X4 Foundations: Lone Rattlesnake trying to liberate Fires of Defeat

Hello everybody,
On this one I was trying to showcase the dmg output of an Rattlesnake, as opposed to the, lets say, the Ray. All was fun and games, until a wild xenon swarm appear, and dispite my best efforts, lead to a shamefull "Scotty, get me out of here".
Now, there are true Rattlesnake masters out there, that spin and twist and never get hit...welp, I'm not one of them, lol. :P
Also, this clip is a showcase of what a player in an early game, that get his first destroyer and try to stop a xenon "flood", can expect.
About me:
I like to share my X4 Foundations experiences, some because they are really amazing, some because they are really anoying.
Like the video? Why not buy me a coffee?
www.buymeacoffee.com/Ragnos28

[@maestro-zq8gu]

This really makes me realize how much I take my Asgards for granted.

[@ragnos28]

Now, now...why would anyone take what is the most absurdly OP ship in sci-fi history, for granted.🤭😋

[@iou0]

Twisting also helps as fighter trying to attack from above and below. They have trouble firing at you and moving laterally to stay above or below. Going in reverse also messing up their attacks on your engines.

[@ragnos28]

Yeah, like I said in description, there are players that can do the perpetual rolling and twisting, and the other stuff, I'm just not one of them. That is why Syn is more on my "alley" good dps from the main battery, all turrets on AA duty, and strong shields to keep the small fry at bay, until the capitals are dealt with.

[@Rhondaandjames]

Oh and you had asked before about my Raptor Loadout, I use the Asp's for fighters and the Shih's For bombardment. I tried replacing the Asp's with Mamba's and The Shih's with Chimera's. there was honestly no real difference in actual gameplay. I am keeping the Asp's because they are cheaper to replace and the Mamba losses were basically the same. The Shih vs Chimera thing is a wash as far as i can tell. The Chimera's are basically just as effective and the lesser Hull and shields doesn't appear to make any difference.

[@ragnos28]

From what I've seen from the AI, the Asp has good survivability. But for me, as soon as I saw a Chimera, it tick all my "boxes", looks, weapon points, crazy hull, speed...so I went...Chimera for all, just change the loadout simply did not need other fighter for the split. 😁

[@ncharles9027]

This is the best space game ever.

[@Yolo_Swagins]

I agree, i would love to play EVE but i hate pvp

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

​@@Yolo_Swaginsthe multiplayer interactions are a boon and a detriment both. If we count them out because of how they zero-sum each other, EVE online doesn't get near to touching X4. The only way EVE online can be better is if you can somehow ignore and forget all the bad sides of having to share your playground with people ranging from nice to absolutely terrible.

[@jasonnchuleft894]

Considering how most of the Split ships are glass cannons it's not surprising the Xenon are a very good match against them and usually just steamroll Split sectors. A Rattlesnake against a K is an easy win even for AI pilots, but K's rarely travel alone. A Rattlesnake against the usual Xenon raid forces of a single K + ~6 Ps and ~50 M/Ns is an extremely lopsided affair in the opposite direction, not to mention the I + 2 Ks + hundreds of escorts strike groups. Split ships simply lack the durability to outlast the escorts for long. A single L shield is like paper against multiple Ps after all that's less recharge than most L freigthers. Split really excell at dirty fighting tho. I usually surround myself with a cloud of laser towers and mines to divert focus and then fall back while dropping a shedload of mines in the faces of everyone still following. Once the escorts are down those batteries cut through the remaining Caps like a knife through butter and the pointy profile makes it easy to avoid their anticap shots. As for what you could do better: The Rattlesnake deploys upwards so when you mine/lt drop make sure to angle the ship accordingly, otherwise the mines won't do much. Also mind where you placed the mines and laser towers and double back there to create the afformentioned protective "cloud". Another neat trick is to deploy some Ls as safe pillars for your strafing runs, can even use freigthers all that matters are turrets and shields. The Phoenixes the SCA nicely "lends" new players are pretty nice in that role. When I attempt to retake a Xenon infested system I usually place a destroyer group at each gate outward to cut off reinforcements and prevent "spillage". Once prep is complete I begin the slow process of machine genocide. Once all caps in system are dead I thin out the escape blockers and focus them on the stations. Last but not least I construct a defensive station at the gate towards the Matrix and move along. Thankfully Xenon are a tad stupid as they rarely if ever change what system they focus their attacks on so defending against them is pretty trivial. If they went for Family Tkr once they will always go for it once pushed back even if Ianamus Zura IV and Fires of Defeat are entirely undefended. Not very Intelligent of the supposed doomsday AI the lore makes them out to be 🤣

