After Raid Fleet Building

June Raid 

Sorry that I wasn't able to write posts about the raid before or my thoughts on the prizes, my apologizes. Family matters come up, and I couldn't take some time away to write posts. If this happens again, just head over to BPProfessor and read his articles, very good write ups. 

Changes to this raid from last

The main change from last raid to this one was the removal of Assault/Siege deflection bypass. Another change was the removal of Mega Hulls from the 67 and 83 targets.

Changes to how we played

The total points gained has greatly increased, the highest worldwide is about 650 million points. Higher than the past couple raids if my memory is correct. The lowering of the mega hulls needed to defeat has helped to cause this. The main reason is the removal of the assault/siege bypass. 

Punishers, Neptunes, Heavy Cruisers, Apollos, all the other ones too. All benefited greatly from this change. I've have been grinding it out with punishers, one in a fleet and four fleets, for 15 million points in about 7 hours. Spreading that out over 4 days, that about 2 hours per day. During this time you could also use other fleets, such as Apollo or Rhino/tank to take down higher level targets or the Mega Hulls to earn extra points. 

If you are shuddering at the fact of a higher level player taking out low level targets, move to a dead sector for the raid, that's what I did. 

 

Punishers are able to take down the C level targets. I use the on map repair for instant repair, and return to my base if not. The build doesn't matter as long as it has a couple base components. 

• 3-4 Arbalests or 7-8 reaver siege cannons or likewise 
• 51% rank or higher / autoloader 3 
• Nuclear Accelerator or Hardener barrels 3 
• Evade booster 
• Missile Defense booster 

My Higher level base 

I used the punishers that I have to grind out 15 million points for the Apollo. Next raid I plan on having a fleet of Apollos to take down Mega Hulls.

 https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!9P7700J0H0H0H0H440335346E54542E2E2E2E2E2E2A2AP7700J0H0H0H0H440335346E54542E2E2E2E2E2E2A2AP7700J0H0H0H0H440335346E54542E2E2E2E2E2E2A2AP7700J0H0H0H0H440335346E54542E2E2E2E2E2E2A2A0ZZdC

This build is designed for the Mega Hulls we currently see. With high missile defense to counteract the Rhino, Sentinels and Mega Hull Missiles. The high speeds to outrun the Heavy Cruiser. I went with the Switchblades over Blade to maximize damage, and provide a bonus to Corrosive defenses. The blades are there because of weight issues. You could replace the Hunter special with GS3 to boost the evade.

You can replace the Switchblades with normal Blade, and use the reduced weight to bulk up the armor. At the cost of lowered damage.

Jamie Phipps of Battle Pirates All Sectors War Room build is similar to mine, but with blades instead and a few different specials. He used his fleet to auto a 95 target, with only 52 minutes of repair, using a Grease Monkey crew.

That comes to 3.6 million points for 2 coins (4 coins). Coming to a ratio of about 1.8 million points per coin, (.9 million points per coin). Jamie has a great build. Especially since this comes out to only 5ish minutes of seat time too.

My lower level base 

I didn't do much with my lower level hull this base. I tried out the C level targets with my Crusader build but I received too much damage from the Rhinos. Thank to Unofficial BP, the listed damage from each missile is 280, with a salvo of 3. The actual damage of the missile is 140, wanna get that out of the way. 

140/3 = 47 real damage. 

Each Rhino has about 4, guessing from this video. 

4*47 = 188 damage for all 4 missiles at once 

Now we find the damage for all three salvo's 

188*3 = 564 damage 

That's the actual damage for each round of missiles sent from the Rhino's in every C target.

Now, because of  researchable ships having armor under 3k, I highly recommend upgrading your advanced lab to level 10 and research Reactive Armor 3 and put it on your ships. For Crusaders, this increases the missile resistance from 15k to 36k. Over doubling the survivability of the hull against Rhinos, triples for the any hull without any missile defense to start with. 

The next planned build for my crusaders based upon this, and what I have so far is... 

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!106G00H001W0I1S0U1103232323230023000006G00H001W0I1S0U1103232323230023000006G00H001W0I1S0U110323232323002300000ZZ0ZZdA

You can fit 3 of these into  fleet with a level 10 dock.

I added the D5-R because of it adds 2250 points of armor, kinda like the bulkhead. If you got the D4-M this past raid, replace the D5-R with it.

