Dynaverse.net
Taldrenites => General Starfleet Command Forum => Topic started by: SK-man on January 20, 2003, 07:31:41 am
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I finally got OP and tried most of the tutorials. This game is more complex than I originally thought but at the same time it's really intriguing. I decided to jump into the single player campaign with the klingons and I don't know what I'm doing. I thought the game might slowly lead you into the complexity but sadly it doesn't. I'm put into a battle that I'm hopeless in without the aid of another Klingon support ship. Sure, I can successfully complete the missions but the victory seems hollow because I'm not the one winning it (my support ship is doing all the work).
The manual is pretty dense and there is so much in there that it is hard to remember it all. Even the mid to later tutorials are a little daunting to fully grasp.
So what I'm really asking is for any tips on how to approach the game so I can begin to enjoy it. What race should I begin with and what era? Is it always better to start in the 'Early' era with each race? Or is it better to first practice in skirmish mode and learn the hotkeys at the same time? Any other tips for someone completely new to the series would be appreciated.
cheers
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First off play it sloow, until you learn what goes where. Make yourself a Quick Ref card so you can start learning the hotkeys.
Initially you just want to learn the controls so start with small ships and easy opponents so you have plenty of time to think. As you play, pause and read about a function and then use it. Then you can move onto making Ref cards for the weapons so you can use them as you play.
I suppose the best thing is to have somebody train you but as long as you don't try to jump in too deep you can make learning as you go half the fun. And once you have a basic grip on the game speed up. And then look for games on Gamespy.
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This may not be an option for you, but usually the best way to learn anything is at the hands of a teacher. Know anyone who plays? Anyone from your city on this board? You might ask around, get someone to stop by a show you the ropes. I taught my 12 year old nephew to play, and he does just fine with it. Its not so hard once you learn it.
If you can't do that, then one thing you can do is hop online to GSA (don't go to D2 for this). I'm sure you can find someone in there who will talk you through a few things to get you up to speed. Let you blow them up once or twice for practice.
W.
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Quote:
I finally got OP and tried most of the tutorials. This game is more complex than I originally thought but at the same time it's really intriguing. I decided to jump into the single player campaign with the klingons and I don't know what I'm doing. I thought the game might slowly lead you into the complexity but sadly it doesn't. I'm put into a battle that I'm hopeless in without the aid of another Klingon support ship. Sure, I can successfully complete the missions but the victory seems hollow because I'm not the one winning it (my support ship is doing all the work).
The manual is pretty dense and there is so much in there that it is hard to remember it all. Even the mid to later tutorials are a little daunting to fully grasp.
So what I'm really asking is for any tips on how to approach the game so I can begin to enjoy it. What race should I begin with and what era? Is it always better to start in the 'Early' era with each race? Or is it better to first practice in skirmish mode and learn the hotkeys at the same time? Any other tips for someone completely new to the series would be appreciated.
cheers
Have you gotten the 2525 patch for the OP game yet? if not, it is available on my web site at www.nightsoftware.com/effhq/sfcop2.html
also on that page is the OP bonus missions that were released...
i hope that this information helps...
PS.. server is currently down, however, try later this evening or tomorrow, it will be back up then...
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Thanks for the tips everyone (especially Lepton). I'm not living in Canada right now so strategy guides are not available to me and no one I know plays this. In fact, a friend of mine picked it up for me at my request over Christmas. The game is patched and I downloaded a bunch other stuff like the EAW missions but haven't gotten around to putting them in the game yet.
Anyway, playing it some more and finishing the tutorials, I feel a bit more comfortable but I still have a few more questions.
1) What is the difference between eras? I didn't see it in the manual.
2) It seems like some of the weapons wouldn't recharge. I understand some take longer than others but there were instances where some were not recharging at all.
3) When I started a Klingon campaign (captain level), I started with the patrol missions. When I encountered an enemy, another Klingon ship did all the dogfighting for me. I thought I would do these missions alone. Like I said in my earlier post, the victory seems hollow if I'm not the one completing the mission. Are most of the missions like this?
4) Should I get into the the EAW missions first before the OP ones?
Just a comment - I love the race-specific control panels (I can't believe that this touch wasn't included in SFC3), the music, the explosions and the race specific voice overs. It'll take time but so far I think the investment is worth it. Thanks for your patience.
cheers
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Aside from the eras indicating a progression in time, with the better ships being available later, the most obvious effect is that slow drones are available in early, medium in middle etc., and the X-tech is available in advanced.
SFC1 and 2 is about power management. If you use all of your power for speed then you can't charge weapons or use EW. This is the core of the game. Look at the power panel and you will see the default power priorities are set to 5 (lowest). Click on these and you can change their priority. I don't get too complex here but I do set movement to 3, EW to 4 and leave the rest at 5. I will slow down and speed up as required to let weapons charge. You can also turn off heavies so that they don't draw power. For advanced use you start playing with the phaser slider to control how muchpower is allocated to the phaser capacitor. This is very basic but touches on the important points.
