Rooster's Flight Log

[Rubber Chicken]

How can you drive a Mack Truck if you can't drive a Prius?

With PRIDE!


Watch out when using stealth mode with the IDS on. Players can still spot your engine trails if they look close enough.

[picommander]

While there is a lot of fun with fighting in EM there is still exploring. For some of us the latter is the creme of the game.
Personally I like both...
As a side note, the mantis drive isn't easily available for new pilots (if they want to stay unspoiled).

[Rubber Chicken]

While there is a lot of fun with fighting in EM there is still exploring. For some of us the latter is the creme of the game.
Personally I like both...

I 100% agree.

It's also why EM is a bit of a 'sticky wicket' so to speak as to what kind of interactions in MP are acceptable. Some players only want to explore, mine, trade, do contracts and/or only fight NPCs. Some (like me) are quite fine with being hunted/attacked by other players as well.

Figuring out who prefers what can be a skill in itself. After all, very few of us want to bounce another player who only wants pvp that's asked for first or no pvp at all.

It kind of makes me wish there was a hard-coded way to select and indicate your play style/mood for the session so others know where you stand. Select 'no pvp' as an option and a flag goes up in the chatlog on the server end if you're attacked. Then the operator can choose what action to take if the offended party requests they look into it. How functional/feasible this would be is debatable of course.

Anyway, no thread-hijack is intended. Back to our regularly scheduled program.

[Rooster]

Well hearing this from the super vets is kind of like telling me how to make jet fuel for my bicycle.

I am still so new that everything I do has a new feel. I even get that "new car" smell from rapid decent and exploring planets. Maybe when I have killed 10,000 NPC's or found 100 planets or flew 40,000 systems under the sea......I might look for another alternative.

I have done one quest line out of three with a part II in the works on one of those. I still have not modded my own cockpit or recorded my own sounds. Fighting other pilots is still fun but not my focus. Let me see more of what is to offer from this wonderful game before I make PvP my main focus.

If we are on teamspeak, just tell me you are coming for a fight. If you are not on teamspeak and you jump me then, so be it. If you repeatedly kill me just to satiate your need for a self esteem boost....well that is a different story all together. All challenges and fair fights are welcome.....just give a noob some breathing room after. I still like everything I do and have yet to get bored doing it.

(Written to no particular pilot of PvP in general. Just simple requests from a noob.

[Edited on 04/09/2014 by Rooster]

[picommander]

Hehe, I'm no vet. Just a few days older than you (probably just sound like a vet ) and not much interested in PVP for now. It's also very unlikely that we'll ever meet each other unless for some strange reason you decide to come to one of the European servers. But even then: For now I'm still a strict SP pilot. I just mentioned exploring in case same other new players might read this thread and could get the false impression that EM would all about fighting and nothing more.
Anyway, keep having FUN!

(and don't forget: whoever blew you to pieces it wasn't me)

[Rooster]

^^ I just assume everyone is a vet. Keeps me out of trouble

[Busch]

You can always tell a Vet...but you can't tell them much. Same holds true for Sergeant Majors, or Master Chiefs. :P:P:P:P

[Rooster]

^^Hahhahhha, Busch

[Bear42]

First of all I want to tell you that waypoint missions are a hoot. Solid report from last night: "Rooster's Raiders" made a little gas money and also had a blast.

'Grats and kind regards,
Grizz(Bear42)

[Rooster]

Well said, Bear42, and thank you. It is always fun to fight as a team against the masses.

In space these past couple of days has been all about the Talison War Zone. The Vonari have been making a strong push and with the relentless assistance of the Evochron Mercenaries, I believe that push has been reduced to a minimal threat. I think the next attack may come from the Arvoch War Zone. Any available Mercenaries are needed and welcome to push the Vonari back.

There are a few of honorable mentions in this past few days of the War Zone Assault. All mentioned pilots are in no specific order and there deeds are mentioned as a record only.

Busch: This pilot is a killer. When he arrives on the battlefield there is little chance for any enemy forces to do anything other than eject out of fear.

