SPAZ: Space Pirates and Zombies

[LurkerPrime]

if you think the particle cannon is ridiculous, wait till you get the mass driver(ignore armor, all hull damage, but reflects off shields). Its also gets even better when you find a guy that gives 20-30ish% bonus to cannon dam/reload/range and reactor output. I had two guys with bonuses to cannon range and I could shoot further than I could zoom out, and you can stay out of the stations range.

I just beat the game on normal over the weekend, if I get bored I'll probably run through it again on hard/insane. Although on those difficulties its probably alot more of a grind, since I wont be able to just smash and grab all the upgrades from the stations.

I think the hardest part was getting the ship blueprints. Once you get the hammerhead and triple mount its all downhill from there.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Enjoying the Mule more than the Grinder or the Right hook actually.

Just finally found enough pieces of my "Flora" to make a drone carrier.

Going to respec into drones/missiles for this guy.

The mule is great had lots of fun in it :thumbsup:

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Space Ponies FTW!

http://sinsofasolarempire.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Ponies

 

[zinfamous]

Space Ponies FTW!

http://sinsofasolarempire.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Ponies

are you fucking kidding me?

Stardock, and this game that I love, are now dead to me.

idiots.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

are you fucking kidding me?

Stardock, and this game that I love, are now dead to me.

idiots.

It's an Easter Egg. It's not actually part of the game. Every once in a while you might find them on a planet when you search for artifacts. In my years of Sinning I think I've only seen them twice.

 

[Elcs]

It's an Easter Egg. It's not actually part of the game. Every once in a while you might find them on a planet when you search for artifacts. In my years of Sinning I think I've only seen them twice.

And this has what relevance to the topic?

 

[Nox51]

And this has what relevance to the topic?

Space ponies are always relevant to the topic!

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

And this has what relevance to the topic?

It's whipper snapper Sins is relevant to all topics for him.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Space ponies are always relevant to the topic!

Exactly. Anytime you have a topic that involves Space Zombies and Space Pirates, you gotta have Space Ponies too.

 

[Elcs]

It's whipper snapper Sins is relevant to all topics for him.

A new mod, Sins of a Space Pirate and Zombie Empire?

Speaking of which, this sort of reminds me of Homeworld: Cataclysm and The Beast.

 

[Nox51]

Aww now see, you made me want to get out my Homeworld cds. If only they made games like those...

 

[zinfamous]

so what's so great about the particle cannons? I finally got them--luckily found both blueprints in the same system-easy, but loading three of them on my right hook with 2 cannon boosters (is there only one cannon booster, am I missing something?), they still seem to do barely enough damage and can't mitigate shield regen on my targets. I also tried 2 part cannons + leech emitter

I first used them on the mission to open up the central territories, but they aren't doing anything.

up to now, my two overload beams + leech emitter have been doing the job rather steadily.

I guess I have to work on my loadouts some more. :\

 

[Elcs]

so what's so great about the particle cannons? I finally got them--luckily found both blueprints in the same system-easy, but loading three of them on my right hook with 2 cannon boosters (is there only one cannon booster, am I missing something?), they still seem to do barely enough damage and can't mitigate shield regen on my targets. I also tried 2 part cannons + leech emitter

I first used them on the mission to open up the central territories, but they aren't doing anything.

up to now, my two overload beams + leech emitter have been doing the job rather steadily.

I guess I have to work on my loadouts some more. :\

Very odd. Particle Cannons rip through shields and deal decent damage to armour.

They should strip shields a little bit slower than your Overload Beams but they should go through easily, even on Insane. Once shields are down, there would be no competition as to which weapon won the race to down the enemy.

 

[you2]

So is this game fun and easy ?

 

[Elcs]

So is this game fun and easy ?

Fun: Yes.

Easy: To pick up and play, very easy.

The game itself, depending on the difficulty, can be quite a challenge with certain scenarios requiring some tweaking of ships (quick to do) or a few replays to conquer.

 

[Worthington]

Apparently I spent too much effort leveling in chapters 1-3 because once I hit chapter 4 (when the data rewards are through the roof) it got comical how easy the missions were on Normal mode. I think I was lvl 117 or something when I finally just said screw and warped to the final mission.

SPAZ is insanely fun, and if you even just sorta think you might like it.. get it!

 

[zinfamous]

it is very fun, but a bit repetitive with the mission types. I'm currently getting my ass handed to me with the side mission as soon as you enter zombie-land--the admiral dude in his big warship. So, is it true that if I lower UTA strength in that sector, it will reduce their forces for local side missions? the loading descriptions indicate that it is the case.


