What to Build for Next Raid

Tips 

Make sure you have some explosive defense on your ships, and pack as much punch as you can in each volley. The 'death weapons' that we are seeing, is mostly explosive damage, with a little addition of plasma. The 'range' of this explosion reaches out to 200, so no player used torpedoes can outrange it. All of the Reaver ships are packin' resistances in the 90's for every damage type, except concussive and corrosive. Corrosive is in the 70's. 

For the lower levels, make sure to use a full fleet of subs if you can, with health in the 100'sK, you will need to be sitting a while to fully take them down. Make sure to use Concussive Warhead special if you can, and use the strongest torpedoes that you have. 

Chart for the Tier 6, level 100 targets. 

https://www.thedarkalliance.org/forum/threads/1021-BP-2016-September-Raid?p=7649#post7649

As you can see, the only weapon type that is worthwhile against them,is concussive weapons. Of which we have two types, depth charge and torpedoes. The best weapons to use in each? The Concussive Gatling Gun, (CGG) and the Fire Twister Torpedoe (FFT). Let's compare out two best choices in terms of general stats. Let't also sneak in our second best ones too, the Concussive Reciprocator, (CR) and the Charon Torpedoe.   I will only be comparing the land weapons to the land weapons, and subs to subs.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hG0mShhOxYCgZWFmOrDIbb43NMlpjtYwFomu0dPYGFQ/edit?usp=sharing

What does this show? That if you wanna deal some damage for Torpedoes, use FTT. For land weapons? It depends. The CCG makes for dealing damage faster, and at a longer range, with the penalty of waiting for the Wind-up to work. The CR allows for a higher initial DPS, but you have to watch for the Reaver ships not coming too close. If you are using the CCG, but want to save weight for armor, use the CR in some spots, the constant rate of fire will make up for the missing CCG due to the windup. 

For those stuck between using either normal ships or subs with concussive weapons, its more of a matter of style, and build time. With normal ships you can grind out easier, or use them to auto, saving you time; but costing you time in repairs. When with subs, it takes longer to finish each target, but you do take only minimal damage, saving you time in the end. 

Anyways, let's go over the basics of each build in order to survive in the next raid. 

• High Explosive and Concussive resistance (assault deflection is a bonus) 
• High speed to outrun Reavers and not get hit by depth charges 
• High Cloak, in subs 
• Concussive damage booster 
• Low build time, in subs 

Having these 4 requirements in mind, let's go through hulls to use, and the best components. 

Subs 

• GhostCrawler 
• HellWraith
• Tigershark 
• Nighthawk 
• Spectre 
• Barracuda 

Ships 

• V2-H
• Frosty 
• (Vassago's) Prototype Hunter 
• Artemis 
• Kodiak 

My choices need no explanation, my ships? Yeah, let's go into that. All of them have inert concussive and explosive damage, high speed, 8+ weapon slots, and ready/able to get. Most of you have these ships already, and they are sadly outdated in the most part. The Hunter is the upgraded version of the V2-H and Frosty. The Frosty is my strongest choice to use, due to it's AoE field, and the fact that Reaver's like to close the gap. Allowing for them to be affected by it. 

Now, on to building these hulls. Lets take a look at the weapons in the level 100, and base our choices off of that. The main weapons used here are the Concussive Cannon, Torpedo, and the Death Explosion. Lets run down their damage, salvo, accuracy, splash, and range. Let's go with another chart. 

The need for The explosive resistance is for the Death Explosion, and the concussive is for the 
Concussive Cannon. The Damage per Projectile (DPP) shows how much damage you receive
 for each successful hit on your hull. If you have Assault Deflection is higher than this number, 
you will only receive minimal damage from this weapon. And if you don't have any Assault 
Deflection, pack some resistance. 

Receiving 8750 damage from the Death Explosion in explosive damage, we need to make sure to
 have high explosive defenses and some Assault Deflection. We can't outrange the weapons, so 
that doesnt matter. Evade doesn't matter, because of Splash, 1000% and dumbfire weapon. Speed 
does matter though. Here are my basic builds for the ships, and subs.  

Ships https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!4PLUA29292929290C066E342G2G2G2G2G2G2G
2G2G2GPM6A1U2929290C066E342G2G2G2G2G2G2G2GPN601U2929290C066E34002D
2D2D2D2D2DC0C0C0000ZZP6S0292929290C346E062G2G2G2G2G2G2G2GdC

Subs https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!4PNC01U1U1U1U2929290641400O6SAQAQAQA
QAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQPNK0282900000640416S0OAQ
AQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQPNA029290029066S4041AQAQAQAQAQAQAQA
QAQAQPLI0292929404106AQAQAQAQAQAQAQP2U0262829064041AQAQAQAQAQA
QdC

Now, I'm not claiming that these are the best hulls to use. Im just saying, these should be the 
building blocks, you can change them how you want, but should continue the same basic 
principles of these hulls. High damage, good speed, and great resistances. Remember that 
this raid only lasts for the next three months, so don't go overboard and coin these. If you can 
refit other ships to this, do it if you can. If you found a way that works with your current ships, 
stay with it and improve it. Don't gotta follow what I say, random stranger online. 

