Here is a little something for starters. Most of these were developed by Jet, quite a few things comes from the enigmatic Parias and some come from the Hard Light Productions website. And some could even come straight from the manual!
You can also get updates on tactics at the UK Infogrames forum tactics thread
NOTE: More of tactics can be accessed from the archive section on the extreme right.
PILOTING TACTICS/TIPS
Push Little Thruster:
Use your thruster override and lateral thruster keys instead of the throttle for finer control, and use the roll function too.
The Art of Dodging:
Use the lateral thrusters to dodge missiles, which have limited side-ways manoeuvrability.
Addendum (by Jet):
The
missile warning the sound cue (kind of little blip that goes along the
missile icon on the HUD) can be heard faster and faster as closest
missile comes nearer to you (really reminds you of a torpedo using
active sonar closing on you :)). That gives you the cue you need to
know when evading becomes a necessity. As for the evasion maneuver itself, don't forget that
the missiles are subject to inertia, just as you are, but they have a
far greater speed (2800 m/s for the missiles that are usually fired at
you), that means that you can modify your flying vector much quicker
than they do. If you briefly switch off the flight assistant you can
even use your full forward thrust on a new direction to radically
modify your vector, with their limited acceleration capacities the
missiles generally don't have time to adjust if they're close enough
and just overshoot.
Sweet Inertia:
Remember
that your ship has inertia. The braking thrusters will not be able to
stop you instantly, so be careful not to fly too fast, and don't head
directly at a target. Inertia is your ally as well as your enemy - use
your inertia to help you strafe enemies as you fly past them, and to
get onto their vulnerable rears. Try to avoid crashing into objects, especially at high speed - they can really ruin your day.
If you can read this... (bumper sticker):
Try to avoid crashing into objects, especially at high speed - they can really ruin your day.
Skip the Queue:
You
can skip the queue at L-point when going into Capsule Space by manually
selecting the jump destination on the Starmap screen and flying through
the green circle in the middle of the Lagrange point coming from the
blue side of it (you can jump sideways, you don't have to align in the
L-point axis).
Jump in Surprise:
Sometimes,
a ship just stops at the exit of an L-point, don't forget to turn
immediately upon re-entering normal space. These space accidents with
reactor breach are real messy.
End of the Spin of Death: - (posted by Bobko)
Autopilot
(F6) is very usefull in combat in case you loose control of your
vessel, engage it then disengage (F5) a second after and control's
back.
Give Flares a Chance: - (posted by Jet)
We hear quite often that decoys (flares, ECM or Smart) are useless, or even that they're never launched.
First, even flares will lure missiles away from you (several missiles can even be lured by the same decoy).
Second,
the higher the decoy class the lower the time they take to decide to
launch against a missile. The problem here seems to be that missile
threats are evaluated as they come within range of effective decoy
deployment, switching from one missile threat evaluation to another the
counter-measure system can't make the decision to launch and thus does
nothing. This can be made more easy if you add a magazine or two of
counter-measures in other launchers that you might have installed in
your ship loadout. For each launcher that can fire decoys the system
seems to be able to deal with one more missile at the same time (ie.
with 3 launchers containing decoys, it can evaluate 3 missile threats
at the same time and make individual decoy launch for all 3 threats).
COMBAT BASICS
Knife Range:
Get
close! Most energy weapons have a short range, and the closer to the
target you are, the more damage you will do. An additional benefit is
that the closer you are the better your chance of scoring a hit (good
tactics you rapid fire weapons).
The Right Tool:
Use
the right weapon for the right job; attack hostiles with the lightest
weapon in your arsenal and you'll take more damage as you move to
destroy them. Hit hard and fast.
Marksmanship:
The
targeting impact prediction reticle shows little triangle facing inward
when you stand a chance to hit the target, that means the target is
inside the range of your select weapon and within the angle it can
cover. You usually stand a better chance of hitting if you shoot while
the target is in the centre of the HUD, especially if you're far away. Note 1: while in zoom mode, you're far more accurate.
Note 2: the statement in the encyclopedia saying active sensors can be used for better targeting is unconfirmed.