Fighting the AI becomes less challenging very quickly. Use the AI to learn the game systems, dowload the EAW campaign missions for OP to get some variety, and try connecting to GameSpy to find some other players.
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You might find that the SFC:OP Play Aid I developed will help you. This play aid lists all of the Federation ships in SFC:OP with graphics, weapons, and standard weapons charts. It will assist you in learning the differences betwen the ships, and also has handy damage tables so that you understand the right range to fire your weapons. Find it at the bottom of the table-of-contents at www.battleclinic.com.
Here are some terms which will help you:
Power Management This is the key to learning and winning in SFC:OP--and for that matter, SFCII-EAW as well. You can approach power management in a straightforward way: click the power button and experiment with the sliders. Watch the graphics on your ship change in response...also note that when you run out of engine power you'll begin drawing on your batteries, and when those are gone, certain systems may not work. So you'll need to experiement.
Alpha Strike This is a tactic which (unfortunately) most new players depend on to kill the Computer player (AI or Artificial Intelligence). It simply means that you fly right up to an opposing ship and unload every weapon possible at the same time. This has the tactical advantage of (usually) ripping through the target's facing shield, and the disadvantage of leaving you vulnerable to counter-attack. Which means you need to understand...
Weapons Arcs ...in SFC:OP and EAW, where your weapons can fire drives your tactics. Klingons' arcs are mostly forward; their shields are stronger forward; therefore your tactics are generally to confront your target head-on. Contrast that to the Federation, whose weapons are more balanced across the ship. Weapons arcs coupled with your flight path demand that you plan your advance carefully: You want to take maximum advantage of the damage you can deliver to one shield facing. So, you'll find that you'll have to conduct a battle like a chess game: Play several moves ahead at all times.
These are general strategic and tactical ideas, but they form the very core basics that a good player needs.
Enjoy!
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Sorry Lepton, some of what you write is just wrong.
Sticking with the Klingons, the correct tactic to hit a target with drones is not to travel at the same speed. Travel faster - ahead of them an average of 3-4 distance units. Anytime the AI sees (4) or more incoming drones (missiles) if it has a wild weasel (massive burst of electronic warfare to distract seeking weapons like drones - shortlived ~15 seconds) it will use them. The advantage to travelling ahead is you can tractor the target with your Tractor Beams. Tractored targets can not use wild weasels (the premise is you have a beam over the target - a launched shuttle, which is all a wild weasel is, an unmanned electronics platform, would not be able to leave the tractor field)
Also, the correct speed is not 10-12. It's actually slower or faster. Some pilots, particularly in "crunch" races like the Feds and Hydrans like to "Starcastle" by travelling very slowly (less than speed 4), reinforce the facing shields, overload weapons and otherwise use a lot of power for things other than movement. This can be beaten, but it's a very different battle than normal if done right. Most of the time, pilots travel much faster, generally averaging speed 22-25 or more. This is maintained by careful power management. Yes using the priorities is useful, but really it's an intermediate tactic to use effectively as it can limit your options if not done correctly. I would recommend using your power slider bars (phaser capacitor at the top of the screen). It's a control slider telling your ship to do maximum recharge of the capacitors (all the way to the right which is the default) or none, all the way to the left. Experienced pilots adjust this first. After the game starts and my phasers are charged, I will nearly always move it to an approximate 2/3rds position for general use. After that, should I have a dire need to go as fast as possible, depending on the circumstances I may move it down to 1/3rd. In rare cases, where I do not want a power drain from other systems like electronic warfare, I have set it to zero temporarily.
A note, improper use (usually forgetting current setting) of the phaser capacitor recharging slider bar can get you killed when otherwise you might survive. Setting it at 1/3rd and forgetting it's there when you're tractored to an opponent at range 2 exchanging shots...chasing an opponent at high speed thinking that any drones the target may launch at you will be killed by point defense which you have carefully turned on...but, unfortunately, you haven't been charging your phasers can be deadly.
About the AI in early battles. In my experience, the smaller ships are hard to fly. They are certainly more challenging and can be more fun, but some of them are deathtraps. That and the AI commonly has a numerical superiority. Systematically and properly used, drones will kill AI easily. The AI simply doesn't defend against them well. When not using large drone waves (like scatter-packs...look 'em up) you have to hit the enemy at your best chances/damage while giving it poor shots.
This mainly means use ECM AND pay attention to ranges when you fire. This means if you're using a phaser 1, get within range 5 - a phaser 2 needs to be within range 3, and a phaser 3 or g needs to be within range 2. Barring an electronic warefare based shift, at those ranges you should be in the 'guaranteed' damage zone. At longer ranges, the to-hit charts are setup that there is a chance that any given weapon will do zero damage in a given shot.
