Preferred Play Style?

[Darkmega]

Figured I'd make a random chitchat discussion thread about how people tend to play PF. Are you a super HQ micro ninja Speed runner? Or a hour taking turtler who loves nothing more to get his entire fleet built then push out and blitz the thing with their armada?

Well, I'll start. I tend to like building my stuff up and watch how the particles act and what kinda stuff I'm dealing with. Then if theres something that'll really cause me grief, focus on that first, like mission 15's moon. But usually I build up a force and try to balance and supress my fronts before pushing out with an attack force to try to ninja out some things and relieve pressure gradually. And of course, omni rushes with move+build speed on. Gotta love the omnirushes.

But if a ship gets taken out, especially one of my larger decent ones it usually hurts pretty bad and I seem to have this thing where I reel back and sorta cringe when a good ship gets taken down cause I put it in a bad way or it gets done dirty by another ship or particles taking out it's engines as I don't like losing ships if I don't have to.

But sometimes all it takes is a cheeky bait and then sneaky joven or destroyer in the side to take out a Varro or atleast send it running for a while, so sacrificing small rapid building ships to take out other usually larger more threatening ships is something I don't mind doing cause ramming kills feel good, especially if I can get my units out afterwards. Usually nets me an average time. I also like to use my own fleets a lot more than default if I can help it to test it's practicality and figure out what I need to design next to fill in role holes.

mmkay? So not speedy, not pro, not ultra turtle, but usually somewhat turtle but strategic, and actually cares about wasted resources but does like a good ram kill. or something along those lines.  :P

[Grabarz]

I found that being a turtler doesn't really work in this game. In Creeper World, if you want to turtle, your strategy is to use the little space you've left yourself for reactors, and then slowly expand. In this game however, you have to pick up some land/energy sources early if you want to build most of your fleet early.

I usually end up scoring all of the energy sources around the starting area that I think look defendable. I'll place an omni per each island my energy sources can then access, or I'll place most of them if there are energy pods.

For the early game, I usually don't bother building/using any MK7 unless there are enemy ships being aggressive. I also tend to disable particle beams a lot to keep my energy levels stable, as most of the time slowing down particles when defending is going to be a waste of energy. I kinda wish particle beams had a low power mode where they worked slower, because it feels like they're 5x more expensive than any other weapon.

Also the hammer is my favorite ship. Ramming speed!

[Tjgalon]

Yeah, turtling hard because of the set amount of weapons you can use, unlike in most cw3 map where you can add a new mortal, or cannon, or something.

[miquelfire]

When I started, I kinda rushed a bit, but the more I play, the more I tend to turtle.

I really hate maps that put stuff on me before I can even build a destroyer, resulting in my HQ being the only thing that can defend.

[Grabarz]

When I started, I kinda rushed a bit, but the more I play, the more I tend to turtle.

I really hate maps that put stuff on me before I can even build a destroyer, resulting in my HQ being the only thing that can defend.

Yeah, I recall one map that did this. You had to body block particles with the HQ for a good minute until you built a fleet to defend. This made me fear that the HQ might be too strong for blocking, as this strategy is not something that more casual players will likely pick up on by themselves. I feel like blocking might be a bit too strong.

[Darkmega]

blocking is fine. cause if you do it for just a second too long they can break through and own you. :V especially if theres a sneaky emergent or two in there.

but usually theres not an overwhelming amount of stuff around it's just microing it around so it can be effective. but my start is more like grab. rush all reasonably in range mines, omni all in range land, then get energy high, build some decent things, then try some shenanigans.

[Tarmandan]

When I started, I kinda rushed a bit, but the more I play, the more I tend to turtle.

I really hate maps that put stuff on me before I can even build a destroyer, resulting in my HQ being the only thing that can defend.

Yeah, I recall one map that did this. You had to body block particles with the HQ for a good minute until you built a fleet to defend. This made me fear that the HQ might be too strong for blocking, as this strategy is not something that more casual players will likely pick up on by themselves. I feel like blocking might be a bit too strong.