As always, Film at 11

Rise of the Warlord, What to get and some other stuff

Weekly Release 

The weekly came about and left us with changes to limited hulls to make them equal to their non-limited variants. Dante's Novastorm, Savage Kodiak, Frosty, and Zoe's Rhino. Oh and the Goresaber(s) got a nice boost too. 

Dante's Novastorm 

Anti-Mortar Range 0 to 10%

Anti-Missile Range 0 to 10%

Remote Targeting Range 0 to 60%

Remote Targeting Type Mortar

Remote Targeting Falloff 0 to -20%

Anti-Missile Accuracy 0 to 20%

Anti-Mortar Accuracy 0 to 20%

Assault DPS 0 to 1,000

Siege DPS 0% to 500%

Explosive Defense 50% to 75%

Penetrating Defense 50% to 60%

Combat Speed 11 to 15

New Overload Effect, Combat Speed +30%, Turn Speed +20%, Explosive Defense +70%

Savage Kodiak 

Anti-Mortar Accuracy 0% to 20%

Penetrating Damage 30% to 35%

Building Damage 90% to 100%

Wall Damage 90 to  100%

Assault DPS 0 to 1,200

Siege DPS 0 to 500

Armor Abilities 0 to  25%

Corrosive Defense  30% to 60%

Assault Deflection 0 to 50

Siege Deflection 0 to 30

Frosty

Penetrating Reload 100% to 110%

Penetrating Damage 0 to 35%

Assault DPS 0 to 800

Siege DPS  0 to 400

Explosive Defense 30% to 40%

Penetrating Defense 30% to 50%

Concussive Defense 40% to 50%

Corrosive Defense 0 to 40%

Zoe's Rhino 

Penetrating Damage 30% to 35%

Assault DPS 0 to 1,400

Siege DPS 0 to 700

Corrosive Defense 50% to 65%

Turret Defense 0 to 30%

Assault Deflection 0 to 200

Siege Deflection 0 to 100

Goresaber(s) 

Speed 14 to 20 

Penetrating Defense 40% to 50% 

Phantom Nighthawk/Tigershark 

Repair Modifier to 100% 

Thoughts? 

All of these are kinda disappointing. Don't get me wrong, these updates are nice, but they kinda take away the sense of Limited. Let's take the Frosty for example, and compare it to when it first came out versus the V2-H, back in December 2014. 

Now, looking at the comparison chart, anyone would choose the Frosty over the V2-H for a lead ship, no doubt about it; it even has the same build time to top everything off. This is the prime idea of a Limited Hull, almost everything is better to start with, and even build times. The prize of the Frosty at it's release was 40 million, the cost of the V2-H at its release was 5.5 million.

Now, the Limited version doesnt quit compare to the normal version anymore. The Frosty now just seems like a 'R5' version of the normal V2-H. The last time they were both offered together was in the December Raid store, at 15 million for the Frosty, and 3 million for the V2-H. A 12 million price difference, which is even less now considering that the V2-H can be obtained in campaigns and foundry. The new version doesnt really give any consentive towards getting it, seeing that it has mainly better weight and longer thermal for 3 days extra build time. 

Rise of the Warlords 

The next raid arc, featuring Reavers, is here until December. The ships to use? Subs and only Subs. Similar to the Reaver Armadas and the last TLC we had, you should know what to expect. One general tip I have, don't expect to leave each battle without damage. The death weapons cause a good amount of Plasma damage, and you cant avoid it. Don't clean out your entire schedule for the day hoping to hit big and only win, unless you are willing to spend a couple coins. 

Times

It begins today, at the following times  Time Zone  Converter? Time Zone Converter!

World Alpha: 9AM PDT

World Beta: 10AM PDT

World Gamma: 11AM PDT

World Delta: 12PM PDT

World Epsilon: 1PM PDT

Targets 

Kixeye has changed the Naming of the targets from Set A-C, S to Tiers now, ranging from 6 to 3. The point values have increased for Tier 3, dropped for Tier 4, Tier 5 is the same, and Tier 6 has dropped in total points too. 

S set into Tier 6 

• Target 100 - 1,250,000 Points 
• Bonus - 2,450,000 Points 
• Total - 3,700,000 Points 

A set into Tier 5

• Target 71 - 350,000 Points 
• Target 73 - 400,000 Points 
• Target 75 - 500,000 Points 
• Bonus - 1,350,000 
• Total - 2,600,000

B set into Tier 4

• Target 51 - 30,000 Points 
• Target 53 - 43,000 Points 
• Target 55 - 60,000 Points 
• Target 57 - 75,000 Points 
• Bonus - 600,000 Points 
• Total - 808,000 Points 

C set into Tier 3

• Target 31 - 15,000 Points 
• Target 33 - 20,000 Points 
• Target 35 - 25,000 Points 
• Bonus - 120,000 Points 
• Total - 180,000 Points 

The point increase for the Tier 3 is up by 100,000 points, which is a very welcomed increase. The prizes though for the lower levels? Not much. 

