Request for the devs: please nerf the Outlaw Marauders.

[Valden21]

The basic concept of them is pretty cool, as they do add an additional challenge to the game. The problem is that the over-heating affect of their missles lasts way too long for my taste, and when battling them, the ship component is often one that I've just repaired. In turn, that leads to me feeling that I've repaired the component for nothing, as it just increases the length of time that it's useless. To make matters worse, they spawn in groups of two or more, along with other classes of Outlaws, and come right at me, which just rubs salt in the wound. Whenever that happens, trying to fight my way out swiftly becomes a losing prospect, and my ship being destroyed is a mercy-kill. Please do something to nerf them. Even a slight nerf affect would be welcome.

[Sanzor]

Honestly I think they are fine. It's mainly the missile I feel you should avoid, which seems easy as the missile is approaching you, and you do a direct boost in the other way. That usually makes the missile miss you.

The only thing is that Marauders are fairly tanky, just like the bombers, which is often why I ignore them to deal with more dangerous stuff and just dodging missiles. Do remember you can also use missile defence systems for a bit, along with using the "reset cooldown" consumable.
Drones work too, as it often seems like the enemy switches target direct to them instead of you. That buys you time, and the drones don't seem to care about the overheating.
Burning them down quickly with your weapons + Overcharge works as well.

Then of course you can also just snipe them with either Ancient Weapon or Shock Rifle :)

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Sanzor:

Honestly I think they are fine. It's mainly the missile I feel you should avoid, which seems easy as the missile is approaching you, and you do a direct boost in the other way. That usually makes the missile miss you.

The only thing is that Marauders are fairly tanky, just like the bombers, which is often why I ignore them to deal with more dangerous stuff and just dodging missiles. Do remember you can also use missile defence systems for a bit, along with using the "reset cooldown" consumable.
Drones work too, as it often seems like the enemy switches target direct to them instead of you. That buys you time, and the drones don't seem to care about the overheating.
Burning them down quickly with your weapons + Overcharge works as well.

Then of course you can also just snipe them with either Ancient Weapon or Shock Rifle :)

The big issue is that the Marauders never spawn alone. They're always accompanied by other ships, and they're tanky enough that you need to choose which enemy to take down first. If you focus on the less durable ships, that gives the Marauders time to attack, and in the fury of battle, it's easy to miss the missle lock alert. But if you go after the Marauders first, that gives the other ships time to chip away at my shields and hull. Either way, it's a losing proposition for me. If they showed up alone from time to time, it wouldn't be as bad. But they don't.

[X-SR71]

anti-missile drone and you'll be laughing at them

[rockfish_andi]

Hi, I agree that they can be pretty tough, but that was actually the intention. I think the overheating missiles work fairly well (being annoying)

[Valden21]

Originally posted by rockfish_andi:

Hi, I agree that they can be pretty tough, but that was actually the intention. I think the overheating missiles work fairly well (being annoying)

I understand that, but my main issue is that I think they're TOO tough, to the point of being OP if you don't have access to certain weapons, devices, or consumables. The way I look at it, they should be tough enough to provide a good challenge, but not so tough that you NEED those methods to take them down. Like I said in my first post, the Marauders almost seem to time their attacks to when I've just repaired one of my ship's components, and it's almost always that component that gets hit. It's the length of time that overheating effect lasts that really bugs me, far more than anything else. If it lasted even 5 seconds less, I'd be satisfied.

[Arvandor2]

I have literally never struggled with Mauraders, with any ship. There needs to be *some* degree of difficulty in the game, and so I actually appreciate some of the more obnoxious ships like snipers, Mauraders, and Interceptors. Especially when they come in a swarm of other things. Game would be boring otherwise.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Arvandor2:

I have literally never struggled with Mauraders, with any ship. There needs to be *some* degree of difficulty in the game, and so I actually appreciate some of the more obnoxious ships like snipers, Mauraders, and Interceptors. Especially when they come in a swarm of other things. Game would be boring otherwise.

You seem to be misinterpreting what I'm saying. I like my games to be challenging, too. But I feel that while the concept of the Marauders is a good one, it was taken a bit too far. How far is too far in this case? Here's how far: I now FEAR the Marauders, to the point that I start worrying about what condition my ship will be in when, and especially if, I survive the fight. Nothing else in the game elicits that reaction from me, just the Marauders.

[Arvandor2]

Their missiles are pretty easy to dodge, I feel. Or, if you really fear them that much, just use missile defense system or pop an anti-missile drone when you see one. Bam. Problem solved.

[Suzaku]

Stick close and use short bursts of boost to avoid their missiles and counter attacks. They're dangerous on approach, but weak to being pursued. If you play aggressive and stay behind them, there's nothing they can do.

You mentioned they feel OP if you lack certain equipment, but you must have something by the time you see them. A drone, missile defense, time extender, shock rifle, heavy missiles, seeker missile battery, decoy, emp, target decelerator, damage booster, damage limiter, any and all of these can help put them down easily. I find it hard to believe you lack any and all of these options, and even without them careful aim and positioning can literally defeat the toughest enemies with the weakest weapons with no damage taken.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Stick close and use short bursts of boost to avoid their missiles and counter attacks. They're dangerous on approach, but weak to being pursued. If you play aggressive and stay behind them, there's nothing they can do.