[@ragnos28]

I've made a point sometime ago that the split should focus on building Chimeras instead of suicidal L/LX ships from the War Forge introduced by the devs in 6.1, for split starts: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXLZdo2gl5J5gac. So, imo, if the devs want to make the split more capable of resisting the xenon onslaught, should amp up their Chimera production. 🤓 I kinda gave up on the Rattle as a personal destroyer...that is why I did not use the "time machine" (load a previous save) and just take the loss (too bad for the purple modds 🙁). The Syn is more on my alley, I can deliver a lot of dmg with just the main batteries, and can tank the pew pew from interceptors for quite a while (especially since all turrets are set to AA defence, 50% beam + 50% bolt for L turrets), surround myself with LTs, while I blast the capitals. Anyway, my Raptor + 60 torp Chimera + 40 interceptor Chimera is at the gate, ready to avenge their fallen comrades. Retribution incoming you xenon mofos...😈

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

Hell, I can solo Ks in a fighter as long as you give me two decent guns, mines (merely to save time) and 5 laser towers, but give that K an escort of even just a P and a few Ns and I start sweating.

[@Centrioless]

Yep, always aim the engine first

[@SergeyPupkoMusic]

A big bug that cannot move is as good as dead. 👌

Are you using any rotation mods on that rattlesnake? It seems pretty agile for its size.

[@ragnos28]

I'm not that sophisticated 😋, I just slap Impelier - forwards thrust mod, to gain speed. 🤓

[@sjonjones4009]

I use rotation speed for the thruster mod for my rattles, it makes them turn and get going where they need to faster. Their forward speed is pretty high already, but I use the impeller mod for the engines. I mainly use rattles for pirate patrols in trade route sectors, now, that I'm not stealing their ships anymore.

[@iou0]

Might be a good tactic with an interceptor squadron attacking fighters.

[@ragnos28]

The problem with asigning fighters to intercept for a destroyer is that: one, they will sit still near the leader and eat graviton turret fire if there are no fighters to trigger the "intercept" behavior, and second, no repairs. AI of fighters have zero situation awareness, outside of their scripted, role determined behavior. Maybe set a squadron on defend, and then you would still have the issue no 2. Also, then is not a single destroyer, but a fleet, and if I want a fleet, might as well bring my Raptor with its 100 Chimera friends.

[@iou0]

@@ragnos28 Just thought it would be interesting if you kept your carrier other side of the jump gate and sent indepedent squadron of fighter through to do a continous intercept of the sector. While you deal with k and i with the rattlesnake.

[@ragnos28]

@@iou0 While that would solve the issues of idle fighters and no repairs, If I had a carrier and fighters available, I would not need the Rattle to deal with the capitals, just send the cheap and effective fighters.🤔 Also, what I find attractive about sole destroyer play, is the SOLE aspect, as in just one ship, w/o having to deal with the hussle of managing a fleet. Adding fighters, while potentially effective, would kill the sole aspect. 🧐

[@Rhondaandjames]

I had to build my own Rattles this play through bc the split are especially weak for some reason. they never had enough Hull parts and weapon components to build me one. They are currently milking my Wharf to make themselves Boa's and Fighters so they are coming back a little. That being said my Rattles have Paranid Plasmas because thats the only blueprint i have, "That" being said, that I's shield looked especially stout. are the Paranid plasmas stronger than split? Or are your Xenon buffed? Or is it just my imagination?