Kkabb: If effort is judged on military rank then this pilot takes the cake. He increased his military rank by no less than 120 points on his own.

Boldheart: His start from traveler to combat pilot was quick and seamless. He now is a formidable wingman and a welcome asset to any front line wing.

Skyrat: He is our tank. His Starmaster frame can take tons of punishment and his ability to fly it is second to none. A welcome pilot when out numbered.

The Captain: This pilot is also a killer. He can jump in on any situation and, if all else fails, single handedly complete the objective.

Bear42: Now....take a moment and process this information. The name Bear42 is his handle and his date of birth. That makes him 70+ years old. I find this flat out amazing for so many reasons. He is fun, communicative, quick as a whip, fly's like a champ, is a great wingman AND he saw the invention of video games. From before Pong to flying a ship in space and killing aliens. This man has forgotten more than I have learned and I look forward to every moment flying with him. He witnessed the end of segregation in America. He was born during World War II. Witnessed car makers switch from making cars to anything the war needed. I could go on for days but one thing is a constant.....mess with Bear and there will be hell to pay.

There was one time yesterday when I felt like, "I have made it." I try not to tut my own horn and give credit where it is due. Kkabb was doing war zones alone. Holding the front line, and as a new pilot...this is no easy task. I was trying a systems check with my newly installed evometrics when his Ping rang out.

I jumped a little in front of his inertial drift and instantly understood his dilemma. He had five Vonari on a perfect bait drift but could not get close enough due to his weapons short range. Well, if there is one thing I have learned from Busch.....Fear is what gets you killed. Just jump right in the frey and split there wig open. (if you know what your are doing )

This is what I did. I hit the center Vonari ship so hard he did not even turn before his ship was blown to bits. The second I hit him the others tried to turn and attack me but due to my speed they just turned in place and fell like flys. One after the other.

Two of the Vonari scum went after Kkabb. If I would of had just a little more situational awareness there would of been only one after Kkabb. Now we are at three down and two on Kkabb.

Kkabb can handle himself and by the time I reached him he already had one almost dead and the other left my gunsight wounded and died no sooner than I looked at him. I was proud of this little bit of fun. It was not a huge feat but to jump in on a buddy in need with an active ping and wipe out four of the five Vonari......well that just felt like something I wanted to mention.

[Busch]

Not resting on any laurels here! Thanks Rooster! Supporting my wingmen IS the name of the game. MORE WAR-ZONE MADNESS!! YES!!! :P:P:P:P

P.S. My laser now sounds like an ST phaser on over-load! BOOO-YAHHH!!! Thanks Mike! WAY :P:P:P:P

[SeeJay]

That is a great post Rooster.

Mentioning fellow pilots in some cool situations and the Bear42, LOL, just epic.

I think I mentioned to you early on that you will be a force to be reckon with in due time.
Now you jumped in and saved another pilot against a larger force. I rest my case! I was right! ..... again! LOL!:P

Great flying and good sportsmanship fellas.

[picommander]

While reading all this I start to regret that I can't join the party due to oversea connection (high pings of ~300ms are no fun in multiplayer twitched based action. Then add my slow reactions from high age and you are soon at virtually around 600ms ).
Anyway, keep up the good writings, Rooster!

[Capt_Caveman]

unless your fighting another player (pvp), your high ping should'nt hurt your game play in MP
log on and give it a try, your welcome to join us in the fun.

[Bear42]

Rooster: Thanks

[Rooster]

Pro Tips of the Day:

Pro Tip: Buy the guns in Sapphire that have the most range and use them until you figure out what "Custom" guns you want. Range is life. Damage will come.

Pro Tip: Your Beams range is determined by your cannons range. A long range cannon makes for a long range beam.

Pro Tip: If you take damage to your Navigation and can't thrust....use your 1-0 keys to set your speed. Set to 0 (the fastest speed possible at the time) and when you reach top speed hit inertial and augment full power to shields until shields are green then back to full weapons energy. It is key to always be in IDS x5.

