A lot has changed. Nearly a year has passed since my last posts, and Kixeye has continued to unbalance then rebalance the game in a never ending crusade to get coiners to buy new techs and fleets. Apparently it's working. The sector numbers change, but the players are much the same. I'm a bad guy for hitting in sector, and there's usually someone around that can take out my base and fleets.
I stopped writing because I wasn't intending to continue playing. I even quit for a few weeks but picked it back up because... for all its faults, the game is just plain fun. There are a lot of new hulls, and new strategies to FvF and Base hitting. The raids keep changing so the strategies do too. Right now it seems the best fleet for raiding is spectres.
But to catch up, I'll go down the list of ships we have and their strengths/weaknesses.
Corvette, drac hull. Really fast, but cant carry enough weight to be used effectively in combat. It's best used as a submarine flagship, since you can have a submarine for a flagship, or to attack a base to keep the player trapped in baseview while your attacking fleets arrive.
Destroyer, drac hull. Another small, fast ship that is best used in the same way as the corvette. It has 3 armor slots, but those are pretty well pointless since the ship cant carry enough weight to carry big guns. It has high resistance and evade, as well as high speed. It can carry a torpedo and surface weapon.
Light Cruiser, drac hull. These are like drac barges. I built a few with firestorm rockets a while back, to use during the typhoon raids... but they were too slow to be of value. I don't like this hull and don't currently have any built.
Battle Cruiser, drac hull. Badassery on parade. It's as fast as as scorpion, but has 3 armor slots, 3 special slots and 4 weapons. It also has 50 submarine detection range... the same as the Stalker submarine. With sonarpod, this bad boy sees submarines at 75 range (+10 submarine visibility). I use a high evade BC flagship with 4 missile scorpions (laser/sfb3) to hunt submarines.
Battle Ship, drac hull. Battleships are very good hulls, with bonus range to ballistics, 4 armor slots, 6 guns and 3 specials. They are a bit too slow for FvF, but have enough armor and resistance to push a fleet of seawolfs to the edge and sink them. High resistances and zero evade, like the BattleCruiser, make this a champion ship.
Strike Cruiser, drac hull. Kixeye was getting a little ridiculous with this hull. It's a fast moving base hitting fleet, with bonus to spread and splash. Mortar fleets should work well on it, because it is fast moving and can creep forward to escape mortars... but its mostly used for siege cannon blitz fleets, because of the splash bonus and speed. Most bases fall apart when blitzed by Strike Cruisers with a large pinch. I call it pinch blitz.
Interdictor, drac hull. Better than average submarine detection, but still not as much as a BC. it has 3 torpedo bays, as well as 4 surface/submerge weapon slots. 2 armors and 3 specials. As it turns out, this is the most poweful FvF fleet right now. High resistances, including torpedo (concussive), fast hull with high evade.. it's versatile and lethal. D35S, D63V, D4V with Engine3, GuidScram3 and AutoReload3 make this short range ship into a speedy devil.
Goliath, base guard. Too slow on both the map and in combat, to be effective in FvF, it's main use is a base guard. Once they gave us the ability to put ships inside the waters of our base to protect during attacks, they soon gave us a nasty ship to do it with. 7 guns and 7 armors with 2 specials. It has bonus to ballistic range, but very little resistance and terrible evade. It's basically a floating turret platform.
Spectre, submarine. Basically a floating fortress underwater, with 3 armor, 6 weapon and 2 special slots, its a formidable weapon. It's best attribute is the extremely long underwater time, which can be extended with Battery special. Battery3 spectre can stay underwater for almost a minute and a half. Long enough to take out most guardfleets if they arent protected from submarines.
DreadnaughtX, drac hull. Kixeye unbalanced the game considerably when they put this in. Its a beast hull, with bonus to mortar fire rate, splash and spread. Shockwave dreadx with speed and resistance are nearly invincible on base hits and are the most commonly used base fleet now. Ive seen players that dont even have DU4 yet, run thru bases twice their size with dreadx and win. Yawn.
