Originally posted by verbosity
Originally posted by Wasp89
What do you mean by "point zero?"
The spot the missile is at when it blows
Ah, like ground zero. I figured, but since you said it could be used as a fleet maneuver, I was unsure.
So here's the trick for taking out a Vonari cap ship in two passes, step by step. The easiest way to perform this is during a mission; you can line it up easily without having to do much extra flying. Of course, then you have fighters to deal with...
Keep in mind that many of these steps are concerted; i.e., performed at about the same time. It takes some practice.
1) Accept a mission to attack a cap ship. Turn to a heading of 180, pitch 0, and wait for a short time, to give the cap ship some time to move off of the nav point and therefore give you more time to make the needed adjustments on-the-fly
2) Initiate a jump, and strafe up or down (up is preferable, because the ship is "flatter" on that side.
3) As you approach the ship, gain a lock and fire your missiles as soon as possible. This should happen very shortly after you come out of your jump.
4) Turn on IDS to burn off a little speed (3000 is a good speed for this), then turn your IDS. You will have to continue strafing during the burn, as the ship will try to compensate and send you flying straight into the cap ship. (You should have your nose pointed at it so that you can gain a lock.
5) Before you overtake the ship, strafe the opposite way from before so that you are flying parallel with it, and over the top or beneath it.
6) Press "n" to switch to cannons only: the missiles will keep the shield down long enough for you to do one complete pass with cannons blazing.
7) As soon as your cannons are within range of the stern of the ship, start firing. You won't know when this is, as your ship targeting system will be focusing on the middle of the ship for you weapons lock and range info. Just start firing as you approach.
Face towards the ship and strafe it from stem to stern. As you fly past, you should be able to get a couple final shots by flying backwards (depending on how close you are).
9) I tap my afterburners to push myself closer into the gravity field, just be careful not to get too close as it will cause you to slow down considerably. Use CM's as necessary, though you are flying fast enough that it should not be a real concern for the duration of your cannon attack.
10) As you pass beyond the bow of the ship, you may find yourself drifting with a slight velocity vector that is perpendicular to the ship. Level out, and watch the ship as you fly backwards. Shoot down any incoming missiles at this time.
11) If you are in a situation with a lot of fighters, they will likely have followed you on a plane above the ship (if you strafed from above) or below the ship (if you strafed from below). Keep this in mind, it will be important in the next step.
12) As you drift out about 3000 m beyond the bow of the ship, turn on IDS and hit the afterburners. Turn off IDS once your speed reaches zero, and begin accelerating back towards the craft.
13) Bearing in mind the location of the fighters, you may want to strafe so that you are attacking the ship on a path (still parallel to the ship) that will take you farthest from incoming fighters. This path could take you on either side of the ship, not just above or below. REMEMBER: If you collide with an oncoming fighter during this maneuver, you will be brought to a stop and will likely die. (Unless you are quick on the f1 key and have full energy).
14) Once you are withing 2000 m of the ship, fire your missiles. Repeat the above strafing technique, and watch the ships' damage bar. You may want to slow down a touch if you feel like you won't have enough time to deal the final blow before drifting beyond the stern and out of range.
And that's it! I'd say 3 out of 4 times, if this technique is properly applied, you will manage to destroy the cap ship. There are a lot of steps, and so practice will be key. Keep in mind though, this all happens in less than a minute. Ultimately, your intuition and situational awareness will be your biggest asset.
A few things to keep in mind:
-Cannons only! You will use too much energy if you are using your lasers too, and their low yield won't be doing you much as the shields are already down.
-Yield vs. Rate of Fire: These two will need to be balanced. The faster you can get your shots in, the better; but if the shots are of lower yield, you may not do as much damage even for the extra shots. Some experimentation may be needed here, but I've been able to pull this off with a fairly high success rate using the Trebuchet Cannon as well as the Banshee.
Give this a try and let me know how it works for you!
[Edited on 10-17-2009 by Wasp89]
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