Orion Salvage Cruiser is broken

[cylence]

For fleets with few drones and light/no ADD (Fed)

I'm sorry, but what? Fed's effectively have some of the best ADD scores in the game thanks to G-Racks.

I disagree - yes, all Fed ships have 1 ADD rating, some more. But with a 1 in 6 chance of losing that drone launcher (all drone launchers? still not clear on that one) as well when you do that. I think many people are going to choose to use the drone launcher offensively, or do a 1 for 1 drone vs drone use rather than risk losing the offensive option for the rest of the game. Better than no ADD, but not as good as dedicated systems.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

I'm not sure why a Fed Ship using its Drone Launcher(s) in ADD mode becomes useless when they run out of ADD points. Aren't Anti-Drone Drones and Offensive Attack Drones separate ammo types and the fed launchers carry reloads for both? Why do the attack drones magically disappear when I (quickly) shoot off all my Ant-Drone Drones? :?

 

[Da Boss]

ACTA: SF is simplified for speed consequently there are no different drones - its quicker and more effective to have it work as it does now, remember its not SFB.

 

[Iapologisedon4chan]

I disagree - yes, all Fed ships have 1 ADD rating, some more. But with a 1 in 6 chance of losing that drone launcher (all drone launchers? still not clear on that one) as well when you do that. I think many people are going to choose to use the drone launcher offensively, or do a 1 for 1 drone vs drone use rather than risk losing the offensive option for the rest of the game. Better than no ADD, but not as good as dedicated systems.

Then they are doing it wrong. 1 Drone is worthless offensively, it will be shot down by Phasers, other Drones, ADD and/or Tractors LONG before it becomes useful. MAYBE in certain situations (like another ship flushes a targets anti-drone measures first) but if a ship has 1 drone in the Fed list, what it ACTUALLY means is ADD-1.

Now, using the Drone defensively is pretty useful too if you're up against people who use them, but not in great numbers (like Klingons and other Feds) but against Kzinti though, you use them in ADD as you'll stop more drones that way.
Eventually, yes, the ADD will roll a one and run out. But up against Kzinti you need to be killing ships as early as possible as the long game only favours them. You have to close with ships, hammer them with Photons and killzoned phasers and take out those 4 drones ASAP, before he wipes the ADD out.

Now, do Feds have the best anti-drone defenses? No. At best they are third, behind Klingons and then the Kzinti themselves, but they are still not a major race I would consider poor at drone defense.
THAT would be the Gorn.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

The best use I can think of for a solitary attack drone is finishing off a crippled ship that can't defend itself anymore. Though making someone waste a phaser is never a bad thing.

 

[Keeper Nilbog]

Would agree with the comment about Gorn's and drone defence (shudders at thought), at least they gave the ships th Phaser-3 upgrades as standard, otherwise it's Phaser-1 drone hunting all over again. Let me deal with Plasma's and Photon's any day.

As an aside, has anyone tried out the Plasma/Phaser balance, as it appears that most Torps up to 'S-Type' wont actually reach a target if each Phaser hit kills 'one' die off the Torp (most crusiers can put 3-4 phaser's into 1 arc, and an 'S-Type' has 4 die at optimal range). Aware that throwing a crusier's load of Torp's would be around 10 die, so maybe it's not so draining - and you HAVE to use Phasers, so not shooting at ship. Just with all this talk of drones, go me thinking.

 

[Iapologisedon4chan]

It's very rare indeed that Ph-3's stop a Plasma dead, unless the player fires it at ranges greater than 8" with an F-Type, that's really the only situation it's likely to happen, maybe a G-Type if they get lucky with their dice rolls and have 2 Ph-3's in the appropriate arc (they often don't). The thing with Plasma defense over Drone defense is that drones are countered by all of these options (ADD, Tractors, other Drones) whilst Plasma's only deterrent are Ph-3's and their own short range.
...oh, and Evasive Maneouvers and moving really fast the other way, but these often require sacrifices in terms of killing power.

What I find is that Plasma's tend to actually hit the target more often when they're fired, but getting into a range, or the right angle for that Plas-R means that you can spend a whole game looking for a perfect shot, much like the Feds and their overloaded Photons.