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 

Raid Thoughts

Raid Thoughts and the 106 Problem 

The Raid is over, and with it the record high of 1 billion points, and a record of behind the scene changes of Kixeye. From adding missiles with 1000% and 13.5K damage to a cannon with 1000 damage, 2 second reload, and a single salvo, oh yeah with an accuracy of 1000%.

Proof:http://www.thedarkalliance.org/forum/threads/988-August-Raid-Trickery?p=7539#post7539

 Mind you this was in a single target, 106. The other targets were easier than before to many player's perception, until about halfway through the raid and many reported increased damages. 

What does this mean? 

Kixeye doesn't know how hard or how easy some sets are, and they aren't willing to test them out on the player base first to judge them.

If you remember back to the Preview server on the 9th, the only targets available were the Drac mine bases and the Reaver Armadas. Nothing detailing the raid in 3 days, just the prizes. 

h 

While this is useful for deciding what to get, Kixeye should also allow the players to test all the targets available in the raid, and not just the prizes. This allows for the players to give feedback upon the targets, and make last minute changes. Not allowing the players to test the targets, leads to 106's. 

Remember the July Raid? With the Vanquisher prize? Now the Preview? What could we all hit during the Preview? 

Player bases to test out the Vanquisher, which was very nice, don't get me wrong there. But Kixeye didn't let the players test out any changes to the raid targets. Which was a large mistake. 

Previously the S target was overrun with missiles, but with countermeasures they were cheaper and easier than A sets. People who were doing the A sets switched over to S sets for an easier gameplay. 

Kixeye noticed this change, and thus changed the S sets into 2 targets and increased the damage.

This raid, people jumped from S sets to A sets. Because of the difficulty of S sets, and it was cheaper and faster to do A sets.  

Kixeye blindly adjusts the targets, without getting the vital feedback critical to the raid's success. 

With the success being judged upon the number of people who (were) "Interested", "Went" and "Invited" on the Battle Pirates Facebook. With the numbers decreasing within this raid series, by 800 people after the first raid, and 300 people after the Allegiance Raid. 

Now, this doesn't seem that high to the current 65K people playing on Kixeye site, through all of their games. But the last series, only 3 raid long. lost only about 50 people! 

Now, you could be claiming that the number dropped because of the number of people "invite" to the raid. However, if you compare the number of people "invited" from Revenge Raid 2 to Schism. it's still a huge drop. 

Revenge Raid 2 had 3618 people invited, and 6089 went. 

Schism had 3589 people invited, and 4300 went. 

So, the number of people invented doesn't matter. Defiance had 1,800 more people who went than Civil War Escalation, but both drew the same number of invited. 

The Initially drop between the first two raids in Civil War are to blame for this, with the initial Mega Hull hardness. What did Kixeye do to the difficulty of this target?  

But the Elite (S) was changed after Escalation, if it lead for players to choose it over A sets. 

All in All, Kixeye needs to start doing thee things and stop doing a single thing. 

Do these 

• Tell the players of any changes to the targets, such as lowering difficulty 
• Report the number of players that legitimately played the raid, such as getting more than 100k points, to weed out those who try, get a little amount of points, and quit
• Open up a live preview server (more about this below) 

Don't do these 

• Leave the preview only for testing the prizes, bring in the new targets and let the players test them before you have another drop again. 

Live Preview Server 

The last preview lasted 2 hours, and had GD Raiken in the chat along with other kix employees, nice touch. The preview was only for testing the prizes, bad touch. 

Now, what I believe ya'll should do is this 

• Increase the time from 2 hours to 4 hours
• included a popup feedback after every target, can be disabled, for the first 15 minutes of combat every half hour. 
• update the server every 30 minutes based upon the feedback in the popup 

Now, the feedback popup should look like the basic feedback we sometimes get. With a scale of 1-10 in bubble form , and a description box.  Take away the description box and add in basic info, again all in bubble form, such as fleet, most damage from, coin amount. 

At the end of the 15 minutes of combat, change the targets based upon the feedback received, not from all the targets, but from a lottery of 10. Average out the score, and adjust when necessary. Keep on doing this every 30 minutes for 4 hours, you should be able to reach the perfect level of difficulty. 

Until in a few days where I post something else, keep those tinfoil hats on and fingers crossed. 

Schism-What to get/104's

First day in 

This raid is the same as the past 3, but with a few changes. 

• There is now 2 targets for the S tier, 104 and 106, 2 million points and 3 million points respectively with a completion bonus of 5 million points. 
• The Heavy Cruiser's damage on their scatterguns has been halved, but only in some targets. 
• The whole raid popup to redeem prizes has had a major turnaround. 

