Introduction to Space Combat Maneuvering and Tactics in Arvoch and Evochron...

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Introduction to Space Combat Maneuvering and Tactics in Arvoch and Evochron...

Post by Vice »

This post is provided to help new players learn the basic principles behind space combat in Arvoch Alliance and Evochron Legacy. It's not a comprehensive guide, but rather an introduction to the concepts and tactics a new player will need to know to get started in zero gravity open space combat in Arvoch/Evochron. It may be modified and updated from time to time as new tips, tactics, and options may become available.


Introduction
Combat can seem daunting at first, there is a lot to manage and keep track of compared to what you may be familiar with. The combat in these games is (by many accounts) inherently more complex, difficult, and diverse. It's just not something a new player can quickly be a master of if they're only used to the 'fly in straight, fast, and fire' arcade shooter approach. Instead, the games have combat nuances of physics, tactics, and weapon systems that require a deeper level of player control and awareness... even at the most basic and introductory levels of gameplay. Once you get some of the basics down though and if you may appreciate a more advanced space combat approach, you'll likely enjoy the depth and diversity offered through available options and tactics.


Ship Control
The flight model in Arvoch and Evochron provides a diverse collection of options due to the freedom available in its control and physics systems. As a result, combat scenarios and difficulties generally develop around however the player handles flight elements. A player can limit or expand the level of control (and hence, complexity) they apply to their ship with a wide degree of variation. They can limit themselves to basic roll, pitch, and yaw elements with the IDS on at high speed and experience more jousting behavior in combat. But they aren't limited to that, if they don't want to be. Integrating other control options provides ways to direct their ship courses, speeds, and attack angles in much more diverse ways through elaborate arcs and other shapes. Balancing the limit of range in an arc or other course shape around a target while maintaining sufficient evasion velocity is a skill that takes time to build and master. This section will cover the basics of ship control systems and options.

The player can control their ship using roll, pitch, yaw, horizontal strafe, vertical strafe, forward, reverse, and afterburner inputs. All of these control options are available all the time in every control mode. Some control options may be limited to key/button inputs if a control device doesn't provide a variable axis channel to use it. But the options are still available whether they are accessed by an axis input or a key/button. Under certain control modes (IDS on for example), strafe controls and/or set throttle levels will be tapered/limited to aid in directional accessibility and responsiveness. It's important to learn each of the available control options so the player can utilize what is available to them for more diverse combat maneuvering options. Make sure to learn how to access and use each of the control options in any flight control mode you use, whether mouse, joystick, or keyboard.

The IDS (Inertial Dampening System) in Arvoch and Evochron is a computer-controlled assistant that translates the pilot's input into a sequence of thruster activities designed to adjust the ship's orientation and course with a responsive and predictable result. So if the pilot turns exactly left, the IDS automatically does what is needed to turn the ship exactly left at the level of input the pilot applies. It does this with stable rate movements and consistently aligned angle paths relative to control input. Releasing/centering a rotation control results in the IDS computer stopping the rotation with counter thrusters in the same precise and predictable fashion. The ship won't suddenly jerk to a stop, instead there is a realistic tapering effect to account for the opposite reaction being required to stop the initial rotational action. This mechanism is applied to all three angles of rotation and all three directions of movement to give the pilot a predictable precision-based flight model framework to utilize, generally helping them to maintain a track on a target, precisely enter a docking hangar, navigate around asteroids, or any other number of maneuvers that may be required.

The player can also disable the IDS to allow their ship to freely drift, giving them manual control of maneuvering thrusters to adjust course. The IDS can also be set to velocity factors to allow the player to select different limits of forward and reverse velocity. Generally speaking, the faster a ship travels, the longer it takes to adjust course and change direction. The rate at which course changes can be made varies based on overall speed, thruster power, and ship mass. Flying too slowly in combat can result in vulnerability by becoming a slow-moving target that's easier to hit. Flying too fast in combat can result in jousting flybys leaving little time to inflict damage on a target.

It's up to the player to not let their momentum get too low to become an easy target nor too high and out of control. That's really the idea behind the game's design when it comes to combat, a lot is put in the player's hands when it comes to control and decision making. Rather than have certain forced restrictions hold the player back and keep them within confines of slow speed combat, the player is free to fly however they want, good or bad, joust or strafe, fast or slow, smooth or twitchy, then contend with and learn from the results. So combat will generally be what the player makes of it in how they control their ship, use weapons, and balance shield/energy reserves.

Completing some races in Evochron can also be helpful, both timed and against AI ships. Racing is a useful way to gauge how good you are at controlling your ship. Until you can learn to keep your ship within the racecourse at higher speeds, you'll still have some work to do in learning to control thrusters, gauge momentum, and compensate for drift. Forget winning it at first, just focus on learning to fly faster through the pathway. Likewise, free flying around asteroids in Arvoch can provide similar practice. Once you've learned directional control pretty well with the IDS on, then work on drift control and angular momentum with the IDS off to learn how to attack while flying sideways and backwards.