Kixeye's townhall meeting

Kixeye's townhall 

Kixeye, Dirty Harry, Price-is-mother-f*cking-wrong, and Renato Putini had a town hall meeting on the 9th. Renato has been kind enough to post the summary in the forsaken council facebook page. 

With the information being released only on the TFC page, and once daily, I decided that I would post the links to the posts, the text here, and my thoughts upon them to save you time from finding them. 

As more posts come out, I will continue to update this post. 

Raid Cycle 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TFCBP/permalink/254639794902373/ 

- This raid cycle with assault targets will last until August;
- The Apollo will be offered every month between now and August, on the left side of the redemption tiers;
- Targets will remain mostly the same, with only small adjustments, as needed;
- On the right side of the redemption tree, we'll have the Vendetta in June, a defender hull in July, and another Conqueror in August, so it's all PvP, to add diversity to the game;
- We, players, suggested Kixeye should not focus on all dual-mode weapons, but also release some single mode weapons, giving players more choice.
- We, players, suggested a turret store should be implemented, allowing for many players currently unable to defend, to catch up with missing turrets;
- August will be a hull store;
- New cycle starting in September will have targets of Skirmish class;
- Kixeye intends to release some of the September targets in live game during the month of August, so players can have a taste of what's coming, and prepare better, without needing to join a small game preview.

The Apollo being offered until august is a very good thing, as it stands as the best way to defeat the Mega Hulls currently. The live targets being added in August is also very good, as it provides for players to test out the targets, find good strategies and have a couple weeks to refit for it. This also gives Kixeye an opportunity to return the targets to better fit the player base. 

The defender hull coming in July might be the hull needed to stop the Revenge, and future revenge and vendetta combo. But the new Conqueror in August will see fit to sail past it. 

Subs 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TFCBP/permalink/255007101532309/

- Kixeye proposed only letting subs launch at 100% health, and lowering repair mod to 100% for all subs
- Players all agreed with repair mod of 100%, but requiring full health was too radical a move, 2 players proposed a 50% minimum FLEET health, one player proposed 10% minimum.
- goal is to eliminate zombie subs from game play, while making them more affordable to use at the same time
- Players pointed there's little to no room for subs in current PvE targets, and we'd like to see more usage for them
- Suggestion that, for raids and FM, lower level targets should be "subable", as it's a valid tactic for lower levels
- Kixeye asked if players would like ships in different classes, or should they be in a class of their own?
- Players had different views on this, some said they should be spread, but mostly skirmish, some said it doesn't matter, as long as we can prep/fight with them in more scenarios, I asked for Kixeye to keep them as a wildcard, useful in many scenarios, not to confine them to one target type only.

I agree that subs need to have a 100% repair modifier, and I also agree that the 50% minimum should be in place. This should hopefully stop the phantom zombie subs problem. 

I also agree with that the lower leveled raid targets should be more subable, with the Predator sub a huge stepping stone for many lower level players. With mortars being the main reason for dead fleets in 37 strongholds, due to low speed and no countermeasures. Making the Citadel subable will greatly help the lower player base able to do the FM and earn resources to help expand their base. 

Chores 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TFCBP/permalink/255214294844923/

- Main villain seems to be the foundry, while it allows for players to catch up on hulls, and get retrofits done instantly, it drives endless, repetitive PvE grinding to get the fragments
- Players suggested foundry could not be instant, giving players 1-2 days of retrofit, so players don't feel as much pressure to do PvE for fragments - there wasn't full agreement on this one;
- Can't PvP also pay out fragments?
- When an alliance member achieves 1000 alliance points, could it be a multiplier on fragments?
- Kixeye designer asked why would players go after retrofitting older hulls, if they have the best hull in that class. Players responded many of us are "collectors", and want to have it all, just in case, it also doesn't hurt having a second fleet, even if inferior, for when main top fleet is repairing
- Kixeye proposed an idea, where a high level target would drop a bunch of low level fragments, along with some high level fragments, so "collectors" could get it quickly done - players liked it.
**** Sector bar, is another chore, and level orange is very hard to attain for most sectors;
- Players said they missed scheduled dredges, and would like to have something like that, on top of sector bar, as a mixed solution, so sectors that cannot easily achieve high levels could still access targets once or twice a week;
- Orange level could be easier than it is today, Kixeye proposed some high level target, harder than 75 armadas, to get bar orange quickly, just as lvl100 salvage gets it yellow quickly;

I can see why PvP won;t pay out fragments, people could just farm gunboats all day long. 