Prizes 

This is a large stat block... 

With Bloodthirst, 100% defense handicap, huge Penetrating, Explosive, and Radioactive deflection; this hull fits in with other Conqueror hull of this day. Making for a powerful one shot tank, with its Overload ability. I would imagine this being used in conjunction with either Citadel or Vendetta fleets, posed outside the channel. Send the fury in and watch the mortars ran. Or going with a blitz tactic, stack them and rush at once. Sending one in at a time would waste the Overload, seeing as that it has 10,000 deflection to Explosive weapons, the majority of splash weapons. Base turrets wont last long too with the new weapon.. 

Low weight and high damage, but with a long build time of 11 hours. A little clarification of the "Death Weapon" Remember those pools of fire that pop up after you sink a ship with throwers or mortars with Insiderny shells attached? Yeah, it's the same. These are the basic stats for it; which look pretty good for an aftereffect. Any ships within a 60 range will be hurt by this, and any ship beyond that ship to a max of 20 will be dealt half damage. 

I'll make a cute little text diagram to show 

X------------Y~~~~Z

X = Death Weapon Explosion 

Y = Ship out at 60 range, gets full damage 

Z = Ship out at 80 range, gets half damage 

Now, because Z is within the 60 (range) + 20 (splash) it receives damage. But if Z was at 85 range, 60 + 25, he would not receive damage 

X------------Y~~~~~Z 

X = Death Weapon Explosion 

Y = Ship out at 60 range, gets full damage 

Z = Shio out at 85 range, receives no damage. 

Now for the Special  

This special is very similar to the Hydroxide Coated Barrels, increasing the Multi Shot and Corrosive Damage. You replace this with the Barrel System to get more a larger Multi Shot increase, helpful when chasing down fast ships, but for base attacking? Stick with dealing more damage. 

Now for the general Prize list! 

Green is Recommend, Red is not, Yellow is either way

Sealed Fire Charge 6,000,000
-Best special to use with the FTT and the HW, very useful if the reaver's spot you. Get it if you can
Hydroxide Injector 6,000,000
-Helps with damage for scatterguns, can use this for the Conflagration or Cobras
Fire Twister Torpedo 9,000,000
-Best torpedoes in game, get it.
Conflagration Scattergun 9,000,000
-Better than the D81-M, only downside is the 11 hour build time. If you get this, get the Fury too.
Hellwraith 15,000,000
-What the Apollo was to last month, this hull is to this next 4 months, and the armadas.
Fury 15,000,000 

-New Base hitter, has its flaws, but still the newest to use. 

Tiger Shark 1,750,000
-If you can grind out Tier 3, get this and the Charon. Major improvement over Spectre.
Heavy Cruiser 1,750,000
-Viable for lower levels, those who can grind out Tier 3, but I would choose the Tiger Shark over this.
Charon Torpedo 900,000
-Still a great torpedo, get it if you don't have better
Scattergun D81-M 900,000
-Each one costs 27,500 uranium to build. Need I say more? 

Stealth Attack System IV 350,000
-In the Mission Tier 4, if you wanna save time get it now at a cheap price. 

Barrel System 3 350,000
-Is okay, nothing more. Can't get the Hydroxide Injector, get this.

Locked Store

Interception System 5,500,000 

-Bit over priced, but still useful if you have Enforcers

Railgun D-110 6,000,000 

-Arbs are better, but if you don't have them...
Gamma Behemoth Shard x1 5,000,000 x5
-I would put these at green, if it wasn't for the price. Able to finish half of the Gamma, without hitting DUB's? I would take it 

Proto Nemesis Shard x5 2,000,000 x4
-Easier to buy them, but takes longer to finish it. If you have a good-great DUB fleet, I would skip these.
Hellstar Shard x5 2,000,000 x4
-Easier to buy them, but takes longer to finish it. If you have a good-great DUB fleet, I would skip these.
Ghostcrawler Shard x5 2,000,000 x4
-Easier to buy them, but takes longer to finish it. If you have a good-great DUB fleet, I would skip these.
Man-O-War Shard x5 2,000,000 x4
-Easier to buy them, but takes longer to finish it. If you have a good-great DUB fleet, I would skip these.

Unlocked Store

Ship build - 1 hour 120,000 x10
-Cheaper build time? Hell Yeah!
Ship build - 12 hours 1,400,000 x4
-Cheaper build time? Hell Yeah!
Ship build - 24 hours 2,750,000 x3
-Cheaper build time? Hell Yeah!
Fusion Charger 350,000
Same as the Interception system, minus the +20% speed. Get this to replace that if you can.

