Warhammer RTS: "Battlefleet Gothic: Armada"
- Thread starter Tauntworth
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Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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Yeah, Eldar are in. I haven't played as them yet; I've only randomly come up against them in missions. The 5th I think will be Spesh Murines in a couple of months or so? Eldar weren't too bad to fight against, but I was playing as lance-heavy Chaos so they seemed...different from TT. I had to go Google them though because it's been so long that I forgot massed battery fire was preferred. The AI did a decent job of trying to get behind me a couple of times. Also, ramming their ships was good fun.
I've also only been playing the single player skirmish and getting 90% Chaos opponents, as Chaos, and very rarely Ork/Eldar. I literally haven't seen a single Imperial vessel in single player skirmish yet. Not sure how opponents are chosen in that (maybe admiral level starts you out mostly against your own faction first?)
Maps do seem kind of repetitive, though they might be better in campaign.
The update patch was 1.7 GB for the pre-release version. I only managed to crash once due to texture memory, and that was when I tried to open Task Manager while mid-game. The notes didn't mention any related optimizations, so who knows. Given the specs for the game and my hardware, it actually runs decent on low settings.
EDIT: one thing that bugged me was how easy it was to just deploy in a wolf-pack on an extreme edge and try ganking an enemy ship solo very early on. The AI seems to spread ships across the baseline and they don't seem to group up very much (at least in single player and not campaign). It's possible to destroy or at least seriously hurt an enemy ship before the rest of their ships show up. My last battle as Chaos v. Chaos, I was able to dogpile a carrier early on. Completely wrecked it before any other enemy got there. AI had a cruiser and light cruiser lobbing shots at me from outside my visual range somehow but did little damage. Went after cruiser, double-boarded it with a side order of bombers and had it seriously hurt before the AI committed it's last light cruiser. I want to hope that it was a fluke and the AI is better than that, but then again I think I'm just lying to myself.
Faith
Useless lazy bastard.
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This is my reaction also a few missions in. "Hey, can you escort this convoy?" "Sure! Lets put them all in the furthest corner and have them go full burn to the exit zone!" -AI spends entire game trying to chase down transports and fails, not a single shot reach the transports-
On the other hand, I dont hold that against them in a way. Only way the AI could counter that is by cheating and read your deployment before the game starts, otherwise it has to spread itself thin to cover all the "board". Cheating AIs have their own issues.
Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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I guess for some missions I'd expect them to start in the middle to cut the total travel distance down (like the AI being the Attacker in a Convoy mission).
I did find out the hard way on the "data" mission that I guess you don't even have to get to the other side of the map? I thought you had to exit from deployment zones with the data; AI grabbed data and fucking warped out immediately. I was like"Fucking LOL, I could have done that before they even got close to me". I will have to try getting that mission again to try warping out to see if that's actually how it works, or what.
Also learned to get Chaos Marks on a ship before a ship levels up to level 3 or so. Going from 200pts to 400pts was a surprise, unless I got that wrong as well.
Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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Ran into my first occurrence of Insubordination chaining through my Ork fleet tonight. Was absolutely wrecking a Chaos fleet in a point-blank scrum and suddenly all but one of my cruisers starts warping out w/o any warning. None of my line ships were very hurt so the only thing I can figure is that I lost one of the two escorts I took with me and RNG got me.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to look to see if any of the Chaos ships had a MoS, but holy shitballs. I thought that MoS looked like a waste, but multiple Marks stack, so maybe an all-Slaanesh fleet might work occasionally. I also hadn't taken any Squigs because I didn't see a need for them before this. Looking at discussions on different forums, I guess a number of people refuse to use squigs at all and instead they bulk up on Weirdboys and just deal with random warpouts.
I guess I'd seen this before with Chaos but I just executed captains and went on about my day. /just as planned
It seems weird to have 3 out of 4 Cruisers just up and leave from losing an escort, at the same exact time? I guess it's just a simple event check, and I got pretty unlucky that 3 failed and warped out. Even if there had been 3 MoS ships within range, for losing an escort that would be like 4%+3% or something similar.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to look to see if any of the Chaos ships had a MoS, but holy shitballs. I thought that MoS looked like a waste, but multiple Marks stack, so maybe an all-Slaanesh fleet might work occasionally. I also hadn't taken any Squigs because I didn't see a need for them before this. Looking at discussions on different forums, I guess a number of people refuse to use squigs at all and instead they bulk up on Weirdboys and just deal with random warpouts.