Weapon groups. Pay attention to these. You set them by left-clicking on weapon hardpoints (holding shift key down while doing this to highlight multiple weapons...then when ALL are selected holding the control key down and hitting #1/#2/#3/#4 on the keyboard. Use the ones above the keyboard, not the ones on the numberpad to set them. From then on, if you hit the appropriate number key,you will autoselect all those weapons. I set mine in patterns. Mine is (almost universal on all ships of all races)
#4 - Drones - group them all together. note: I also click on each rack separately and put them on single fire mode rather than fire all at once for a group of 2-4 racks. This allows me selective fire mode for many advanced tactics.
#3 - Primary phasers - Usually only Phaser 1 & 2's. Used primarily when wanting to just fire phasers. Frequently will not include phaser 3's in this on cruisers and larger.
#2 - Heavy Weapons. Disruptors/Photons/Hellbores. Note: On a ship with multiple heavy weapon types, I tend to put ranged weapons here. For the Hydrans, that means Hellbores, for the ISC that tends to be PPD.
#1 - The Alpha Strike. Nearly all weapons although some are removed. Frequently on plasma ships I will not include them here.
ESG's - tend to put them on #4 (as the ship does not have drones)
Fusions - usually #4
On ISC, tend to put heavy plasma onto #4
On ships with multiple types of plasma, tend to put the largest (R/S torps) onto #4
Also, you can always hit the little icon in the ship schematic display that looks like an arror pointing in all directions (bottom left hand panel) which selects all weapons.
More on Klingons. Klingon ships tend to universally have excellent weapon arcs. Looking at the wing phasers (if you look at the ship display, look at the rear secondary hull. The front right and left corners, NOT on the engine pods themselves, are consider the wings. Most weapons only fire in the direction the are on the hull. If you're on the nose, you mostly fire foward. If you're on the right hand side, you fire right only. The klingon wing mounts fire across the hull. The right front wing mount fires ahead and to the right - and then also in a limited arc about 60 degrees directly to the left.
Klingon Boom Phasers (on the nose) are even more interesting. In OP their phaser arcs were properly implemented. If you look carefully at the arc icon, you will see that they fire FX (a 240 degree arc centered directly forward and 120 degrees to either side) - AND they can fire nearly directly backwards. This skips about 50 degrees of arc to the rear sides.
For both the Boom and Wing phasers, this is explained as portions of the ship are physically in the way. In this case, it's the engines. Look at the weapon positions and what arcs are missing, paying particular attention to the position of the warp engines.
What this is really getting at is, Klingons have some wild arcs and they usually can fire all or nearly all of their weapons on an oblique - an angle about 60 degrees to port or starboard of their heading. (ahead right, ahead left) Get within the sweet spot of range 2-3 with them and alpha-strike and see what happens. Do tr to wait until after your opponent has fired at a much longer range. I love turning into an opponent after they volley at range 8-15.
About "weapons not charging". Most likely this is the common display/refresh bug where a weapon icon is not changing on the display to show charge status. Nearly always, it is actually charging. If you left click a single hardpoint mount, look on the weapon panel that pops up just above. There are 4 (race specific/unique) bars that show the charging status of each individual weapon on that hardpoint. If they are charging, you should see them move over a few seconds. If they are not, look at the online/offline buttons. If online, look at your power. Are you going too fast to power them? When you notice one charging but one or more not...AND they're not damaged, it's usually a power shortage. Experiment with slowing down or reducing your power needs by doing things like lowering your phaser capacitor slider bar temporarily or turning off tractors.
Speed flown can be a deciding factor in battles. Not flying quickly enough to outrun a huge volley of drones that you can't stop is deadly. As a general plan, in a high speed battle with a human, if you have the power to fight and go 2-5 faster than your opponent, do it. Do not hesitate to slow down and re-allocate power to charge faster though if the tactical situation warrants it. Can't tell you how many times I've done the above (gone faster) and when I was at a good distance, I'd slow down and reallocate power to prepare for something - then speed back up (reallocating first). But, not all races are designed to fly at the same speed or even at high speed. Some do better at range - some require different tactics to fight depending on what you are flying.
If you really want to learn to fight, go start one on GSA (gamespy arcade) as you can usually get a game 24 hours a day.
All that said, I'm not the best pilot in the world. I am competent in nearly everything. Doesn't mean I'd win, particularly against the many better pilots but I can usually depend on not embarrasing myself too much. Don't mind losing, just mind doing something stupid and not making the other guy earn it.