Juggernaught, drac hull. Big ship, with a proper name. It has 8 armor plates, 3 specials and 4 guns. Its relatively slow but with 8 armor slots, its very versatile if you use the drac armor bonuses effectively. With only 4 guns though, it's better suited as a flagship than a base hitter. The best thing I've seen them used for so far is a prep fleet, to take out guardfleets.
Arbitor, tactical ship. This ship can be fitted with a variety of different special modules that you research in the tactical lab. They emit a field that boosts your ships while harming the enemy, if you can get the enemy inside it. There are a few useful ways to use this ship, but it is very limited because of the range of the field. Makes a good base guard, to slow down enemy fleet.. surface enemy submarines and other debuffs that are handy.
Super Fortress, forsaken. Basically a Floating Fortress but with extended cargo capacity and 4 armor slots. Best used as a salvage pickup fleet, or a sniper fleet cargo holder. I use 3 of these with large cargo and hull streamlining in my 2 scorpion fleet. I use the two scorpions to take out warehouses that people leave within range of missiles, and I can carry over 30 million resources home.
Draconian Armor. There are 3 tiers. D2 armor is small plates, D3 armor is medium sized and D4 armor is close to DU4 strength. Ton of ton they are about the same as the forsaken armors, but lighter so theres less plating. V armor increases combat speed, N armor increases map speed, T armor increases turn speed, E armor increases evade %, X adds explosive resistance, C adds ballistic resistance and M adds missile resistance. S armor is supposed to reduce submarine visibility, but I've yet to see it work right. There is a reduced effect to these bonuses when you stack more than one together.
Guard Fleets can now be used inside the base, and they are just like normal fleets, with weight limits and use a fleet spot from the academy. You can position each ship and give that ship a range that it can travel within during base hits. You can control these fleets when you are online. This feature changed the game dramatically.
They finally got rid of the buddy bubble system, so players cant sit there and stay in permanent bubbles without taking actual damage. Good job kixeye, bout time.
Enough shop talk, time to go raise some hell.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Guerilla Warfare
I dont remember what sector I was in last week. It was an uneventful two weeks, trapped there by a raid that was as watered down as a mermaid's skirt. They neutered the draconian fleets in the drac outposts this last raid, by giving them a maximum distance range from the center platform.
No need to maneuver to take them out. Cutlass with booster2 could pick the level 28 outposts apart for 80k points (50k for fleet, 30k for center platform). Raid prize? A beautiful new submarine called the barracuda. Its basically an underwater seawolf, with lots of potential. I'll build them when I'm done with the submarine advanced lab researches. Also gave us new drac armors. Some are pretty sweet.
I revisited sector 214 this week, to hit salvage and play nice. I left as a friend and returned as a friend. First day back though, FC alliance hit my fleet. Sloaney and I both left our longships on Lady Hatchett's front lawn, to say hi. We didnt attack her or anything, and weren't planning on it. When we were away, though, she told FC that we are bad guys and one raycfc sank our fleets. Well, game on!
Samulin and Sabba and several others that I enjoy talking to were still in the sector. They migrated from 429 a long time ago, but settled in 214 with HSE alliance and TST and FoF. FC is a newly arrived visitor alliance with a huge ego and no balls. I insulted them relentlessly for the first couple days. No response, and my bubble was popped for a long time. So I saw a guy collecting salvage with his orange HH fleet. I sent the scorpions after him and sank him without trouble. It was a siege missile fleet, and a very pretty one at that.
JC-FC asked me why I hit him, which was exactly what I wanted. I told him (and the rest of the comms) about how I arrived as a friend but FC started a war with me, personally, and they are a garbage alliance. He defended his alliance by coin repairing his fleet and launching fleets before posting his coords. I didn't even bother looking. Just kept sinking fleets near him.
Next day he tried my base and killed half of a howitzer. I leave a warehouse near the front entrance to lure my targets into a false sense of accomplishment as their fleet dies. My base guardfleet has an assault mortar HH with hailstorms and full armor, and a few assault cannon ships that get in close. He killed a gunbarge and sniped a warehouse before sinking. Perfect.
