelos is a generalist hull, and it can be a significant benefit if you can get the points. At 15 million points you could have a single hull that could do all that I offered at the beginning of this article, and you can specialize it a bit for each target. This path wold mean you would have multiple fleets of this hull, but it can be useful if you only want to grab one hull and then grab all the specials, armors, and make sure you grab the Squall Launcher and Fletchette feeder.