As only Corsairs are spawned, and corsairs cannot pierce the shields of the EI100, no damage is taken even if the player goes off and does something else. Pirates shouldn't just toss away their resources like that unless there's hope of an ROI.
Solution:
Increase Corsair firerate and front armor, making them formidable enough to present an actual threat and justify their existence.
Note 1: In addition, EI200 missions could do to have a lower cap on the number of spawned Vikings. When 4 of them show up so early in the game against a barely - armored freighter, the player doesn't really stand a chance.
Note 2: Even with the recent adjustments, the final militia mission also lacks the necessity for intervention. Could try adding more Corsair IIS, doubling the number of Drakes, and adding a chance of a Tripoli in place of Drakes.
I think adding a single Corsair II or Viking to one of the attack teams sent after the EI100 would probably be sufficient, and without affecting the balance of one of the most commonly encountered ships in the early game in the process.
Eh...the corsair certainly could use the extra HP. Could alternatively upgrade them with a Class A deflector.
That is what the Corsair-II is for - the "upgraded" Corsair. Their Class 1 deflector was recently downgraded to a A-class defender.
That is what the Corsair-II is for - the "upgraded" Corsair.
…Hence my suggestion to throw one into the mix.
@assumdedpseudonym: I'm not sure if a Viking wouldn't be too much. EI100 defenses aren't that great, after all. It was my first thought as well, though, and I'd say it's worth at least a test.
@shrike: That would work too, but it might make them too similar to the II.
The problem is that the Corsair II is now a very dangerous little ship. Throwing them into the first mission may make things too hard. The actual upgrade of the II is the missile launcher..the KM100 is easily able to shred an EI100 is the player doesn't knock out the ship quickly. It also sports upgraded armor as well as the light shield (which, incidentally, is specc'd at the heavier freighters that can actually give it trouble, particularly the Antares V)
The problem with the Corsair I is that it both lacks offensive power AND lacks the ability to handle return fire. This can be fixed by increasing the HP to be similar (but lower) by either replacing the shield or armor (not both) makes it closer to the HP total, but lacking the offensive power. This keeps the II as an upgrade, but makes the ship actually capable of doing its job.
Alternatively, increasing the firerateadj and swapping them over to an ultra-light ceramic varient would make them more specc'd against the EI100/200.
Either way, upgrading it (and possibly dropping the number of ships in swarms later in the game to make up for the buff) works well without making it a Corsair II.
If I read that correctly, it sounds similar to my suggestion, which I think is fairly reasonable. If someone has current access to the ability to mod, testing these things would be helpful. At present I'm on a laptop at college, so there's not much solid data I can provide.
Would it be feasible to spawn a Corsair II and remove any missiles from its inventory and/or set the launcher to damaged? So you face shields, armor and double laser, but no missiles?
I thought the primary upgrade of the Corsair-II was the shield. Missiles (and dual laser) give it more power, but with a shield, player with low level weapons cannot simply kill it before it gets a shot off. It used to be more dangerous with a class 1. Now it has the weaker A-class.
This is improved in 1.8 Beta 5. See: https://ministry.kronosaur.com/record.hexm?id=74807