Combat help? (SPOILER)

Griefer · Post by **Griefer** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:55 am

Okay, so the trading part down I have pretty good. Navigation, setting waypoints to speed up travel, mining, exploration, these are all things I feel pretty comfortable with.

I feel like I've got to be absolutely missing something in combat. You get missions where you're fighting 10+ enemies, especially in a hostile system and I just can't seem to manage it. I've got a Starmaster, Maxed engine, shields, etc. everything except cargo pretty much. Maxim-R, Fusion Laser, Mantis Drive, Shield Regenerator, Anti-Missile System, 5x shield booster, Canon Relay, 8x Exodus missiles.

I've tried the regular run-and-gun (went as well as expected), I've tried long runs past each other at around 1200-1800 inertia sliding past and shooting, I've tried what I've dubbed the 'mine's longer' approach of running away at around 550-650, spinning around in inertia and sniping with just canons at around 750.

At best I end up shooting down 50-100 missiles and in one instance over 20 ships. The problem being that more show up faster than I can kill them and the constant, steady stream of missiles makes it impossible to do much but dodge, spin and shoot.

Is my loadout wrong? My approach? Is there some tactical approach I'm missing? Do I need to recruit or hire a fleet of ships to do these missions? I've got 70 million in the bank and if I had a need could trade up more. I've wasted a whole day of my life at this point on the IMG mission where you're supposed to kill an ace and the wing of ships with him. I confess that I'm getting pretty frustrated.

One thing I've noticed is that shooting down my character seems to be the single most vital task in the sector. In no time at all a great swarm of Navy, Rebel, Guild and Energy ships will set aside their differences and shoot millions of credits of missiles at me. As soon as someone sights me war and commerce grind to a halt, ceasefires are made and dread enemies will work side by side for the suicidal chance to shoot down my one ship no matter the time, risk or cost. Did I miss the cut-scene where I slept with some admirals daughter or bombed some school full of crippled children? Do I need to be rushing to bribe these ships to leave? I've yet to bribe anyone successfully but I'm game for any cheap trick right now.

The game is brilliant. Is it balanced towards the MP side of play though? Not a big fan of multiplayer, not that the community here doesn't seem great but there's a time investment in social games that I just don't have right now. In SP is there some angle I'm missing in just how to handle these sorts of one vs horde missions?

Griefer

Atollski · Post by **Atollski** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:01 pm

From post: 101685, Topic: tid=7239, author=Griefer wrote:Did I miss the cut-scene where I slept with some admirals daughter or bombed some school full of crippled children?

I told them that it was you - that's why they are so miffed.

You could try hiring some wingmen, they will help take some of the fire away from you and dish it back out to the reds. If you're on SP, select a friendly AI and press F4 - you should be able to request them to join you as a wingman for a fee...

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:28 pm

Your equipment & loadout are fine. It's just a question of tactics.
Hiring wingmen in SP will help, but sharing contracts in MP is so much more fun and you might learn a few combat tricks while you;re at it.
Don't worry, you won't find yourself pounced upon by other players. Most are eager to help. There are, of course, those few who think killing noobs is something to brag about, but they are rare & few.
Join MP and you won't be disappointed
If you're lucky, the server itself may talk to you!

Ravenfeeder · Post by **Ravenfeeder** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 1:08 pm

I've found the anti-missile system next to useless. Instead, I use the auto CM launcher. A missile load of 8 Exodus missiles should thin down the red crowd. Use your reverse thrust, and inertial, to keep your ship around the 2500 distance from the nearest red (Alt R), and, then pick them off one at a time - you can finish the residue off with gunfire.

If you set your reverse speed to around 10/1100 units the enemy missiles can't reach you!

Hope this helps.

Griefer · Post by **Griefer** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:02 pm

Thank you. I suspect the anti-missile system is more harm than help, it's draining my weapon power. I'll give the auto CM a try but I'm doing okay with manual. I managed to get past that mission by just re-doing it until it was only 6 or 7 enemies. Any more than that and I just can't seem to keep up.

