Star Trek Online....

So a new fit for a special ship. Since my last post about the potential fit framework I've since claimed the Lobi reward from the campaign. Things got started.

I was lucky a while ago to get the Risian Luxury Cruiser. I've had a mish-mash fit on it since I got it with little use overall. It's a rare enough ship and one that deserved a good fit. While I've always considered even my ad-hoc mish-mash fits as passable and better than most from a pug group perspective. For the players that know what they are doing however I am far far behind on the DPS front. I think 20 to 22k is great but those in the know sneeze and 100k dps casually drops out. It's a noticeable difference. Not a casual gap to bridge. This fit should go far to do so.

Of the reward lobi I only needed 600 of the 1000 claimed as there were 'only' three lobi consoles needed for the fit at 200 each, which is good. Really more accessible than I thought.

The Maru has a lot less slots to fit. So if a ship with a few more slots based on the Maru fit, using(for the most part) the same Lobi and reputation fit. Well it should be good right? Seems logical right?

There is license to alter and change based on that fit, this isn't a min/maxed all knowing stat perfect cloned version. With a template to follow there is a plan and a way forward to greater DPS.

So time to get the fit together.

My Risian cruiser has more module/officer slots/stations to fill above what is on the Maru fit. I've some officers with the same abilities as on the Maru fit and some I've added which I thought would help. Just not on the racial officers he has listed. So like the module slots I've mainly based the Boff abilities around survival with hull/shield heals and a side of extra buff to DPS.

Using the dual level 1 hull repairs in a swapping rotation has worked for me. Once you activate one it puts the other on a 50% cooldown. Seemed the better option then swapping out a level 2 slot where the Emergency Power to Weapons seemed to make more sense from a 'damage is better' perspective.

Besides the other Engineering spot was needed to maintain the same fit for level 1 and 2 Aux Power abilities.

The straying from the line is well on it's way. The more a fit shifts with choices and justifications the more it veers away from it's original 'plan'. Then again it was never going to be 100% the same. So my final fit is not the same as what was in 'the fit'.  No greater changes than with the quality I've been able to make the modules on top of the re-engineered stats. Speaking of which. I noted the overall stats as mentioned/seen in the video, then worked on what I could modify on each module/weapon to bring it in line as much as possible. Some of those stats listed in the video are beyond my knowledge. Like a weapon with 4 stats but when I buy it, it only has 3. I've no idea what was used to get them or how etc...(R&D voodoo perhaps). Knowledge fails here and to be honest there was so much going on with stats, upgrades, swapping and changing that I didn't want to dig for much more. This shiz is complicated enough for me. So yea, veering from the fit even more.

STO really is both sides of the coin. Really stupid easy on one side and a clouded in statistic mystery on the other. Freaking Eve Online players think they have it hard, snobbish pussies(and yea I'm an Eve player...I can say that); For true internet spreadsheets they need to play STO.

Overall with the fit 'done' the listed stats for this new build in space looked like this:

I like the way in the video he says the build will "hit like a truck" with Acc 71.3, Crit Chance of 41.8% and crit Severity of 191.5%

His noted stats:

So my stats with Acc of 95.9, Crit Chance of 20.9% and crit Severity of 150% shouldn't be 'that' far off the mark.... right.....

I'm after an imitation of super DPS not the same Timber super DPS numbers... In my view anything between 30k to 80k is gonna be fantastic as a result of this process.... Obviously the more the better.

Anyway back to the build.

On the vanity front I added these three as I had them spare.

So character skills and traits.

My main is Tactical. His Skills(also copied from the wolf's Maru fit video):

I've unlocked all the extra trait slots for him(Fleet marks and dil needed for those).

Personal Space Traits:

Starship Traits:

Space Reputation Traits:

Active Reputation Traits:

Here are the Endevour unlocks I have:

At this stage I've both varied off the mark and in other ways could never have been the same. There are so many variables from so many angles that characters really are stat pinatas. I'm amazed I got this far.

Module/Consoles, the fit and finish. Items fill a vacuum, where a weapon needs to go becomes a look at a set. Judgments are made and modules are fitted with one thing in mind. More DPS to try and make up for any statistical dps difference. An attempt to brute force the stats so to speak

Fore weapons and sets:

Aft weapons and sets:

Devices:

The mids, 3 of which were from reputations and the deflector from the Fleet Colony. Again easier to get then I thought.