Rookies will often make the mistake of going in with full afterburners blazing, then watch as their target flies by faster than they can inflict damage on it. Then they often rinse and repeat the same 'jousting' pattern. It's important to learn from the results of such tactics to develop different approaches. Otherwise, combat may remain pretty static for a player and continue to be what they make of it by how they continue to control their ship in the same limited repetitive patterns. So it's helpful to learn and master the various control options and tactics available in the game to build your combat skillset. Other such options and tactics will be reviewed below.


Avionics, HUD, and Indicators
Arvoch and Evochron provide realistic avionics and visual 'situation awareness' systems including a horizon ladder, motion direction/drift bars, FPM (Flight Path Marker), galactically aligned compass, multiple contextually useful velocity gauges, and a 360-degree 3D radar with orientation sphere. Players who practice and use these systems can enjoy the benefits of the broader spectrum of complexity and tactical options offered in the game when utilized. Building a combat skillset using these systems in conjunction with the available control options will help a player survive much longer against tougher odds.

The horizon ladder displays your ship's vertical pitch alignment relative to the galactic ecliptic constant. This lets you quickly gauge the direction the nose of your ship is facing. The range is +/- 90 degrees. When your ship is nose down relative to the ecliptic, the ladder will be at -90 degrees, when the nose is up relative to the ecliptic, the ladder will be at +90 degrees. You can also gauge your ship's relative roll angle using the ladder. While the ladder is helpful when aligning with stations for docking, which are aligned with the galactic ecliptic, it can also be useful in combat to plan specific maneuver patterns such as precise drifting arcs or loops.

The motion bars and FPM will help you quickly gauge your ship's movement rate and direction using a visual reference. They will help you determine what course you are on even when there are no nearby objects to use as points of reference, which is often the case in open space. This is particularly helpful when flying offset approaches to targets for sideways strafing and drift attacks.

While the compass is primarily an indicator used for docking approaches and cargo/container recovery courses, it can also be helpful in combat to gauge direction when used in conjunction with the pitch ladder. A digital readout is available directly below the tape display for faster reading.

The velocity gauges let you determine the speed your ship is traveling relative to its orientation. There is a forward/reverse gauge, left/right gauge, up/down gauge, and absolute velocity gauge. So for times when you want to know a precise directional velocity level beyond what the FPM and motion visual references provide, you can use these gauges. This can be helpful during missile evasion, attack maneuvering, and target speed comparisons.

The 3D radar provides a quick reference for the directions of every ship in the area as well as the relative orientation of your ship. Think of it as a kind of 'all-in-one' comprehensive indicator that allows you to keep track of target directions while simultaneously tracking your ship's ecliptic relative roll, pitch, and yaw. While primarily a directional aid, the 3D radar does also provide a general indication of range for the various ships on the display.


Combat Systems and Options
Acquire a cannon relay as soon as you can (buying in Evochron, when available equipment in Arvoch). This will increase the energy capacity of your primary weapons to make them more effective against more powerful opponents. Also, make sure to first cut through their shields with a beam weapon before engaging with particle cannons (variations on this can apply depending on the type of particle cannon you have installed).

Keep an eye on your energy levels. During times of escape when you aren't actively being attacked, boost power to your shield arrays to bring them back to green if they aren't already. During attacks, it's generally best to keep the energy setting balanced between shield and weapons or boosted to weapons. The energy settings and timing you select during combat may vary depending on the energy demands of the cannon weapons you are using along with the energy reserves provided by the frame type you are flying.

Remember that your tracking systems allow for selectable target acquisition 'on the fly'. This means you can change the course of your missiles in flight. If you have one target locked and fire a missile at it, then decide you want to redirect that missile to a different hostile ship because it might be a greater threat, simply targeting the new ship will redirect the missile in-flight to the new target. The game also provides an automatic targeting mode as well with this system. So if a targeted ship is destroyed before inbound missiles have had a chance to hit it, the ship's targeting system will automatically look for the next nearest hostile to lock on to redirect the missiles to a new target. You can optionally switch a missile's tracking method to a 'fire-and-forget' approach before firing it. The latter mode will stay locked on only one target, allowing you to fire other missiles at other targets without re-tasking the missiles to those other targets. Then if the initial target is destroyed before the missile can hit it, the missile will simply fly off and range detonate without switching to a new target.