I guess I'd seen this before with Chaos but I just executed captains and went on about my day. /just as planned
It seems weird to have 3 out of 4 Cruisers just up and leave from losing an escort, at the same exact time? I guess it's just a simple event check, and I got pretty unlucky that 3 failed and warped out. Even if there had been 3 MoS ships within range, for losing an escort that would be like 4%+3% or something similar.
Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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Started a MoS Chaos fleet. It's probably hard to get the 7.5k range Insubordination effects stacked together, particularly if/when you're orbiting targets at 9k/12k. I have had a few instances where I think the marks stacked, but no way to tell. It is odd to have the chance to force a mass warpout, sure you win but I'm assuming the renown reward will be lower due to lower numbers of destroyed ships. So far the thing I liked the most about a MoS fleet is being able to strip special orders off. Oh, you want to reload after launching bombers and torps? Yoink. Enemy bracing and tanking your entire fleet? Yoink again.
So far 99% of my bugs are related to the end of matches. Occasionally I'll finish with a crippled ship (10%-20%) but then after the battle it will treat that ship as destroyed. Another issue I've had is with enemies warping out. So...like today with Assassination, I'm trying to finish off an Imperial BC with two Ork cruisers. The BC starts to warp, and I have to burn all my assaults/teleports to cancel it. However many seconds later it starts to warp again. One of my cruisers is Goff and has a ram, the BRB is refreshed now, so FULL SPEED AHEAD and I grind the ship to dust. Click on the enemy BC, and I see that its health is at like -9 or -10. A few seconds go by, and the wreck warps out through the warp portal and hilariously enough about 3 huge, blackened chunks of the ship fly back out of the warp portal and bounce off my ships. I laugh, until I then I see it tell me that I've been defeated because the game thinks it successfully warped out. I think I got points for destroying it regardless, but still. It feels like there is something wonky with the end of battles over all...nothing that makes the game unplayable, but still bizarre.
So far 99% of my bugs are related to the end of matches. Occasionally I'll finish with a crippled ship (10%-20%) but then after the battle it will treat that ship as destroyed. Another issue I've had is with enemies warping out. So...like today with Assassination, I'm trying to finish off an Imperial BC with two Ork cruisers. The BC starts to warp, and I have to burn all my assaults/teleports to cancel it. However many seconds later it starts to warp again. One of my cruisers is Goff and has a ram, the BRB is refreshed now, so FULL SPEED AHEAD and I grind the ship to dust. Click on the enemy BC, and I see that its health is at like -9 or -10. A few seconds go by, and the wreck warps out through the warp portal and hilariously enough about 3 huge, blackened chunks of the ship fly back out of the warp portal and bounce off my ships. I laugh, until I then I see it tell me that I've been defeated because the game thinks it successfully warped out. I think I got points for destroying it regardless, but still. It feels like there is something wonky with the end of battles over all...nothing that makes the game unplayable, but still bizarre.
Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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almost forgot
LET'S GO DEEPER INTO THE GOTHIC SECTOR! - Battlefleet Gothic: Armada
LET'S GO DEEPER INTO THE GOTHIC SECTOR! - Battlefleet Gothic: Armada
Greeting Admirals,
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada released one week ago, and its success was beyond our most optimistic expectations. We planned an original development budget based on expected revenues, but these revenues have been largely overtaken. Because of this, we?ve been working with our publisher Focus Home Interactive to plan several major additions to our game, to offer you the best possible experience as well as exceptional content. This new content will require a future development plan that will keep the Tindalos teams busy for all of 2016.
Many of you voted to let us know which faction you would like to see in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada in the future. The Tau fleet received the largest number of votes. We?re therefore happy to announce that The Tau Fleet will be the second faction DLC offered to all Early Adopters (players who pre-ordered or purchased the game in an official retailer up to 2 months after release).
Tyranids came second in the poll, and believe us, they won?t be left behind. But, for now, let?s talk about what we can unveil to you guys: here?s the development roadmap detailing what you?ll get in the coming months!
DEVELOPMENT ROAD MAP
As well as post-launch support, including a host of bug fixes and balance changes, we have a development road map delivering a host of new content over the coming months. To follow the latest bug fixes and patch notes, head over to our Official Forums. Read on to see what we?ve got in store!
Coming in the next few weeks:
Online Custom Games against Friends
Online custom games will allow you to invite your friends to matches, competing with or against them in 1vs1 and 2vs2 battles.
Improved Regional Matchmaking
An ELO matchmaking system will be added, meaning Admirals will not only be matched by level, but also depending on their victory/defeat ratio. Improvements will also be made to ensure you?re matched with an Admiral close to your level. Regional matchmaking will match players close to each other to improve latency.