I like the idea of having a multiplier, but it would have to be for the player only, and not for the whole alliance. It would just be another great reason to get your alli points, along with the bonuses. The high level target dropping lots of frags is good, instead of hitting  cargo fleets or targets 54+ times in a row. 

The sector bar I see is an improvement over the weekly dredge schedule. Players have access to uranium within an hour, or a couple 10's  instead of waiting a few days and rushing to get them. I like the higher leveled armadas to help get into orange, the target should payout about 60k in uranium, with every armada before it doubling the amount before it too. This would allow for the players who want to hit the uranium bases for the uranium to get it faster, and those who hit for the shards have less competition between the 4 bases available. 

Thoughts about the Townhall 

The timing of every 2 weeks is good, but for the love of god, increase the amount of players available to join. With only 6 available to currently sit it, its a far number from what I would like. A better system would be posting the topics instead in the forums or on facebook and letting the player base itself decide what it likes through a poll or many instead of relying on 6 people. 

 

June WIP

June Work In Progress 

June is finally here and we are half way through the year that took; David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Muhammd Ali, and Prince away from us. Good. Onto what the game is bringing us... 

Assault Tab in Foundry 

I've already gone over this, head over to my last post to read about it and my thoughts. 

Foundry Tier 5 

The tier 5 is being added on June 7th, with the components found in the *gasp* fifth tier of the weekly. Kixeye hasn't said where to get the Fragments, but I'm thinking the 97 strongholds. 

For the new ships added we only know what one is going to be, by a Kixeye error too. Head over to the May WIP, where it talks about tier 5 being added. 

The Garrison target levels are a bit off, but with the ships being on point this is the only piece of evidence that I can find showing what the 5th tier will hold, for the Garrison tab. 

Foe the Assault and Siege tabs, I have no idea. The best ideas for what it could would be the Apollo and the Punisher. Both of these ships are the highest in their rank for their respective classes, and among the most, if not the most used ships of their class. The Apollo was created last month and it seems too soon to earn it, but look at the Centurion. 

Global hunt 6/10-6/14

Mega hulls come back so you can earn Super hulls. Hunting down the 83 mega ship, similar to last raid you can earn shards for the Proto-Nemesis, the Hellstar, GC and Man-O-War.

 With a maximum of 20 shards per person, and one per drop. Drop rate is not 100% though, might take a couple more hits to earn it. With different ship shards becoming available per day. With the shard available going in order of Proto, Man-O-War, GC, Hellstar. From 12 pm PDT to 12 pm PDT the next day. 

Here is where it gets stupid...

The shard available is limited 3500 per world, 2500 for Hellstar. and 20 shards per user. 

That boils down to 350 shards per sector, 250 for Hellstar shards. 

That means only 18, 13 for HS, will earn the full amount of 20 shards, per sector. 20 shards aren't guaranteed for 20 hits, with the drop rate below 100%. 

Lets say the average sector has 1000 bases, and levels are evenly spread out. 9 bases for each level. 

Levels 1-110

Just an example, mind you 

Seeing that end level players will be the ones most able to defeat these targets, 70+, thats only 360 bases able to hit these. 

 3500 shards per world / 360 bases * 100 Sectors = .09 shards per player.  

 2500 shards per world / 360 bases * 100 Sectors = .07 shards per player

This is for every sector being the same, and only 4/11 of the sector hitting. Every sector is different, and not every 70 can hit the targets too. So lets try with 80+, 320 bases 

3500 shards per world / 320 bases * 100 Sectors = .1 shards per player.  

2500 shards per world / 320 bases * 100 Sectors = .08 shards per player

Now this is for 3/11 of the sector hitting. Yeah... 

This is with a sector with only 1000 bases, and with 9 bases per sector. I know every sector has hella more people than this, and the level diffusion is more than this, but this is just an example. 

My advice for doing this? Move to a dead sector, oh wait that won't work. Kixeye hasn't said where they would spawn, I'm guessing around Drac Bases or around Nav Relays. 

I won't be doing this, can't do mega hulls to start off with ;P. If you are able to kill Mega Hulls efficiently, without hours of repair, then go for it. 

If you are close to finishing your hull, go for it 

If you are able to take down Uranium Bases, I would do those instead of the 'Global Hunt', as it pays out uranium aswell .  

Global Hunt 6/27-6/30 

Another Global Hunt featuring the Artemis, Aegis, and Gamma Behemoth hulls instead. With Mega Ship 67 instead, and different amount of shard available, everything is the same.  

I'm doing the same calculations again, but lets expand it to include 60+ bases. 