Weapon Link (posted by Stephen Robertson):
With
a weapon link you have two fire modes available - chain fire and salvo
fire. Chain fire fires each identical weapon alternately, and is great
for spreading heat build up over a longer time, and good against
fighters where your shots often miss. Salvo fire fires each identical weapon simultaneously,
resulting in a big heat spike, but allowing you to hit a target very
hard. This is most useful against slower moving ships. Without a weapon
link you can only use chain fire, but with a weapon link you can not
only use salvo fire, but your chain fire is faster. Use F to change the weapon link fire mode.
Addendum (posted by Jet):
The chain mode is the default mode, the advantage of the Salvo mode is
your cannons hit as one weapon, which mean more force in a single shot
that can make your target move (that's why you go spinning sometimes
when hit by heavy fire). Note: salvo fire mode also works for missile
launchers (except when REM missiles are selected) so it's a good idea
to balance the weapon mix in each launcher so that you can exploit
this.
It's Only a Rabbit - Run Away! Run Away!:
If overwhelmed, run away! Both the thruster override function and your LDS drive are very useful for quick getaways.
Coherent Loadout:
Choose
your weapons carefully. Too many different weapons on your ship will
not give you the advantage of linked firepower, and take you longer to
cycle through. Two or three types of both energy weapons and missiles
are normally all you will need.
Chew Before Swallowing:
Soften
up enemies with missiles before you engage them, alternativelly fire a
missile at a heavily damaged craft you just met head-on to finish it.
Finish Your Plate:
Don't leave damaged enemies alone. Destroy them before they repair and come after you!
Power; What's Needed:
Use
the Tactical Resource Interface (TRI) shortcuts to boost power to the
system category you need most, e.g. if you want to blast an opponent
quickly, boost power to your weapons, but remember that boosting power
to one system takes power away from the others. Note: Did you know... that when maxing power to weapons you
increase energy based weapons' range and damage by 50% and decrease
their recharge time by 25% (except for beam weapons)? inversely, if you
max shield or propulsion the range/damages of your energy weapons
decrease by 50% and recharge time increase by 25%.
Speed Limit:
Watch these speed limits inside some station space; moving around at 250m/s is almost certain death.
Add-on (posted by Bobko): In ports, you may use F7 on a far target, no more speed limits.
Space Awareness:
Check
your position, it's vital to know where you are in a battle, you don't
want to slide into a freighter or asteroid at several thousand metres
per second if you can help it.
Escape from LDSi:
Thruster
override is a great way to run if you've been hit by an LDSi missile
and have enemies in pursuit, many give up and leave before you hit full
speed if you just head in a straight line and don't turn back.
Free Style Combat - (posted by Soltys):
Disabling
the Flight Assistant mode in combat gives you more freedom, you can
then exploit the use of lateral and overide thrusters to their full
potential.
High Tail(posted by IceTea[GeNeX]):
At
low speeds the distance you overshoot a ship, when you bypass it, is
much smaller, and with good piloting you can pull a 180 degrees turn
much faster than the other, thus giving you high damage rear shots. Note: You also regain forward momentum much faster.
Note
(by Jet): if you can, rolling your ship can help you to change
direction without completely loosing momentum, but it's a tricky one to
perfect.
SHIELD 101
Share the load - (posted by Jet):
If
you have two shields mounted on your ship, rolling on yourself heading
in the same direction will alternatively present each shield toward
incoming fire and thus manually spread the damage and help to recharge
your shields.
Watch Your 6:
Shields
do not cover the engines, so try to get behind your enemy and shoot it
in the vulnerable rear. The same goes for your ship - don't let an
enemy get behind you. Present a strong face to the enemy!
One on One is Fair:
Each
shield can only defend against one enemy. Your ship has a maximum of
two shields, so be careful not to be attacked by more than two ships
simultaneously. Try to split enemies up, and take them one-on-one.
Gang up on Them:
If
you have wingmen, use them! Remember that each shield can only defend
against one enemy. If you and your wingmen attack a target
simultaneously, you will rip through their shields and destroy them
very quickly.
CARGO
Sho me da money!: (by The Sinner):
Some
items can be expensive to manufacture but resource points are pretty
easy to come by. Find yourself an L-point near to some mining
operations and simply pirate as much common ore as your heart desires.