Nax
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I often like to hover just around the maximum overload range of 8 (8.00 to be precise) to do my firing. When I do that, I will turn one bank of disruptors off and overload the other bank. This is because an overloaded disruptor is more accurate than a normal one, and it does the damage of 2 normal ones when it hits. Also, 2 overloaded disruptors draw the same power as 4 normals, so it is very beneficial to use this if you like skirting overload range.
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Quote:
I defy most ships in early to travel at speed 22-25 and effectively charge weapons. And yes, the AI may use a WW in the scenario I presented but it is as likely not to as I have seen in a majority of cases. If you clearly overhwhelm the AI, it will WW.
But this is all neither here nor there, you obviously have a good deal of experience and he would be good to follow your recommendations although I have never used the phaser capacitor slider. One lousy point of power can't be spared to charge the bank fully. I guess if it works for you, more power to you. This guys is getting alot of good info. Thanks. Good flying to all.
Actually, the Good Klingon designs can all easily do speed 25 if you control your power well. That's really the purpose behind the phaser capacitor slider bar. What's the point in doing a speed yo-yo if you're not actually going to fire your phasers the second they're charged? If you know it's going to take you 45+ seconds to get another firing opportunity, tune down the recharge and use the power for ECM to prevent taking damage, or even shield reinforcement. Part of this is due to disruptors that require the same power to hold as they do to charge so the power drain is constant. The Lyrans have surges in power requirements due to ESG - and all other races require significantly less power to hold than to charge. Feds can be forced into the teens (speed) to charge all weapons. ISC when charging plasma I and Lyrans can be caught in single-digit speeds for the first 30 seconds or more.
Try the K-D7C - hit "R". Then turn off your disruptors since it's IMPOSSIBLE to hit anything for at least the first minute, even if they go maximum speed towards you. Without touching the slider bar, you can attain a speed in the teens (forget exact number). Before you actually get up to that speed, your phaser capacitor will be full. At this point adjust it to about 60% - doesn't matter exactly, trial and error work well. Best suggestion is to play with it - try adjusting it down before the capacitor is full and try to peg it so the overall power requirements (as listed numerically at the bottom of the screen) is at x.9 and then you accelerate with the "S" key until you hit (38.9). After it's charged, you should be able to charge normal disruptors and go approximately speed 25. I'd use Mogs suggestion and if you think you can hit range 8, overload one pair and turn off the other.
Btw, turning off heavy weapons, particularly when all they are doing is sucking up power since they may not even get fired for awhile is a critical component of power management.
For me, shield reinforcement is the last/lowest priority - there are times to use it though, particularly when somebody is chasing you and 'plinking' your shield from moderate ranges (~15). Even a single point of reinforcement may cut the total damage by 33-50% or even all of it. Reinforcement only gets really used when 'starcastling' or doing things like planetary assaults where you park around range 25 and volley (scatter pack launch) drones at hte planet to kill it or any other target with phaser 4's.
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Had a thought about my description of flying ahead of drones when approaching a target in order to tractor it to avoid a wild weasel. My experience is different. Given the amount of time at startup, the AI Always will charge it's first shuttle as a wild weasel. Given larger hulls, it will begin a 2nd as soon as it uses the first. This counts as a universal constant from my many hundreds of actual games played.
A very common tactic, I like to call it a 'drone slam', but there are many other names is to approach targets at maximum speeds and volley as many drones into it as possible. Anything smaller than a heavy cruiser, if the tactic is done right, should die immediately on the first pass. Heavy cruisers may require 2 - depends solely on how much effort you can afford - are you thinking about playing DV2 and saving drones for the next battle?
Against a CA or larger, when using slow drones (speed 16) - you accelerate as much as possible towards your target holding launch until you're within 80% of the combination of drone speed and oncoming enemy ship speed. I tend to launch slow drones at around 60 in a K-D6D (or K-D5D) and travel around speed 20-22 towards the target. At range 10-11 I drop a scatterpack which when it opens should be ahead of the previously launched T4 (large) drones. By this point my ship mounted racks have recycled. I go for a minimum of a level 3 tractor beam and HOLD phaser fire against any incoming drones. Sometimes I do a full stop (emergency deceleration) - sometimes a HET directly towards my oncoming drones. After the first wave (from the scatter pack) hits the ship or is destroyed by point defense, I launch my recharged 6 Type 4 drones. And add my phasers. Most will fire directly to the rear in those ships.
Most ships die from this.
Total time required? ~1:45 travel time to the target. :15 of weapons fire. Enemy ship dies.
It's easy, very easy to duplicate, rinse and repeat. Rarely do I even get damage past my shields from return fire.
It is not what I consider a highly skilled tactic as it relies upon the AI's inability to cope/adjust. Do humans fall for this? Only the ones that are very new to the game. If this is the only tactic you know, any average pilot in a regular warship for any race will tear you a new one.
