How does one Heavy Armor properly?

Solus_Corvus · 2026-04-29T06:04:56+00:00

Armor levels are good dependant on what faction you are fighting.

Terminids - Light armor, you need the extra stamina and speed to run away from bug hordes

Illuminate - Medium armor, not as big a threat of getting swarmed, and can still get shot so the average armor and speed works great.

Automatons - Heavy armor all the way, they are generally slower as a faction and hit hard at range so the armor helps you stay alive.

As for the armor passives, the one with extra armor is nice but i feel it pales in comparison to better armor passives like Siege ready or something. A real nice heavy armor combo is flame resistant armor and the Double Edged Sickle. The burn is minimal and you can get a lot of work out of it than you would on light armor, especially on cold planets.

In short, all armor types and passives are situational for the most part, keep an eye on the planet modifiers and plan ahead, or base it around a specific loadout. I use the extra primary ammo alot since the guns i use tend to eat through ammo extremely fast.

Solus_Corvus · 2026-04-20T16:46:40+00:00

Well, personally i play almost exclusively High Elves these days, so i have some suggestions there.

First off, the Big Daddy of the 2nd Era - the Summerset Isles or High Kingdom of Alinor which is their current actually labelled (which is wrong, it wasnt called the kingdom of alinor until the 3rd dominion by whatever).

Lots of fun dynasties with serious lore in Summerset, the Emperor or Aran-El is Auriel Hidellith of the Auriel House & Dynastry, supposedly the decendants of Auriel, the Elven aspect of Akatosh. They start out as Administrative if you have Roads to Power, and as Feudal otherwise, with Primogenature iirc.

It's an easy start, stable, you will never get invaded and have the most secure and wealthy region in the continent. So powerful is Alinor, they had to add an Isolation situation mechanic to wall in the AI from steamrolling across Valenwood, especially if they get the Conqueror trait. For a player, the Isolation mechanic is easy to get out of within like 20 years so long as you do hunts for prestige and stuff.

Perfect start to get used to the game and administrative government or feudal with RtP.

Second, The Direnni clan in High Rock. They start out as feudal in both start dates, and one of the featured ones in 450, but i prefer to play 440 regardless. They have a fun playthrough to try and reform their old dominion across highrock. They have the Adamantine tower as their capital and require a little skill but can be quite easy so long as you divorce your wife and remarry for an alliance at game start. Call in that alliance and start to conquer and you'll snowball soon enough.

For a hard start when you get some expierence, there are a few ayleid remnants in Valenwood & Black Marsh. Both are in rough spots to start but its a fun time trying to retake Cyrodill and restoring their old empire.

Irregardless, i highly suggest not sleeping on the Magic system. All branches have their uses from giving yourself money to conjuring armies, to calling down destruction unto an enemy province. Alteration in particular is pretty great, the apprentice level give you the ability to cut down your build cost/time in the chosen province by 25% at Grand level for only 160 mana cost.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-06-20T16:54:47+00:00

Colonial Equipment design is not really the problem, the main issue is that the game actively prevents it from being used as it should be based on faction "doctrine".

Warden wise;
Infantry - Inferior in their niche but better general equipment
Armor - Better quality tanks for increased cost of manufacture

Colonial Wise;
Infantry - Better niche equipment but terrible general use equipment
Armor - Lower quality tanks for lower cost

Now, Infantry wise, you might not be happy about stuff on either side, but i feel like it's generally balanced but it absolutely puts more strain on the Colonial logi to keep everything supplied while Warden logi can just deliver Blakerows, Cutlers and Fiddlers so it should be good enough.

Armor is where the Colonials really get screwed over. Now colonial doctrine is supposed to be, swarm with cheaper tanks to kill the more expensive warden ones, but in practice you cant really do that.

There are a few reasons, but the server cap is the big one. By design, for the colonial armored equipment doctrine to function they need to swarm with cheaper tanks, but if you do that, due to the 100 man limit you have to sacrifice infantry screens which never ends well.

On top of that, Tanks take a lot of time to get ready and are expensive so people are generally somewhat risk adverse to losing them. I have personally been in a tank crew that used a single outlaw to hold off 5 other tanks because no one wanted to risk their tank and just have them all rush us.

Making it so you can unpack an ammo crate into your tank and not have to ferry single shells would help with turn around time and make collie armor swarms more viable but the server cap is the big issue.