Transports with little or no escort loaded down with max cargo pods of
ore and occassionaly rare metals, gold, silver, platinum and
neutronium. In 20 minutes of combat I managed to score so many cargo
pods it took over an hour to collect them all. Typical escorts were patcoms and tugs, which are really no
match for even your Tug. This works equally well for gas mines when you
need hydrocarbons to purchase some necessary items.
Cargo Value Appraisal:
It's
easy to see at a glance how valuable the cargo on a freighter is by the
number and size of its escorts. If four heavy corvettes defend a
freighter with a single pod you can be certain it's high value cargo!
Conversely a freighter fully loaded out with 20 pods and no escorts is
unlikely to be carrying anything valuable, but will be easy to steal
from.
Cargo Identification:
You can find out what a freighter is carrying by sub-targeting it and cycling through its cargo pods (5km and under).
Long Range Cargo ID:
Using
the Imaging program (i.e. zoom) you can sub target components on a ship
from up to 30km away. This makes it easy to select a prey from afar or
just to observe what's kind of cargo is passing through the part of
space you're in without having to go under 5km to be able to cycle sub
targets.
Be Selective:
If
you know what you want to make a trade back at base, try going to
stations that may possibly be likely suppliers of the cargo you're
after (i.e. if a trade wants livestock, try hunting around
agri-orbitals for your goods).
Think and Observe:
Observing
the traffic going to or through a station can be rewarding as you can
spot regular deliveries of some goods to the station or ships
containing specific cargo transiting by this station on a regular basis
(which doesn't mean you wont have to wait for it).
Watch These Pods:
When
you target a freighter watch where you fire; you could inadvertently
destroy cargo pods on the freighter that you wanted to collect. Or hit
something potentially dangerous (i.e. antimatter has a very large blast
radius, if you see a white shockwave starting to expand get out of here
ASAP).
Hidden Bounty:
Mega
containers are huge cargo pods that Jaf can't pickup (identified as
being empty when you try to tag them), however they contain smaller
usual cargo pods (seen up to 8 in a megapod) the known way to get to
these is to shoot the megapod, most of the time while exploding it
opens its door an release some pods before vaporizing.
Pickup in Hostile Waters:
Jafs
will refuse to come and pickup pods if there are hostiles on your
scanner, that means that in areas where reinforcement keep coming, you
can't do a pickup... except if you manually tag the pods that interest
you, manage to loose your pursuers for a few seconds at that time you
can call Jafs who will happily collect what you tagged. You may loose
some pods but it's better than loosing all of them. Addendum: Jafs will only complain about hostile ships
if they are within the ID range of your sensors. Base ID range for
passive sensors 1 to 5 respectively are, 25 km, 38 km, 50 km, 20 km (no
typo) and 100 km. If you have active sensors installed and activated,
these values are increased depending on the active sensor grade).
LIFE ON THE FRONTIER
Mind your business (posted by kaifas):
Usually
other ships will ignore you even If you're in the middle of a shooting
battle right beside them (that counts for stations too), so long as a
stray shot doesn't hit them or their escorts...
Don't Upset the Law:
When first starting out, try to pirate from undefended Lagrange points where you won't be attacked by security forces or police.
To Grow Up you Must Start Small:
When
you start out pirating, pick on ships with fewer/weaker escorts. If you
start small, you'll be able to get a few upgrades on your ship,
allowing you to take on harder (and more profitable) targets.
Your Purse or Your Life:
SNRV pilots are low paid, and will surrender if you shoot them a couple of times, making it very easy to steal from them.
Live and Let Live:
Try
not to destroy freighters when pirating them, as this could destroy
valuable cargo docked to them and also set off a shockwave that could
destroy anything nearby, including cargo and you!
Waste the herders the sheep are yours:
Go
for the escort first, get close, let hell lose on them (use allies and
attached T-fighters on defend self and fire at will setting), a
well-planned surprise attack can usually blast 2 or 3 escorts in the
first seconds [don't try this with interceptors they react too fast].
Stay on the Edge:
Upgrade your ship as and when you can, the more heavily armed you are the more juicy the convoys you can attack.
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