Stats wise, like most of the other modules/weapons etc I've only been able to get so far with upgrades and re-engineer. I have limited resources even on my main. I don't spend cash on the game(Lifetime was a once off.... Lifetime = lifetime).

Other consoles:

 Lobi consoles:

So with all that done and fitted it's time to test it in action. My expectations were high.

In 8 solo patrols I ran (some repeats) and was surprised to see that the DPS charts measured only 15 to 18 k DPS. Disappointed does not describe my disbelief at the poor numbers I was seeing.

So I spent more zen/dil and time to upgrade more (as seen finally in the images above). In random pick up groups for 'proper' TFO's The results were still low. The same dps numbers I'd see with the ad-hoc fit I used previously on this ship.

Two charts to highlight that point.

 20.5k

And

18.6k

As I said above I was after an imitation of super DPS build not the exact same super high level DPS; Somewhere between 40k to 80k. So to see the same type of 18 to 20 k numbers that I had always gotten previously....

After the profanity and the exclamations, I'm left wondering what I've done so wrong in my version of this build.

Is it 'a thing' that Crit chance and Severity are the magic bullet stats!?

Am I really reading the DPS info right?

I really don't get it. These results call into question everything I have thought, considered and reasoned for the fit. Which leads me to cast doubts about my older understanding of the game.

Shouldn't this fit be at least in some way shape or form akin to 'the Maru' builds DPS, not less than 1/5th of it.

This researched, upgraded, buffed build did just about as well as my ad-hoc, no frills, leftover module sin the inventory build. I really don't get it.

I really, really don't get it.

I do know I'm done with anything 'Meta'. I've done well with my solo ad-hoc, gut feeling builds and they have proven themselves to me.

This build was a massive disappointment in practice. I can't overstate the disappointed jaw dropping nature of the results.

I can live with the use of Dil, free Zen, zen to dil and dil to zen, the energy credits that poured like water through a sieve called the exchange; But I feel like this experiment was such a waste of time. That's the killer. Time wasted in an effort that has zero long-term knowledge returns despite all the hard work in stat comparisons, research, attempting to understand the game and the 'meta'.

Noting I've seen as a result of this process has changed the results I had previously. The very definition of a waste of time.

I feel like I should shut up and face-roll my keyboard, while hammering the space-bar for more rewards and less cost. Or just forget about a fit, just go afk or stay with no level gear to still be marked as 'active' in TFO's.... I mean why bother at all.

Trying and failing is better then not trying at all as the saying goes. Well that's seeming a lot like empty rhetoric with this. It's contingent on some sort of learning in the process of failing, I'm baffled more now than when I started.

I feel like an idiot for even trying, as if 1 +2 + 3 doesn't equal 6. Snickering sounds coming from all around. Idiot who couldn't figure it out. I expected to learn and gain understanding from this process. But no, not a thing.

I don't get how I can warp into even the likes of a solo patrol, melt, literally melt everything before me in a much faster time than anything else I've done it on ...... And get a much lower DPS score than an ad-hoc, no research fit! I trust my gut and it's usually right... Except in this game on this subject.

The more I changed, the more I adjusted based on reason and research, the more I seem to loose DPS with this fit and character!

It's frustrating as!

It only got worse when I reshipped into my actual Maru and put on the 'Maru fit' modules just to see how it would perform in a no shíts given casual run in a random TFO....... And it did 18.5k DPS!!

18.5k dps, the same as it was on my Risian cruiser...!! Only this time without the extra forward beam bank and torpedo.... and less the two aft 360 beam banks! Half the weapons never mind minus the consoles and it still did the same DPS! Makes no FK'N sense to me!

So I went back to my last 3 ships. Upgraded over time and fitted by me under observation and gut. Noting fancy, upgraded to level 15 is about all. I needed to justify my own way of fitting.

3 ships, Bajoran Interceptor event ship, Xyfius Escort event ship and my 'current' Risian Fleet Corvette.  All in random advanced TFO's.

Bajoran Interceptor.

21k DPS. Respectable.

Xyfious Escort.

33k DPS. Very respectable(imho).