[@ragnos28]

Split L plasma turret: dmg: 3.970 mj range: 6.9 km rate of fire: 0.28 rounds per sec Paranid L plasma turret: dmg: 7.502 mj range: 8.9 km rate of fire: 0.14 rounds per sec Paranid have the best L plasma it seems.🤓

[@Rhondaandjames]

@@ragnos28 Yeah The damage per second its basically a wash but two whole KM range is pretty substantial

[@nicolasletellier6162]

And if you hate your life try the same with a Ray ( no missile).

[@ragnos28]

Exactly my point.

[@CaptNemo_]

yo bro am i the only but my cpu temps with this game goes high like 75c that normal

[@ragnos28]

I would not know, I have CPU: Intel Core i7 @ 3.20GHz and I don't monitor its temperature. I monitor the GPU tho, and that goes at 70 - 80 C.🤔

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

The game demands decent single-core performance. The longest standing fad in PC building has been "MORE CORES" but the game only uses 4, really most games just use 4 but in this one you're simulating a wallop of things simultaneously. Hey, as long as you aren't thermal throttling those temps just mean your PC is working fine and the game's making good use of it. Just if you intend to upgrade in the future and you're still enjoying the game then, try to keep an eye on that.

[@blavand7105]

A modded Rattlesnake and you'll just kite everything. Vanilla Xenon are still weak and poorly designed, so you get in behind on top and let loose. You don't even have to consider taking out the engines, as you just move a little every now and then. The only danger the Xenon poses, is for the AI.

[@ragnos28]

It was modded 0:22, is just that I could not find a solution against the interceptors, if I run from them, I can't focus fire on the capitals, if I focus fire on the capitals I can't run from interceptors. That was the part were I F up.... As for the xenon...bare in mind that the xenon I designation is "ship_xen_xl_carrier_01_a_macro" . Imagine if the xenon I would spill out super carrier fighter complement when engaged, about 60 xenon M and 20 xenon Ps....the sweat sound of "mommy Egosoft, the xenon made me a boo boo, nerf them nerf them, just like you did in 3.0" would fill Ego forums 😁

[@blavand7105]

@@ragnos28 Yeah, noticed that. This is what I've done with the Split play: Put plasma on all turrets and try to keep orbit outside K/I range when there's a ton of S/M ships. Hotkey turret drops and drop 2-4 at a time with at least 5km of distance between each group you do. Doesn't have to kill them, just taking focus off of you. (2 rarely take anything more than 1 fighter's attention and likely won't kill a xenon. 4 is a pricey option to take to get maybe 2 fighters attention and just maybe kill one.) The trick is to try and circle around to those small groups constantly and replace a lost or outranged group. Additionally you can hotkey mines too, as you will be running around in the same area for a while, or use them for an straight line exit strategy out of harms way. Though, it's not often that they'll hit anything, but can make several fighters break off. AI is... yeah... stupid with mines. Either it doesn't detect them and sail straight at them, or it panics and sends everyone in the group away. Haven't really tested a clean 6.20 with this. Turrets aren't really optimal for fast ships, as they have a horrible tracking and projectile speed calculation while you're moving, at any speed tbh (I've done some personal tweaking on this to address that solvable problem they claim can't be done)(Game modders address this too). So it'll miss more than hit anything with vanilla play. Only turrets that actually do well on fast ships are lasers, and they're beyond useless with poor tracking, low range and suboptimal damage. Only makes a fighter turn and boost away, only to come back with full shields again.

[@ragnos28]

@@blavand7105 What I would do for split play: - get wharf BP - slap lots of engine parts production modules to my HQ - get all Chimera BP required - start churning out Chimeras In short, what my Rattlesnake was missing were some Chimeras friends. 😁

[@blavand7105]

@@ragnos28 Too true 😁 My points were more for the Rattlesnake tactics. Those shields don't last for long, but it can be fast and a heavy hitting fun boat. It does require a bit much handling, so that is not for everyone.

[@ragnos28]

@@blavand7105 Yeah, the Rattle is for the ace pilots out there, I mostly order fleets around. 😋 I'm more like admiral Adama, that Apollo the Viper pilot (BSG for the win 😁)