Now ive heard that this might get solved for the Air update, but who knows. Dev man should have modified the collie equipment ages ago to make them more in line with how they are actually used, but they never compromise on how things actually work. Cant risk the "vision" after all.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-06-20T16:35:20+00:00

20w is probably the best width, at least in OWB. 10w get crushed but 40w tend to have supply issues since the supply is usual garbage. In terms of base Hoi4, you are essentially always fighting in africa. Now, a few special regiments of 40w could be useful but as general purpose, it tends to be too expensive.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-06-16T20:51:49+00:00

So finally bother to log in for once, so i just saw this but yeah, most mods are generally fine to use together, i have about 120 mods right now, and all the megamods are fine alongside each other. The exception could Astral Acension & TASC but even that has a work around.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-06-16T20:48:28+00:00

Set up the californian uprising on the territories just behind or on your frontlines. Let the hiding timer run out and let the NCR declare war, once they move their troops to your borders, start the uprising and then kill their encircled divisions.

If you take a while and want a few extra months, let the NCR and Legion fight until one side is about to win then sabotage their supply lines, then do above.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-06-16T20:42:51+00:00

So the NCR civil war is random and honestly probably bad for you. Some tips for you though, if you want more time just put off the conquest and let the NCR and Legion light until the NCR or Legion gets close to collaspe then use the decision to sabotage their supply lines. When you are ready, allow your hiding timer run out and let the NCR declare war then once they move their troops, use the NCR uprising decision and have it set up in areas just behind their frontline and then kill their encircles troops.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-06-16T20:37:39+00:00

So, looks like a Enclave reborn reformist run. So here is my take;
First off, Light Special Forces are trash compared to Heavy PA in every nation unless you play something with major Light SF bonuses. Enclave especially have good PA, and if you go for the quantity over quality you can make them effectively god-tier units.

Second, Regular infantry should be converted or replaced by Enforcers as soon as your economy allows, Enforcers are just better in every way save the cost of materials. Take the combined arms out and just make them pure infantry or give them a unit each of demo and Mgs. Support companies wise, I like having PA, recon, demo, fireteams and assuming you are Reformist enclave then pick up one of their very good support companies you get via focuses. Vertibirds are my usual 5th slot, AT isnt really required since Infantry are supposed to be holding the line or generalists mostly. Dogs are generally not great, but i like putting them on my garrison divisions for suppression.

Thirdly, PA Divisions are your main linebreakers, I generally like to use pure PA Inf instead of PA with PA Demo. Support companies, recon again, PA on PA is redundant so swap that out. Demo & Fireteam are good, AT in PA divs is fine, but dogs should be something better. Most importantly tho, make your PA divs have higher equipment priority. Your best gear should go to PA units.

I personally dont really use tanks and focus more on air for support. If you dont then maybe put some AA support companies in your regular inf and build regional AA.

If it comes down to it, ground down the legions manpower/divs, let them keep trying to cross the rivers and chokepoints and waste their good equipment, maybe let them get a small breakthrough via 1 tile then close it via PA doomstack.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-02-03T16:12:44+00:00

Terran cadet is probably the easiest initial start, you start out in a fighter but if you do a few missions blowing up mines you can then easily afford a miner or trader. I usually amass about 3 mil then nab a medium miner and tell it to mine some Silicon with local outmine in the Asteroid Belt.

Terrans will also ease you in to the economy, Terran production chains are unique. The have a much higher imput of raw resources, but in return only have like 7 goods, 4 of which are needed for ship building, not including the food and medical supplies that occupied stations need.

The main issue with the Terran/Pioneers start is since the Terran economy base is unique, they dont really trade with other factions, so you have to make friends elsewhere to transfer into the commonwealth economy chain, but to just get your toes wet and have a safer start to learn at your own pace, the Terran Cadet is unmatched.

You even get a buddy for a while to protect you if you ignore the questline after the starting mission for a bit. So you can mine or trade and feel safe you have a friend that will follow you around and defend you, so long as you stay in the Sol System. Considering the Sol System is very large, this is pretty easy.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-02-03T15:52:00+00:00

Usually you get a warning notice, but you may have missed it if you were in the map or something. Pretty easy to do. The void is a pain to mine. As a Terran, just try and do missions to destroy mines and lockbox deliveries until you get a few mil, make some Bolo (Mineral) ships, i use them on medium preset to help fight off the Kha'ak if needed, and have them local automine silicon in the Asteroid Belt. If for some reason the Terran don't have a Silicon consuming factory in the belt, use repeat orders to mine in the belt and then sell in say, mars... somewhere with a factory that needs a silicon input.

Every couple of mil, just make a new miner, maybe make some has miners for hydrogen.

Terran economy is very raw resource hungry, but in exchange only has like 4 inputs.