Well now.......I have some kills under my belt. I am getting pretty good at killing NPC's...lets go do some Arvoch War Zone. I had my eyes opened today to the dangers that are in the deep.

I started my day in the Arvoch War Zone. At first I felt like Rambo from the previous days success and took the biggest baddest missions. I also died on those missions. It seems that the Arvoch War Zone requires a little more of a resume.

Simple things like: How to handle ships when outnumbered seven to one. Not accidentally shooting your Battleship and making it openly attack you. Killing a Vonar-C at each waypoint. Missile management. Fighting in an area that is mainly taken up by two huge Battleships. Things like this.

Well, I was having trouble figuring this War Zone out. It is the "creme del a creme" of War Zones. Difficult and fun. Busch, showed up to aid in my dilemma. I cannot express how much fun it is to fly with this pilot. He literally has his wingman in mind at all times. Every time I over extended myself or tried something that didn't work, he was there. He would fly in like an Eagle, snatch up one and eat it, then flick them off of me while chasing down another. At one point all my subsystems where damaged and I was floating in inertial at around 250..that was my max speed in IDS x5. I was a sitting duck. This guy swooped in and systematically wiped out all of them. Held fire on himself and I never took damage again. He killed them so fast that he was already attacking the Battleship when I finally got system control back. Can you imagine how this looked from my end? Six vultures, no escape, and BAM! Death from above. I merely said, "I'm done" and his reply was, "I see you." That's some "Avatar" crap.

My final real noob mistake......Busch had a 5/35 mission. I said, "Take it!" He laughed and said, "Well, alright." I said, "Pro Mode Activated." Then instantly proceeded to jump into the carrier door to my death......gosh this was instant Karma.

I finally started to find a groove. Busch's abilities allowed me to learn from my mistakes and with a wingman like that you can only improve. At one point it felt like a symphony of awesomeness. Like painting a picture of destruction. Everything clicked, everything worked. No pilot error and a wingman that you trust unwaveringly. I really feel that the Newtonian Physics is what really sets this cockpit apart from others I have sat in. The ability to drift in complete silence, in the heat of battle, and then full guns blazing death march. The ability to rapid orbit a Battleship to gain position on a target and then wipe out his wingman on the way.....amazing.

If you are confident in your skills. You feel you have learned enough and are bored in your current War Zone.....grab a wingman and head to Arvoch.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

I have a few tactics that I have acquired from either watching the veterans or from hours in the cockpit. Here is my most used tactics. All of these maneuvers are done in a Chimera IDS x5, lvl 4 speed or 1400. Also...all of these tactics are designed around the fastest way possible to kill an enemy force. Allowing them to set you up is almost a guaranteed way to die. I also am still learning and still have a little trouble fighting in the Arvoch War Zone alone. Any mission over two waypoints starts to get a little risky for me.

1) The Sweet Spot When fighting a Vonari-C (Battleship) just approach it's center and fly as far into it as you can with full power to your shields and park on it's "Core" then start shooting. Slowly adjust the power to full guns and right when it is down to 20% hull, hit it with an Excalibur pack. DEAD

There is one weakness to this approach. You must kill, as Busch likes to say, "All the Fleas." There can be no fighters left. If there are then you are completely exposed and will die. The Cap Ship will not fire on you when you find the "sweet spot" but if a fighter attacks you then the Cap Ship will too. Also, this is not a weakness but trial and error, do not fly into the engines of the ship at a speed greater than 2.7...you will blow up just like a collision with a carrier door or a construct station exit.

2) The Bait Drift When outnumbered 5+ you bait them into a chase. You do this by flying right at the farthest opponent (power to full shields) at no less than 2.5k speed....when he is within 1.5k distance full thrust reverse, do not turn around until your speed is +500 even when he blows by you. Hit Inertial and turn around.

You are set up perfectly within 1.5k distance of all enemy ships and traveling at a speed that does not increase your distance nor decrease it. Slowly use inertial forward and left/right strafe to line up on the nearest outside target and eliminate him. (Watch also for missiles.) IF FOR ANY REASON YOU TAKE DAMAGE FROM MORE THAN ONE SHIP.....full reverse thrust for 5 seconds.