Point Penetralization 

https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/659299 

Go read this, at the bottom 

Tier 1
31 - 15,000
33 - 20,000
35 - 25,000
Tier bonus - 120,000
Full points: 180,000

If over level 85: 126,000


Tier 4:
51 - 30,000
53 - 43,000
55 - 60,000
57 - 75,000
Tier bonus - 600,000
Full points: 808,000

If over level 85: 704,000

Tier 5:

71 - 350,000
73 - 400,000
75 - 500,000
Tier bonus - 1,350,000
Full points: 2,600,000

If over 80: 1,725,000

What does this mean? 

Kixeye is trying to Protect the lower leveled players, honorable, but doing it in a messed up way. Not every player has the technology, I.E. hellwraiths to deal with Tier 6. Also, how is Level 80 too powerful for tier 5, A set? 

Here is a forum post, go complain here pirates 

https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/659760

As always, Film at 11 

State of the Game Fall

It's been a quarter... 

And the State of the Game is back again. Let's find out what Kixeye wants to do for the next 3 months, and what they are doing right/wrong. 

State of the Game 

Kixeye has broken down the SotG into 5 parts this time, let's go over each part. Going in order from Event Arc, PvP, Mega Ships, Chores, and Communicating changes.  As always, I'll be voicing my thoughts on each one too. 

Make sure you read the official posting too; https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/656951

Event Arc 

Kixeye is now officially going on a four month raid plan, meaning each raid story type will end with the hull raid. Kixeye will now be releasing a hull designed to be used against the targets in the upcoming raid. This Hull will be avaliable for all 4 months, along with it's specials and weapons. After the raid the targets will replace worldmap targets, such as after the next raid arc they will replace the reaver armadas. 

Kixeye has also released the master plan for changes to targets within the next 4 raids. With only the Tier 5, (S set) having an additional new target added. 

PvP 

More Conqueror hulls are to come, also with buffs... 

"The average win ratio across level bands are looking generally healthy. However, at the very top end, the win ratios look a little low. We’ll be looking to address that over the next several months." 

PvP and Conqueror hulls in one topic together, it means base hitting. The win ratio refers to the number of 100% base hits versus that of fleets dying in the base before 100%. Now, the 'Addressing' of this can lead to two things. Either stronger conqueror hulls, or weaker base weapons. 

Stronger hulls is more likely to happen. 

But wait! Won't having stronger and stronger hulls come be bad as it will increase the power struggle drastically? No, but only if Kixeye does it right. Like they have been doing it right so far. 

How is Kixeye doing it right? Lets look at the current Conqueror hulls, the Retribution, Revenge, and Vendetta, and their basic stats; defense, evade,  and deflection. 

Link to View: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_xWdUkhIx1PDtdraFCwKvChl9_kVFR4phrFXSyB2wjQ/edit?usp=sharing 

Green highlight means bloodthrist

Yellow means some was already there, but bloodthrist added some too

Now, compare that list of hull to the next list of hull, the best base hitters from about a year ago. from the same types of hulls, blitzer, mortar, and launcher. 

(I removed the Corrosie defense/deflection, and all the deflections, as they weren't available back then. 

Link to view: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E0O1YNHQznxLDthbXk2KO-hI7JCq_QV24gB9Oim1VWM/edit?usp=sharing

Now lets compare them. Starting with the old. With all around good defenses for back then, except concussive i'll talk about that later, and okay evade. With defense specials/armor and/or evade specials/armor being a necessity back then, the ships would be tougher are harder to kill for sure. 

Now for the newer ships. Well, we can't change the evade on the Vendetta or the Retribution, but we can on the Revenge, that's good. Defenses? Not worthwhile to change, or impossible to change with defense handicaps. What about that Deflection? That's a killer! 

Well...

 With the Bloodthirst ability on all 3 of them, namely the Retribution and the Revenge, they become stronger and harder to kill. We can't protect against the bloodthrist being activated can we?

 Yes we can, by either moving all the buildings away from the start of the channel of your base, or just recycling them. And without the bloodthrist, the ships become susceptible to common damage types also. Such as Radiation, and fucking Penetrating. 

So, you need to figure out which ship to use on each base, and the defenders need to be able to be able to deal damage on all possible types? 

Yeah, kinda like Pokemon Types. You need to find the pokemon (ship) that best works against another pokemon (base/base fleet) 

How does this differ from the past? We could have just stack up on Concussive weapons and turrets. 

Nah, not really. The only surface weapons that deals concussive damage back then were the Depth Charges. And those never make for good base defense weapons. Turrets? You were looking at Gargoyle Depth Charges and nothing else that we could use a year ago. 

Kixeye is releasing Conqueror hulls that have only one or two weakness to slow down the power struggle, and to increase the stragety portion of this game. After complaining for years about click to win hulls we finally get the solution. Now to wait for the dry dock (sarcasm) 

Oh yeah, Medals are getting a workup. Hold your laughter. 