Risian Fleet Corvette

24k DPS. Respectable. I expected more but I blew up once so dropped dps. Still top of the TFO and better than that freaking Maru fit; And I can't be bothered to do more TFO's to prove the point.

Anyway I'm feeling done with STO for a while. This project drained all resources on my main character as well as my interest. Waste of a week's gaming time.

The next in game event starts tomorrow and I was very 'meh' about it before this. I'm super 'meh' about the game now, not to mention the event...

Two Point Hospital....

Another project.

3 rewards in the project shown as unlocked question marks but 4 listed in the tweet...

Thankfully the project is being sped through by players, so much so that I've missed some of the nodes as they were completed so fast.I can live with that.

Games with Gold....

July's games with gold are another 2 and 2 for me. 2 I'll ignore and 2 I'll try(with one an actual 'play').

Xbox

WRC 8 is a surprise to me, it's been out less than a year. I've been into rally games in the past but this is one I'll look to actually play.

Dunk Lords looks fun and fast paced, worth a try at the very least.

Saint's Row 2 was one I missed, GTA was still more my thing at the time and now. Looking at Saints 2 it'll be one I claim but not play.

JUJU is a platformer I'll skip no matter how fun it looks. It may be good but I've not been into it's like for a while; So will claim but skip.

(more) Eve Online....

Short story, long description.....

I was surprised to see an old corp mate log back into the game. He'd not been back to it in years.  He's got a career, a young family and of course real life comes first. But the game does tend to simmer on a low heat in the background of a gamers mind. Even if it's 'just' the idea of the game. Given that it was unusual for me to logon in the early morning and there's a 12 hour time difference between us it was luck that I saw him. A few chats, over the following days and some e-mails later we'd fully caught up on real life and in game shenanigans.

Time difference is hard in MMO's. With a 12 hour-ish difference it's either early mornings or late nights to try and group up. Come to think of it most of my old corp mates who I know in real life are now located around the pacific. Life might be trying to tell me something there; Then again I'm probably reading to much into it.

Anyway, with a friend on early mornings I tried to log in and help with gameplay/interactions/fun when I could.  It doesn't help that he has no real gaming PC/laptop. What he does have can run Eve but the potato version of it. Just about. Harder to do these's days than previously(32 to 64 bit hampers things). Still it ran but not ideal for doing anything in game where you could get lag, disconnected and loose a ship.

Normal:

Potato:

Due to he potato situation I thought he was Mr. Risk Averse and was surprised on logging in one morning to see that he was in a wormhole. As he had an eye on his DScan, I had a limited convo with him. That is till he lost his ship in the site he was running. His lose mail was unremarkable and he had the sense to only loose what he could afford. Yet he was in a pod with some nice implants he didn't want to loose. The second corp mate to do something risky in a 'good clone' in as many weeks. This was only a problem because he discovered he no longer had an exit. He tried to warp to his bookmark to begin his exit chain but there was noting to jump to. Which is either a closed exit or he did something stup.. 'odd'.  He bounced around some celestial's and other bookmarks in the wormhole system to no avail. He was well and truly in the weeds. No ship means no way to scan(or rescan) for an exit.
After some enlightening chat with him he was left with 2 options, talking in local looking for 'charitable help' or self destruct. As there is no local in WH space there was no guarantee of a reply either way. Chatting with locals proved to be fruitless even though there didn't seem to be any. Eventually 2 inhabitants replied and were neither helpful nor unhelpful. Which is odd(free pod kill etc) to me but hey I can understand the 'drawn into a trap' mentality. From what he told me of his conversation with them they probably didn't speak English, or didn't feel the need to google translate. Pesky day-trippers.

He was on the verge of self destruct when I asked the question where did he enter WH space. As it turned out he did so only 4 jumps from the character I'd logged in on. Least I could do was go to that system and scan down the start of his WH chain; If it was still there(I was pretty sure it was still there) it could be possible to help him. He gave me some info on what he had done/scanned. I
fleeted up with him and found that the entry system still had two WH's on scan as he has described. I popped into the first, wrong system so I stayed cloaked and then jumped back out. The second proved to still be the same as the one he had entered. This brought the first real inkling that I might actually get him out. That this could work. The adrenaline actual started to flow then. Some more systems scanning/checking with no local interruptions proved to be good. I followed his bread crumb information on how he had got there, shared bookmarks and probe scanning till I got to the same WH he was in. I was actually amazed.