You can eliminate all targets (over time) with this method but it does get old fast. This brings us to our next tactic.

3) Herding Cattle When outnumbered 5 to 1 or less and in a "Bait Drift"........this is gonna sound crazy and requires some practice.

FULL THRUST right at them while holding right strafe....you will strafe a little forward and hard to the right. You can maintain a tight circle around your opponents where 90% of there missiles miss and they cannot keep up on the turn. Set weapons to +2 and just rain down pain while feathering your circle.

You should be able to kill every one of them this way BUT this also gets boring so......

The Rope-A-Dope When out numbered 3 to 1 or less.....You fly straight at the pack and fire on the closest target until all ships are moving away, chase one till it runs at least 500 away then turn and fire on his buddy who WILL be chasing you. Kill him while flying in IDS and slowly gaining on him.

Now you have two choices, attack the third ship until it runs or turn around and kill the one you wounded that is coming back. Either choice is good but requires situational awareness.

Rope-A-Dope Side Note: This tactic also works well when trying to escape. Rapidly switch targets constantly firing until they run then just full burn towards your "cursor heading" or the blue indicator on your HUD. This will allow you to force them into a chase formation so you can start a Bait Drift again.

All of these tactics require situational awareness...without it you will die. The more gung-ho you go the more damage you will take until you can manage enemy distance. One thing is set in stone....you chase them, they run. Every now and then you get the suicide bomber that will not quit...again...situational awareness.

Good luck and fly safe. You want to practice these tactics or are having trouble, just contact me. If I am in the cockpit, I am on Ceti Alpha V.

[Edited on 04/09/2014 by Rooster]

[Rubber Chicken]

Cool report Rooster. BTW I didn't say it earlier, but before the TS3 was divided into separate channels to prevent cross-chatter from different groups doing different things, I was listening to how you led the new pilots on missions in TCZ.
You kept everything orderly and for the most part the rookie pilots kept good comms discipline too. It was really cool.

I've been on TS channels in the past where everybody yaps away at each other and 5 different conversations spring up at the same time. Nobody knows who the leader is as far as accomplishing objectives, and it all breaks down.

You did a great job leading the expeditionary force, and the new pilots you were leading did a great job of keeping the chatter to a minimum. Needless to say very much was accomplished to fight the Vonari horde in Talison Conflict.

[Rooster]

^^^ Wow, thanks for the great comments. I agree totally. It was really fun and everyone did great.

[Busch]

Some really good and useful tips there, Rooster. Practicing and polishing tactics, maintaining (or striving to) situational awareness, and knowing the strengths and limitations of one's equipment can really help advance one's 'military career', here in the Evo-verse. Wingmen, especially in co-ops, can make the difference in your 'life' or 'death'. A lesson hard learned is one that'll stick. As you may have noticed, I was spanking the Order menu rather diligently. Truly, it's not for the human pilots so engaged. My main purpose in doing so is to goad the AI/NPC Navy pukes to do battle, rather than go 'Beer-30'. That last 5x35 we did, on that last way-point, we were left unattended. The Navy pukes bugged out, well before they had orders to do so. Gonna find those hooligans, and give them a lesson in humility.... and the chain of command.

Speaking of which, and I may have said this before... In any of the war zones/conflict zones, the 'principle pilot' (insert: the one who accepts the mission) can order the AI Navy to battle. Also, any other pilot flying war zone co-op missions, who is Commodore rank or better, may order the AI Navy to battle, in support or in lieu of, the principle pilot. Kind of makes 'things' a little less difficult, should you be the sole human pilot in the fur ball. Use these AI Navy wingmen as your 'bait', then back them up. See what happens...

[Rooster]

This is how I used to feel when I was in a fight fight:

http://youtu.be/1jGPnamSiVU

This is how I feel now:

http://youtu.be/-M7gBznA884

Basically just tons of fun and death on death on death. If you farmed enough for the day or you just want to go and blow some stuff up, just send a message in game. ***We'll help you get setup for combat and you won't lose a thing.

