Hey all,
Popped in today to have a go at Titan Thor. I remembered to go into SOLO mode this time, and the experience is significantly smoother - certainly during the approach.
I made the approach as usual, no crashes or other random gremlins this time, which was great. Countered the large Pulse during the approach just fine, but got VERY hot doing so - don't recall it heating me up quite so much prior times. Still, other than a couple of percent off a few Modules, ship was fine. I have AFMU (disabled) if needed.
I made it to the Titan and sat there cold and stealthy waiting for the vents to open, they did and I started approaching...then they closed. Hmm. I back off, and wait again... I'm assuming these vents will cycle open / closed over time with ZERO player interaction, they just won't cause the heat core thing to pop out. After a short wait, the vents open again so I go in. My ship is acting like it's flying through treacle for some reason, being really sluggish to turn, which isn't a typical characteristic of an anti-Titan Krait II. I proceed to target the vents, turning away and heading towards the next vent before firing off the missile. This is working well, I'm very quickly hitting those vents - three done in rapid succession, not more than 15 second has passed since I started moving - and suddenly they all close, and I get the Core exposed message. I was surprised it popped out after only hitting three heat vents, and after such a very short time.
I head underneath, getting into position quite quickly and land several volleys of hits with AX missiles (four racks fitted), but I come away with only 1.3 million in bonds. A bit odd. I retreat - no torus field thingy this time - and wait in the asteroid field again, nice and chilly. The vents open, I start to move off and...they close again before I've even gotten close. They were open for five seconds, if that. I turn around and hide again. Waiting. I head in again and, once again, despite being quite speedy at this despite the Krait's sluggish behaviour, I managed to tag five vents before they close this time. They remained open a bit longer, but still seemed to close prematurely. I head around to hit the Core, getting a good few more hits this time. However, I come away with just 300k in bonds, despite easily landing MORE hits than last time. I retreat to hide again, seemingly getting hit by the torus effect - knocked around, engines off-line for a few seconds - no visual torus effect rendered though. Now hiding and waiting.
Vents open again and I do another, and hopefully final, run vs. the Titan. I think I got five or six vents this time, but one of the Nanite Torpedoes looked like it impacted near the vent rather than hitting it properly. Not sure. I head for the Core again, had a bit of a drifty wobble, so it took me an extra couple of seconds, but I got some solid hits in - but LESS than my prior run due to my not so good flying for a moment there - gaining 1.5 million in bonds. Decided to retreat at that point, as my play window is a bit limited.
So, certainly a smoother experience than last time, but the vent opening / closing timing is odd and I once again didn't seem to get all my hits counted. With earlier Titans, except Oya), I could do one run once the Titan was vulnerable and easily get 2 million in bonds, usually over 3 or 4, no problem. I wasn't as good getting on target back then either. Now, I'm more practised as you'd imagine, and able to get to the Core quickly and land several solid volleys on the Core - only slowed down by the odd reload. However, despite consistently getting more hits in, I often find myself coming away with many not being counted. I don't quite understand why that is.
To summarise: being in SOLO does seem to make things go more smoothly, but I still had some gremlins with Vent opening and closing, as well as seemingly not being rewarded for a proportion of the damage I was dealing. Damage counting was far more consistent on Titans prior to Oya, but both Oya and Thor have often not counted a good portion of the damage. With Oya, I had one good run, that gave me NOTHING.
I know there will be plenty of people who say "it works for me", well, that's great, I'm genuinely glad for you. However, it is frustrating when things do not work as they should. SOLO certainly helps, even vs. a Private group with no other players present which I didn't expect. There are still issues however. My PC is good, my internet connection is good, I've done the port-forwarding thing too (ages ago, not noticed any obvious difference) so I don't quite know why things go screwy. I can only assume, for whatever reason, the particular server my game is talking to is misbehaving from time to time. I know I'm not the only one having issues but, as time as progressed, we're more in the minority I feel.
It's funny you know, I've watched various videos of others doing Titan runs, and many seem to be pottering around in a warm (over 20% heat) ship, casually tagging the Heat Vents one after another while barely being bothered. They can also be seen taking longer to tag the vents than me, yet the vents simply remain open longer for them, giving them more time. They'll then often have the Core exposed for a little longer as a result. Me, I'm sat there nice and chilly (15-17% heat) and there are suddenly many red blobs on the scanner making a bee-line for me from several km away lol. I just don't quite understand how people can have such different experiences.
I'm liking the Titan stuff - it's the only reason I pop back in every few weeks currently - but it can be quite exhausting at times, and it never goes that smoothly. The frustration comes not from a difficulty curve and not from a lack of experience, but from things that others seemingly don't experience. If things went more smoothly, I'd hang around long and be keen to be doing the activity more - time permitting. However, I'm generally just doing it now to hit the "qualifying" amount of Bonds.
Note: Being my first time doing this in SOLO, I did spot a few friendly NPC's in the area, so perhaps they can effect how the Titan / heat vents behave. I know they didn't last very long lol.
Anyway, just sharing my experience with Titan Thor and some things I found to be a little odd. I thing I'm fairly practised at this now, so what needs to be done doesn't phase me. When unexpected things happen though - heat vent behaviour, hits on Core not counting - that does phase me a bit.
