Why The Corsair is 'Bad'

[HydrogenSonata]

#Clickbait

Theory: The corsair isn’t unpopular because it’s tactically ‘bad’ the corsair is unpopular because it is strategically bad due to the concept of opportunity cost; “the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.” If you $5 for lunch and you flip a coin for McDonalds or Burger King and you go to BK the opportunity cost is McDonalds.

Corsair and Alternatives

At the point when corsairs are unlocked you probably have two or three bases covering most of the world. Let’s assume three. That’s $900,000 to replace Condors with Corsairs.

The alternatives are:

8 Wolf Armours, an armoury of laser weaponry, a scimitar and a shrike come to $980,000.

I’m assuming at this point we also have at least two foxtrots at each base. But if we don’t then four foxtrots come to $800,000.

Now let’s look at the cost/reward ratio for these things. Income in Xenonauts comes from shooting down and assaulting UFOs, that’s it. Council funding ties to this and airstrikes/assaults directly give you cash and resources.

Cost/Reward Details

The Corsair and Condor are useful for hitting interceptors and that’s it. The reward for hitting interceptors is negligible. A few thousand if you sell the parts. Interceptors also don’t do all that much damage to nation funding compared to capital ships. Note that you can also take out a capital ship that has fighter escorts and then run away. You don’t need to bring down the escorts. So with careful tactics (and bringing a condor as a distraction) escorts can be avoided. In summary the Condor is ‘good enough’ for its useful roles.

In my experience a scout causes about $10k worth of funding damage, a Corvette around $20k if left unchecked. Airstrikes on scouts are $15k and Corvettes $35k.  I can’t quick test it properly because the buggers keep assaulting my base. But after a week I had six Corvettes floating about the world. By conservative estimate we’ll say that there are 2(ish) medium contacts per ‘third’ of the World every two weeks. By this estimate two foxtrots prevent $80k funding damage and provide $140k in airstrikes (with no assaults) every month and can comfortably cover a third of the world with a well placed base. We’ll round that up to $300k for the boost in funding they provide when they shoot down a UFO.

The cost of outfitting a team is a necessary money sink. “the reward for a ground combat mission is mainly in experience for your soldiers and recovered alien equipment, with the relations boost being a secondary benefit” – Aaron. It’s less likely to be profitable but is required. The risk/reward ratio therefore comes into play. If you don’t do anything in ground combat you never advance your technology and lose the game.

The corsair has absolutely no way to ever even pay for itself and break even never mind giving you a profit. It’s a massive money sink. The high cost of the marauder is justified because it can take out capital ships and pay for itself many times over.

The people on the Steam forums tend to like the Corsair, the people on the Goldhawk forums don’t. Now not meaning to be rude to the Steam folks the Goldhawk forum seem to have people who are more tactically and strategically inclined. I believe this is why people avoid the corsair but no one seems to have articulated it in this way. They have been coming at it from a tactical angle (where it is fine) rather than a strategic angle.

[drages]

Making an airplane useful or not is about you 5 min to edit them at aircrafts file. Probably less then 5..

[Ninothree]

Good argument! It is just a monetary perspective though. The logic rests upon not being scuppered in a situation without a corsair. At certain points in the game you need aircraft with the speed, manoeuvrability and payload of a corsair else you have to let the aliens do their thing. Having the option to take down alien craft can give you a massive strategic advantage, it is not always about the quick gain from a crashsite. It depends what situation you are in, if you might have a country quit funding or something. I think in my last playthrough I gave australia a corsair because that was an unmanned base, it may not have been the best move financially but I didn't have to worry about the aliens doing much damage there.

Having said that, I definitely take your point; when money is tight I'll not bother with corsairs. However, I think they are the most fun ships to play with in air combat. Missiles are kinda boring! It is a game after all.

[Charon]

11 hours ago, HydrogenSonata said:

#Clickbait

Theory: The corsair isn’t unpopular because it’s tactically ‘bad’ the corsair is unpopular because it is strategically bad due to the concept of opportunity cost; “the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.” If you $5 for lunch and you flip a coin for McDonalds or Burger King and you go to BK the opportunity cost is McDonalds.