The MDTS (Multi-Directional Tracking System) automatically aims your primary weapons at your current target once in range. For beam weapons that move at the speed of light, the system aims directly at the target. For particle weapons that move at a fixed known velocity, the system aims ahead of the ship in the direction it is moving relative to its speed and distance to anticipate where it will be when the shot arrives. The more a ship moves around and varies their course, the less effective the MDTS prediction will be. This reduction in effectiveness is also compounded by greater range. And all of these factors are true for your ship as well when it's targeted by the enemy's MDTS. So remember to keep the principles of course variation and range in mind when engaging in combat. You can turn the MDTS off and aim manually at the target lead indicator if you want to with particle cannons. However, beam weapons must harmonize with the MDTS on and locked in order to inflict any significant shield damage.


Tactics
Don't fly directly in toward hostile ships, this leaves you and your counter-measures little time to react to fast flying missiles and also makes you an easier target to hit with gunfire. Practice indirect approaches at angles wide enough to arc around your target and attack with gunfire/missiles.

Watch the inbound missile blips on the radar, turn away from them and then use countermeasures or turn toward them if far enough away and shoot them down with guns.

Launch countermeasures early, then worry about fine tuning your tactics later on to avoid wasting them. Start launching countermeasures when the distance bar is still pretty long, then hold the counter-measure key/button down until you hear the missile explode. Work on distance timing from there. CM's are cheap (free with fuel in Evochron, reloaded for each mission in Arvoch), so spend some time practicing and learn how best to use them.

CM's work best when you turn away from the missile entirely and launch them behind you, putting the CM's between you and the missile. Otherwise, if you're between the missile and the CM's, you're the closest target and the CM's won't be close enough to inflict enough damage on the missile.

Don't fly too slowly. It gives your enemy more time to obtain a missile lock at a longer range. They will often fire more missiles at you if you're slow and don't move around much. Keep moving, but don't get out of control and fly so fast that you can't effectively counter-attack.

Don't fly in a straight line for very long, vary your flight path frequently to make it more difficult for your opponent(s) to obtain a missile lock and to minimize their MDTS accuracy.

You can bait hostile ships into wasting all of their missiles and running out. Just stay away from a hostile firing missiles at you and fly fast enough to evade them. Obviously, if you are up against a lot of enemy ships, this may not be practical as it risks taking too long and allowing for further reinforcements to be called in.

In Evochron, location is important. Select where you want to engage in combat within the game's universe. Where and who you fight in this game are important considerations, especially when you first start out. Do not engage opponents that are beyond the scope of your ship, equipment, weapon, and flying capabilities.

In Evochron, stick to systems lower tech/econ rated systems at first and focus on picking off hostiles that come by one at a time. That way, hostile ships and their weapons/shields will be weaker overall. Don't take combat contracts for a while, just fly around and look for hostiles. Try to pick off one at a time in combat, avoid losing speed, and try to keep your distance on passes. Don't fly directly toward your targets, fly in at diagonal angles wide enough to avoid being hit by incoming gunfire and to give yourself more time to counter missiles. Stay there until you've established an effective skillset that works for you. Don't fly into systems with hostile ships beyond what you and your ship are ready for.

If too many hostiles show up, don't stay there and fight until you're ready to do so. Get out of the area and return to trying to pick off one or two at a time. You may want to avoid sectors with higher traffic patterns (ones with stations and/or planets in them). Jump to a sector without any major docking points in it which will generally result in fewer hostile ships, less communication between them, and less of a chance of reinforcements coming in to attack you. If needed, deploy a sensor array if you have the deploy constructor or a probe and locate a lone hostile somewhere nearby to practice attacking.

The enemy AI will generally target you first, you are usually the designated leader or at least the primary threat. You need to plan your strategy accordingly and you can actually use this to your advantage. Use their focus against them and bait them into positions that make for easier kills by your wingmen. Keep the IDS off and drift away from them slowly in circular patterns that continually keep bringing them into weapon range of your wingmen (if applicable). Keep forcing them to pass in front of your wingmen, giving them a chance to take them out.

Don't always point the nose of your ship where you want to fly in combat. That's employing an old-style arcade flight mechanism that doesn't work very well in these games. You must lead the nose of your ship ahead of a turn to where you want to go once your speed get high enough and depending on the weight/thruster power of the ship you are flying. You may also need to turn further away from the desired course and engage the afterburner for more rapid course adjustments. Practice flying your ship with the IDS off to get a feel for how various control options effect your ship at different speeds. Learn to use all of the control options available to you including strafe thrusters and the afterburner. Don't just limit yourself to roll, pitch, and yaw, or you'll likely find yourself trying to fly an airplane in space and performing less effective jousting passes.


Additional Information
Video of space combat maneuvering (SCM) in Evochron:
StarWraith 3D Games
www.starwraith.com | www.spacecombat.org
3D Space Flight and Combat Simulations
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