Nax
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best advice i can give is to slow the game down to a crawl. also, my husband has the boardgame. i found the computer game made much more sense after reading the boardgame manuals.
meow
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I finally got OP and tried most of the tutorials. This game is more complex than I originally thought but at the same time it's really intriguing. I decided to jump into the single player campaign with the klingons and I don't know what I'm doing. I thought the game might slowly lead you into the complexity but sadly it doesn't. I'm put into a battle that I'm hopeless in without the aid of another Klingon support ship. Sure, I can successfully complete the missions but the victory seems hollow because I'm not the one winning it (my support ship is doing all the work).
The manual is pretty dense and there is so much in there that it is hard to remember it all. Even the mid to later tutorials are a little daunting to fully grasp.
So what I'm really asking is for any tips on how to approach the game so I can begin to enjoy it. What race should I begin with and what era? Is it always better to start in the 'Early' era with each race? Or is it better to first practice in skirmish mode and learn the hotkeys at the same time? Any other tips for someone completely new to the series would be appreciated.
cheers
-
First off play it sloow, until you learn what goes where. Make yourself a Quick Ref card so you can start learning the hotkeys.
Initially you just want to learn the controls so start with small ships and easy opponents so you have plenty of time to think. As you play, pause and read about a function and then use it. Then you can move onto making Ref cards for the weapons so you can use them as you play.
I suppose the best thing is to have somebody train you but as long as you don't try to jump in too deep you can make learning as you go half the fun. And once you have a basic grip on the game speed up. And then look for games on Gamespy.
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This may not be an option for you, but usually the best way to learn anything is at the hands of a teacher. Know anyone who plays? Anyone from your city on this board? You might ask around, get someone to stop by a show you the ropes. I taught my 12 year old nephew to play, and he does just fine with it. Its not so hard once you learn it.
If you can't do that, then one thing you can do is hop online to GSA (don't go to D2 for this). I'm sure you can find someone in there who will talk you through a few things to get you up to speed. Let you blow them up once or twice for practice.
W.
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Quote:
I finally got OP and tried most of the tutorials. This game is more complex than I originally thought but at the same time it's really intriguing. I decided to jump into the single player campaign with the klingons and I don't know what I'm doing. I thought the game might slowly lead you into the complexity but sadly it doesn't. I'm put into a battle that I'm hopeless in without the aid of another Klingon support ship. Sure, I can successfully complete the missions but the victory seems hollow because I'm not the one winning it (my support ship is doing all the work).
The manual is pretty dense and there is so much in there that it is hard to remember it all. Even the mid to later tutorials are a little daunting to fully grasp.
So what I'm really asking is for any tips on how to approach the game so I can begin to enjoy it. What race should I begin with and what era? Is it always better to start in the 'Early' era with each race? Or is it better to first practice in skirmish mode and learn the hotkeys at the same time? Any other tips for someone completely new to the series would be appreciated.
cheers
Have you gotten the 2525 patch for the OP game yet? if not, it is available on my web site at www.nightsoftware.com/effhq/sfcop2.html
also on that page is the OP bonus missions that were released...
i hope that this information helps...
PS.. server is currently down, however, try later this evening or tomorrow, it will be back up then...
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Thanks for the tips everyone (especially Lepton). I'm not living in Canada right now so strategy guides are not available to me and no one I know plays this. In fact, a friend of mine picked it up for me at my request over Christmas. The game is patched and I downloaded a bunch other stuff like the EAW missions but haven't gotten around to putting them in the game yet.
Anyway, playing it some more and finishing the tutorials, I feel a bit more comfortable but I still have a few more questions.
1) What is the difference between eras? I didn't see it in the manual.
2) It seems like some of the weapons wouldn't recharge. I understand some take longer than others but there were instances where some were not recharging at all.
3) When I started a Klingon campaign (captain level), I started with the patrol missions. When I encountered an enemy, another Klingon ship did all the dogfighting for me. I thought I would do these missions alone. Like I said in my earlier post, the victory seems hollow if I'm not the one completing the mission. Are most of the missions like this?
4) Should I get into the the EAW missions first before the OP ones?
Just a comment - I love the race-specific control panels (I can't believe that this touch wasn't included in SFC3), the music, the explosions and the race specific voice overs. It'll take time but so far I think the investment is worth it. Thanks for your patience.
cheers
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Aside from the eras indicating a progression in time, with the better ships being available later, the most obvious effect is that slow drones are available in early, medium in middle etc., and the X-tech is available in advanced.
SFC1 and 2 is about power management. If you use all of your power for speed then you can't charge weapons or use EW. This is the core of the game. Look at the power panel and you will see the default power priorities are set to 5 (lowest). Click on these and you can change their priority. I don't get too complex here but I do set movement to 3, EW to 4 and leave the rest at 5. I will slow down and speed up as required to let weapons charge. You can also turn off heavies so that they don't draw power. For advanced use you start playing with the phaser slider to control how muchpower is allocated to the phaser capacitor. This is very basic but touches on the important points.