Next day he hit me with two of the same fleet and lost both of them, but dealt a little more damage. I wasn't online for that hit but he utterly failed anyway. I relentlessly trashed their alliance for days, making sure every timezone player got to hear about how bad FC is. Eventually it sunk in and the sector started to turn on them, and stopped laughing at their jokes. FC began to lose their haughty braggard attitudes by day 4.
Day 5 arrived and I was stealing their cargo and killing their cargo killing fleets and miners, while laughing and joking with my old friends in 214. Spirits are high, as the main group of FC leave the sector without a word. Hilarious, I never even had to hit any of their bases. It's not that FC is actually a garbage alliance... I just don't like them because they hit me without saying hello first. And they did it for Lady Hatchett, who left after 2 days of my arrival. She's such a good sport.
By the end of this week, there are 25 dead FC hammerheads in my channel (at my entrance) and a couple dozen more random ships... from levis and wolfs, to FFs and Dreads. No one has gotten to the second row of turrets this week. Base guards are wonderful.
As FC left, nMe alliance filled their empty ocean spots. I picked a fight immediately and got told how much of a mistake it was. As more of them arrived, I realized that I knew most of them from our previous travels and even liked a few.
nMe is one of the better alliances that I've come into contact with, they hit in-sector but defend the sector from outside threats. They don't like whiners and don't put up with drama. Lady Hatchett stopped in on her daughters account to demand they not attack her friend. Chewy-nMe basically showed her his tall finger. She made an announcement that she was moving that account and never coming back.
I made sure to tell her how much it bothered me with a sharp go f urself, in comms. She got ignored by everyone else.
Samulin told me that my comms style is interesting... I ignore the good points against my character and basically choose to respond to the right things. He said people that argue with me in comms are fighting against my guerilla warfare style, doomed to lose. I say goodbye to 214, once again, as a friend. Maybe next time I won't get attacked first day, but hope I do.
No need to maneuver to take them out. Cutlass with booster2 could pick the level 28 outposts apart for 80k points (50k for fleet, 30k for center platform). Raid prize? A beautiful new submarine called the barracuda. Its basically an underwater seawolf, with lots of potential. I'll build them when I'm done with the submarine advanced lab researches. Also gave us new drac armors. Some are pretty sweet.
I revisited sector 214 this week, to hit salvage and play nice. I left as a friend and returned as a friend. First day back though, FC alliance hit my fleet. Sloaney and I both left our longships on Lady Hatchett's front lawn, to say hi. We didnt attack her or anything, and weren't planning on it. When we were away, though, she told FC that we are bad guys and one raycfc sank our fleets. Well, game on!
Samulin and Sabba and several others that I enjoy talking to were still in the sector. They migrated from 429 a long time ago, but settled in 214 with HSE alliance and TST and FoF. FC is a newly arrived visitor alliance with a huge ego and no balls. I insulted them relentlessly for the first couple days. No response, and my bubble was popped for a long time. So I saw a guy collecting salvage with his orange HH fleet. I sent the scorpions after him and sank him without trouble. It was a siege missile fleet, and a very pretty one at that.
JC-FC asked me why I hit him, which was exactly what I wanted. I told him (and the rest of the comms) about how I arrived as a friend but FC started a war with me, personally, and they are a garbage alliance. He defended his alliance by coin repairing his fleet and launching fleets before posting his coords. I didn't even bother looking. Just kept sinking fleets near him.
Next day he tried my base and killed half of a howitzer. I leave a warehouse near the front entrance to lure my targets into a false sense of accomplishment as their fleet dies. My base guardfleet has an assault mortar HH with hailstorms and full armor, and a few assault cannon ships that get in close. He killed a gunbarge and sniped a warehouse before sinking. Perfect.
Next day he hit me with two of the same fleet and lost both of them, but dealt a little more damage. I wasn't online for that hit but he utterly failed anyway. I relentlessly trashed their alliance for days, making sure every timezone player got to hear about how bad FC is. Eventually it sunk in and the sector started to turn on them, and stopped laughing at their jokes. FC began to lose their haughty braggard attitudes by day 4.