Is there a better ship design? The military ships, the faster and more maneuverable ones, are they better or worse?

Also, is there something I'm doing or not doing that's making everyone hate me so much in combat? I'll warp into a warzone, two cap ships slugging it out and their respective escorts shooting at each other and as soon as I show up every enemy ship will stop, turn and chase me 10 sectors, getting shot down from behind and ignoring everything that isn't me-shaped. If I warp out and back in they'll turn their attention to someone else briefly, same as if I cloak for a moment but if I'm there then I am clearly the belle of the ball.

Is there a way to change that, or should I just accept that they're all jealous of my rugged good looks?

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:08 pm

They like to chase you ... and, sometimes, you can use that to your advantage. Especially since AI don't use afterburner. But, as concerns military ships versus civilian ships, about the only advantage to military is a tighter turn radius and faster turn rate. Civvy ships can now compensate for most of their previous shortcomings ... thanks to the "thrust multiplyer" and reconfiguration options.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:15 am

The enemy always goes after the newest and easier targets once you get up to Legends and fleet admiral in Multiplay they never come after you if there are lesser ranked players in your sector cause they will fear you and know you must have done alot off killing to get your rank....LOL...

I was going to mention the CMs. Manual is the best way not to waste energy and cms unnecessarely. It takes a lot of practice and skill to get to a level to be able to manage 20 enemies at a time. Also if you are out of cms in the middle of a 10 enemy mission do not drop your inertial speed below 1800 and do not turn IDS on. Jump back to contract station to reload cms and make ship repairs as needed before jumping back to contract waypoint to finish up the contract. Remember you can reload and replenish supplies in middle of combat contract missions as long as you dock at any Station in the sector and do not leave the sector to do so....

Griefer · Post by **Griefer** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 8:59 am

Ah! I thought if I landed somewhere the contract was failed? That helps a great deal. How about tactics? Do you just swing back and forth strafing as you pass or do you make them chase you and pick them off with better range? I'm debating trying the Banshee for the "slap 'em with my pimpin' hand" effect instead of the "Hey, is that a ship I see off in the dist....ZAP" method that my Maxim-R shines at.

I'm getting much better at the approach, pewpewpew *MISSILE IN THE KISSER*, zoom off, shoot down the missiles, swing back to rinse and repeat method but it's bloody slow and in particularly hostile systems it seems like there is an endless supply of enemies jumping in before I've finished the first group. Is that based on my traveling too far from the initial point? What triggers that, can I avoid it? I'll be half way through sniping down my 5th out of 10 enemies and suddenly a Destroyer or Carrier shows up to say 'OH, hai! Also I brought you some flak cannons!'

My current technique of dying constantly doesn't seem to be working so well. I'm looking for ways to refine that down to just dying often. At this point 'often' would be a big improvement.

That reminds me. Saving - sometimes it just doesn't seem to work? I'll save, take a mission, go off, do what I do best (that would be die in an explosive ball of fire) and go to reload and.... bloop. I'm back two systems and a couple hours of game. Especially if I save and then exit, sometimes it just doesn't take. Suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong? I'm getting paranoid.

Nubarus · Post by **Nubarus** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 10:56 am

Some systems are worse then other systems when it comes to additional incomming foes.

Onyx, Cerulean and Sierra are really bad like that.

I did the IMG quest a few days ago and with me it was the other way around, I needed assistance in Cerulean with the capital ship destruction due to additionals jumping in with an uncontrollable rage hate towards me and my crew.

I did manage to beat the Ace quest on my own mostly because at that point I was so "angry" it multiplies my combat skills 10 fold and I stayed there whooping their collective arses until I ran out of fuel to satisfy my thirst for vengance lol. (My crate holds 800 gallons and my tank was full)

It was a fun fight for me and now the kill count decorates my killboard very nicely.

I helped a guy named Matthew-147 I believe his character name was with the IMG quests from Cerulian capital killing until the quests in the Sierra Conflict zone and it was a walk in the park.
So 2 ships instead of 1 makes a lot of difference.