Prize Redemption Screen 

Instead of having the prizes grouped into tiers, they are now grouped upon their class. Clicking on the More Prizes leads you into the specials, weapons, and turrets part of the prizes. Furthermore, now each prize shows what it recommends next to it to get for best utilization.

Points for each target and bonuses 

The points has remained the same from the raid raid, except for the Elite (S) set, which is now 10 million point totally instead of 4 million.

Set C:
40 - 8,650
43 - 13,500
47 - 18,000
C-set bonus - 40,000

Set B:
60 - 40,000
61 - 50,000
65 - 87,000
67 - 130,000
B-set bonus - 300,000

Set A:
80 - 340,000
83 - 450,000
86 - 550,000
A-set bonus - 1,350,000

Elite Set:
104 - 2,000,000
106 - 3,000,000
S-set bonus - 5,000,000

The New Prizes 

We finally got a Limited Flagship Punisher, and it's okay. 

 

While this hull has a couple up sides, such as better armour, Ballistic reload and damage, Siege Deflection, and a pretty good Flagship affect. The Downsides? 50% handicap, no penetrating or explosive defense, no Assault Deflection, and a whooping 18 day build time with officer in the days of lowered build times. Oh and the limited edition has 3 less weapon slots.

This prize comes in at 50 million points. At this price, you can earn the HellWraith, Fire Twister Torpedo, Sealed Fire Charge, and 8 hours off your build time.

Here's a chart if you wanna compare them yourself.

The Flagship Affect you ask?
Each Punisher in fleet receives; +30% Ballistic defense, +40% Radioactive Defense, +50% Ballistic Reload

The HellWraith (HW) is the first of Reaver Submarines. 

Where to begin on this? With +100% projectile speed, and +150% torpedo damage, 30 combat speed, built in cloak, and concussive defense of 80%, along with a reaver overload. This sub is clearly top of the line, but coming in at a 30 million price tag. The highest for new ships not limited. While it is nice to have the best ship to use the next raid this raid, the price could be dropped to 20 or 25 million.

Along with the HW, comes the Fire Twister Torpedo.

The weapon that fits the beast above. With fast projectile speed, splash damage, lower reload and higher damage than the scourge torpedoes. While this weapon does have splash, it works as a dumbfire weapon, meaning that fires upon a location instead of following the ships.

Paired with the new torpedoe is a new special, Sealed Fire Charge.

This special combines Splash and Projectile Speed, like Combustion Systems, but also has torpedoes critical chance increased, along with the damage it causes. For those who don't know, Critical chance is where the damage is doubled. The downside to this special is the -10% cloak, but lucky the hull it was created to be paired with has 25% cloak built in.

The three new Reaver items come in at 49 million points all together.

The Prize List 

Kixeye has released the best ship to use for the next raid this raid, along with the specials and other ships recommend to use. But with that being said, most of the prizes are for the high up levels, and does not offer a lot of variety for lower levels.          highlighted items are worth it,      means I do not recommend it, and         is I'm either way on it.

Hulls                                             Cost               Limit if it applies 

Vassago's Punisher                    50,000,000                1         
-Coming in at 50 million points and 18 days to build with Officer, I don't see the point in building it.     
Destroyer ECM                        40,000,000                                     
-Useful for Subfleets, but in the day of  Thermal?                 

Hellwraith                                 30,000,000                                   
-Best sub to use for the next raid, and second best sub of all time? 

Revenge                                    15,000,000                                    
-Still great for base hits                 

Apollo                                       12,500,000                                 
This is the last raid, you can use these to hit the 91 MegaShips for your own Megaship, but limited use
Punisher                                    12,500,000
-The current work horse for a lot of players, and amazing
Omega Behemoth                      11,000,000                1
-Great when paired with ballistic fleets, but limited use
Prototype Hunter                     10,000,000                5
When built right can take down Armadas with ease, but any other use a Rhino can do better
Savage Kodiak                          10,000,000                1
-Just like the Omega, but with Missiles.
Unshackled Hellhound              10,000,000                1
-Who still uses throwers?
Centurion                                    9,000,000
-Get the Punisher instead, better investment 
Draconian Carrier                        9,000,000
-Has its uses, but nothing major
Tiger Shark                                  9,000,000
-You are gonna need submarines next raid, easier to buy this instead of hitting 47+ level 70 Armadas 
Heavy Cruiser                              7,500,000
-Who uses these? 
Monarch                                       6,500,000                5
-Limited uses sadly, great concept, but cant compete with Drac UAV carrier
Citadel                                           6,250,000
-Useful in the Forsaken mission and base hits, but rumors of FM changing so, would be green if I didnt keep hearing them
Highlander's Nuclear Cruiser        4,500,000               1
-Read what I wrote for Savage and Omega
Nighthawk                                    2,500,000
-Spectre is comparably better and cheaper
Rhino                                             1,750,000
-Missile work horse of many players, and very cheap

