Energy Usage of Beam and Particle Weapons

[bienduga]

I'm fighting my way through Fauston with a Striker and although I'm getting the upper hand, I'm finding that right at the crucial moment I'm out of energy for the weapons. I do have a cannon relay system. Then I remember that I read somewhere that the Lasers are for the shields and the cannons are for the hull. I'm firing in linked mode right now, so my question is do the cannons take down shields, or should I only fire lasers until shields are down to conserve some weapon energy? Do lasers damage the hull? If so I need to reprogram my joystick.

And another thing...

I thought Fauston was a moderate system? I jumped in to the station area and by some stroke of luck destroyed the 8 ships that came at me. I then went some where else in the system and then when I came back, I had 8-10 more ships after me. I can't win! The worst part is that these reds keep respawning out of no where. I've killed over 35 reds in that system and they keep coming back in numbers until I die eventually. Another annoying thing is that they spawn out of the same area and at the same distance. The few that don't that I can't catch run straight for the clump of other ones. So instead of being able to attack 3-4 in different directions and distances that could give me a chance(and be more realisitic) I find myself running full afterburners straight into a clump of 10 reds hoping to get one or two at a time as I pass through and try to evade 12 missles at a time. I think the AI needs some tweeking here.

Even if I go way out hoping some will lose interest and go away so I can even the odds a bit, they still all act like some kind of hive sticking together.

Also, When I try to take a contract and it says 4 fighters expected, I get there and see the four for the mission but immediately have 3-4 more coming at me at random. If the mission calls for four fighters, it should have four fighters so you can develop some attack skills and experience. I mean this is supposed to be the easiest place to develop some of these skills in the game. If you have a Starmaster, you can go to Pearl or some other nasty hostile system so you can sit and shoot down 15 ships a minute.

In over two hours of play in that system, I never ever had a chance to concentrate on a capitol ship. At this rate I'll never figure out how to bring one dowm.



[Edited on 1-7-2011 by bienduga]

[MMaggio]

LOL... In no particular order, I will try to answer some of your questions,
Fauston is a very hostile system and for that matter, so is Thuban!
If the mission says 4 enemy fighters it means a minimum of 4. You must remember that the "reds' do have radios and do know how to use them. Since Fauston is such a hostile system, it doesn't take long for them to arrive.
On the subject of linking paticle & beam weapons, that is the standard method. The trick is to use shorter bursts and watch the enemies shields, when they are yellow or red, drop the link and just use guns. Other players may have other strategies, but that is a good start.
There are other steps you can use to improve your weapons firing time, The "cannon relay" is but one.
If I go any further, some might consider this a "spoiler", so I am inclined not to divulge them at this time.
U2U me if you want more info.

[Marvin]

If the contract says four, you'll get a message saying you've completed the contract after the fourth kill. You can then walk away from however many are left over.

Be advised that it can get worse ... if you take too long to complete the contract, you might find that one or two capital ships have jumped into the system to assist the bad guys. 'Till that happens, consider yourself lucky. If it does happen, I suggest you pull the fight way, way to the rear of the cap ships.