Once in and confirmed it was the same system, I blurted out that he should warp to me.
Then began the back tracking, he warped to me and I'd jump through, get to the next exit when he would jump into system and warp to me. Rinse and repeat till the last jump back into known space.

So in the end he got out, free and clear. Pod intact. I was surprised that it went so smoothly. In an almost anti climactic way. Not the longest chain to get through to rescue but still. Accomplishment.
A small minuscule act to some if not a drop in an ocean to most. Yet an unexpected adventure all the same, resulting in two happy pilots. Plus he owes me one now.... The convo while he was running that site was most certainly not the cause of his loss and the start of the whole situation. :)

In retrospect we were lucky, the right alignment of quiet time zones. No real local activity. It just worked out. Once out it felt great. Not further loses, adventure, adrenaline and a corp mate with his pod and implants intact. Best result that could have been. One we'll recall with some embellishment.

Eve Online....

The latest patch notes have some good in them. Finally a option to return to the character select screen rather than completely close and reopen the game client.... Only took one and a half decades..... Well done CCP.  

If only I could log into the game today... Seems there are 'problems' again.

I do appreciate the quality of life changes. It's just that CCP priorities are still 'odd' to me.

CCP is CCP. Whatever next. Hi-sec being a true hub for PvE?! CCP forest for the tree's.....

STO....

Content is content.

Even if that content is derived directly from Star Trek Discovery(It's not Trek in my book and I don't even want to give it side eye recognition as an alternative timeline).

Content is content.

That content being 2 new episodes; 1 new Task Force Operation and 3 new patrols.

My enjoyment of these will be bound with how close they are to Discovery. The closer the are to it the more I'll be rolling my eye's, holding my nose and hammering the space bar to get though said content. If a person likes Discovery then great, you'll love it; Very happy for you.

The reward is a 'Red Angel' suit. As in game combat armour it has some interesting features. A res ability is the best and worth doing the event for that alone(maybe). In ress'ing a player or activating the suit there is also an AOE burst that does a shockwave to knock back any attackers. Very handy indeed. I just need to swallow a lot to stomach it. The suit acts more like power armour as your normal ground abilities are replaced with the suits abilities. That's the down side to me. Those attacks look like a hand laser and a wing jab attack. Looking at the video it seems 'meh' to me. 

Suit aside if I can 'pull a Matrix' on the new content and get through it with the splinter of rational thought in my mind then I'll be fine. I just really need this new content to be Star Trek, even on a broader Star Trek Online way. STO has always had a broader license. As long as it's true to Trek. As if it could all have been done without even knowing that series. A story, a good story. I live in hope.

To narky an explanation. Yea it makes me narky. I don't like when things I like get twisted via agendas especially for profit, never mind originality.

Anyway. Content is content. I'm not that desperate for content. I'll give a chance.

Minecraft....

Download complete, (Nether) update and back up, but of course!

I was too eager to see the new content that I forgot about the XP farm. Update has killed it. It's a pity but not a deal breaker. Just gonna manually finish it off and then wait for a new version to be designed and shared.

Minecraft

Starmancer Demo....

A game I've had on my wish-list for a long time. I've seen Starmancer's dev's post on twitter with  info/graphics to peek the interest. A demo of the game peeked mine.

I've noticed a lot of games have been putting out demos recently! Between demos and playing the full games via gamepass ultimate for xbox on PC; I've both crossed off games from my want list as well as played full games to the end with no need to actually buy. Seems strange at times.

Starmancer as a Demo was a pleasant surprise to me. A limited 1 hour, unlimited repeat demo with some extra unlocked options/cash to make it more of a draw and a 'messabout'. An Alpha version but a good indication of it's gameplay.

In a lot of way's as a demo it has an 'old skool' demo feel than I've not seen in a long long time. Just reminds me so much of shareware in the 90's.

The game from a 2 person team definitely shows a lot of hard work, lots of love care and attention. This demo barely scratches the surface of what the full game offers.