Spectre                                             900,000
-Comparably better than the nighthawk, and cheaper
Barracuda                                         125,000
-18+ level 71 cargo hits, but you don't need the components. Spectre is still better sadly. 
Corvette                                              20,000
-Gunboats

Weapons 

Name                                                Cost 

Fire Twister Torpedo                         12,000,000
-Best Torpedos in game currently
Particle Accelerator Cannon               9,000,000
-Earthshaker cannon is comparably better to this, and half as much 
Switchblade Anti-Missile                   9,000,000
-Blades are in tier 4 of FM, and don't have to worry about primary and secondary weapons
Concussive Gatling Gun                    7,500,000
-Combine these with Revenge or Hunters, works like a charm, or any ship really. 
Railgun D-110                                   6,000,000
-Arbs are still in tier 4 right? 
Styx Torpedo                                   6,000,000
-If you cant get FTT, this work just as well, with DoT 
Heavy Scattergun D81-H                   6,000,000
-Heavy weapons are all the rage, make sure to get this hot weapon (joking)
Scattergun D81-M                            6,000,000
-27k uranium to build each one? Hell no 
Antipode Launcher D98-U                5,500,000
-Second ever time being offered, get this if you need a better launcher. 
Judgment Mortar                               5,500,000
-Easier to get in FM, but if you can'
Charon Torpedo                                5,000,000
-Think of the Havok Torpedoes, but with higher damage, better range, faster projectiles. If you can't get other torpedoes, get these. 
Bomber UAV D100-S                      5,000,000
-Only good when paired with the Drac Carrier 
Blaze Thrower                                  5,000,000
-Somewhat useful, not really though. 
Assault Disruptor D33-DR               4,500,000
-Still a great cannon, if you want your Arbs to hit fast ships, pair them with these because of the slow properties. 
Earthshaker Cannon                            4,500,000
-The go to weapon for DUB's, and comparably better than PAC's
Locust UAV                                      4,500,000
-Best UAV for any hull
Trident                                                 900,000
-Only really low level weapon, and still costs 11 C sets, get it if you don't have any better. 

Specials                                            Cost                   Limit if it applies 

Infernal Core                                     10,000,000
-I don't get the point of the Death Weapon and the damage it causes, but suicide ships have a use for it
Sealed Fire Charge                               7,000,000
-Brand new special, helps to increase projectile speed and increase the chance of critical hit and damage.
Magnus Drive 2                                 6,000,000
-The go to special for subs, get it if you can't get to tier 4
Counter-Missile Extender                  6,000,000
-Been offered the past 4 raids, and not really worth it
Barrel System 3                                 5,000,000
-Can be used to increase the countermeasure portion of the Switchblade, from 2 to 4.
Stealth Attack System IV                  3,500,000
-If you cant get it in tier 4 FM
Firebat Drones III                              3,000,000
-Who uses drones? You can get a day build token instead of this.
Wake III                                             3,000,000
-Used to be useful with 85 FM, but not anymore
UAV Powercell                                   2,500,000
-Go to special for UAV's
Heavy Plating III                                2,000,000
-Great for defending ships, haven't seen this a lot, grab it if you can.
Hydraulic Resistors                            1,500,000                     5
-Speed system, tier 4, and unlimited use.
Stealth Attack System III                    1,300,000
-Tier 3 if you can, save your points
Stealth Attack System II                        200,000
-Tier 2, and really not worth it. 

Turrets                                              Cost                     Limit if it applies 

Coldsnap Rocket Turret                  15,000,000                       1
-Big brother to the Frostbite, limited but better in every way

Glacial Launcher Turret                  15,000,000                       1
-Remember how game changing the Wendigo was? Like it, but with that really useful reload, speed, and defense lowerer
Apocalypse Mortar                         12,000,000 

-Best turret Mortar in game

Grade A turrets are always useful to improve your base defense. Try to create your channel to which the attacker stops because of a base patrol ship, or a turn, make sure to have these turrets cover that area for best use, being of splash weapons.

Armour                                           Cost         

Zynthonite Armor D5-X                     3,500,000
-Useful for reavers and FM, but if you can reach tier 4...