I be happy to show you some nice combat moves when it comes to fighting multiple foes, that is if you also play online.

For offline play I suggest you hire some wingman and attack in force.

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:42 pm

the shortcut key for save is alt+9
Good Luck

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:12 pm

Welcome Griefer. Hope to see ya out there.

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:30 pm

Make certain you save before taking a contract. Else, you will get a short message (usually overlooked) telling you it's a no-go for saving in the middle of a contract. And most of the time you'll get a few minutes after starting a contract to kill all the enemy ships. But it always seems that, just as they're running out of missiles (so you can get up close and personal), that's when reinforcements show up. You still only need to kill the agreed upon number of Reds but those new guys usually mean: more missiles are on the way.

Olorin · Post by **Olorin** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 7:15 pm

From post: 101685, Topic: tid=7239, author=Griefer wrote:Okay, so the trading part down I have pretty good. Navigation, setting waypoints to speed up travel, mining, exploration, these are all things I feel pretty comfortable with.

I feel like I've got to be absolutely missing something in combat. You get missions where you're fighting 10+ enemies, especially in a hostile system and I just can't seem to manage it. I've got a Starmaster, Maxed engine, shields, etc. everything except cargo pretty much. Maxim-R, Fusion Laser, Mantis Drive, Shield Regenerator, Anti-Missile System, 5x shield booster, Canon Relay, 8x Exodus missiles.

I've tried the regular run-and-gun (went as well as expected), I've tried long runs past each other at around 1200-1800 inertia sliding past and shooting, I've tried what I've dubbed the 'mine's longer' approach of running away at around 550-650, spinning around in inertia and sniping with just canons at around 750.

At best I end up shooting down 50-100 missiles and in one instance over 20 ships. The problem being that more show up faster than I can kill them and the constant, steady stream of missiles makes it impossible to do much but dodge, spin and shoot.

Is my loadout wrong? My approach? Is there some tactical approach I'm missing? Do I need to recruit or hire a fleet of ships to do these missions? I've got 70 million in the bank and if I had a need could trade up more. I've wasted a whole day of my life at this point on the IMG mission where you're supposed to kill an ace and the wing of ships with him. I confess that I'm getting pretty frustrated.

One thing I've noticed is that shooting down my character seems to be the single most vital task in the sector. In no time at all a great swarm of Navy, Rebel, Guild and Energy ships will set aside their differences and shoot millions of credits of missiles at me. As soon as someone sights me war and commerce grind to a halt, ceasefires are made and dread enemies will work side by side for the suicidal chance to shoot down my one ship no matter the time, risk or cost. Did I miss the cut-scene where I slept with some admirals daughter or bombed some school full of crippled children? Do I need to be rushing to bribe these ships to leave? I've yet to bribe anyone successfully but I'm game for any cheap trick right now.

The game is brilliant. Is it balanced towards the MP side of play though? Not a big fan of multiplayer, not that the community here doesn't seem great but there's a time investment in social games that I just don't have right now. In SP is there some angle I'm missing in just how to handle these sorts of one vs horde missions?

Griefer

I find I can usually handle about 10 reds at once by myself but more than that and I need backup. I subscribe to the "jousting" school of combat where I make multiple head on passes until everything is space dust. The key is to stay in inertial and use maneuvering thrusters to "slide" past them...which it sounds like you got the hang of. Remember that the enemy does not have unlimited missiles (at least I don't think they do) so my first few passes will just be to focus on shooting down incoming missiles and avoiding cannon fire while shooting off a couple missiles of my own to thing the ranks. Once the incoming missile numbers drop to 1 or 2 a pass I start focusing on taking out each ship.

Also IMO bigger isn't necessarily better. I hate the starmaster. It handles like a truck and even with maxed engines it's acceleration stinks. Ophi on the MP server was kind enough to point me to the Legacy, which handles quite nicely and is still a "big" ship. Personal preferences vary however.