Why is shield beetle so popular?

[RockSpoon]

It sucks compared to a bact. Bact with maxed mass expansion has 1,130 outfit space, TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN MORE tons than the shield beetle. That's 3 more s-970's with an aditional liquit helium cooler!

Not to mention it has far more crew bunks, so boarding enemy vessels is nearly a cinch.

[local god]

Originally posted by kiko:

Dreadnaught is hella quick and defensive tho, and has wayyyy less intensive criteria for unlocking than the Kestrel.

criteria for unlocking Dreadnought: complete FW storyline.
criteria for unlocking Kestrel: raw c.r. 8000, and a single mission to disable one.

i think you might be mistaken...

[Ker]

Dont have to complete FR story, just part of it.

Easier to do that than to farm the 8k CR then by chance find the mission to get one, especially for newer players.

Of course, i guess it depends on playstyle. I'm a story-driven guy myself, and even after beating the FW, pug, and getting into the late game content I usually still dont have a high enough CR to start the mission.

[local god]

Originally posted by kiko:

Dont have to complete FR story, just part of it.

yeah, the 85-90% "part"...

[Ker]

Originally posted by local god:

Originally posted by kiko:

Dont have to complete FR story, just part of it.

yeah, the 85-90% "part"...

You get access to it about halfway through, but the tempo ramps way the ♥♥♥♥ up for the late part of the story, so by the time you get access to the Dreadnaught, you are already blazing your way up to the final decisions and first contact.

But still, only part, vs CR 8k which requires people to farm or be a very heavily combat-oriented player. Dreadnaught is easier for, i would say, the majority of people - myself included.

We can argue this between ourselves all we like, however, it doesn't change anything. Some people are going to prefer the Kestrel, some are going to think of it as easier to unlock than the dreadnaught. I'm just a member of the opposite camp, and think the kestrel needs a rebalance to better fit in with the shield beetle and bactrain.

[Architect_Luke]

Is shield beetle going to be upstaged by Korath ships in your personal meta? We pretty much use it for one reason: large shield reserves; reserves matter more than recharging most of the time. The Korath ships have better shields, hull, and more turrets. Are they faster as well? Is there any reason to keep shield beetles other than availability?

[Anima]

Originally posted by me53211:

Is shield beetle going to be upstaged by Korath ships in your personal meta? We pretty much use it for one reason: large shield reserves; reserves matter more than recharging most of the time. The Korath ships have better shields, hull, and more turrets. Are they faster as well? Is there any reason to keep shield beetles other than availability?

Shield beetles don't have to be capped, and are therefore more easily obtained.

[Ker]

Personally I only see Korath ships taking over the Shield Beetle slot if they become purchaseable. Capture-oriented players will have a higher probability of building a Korath fleet in the post-game, but are still likely to keep their shield beetles in their fleet anyway.

And, frankly, I only see that happening in later updates. I assume eventually the current meta will be completely toppled by new content. It's not a matter of if to me, but when.

[local god]

personally, i believe the trio to be slightly different versions of fundamentally the same ship (with relatively small differences in capacities) - the Dreadnought focused on turrets, and the 'Beetle on gun ports - the Kestrel falls between them, and focuses on being the nearly-capital-ship-sized-fighter it was back in E.V. - only it's *actually* capital ship sized this time around...

Originally posted by kiko:

I'm just a member of the opposite camp, and think the kestrel needs a rebalance to better fit in with the shield beetle and bactrain.

what kinds of things would you change about it?

[Ker]

Originally posted by local god:

Originally posted by kiko:

I'm just a member of the opposite camp, and think the kestrel needs a rebalance to better fit in with the shield beetle and bactrain.

what kinds of things would you change about it?

I haven't quite figured that out yet, but I'm working on it. If I figure anything out to rebalance it and testing goes well, I'll make sure you're the first to know and will post it for you to test as well. I love the fact that it has options for different versions (more shields, weapons, engines) but may make a few different versions/builds of it and give them a test. Maybe a "more cargo" variant so that you can have just a bit more outfit space, making it more viable as a flagship. Maybe making a carrier variant. I honestly just don't know yet.


For now, the only really big issue I have with the sprite is its complete lack of color. This game is *filled* with colorful ship fins and the likes, so a basic ship just feels out of place. I'm experimenting with *slight* changes to the sprite to add a splash of color, but haven't found anything that doesn't look goofy AF yet.

[local god]

Originally posted by kiko:

I haven't quite figured that out yet, but I'm working on it. If I figure anything out to rebalance it and testing goes well, I'll make sure you're the first to know and will post it for you to test as well. I love the fact that it has options for different versions (more shields, weapons, engines) but may make a few different versions/builds of it and give them a test. Maybe a "more cargo" variant so that you can have just a bit more outfit space, making it more viable as a flagship. Maybe making a carrier variant. I honestly just don't know yet.

i look forward to seeing it.

For now, the only really big issue I have with the sprite is its complete lack of color. This game is *filled* with colorful ship fins and the likes, so a basic ship just feels out of place. I'm experimenting with *slight* changes to the sprite to add a splash of color, but haven't found anything that doesn't look goofy AF yet.

the lack of colour is homage to Escape Velocity's (the game E.S. is based off of) Kestrel. i'll warn you that there is little likelihood of that sprite changing much.

[Ker]

I hope it lives up to both our standards

Also, I totally realize that the Kestrel is a homage and that E.S. is based off of E.V. I'm not actually dogging on it, I get it, it just bothers me personally. My personal preference says it needs just a touch of... something, like color, to make it better fit with the rest of the ships. If I make a proper change to the sprite that I'm pleased with, I'll post it as a stand-alone plugin. If you don't like it, or if I'm literally the only person who uses it, I wont be offended. It's just one of those things of preference.

That said, I'm not even sure if I can. Every modification i make to it just kinda makes it look goofy. I'm considering maybe a pulsing light animation and making it exclusive to my variant, but IDK yet.

[Amazinite]

I was thinking of making two little flags hanging off either wing that go through an animation to "flap in the wind." Then I thought that that would probably end up in some people asking why, and the response needing to be "because it looks cool."

[Ker]

I finally found something that kinda works. I went ahead and just outlined its wings it in orange (and its shades, for shadows) and suddenly, without doing much to its sprite at all, it kinda looks like it fits. It swizzled just fine, although I didn't apply any post processing so it kinda looks like LED lights. Might outline the nose cone too, or may leave the color only to the very outline of the wings.

Either way I think it stays pretty true to E.V. while making the sprite look a bit more like it fits into E.S. I'm no graphic artist though. Would probably look better if someone else did it and added some post-processing. That said, the sprite no longer bothers me with that one tiny change. Once I figure out the balancing I'll go ahead and upload the plugin somewhere and message it to you @local god. Hopefully I get it right.