Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down?

Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down?

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down?

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down? - 10/28/2015 8:26:34 PM

jacozilla

Posts: 122
Joined: 10/10/2015
Status: offline

Starting chase for silver mists kill achievements. Read dev post that says new format is creatures on and disasters enabled to have them spawn, so got that.

But galactopedia entry re silver mists seens to imply only ion weapons woll hurt them. But googled old posts from players talk about using ion to slow them down - seems to imply ion reduced their chase speed from sprint to cruise only - and using fighters to kite them.

So can silver mists be killed with non-ion weapons and ion is just for slowing down their chase speed? Or does ion (ton for ton) do best dmg v silver mists and hence is the preferred weapon? Or are they immune to all dmg other than from ion weapons?

Post #: 1

RE: Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down? - 10/28/2015 8:37:52 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

Ion are supposed to be good.

The few times I have met them, a swarm of fighters have done the trick.

(in reply to jacozilla)

Post #: 2

RE: Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down? - 10/28/2015 10:55:54 PM

Aeson

Posts: 784
Joined: 8/30/2013
Status: offline

Just in case it's not clear from what Bingeling said, non-ion weapons will work against Silver Mist. Whether or not ion weapons are the best weapons to use against Silver Mist for the size invested, I couldn't say; Silver Mist is too uncommon for me to have a good sense of whether you're better with one Ion Cannon or three Shatterforce Lasers or something like that, aside from the obvious "stay away and don't get eaten" aspect.

quote:

ion is just for slowing down their chase speed?

It's been a while since I've watched Ion Cannon equipped ships fighting Silver Mists, but if my memory is correct Ion Cannons will damage Silver Mists; I think it's the only thing in the game against which Ion Cannons actually cause damage rather than temporary impairment.

Regardless, I would not suggest creating ships armed exclusively with Ion Cannons even if you somehow manage to get a major Silver Mist infestation; that kind of ship is just too specialized for my tastes.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 3

RE: Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down? - 10/29/2015 3:31:39 AM

jacozilla

Posts: 122
Joined: 10/10/2015
Status: offline

I'm an achievement junkie so for the silver mists i plan to get it using specialized ships with game setting as me, silver mists and no AI empires or pirates. Basically sandbox game to farm mists only.

Love all aslects of DW except space creatures. Just seems nonsensical so normally have creatures disabled. So will design ion + fighter carriers just to farm the achievement kills and then never play with creatures enabled again.

For normal games, i cant say ion cannons seem useful in any way. Other than as new novelty i tried using to test the tech, ton for ton - and especially range - lot better it seems to just use good old torps and beams in place of ion when fighting pirates or AI empires. The size is high and dmg low, which woild be the formula for a long range weapon, but ion cannons have fairly high weight, low range, and far less dmg for that range than say titan beams or other laser/beam weapons,

I just started a game and found a ruin that opened up a silver mist but so far just one. For the achievements i need a ton more as there are several incrementally higher achievement tiers. Hope they eventually start spawning in mass pr this will be one long, slow sandbox game waiting for silver mists to spawn.

(in reply to Aeson)

Post #: 4

RE: Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down? - 10/29/2015 6:28:08 AM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

I would suggest to just play the game and discover as you go.

Normal space creature are trivial. They don't move outside the system, and they don't breed. To get many silvermists it helps to have stupid AI around, as they grow as they eat structures and colonies.

(in reply to jacozilla)

Post #: 5

RE: Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down? - 10/30/2015 9:27:10 AM

Serenitis

Posts: 54
Joined: 8/23/2015
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
Normal space creature are trivial. They don't move outside the system...

Ardilus can. I've seen several that were named "Ardilus of x" that were in systems that were not "x". Not exactly suprising given that they can chase you into hyper inside a system, so what's to stop them doing that outside?
Still not really a threat to anything besides unarmed ships though.

Silvermist are special snowflakes.
While you can kill one with any weapon, they have such a huge damage modifier against anything that isn't Ion/EMP, and they constantly regenerate so that it requires such a long time to do so it can be considered for all intents and purposes "impossible".
(It isn't, but I could never be bothered microing ships for an hour or something to actually do it.)

Like anything though, if you throw enough stuff at it you'll win just through sheer weight of fire - this is how fighters beat them. Works for ships too, but :effort:

Ion cannons are only the first weapon that will hurt them though, any weapon with an EMP effect will do just as well.
Being special, mists are immune to EMP effects like slowing and diabling but are instead hurt by it.

Personally I don't have a problem making a class of ships specially to fight them as they are such a rare occurance. Ships equipped only with Ion cannons and as much armour as will fit (since mists ignore shields).
You can always refit them to a more balanced design later.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 6

RE: Silver mists - only ion or ion slows down? - 10/31/2015 2:09:12 AM

jacozilla

Posts: 122
Joined: 10/10/2015
Status: offline

I don't dislike space creatures in games per se, but i just find them nonsensical in DW.

As noted by others, they are bottom line fairly trivial, so exist as non-factors other than more pop up message spam. So other than for chasing this achievement, i turn creatures off not because i find them hard or nuisance in sense of affecting my game, but because they serve as a nuisance with zero effect on my game.

Maybe if creatures were harder and they actually made me defend against and actively hunt down nests, ala pirates, i would see some use for enabling. As it is, other than the very first few years in pre-warp start, space creatures deny you nothing, hamper zero trade - freighter attack messages are just spam, i've yet to see single civilian ship killed by space creatures much less military ships.

Even my most weakly armed and shielded/armored mining stations will nuke the heck of any bothering space creature before being in any real danger. It almost seems like space creatures were a barely thought out afterthought added to DW, unlike pirates which serve as legitimate danger if not quite on same level as a raging insectoid AI empire.

(in reply to Serenitis)

Post #: 7