Mega Ships 

More modules to come, the first of which being the hiving module. Which can be used to a great advantage. See my September WIP for details... The Megaships are still in the Beta phase also, changes will be happening to them as will new modules. 

Chores 

I'm gonna copy down each bullet point and go over each one separately instead of summarizing them all. K? 

• With the introduction of Sector Threat, our goal was to enable players to play on their own time table and be able to acquire the resources they needed to progress in the game.

SKIP

• With the “KIXEYE time” restriction being lifted, we saw a dramatic increase in players participating in non-PvP activities. As a result, players told us they felt compelled to constantly do these activities for their entire play session

SKIP

• While we want players to have some freedom on when to do these activities, we’re looking to provide a more structured pacing so that players have some relief to enjoy other aspects of the game.

SKIP

• We’re going to be re-evaluating Sector Threat as the first step towards reducing “chore time”. We believe part of the issue stems from the constant need to maintain a specific threat level (Yellow, Orange) in order to optimize the payouts.

Wait, does this imply that Kixeye will be looking at the times for the Yellow and Orange? Good. 

• We’re also investigating Rogue Crews to see where these can fit in to help improve payout rates and/or reduce “chore time”.

Changing the Irritated Cutthroats to now help with the Armada's? And creating a crew that would increase the payout of the Fragment drops for the foundry? Better. 

Communication Changes 

Kixeye knows there is a communication problem between the company and the players. Their solution? Testing and asking the players. Great! New targets, such as those in the FM, will be following a new format. 

1. Start with a test target, available for a limited time (i.e. 1 week). This test target may have inflated point payouts or even a VXP multiplier, to incentivize trying them out during the test period.

Kixeye should have possible a time limited repair token after attacking and destroying the tester target. Will this increase the number of testers? Yeah. The time Limited feature will last for an hour or so, leading the person to choose one of two options. Repair the fleet and then hit a base, or just repair the fleet. Now, this seems chaotic with everyone hitting without repercussions. But, it makes for a good time to try out the medal system changes! Also, best time for a fleet v fleet war, ever.  

2.Once the test period is over, remove the target for further iteration.

Please introduce a polling on the Kixeye forums, let the players get more feedback in rather than pure data and numbers.

3.Re-introduce the target the next month, for further “in-game testing,” or possibly make it permanent.

Always do retesting, keep it open for a week, run a poll at the same time. If good, make it permanent, if not, find out why.

4.We will always run older targets until the test targets are ready for permanent release.

Yay!!! 

Overall 

I like it, however the public opinion of the game is down. https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/658911

Go vote what you think they deserve. Planning on a post about the reactions. 

Until next time, Film at 11 

Weekly-September 9th

Changes 

I was planning on doing this post about the Weekly update, but then I found the September event tips and tricks, so I started on that, but then I found the State of the Game. I'm gonna do a quick rundown the weekly and tips, but the main focus will be on the State of the Game. Doing them all on separate posts to help with archives and finding info. 

Links to other posts : 

http://ouchbattlepirates.blogspot.com/2016/09/state-of-game-fall.html

Campaign 

https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/656960

The Phantom warfare campaign is here, levels 40+. With 5 run throughs with the time decreasing by half until reaching 1 hour, starting at 12 hours long to complete.  This campaign runs until the 13th of September at 12PM PDT Link to Time Zone Converter. 

Prizes? Yeah, there are some Prizes

Prize Pack 1-12 hours to finish

• Phantom Barracuda - Has 5% better concussive resistance, and the overworld cloak, but at the cost of 10 hours extra build time, coming in at a cost of 1 day and 7 hours. 
• Assault Torpedoes D63-B - The best torpedoes for beginners, with 4 hours build, 560 base damage, and +5% speed. 

Prize Pack 2-6 hours to finish 

• Phantom Spectre - Has a built in 20% concussive damage bonus, and the overworld cloak ability. Extra 12 hour build time for a final of 1 day and 15 hours. 
• Assault Torpedoes D63-Z - The bigger brother of the D63-B with better damage, weighs 15 tons more, but everything else is the same. Choose this over the D63-B if you have extra space. 

Prize Pack 3-3 hours to finish 

• Phantom Nighthawk - Over the R10 version of the Nighthawk, I would choose the normal R10. The only advantage the Phantom has is the Overworld cloak for Snipping. The Captivity of these has not been raised!!!
• Skrismer Torpedoes D63-R - The bigger brother of the D63-Z, which was in turn the bigger brother of the D63-B. With higher damage, and a +2 range boost. The downsides? Double the build time, 130+ on the weights, and 7 second reload instead of 6. If you are looking for that DPS boost and have free build tokens, and a high rank, go for this. If not, stay with the D63-Z and switch to this when you are ranked high. 

