Cult Citizen

[icycalm]

XenoThreat for New Players
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm ... ew-Players

XenoThreat Returns
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm ... at-Returns

Star Citizen: Assault on Stanton – Incoming Threat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQygoI0rerU

An outlaw group known as XenoThreat has launched a campaign of violence in the Stanton System and the Navy has requested CDF support to help combat the scourge.

Preaching a viciously anti-UEE and xenophobic rhetoric, XenoThreat forces have been responsible for dozens of attacks against civilian and corporate structures.

XenoThreat is an event AND a faction, so it will eventually also get its own faction thread here, like Nine Tails etc. In fact they sound like a faction I'd like to join lol. But for now let's focus on the event because it's in about a day.

Commander ysignal injured his wrist in a snowboarding accident on microTech, so he won't be joining us in person for this mission. He will however be controlling CULTCLONE-2 from home and piloting one of our Carracks.

I will be in my Scorpius and Commanders recoil and ChevRage in their Super Hornets. Inquisitors Adjudicator, shubn and ExiledOne will be flying their Gladiuses.

shubn have you by any chance bought the Eclipse you said you would? If you have, you can use this instead, as I think it will be useful against some of the larger opposition. If you haven't bought it, no worries.

Note that the Cult Spec has been amended, so check that first before you buy your gear, and buy at least 3 sets of everything. 4-5 would be preferable. You don't lose unused gear anyway, you just keep it for the next event.

Even if you die in the last part of the mission, which I think is space-only, you must still fully gear-up before returning to the battle, you can't just show up in a flight suit, first of all because it won't match the rest of us, and also because we might attempt several runs in a row if we have the time.

ysignal you need to buy your gear WITH THE CULTCLONE-2 ACCOUNT, because that's the one that owns the Carrack. It probably has 200k like the rest of us, but if it doesn't, you can just send it your money.

I don't really have much of a plan because I haven't read deeply into the mission stages. I don't want to spoil it for myself by looking at videos etc. My plan is to just go in and see what happens, and adjust tactics for further runs on the day, or on future attempts. At any rate there seems to be some package-running in there, so the Carrack should handle it fine.

An advanced strategy would be switching our respawn to the Carrack and trying landing a couple of Gladiuses in its hangar as quick extra lives, but I have two reservations about this. 1) What happens if you die 2-3 times? How do you get your ship the third time? You need to go back to a landing zone. How can you do that without wasting time traveling to the landing zone? And 2) We would need to bring some extra gear on the Carrack for the respawns, and that would take time to load etc. I am not saying it's a bad strategy, I am sure it's a good one if done well. We could probably even arrange to take both our Carracks so we can have say 4 extra Gladiuses/lives, and maybe you can even park another Gladius on the landing pad at the top, but it's a complex strategy with several parts we aren't sure about, so I am not sure if we should overcomplicate things for our first attempt. I say let's keep it simple for this weekend, and then we take our results and next time we go complex.

Let me know if you have objections or suggestions. If no one offers anything, this is the plan.

Please try to have all your gear ready at the start time, and make sure your landing zone is set to Area 18. Also figure out how to apply paints to your ships, and have all the necessary paints applied (see Cult Spec for details).

[shubn]

I didn't buy the Eclipse yet. I know I said I would buy it as soon as it's available, but I've now decided to "CCU game" to it.

One issue I see is that the Gladiuses will have trouble reaching microTech from ArcCorp with the default military-class quantum drive without at least a couple of refueling stops. One solution to this problem would be to use a more efficient civilian-class quantum drive, like the Eos for instance, which wouldn't be my first choice, but is available at Dumper's Depot in Area18. The Scorpius and Super Hornet should come with the Eos by default.

Speaking of quantum drives, the Carrack's default one is painfully slow, and a better option would be the Pontes. Again, not my first choice, but it's available from Area18 Dumper's Depot.

Another thing I see is that the Carrack is the only ship we are taking that is capable of hauling cargo. Without spoiling too much, let's just say that cargo hauling is an integral part of the mission. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with our setup, but just keep in mind that if no cargo hauling is taking place, we could be fighting forever.

[icycalm]

Well, we can’t afford a Hercules just yet. Would having Adjudicator bring his second Carrack solve the hauling issue? Do you think we’d need a third hauler? ysignal’s Corsair would probably be our next biggest one I think. We COULD try taking more ships than players by assembling our entire force some safe distance from the battlefield and going back and forth to switch ships between stages. Let me know how this sounds.

