Faction Spotlight: Ma'Alaketh Confederation

so due to the ranges of the wepz that they use would it be fair to say that the firing cycle is different than the other factions, so in CQB (sorta speak) they are at a disadvantage vs say the Sol who have higher firing cycles...is fire cycles even a thing in this game???

 

And shield t5 on those said ships?

 

Talking of XP, what is the situation for people sharing credit for a kill? Is XP given to the first ship to hit the target, the last ship to hit it before it blows, or is it shared by % damage caused?

 

I would imagine there's a kill & assist at the very basic end, or xp based on most dmg delt to target upon target being routed or killed, don't forget I think we'll see a lot of routing vs ships actually being destroyed, since you will loose everything, so xp for routing has to be a thing seeing on how it counts for something in battle

 

Yes, I understood that, and the situation is pretty much the same either way. Say I take down a Sol player's shields, and a friend launches marines which end up taking over the ship. Without me taking down the shields, the marine pod would have just popped on the remaining shields, so it has to have been a collaborative effort.

Or as a Sol player, I take down an enemies shields and do a bit of hull damage. Next turn a friend targets the same vessel and neutralises their weapons, the ship turns and flees due to not having shields or weapons available. Again, it's a collaborative effort and should be rewarded as such. [It's also how I expect Vesuvius to have done it, I just want clarification on the matter as I haven't seen anything yet on it.]

 

I was comparing the Maalaketh cruiser above with the Firestorm cruiser on the shipyard page, and the Maalekth one has 1400 terajoules total damage for its particle beams, while the Genari Firestorm has 1800 terajoules for its lasers, and 2400 terajoules for its fission warheads. So if I'm missing something, the Genari ship has a whole lot more firepower.

 

That's a little disappointing. Yes, I can understand the loophole of doing nothing but taking each other's shields down just to XP farm, but it seems to me that Genari boarding parties rely on the ships having no shields to reduce the risk of them not getting to the target. And a lot of players will be "Well, if I don't get any XP for the assist, I'm just going full out to destroy the vessel.".

 

When I remember playing at the alpha at PAX I remember it was just too much power requirement to arm all shields on all sides. I think its just figuring out which side the player hasn't armed. Also the shields of most of the weaker ships weren't more than a couple of points. One basic laser would take it down.

 

Y

you'll still get xp for doing dmg to said target so assists xp is a thing

 

Looks to me that with the force fields and the dampening cloaking devices their defensive is enough to make something like the Firestorm cruiser's extra firepower seem moot.

 

Yeah, I think Ma'Alaketh will be the most powerful race if played right.

 

Yes, and it'll be crucial in taking down the heavier classes. However, IIRC, you get more XP for capturing a vessel than you do for driving it off or destroying it. It seems logical that you should get more XP for a mostly intact vessel than for one that is basically held together with Duct tape [it's like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.].

Given that thought, then keeping a vessel's shields down so a wing mate can get enough marine pods over there to take out the crew and capture the vessel should also be considered an 'assist'. I can't blame Vesuvius for ruling against that, though, as XP for taking down shields is just too much of an exploit and allows XP farming between two friends.

I just feel that limiting XP to acts of damage in combat will tend to swing the game into one that favours destruction and routing the enemy over capturing - which won't work well with the current idea for the Genari

 

I think you forget that you can horde a lot of XP thru the marine kills. Even if you don't capture a ship, the amount of XP you get for killing 100 crew is a lot more than XP you get from damaging a ship. AND you get the bonus of disabling the ship for your efforts. You'll want to do everything you can to land those marines on the enemy. If anything, I can see the marine XP being nerfed in the long run.
I think V's logic is that a battle might go on for a long time between ships, where they're at a stalemate, and it would be pointless to keep getting XP for every round of shields going down, then going back up, rinse and repeat.

 

Sorry, but back to the Ma'Alaketh discussion topic, if the beta is successful, when would you expect to start working on this race becoming playable as a third race not just for AI?