Fighting the AI becomes less challenging very quickly. Use the AI to learn the game systems, dowload the EAW campaign missions for OP to get some variety, and try connecting to GameSpy to find some other players.
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You might find that the SFC:OP Play Aid I developed will help you. This play aid lists all of the Federation ships in SFC:OP with graphics, weapons, and standard weapons charts. It will assist you in learning the differences betwen the ships, and also has handy damage tables so that you understand the right range to fire your weapons. Find it at the bottom of the table-of-contents at www.battleclinic.com.
Here are some terms which will help you:
Power Management This is the key to learning and winning in SFC:OP--and for that matter, SFCII-EAW as well. You can approach power management in a straightforward way: click the power button and experiment with the sliders. Watch the graphics on your ship change in response...also note that when you run out of engine power you'll begin drawing on your batteries, and when those are gone, certain systems may not work. So you'll need to experiement.
Alpha Strike This is a tactic which (unfortunately) most new players depend on to kill the Computer player (AI or Artificial Intelligence). It simply means that you fly right up to an opposing ship and unload every weapon possible at the same time. This has the tactical advantage of (usually) ripping through the target's facing shield, and the disadvantage of leaving you vulnerable to counter-attack. Which means you need to understand...
Weapons Arcs ...in SFC:OP and EAW, where your weapons can fire drives your tactics. Klingons' arcs are mostly forward; their shields are stronger forward; therefore your tactics are generally to confront your target head-on. Contrast that to the Federation, whose weapons are more balanced across the ship. Weapons arcs coupled with your flight path demand that you plan your advance carefully: You want to take maximum advantage of the damage you can deliver to one shield facing. So, you'll find that you'll have to conduct a battle like a chess game: Play several moves ahead at all times.
These are general strategic and tactical ideas, but they form the very core basics that a good player needs.
Enjoy!
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Sorry Lepton, some of what you write is just wrong.
Sticking with the Klingons, the correct tactic to hit a target with drones is not to travel at the same speed. Travel faster - ahead of them an average of 3-4 distance units. Anytime the AI sees (4) or more incoming drones (missiles) if it has a wild weasel (massive burst of electronic warfare to distract seeking weapons like drones - shortlived ~15 seconds) it will use them. The advantage to travelling ahead is you can tractor the target with your Tractor Beams. Tractored targets can not use wild weasels (the premise is you have a beam over the target - a launched shuttle, which is all a wild weasel is, an unmanned electronics platform, would not be able to leave the tractor field)
Also, the correct speed is not 10-12. It's actually slower or faster. Some pilots, particularly in "crunch" races like the Feds and Hydrans like to "Starcastle" by travelling very slowly (less than speed 4), reinforce the facing shields, overload weapons and otherwise use a lot of power for things other than movement. This can be beaten, but it's a very different battle than normal if done right. Most of the time, pilots travel much faster, generally averaging speed 22-25 or more. This is maintained by careful power management. Yes using the priorities is useful, but really it's an intermediate tactic to use effectively as it can limit your options if not done correctly. I would recommend using your power slider bars (phaser capacitor at the top of the screen). It's a control slider telling your ship to do maximum recharge of the capacitors (all the way to the right which is the default) or none, all the way to the left. Experienced pilots adjust this first. After the game starts and my phasers are charged, I will nearly always move it to an approximate 2/3rds position for general use. After that, should I have a dire need to go as fast as possible, depending on the circumstances I may move it down to 1/3rd. In rare cases, where I do not want a power drain from other systems like electronic warfare, I have set it to zero temporarily.
A note, improper use (usually forgetting current setting) of the phaser capacitor recharging slider bar can get you killed when otherwise you might survive. Setting it at 1/3rd and forgetting it's there when you're tractored to an opponent at range 2 exchanging shots...chasing an opponent at high speed thinking that any drones the target may launch at you will be killed by point defense which you have carefully turned on...but, unfortunately, you haven't been charging your phasers can be deadly.
About the AI in early battles. In my experience, the smaller ships are hard to fly. They are certainly more challenging and can be more fun, but some of them are deathtraps. That and the AI commonly has a numerical superiority. Systematically and properly used, drones will kill AI easily. The AI simply doesn't defend against them well. When not using large drone waves (like scatter-packs...look 'em up) you have to hit the enemy at your best chances/damage while giving it poor shots.
This mainly means use ECM AND pay attention to ranges when you fire. This means if you're using a phaser 1, get within range 5 - a phaser 2 needs to be within range 3, and a phaser 3 or g needs to be within range 2. Barring an electronic warefare based shift, at those ranges you should be in the 'guaranteed' damage zone. At longer ranges, the to-hit charts are setup that there is a chance that any given weapon will do zero damage in a given shot.