Chucklefish

After repeating the Demo numerous I've never gotten so far as to be booted from it at the end of the hour. I have a somewhat love/hate relationship with this Alpha Demo. Yet it meets all my expectations, wants and needs of a game of this type. I do want to play more of it. Just not the Alpha build. I'll be keeping it on my wish-list and see what happens.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1062000/Starmancer/

I really like the art, style, humour and music of the game; All in an understated kind of way.

From the demo, the game is a bit harsh with it's RNG(imho). When things go wrong they go wrong from the start. The more I played the more I could see that the likes of random traits your clones have at the start are key to how things will play out. Clones always seem to be traits your not going to want, in the best of a bad lot kind of way. Gotta work with the clones your given. Some are worse than others.

One clone had the aggressive trait, another colonist got on her 'bad side' for no apparent reason and things got aggressive. I was surprised when she beat his head in. So I was down a colonist in a second.

If I'd had security upgrades I don't know that would then deter those aggressive acts or if they are just for intruders....

On a side note the 3rd colonist seemed a bit to happy to scoop up her dead friend and drop him into the recycling. Either way I was left with regrowing another clone. The new clone met the old killer and as if they had never met before began the same relationship which turned sour like last time. I ended that run there and then. No point in trying to get a skilled up clone if he's going to get his head beaten in again.

I've since left the clone with the aggression trait till last in all the following play thoughts, if I grew them at all.

Research also needs to be more streamlined. Given the randomness and chaotic clones that ensue once you 'get going'. It's often the case your researching things that don't matter or that you don't need just for the sake of it. Researching furniture when you really need that power generator is annoying.

Research Radar Dish it says....

Yet I can't even research in the same branch that the dish is in... I'll go research a bed so...

I just found that what I needed to research was blocked by other more unnecessary items. Even between research branches. Most annoying of all is that to research items you need a clone to reach an unrelated level. A level 3 laborer to get a tech dish etc..... Make more sense to change research to a placeable machine that 'computes' research points instead.... That's a whole other gripe. Suffice to say that you start the game being able to research(you know as a super computer does) without needing clones about.

Once you get fuel for your ship it's worth keeping an eye out on whats floating past you in space. I do like the missions to mine or salvage. The UI in general and for missions in particular is intuitive and good to use. Yet I've seen some comments on steam that's it's not for everyone. Some have 'rage quit' the game due to it's UI. Each to their own. I really don't see that problem.

I wish I could assign a specialty/role to new clones(Engineer) once they are 'grown'. Like an imbedded knowledge.

Demo's usually cover all the bases of things that could go wrong; So as a promotional thing for the game there's noting out of the ordinary or surprising to deter a potential customer. As an Alpha Demo is not a demonstration of a full product.... So must be taken with a massive grain(bucket... ocean) of salt. Something that's not always said when a 'Demo' is itself is promoted.

Alpha demo is Alpha. But another incident for me was where I had a colonist get stuck walking through a bed. I removed the bed, created a new one and resetup the owners but she was still tuck in the same place. Walking on the spot, she got bored, hungry and then died. Then the game crashed. Alpha is Alpha indeed. It's ok to experience it in an Alpha Demo where such happenings are considered 'quirky'; But another thing altogether in a paid for game.

For all the good things in this game it's the RNG/game mechanic 1% chance, back luck elements that, at least for me, screw up the game. That's the only thing I see hamper my longterm play if this was a full version.

I wish that when you get a popup, the game would pause automatically. It's annoying to get a popup and yet you've game zooms on in the background at max speed while you 'deal' with the information in a popup(usually 2 or 3 together), click ok and then get back to the main screen to see where your things are. It's a really small thing but it's a disruption to the flow of the game. You have to manually click the pause icon on the top menu. It's disruptive. This is a game where, at least for me, I need to be on top of everything. Missing out on something as the game runs at max speed then you get a popup.... not good. I wish the space-bar would allow that pause function, it would solve this annoyance if there was no automatic pause.

I'll be keeping it on my wish-list. For it's faults, for the Alpha being buggy as expected, for the small annoyances; It's a game really worth playing. I look forward to the game getting updated and releasing a newer demo and a full release SoonT.M. It's Star(road) Map shows that there is a lot of work still to do, which now makes all my complaining in this post feel harsh.