Prize Pack 4-1 hour to finish 

• Phantom Tigershark - With an +80% concussive bonus, +50% scattergun reload and 10% better evade along with remote targeting evade, the Phantom Tigershark is geared towards base assaults and scattergun using. Again, the best ability is the Overworld Cloak, making it impossible to hit on the map, really useful when hitting bases and needing a hot exit. 
• Charon Torpedoes - The highest ranged torp and the first Scourge one.  With high damage at 948, and 88 range. But no speed bonus and 10 hour build time. Mixed builds work best if you are dealing with a slower sub, Nighthawk. 

Prize Pack 5-1 hour to finish 

• 2x 24 hour HellWraith tokens, can only be used on the Hellwraith and can not be traded or sold or anything similar. 
• 3 Day ship build token, can be used on anything. 

Weekly Mission Changes 

In addition to the D63-B and Charon being in this campaign, they are also being added into the weekly, so that everyone can atleast have a semi-decent torpedoe. The D63-B is being added to tier 1, spot 2 and Charon to Tier 4, spot 3.

Bug fixes 

One of my favorite parts of the weekly update, showing us where Kixeye done fucked up. Yes, I copied this directly from the Forums, its easier to do the commentary this way. 

Fixed an issue where the Infernal Core was doing more damage than it should.

-This was the reason why most people was getting the 5 minute damage from the Campaign without being hit directly or under the explosion. The range of this weapon is well over 100, there is way possible way to do the campaign without damage, even using subs. Lowering the damage is very helpful to those without high armored subs, such as predators. 

Fixed an issue where the range boost gained from the A:T-R Transformer was not being applied. 

-This was a major issue, I was also affected, nice to know now that my Drac Scattergun can't be sniped anymore from the South-West. 

Fixed an issue where the name and avatar for one of the players participating in a spectated PvP combat would not be displayed in the top left of the combat HUD.

-Always annoying, will help to find who has been snipping fleets, especially in a busy sector. 

Corrected an issue that prevented Engine Modules from dictating the world map speed of a Mega Ship.

-This seems kinda major, engine modules not giving buffs to the map speed of mega hulls

Damage dealt to the enemy in a base defense style Campaign will no longer incorrectly reduce the health displayed in the HUD for the defender.

-Another annoying thing 

Adjusted the text displayed in the ship context menu for Mega Ships so that the player name doesn't overlap with the "Co-Op" text.

-Good text fix 

Set the name displayed for the Hyperion in the Gantry back to just "Hyperion".

-What was it before?

September WIP and Plasma

Posting schedule

Hey you, it's been a while. I have my plate full with school, so posts wont be coming in as regular as they used to.  Expect one every week either on tuesday or wednesdays, and of course the days before the raid and during the raid itself. If I do miss a major happening, such as WIP or intro of new targets or *gasp* a raid, head over to Doxy's page or Wim's facebook group. I highly recommend those pages for everything.

Now, on to the WIP

WIP

Pssst buddy, Hey buddy! Click me for the offical WIP

https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/656973

Previews and what we have learned from them 

Kixeye had the preview(s) for the next raid on last Thursday and Friday. With the first day for the Prizes and the second day for the Targets. Good choice on letting the player base test both the prizes and targets, helpful no? 

This way is extremely beneficial for selective players. For example, if you wanted to see only the targets, go on the second day and save space for people who wanted the see the prizes on the first day. Breaking up the preview also allows for more feedback. If you have 200 people do feedback, and half do prizes and the other half targets, you have 100 each. However, if you have 400 people over two days, you are guaranteed at least 200 feedback responses for either targets or prize. 

Oh, and speaking of people within the server. Kixeye has now allowed certain groups of people, most likely the most vocal people of the community, to join the server starting at 11:30am. With the streamers unable to share the passwords, this is a major upgrade to before. 

How is it an upgrade? 

Well, recording the preview allows for more players to see what to expect in the raid, instead of keeping it within the 400 lucky souls that got to play it. 

But Ouch37, normal players stream it too and record and upload to Youtube. 

Yes they do, however, how many people will be watching your stream or recording? Especially if they could go and play themselves, god forbid? Allowing the big names, like Liam99 or Price for example, to stream it allows for far more people to see what they should be expecting come the 15th. 

I'm gonna be going over the targets found in the preview on a late date, too much to cover today. 

Phantom Warfare

It's finally here! After a literal month of waiting for it. Kinda weird how it comes out only a week before the raid, with technology you absolutely need for the raid, weird. With the Phantom versions of the Barracuda, Spectra, Nighthawk and Tigershark available again. Torpedoes and specials should hopefully coming with them, no word yet. The prize limit for the NH and Tigershark hasn't been changes, far as I know. 

Raid-Rise of the Warlords! 

Borbas died sadly, RIP-Reavers in Painduetolostofdearleader. Reavers split into warlords, bah bah, attacking anyone, bah bah, it's now Kevin Costner's Waterworld, bah bah. 

