Combat help

[amtie]

I've been struggling with combat for the past few days and have found two things detrimental to my survival in combat:

1. I am hopeless in surviving combats with 4+ enemy combatants, even when trying to stay just within range. I have tried searching for combat tutorials, but the only one that was available, by Vice, was more of an explanation of what everything was. The other combat videos were unavailable (Mecingo's tutorials).

I know I have to circle around the enemy, but I always end up out of range, and when I do get in range, I get pummeled with missiles and normal weapons.

I have once or twice managed to take out a couple of ships, but, whether the contract was a patrol, escort or assassination, I have not managed once to complete a combat mission in Emerald (moderate hostility).

2. The idiotic and incredibly infuriating hostile 'friendlies', namely Navy ships, keep on attacking me, whether I am in a station or out in missions FOR them.

I understand that there are two Navies, one for the Alliance and one for the Federation. But how am I supposed to keep them from not shooting me on sight, even when they shoot it on sight when I'm working for them? Am I supposed to take their fire and turn the other cheek?

My ship currently consists of the following:
Weapons: Maxim-R, Coil Laser, 2 empty missile slots
Frame: Venture (4 crew, 7 equipment - 6 filled, 1 CM, 2 Missiles)
Ship: Full cargo bay, fuel tank 1600, shield 9, Wing 4, Engine 1
Equipment: Repair 3, Cannon Relay Sys, Cargo Scanner 4, Shield Boost 4, Fulcrum Drive 4, M/T Beam.

My current combat tactic is to enter battle at around 1400 speed, aim for 20 degrees to the side from my target, go inert and shoot till death or out-of-range while sliding sideways. Then I try to circle around staying just within range of the target, but this usually fails. I either end up shooting off out of range to nearly 2000 distance, or multiple enemies catching up to me and distracting me with missiles while pumping me full of particle cannon.

I preemtively appreciate your answers to my queries.

[DaveK]

welcome amtie!

You will get lots of advice here soon!

In the meantime, get hold of the two parts of the Hints&Tips Guide (where there is loads of wisdom about combat (and loads of other stuff) that will help you get started. The website hosting it is here: http://evochron.junholt.se/menus/downloads.htm

[Marvin]

2. The idiotic and incredibly infuriating hostile 'friendlies', namely Navy ships, keep on attacking me, whether I am in a station or out in missions FOR them.

I understand that there are two Navies, one for the Alliance and one for the Federation. But how am I supposed to keep them from not shooting me on sight, even when they shoot it on sight when I'm working for them? Am I supposed to take their fire and turn the other cheek?

When you work for the Alliance Navy, you hire on as a mercenary. You don't always get safe passage ... especially from the Federation Navy pilots who will attack you on sight. Worse, if you happen to be working in a Moderate or Hostile star system, nobody really trusts you. So expect even more pilots to hassel you. Your best bet is to remain inside Fair systems until you've learned to take on a multitude of hostile ships ... coming at you in wave after wave after wave. 'Cause, once you learn how to handle those waves, you can clean up ... like shooting fish in a barrel.

[Nigel_Strange]

That Maxim-R has a good range. The key to winning with that weapon is carefully judging your distance. Here are some tips that might help (there will be a quiz at the end).

Turn off inertial compensation.
Keep your speed up.
Pass your enemies off to the side and turn. As you make your first pass, you might want to launch a missile or two.
Keep drifting backwards.
CAREFULLY manage your speed. You want to enemy ship to close on you slowly, so that when it comes within range of the Maxim-R, you can start shooting.
Use maneuvering thrusters to prevent your foes from getting a good attack. When they start landing hits, change direction. If you take too much heat, increase your distance from them (using reverse afterburner).
Use lasers and cannons together to cut the shield and hull.
Shoot down incoming missiles or use flares when they get too close.
If you take shots from a ship that you do not have targetted, it means another foe has gotten in range. You need to increase your distance and change direction to avoid taking too much damage (using reverse AB again).
Watch your shield/weapon energy. I usually go in with all power to weapons until I take a few hits, then I take a break and turn power to full shields.

Other tips: when you go into combat, do not jump straight to the assigned waypoint: adjust it so you can come in at speed and select targets before you're in range. Also, this gives you time to set up a bug-out point. Set a new nav point before you enter combat so that if things get rough, you might ditch out.

Quick: what's the main advantage of the Maxim-R?


[Edited on 4-28-2012 by Nigel_Strange]

[Maarschalk]

(there will be a quiz at the end).

Quick: what's the main advantage of the Maxim-R?

[Edited on 4-28-2012 by Nigel_Strange]

That the Magazine is Rated R!......:P:P:P:P:P

[Kilgore]

this youtube video helped me a little http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG6xVh9j0aU

[amtie]

Quick: what's the main advantage of the Maxim-R?

Range! Keep yourself barely within your weapon's range, but the enemies not within their weapon's range to you.

This tactic won't work for escort missions though, but I'll try the other two types with this. Thanks!

[amtie]

this youtube video helped me a little http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG6xVh9j0aU

Thanks to this video I've found myself far more able to defend myself. Basically, make firing runs off the edges of the enemy formations/swarms at high speed. You therefore don't spend too much time in their firing range, but you can still bag one or two ships each run

...Now, how to not fail escort missions with this tactic?

[Marvin]

Enemy ships don't usually attack in swarms during an escort mission. They come in one at a time, from different directions. Your main tactic, then, is to use afterburner and missiles, targeting whoever is closest to the ship you're attempting to escort and then getting to the next-closest threat ASAP.

[Nubarus]

The main advantage of a maxim-r is the range, the main disadvantage is the energy usage.

The icespear has the same range, higher rate of fire and very low energy usage, with the ships power settings set to full weapon power you can fire the icespear infinitely, thus giving you the abillity to spam fire at your foes at all time and anytime during combat.
That is the main advantage of the icespear, if however you have a cannon relay system and cannon heatsink installed that is, not to mention if you fly civil having a fully trained weapon ops crewmember available.

Don't get me wrong, the maxim-r is a good weapon but fighting alone vs large clusters of foes it is very likely that during engagements you will run out of energy, something that will not happen when using the icespear with the propper systems installed.

As for combat tactics, the AI has no MDTS installed so as soon as you start sliding sideways in inertial mode they cannot hit you and that alone is the key to victory when fighting AI ship clusters.
When done right this also means that you always face the enemy and this will give you superiour tactical oversight to pick your targets and always having the abillity to use your cannons and lasers.