I'm glad they are expanding--as the side missions and extras are few and far between in this game. I like the humor--very SC 2, though not as good, of course.


as for outfitting particle cannons--so it's best to focus only on those, and as many cannon boosters as possible? I had tried with two boosters on the right hook, but it didn't seem to do much. then went back to my missile secondary because I like a decent finisher. I loaded up a crawler complete with particle cannons, and also didn't do much of anything to a big brother? the large size square looking-ship (same class as right hook/crawler)

 

[PowerYoga]

I had been using grinder with a double turret, worked pretty well. Never tried it on a crawler but it has small mounts. With the right hook I'd use 3 particle cannons and replace the missile with the booster. You lose way too much fire power if you just have 1 cannon.

I would go to a system that has both factions friendly/neutral towards you and just mooch their destructions until you're strong enough or have enough ship designs to get a hammerhead. After that it'll be smooth sailing. And I think the strength does affect the types and size of ships that gets sent at you.

Big brothers are sorta tough for their class. But remember as you progress deeper into the core you'll have face opponents with tougher shields/regen/armor as well.

 

[zinfamous]

I had been using grinder with a double turret, worked pretty well. Never tried it on a crawler but it has small mounts. With the right hook I'd use 3 particle cannons and replace the missile with the booster. You lose way too much fire power if you just have 1 cannon.

I would go to a system that has both factions friendly/neutral towards you and just mooch their destructions until you're strong enough or have enough ship designs to get a hammerhead. After that it'll be smooth sailing. And I think the strength does affect the types and size of ships that gets sent at you.

Big brothers are sorta tough for their class. But remember as you progress deeper into the core you'll have face opponents with tougher shields/regen/armor as well.

yeah, just tried to take on a lvl 63 warp gate. (I think I'm ~48? no idea). Sunspot appeared and I got owned, lol.

I don't know what was going on earlier, but particle cannons are working much better. loaded 3 on my hook and the cannon booster, as well as reactor booster. I may try two cannon boosters to see if that makes a huge difference.

For the most part, I've been running a team of the right hook, colt with 3 overload emitter & 2 leech emitter; and either a saucer with overload or particle 2x, leech on turret, and booster (depends on weapon), or a ranger, similarly specc'd. the colt seems to hold out longer than the ranger.

 

[Visaoni]

My recent game has been a cannon + cloak build. It has been extremely effective so far. Rather than running in a larger ship I've found just three Colts to be the easiest way to mop up most missions. The two AI Colts generally have Particle Cannons while my Colt has Mass Drivers. Against larger targets I'll often hop into a Particle Cannon Colt to take out the shields, before going back to the Mass Driver Colt. When taking out a station I switch to a larger ship, like a Hammerhead. The firepower from those larger ships is incredible, but they are a little slow while cloaked.

 

[Joemonkey]

Suppose I'm using the right hook, is single beam + two beam boosters better than 3 beams? Does the booster prevent the amount of energy an extra beam would cost yet still increases damage? I wish there was a section of the hanger that gave actual numbers of damage done and energy used per shot. I wish there was a table or something. Is 3 beams with a reactor booster more effective over 60 seconds than 2 beams with 2 beam boosters?

 

[Elcs]

Suppose I'm using the right hook, is single beam + two beam boosters better than 3 beams? Does the booster prevent the amount of energy an extra beam would cost yet still increases damage? I wish there was a section of the hanger that gave actual numbers of damage done and energy used per shot. I wish there was a table or something. Is 3 beams with a reactor booster more effective over 60 seconds than 2 beams with 2 beam boosters?

Typically, more weapons than boosters is the most effective way to go.

With beams and the Right Hook, common builds include two damaging beams (Overloads) with one Leech beam. In the Missile slot, a Beam Booster and anything you really fancy in the last slot.

Boosters are not a constant thing. They depend on Subsystem Tech (Booster Overdrive), Specialists (who can improve boosters) and size (Large weapon + small booster = very ineffective booster).

Trial and error... and the beauty of that in SPAZ? It's very quick and easy to turn things around.

 

[Joemonkey]

I just learned that you can re-spec... after I beat the game...

 

[HumblePie]

I just picked this game up over the weekend. Already reached level 96. I'm at the part after making it out of the core where every human faction is now an ally and all are out to beat the zombies back from the rest of the galaxy.

Like others have said, this game is really only hard at certain points. Early on when you don't have much of anything built up it sucks. It is a grind to get blueprints to open up new ship types and mods. Although late game the red mods seem to be handed out like candy if you didn't buy them before going into the core.

I also made it a bit harder on myself early on when I actually tried to keep my relations with everyone on the good side. Found out later that it was worthless to do so. Just kill everyone early on that you can and move along. That is the best way to get blueprints needed as fast as possible. Why buy mods when you can blow up the station that sells them instead and get them for free? If you have long range weapon setup it's simple enough to do since the base only sends out 3 or 4 waves in total to defend itself. Once I did this I never had to worry about resources at all. As long as you don't die you'll not run out of Rez. If you aren't bribing for gate access or faction ups then you won't run out of goons. Once I figured all that out the early game became simple if a bit time consuming of warping around.