Russian Language Version
Our Russian friends have been asking, and we'll soon deliver a Russian language version to them!
Chat Improvements
Team-chat will be added. You will also be able to continue discussing with allies and opponents during the post-match score screen.
Coming over the next couple of months:
Space Marines DLC
Our first DLC faction, the Space Marine fleet, arrives in June 2016.
Ranked Matches and Global Leaderboard
For players who wish to play in a competitive environment, we?re adding Ranked Matchmaking and a global leaderboard. Ranked matches will fall under certain conditions, including a disabled tactical cogitator and the appropriate Admiral level.
Elite System
Admirals who reach a certain level 8 in solo offline matches will unlock Elite Battles. These are increasingly epic and challenging fights against the AI. Winning Elite Battles will unlock new, more difficult Elite battles ? and only the best will make it onto the Elite leaderboard.
2 vs 2 Improvements
You?ll be able to invite a friend to play 2 vs 2 against the AI - the progression system will be available in this mode for both you and your friend.
Pre-set Behaviors
We?ve heard your feedback about having to manually set skills and behaviors at the start of every game. Let's fix that! We're working on a screen at your docks, where you'll be able to pre-set your behaviors and skills.
Coming in a few months:
Tau Fleet (Forge World) DLC
We've intercepted alarming signals from the Damocles Sector! For the greater good! Free for Early Adopters.
Custom Online Leagues
We?ll provide tools so players can organize themselves in private online tournaments.
New Skills
Along with ongoing balance changes, we also plan to implement new skills to enhance each faction?s own unique flavor.
Fleet Color
You will be able to customize the color of your ships.
Profiles and Heroic Deeds
We'll develop a profile page for all admirals, where you'll find tons of data about your games and achievements.
This is only the beginning. With all your support, feedback, and our passion for this universe, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada will live on into the grim dark future.
?For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave?
Romain Clavier - Game Director
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada released one week ago, and its success was beyond our most optimistic expectations. We planned an original development budget based on expected revenues, but these revenues have been largely overtaken. Because of this, we?ve been working with our publisher Focus Home Interactive to plan several major additions to our game, to offer you the best possible experience as well as exceptional content. This new content will require a future development plan that will keep the Tindalos teams busy for all of 2016.
Many of you voted to let us know which faction you would like to see in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada in the future. The Tau fleet received the largest number of votes. We?re therefore happy to announce that The Tau Fleet will be the second faction DLC offered to all Early Adopters (players who pre-ordered or purchased the game in an official retailer up to 2 months after release).
Tyranids came second in the poll, and believe us, they won?t be left behind. But, for now, let?s talk about what we can unveil to you guys: here?s the development roadmap detailing what you?ll get in the coming months!
DEVELOPMENT ROAD MAP
As well as post-launch support, including a host of bug fixes and balance changes, we have a development road map delivering a host of new content over the coming months. To follow the latest bug fixes and patch notes, head over to our Official Forums. Read on to see what we?ve got in store!
Coming in the next few weeks:
Online Custom Games against Friends
Online custom games will allow you to invite your friends to matches, competing with or against them in 1vs1 and 2vs2 battles.
Improved Regional Matchmaking
An ELO matchmaking system will be added, meaning Admirals will not only be matched by level, but also depending on their victory/defeat ratio. Improvements will also be made to ensure you?re matched with an Admiral close to your level. Regional matchmaking will match players close to each other to improve latency.
Russian Language Version
Our Russian friends have been asking, and we'll soon deliver a Russian language version to them!
Chat Improvements
Team-chat will be added. You will also be able to continue discussing with allies and opponents during the post-match score screen.
Coming over the next couple of months:
Space Marines DLC
Our first DLC faction, the Space Marine fleet, arrives in June 2016.
Ranked Matches and Global Leaderboard
For players who wish to play in a competitive environment, we?re adding Ranked Matchmaking and a global leaderboard. Ranked matches will fall under certain conditions, including a disabled tactical cogitator and the appropriate Admiral level.
Elite System
Admirals who reach a certain level 8 in solo offline matches will unlock Elite Battles. These are increasingly epic and challenging fights against the AI. Winning Elite Battles will unlock new, more difficult Elite battles ? and only the best will make it onto the Elite leaderboard.
2 vs 2 Improvements
You?ll be able to invite a friend to play 2 vs 2 against the AI - the progression system will be available in this mode for both you and your friend.
Pre-set Behaviors
We?ve heard your feedback about having to manually set skills and behaviors at the start of every game. Let's fix that! We're working on a screen at your docks, where you'll be able to pre-set your behaviors and skills.