Artemis - 15,000 shards - 50 shards max 

15000 shards per world / 450 bases * 100 Sectors = .3 shards per player. 

Aegis - 10,000 shards - 25 shards max 

10000 shards per world / 450 bases * 100 Sectors = .2 shards per player.  

Gamma - 3,500 shards - 5 shards max 

3500 shards per world / 450 bases * 100 Sectors = .08 shards per player. 

I would consider doing this one. Most higher level players don't use their Artemis at all, so it should be easier to get it on that day. With an easier targets, more shards per person, and able to save uranium from it. 

How do I save uranium from it?

 Well, you only have to complete the R&D to level 23 if you are able to get all 50 shard, instead of going to level 28. You will save 1,019,686 points of uranium, A great deal by my standards. 

But will you use your artemis? The V2-H is better now with the retrofits, with almost half the build time, better resistances and higher missile reload. 

I would definitely do this one on the Gamma day, with the only shards being available from the DUBs so far, and only needing 10 you will be able to finish half of it. 

June Raid 

The raid is coming on the 16th, and lasts 4 days, per average. The raid is in the same cycle, Assault style targets. Kixeye has promised some changes, and one of them seems to be the removal of the Assault and Siege Bypass Deflection. Follow me over here. 

1= Yes

0/(blank) = No 

Now with the bypass turned off on the ships and turrets, the Punisher will make a good tank and overall good ship to use. I'm currently adding armor on mine, so its gonna be kickass for the raid. 

New prizes and hull 

In the most recent Forsaken coucncil meeting, it was told that the new ship, named Vendetta, will be mortar/rocket, the new weapon, named Coaxial Firestorm, will be co-axial with rockets being primary. And secondary being able to trigger and fire during remote targeting. The new special is a new version of the Resonance battery, named Resonance Capacitor, that provides the hull with bonus damage, turret defense, and speed. 

The hull will have a special field able to boost the critical chance of 'Rockets, Launchers and Depth Charges', the field will stack with other Vendettas. 

 

The raid info comes in at around 50 minutes in. 

Forsaken Mission

The old strongholds will be taken off by the 22nd. If you are still using them to get your points, i suggest that you switch or at least try the new strongholds.  

Kixeye is also changing the point requirement for tier 5, from 150 million to 350 million points needed. The points given out by 97 will be matched to achieve this too. The damage will not be changed, so you will only need the same number of 97's to get tier 5. 

150 million points currently needed / 33 million points currently given out by 97 = 4.54 

350 million points needed / 4.54 proportionally needed to complete = 77 million 

So each 97 will give out 77 million points if Kixeye keeps with their promise. 

What does this mean? 

Getting to tier 4 just got hell of a lot easier.  Taking out the two sides with the Halo/Blade should net you enough points for tier 4 itself. The main chore problem of the game just got less...chorie. For the younger players, if you can take out a single platform by yourself or get a good amount of damage dealt, I would suggest trying it out on the 97's once they change, could save you a lot of time. 

All the changes happen on the 22nd, for the forsaken mission 

New prizes coming out 

Zynthonite Armor D2 - D4-CT: A draconian armor that provides Deflection.

Very useful now that the raid targets don't have the bypass

Concussive Plating I - III: Forsaken tech that provides a flat Concussive Deflection for Defensive Platforms and other buildings.

Good for now because of Revenges wrecking havok. 

A-T:R Transformer: A Forsaken transformer which provides increased turret range with a reduction in damage and resistances.

.  

Might be useful when combined with a special to boost damage or reload, will have to see if useful. Turrets I currently this could be good on are the Pryo and Scattergun ones. With a negative radioactive defense, it should work good on paper for revenges, and Apollos don't have any radioactive resistance. 

June 1st Release notes

Weekly Release notes, June 1st 2016 

Read me first: https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/636847

Forsaken Mission 

Tier 5 has the Judgement mortar, and explosive system 4 added to it, along with doubling the amount of shard available from 15 to 30, 10 per each hull now. 

The judgement mortar is a good alternative for Pandemonium mortars when faced with high amounts of countermeasures. With a higher base damage, more range, and the MIRV ability. The MIRV can be very useful to overwhelming countermeasures, along with a high ass base reload, and can be used for snipping to reach beyond the weapon range.

The Explosive system 4 is a good upgrade to ES3, and an alternative to Combustion system 2. With a spread deduction instead of bonus, +5% bonus to Projectile Speed, and lower weight percentage, at the cost of lesser Splash. The Explosive system works best with mortars, and not rockets in my opinion as you want mortars to hit their target.