***Captain Caveman, Busch, Cindy, Rubber Chicken, Rooster.

http://youtu.be/kbW5sxyu9bU

[Cindy]

Good stuff Rooster! I am honored for the mention.

[Busch]

Very good, Rooster! :P:P:P:P

[Rubber Chicken]

Thanks for the ups Rooster!

[Rooster]

I have been on hiatus for a few days. Getting some combat in on Star Conflict. I felt the need for some deep space combat and climbed on in my ol' trusty Chimera.

It started out slow, with casual chatter from the usual pilots. After the catch up was complete we ran a mission in the Talison War Zone. It was immediately apparent that this War Zone has had it's face smashed in and was of little challenge for Rubber Chicken, The Infamous Busch, Skyrat, and myself. We headed to the Arvoch War Zone, where the beasts sleep.

We started with a simple spy mission. A snatch and grab of information and the systematic clearing of all hostiles in the area. It was a good way to start off since it had been some time since I fired up the old bird. Of course I made the simple mistakes first. Like hitting my afterburner after I had engaged my stealth drive, while sitting directly under a Vonari-C. This only happened once, but it still happened none the less. There was no panic or death. There was no failure. A simple call over comms and slight range increase to fill the shield and it was over as soon as it started. Everything died and we got the information requested.

After the warm up mission we started to tackle the waypoints. We have a simple strategy but an effective one. Simply one pilot jumps fast and hard on the Battleship and the other pilots make a pass on it to help wipe out the shield arrays with incredible speed. Then they break off and peel any fleas off of the pilot attacking the carrier. This tactic is very effective and usually we can complete a waypoint in two to three minutes. That's no less than seven Cylon Raiders and one Vonari-C wiped out.

After each waypoint all pilots call out what is needed. It ranges from "repair" to "ready to jump." If any one pilot calls out repair then a repair station is deployed. If everyone is ready for a jump then we jump. Usually in two wings. This means that R.C. and Skyrat would jump in on a heading of 0 and Busch and I would jump in on 180, allowing for total coverage of the Voncari-C. We can eliminate all hostiles, repair and jump in on the next waypoint in three minutes or less. Sounds a little far fetched but even our equipment comes into play. One pilot from each wing has a deploy constructor. If the groups stick together then any help what-so-ever is always near.

At one point I took heavy damage from the Battleship. I called out over comms, "taking heavy damage." This is all that is needed with these pilots. The response was instant. In any other situation I would of bailed on the Battleship but I knew they had my back. I trust Busch unfailingly and the R.C./Skyrat wing is a very effective unit. They peeled away the initial fighters and I managed to get the Battleship down fast enough so that they did not take to much damage from the big ol' fat girl. At this point I was on the verge of death and popped a shield array. Essentially halting all damage I would take. Instantly they saw this and responded in turn. The battleship was down, I was safe and there where fleas and fly swatters.
Converting all power to shields allowed me to be back in the fight with minimal down time. Even eliminating two ships. Well.....stealing two kills with an Excalibur. A simple repair station deployment and Bam, we're back in it and on the way to the next to the waypoint.

Waypoint after waypoint we did this. Getting faster and more efficient with each completed mission. It starts out kind of slow at first. The engines have to warm up and blood has to get flowin'. When the action is in full swing the waypoints almost seem to easy. I wonder if Vice will add in an "Impossible" WarZone. One where there are four to five Battleships and thirty to thirty-five fighters at each waypoint. This would be the most awesome thing since sliced bread. It would require each pilot to be on there A-game and I assume no less than three wings of two pilots. Possibly more. Please post your opinions about an Impossible War Zone. I for one, would love to see it.

Effective: This word is usually followed by fun. If you ever want to try your hand at combat in the Evoverse just mention it in chat on the Ceti Alpha V server. There are more than enough pilots who will help out. Fly safe, Pilots.

[Iron man]

Read your line bring back the feelings i got when i played with driver, okabane and akhenaten x)