Day 5 arrived and I was stealing their cargo and killing their cargo killing fleets and miners, while laughing and joking with my old friends in 214. Spirits are high, as the main group of FC leave the sector without a word. Hilarious, I never even had to hit any of their bases. It's not that FC is actually a garbage alliance... I just don't like them because they hit me without saying hello first. And they did it for Lady Hatchett, who left after 2 days of my arrival. She's such a good sport.
By the end of this week, there are 25 dead FC hammerheads in my channel (at my entrance) and a couple dozen more random ships... from levis and wolfs, to FFs and Dreads. No one has gotten to the second row of turrets this week. Base guards are wonderful.
As FC left, nMe alliance filled their empty ocean spots. I picked a fight immediately and got told how much of a mistake it was. As more of them arrived, I realized that I knew most of them from our previous travels and even liked a few.
nMe is one of the better alliances that I've come into contact with, they hit in-sector but defend the sector from outside threats. They don't like whiners and don't put up with drama. Lady Hatchett stopped in on her daughters account to demand they not attack her friend. Chewy-nMe basically showed her his tall finger. She made an announcement that she was moving that account and never coming back.
I made sure to tell her how much it bothered me with a sharp go f urself, in comms. She got ignored by everyone else.
Samulin told me that my comms style is interesting... I ignore the good points against my character and basically choose to respond to the right things. He said people that argue with me in comms are fighting against my guerilla warfare style, doomed to lose. I say goodbye to 214, once again, as a friend. Maybe next time I won't get attacked first day, but hope I do.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
A Quest for Excellence
I've been called a comms bully... a chat hog, a soldier of words. When I start chatting in comms I am always initially respectful and courteous. I'm honest and playful, sometimes callous and blunt. Above all else, I am very critical of my fellow pirates. My opinion is all I truly care about, when I go into a debate or rant in comms. This offends some people.
This is not a difficult game. It requires patience and temper, concentration at times, and a strong sense of self-preservation. You gather resources to upgrade your ships and research technology. It's only a matter of time before everyone has the ability to build what everyone else has. No one is better than anyone else, but sometimes... because more effort (or money) is invested into the game, a player has a strong lead on power.
When I insult someone in comms, it is typically because they have proven to me that they care more about impressing other players than they do about actually playing the game. I find this trivial and stupid. I don't login to the game to make friends (that's what real life is for). I login to the game to be a mean pirate, but I reserve the right to be helpful and friendly.
Typically, people get really offended when I attack them... but their reaction is what sets the tone for the ensuing week of gametime for me. If a player whines and cries like a bleeding carebear.. I'll keep poking fun and hitting their fleets when I login. If a player hits me back and shares my weaknesses in comms, whether insulting or not, I respect that. I don't like losing, but I don't mind learning from my mistakes and can appreciate a loss just as much as a win. I choose my battles carefully and usually don't engage a target till I know whether I can beat them.
My fleets haven't been difficult to design and my base design is an original, but resembles other high level bases... what works, works. I know my gamestyle and I'm pretty good at keeping the game fun for myself. When someone goads me into attacking their fleet or their base, I decide whether to actually attack them based on facts, not emotion.
LOD alliance has moved out of the sector, after half a dozen days of non-stop ridicule and trash talking. They've finally moved on, and took their massive egos and facebook credit balances with them. I have no respect for their alliance, and I made that absolutely clear. I've been called jealous and spiteful because I make fun of coiners. They don't understand at all, but that is not surprising.
Spending money here and there, to enjoy the game a little more is perfectly acceptable to me. But spending thousands of dollars to gain the upper hand is absolutely ridiculous and I cannot and will not respect a level 35 player that acts big and bad in front of his friends after taking my base apart... when his power is derived from buying enough credits to speed up all his ship builds and researches.
