Whats the deal with Excalibur missles and also audio

wolis · Post by **wolis** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:03 am

I notice I shoot all 8 at once when using Excalibur missiles.. which is excellent when you want to get rid of one opponent.

Not quite so excellent when there are several as you want to choose how many and at which opponent.

Is there a magical way of firing just one at a time in a controlled and orderly fashion?

PS I shot one red near a bunch of yellow and I think (not sure) the remaining missiles scuttled one of the yellows and I heard some brief audio message that might have said something like 'oops.. now that has made them angry' but I had my volume down and no sub-title type text appeared (like when you fly into a planets atmosphere).

So does anyone know what this audio track might have been and if I need to worry about it?

PPS Vice, if all audio is matched with text, this would be a very good thing as far as accessibility goes. (same with the little sounds that give us a clue that something just got tractor-beamed up.. might be handy to have a non-obtrusive way of displaying this that did not rely on sound.

spelk · Post by **spelk** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:36 am

As far as I know the Excalibur missile pack is an all or nothing thing. It fires a volley of 8 missiles. You have to take care when empyting your chambers because as you've found out, missiles without a target, may find the next nearest heat source.

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:47 am

Missiles will keep tracking to the next "selected" target. If you just keep thumbing thru the available targets the leftover missiles will eventually run out of steam and become inert.

berighteous · Post by **berighteous** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:44 pm

"The excalibur will shoot at the target you want, and if any missles still flying will automagically go to the next closest target..."

I just love that word, "automagically"! It clears up a lot of things we don't understand!
I think it should be in the dictionary.

[Edited on 2-28-2009 by MMaggio]

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:19 pm

Best to use Laser's and cannons on one lone hostile and save your excals for multiple hostiles....this will make you a better pilot and give you practice with your Guns only skills. I have also experienced a hostile jumping as my excals were closing in for the kill (This being hostile #2)....they then went on the search for a new target.....a Green miner passing by

Unfortunately there were no other targets to switch to and the miner evaporated

tk7223 · Post by **tk7223** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:34 pm

chaulk it up to wrong place at the wrong time......like those people who want to stand to close to the race track...sooner or later your gonna get a tire mark where you don't want one.

wolis · Post by **wolis** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 1:45 am

thanks guys.. this clarifies things .. the Next Target trick is useful.. so too is just using manual fire-power.

berighteous · Post by **berighteous** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:41 am

or alternately, you could just decide to not care if you accidentally toast a friendly.

Tucker · Post by **Tucker** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:47 pm

If I have missles from the Excal still live and heading for hostiles after the reds are gone Like MMaggio , I do the excal dance. I just keep switching tagets so the missle dances all over the place till it finally explodes

[Edited on 2-28-2009 by Tucker]

PingBosun · Post by **PingBosun** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:33 pm

Thats what I do, so you have to be very aware of "Target Management". TThey also automagically (I DO like that!!) whizz off to a green if you are none to careful. We have all done that I am sure.

Nphyx · Post by **Nphyx** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:55 am

Yeah I just got my first excal pack last night while pursuing the beacon quest, got a little overzealous wiping out a group of guild (pirates!) crawling up my ass and ended up pissing off the navy. Good stuff though, those bad boys really change the game in terms of dealing with multiple opponents.