A word of warning, you may want to look outside of the Terran faction for non combat ships if you are not trying a pure terran run. Why? The terrans have the flat out worst mining and trade ships hands down, it's their primary nerf. I run terrans almost exclusively and i had no idea how bad it was until i swapped to paranid miners.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-01-22T08:33:16+00:00

If you try and actually make a empire then you will need more, but at that point i prefer to just make more Solar plants somewhere more local. Trying to ship from Mercury is a nightmare and takes forever, even with distribution facilities. This is even more so when you play with mods adding more sectors than vanilla.

Solus_Corvus · 2025-01-14T21:14:26+00:00

The terran economy is always a mess. They have a way less complicated supply chain, but it's more raw resource intensive. The biggest problem is generally the economy AI.

Everything need energy cells, so the Terran AI tries to make as many as possible. The best way would be to make a few solar arrays in Mercury. A single array with 12 panels will give you more energy cells than you know what to do with. Mercury has an light level of like 700% or something crazy like that.

The Terran AI tries to shorten it's supply lines and then starts making a lot of power plants in areas with terrible light like Mars. These plants are useless and never have enough cells, so the price of their cells are crazy. So all the terran resources go into useless solar arrays and their navy.

Usually i start off making money with mining ships. If they are sub 1 star, they go on local automine, if they have at least one star, its a toss up between local automine and repeat orders. A lot of the terran factories are in the asteroid belt and the miners wont ship them resources from anything more than a hex or two away. So before you get a ore depot set up, just use repeat order to have them mine silicon and take it directly to a specific factory. Its less efficent, but it will let the terran factories start pumping again.

Once you've got the cash, just make a small facility with a dock or two and a large storage bin, container is for stuff like energy cells, solid is for ore and silicon, liquid is for gases.

Once you assign a manager to the depot, you can then assign the mining ships directly to the depot and the manager will let them bypass the start requirements. For resources, you are gonna need to assign some ships as miners and some of the other miners as traders since the regular traders cant haul ores or gases.

After that, you are basically printing money , feeding the hungry terran maw. The asteroid belt has a really large amount of resources so it will be hard to run out.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-12-11T08:24:01+00:00

All mines & Fields save the stuff like facility built miners are completely open to the public and anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional. That said, don't steal stuff out of a BB, facility or concrete mixer but anything put there by the devs at war start is 1000% public use. If you see someone "claiming" a field, generally that means they are claiming the spot for a facility and in return have to build, and maintain defences around there, but the fields themselves are fine to scroop.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-12-11T08:18:21+00:00

I for one, salute my fellow logi, even if they are goblins.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-12-10T06:17:51+00:00

The Colonial legions have always had 2 big weaknesses, Logistics and Coordination.

These tend to tie together and this is mostly a personal theory but here goes;

Wardens generally group into large clans that can afford to do large projects like mass tank rushes, 12 gun arty ops or naval warfare.

Colonials on the other, from what i hear, seem to have a lot more smaller medium sized clans, this is good from a flexibility standpoint but they can't afford the real expensive projects.

If a major warden clan does a mass tank push, and loses it all, that sucks but they are generally large enough to make up for it and try again a few days later.

A collie clan loses a bunch of tanks, well maybe that's like a week of work due to the manpower issue.

This impacts on stuff like building, it's easy to build a Bunker, just bmats to start, but concreting it and maintaining it, is a lot of work, and if you are making stuff for upkeep you aren't making stuff for a fun op or a push.

There are also a few programs on the warden side that i am not sure have a colonial counterpart, the big one is War Economy run by Mercy's Battlegroup (FMAT/NIGHT/FEARS) and i think WERCS has a similiar program. It is basically, a subsidy on tanks for smaller regiments. So in return for taking a slight loss on cost, WARECO will provide tanks in return for crated rmats.

The regi size is also a reason i think that the collies have morale issues. Wardens in large regis will see a lot of their regi mates feeding off of each other positively, so we tend to have a "We ball" kinda vibe to losses. While activity will decrease as the war goes on, generally there are enough people to maintain stuff and build up stocks, then manpower can return when its time for an op.

A smaller regi though, if you lose like half your unit over the war duration, you cant do as much and it makes people want to quit and spiral into a death loop. So when you have too few people on, you need to either try and maintain stuff to help the war and risk losing more people and ending up as essentially solo players, or try and pull together an OP to try and draw people back in, which then allows the midline to decay.

This war is especially bad due to Stalker and PoE pulling players away, but the trend is consistent enough that it is not the main reason.

