build pirate: ship combat

[Sardaukar]

Hello

A very interesting game but For two weeks i'm trying to play on hard difficulty, and i cannot defeat a simple smuggler or spy in space fight, even if my accuracy, speed agility etc...surpass my opponent.
How do you see if a ship is stronger than you? Their level weapons? Upgrating my ship and my crew seems useless.

[Trese Brothers]

Please post a screenshot of your shop status and we can help critique. Ship upgrades and Talents are what you need.

[darion-neclador]

Try starting in a Fidelis and working towards this. I also strongly suggest reading the Ship Combat Section.

https://tswift.gitlab.io/stfx/#XQAAgAAuAAAAAAAAAAAEAETmj73mKIODaStPdg7sx6oyV68RWqmfqsbq90vMCd8PNbgBGjvSXouh/5ZAAA=

[Gilmoy]

1. If the ship's captain is Ghola of Duncan, it's stronger than a Sardaukar

2. Ultimately, ship "strength" is the total dice it rolls, for attack, defense, and movement.
You (deliberately) cannot see those dice totals before a fight. So you'll have to infer (and guess), until you have data via experience.

3. You can deduce their dice from their actual rolls in combat. Open the Combat Log (click the icon in the bottom right corner during a ship combat) and read through the lines of output. Every time you shoot, get shot at, move, or board, you roll your dice, they roll theirs, and the log tells you those actual rolls.

Flaw: You have to be in the fight and taking shots to see this data. If you're outclassed, it's too late to do anything about it.

Remember that 1 strong die = 0.4 expected roll, and 1 standard die = 0.2 expected roll.
So 45s+40 dice = (90 + 40) standard dice = 26.0 expectation, which we simplify to "mid-20s".

- If he's rolling mid-40s and you're rolling low-30s, that's why you're losing. You Need More Dice.
- Remember that his rolls also get all of his weapon +accuracy bonuses at their optimal ranges, and all of his +accuracy% bonuses. Yours do, too. So he could have a base roll in the mid-30s, but still roll high-50s at range 5, when his torpedoes are at their optimal range of 5.

4. In 2 weeks, if you haven't won even 1 ship fight, it suggests that your captain and crew are still fairly low-level, maybe even level 5-10. So you probably haven't earned much money, either. And you probably haven't unlocked a few achievements that give certain starting Contacts, so there's a fast-track path for ship combat that just isn't open to you (yet). It's a story unlock, so just play long enough in any game (into Era II?), and you'll get your chance to complete that vignette for the unlock. You must earn it, by playing that long at least once.

To fully prep a ship + crew for ship combat, you probably need 5-10x your ship's purchase cost, and your crew should be L12+ or so. That could take 2+ years, just to earn the money. Many of us simply avoid ship combats for that long, because we know a ship isn't ready until then.

Basically, ship combat can't be solved just by buying 1 component (or 10 components) and dropping them in. That's a necessary 1st step, but you also need:

- crew skill levels to fill your ship skill pools (to 100% for ship combat, to 200% for travel)
- a proper mix of ship combat talents
- captain + officer skill levels that help ship combat (briefly: +Command and +Tactics)

Most of all, you really want to have:
- a coherent plan for your ship combat script, and your orbital card game activities

Some examples:
4.a) Your overall game plan is a Pirate who blockades. In your template, create a Pirate and take bonus levels in ship combat skills, like 10 Command 5 Tactics. Your game plan is to invest in Pirate and Crew Dog/Gunner blockade talents, camp on non-friendly worlds, and play the blockade game. That will give you merchant ships to fight. Bribe or surrender to military ships, fight or escape from hostile bounty hunters/military, and attack weak merchants.

4.b) In ship combat, you could plan to be a long-range sniper. Replace every junk weapon on your ship until you have only 3 top-tier weapons: exactly 8 RP worth, so that you can sit and shoot all 3. For long range, you could have 1 torpedo 2 missile, or the other way around. Your script for every ship fight is to sit and fire 3, pump your +accuracy% and/or +defense%, and win the damage race. The best way to win that race is to not get hit at all. Pay attention to the die rolls (open Combat Log every single round and read it), and memorize what kinds of rolls you see from which kinds of enemies. To simplify, there are two kinds of enemies: military (who beat ships like you for a living) and civilian (merchants). Prey on the civs.

4.c) After you get a feel for the die rolls, you can explore other weapon ranges. You probably always want to pick 1 good weapon range, and optimze your 3 weapons for that range. We always recommend that you start by building for range 5, because you don't have to move to get there, and moving introduces problems of its own. But eventually, you'll see that range 3 weapons (railguns, etc.) do much, much more damage, and so it's worth it to extend your plan to get to range 3, live that long, survive thereat, and wreck them from there.

Planning for it is kind of fun. The sheer scope of the plan can be pretty vast, so don't worry if you feel like you're blindfolded in a cavern for a few play-throughs. Keep at it.

5. For your ship's upgrade path, roughly speaking, you should plan to upgrade all of these things before you fight anybody.

- upgrade 3 junk guns to 3 good weapons (you're limited by your engine RP)
- upgrade all other junk guns with defense components. Even the humble Pilot Assist 1 does you more tiny good than a junk tier-1 gun
- upgrade your Barracks to its max size, and with armor/shield points
- upgrade all of your Cabins to shielded or armored cabins
- upgrade your Basic Hyperwarp to Combat or Warhammer

And yes, that means that you're replacing as many as 15 components out of 21. Before your 1st ship combat. Just trade, run missions, and escape until you earn that much money. Every Pirate or military ship you'll see has already done all of the above, and it just doesn't pay to be second-best at the first hurdle.

[Sardaukar]

Thanks a lot guys!

I think i need to check the rolls dice for the first time :), and also this build ship simulation, thanks Darion for this tips.

One mistake i can see with my skills: i invest not in command or tactician, (but in steath for black market and blade for boarding). My officers are pirates, or doctor, or E tech, crew dogs, but not commander.

i will read again your answer, Gilmoy, so much informations for my little brain :). And i see you know well the Dune saga

[Exarch_Alpha]

One thing - what´s the best path for choosing a better ship? Going from 300k to 500k ship? Or 700? Or 900?

[darion-neclador]

Really depends on what you want. Large Ships are better for Cargo/Utility/Flexibility. Small ships shine when it comes to time sensitive stuff like missions and intel trading.

[Exarch_Alpha]

But eventually you do have to get bigger things to handle xenos

[darion-neclador]

You can handle all xeno ships (with the exception of Jyeeta Desecrators) in all ship sizes 3.4k+ or bigger (if you exclude some of the more crappy hulls) with the correct build/crew.