Coming in a few months:
Tau Fleet (Forge World) DLC
We've intercepted alarming signals from the Damocles Sector! For the greater good! Free for Early Adopters.
Custom Online Leagues
We?ll provide tools so players can organize themselves in private online tournaments.
New Skills
Along with ongoing balance changes, we also plan to implement new skills to enhance each faction?s own unique flavor.
Fleet Color
You will be able to customize the color of your ships.
Profiles and Heroic Deeds
We'll develop a profile page for all admirals, where you'll find tons of data about your games and achievements.
This is only the beginning. With all your support, feedback, and our passion for this universe, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada will live on into the grim dark future.
?For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave?
Romain Clavier - Game Director
Faith
Useless lazy bastard.
- 1,178
- 857
What is this?! They want to continue develop a decent game because it sold well and they seem to listen to what the community wants? Dear god..
Honestly thou, they have a decent base to build on so I am all for new fleets and wish for (please please please) more campaigns for other factions.
Honestly thou, they have a decent base to build on so I am all for new fleets and wish for (please please please) more campaigns for other factions.
Sludig
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 9,014
- 9,331
The marines were supposed to be out week 2, now moved to June. Before they start talking about rushing out Tau Empire, I'd be happier with a ton of quality of life and polish on the game itself.
IE times map pan doesnt work if you have something selected/deselected it doesnt like, some tool tips still suck or inaccurate/vague. Some of the movement is (OPINION) kinda a nuisance, namely that something like using the micro warp jump doesn't reset your "destination" point and just either stop or continue in straight line (since you can control orientation with the jump thank god). Still catch myself jumping but not noticing I didnt make a new waypoint and so it starts turning around.
Targeting seems off, even with the move + order or whatever it's called, if my ships are moving, and say 2 targets in their broadside, I find the broadside or turrets often not shooting at the ship I have targeted. Maybe I'm doing it wrong where I'm used to other RTS where you are fairly frequently microing and controling where and what things are doing. I assumed using the AI to fight was bad, but maybe I should spend more time stopped shooting? Need to really watch some vids of other people that do well.
IE times map pan doesnt work if you have something selected/deselected it doesnt like, some tool tips still suck or inaccurate/vague. Some of the movement is (OPINION) kinda a nuisance, namely that something like using the micro warp jump doesn't reset your "destination" point and just either stop or continue in straight line (since you can control orientation with the jump thank god). Still catch myself jumping but not noticing I didnt make a new waypoint and so it starts turning around.
Targeting seems off, even with the move + order or whatever it's called, if my ships are moving, and say 2 targets in their broadside, I find the broadside or turrets often not shooting at the ship I have targeted. Maybe I'm doing it wrong where I'm used to other RTS where you are fairly frequently microing and controling where and what things are doing. I assumed using the AI to fight was bad, but maybe I should spend more time stopped shooting? Need to really watch some vids of other people that do well.
Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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- 42,428
I guess it depends. I feel like mission/fleets depending, the cards will be stacked against you. Other times it will feel like it's faceroll levels of easy.
Convoy is one of my least favorite missions so far, especially if you are defending against Eldar or something. The in-game "hints" say something about spreading your convoy ships out, but I'm not sold on doing that yet. If you're defending against Chaos or Eldar, they either have good speed or range and I feel like you'll end up spreading yourself too thin trying to defend a line of slow-ass convoy ships while they'll start picking convoy ships off. I've had better luck clumping them down one of the sides of the map and running my entire fleet next to them, and just Alpha-striking the closest enemies that get to you first. If it looks like the rest of their ships will make it to you before you can wreck the first ones, I'll just drop a wall of stasis bombs to give me time to finish off the first 2-3 ships. Normally I just toggle Brace on a specific convoy ship when they start getting shot, repair when they start losing armor and AAF at every opportunity, more or less.
Assassination is another one that I don't particularly like. I think you get 3 minutes to pop the opponents Admiral ship (or defend your own). Depending on the two fleets involved, 3 minutes may not be a remotely realistic amount of time to get there and pop a ship, and past 3 minutes you have to use boarding actions and lightning strikes (teleport assaults) to try canceling the target ships attempt to warp out. You can totally get screwed by RNG here, especially if the ship (normally being the largest) has a high troop %. I've had to use every boarding action and lightning strike my fleet had to stop a target from warping away a number of times, at which point, if you can't wreck the ship before their warp refreshes (it has a quick refresh, quicker than your assaults do, by far) they'll just warp again and win. Then I have to start ramming them...