Kixeye is all of their infinite wisdom and love of Borderlands, has changed the names of the target groups from A, B, C sets into tiers! 

S set into Tier 5 

A set into Tier 4 

B set into Tier 3 

C set into Tier 1+2 

The prizes for the next raid are as follows... 

Fury 

Conqueror, best weapon to use is Scatterguns. 

Conflagration Scattergun

Surface Scattergun that explodes targets upon destruction. 

(If this doesnt have a salvo of 13, i'm gonna complain to the kixeye's art department) 

Hydroxide Injector

Think of the Hydroxide Barrels

Hiving 'dem Megashippers 

Hiving is coming to fruition, along with it a new drone module. 

Here is the original text from the forums 

"With the coming of Mega Ships, we’ve already seen an increase in player vs. player combat in some sectors. Now, Mega Ship owners in the same Alliance will be able to join forces to create a “hive”. A Megaship can start a ‘Hive’ on a Hive node on the World map. Nodes can be found in the corners of sub sector bases. Other Mega Ships from the same Alliance can ‘link’ to the first Mega Ship or the Hive node, and other Mega Ships can subsequently link to these Megas, creating a Hive grid. Mega Ships on the outside of the Hive must be attacked before those on the inside, allowing Alliances to strategically configure their defenses. Once a Megaship is linked, it can send and receive support to nearby Hive Megaships, provided the appropriate bridge is equipped. Megaships in a Hive with these bridge modules can provide protection and boosts to each other, up to the specified link distance.


The first phase of this will be the introduction of Drone Modules to Mega Ships, which will aid you in combat against enemy fleets. Additionally, a Drone Bridge will allow your Drone Modules to join an allies’ Mega Ship battle so long as they are linked in proximity. More details to follow soon!"

Let's deconstruct this into several points.

• Megaships will be able to join together into a Hive 
• You must be in the same alliance to create a Hive 
• When attacking the Hive, you must attack in order of last added, i.e. if you created the hive and other people attached onto your hive, you will be attacked last. (really good thing actually, I'll explain later)
• Each Hived ship can boost the defenses of other hived ships within a certain distance 
• Drone Modules are coming, sending out drones of ?regular ships? 

Now, why is the creator the last being attacked helpful? 

A smaller and newer Megaship owner can create the hive, other stronger players who have A-10 styled Megaships. This allows for the new owner to collect resources to upgrade his megaship easier without the risk of losing the resources. Basically a safer way of mining for res without people stealing them. 

September Forsaken Mission 

There is a new 102 test targets to, um..., test. Only for a week, then changed then added for good. 

Taking 13 hits to reach tier 5, taking less than the 87 to reach tier 5. Citadels (Explosive damage, Mortars) will be most effective. Kixeye pinky promised it will be easily then 107's. Video of my playthrough of it will be up soon. 

The 109's are coming back, after some tweaking. 

The 87's are also being tweaked to up the damage 

The 107's are going out of style, and Kixeye being the hip-cutlure savvy company is phasing them out. By October, they will be gone. To prepare for this, they are spawning less. 

I highly recommend that you start hitting the 109's and 102's instead of the 107's. Think back to the change of targets, and kixeye was allowing us to hit the new targets before they became the only targets. You can still hit the old targets, 107's, but they will be gone soon sadly. 

New Prizes 

3 new prizes into Tier 5, and 1 each into tier 3 and 4. 

Tier 3 

• Splash Dispersion System I-Thinking this will increase the splash and damage at the edge of the splash radius. 

Tier 4 

• Shockwave Plate III-The successor to the Shockwave Plate II, with 2285 armor, 457 weight, 4000 shockwave deflection, and 21 hour build time without Officer-already in Huggy's

Tier 5

• Shockwave Plates IV-The successor to the Shockwave Plate III, with 2775 armor, 555 weight, 5000 Shockwave deflection, and 1 day and 2 hour build time without Officer-already in Huggy's
• Splash Dispersion System II-Upgrade to the SDS1, but with higher stats. 
• Solar Reinforcements-Thinking its gonna be like the Solar Panels, but not entirely sure. 

VXP Weekend+VXP Bulk Buy+Increased Fragment drop

Coming soon to a weekend near you! 

Tier 5 Assault Class Foundry

The Apollo is being added to the Foundry, at Tier 5. costing at an estimated 196 fragments total. The prerequisite blueprints are being added to the Weekly. (Switchblade and Counter Missile Extender) 

No news on R1-5 sadly, nor paint jobs. 

Plasma 

Now that I have finished with the WIP, time for another edition of 

"Speculation With Ouch!"

(Link to see in better size-http://i.imgur.com/V3WWLWP.jpg) 

(Credit to RobertJr of TheDarkAlliance.org, used without permission, I am a pirate) 

Plasma damage is the new Corrosive damage, and deals damage equal to listed on everything except ships with  Assault, Siege, and/or Turret defense, which deflections it until a minimum passthrough damage. . The only way to counter this is to use those deflections I just mentioned. 