Zynthonite Armor D4-M                       350,000
-Get this if you need a heavy armor and have no missile defense

Tokens                                            Cost                       Limit 

Ship build - 1 hour                              120,000                        15

Ship build - 12 hours                       1,400,000                          9
Ship build - 24 hours                       2,750,000                          6

TOTAL-11 Days                              29,280,000

When have tokens ever been bad to buy? Free build time? Oh Yeah!

Shards                                                 Cost                         Limit 

Proto Nemesis Shard x5                     2,000,000                     4
Hellstar Shard x5                                2,000,000                     4
Ghostcrawler Shard x5                        2,000,000                     4
Man-O-War Shard x5                           2,000,000                     4

Getting closer to that Super hull is amazing, but it's best to spend your points first on other things.

Problems with 104's? 

If any of you have tried the 104's so far and found how hard they are. Check out this website to find out why http://www.thedarkalliance.org/forum/threads/988-August-Raid-Trickery?p=7539#post7539

Basically they have added new weapons to the enemy ships found in the 104 compared to the 91's, with higher damage and 1000% accuracy. 

If they are any data miners who read this blog and willing to send in data, please message me on facebook, or on kixeye, thank you. 

Link to Kixeye account here

Welcome back?

It's been a while 

Sorry about that whole month long break, some personal stuff again. During my time off, Mega Hulls came out, a TLC, a raid, and new mission prizes. I will not be covering the things I have missed, check out Doxy's site for amazing analysis and insight. I will be covering the upcoming raid starting on the 11th. Here is the tips and tricks for it, and the raid video below. 

Couple quick things from the video

• Reavers are coming back for the next 4 months 
• The top prize is a new submarine hull, named Hellwrath 
• New special for torpedoes, Sealed Fire Charge, sort of like the Superchared EM Rails, but with projectile speed bonus
• The new Torpedo weapon has splash, high damage, and with the Vulture ability. If the enemy's health is under 25% the chance of critical hit is 50% 

Known things about the raid 

• The format will be the same as last months, with two new targets 103 and 106 in the S series, the damage has been adjusted as well. 
• The Apollo will be featured

I will be back tomorrow with the prize list and my analysis. 

I am also planning on doing a crew rolling experiment, aka a part two to my earlier post. Just gotta save up a lot of uranium. 

Until then, I'll be in 106. 

July 6th Release notes

7/6 Notes 

The first release of the month, and it brings back TLC campaigns, hurrah!. While previous campaign offered tech that nullifies their unbuffed version, these additions only help to increase their use in battle. Daily Deals also has be changed to include Skins, such as a orange/blue scheme for the Vendetta hull. 

Dark Reigns TLC 

Start Date: Wednesday, July 6th, 2016 - 9 AM PST
End Date: Wednesday, July 13th - 9 AM PST

Duration: 7 days
Levels: 65 and above 

I will be uploading videos of my playthroughs on my Youtube Channel.

Prizes 

Unlike other campaigns, there is 5 different run throughs. All the limited prizes, you will only win one of them. The total capital of the Omega has not been increased. 

Run through  1 (5 encounters)

Countermeasure Equipment II

Countermeasure Loaders II

Gale Defense I


Run through  2 (6 encounters)

Countermeasure Equipment III

Countermeasure Loaders III

Gale Defense I, II


Run through 3 (7 encounters)

Omega Behemoth

Gale Defense I, II, III


Run through  4 (7 encounters)

Harlock’s Citadel-Flagship only

Gale Defence I, II, III


Run through 5 (7 encounters)

Zoe’s Apollo-Flagship only

Gale Defense I, II, III

Badge: Capture the Flagships 

If you complete all 5 run throughs of the campaign, you will earn 5 Gale 1, 4 Gale 2, and 3 Gale 3. 

The countermeasure equipment is a bit useless at this point. The minimum level for this campaign is 65, and at that level you should have been able to get that before. 

A better replacement would have been Frontline Countermeasure system and Barrel system. The FCS is a standard now on any hull that is countermeasure for it's use at the frontlines and supporting hulls. Barrel system helps with the Switchblade missile, as Kixeye looks to be still pushing it with Zoe's Apollo having a multi shot of +1. 

Harlock's Citadel 

The Harlock's Citadel comes with the same amount of DPS, but with an added bonus of better armor points, lower remote targeting falloff, better explosive and penetrative resistances, and one more weapon slot. Oh and 75% field resistance. 

The downsides? Half cargo, no S(h)ockWave deflection, and a whooping 15 day build. 

The Flagship effect is very interesting too, with 200% bonus to explosive damage and projectile speed. With the the effect being range confided instead of a full fleet affect, like ballistic reload and the Omega, this  might limit the usability of it a little bit. 

How? 

Every time I see a Citadel hit, they split up the the fleet into one of two ways. 