  Foundry Assault 

A new tier was added to the foundry, featuring Assault hulls. With the MCX, Interceptor, Kodiak, and Rhino. With each ship having gained 35% Panatrating Damage, and the Kodiak getting Corrosive resistance of 40%. Each hull also got their own retrofits, but without any changes to the base stats itself. However, the build times have been reduced. 

Build time 

MCX: 1d 9hrs 45m 48s
Interceptor: 1d 18hrs 12m 16s
Kodiak: 2d 4h 45m 20s

Foundry Retrofits

Missile Cruiser X

R1: Assault DPS: 0 to 3

R2: Assault DPS: 3 to 6

R3: Assault DPS: 6 to 12; Siege DPS: 0 to 6

R4: Assault DPS 12 to 25; Siege DPS 6 to 12; Corrosive Resistance 25% to 30%; Combat Speed 12 to 13

R5: Assault DPS: 25 to 50; Siege DPS 12 to 25; Corrosive Resistance 30% to 40%; Combat Speed 13 to 15

The Missile cruiser received a mild retrofit, with resistances to help with the current raid cycle. Seems like 15 base speed is the new standard, with many hulls now getting being upgraded to it, or retrofitted to it. The Fragments for this hull is found in Level 75 elite salvages.

Interceptor V2-H

R1: Assault DPS: 0 to 12

R2: Assault DPS:12 to 25

R3: Assault DPS 25 to 50; Siege DPS: 0 to 25

R4: Assault DPS: 50 to 200; Siege DPS: 25 to 100; Corrosive Resistance: +25% to +30%

R5: Assault DPS: 200 to 400; Siege DPS: 100 to 200; Corrosive Resistance: 30% to 40%

The V2-H received an average retrofit, with the majority being DPS bonus. The Fragments for this hull are found in level 32 Legion Assault forces, that spawn around Nav Relays

Kodiak


R1: Assault DPS: 0 to 30

R2: Assault DPS: 30 to 62.5

R3: Assault DPS: 62.5 to 125; Siege DPS: 0 to 62.5

R4: Assault DPS: 125 to 250; Siege DPS: 62.5 to 125; Corrosive Resistance: 40% to 45%; Assault Deflection 0 to 12.5; Siege Deflection: 0 to 7.5

R5: Assault DPS: 250 to 500; Siege DPS: 125 to 250; Corrosive Resistance: 45% to 55%; Assault Deflection: 12.5 to 25; Siege Deflection: 7.5 to 15

Here is gets weird, why the .5 on the Deflections? The Corrosive resistance is real nice too, along with the armor ability of the R5, the Kodiak can still make for a good tank in the new raid. The Fragments for this hull are found in level 53 Legion Assault forces, that spawn around Nav Relays

Rhino


R1: Assault DPS: 0 to 42.5

R2: Assault DPS 42.5 to 85

R3: Assault DPS 85 to 175; Siege DPS 0 to 85

R4: Assault DPS: 175 to 350; Siege DPS 85 to 175; Corrosive Resistance: 50% to 55%; Assault Deflection: 0 to 50; Siege Deflection: 0 to 25; Turret Defense: 0% to 10%

R5: Assault DPS: 350 to 700; Siege DPS: 175 to 350; Corrosive Resistance: 55% to 65%; Penetrative Resistance: 40% to 50%; Assault Deflection: 50 to 100; Siege Deflection: 25 to 50; Turret Defense: 10% to 30%

The Rhino has the best retrofits of the Assault foundry tab, with Deflection, DPS, Corrosive resistance, and Turret Defense. The downside? The target (75 Legion fleets found new Nav Relay) to earn the Rhino is from the last raid, and you need 141 pieces to build it too. 141/3 is 47. 47 times you need to hit these targets, to earn the Rhino and many times more to retrofit it. I have personally only seen Rhino complete the target, and needing Rhinos to earn it will be hard. 

Speaking of fragments... 

Double Fragment weekend! 

This coming weekend, June 3rd 12 PM PDT to 5th at 12 PM PDT, all targets will be dropping double fragments. 

This could be very good, as you would need only 24 times to earn the hulls in Tier 4, and will be very fast for retrofitting the hull already owned. I'm going to be working on unlocking the Berserker hull during this time. 

Make sure to keep your sector threat in the orange during this, as it will maximize the amount of frag's dropped.