I only had ONE really hard fight in the early game. That was against an advanced hammer head. It was setup with a fortress shield, heavy armor, 2x triple turrets with 6 total fusion beam emitters. The other smaller turrets had leech emitters. The last two utility slots were for point defense lasers. Man that thing was NASTY. It was fast enough to catch up to me and while it didn't turn all that quick, it didn't have to with it's weaponry mounted on turrets. It just needed to get in close and pound anything with those fusion beams. While those beams have the shortest range in the game they can literally melt any ship. With 6 of them focusing on a target they could rip through everything in seconds. The only thing I could do was use gravity missiles and bombs to keep the damn thing off me and pound it from a distance as I kited it. Anything else would allow it to close in on one of my ships and blow it up in less than a second. Worst thing was it was a normal gate guard ship in the inner systems worlds. Just a random spawn. I died repeatedly trying to figure out how to beat it. To top it off, the damn thing spawned every time with a bunch of it's own stealth bombers. The stealth bombers accompanying it would slow my ships with a bomb long enough to let that monster close in with my ships.

Had to divide and conquer the small stealth ships from the monster. The first time I did that though, the stupid hammerhead ship went straight for my beacon. Destroyed my beacon in a few seconds. Up until that point I didn't even know the beacon could be destroyed or what would happen. Then I got the message stating that I could get no more reinforcements with the beacon gone. I was like "screw that" and reloaded the game again.


Besides that one encounter I haven't had much difficulty figuring out the game. The zombies were tough initially when I went to fight them because of the damn little zombie monkeys floating around in space that try to latch on to your ships to take them over. The AI controlled ships have a problem handling those things I found out.

Right now this is my current setup I use most of the time.


/// This is the ship I command.
1) Carrier
1x Huge Particle Cannon
1x Huge Leech Emitter
1x Triple Mount with 3x Large Particle Cannons
2x hunter srms
4x large improved missiles
1x large improved drone bay
1x large tractor beam
1x large cannon booster
4x advanced armor
Fortress shield
advanced reactor
advanced engine

As long as I'm firing and hitting a target I have infinite energy to continue doing so. Fairly maneuverable in this config with good speed. The drone take care of pesky floating zombies trying to invade my ship while I deal with other bigger targets.



/// The following is general AI controlled
2) Helix
1x Large Thermal Bomb
1x large launcher booster
1x small cloak boosters
1x medium tractor beam
4x advanced armor
advanced stable cloak
advanced reactor
advanced engine

3) Pounder
1x medium thermal bomb
1x medium tractor
1x medium launcher booster
1x small cloak booster
4x advanced armor
advanced cloak
advanced reactor
advanced engine

4) Ranger
1x launcher booster
1x cloak booster
2x improved missiles
4x advanced armor
advanced cloak
advanced engine
advanced reactor




I went with stealth with my AI controlled ships for a very good reason. AI controlled ships are stupid. Especially when the floating zombie monkeys start chasing them. They tend to spin around in a tight circle constantly all the while trying in vain to shoot the little critters. Which doesn't work and eventually they get invaded and taken over. I got seriously tired of that. While they are messing with those little things they are basically not in the action and making me waste time trying to save them or resourced rebuilding them. It's not like it is hard to clear a ship of those things. Have the ship fly backwards and shoot the damn things.

However, cloaked ships aren't bothered by those little zombie monkeys. So my AI controlled ships stay cloak, and just sit back and deliver bombs on my target constantly. It's fun watching two bombs come speeding out to a clustered wave of enemies and take out all the little guys while softening up the big targets for my command ship to pound at. Also earlier it allowed me to stand off of stations and pound away at them with both my lead ship AND the AI ships. Otherwise the AI ships would always get too close and get blown up. With only bombs or long range missiles to shoot they stay far away and just deliver payload after payload. Much easier to manage the fights that way.


On top of that, since they are cloaked I can just put them in passive and send them off some where on the map to hide if I don't want the AI ships screwing up a mission I'm on. Which happens way too often. Especially stealth based missions. Easier to send the AI ships off to do nothing while I command the only ship I need to complete the mission. A lot of people complained about the stealth missions in this game being impossible to do because of the poor AI. I haven't had a problem yet because of my setup and just using my one command ship to complete the missions.

At this point the game seems almost too easy.

 

[zinfamous]

the game does get super easy when you reach the ally point. I spent a lot of time collecting all the blueprints before reaching that chapter, so I was already way over-leveled going in.

I do try to keep the science stations friendly early on, because I like buying research.--at least the ones that offer 1k research/100 slaves. very efficient.

cleaning out the zombies is a breeze, just building up fleet strength. Boost a few of the sec bases to max at certain choke points (these can generally hold off attacks on their own), then work your way back to other systems and ignore the upgrades on security (at least, after fleet size is max).

I then just max out the civilian infrastructures as I go and completely ignore the security bases. I still haven't gone into that zone, mostly clearing out the surrounding systems way beyond necessity.

I've lately been running Carrier/Right Hook/Colt.