Combat and ship configuration

etarm · Post by **etarm** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:58 am

I've been trying to enjoy this game for several days now. I know, that's not very long. I really enjoyed the X-series and Freelancer, and this one brings a lot of the elements together that I enjoyed in those other games. I'm getting frustrated by the combat, though, and I'm wondering if it's just the stage that I'm at now, or if it will always be like this. My primary frustration is that I'm going up against ships that are much better than mine -- in the basic missions. I've upgraded to the L2 hull and have a L10 particle weapon; however, my ship holds two missiles, period. The enemy ships that I'm meeting come in groups of three or four, and each one seems like it holds three times as many missiles as I do. I can sometimes survive a battle against three enemies now, even with their superior weaponry, but it's annoying me to constantly have to fight ships that seem much better than what I'm flying for a measly $40K credits. Okay, rant over. I'm going back to mining. It's much more profitable. I hope it gets better soon.

Ed

Post by **Vice** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:17 am

Couple of points to keep in mind:

- Do -not- try to fly the way you would have in Freelancer and X. That will get you destroyed quickly. Never just fly right at your opponents and shoot, that just makes you an easy target for them. Always keep your speed high, angle your attacks, strafe your targets, and use your afterburner.

- Practice with CM's for the right launch point at various speeds.

- Practice shooting down missiles with your primary guns, never be entirely dependent on CM's.

- If needed, increase the IDS scale to 2X or 3X rather than depending entirely on the afterburner.

- Use the fuel, do not be afraid of high speed and take your time. Do not try to rush an attack, plan your attack strategy carefully in advance. Use wide approach angles and keep your distance. Do not engage with weapons until you have achieved the desired effective range and safe strafing approach. If you miss, just circle around and try again.

- And importantly, get into multiplayer early. Have other players watch you fight and provide guidance on what you need to do to succeed.

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:22 am

That last point is very important. Even after doing this for more than a year, I still jump into another MP pilot's turret to see why it is he can take on 10 Reds and come away without a scratch.

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:22 am

I can only agree.

I jumped on MP almost instantly when I bought the game. Lots of helpful people out there
and I still learn when I'm out there. Great fun doing contracts together as well and you
learn a lot doing that to.

You should do the IMG quest as well. Teaches you the basics of most game aspects. Pays pretty
good as well.

Avenger · Post by **Avenger** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:48 am

I hardly ever use my afterburner, only if i change direction after a high speed inertial pass and then only if time is a priority. (like in an escort mission)

The biggest mob I took on by myself and beat is 12 + a few additional ships that jumped in during the fight. (not sure how many, maybe 6 to 8 additionals)

I didn't get hit once by missiles since I use inertial strafing and this way I pretty much always face my foes and this also allows you to shoot down missiles fairly easy, not to mention that in inertial mode your engines produce hardly any heat so you can use 1 CM per missile for the ones you can't shoot.

I use a class 2 particle cannon, the IceSpear, it has 700 range, a very high rate of fire and a very low energy consumption. (this cannon is extremely effective if you use a cannon relay system and a cannon heatsink)

I use IDS x3 and my default ship speed is 2266, this speed results in me getting hit barely with cannon fire as well.
Because of this I also use a shield recharger and this allows my power setting to be set to -55 / 5W leaving me a lot of energy to fump out cannon fire to the enemy, and in the rare occasions I do get a couple of hits, my shields are recharged very quickly.

It doesn't really matter what ship you fly, inertial strafing works in any type of ship, even a heavy freighter.

Dave S · Post by **Dave S** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:28 am

I learned by flying with Avenger and a few others. MP is great for that. Also, start out slow. I blew up a lot of asteroids in the beginning to get used to things. Hope to see you out there.

etarm · Post by **etarm** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:37 pm

Thanks for all the advice. Perhaps the fact that I don't understand some of your responses is a clue why I'm having a hard time with combat

. I do use inertial strafing, usually keeping my speed up around 1000-1200 (mps? kph?) I'll usually take a couple of high-speed passes to flush out most of the missiles, then concentrate on one of the enemy ships with guns until I get a kill, then moving to the next, etc. etc.

I know what IDS is, and I take it that 2x and 3x are multipliers, but how do you change it??

Also, can someone explain the power setting? I don't remember it from teh tutorial, but it went by pretty fast. Maybe I need to run rhough it again. What does "-55/5W" mean? I think mine is set to 0/5W, and I've wondered what it meant -- it's whatever the default is.

Perhaps I need to get a longer range cannon. I assumed that the Class 10 cannon I got from the quest cache near Glacia was better than a Class 2 cannon, but it sounds like there are other subtleties to consider.

Thanks again.

Avenger · Post by **Avenger** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:11 pm

On page 3 of the keyboard setting page you can assign 2 keys for the IDS multiplier. (Increase/Decrease)
I used the arrow up and down since I don't fly with the keyboard anyway.

the [ and ] keys increase and decrease power settings to shields and weapons.
-55 to shield recharge 5W to weapon power recharge. (default is 0 / 0W)

as for the cannon, range is more important then flat out damage imho that is.
A cannon relay system doubles your cannons so you have 4 instead of 2 and it also increase your cannon energy pool so you can shoot longer.
A cannon heatsink makes your cannons fire faster due to extra cooling.
So these 2 added up can turn a "weak" cannon into a real effective weapon.
Ok, it does less damage per hit but with 4 cannons that you can fire none stop at maximum rate of fire piles up damage really good.
And with the range you can shoot them when they cannot shoot back so by the time they are within range of fire on you they are either blown to pieces or severely damaged.