I've had Orks vs Eldar on Assasination...not a lot of fun when the Eldar capital ship can run rings around you, and I had one game where I finally managed to corral it in a corner...only for it to successfully warp out on like it's 3rd attempt or so, seconds before I could get back into range.
But anyways...if you're playing solo skirmish, I think that there are times when you see that you aren't going to win the mission via victory conditions, and I start thinking like"ok, I'll just try to pop as many ships as possible to farm Renown". Also, I've had times when things were looking bad and my choices were to either risk 'losing' ships for a shot at a clear victory ('destroyed' ships are just unavailable for the next 2 games until they repair on their own, or you spend Renown to repair them instantly), or to back off a little, brace my damaged ships or run them away (maybe even warp out) and try popping a few escorts or whatever I think I can still manage.
I'm not sure how other people feel, and I haven't looked up discussions about this online, but I seriously feel that at times Renown > Everything Else, including winning missions. I personally find myself focusing on destroying as many enemy ships as possible and trying to prevent enemies from warping out so you can get the Renown from destroying them completely, rather than worrying too much about victory conditions.
Convoy is one of my least favorite missions so far, especially if you are defending against Eldar or something. The in-game "hints" say something about spreading your convoy ships out, but I'm not sold on doing that yet. If you're defending against Chaos or Eldar, they either have good speed or range and I feel like you'll end up spreading yourself too thin trying to defend a line of slow-ass convoy ships while they'll start picking convoy ships off. I've had better luck clumping them down one of the sides of the map and running my entire fleet next to them, and just Alpha-striking the closest enemies that get to you first. If it looks like the rest of their ships will make it to you before you can wreck the first ones, I'll just drop a wall of stasis bombs to give me time to finish off the first 2-3 ships. Normally I just toggle Brace on a specific convoy ship when they start getting shot, repair when they start losing armor and AAF at every opportunity, more or less.
Assassination is another one that I don't particularly like. I think you get 3 minutes to pop the opponents Admiral ship (or defend your own). Depending on the two fleets involved, 3 minutes may not be a remotely realistic amount of time to get there and pop a ship, and past 3 minutes you have to use boarding actions and lightning strikes (teleport assaults) to try canceling the target ships attempt to warp out. You can totally get screwed by RNG here, especially if the ship (normally being the largest) has a high troop %. I've had to use every boarding action and lightning strike my fleet had to stop a target from warping away a number of times, at which point, if you can't wreck the ship before their warp refreshes (it has a quick refresh, quicker than your assaults do, by far) they'll just warp again and win. Then I have to start ramming them...
I've had Orks vs Eldar on Assasination...not a lot of fun when the Eldar capital ship can run rings around you, and I had one game where I finally managed to corral it in a corner...only for it to successfully warp out on like it's 3rd attempt or so, seconds before I could get back into range.
But anyways...if you're playing solo skirmish, I think that there are times when you see that you aren't going to win the mission via victory conditions, and I start thinking like"ok, I'll just try to pop as many ships as possible to farm Renown". Also, I've had times when things were looking bad and my choices were to either risk 'losing' ships for a shot at a clear victory ('destroyed' ships are just unavailable for the next 2 games until they repair on their own, or you spend Renown to repair them instantly), or to back off a little, brace my damaged ships or run them away (maybe even warp out) and try popping a few escorts or whatever I think I can still manage.
I'm not sure how other people feel, and I haven't looked up discussions about this online, but I seriously feel that at times Renown > Everything Else, including winning missions. I personally find myself focusing on destroying as many enemy ships as possible and trying to prevent enemies from warping out so you can get the Renown from destroying them completely, rather than worrying too much about victory conditions.
Sludig
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 9,014
- 9,331
Warning, spoilers of sorts and I can't find the spoiler button on the post creation?
Not really that bad, but at the very end cinematic early on, talking about unknown something. Very clearly a shadow of the necron demi god thing that is in the newer codex. (Sorry dont recall name, basically one of the god things that bought the necrons souls and then they later rebelled, like 350 point model.)
Foreshadowing random stuff of no import, means an expac is going to be necron enemy, or.....? They kinda already said it's marines then tau per a community poll.
Not really that bad, but at the very end cinematic early on, talking about unknown something. Very clearly a shadow of the necron demi god thing that is in the newer codex. (Sorry dont recall name, basically one of the god things that bought the necrons souls and then they later rebelled, like 350 point model.)
Foreshadowing random stuff of no import, means an expac is going to be necron enemy, or.....? They kinda already said it's marines then tau per a community poll.