As for switching to civilian quantum drives, surely there must be some tradeoffs in preferring civilian ones to military ones for military craft? I mean I had no idea my Scorpius has a civilian one and would rather have a military one. Would bringing a Starfarer solve this issue? I think Adjudicator has a couple.

[icycalm]

Which quantum drives would be your ideal choices for all the ships we’re taking and where can we buy them, and can we even afford them at this stage?

[shubn]

Anything with internal space can do for hauling (they're 1/8 SCU boxes, not 1 SCU), though bigger can be better because of the better shields. Ideally you don't want all your eggs in the same basket, first off in case the hauler gets attacked, and second, because different boxes have different limitations, the two main ones being the boxes that become unstable after a certain amount of time, and the ones that must be hauled without using quantum travel. It's certainly possible to move all types in the same ship, so long as you prioritize and move boxes fast. Using just the Carrack could work, with for instance a couple of people disembarking from their fighters to help with moving boxes while the rest are defending. Or they could stay in the Carrack and man the turrets for defense when not moving boxes, with maybe a Gladius on the hangar deck just in case.

Assembling our force a safe distance from the battlefield and going back and forth could work. We could even park near the Javelin, that should be relatively safe.

As for quantum drives, the tradeoff is that civilian ones are slower than military ones, but a lot more efficient. It makes sense that small fighters wouldn't be able to travel across an entire system and that you would need a carrier to transport them near the battlefield, but proper carriers aren't in the game yet. A Starfarer could solve the issue, and double as a hauler.

My preferred quantum drives for any ship except stealth ones are:
- Size 1: Atlas (Civilian), 17,900 aUEC, HUR-L5 - Platinum Bay
- Size 2: XL-1 (Military), 94,900 aUEC, Orison - Cousin Crows / Port Tressler - Platinum Bay
- Size 3: TS-2 (Military), 93,700 aUEC, Orison - Cousin Crows / CRU-L5 - Platinum Bay

The Scorpius, Super Hornet and Gladius are size 1, the Carrack is size 3.

[Adjudicator]

A Carrack or a Hercules may not be an ideal cargo hauler for the XenoThreat event, as watching videos and reading Reddit threads on the event revealed that there are cargo types that are time-sensitive (rush them to destination ASAP before they explode) or quantum-sensitive (quantum travel renders the cargo useless—must fly the cargo conventionally to the dropoff point).

For quantum drives, civilian drives are the balanced baseline for spooling and cooldown, speed and quantum fuel consumption. Higher-grade drives (D, C, B or A) improve all aspects of the drive, although they cost more.

Military drives have shorter spool up and cooldown times, and have significantly higher quantum travel maximum speeds (about 2x of a civilian drive), with the drawbacks of very high quantum fuel consumption (2.5x to 3x), along with a high purchase price.

Higher-grade military drives have a slightly higher maximum speed, but at a noticeable increase in quantum fuel consumption. This is what I remember based on my experience in the 3.17 era—using the size 2 grade C military Crossfield, size 2 grade A military XL-1 and the size 2 grade A civilian Hemera quantum drives in my Vanguard Sentinel.

For ships using size 1 quantum drives, I recommend the grade A Atlas civilian drive, as most ships at that size have small quantum fuel tanks, and I find this drive fast enough without needing to stop for fuel too frequently. It can be purchased from HUR-L5 station.

The military drives at this size have around 2x as fast quantum travel speed, but consume around 3x as much quantum fuel. One example is the military grade C Beacon that comes with the Anvil Arrow and the Aegis Gladius, or purchased at HUR-L3 or Port Tressler station at microTech.

Ships using size 2 quantum drives generally have large enough fuel tanks to make use of military drives. I can recommend the Grade C Crossfield military drive that can be purchased at Area18 Dumper's Depot, CRU-L1, CRU-L5 or Port Tressler station.

[shubn]

I don't get too hung up on parts classes in the current state of the game, simply because all of the mechanics for them haven't been implemented yet. For instance, I don't think there's any good reason currently to use "industrial" or "competition" parts. Sure, I'd rather have a military QD in my fighters, but I'd also rather not have to refuel every 5 minutes and hope that the server decides to let me refuel that day.