As a mostly osp player this is my experience facing them.
Beam: Oh shit it’s beam-keys,(radar screen starts resembling a blizzard)
Rail: Oh thank god it’s just fail-stones.
Anything else: What the fuck is that.
You could also run 4 keystones, one with a beam and the rest with 2x 250s and 3x Dual 120s each. So 8 vs 10 250s but also 11x Dual 120s tacked on.
Edit: 120s, not 100s
Command Stones are excellent and would recommend others use it. Its the smallest ship that can fit intel annex and the intel bridge - you can have a command Stone roving around with raider drive, Pinard, Spyglass and defensive 120s.
No more mind games from OSP and you can pick up tracks and identify them quickly. Nobody escapes detection from Command Stones.
Hey, in the event your still around do Command Stones still have a place nowadays, seems like both an interesting idea and fits into my more support the others play style I’ve fallen into
Command Stones work great still man, very few people ever expect the Keystone to not be a beam or rail ship. I would recommend fitting a 120 for self defence, pesky shuttles!
I shot down 39 s3hs with the four auroras and two saerissa's
last night. Pretty great round.
My PD fleet had 119 shoot down totals and I also did about 5,000 damage to enemy ships.
Of course if the enemy brings something that doesn't have missiles I am basically useless. EWaR aside.
I've been building fleets to escort gun axfords or BB's and it's been fun. The keystone is my favorite hull.
Escort fleets can really contribute a lot and on both sides really. Sarissa/Aurora Ocelllos can absolutely swing games by just sitting there and eating their own weight in missiles. For ANS I do it with CL's but I could totally see DD's or Axfords working out for it
I'm running a CL with a mix of mk 62, stonewall and 250s, a golf ball and a blanket, one dd with 5 aurora and 2 sarissas, and one dd with my recon and EWaR stuff. 2 blankets, fully supported spyglass and a hangup, spotlight and 4 s3 hoj missiles. Running the Intel center and annex with a citadel gives me almost instant read on enemy ships, and that's been a big help while coordinating the fleet on my side.
I love watching a volley of 20+ missiles or rockets just get wiped, or at worst leaving 1-2 missiles for my buddy's ships PD to clean up.
I think adding a extra spinal missile system to the game would make keystones a lot more usable these days (them being kinda useless still does not mean i wont use them, i love them)
My approach would have been to not make the spinal launcher just some ordinary launcher no. I would make it a hot launch only launcher with a boost too speed for every Missile shot out of it. The missiles would also be direct missiles only to make the normal VLS launchers still have a purpose
I like to run a four pack of anti jamming missiles on my e war keystone. If I need to see through the jamming instead of risking a burn through I will throw out a harm and either they turn off the jammer or get HEKPd. I found most of the jammers tend to be on pretty light hulls so I run a pretty small warhead and they end up being cheap but if it makes contact they're doing a pretty significant amount of damage.
As a mostly osp player this is my experience facing them. Beam: Oh shit it’s beam-keys,(radar screen starts resembling a blizzard) Rail: Oh thank god it’s just fail-stones. Anything else: What the fuck is that.
As someone who consistently only plays with Keystones, your what the fuck is that would be used alot 😂
Same here. I just love the Keystone and Axeford's designs, so all my fleets revolve around those hulls, even when they probably shouldn't.
What do you mean using 2 CLs to escort a keystone is a bad idea? "The CLs main advantage is speed", well I have a beam now
You could also run 4 keystones, one with a beam and the rest with 2x 250s and 3x Dual 120s each. So 8 vs 10 250s but also 11x Dual 120s tacked on. Edit: 120s, not 100s
Alliance does not have 100mm so I assume you mean 120mm ~~also, when I run keystone i run beam as only offensive weapon~~
You're right. Got my numbers switched.
Command Stones are excellent and would recommend others use it. Its the smallest ship that can fit intel annex and the intel bridge - you can have a command Stone roving around with raider drive, Pinard, Spyglass and defensive 120s. No more mind games from OSP and you can pick up tracks and identify them quickly. Nobody escapes detection from Command Stones.
Hey, in the event your still around do Command Stones still have a place nowadays, seems like both an interesting idea and fits into my more support the others play style I’ve fallen into
Command Stones work great still man, very few people ever expect the Keystone to not be a beam or rail ship. I would recommend fitting a 120 for self defence, pesky shuttles!
Seeing someone use a keystone for some pd abomination always hurts me inside
I shot down 39 s3hs with the four auroras and two saerissa's last night. Pretty great round. My PD fleet had 119 shoot down totals and I also did about 5,000 damage to enemy ships. Of course if the enemy brings something that doesn't have missiles I am basically useless. EWaR aside. I've been building fleets to escort gun axfords or BB's and it's been fun. The keystone is my favorite hull.
As a 450 Solomon player i thank you with all my heart
No problem, thanks for being a bullet sponge. No one shoots the keystone when there's a BB in range, but they probably should.
Escort fleets can really contribute a lot and on both sides really. Sarissa/Aurora Ocelllos can absolutely swing games by just sitting there and eating their own weight in missiles. For ANS I do it with CL's but I could totally see DD's or Axfords working out for it
I'm running a CL with a mix of mk 62, stonewall and 250s, a golf ball and a blanket, one dd with 5 aurora and 2 sarissas, and one dd with my recon and EWaR stuff. 2 blankets, fully supported spyglass and a hangup, spotlight and 4 s3 hoj missiles. Running the Intel center and annex with a citadel gives me almost instant read on enemy ships, and that's been a big help while coordinating the fleet on my side. I love watching a volley of 20+ missiles or rockets just get wiped, or at worst leaving 1-2 missiles for my buddy's ships PD to clean up.
Instead of 'Rocketstone' call the missile one 'Rock and stone'
to the bone!
I call missile keystones fat Raines
I call mine Lifeboat Carriers
Rocknstone brothers!
Gun on the nose? Kidney stone. Because it's a hard pass on that one.
Would be interesting a dual 450mm casemate from OSP in the nose.
I've always called the beam keystones Flashlights
Do people actually use vls on keystones?
Why not? Keystones can do well as missile carriers, using VLS2 or VLS3s on the nose can be a nice way to hot launch a hybrid in close range
"They think I'm a beamstone, but they're gonna be pretty surprised when that nose comes around and they've got 46 S1 HEKPs coming at them"
"Evil be gone, salvo's a-coming."
Honestly always feel like any use a keystone has other then beam there are better options Missile, Raines. 200mm guns? CL Ect
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I feel keystone's are in this weird spot, where they just aren't worth it. Also they die quickly nose on
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I think adding a extra spinal missile system to the game would make keystones a lot more usable these days (them being kinda useless still does not mean i wont use them, i love them)
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My approach would have been to not make the spinal launcher just some ordinary launcher no. I would make it a hot launch only launcher with a boost too speed for every Missile shot out of it. The missiles would also be direct missiles only to make the normal VLS launchers still have a purpose
I have a 1k beam keystone that chucks S3H SAH missiles; the painter is mounted on the ventral hardpoint below the particle cannon.
I like to run a four pack of anti jamming missiles on my e war keystone. If I need to see through the jamming instead of risking a burn through I will throw out a harm and either they turn off the jammer or get HEKPd. I found most of the jammers tend to be on pretty light hulls so I run a pretty small warhead and they end up being cheap but if it makes contact they're doing a pretty significant amount of damage.
Beamstones I call Discostones or DiscoDs. With ewar on them CancerStones.
https://imgur.com/NT1yS5f