Remember back to the introduction of Radioactive damage, and how we had no way to counter it, or Concussive, or Corrosive. The best advice I have for you is to upgrade the D4-M,X,C into D5-M,X,C, CT, CO. Whatever fits best to your liking. Will having an extra, let's say, 60 deflection by use of  3 D5-M help against the Executioner Missile in the old 109's, versus 3 D4-M 

The missile delivers 8,990 damage Penetration and 899 Plasma between 4 salvos. 

Each salvo will then do 2,247.5 damage Pen and 224.75 Pla. 

Lets use a ship without resistance first to find the base damage difference and then on a Punisher. 

Having 3 D4-M provides a Pen defense of 27.1% and no deflection. 

27.1% defense against a single salvo will end with 1768.3 damage per salvo and 224 plasma. Ending with 1992 total damage. 

PEN-(salvo damage)/(defense bonus)-(deflection)=(finial damage) 

2247.5/1.271-0=1768.3

PLA-(salvo damage)-(deflection)=(finial damage) 

224-0=224

Total damage comes to 1992

Having 3 D5-M provides a Pen defense of 38.6% and 60 deflection 

38.6% defense and 60 deflection against a single salvo will end with 1561 damage per salvo and 164 plasma. Ending with 1725 total damage 

PEN-(salvo damage)/(defense bonus)-(deflection)=(final damage) 

2247.5/1.386-0=1561

PLA-(salvo damage)-(deflection)=(final damage) 

224-60=164

Total damage comes to 1725

The difference between those two? 

1992/1725= .865 

An 86% less damage taken. Doesn't seem too much of a difference, but let's apply this to a fictitious ship with 20k armor. 

The ship with D4-M will survive 10 salvos. 

The ship with D5-M will survive 11 salvos. 

Not too much of a difference, how about a ship with inert 50% missile protection? 

(2247)/(1.636-1.693)-(20-60)=total damage Pen

(224)-(0-60)=total damage Pla

Total damage Pen+Total Damage Pla=Final damage 

20,000/final damage=survivability 

The ship with D4-M will survive 12 salvos 

The ship with D5-M will survive 13 salvos

What?!?!? Adding stronger armor and deflection will only net you a betterment of one more salvo hit? Yeap. 

Now lets try it out on empty punishers! Note the deflection of the punisher is a base of 500, already over the plasma damage. As we don't know the minimum passthrough damage, let's just use 20 damage. 

(2247)/(1.708-1.754)-(500-560)=Total Damage Pen 

20=total damage Pla

Total damage Pen+20=Final Damage

(12470-13970)/final damage=survivability  

Punisher with D4-M at 12470 armor will survive 15 salvo shots 

Punisher with D5-M at 13970 armor will survive 18 salvo shots 

Mhm... Lets try this a couple more times the armor all the same, constant at 13970 during all tries, and let's change the defense to 70.8% one time then 75.4%, deflection to 500 one time, and another one at 560. 

Starting with the defense change 

(2247)/(1.754)-(500-560)=Total Damage Pen+20=Final Damage

(13970)/Final Damage=Survivability

Punisher with D4-M at 13970 armor will survive 17 salvo shots 

Punisher with D5-M at 13970 armor will survive 19 salvo shots 

The higher Deflection wins, makes sense.

The better deflection wins, what about when the defense is changed to 70.8% 

(2247)/(1.708)-(500-560)=Total Damage Pen+20=Final Damage

(13970)/Final Damage=Survivability

Punisher with D4-M at 13970 armor will survive 17 salvo shots 

Punisher with D5-M at 13970 armor will survive 18 salvo shots 

The high deflection wins again, but the first Pun is the same for the first one in the last test. Showing that 4.6% difference doesnt add much when deflection is at 500, but does matter when there is a 60 difference.

Now for the Deflection set to 500

(2247)/(1.708-1.754)-(500)=Total Damage Pen+20=Final Damage

(13970)/Final Damage=Survivability

Punisher with D4-M at 13970 armor will survive 17 salvo shots 

Punisher with D5-M at 13970 armor will survive 17 salvo shots 

No matter the resistance, the deflection looks to be the deciding matter here.

Once more with Deflection to 560

(2247)/(1.708-1.754)-(560)=Total Damage Pen+20=Final Damage

(13970)/Final Damage=Survivability 

Punisher with D4-M at 13970 armor will survive 18 salvo shots 

Punisher with D5-M at 13970 armor will survive 19 salvo shots 

Yeap, a 60 deflection difference, gives you 2 extra salvos of protection. 

So at the end of the day, Deflection is the most worthwhile thing to have on your ships. Overall, if you can fit D5 into your ship, fit it in there. The boosted defense bonus doesnt matter much, but if you could improve upon the armor in the same resistance field, do it.


Another post coming, hopefully, on either Wednesday or Thursday.

Film at 11