Popped in today to have a go at Titan Thor. I remembered to go into SOLO mode this time, and the experience is significantly smoother - certainly during the approach.
I made the approach as usual, no crashes or other random gremlins this time, which was great. Countered the large Pulse during the approach just fine, but got VERY hot doing so - don't recall it heating me up quite so much prior times. Still, other than a couple of percent off a few Modules, ship was fine. I have AFMU (disabled) if needed.
I made it to the Titan and sat there cold and stealthy waiting for the vents to open, they did and I started approaching...then they closed. Hmm. I back off, and wait again... I'm assuming these vents will cycle open / closed over time with ZERO player interaction, they just won't cause the heat core thing to pop out. After a short wait, the vents open again so I go in. My ship is acting like it's flying through treacle for some reason, being really sluggish to turn, which isn't a typical characteristic of an anti-Titan Krait II. I proceed to target the vents, turning away and heading towards the next vent before firing off the missile. This is working well, I'm very quickly hitting those vents - three done in rapid succession, not more than 15 second has passed since I started moving - and suddenly they all close, and I get the Core exposed message. I was surprised it popped out after only hitting three heat vents, and after such a very short time.
I head underneath, getting into position quite quickly and land several volleys of hits with AX missiles (four racks fitted), but I come away with only 1.3 million in bonds. A bit odd. I retreat - no torus field thingy this time - and wait in the asteroid field again, nice and chilly. The vents open, I start to move off and...they close again before I've even gotten close. They were open for five seconds, if that. I turn around and hide again. Waiting. I head in again and, once again, despite being quite speedy at this despite the Krait's sluggish behaviour, I managed to tag five vents before they close this time. They remained open a bit longer, but still seemed to close prematurely. I head around to hit the Core, getting a good few more hits this time. However, I come away with just 300k in bonds, despite easily landing MORE hits than last time. I retreat to hide again, seemingly getting hit by the torus effect - knocked around, engines off-line for a few seconds - no visual torus effect rendered though. Now hiding and waiting.
Vents open again and I do another, and hopefully final, run vs. the Titan. I think I got five or six vents this time, but one of the Nanite Torpedoes looked like it impacted near the vent rather than hitting it properly. Not sure. I head for the Core again, had a bit of a drifty wobble, so it took me an extra couple of seconds, but I got some solid hits in - but LESS than my prior run due to my not so good flying for a moment there - gaining 1.5 million in bonds. Decided to retreat at that point, as my play window is a bit limited.
So, certainly a smoother experience than last time, but the vent opening / closing timing is odd and I once again didn't seem to get all my hits counted. With earlier Titans, except Oya), I could do one run once the Titan was vulnerable and easily get 2 million in bonds, usually over 3 or 4, no problem. I wasn't as good getting on target back then either. Now, I'm more practised as you'd imagine, and able to get to the Core quickly and land several solid volleys on the Core - only slowed down by the odd reload. However, despite consistently getting more hits in, I often find myself coming away with many not being counted. I don't quite understand why that is.
To summarise: being in SOLO does seem to make things go more smoothly, but I still had some gremlins with Vent opening and closing, as well as seemingly not being rewarded for a proportion of the damage I was dealing. Damage counting was far more consistent on Titans prior to Oya, but both Oya and Thor have often not counted a good portion of the damage. With Oya, I had one good run, that gave me NOTHING.
I know there will be plenty of people who say "it works for me", well, that's great, I'm genuinely glad for you. However, it is frustrating when things do not work as they should. SOLO certainly helps, even vs. a Private group with no other players present which I didn't expect. There are still issues however. My PC is good, my internet connection is good, I've done the port-forwarding thing too (ages ago, not noticed any obvious difference) so I don't quite know why things go screwy. I can only assume, for whatever reason, the particular server my game is talking to is misbehaving from time to time. I know I'm not the only one having issues but, as time as progressed, we're more in the minority I feel.
It's funny you know, I've watched various videos of others doing Titan runs, and many seem to be pottering around in a warm (over 20% heat) ship, casually tagging the Heat Vents one after another while barely being bothered. They can also be seen taking longer to tag the vents than me, yet the vents simply remain open longer for them, giving them more time. They'll then often have the Core exposed for a little longer as a result. Me, I'm sat there nice and chilly (15-17% heat) and there are suddenly many red blobs on the scanner making a bee-line for me from several km away lol. I just don't quite understand how people can have such different experiences.
I'm liking the Titan stuff - it's the only reason I pop back in every few weeks currently - but it can be quite exhausting at times, and it never goes that smoothly. The frustration comes not from a difficulty curve and not from a lack of experience, but from things that others seemingly don't experience. If things went more smoothly, I'd hang around long and be keen to be doing the activity more - time permitting. However, I'm generally just doing it now to hit the "qualifying" amount of Bonds.
Note: Being my first time doing this in SOLO, I did spot a few friendly NPC's in the area, so perhaps they can effect how the Titan / heat vents behave. I know they didn't last very long lol.
Anyway, just sharing my experience with Titan Thor and some things I found to be a little odd. I thing I'm fairly practised at this now, so what needs to be done doesn't phase me. When unexpected things happen though - heat vent behaviour, hits on Core not counting - that does phase me a bit.