Weapon groups. Pay attention to these. You set them by left-clicking on weapon hardpoints (holding shift key down while doing this to highlight multiple weapons...then when ALL are selected holding the control key down and hitting #1/#2/#3/#4 on the keyboard. Use the ones above the keyboard, not the ones on the numberpad to set them. From then on, if you hit the appropriate number key,you will autoselect all those weapons. I set mine in patterns. Mine is (almost universal on all ships of all races)
#4 - Drones - group them all together. note: I also click on each rack separately and put them on single fire mode rather than fire all at once for a group of 2-4 racks. This allows me selective fire mode for many advanced tactics.
#3 - Primary phasers - Usually only Phaser 1 & 2's. Used primarily when wanting to just fire phasers. Frequently will not include phaser 3's in this on cruisers and larger.
#2 - Heavy Weapons. Disruptors/Photons/Hellbores. Note: On a ship with multiple heavy weapon types, I tend to put ranged weapons here. For the Hydrans, that means Hellbores, for the ISC that tends to be PPD.
#1 - The Alpha Strike. Nearly all weapons although some are removed. Frequently on plasma ships I will not include them here.
ESG's - tend to put them on #4 (as the ship does not have drones)
Fusions - usually #4
On ISC, tend to put heavy plasma onto #4
On ships with multiple types of plasma, tend to put the largest (R/S torps) onto #4
Also, you can always hit the little icon in the ship schematic display that looks like an arror pointing in all directions (bottom left hand panel) which selects all weapons.
More on Klingons. Klingon ships tend to universally have excellent weapon arcs. Looking at the wing phasers (if you look at the ship display, look at the rear secondary hull. The front right and left corners, NOT on the engine pods themselves, are consider the wings. Most weapons only fire in the direction the are on the hull. If you're on the nose, you mostly fire foward. If you're on the right hand side, you fire right only. The klingon wing mounts fire across the hull. The right front wing mount fires ahead and to the right - and then also in a limited arc about 60 degrees directly to the left.
Klingon Boom Phasers (on the nose) are even more interesting. In OP their phaser arcs were properly implemented. If you look carefully at the arc icon, you will see that they fire FX (a 240 degree arc centered directly forward and 120 degrees to either side) - AND they can fire nearly directly backwards. This skips about 50 degrees of arc to the rear sides.
For both the Boom and Wing phasers, this is explained as portions of the ship are physically in the way. In this case, it's the engines. Look at the weapon positions and what arcs are missing, paying particular attention to the position of the warp engines.
What this is really getting at is, Klingons have some wild arcs and they usually can fire all or nearly all of their weapons on an oblique - an angle about 60 degrees to port or starboard of their heading. (ahead right, ahead left) Get within the sweet spot of range 2-3 with them and alpha-strike and see what happens. Do tr to wait until after your opponent has fired at a much longer range. I love turning into an opponent after they volley at range 8-15.
About "weapons not charging". Most likely this is the common display/refresh bug where a weapon icon is not changing on the display to show charge status. Nearly always, it is actually charging. If you left click a single hardpoint mount, look on the weapon panel that pops up just above. There are 4 (race specific/unique) bars that show the charging status of each individual weapon on that hardpoint. If they are charging, you should see them move over a few seconds. If they are not, look at the online/offline buttons. If online, look at your power. Are you going too fast to power them? When you notice one charging but one or more not...AND they're not damaged, it's usually a power shortage. Experiment with slowing down or reducing your power needs by doing things like lowering your phaser capacitor slider bar temporarily or turning off tractors.
Speed flown can be a deciding factor in battles. Not flying quickly enough to outrun a huge volley of drones that you can't stop is deadly. As a general plan, in a high speed battle with a human, if you have the power to fight and go 2-5 faster than your opponent, do it. Do not hesitate to slow down and re-allocate power to charge faster though if the tactical situation warrants it. Can't tell you how many times I've done the above (gone faster) and when I was at a good distance, I'd slow down and reallocate power to prepare for something - then speed back up (reallocating first). But, not all races are designed to fly at the same speed or even at high speed. Some do better at range - some require different tactics to fight depending on what you are flying.
If you really want to learn to fight, go start one on GSA (gamespy arcade) as you can usually get a game 24 hours a day.
All that said, I'm not the best pilot in the world. I am competent in nearly everything. Doesn't mean I'd win, particularly against the many better pilots but I can usually depend on not embarrasing myself too much. Don't mind losing, just mind doing something stupid and not making the other guy earn it.
Nax
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I often like to hover just around the maximum overload range of 8 (8.00 to be precise) to do my firing. When I do that, I will turn one bank of disruptors off and overload the other bank. This is because an overloaded disruptor is more accurate than a normal one, and it does the damage of 2 normal ones when it hits. Also, 2 overloaded disruptors draw the same power as 4 normals, so it is very beneficial to use this if you like skirting overload range.
