Combat tips?

[Freyon]

Recently bought Evochron Mercenary, great game by the way, and I'm wondering if you could share some advice regarding combat in Evochron.

With much reading, digging around and training, I managed to get myself a good military ship, weapons and equipment. Now I'm having a hard time in certain systems where I'm considered hostile, due to the amount of ships running to rip me shreds and I'm wondering what strategys should I use or what improvements could be made to my loadout.

My curret tactic is to go into inertia and keep enemy ships just barely in range for me to shoot them, I use Beam only until their shields are low, then switch to particle to finish the job. Eventually I fire a barrage of missiles to easily dispose of one enemy.

My loadout:

Firestar equipped with a class 4 fuel tank, the highest possible.

1) Cannon Relay System
2) Cannon Heatsink
3) Mantis Jump Drive
4) Shield Battery x5
5) Anti-Missile System (I wonder how effective this really is?)
6) Shield Recharger (When I'm getting shot at the screen shakes so much I can't even see which array needs to be reinforced)
7) Repair Sys C3
Tractor/Mine Beam. (I wish there was something better to put here, but thus far haven't found anything.)

Particle Cannon: Custom Fusion Cannon (82Y / 790R / 16C)
Beam Cannon: Custom Fusion Cannon (62Y / 11C)
Missiles: Excalibur


Main things I have a problem with:
-How to effectively use Counter Measures, I feel the tutorial wasn't too helpful on this one and I can't reduce the heat from my ship when I'm being shot at.
-Manual Aim for Beam Cannon, I can hit enemies just fine with the Particle Cannon, but how to accomplish this with the Beam is a mistery for me...
-How to not be hated within a system? I assume you get to do this by raising reptutation with the factions that are hostile, and I assume doing contracts is the only way to accomplish this, but any input for better/extra ways of doing this are welcome!

Also I feel missiles outclass all other forms of damage dealing... when I'm getting zerged by 10+ ships they form a barrage of missiles that I just can't hope to counter.

[morbosfist]

You get reputation by killing the bad factions (rebels and such) and doing contracts for the good ones (navy, energy). You just have to do it under constant fire until your ranks goes above hostile, which will take quite a few contracts.

[Maarschalk]

Hi Freyon, welcome to the game and forum!.....Hope to see you out there some time!.....

[Busch]

Hey Freyon, Welcome !

If you don't mind bleeding counter-measures, you could fill the 8th slot w/ an ACM. And that may be an effective method of using CM's for you, as well.

With the MDTS toggled off, a pilot may fire the particle cannon, indepentant of the beam cannon. The beam cannon is always locked on to the nearest target, up to the range of your particle cannon. MDTS toggled ON slaves the beam and particle cannons together. This is more or less the default optimum condition. With your own missiles and AMS on board, I'd recommend leaving the MDTS toggled on. The AMS is a lot quicker now. With the ACM installed, you've got some pretty good distance protection for your ship.

Your system reputation will change with the system you're in: Good, Fair, Moderate, Hostile. In MP-space, on a server platform, system reputation will not change. The only scaleable reputation in MP, is with the various factions. Performing contracts/missions for them will increase your reputation and "value" to them.

Everyone has their own opinion re: missiles, primary weapons, and ship frame/load-out. The application of missiles in combat is a skill well learned. Damage (Yield), Range, Speed, and Type all play a part in missile selection considerations. Use what works best for you, is a good rule of thumb.

See y'all out there some time!

[Sl1f3r]

Hi Freyon,

If you are interested, I am attempting to start a little in-game School for players where we will address the basics of the game, and maybe more advanced stuff depending on the class of the session. This will all have practical examples. Some of the things that we will cover is combat, effective use of the different weapons, tactics for taking on large groups, how to avoid missiles and travelling through hostile systems.
This school is not up and running yet, but I hope that I can get it going as soon as I get some interested players to join the short classes.

http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10359

[Freyon]

Thanks for tips everyone! And I'm very interested in the school.