If you feel that blocking with the HQ is too strong then try to block anything but the weakest emitters with your HQ. And I think once the HQ can be customized (which I really hope will be made possible) there will probably be a whole lot of interesting missions popping up that will revolve around mikroing one ship.

I personally seem to be of the agressive kind as I rarly have ships just sitting around if they are not needed to defend the frontline. I also like omnis. A lot. I usually start to push as soon as I have more ships than needed to hold the line and if there are pickups / weak emitters / other enemy structures that are not well protected I usually try to rush them using my HQ. But after that early phase I have my HQ sit back at my base and don't risk it at all unless I can't built lathes in that mission

[cecel123]

I'm a fan of the Omni Rush play style if its available on the map. You know....Cause Omnis with the Cannon and Reactor upgrades in large numbers are lovely. Otherwise, play style depends on the ships available to me. Usually I like lots of missiles....like....A LOT of missiles.

[Grabarz]

If you feel that blocking with the HQ is too strong then try to block anything but the weakest emitters with your HQ. And I think once the HQ can be customized (which I really hope will be made possible) there will probably be a whole lot of interesting missions popping up that will revolve around mikroing one ship.

I personally seem to be of the agressive kind as I rarly have ships just sitting around if they are not needed to defend the frontline. I also like omnis. A lot. I usually start to push as soon as I have more ships than needed to hold the line and if there are pickups / weak emitters / other enemy structures that are not well protected I usually try to rush them using my HQ. But after that early phase I have my HQ sit back at my base and don't risk it at all unless I can't built lathes in that mission

Nah, I wasn't talking about blocking emitters; that obviously should be fairly difficult for lathe ships. I'm talking about early defense where you have enemy particles coming in through your plasma. Running particles over with the HQ is more effective than using its armament :)

[Ninja]

I found that being a turtler doesn't really work in this game.

HAH! You must not be trying. :P

I still take an hour and a half on PF missions. Must be in my DNA I guess.

[D0m0nik]

I am a bit of a speedrunner so for me it is about expanding as quickly as possible. First upgrades go on energy increase, omni reactors, build speed andomni cannons in that order.

First ships to build are always lathe ships.

Omnis fully upgraded are by far the most potent weapon in the game. I build them straight away and fly them off to capture as much as possible.

I don't care too much about different ships properties, they are all used in a similar way and can all be used for blocking emitters whilst they are lathed. I go for a very direct approach and don't worry about sacrificing a few ships to get to an emitter.

[GoodMorning]

I agree with D0m0nik. I don't speedrun, and often prefer Omni reactors to energy, but all else is very similar.

(Although I differentiate between a Hammer and a Microtanker somewhat. Correct tool for the job, but sacrificing can be done by anything. Roll out the Firebug (Sorrontis).)

[Misery]

Omni rushing when I can, it's fun and useful.  Lots... and lots... of hammering, because it's hilarious.  And a tendancy to use Benign Emergent and missile-based ships that are Amped whenever possible.  Also a lot of Grabber use when possible.   I tend to go right for the missiles though as soon as Lathes are built.

I tend to play aggressively (when applicable, sometimes I'll wait for a certain setup before advancing, usually if I'm flinging blue particles around) since I have nothing resembling patience, but I always try to lose as few ships/things as possible in any given mission.  Which means it can take longer at times and there's a hell of a lot of microing involved, but I find it satisfying. 

Playing generally with the default ships here, I haven't messed with the ship editor yet.

[weekendgamer]

About shielding lathes: I found that you can effectively park a hammer near an emmiter and sort of "juggle" two lathes over it so that it shields them from particles. It's somewhat reminiscent of CW1 blaster bridging.

[mzimmer74]

I find my play style to be very different from CW3.  In CW3 I tended to go slower and build up my forces before attacking with an overwhelming force.  I find myself being much more aggressive in PF with a lot more darting in and retreating style attacks.