The spotter hull enters into the channel

Now this can turn into one of two ways 

Way 1: the Citadels follow from outside the channel in a pack 

Way 2: the Citadels split up, with each one covering a different part of the channel. 

Link to view chart in Google docs

Zoe's Apollo 

With some of the same basic stats of the nonlimited version, the limited version comes with better evade, penetrating and corrosive resistances, anti-missile range, and armor. 

But at the cost of a huge freaking buildtime and defense handicap. 

17 Days for a blank hull, during that time you can build 3 blank Apollo hulls. 

The flagship effect is just a bonus to defenses and reload within a 40 range. 

Personal Thoughts 

I would try and get the Citadel, but only if I could without a large bill. 

The Citadel's massive FoE is worth the build time, with +200% to projectile speed, the sun will be blocked out by mortar fire for sure. (Those poor midgets dancing on Warehouses). The Harlock is a good alternative to the R5 version also, but just remember that you can only get one. 

 The new Apollo is almost worthless when considering the massive build time for it. I would rather get the Savage Kodiak when it gets offered again and use it instead of the Zoe's Apollo. The bonus to reload is the same, but defense bonus is greater, and no range problems with it.  Any good build can escape the HC in the raids and outrange it's scatterguns. 

Not to mention that the Apollo should be receiving a retro this month, with it being the only tier 5 assault hull, and we are promised tier 5 for the Assault line this month. 

Event Preview server 

There is a Preview of the next raid this Friday at 12PM PDT until 3PM PDT. Remember that you can only join the preview if you play or started playing on Facebook. 

Link to time zone converter 

July WIP

July WIP 

https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/643404

Go read it, it's worth it.

Daily Deals and Dark Reign 

New deals are coming in in the store, with a Vendetta skin. The new campaign is called Dark Reign, it lasts for a week starting on July 6th, next Wednesday, for 65+. The prizes for this TLC are flagship limiteds  for Apollo and Citadel hulls. With 5 different run throughs to earn all the prizes. More news and prizes will be coming on next week's release.

July Event 

There is a limited space preview running on the 8th for the July event. The new prizes is a defender hull named the Vanquisher. The raid is still apart of the Civil War series and is named Allegiance. The raid starts on the 14th and runs for 4 days. 

*NOTE*

You can only join into the preview if you play or started the game on Facebook. 

Mega Ships for Players 

The 6 weeks for owning the Gantry is soon to close, and with it players will be getting their Mega Hulls, no new news at this time. Kixeye also promised to allow players to speed up the building of their Gantry on July 5th.

Weekly Mission Prize Additions 

These prizes are certainly better than last month's prizes.

The Shards in Tier 5 will be taken out on July 20th, make sure to collect them if you can.

• Concussive Reciprocator - Forsaken depth charge technology, allowing for sustained damage at a fixed range.

A new Special, I'm guessing this affect the splash damage at the edge of it, as the damage cuts in half at the edge of the splash radius.

• Minigun Turret - A focused, short-to-mid range concussive turret. Limited.

This turret will sink so many ships without deflection or concussive defense. This will definitely replace any remaining Pyros and Basilisk turrets.

• Expanded Concussive Charge - A turret special that increases Concussive damage and splash.

Meant to go along with the Minigun or any Gargoyles you have left.

• Zynthonite Armor D3-S; D4-S; D5-S - Draconian stealth armor.

Finally continuing the line of stealth armors. In good time too as the next couple events are gonna be heavy sub needed. The D5-S would combine the armor of bulkhead and the stealth of DS, a great addition. Bulkheads on subs was a very popular choice during the Arena Tournaments, this could provide the high health and stealth needed for subs, especially if the next event targets have super sonar. 

VXP Weekend 

Another one is coming from the 22nd to the 25th. The target types haven't be confirmed, but should be similar to the last ones, without the 123 reaver target. 

Skirmish line Preview 

Preview server is coming online on the 21st to test changes on subs before the line is released. This should be changing the repair to 100% and maybe a style change to the timer. 

The Skirmish class has in it.... (and tier next to it)

Barracuda-1
Battlecruiser-1
Battlecruiser X-1
Battleship-1.75
Sawfish-1.75
Spectre-2
Interdictor-2.5
Stingray 2.5
Nighthawk-3
Tiger Shark-4

Yes there is more hulls than this, but I have taken out limited and researchable. The most likely hulls to be included within the line are highlighted. Kixeye has been stressing for subs lately, and having the preview to see the changes, the line is gonna be dedicated for submarines.

Overall thoughts 

July is just gonna be another month, some good things are coming, some bad things are coming. Like asking the player base to pay $20 for a skin.