The Analysis of Infinite Space, Part 4: Ship Equipment
Apologies for the long delay between posts (again); I was struggling to deal with the massacre in Orlando and its brutal aftermath. This explains why spent a great deal of time (a whole week, in fact) watching footage of old light gun games, trying to draw parallels between those and Sea of Stars. In those games you were a lone soldier pitched against hundreds of enemy infantry per level, and when playing Sea of Stars while the enemy presence is set as high as possible, it can sometimes feel like that, although with the right gear, ships and strategy one can obliterate even the strongest enemy fleets with ease.
Having discussed in detail the various weapons in Sea of Stars, I will now describe the other types of starship equipment featured in that game. Any piece of equipment that is not a weapon, interstellar drive or sublight thruster is classified as a ship system, and these fall into one of six categories: shields, targeting computers, countermeasures, repair systems, scanners, and unique items. I will now describe each category in order.
Shields protect a ship's hull from weapons fire. Generally, stronger shields can absorb more damage before being depleted, although they take longer to recharge (or not at all in the case of the Temporal Flux Shield) and will need more time before they replenish. All of these are obtainable by normal means, except for the Aethric Nimbus Shield, which is as strong as a Proton Matrix Shield but can begin recharging almost immediately after it has been depleted, and is only obtainable by creating one with a Timeless Bauble. However, in addition to being standard equipment on Primordius' space station, it can also be selected for use in custom scenarios, where any shield can be installed on any vessel, including fighters, which would otherwise only be able to carry nothing stronger than an Electron Matrix Shield.
Targeting computers improve the fire rate and accuracy of a ship's weapons suite. In all cases, higher-end computers provide greater increases in both accuracy and fire rate, although one of these systems, the Sardion Maximizer, is only obtainable by returning the Sardions to their homeworld in the Urluquai Crusade quest. You will, however, certainly need it to destroy the Urluquai flotilla that spawns immediately afterwards, since it makes your task far easier. The Maximizer is also available freely in custom scenarios.
Countermeasures systems deflect incoming missiles whenever they are fired at your ship. Only two such systems are available: the Hyperwave Tele-Scrambler and the Signature Projector. Both work in the same way; the latter is simply far more effective (and expensive - at 750 credits it's six times the price of a scrambler!). As such, if your target carries missiles, it is generally a good idea to install these systems on at least one of your capital ships.
Scanners show the current locations of every alien flotilla on the map. The Hyperwave Filter Array can only detect flotillas in the vicinity; the Continuum Renderer Array can detect every flotilla in the sector (except for Primordius, unless your flotilla travels close enough to the black hole it orbits). Other quest-specific flotillas, however, do not need to be detected using scanners. Moreover, scanner ranges are stackable, so the detection range of your flotilla is increased further if scanners are installed on multiple capital ships. On the other hand, they provide no advantages in direct combat.
In addition to the above types of equipment, there are three items that don't belong in the categories previously described. The Nebular Extent Calculator highlights all nearby nebular boundaries, and takes into account the effects of nebulae when plotting a course; although its effects are stackable, there is seldom any need to use more than one of them. The Anti-Graviton Shunt prevents your flotilla from being destroyed by the gravitational pull of a black hole and allows it to orbit such systems with impunity, as well as giving you the ability to travel directly between black holes; since it is standard on the Damocles, you must ensure it survives until you reach Primordius, unless you have another capital ship so equipped, or choose to erase Primordius from existence with a Limited Vacuum Collapser. The Plasma Coil Cloaker allows any ship equipped with it to cloak itself; although a cloaked ship cannot fire, it cannot be detected by hostile vessels either, making this system a very useful tool for ambushes, and since the Urluquai Deep Hunters use this by default, they can be particularly nasty in close quarters.
In short, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each ship system is on its own insufficient to guarantee victory; you must determine the best way to use them in order to defeat a well-armed enemy flotilla.
Shields protect a ship's hull from weapons fire. Generally, stronger shields can absorb more damage before being depleted, although they take longer to recharge (or not at all in the case of the Temporal Flux Shield) and will need more time before they replenish. All of these are obtainable by normal means, except for the Aethric Nimbus Shield, which is as strong as a Proton Matrix Shield but can begin recharging almost immediately after it has been depleted, and is only obtainable by creating one with a Timeless Bauble. However, in addition to being standard equipment on Primordius' space station, it can also be selected for use in custom scenarios, where any shield can be installed on any vessel, including fighters, which would otherwise only be able to carry nothing stronger than an Electron Matrix Shield.
Targeting computers improve the fire rate and accuracy of a ship's weapons suite. In all cases, higher-end computers provide greater increases in both accuracy and fire rate, although one of these systems, the Sardion Maximizer, is only obtainable by returning the Sardions to their homeworld in the Urluquai Crusade quest. You will, however, certainly need it to destroy the Urluquai flotilla that spawns immediately afterwards, since it makes your task far easier. The Maximizer is also available freely in custom scenarios.
Countermeasures systems deflect incoming missiles whenever they are fired at your ship. Only two such systems are available: the Hyperwave Tele-Scrambler and the Signature Projector. Both work in the same way; the latter is simply far more effective (and expensive - at 750 credits it's six times the price of a scrambler!). As such, if your target carries missiles, it is generally a good idea to install these systems on at least one of your capital ships.
Scanners show the current locations of every alien flotilla on the map. The Hyperwave Filter Array can only detect flotillas in the vicinity; the Continuum Renderer Array can detect every flotilla in the sector (except for Primordius, unless your flotilla travels close enough to the black hole it orbits). Other quest-specific flotillas, however, do not need to be detected using scanners. Moreover, scanner ranges are stackable, so the detection range of your flotilla is increased further if scanners are installed on multiple capital ships. On the other hand, they provide no advantages in direct combat.
In addition to the above types of equipment, there are three items that don't belong in the categories previously described. The Nebular Extent Calculator highlights all nearby nebular boundaries, and takes into account the effects of nebulae when plotting a course; although its effects are stackable, there is seldom any need to use more than one of them. The Anti-Graviton Shunt prevents your flotilla from being destroyed by the gravitational pull of a black hole and allows it to orbit such systems with impunity, as well as giving you the ability to travel directly between black holes; since it is standard on the Damocles, you must ensure it survives until you reach Primordius, unless you have another capital ship so equipped, or choose to erase Primordius from existence with a Limited Vacuum Collapser. The Plasma Coil Cloaker allows any ship equipped with it to cloak itself; although a cloaked ship cannot fire, it cannot be detected by hostile vessels either, making this system a very useful tool for ambushes, and since the Urluquai Deep Hunters use this by default, they can be particularly nasty in close quarters.
In short, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each ship system is on its own insufficient to guarantee victory; you must determine the best way to use them in order to defeat a well-armed enemy flotilla.
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