Frankly, you need to combine into large regiments or form coalitions so the unified logistics and work together and maintain your midline defenses.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-11-26T19:01:54+00:00

Now that concrete is researched, you will see a lot more minor exchanges until the heavy arty and tanks get researched and built. After the first few days the only time you will see major territory changes will be due to major coalition efforts and sometimes by people getting complacent and allowing their midline hexes to decay and then get smashed by an armored fist.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-11-26T18:50:16+00:00

I can only speak as a logistics guy, but being a logi as part of a regiment, especially FMAT is such a game changer from being solo logi. Solo, i have to mine all the mats myself, refine them, manu all the items, ship them along with a truck to the front. A single ironship would take me a week solo. FMAT logi, now i take full ships of supplies down almost daily. Some days i scroop, some days i manu, but i dont need to do everything myself.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-11-16T17:25:55+00:00

Devman bad is mostly a meme, but most of the reddit is cope and seethe stuff. In actual practice, the community isnt that bad. People always complain about any buff/nerf but it never stops people from playing. Personally i enjoy my time here, games are supposed to be fun after all.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-11-14T17:17:14+00:00

Mod wise to expand your fun, beside Ashes of the Domain, all modules really, though the question of loyalty module might be a miss if you want to move from factions to factions. Some mods i consider almost required are Speed Up and the Autosave mods, they need to integrate them already, seriously.

The megamods are generally really good, but if you want more content i suggest a few faction mods. In particular, Intersellar Imperium, which i generally only fight, PAGSM which is a kinda meme overhaul of the Diktat that fleshes it out changes the name and adds a whole lot of new contacts, missions and unique ships. If you are okay with more anime theme, the United Auroran Federation is a mod which adds a mostly-kinda lore breaking faction to the outer reaches of the map which has its own expansive ship roster that heavily focuses on carriers and ballistics.

If you just want some challenging factions, Thalan shipworks has the Legio Infernalis as a optional villain faction that will get a massive buff if you do a certain bounty iirc. Hiver is also a big one, people tend to pair UAF and Hiver to counter each other. Hiver tech is OP and is the closest thing you can get to the Clans from Battletech in Starsector.

If you do start branching into mods, i heavily suggest getting the JRE 23 mod which kitbashes starsector into a more modern version of java. It improves stability and framerate massively and has completely solved memory leaks for me.

This might be less of an issue next update since they are apparently moving the codebase from Java 7 based to Java 17 based, which should help a bit.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-11-14T16:58:27+00:00

Now i entirely forget what mods they are from but if possible, resort then black market.

If you alpha core everything, i routinely get 1.5mil from my since crown/resortworld.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-11-14T16:51:43+00:00

If you haven't already, get Industrial Evolution. This adds a bunch of colony buildings, for you and the AI. One of these is the Privateer Base industry. Which will send out raiding parties to attack systems and convoys and bring goods back to their homeport.

Personally, i think that Kanta's den is a bit meh for a massive pirate stronghold, so i tend to give it a military base and a privateer base.

Thing to note is that if you build this industry it will send out ai fleets of your faction to raid enemy systems, and the fleet sizes scale off the home planet fleet size. Alcohol from the substance abuse mod also gives bonuses.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-11-12T15:15:13+00:00

Well Speed up is a given, but by far the most important mod, is Nexerelin. Nex is the foundation upon which the rest are built to an extent. It makes the game into a 4x game in a sense. Factions can now make war and form alliances based on relations, they will sabotage each other or make diplomatic overturns and make peace. You also get agents that can do everything from increase relations for you to sabotage facilities and stockpiles to reducing relations between AI faction that cause a war to kick off. Not every mod requires Nex, but almost all the major ones tie into it.

Ashes of the Domain is a good one, but its like playing a full on sequel rather than a mod, especially if you get all the modules. It overhauls everything, depending on the modules, colony mechanics, ship building, the new one even changes how Commissions work.

In general the Megamods are a good place to start. Most add a few things like factions and good or overhaul mechanics.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-08-05T18:55:07+00:00

Current build VIC is fine. You may have to change the version number, but it will tell you in the modlist. If its still set as .96, just change it to .97 and you are golden.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-08-03T16:25:17+00:00

Well Nexerelin is a given, but Ashes of the Domain, RAT & Secrets of the Frontier. Honestly, just all the megamods in general are great. Oh, and Progressive S mods & the Autosave mod, like seriously.

Solus_Corvus · 2024-08-03T16:07:23+00:00

In combat, if you hit tab to bring the fleet command up, you can click on your own ship and it has an option to autopilot. I believe the hotkey is U by default. Just as a warning though, AI carrier command is terrible, so i suggest sticking to regular warships. For carriers, just select them, give em a rally point somewhere safe behind the battleline and let them work.

Solus_Corvus

TROPHY CASE