You mentioned they feel OP if you lack certain equipment, but you must have something by the time you see them. A drone, missile defense, time extender, shock rifle, heavy missiles, seeker missile battery, decoy, emp, target decelerator, damage booster, damage limiter, any and all of these can help put them down easily. I find it hard to believe you lack any and all of these options, and even without them careful aim and positioning can literally defeat the toughest enemies with the weakest weapons with no damage taken.

The issue with the equipment is closely related to the resources I happen to have at the moment. Even though I have the blueprints for many of the stuff you mention, I can't always afford to craft them, due to the fact that I need the resources they require for other things. It's a matter of priorities, and so I find myself often having to depend on RNG for that equipment. Given enough resources, I could craft that other stuff, but often, it doesn't work out that way, so I often have to craft something different if I'm to survive the current situation.

One-on-one, yeah, the Marauders are easy-peasy. However, the times when I've encountered them mano-a-mano are few and far between. They've usually got at least one or two fighters as an escort, so no matter which enemy I target, it creates an opening for their buddies.

[Arvandor2]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Stick close and use short bursts of boost to avoid their missiles and counter attacks. They're dangerous on approach, but weak to being pursued. If you play aggressive and stay behind them, there's nothing they can do.

You mentioned they feel OP if you lack certain equipment, but you must have something by the time you see them. A drone, missile defense, time extender, shock rifle, heavy missiles, seeker missile battery, decoy, emp, target decelerator, damage booster, damage limiter, any and all of these can help put them down easily. I find it hard to believe you lack any and all of these options, and even without them careful aim and positioning can literally defeat the toughest enemies with the weakest weapons with no damage taken.

The issue with the equipment is closely related to the resources I happen to have at the moment. Even though I have the blueprints for many of the stuff you mention, I can't always afford to craft them, due to the fact that I need the resources they require for other things. It's a matter of priorities, and so I find myself often having to depend on RNG for that equipment. Given enough resources, I could craft that other stuff, but often, it doesn't work out that way, so I often have to craft something different if I'm to survive the current situation.

One-on-one, yeah, the Marauders are easy-peasy. However, the times when I've encountered them mano-a-mano are few and far between. They've usually got at least one or two fighters as an escort, so no matter which enemy I target, it creates an opening for their buddies.

Are you a Gunship main? You sound like a Gunship main. Best advice I have if that's the case, is... Don't play the Gunship. It's a fun challenge, but it's by far the worst ship in the game and the most dependent on drops. Of course, you can also just throw up a frontal shield and/or a mine field and murder things that way.

Other ships you should be able to craft *something* to help you out. If there are too many ships escorting the Maurader you can use:

Damage booster + seeker missile battery
EMP (maybe in conjunction with corrosive missiles)
Remote Energy Discharger
Heavy missiles to one-shot the weaker ships and give you some breathing room
TIme extender + weapon overdrive
Anti-missile device or drone
Statis or destabilizer missiles
Cloak, run, snipe

and if you can't do ANY of those by the time you see mauraders, you've done something wrong, somewhere. I sometimes struggle to craft what I want in Sector 2, maybe 3, but by 4 onwards I'm usually pretty set no matter how bad the RNG has been to me (unless I'm playing the Gunship, in which case I might still be struggling haha)

[Valden21]

I'm not a Gunship man, I haven't purchased it yet. I prefer the Sentinel. But like I said, what I craft depends largely on the resources I have at any given moment, and that's affected by RNG. I can't always depend on having enough resources to craft a bunch of stuff, because my priorities for crating are always shifting based on what I need at that exact moment. Hoarding my resources is possible in some cases, but not always.

[Arvandor2]

Which is exactly the joys of playing a rogue-lite =) I feel like Sentinel is a top tier ship, up there with the scout. And the Sentinel handles the randomness of drops the best because it can use SO MANY amazing combinations of devices.

Marauders should be cannon fodder for the Sentinel. Just drop a destabilizer missile on their head (SUPER cheap to craft) and melt them. Done. EMP if there's too much else going on. Or throw up a damage booster mk2 + seeker missile battery if you can afford the processor (if you can't afford the other mats by the time you're encountering marauders, you've done something wrong besides RNG. Even with RNG, I have literally NEVER NOT been able to craft a dozen or so damage boosters and destabilizer missiles by the time marauders spawn)

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Arvandor2:

Which is exactly the joys of playing a rogue-lite =) I feel like Sentinel is a top tier ship, up there with the scout. And the Sentinel handles the randomness of drops the best because it can use SO MANY amazing combinations of devices.

Marauders should be cannon fodder for the Sentinel. Just drop a destabilizer missile on their head (SUPER cheap to craft) and melt them. Done. EMP if there's too much else going on. Or throw up a damage booster mk2 + seeker missile battery if you can afford the processor (if you can't afford the other mats by the time you're encountering marauders, you've done something wrong besides RNG. Even with RNG, I have literally NEVER NOT been able to craft a dozen or so damage boosters and destabilizer missiles by the time marauders spawn)

In that case, and this goes for everyone who's posted so far, please offer up some non-equipment-dependant tips and strategies for how they can be more easily handled by a Sentinel. If I had that, perhaps my opinion would change, as the Marauders are the only major issue I have with the game. I'm working with Loadout B, so please take that into account.