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I defy most ships in early to travel at speed 22-25 and effectively charge weapons. And yes, the AI may use a WW in the scenario I presented but it is as likely not to as I have seen in a majority of cases. If you clearly overhwhelm the AI, it will WW.
But this is all neither here nor there, you obviously have a good deal of experience and he would be good to follow your recommendations although I have never used the phaser capacitor slider. One lousy point of power can't be spared to charge the bank fully. I guess if it works for you, more power to you. This guys is getting alot of good info. Thanks. Good flying to all.
Actually, the Good Klingon designs can all easily do speed 25 if you control your power well. That's really the purpose behind the phaser capacitor slider bar. What's the point in doing a speed yo-yo if you're not actually going to fire your phasers the second they're charged? If you know it's going to take you 45+ seconds to get another firing opportunity, tune down the recharge and use the power for ECM to prevent taking damage, or even shield reinforcement. Part of this is due to disruptors that require the same power to hold as they do to charge so the power drain is constant. The Lyrans have surges in power requirements due to ESG - and all other races require significantly less power to hold than to charge. Feds can be forced into the teens (speed) to charge all weapons. ISC when charging plasma I and Lyrans can be caught in single-digit speeds for the first 30 seconds or more.
Try the K-D7C - hit "R". Then turn off your disruptors since it's IMPOSSIBLE to hit anything for at least the first minute, even if they go maximum speed towards you. Without touching the slider bar, you can attain a speed in the teens (forget exact number). Before you actually get up to that speed, your phaser capacitor will be full. At this point adjust it to about 60% - doesn't matter exactly, trial and error work well. Best suggestion is to play with it - try adjusting it down before the capacitor is full and try to peg it so the overall power requirements (as listed numerically at the bottom of the screen) is at x.9 and then you accelerate with the "S" key until you hit (38.9). After it's charged, you should be able to charge normal disruptors and go approximately speed 25. I'd use Mogs suggestion and if you think you can hit range 8, overload one pair and turn off the other.
Btw, turning off heavy weapons, particularly when all they are doing is sucking up power since they may not even get fired for awhile is a critical component of power management.
For me, shield reinforcement is the last/lowest priority - there are times to use it though, particularly when somebody is chasing you and 'plinking' your shield from moderate ranges (~15). Even a single point of reinforcement may cut the total damage by 33-50% or even all of it. Reinforcement only gets really used when 'starcastling' or doing things like planetary assaults where you park around range 25 and volley (scatter pack launch) drones at hte planet to kill it or any other target with phaser 4's.
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Had a thought about my description of flying ahead of drones when approaching a target in order to tractor it to avoid a wild weasel. My experience is different. Given the amount of time at startup, the AI Always will charge it's first shuttle as a wild weasel. Given larger hulls, it will begin a 2nd as soon as it uses the first. This counts as a universal constant from my many hundreds of actual games played.
A very common tactic, I like to call it a 'drone slam', but there are many other names is to approach targets at maximum speeds and volley as many drones into it as possible. Anything smaller than a heavy cruiser, if the tactic is done right, should die immediately on the first pass. Heavy cruisers may require 2 - depends solely on how much effort you can afford - are you thinking about playing DV2 and saving drones for the next battle?
Against a CA or larger, when using slow drones (speed 16) - you accelerate as much as possible towards your target holding launch until you're within 80% of the combination of drone speed and oncoming enemy ship speed. I tend to launch slow drones at around 60 in a K-D6D (or K-D5D) and travel around speed 20-22 towards the target. At range 10-11 I drop a scatterpack which when it opens should be ahead of the previously launched T4 (large) drones. By this point my ship mounted racks have recycled. I go for a minimum of a level 3 tractor beam and HOLD phaser fire against any incoming drones. Sometimes I do a full stop (emergency deceleration) - sometimes a HET directly towards my oncoming drones. After the first wave (from the scatter pack) hits the ship or is destroyed by point defense, I launch my recharged 6 Type 4 drones. And add my phasers. Most will fire directly to the rear in those ships.
Most ships die from this.
Total time required? ~1:45 travel time to the target. :15 of weapons fire. Enemy ship dies.
It's easy, very easy to duplicate, rinse and repeat. Rarely do I even get damage past my shields from return fire.
It is not what I consider a highly skilled tactic as it relies upon the AI's inability to cope/adjust. Do humans fall for this? Only the ones that are very new to the game. If this is the only tactic you know, any average pilot in a regular warship for any race will tear you a new one.
Nax
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best advice i can give is to slow the game down to a crawl. also, my husband has the boardgame. i found the computer game made much more sense after reading the boardgame manuals.
meow