 

Corsair and Alternatives

 

At the point when corsairs are unlocked you probably have two or three bases covering most of the world. Let’s assume three. That’s $900,000 to replace Condors with Corsairs.

The alternatives are:

8 Wolf Armours, an armoury of laser weaponry, a scimitar and a shrike come to $980,000.

 

I’m assuming at this point we also have at least two foxtrots at each base. But if we don’t then four foxtrots come to $800,000.

 

Now let’s look at the cost/reward ratio for these things. Income in Xenonauts comes from shooting down and assaulting UFOs, that’s it. Council funding ties to this and airstrikes/assaults directly give you cash and resources.

 

Cost/Reward Details

 

The Corsair and Condor are useful for hitting interceptors and that’s it. The reward for hitting interceptors is negligible. A few thousand if you sell the parts. Interceptors also don’t do all that much damage to nation funding compared to capital ships. Note that you can also take out a capital ship that has fighter escorts and then run away. You don’t need to bring down the escorts. So with careful tactics (and bringing a condor as a distraction) escorts can be avoided. In summary the Condor is ‘good enough’ for its useful roles.

In my experience a scout causes about $10k worth of funding damage, a Corvette around $20k if left unchecked. Airstrikes on scouts are $15k and Corvettes $35k.  I can’t quick test it properly because the buggers keep assaulting my base. But after a week I had six Corvettes floating about the world. By conservative estimate we’ll say that there are 2(ish) medium contacts per ‘third’ of the World every two weeks. By this estimate two foxtrots prevent $80k funding damage and provide $140k in airstrikes (with no assaults) every month and can comfortably cover a third of the world with a well placed base. We’ll round that up to $300k for the boost in funding they provide when they shoot down a UFO.

 

The cost of outfitting a team is a necessary money sink. “the reward for a ground combat mission is mainly in experience for your soldiers and recovered alien equipment, with the relations boost being a secondary benefit” – Aaron. It’s less likely to be profitable but is required. The risk/reward ratio therefore comes into play. If you don’t do anything in ground combat you never advance your technology and lose the game.

 

The corsair has absolutely no way to ever even pay for itself and break even never mind giving you a profit. It’s a massive money sink. The high cost of the marauder is justified because it can take out capital ships and pay for itself many times over.

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ok, so after reading all of that i can say from my experience that corsairs on all my veteran/ impossible ironman games (i never reloaded , exccept for bugs) was the OVERKILL. In all the mods i have played so far. In over 600 hours. Stuffing your base with corsairs counters ALL AIRCRAFT no matter the size and maneuverability, no matter the speed or turn rate. Its the jack of all trades and master of most.

The biggest selling point ? Its flexibility. No matter what situation you are in there is nothing that cant be dealt with more corsairs.

The money sink ? I beg your pardon but having an aircraft for all situations and quickly stop ANY alien events from happening gains you the most points, economically. You can even plan ahead how many corsairs you need on an average in advance. If you wanna keep it tight you can be short on aircrafts if the country takes a big wave, your decision if its worth it to keep you from building 2 more corsairs. I dont think so.

Furthermore that you shoot down EVERY UFO means you have all teh choices and airstrike money as well. In my book there is a plus after roughly 20 days for every aircraft exluding things i could sell from the crash sites.

Later on the corsairs becomes even better because other aircrafts are getting more expensive while the corsair still does the best job compared to what it costs. AND it still has teh best flexibility as a bonus while you have to think how to balance other aircrafts advanatges/disadvantages out.

Once you reach the powerhouse with the name corsair theres practically no excuse for not dominating the airspace all the way through end game.

Edit: I may be wrong on some points though :D, and now that i think about it my oppinion may be majorly influenced by X-Division 0.98 :/ and not everybody is playing the same mod :P. So take my apologisies, all in all i think the OP is right !

Edited July 11, 2016 by Charon

[damnboy10]

yeah you right  Making an airplane useful or not is about you 5 min to edit them at aircrafts file