If I was to indulge a big coiner in a game of chess, I would expect them to cheat and make up rules in their favor. That is what spending money does for you. It gives you an unfair advantage, and the majority of web-based games offer this incentive so they can make money. It takes away some of the fun of gaming, but I understand the premise. Those that abuse the system by spending more than their opponents in order to win... they deserve no respect and get none from me. I laugh at them while they pretend not to care... maybe they don't, that is fine with me too.
I want to master the game mechanics and excel in combat because excellence feels good, especially when it is difficult to attain. That is a personal paradigm.. a way of seeing things and doing things that is totally mine. I don't expect anyone else to believe or care about my opinions, but I share them whether they like it or not. Read or don't read, believe or don't believe. I enjoy freedom of speech as well as freedom of gameplay.
It's almost time to move away from 356... strangely enough, now that LOD has left the sector, and unforsaken is all but gone, the players that I enjoy talking to and playing with have started chatting again and I'm a peaceful Bondai in sector 356. I'm going to detach myself from exile but keep whatever friendships I've made along the way. Alliances really aren't my thing anyways; I'm on a quest for excellence.
This is not a difficult game. It requires patience and temper, concentration at times, and a strong sense of self-preservation. You gather resources to upgrade your ships and research technology. It's only a matter of time before everyone has the ability to build what everyone else has. No one is better than anyone else, but sometimes... because more effort (or money) is invested into the game, a player has a strong lead on power.
When I insult someone in comms, it is typically because they have proven to me that they care more about impressing other players than they do about actually playing the game. I find this trivial and stupid. I don't login to the game to make friends (that's what real life is for). I login to the game to be a mean pirate, but I reserve the right to be helpful and friendly.
Typically, people get really offended when I attack them... but their reaction is what sets the tone for the ensuing week of gametime for me. If a player whines and cries like a bleeding carebear.. I'll keep poking fun and hitting their fleets when I login. If a player hits me back and shares my weaknesses in comms, whether insulting or not, I respect that. I don't like losing, but I don't mind learning from my mistakes and can appreciate a loss just as much as a win. I choose my battles carefully and usually don't engage a target till I know whether I can beat them.
My fleets haven't been difficult to design and my base design is an original, but resembles other high level bases... what works, works. I know my gamestyle and I'm pretty good at keeping the game fun for myself. When someone goads me into attacking their fleet or their base, I decide whether to actually attack them based on facts, not emotion.
LOD alliance has moved out of the sector, after half a dozen days of non-stop ridicule and trash talking. They've finally moved on, and took their massive egos and facebook credit balances with them. I have no respect for their alliance, and I made that absolutely clear. I've been called jealous and spiteful because I make fun of coiners. They don't understand at all, but that is not surprising.
Spending money here and there, to enjoy the game a little more is perfectly acceptable to me. But spending thousands of dollars to gain the upper hand is absolutely ridiculous and I cannot and will not respect a level 35 player that acts big and bad in front of his friends after taking my base apart... when his power is derived from buying enough credits to speed up all his ship builds and researches.
If I was to indulge a big coiner in a game of chess, I would expect them to cheat and make up rules in their favor. That is what spending money does for you. It gives you an unfair advantage, and the majority of web-based games offer this incentive so they can make money. It takes away some of the fun of gaming, but I understand the premise. Those that abuse the system by spending more than their opponents in order to win... they deserve no respect and get none from me. I laugh at them while they pretend not to care... maybe they don't, that is fine with me too.
I want to master the game mechanics and excel in combat because excellence feels good, especially when it is difficult to attain. That is a personal paradigm.. a way of seeing things and doing things that is totally mine. I don't expect anyone else to believe or care about my opinions, but I share them whether they like it or not. Read or don't read, believe or don't believe. I enjoy freedom of speech as well as freedom of gameplay.
It's almost time to move away from 356... strangely enough, now that LOD has left the sector, and unforsaken is all but gone, the players that I enjoy talking to and playing with have started chatting again and I'm a peaceful Bondai in sector 356. I'm going to detach myself from exile but keep whatever friendships I've made along the way. Alliances really aren't my thing anyways; I'm on a quest for excellence.
Monday, April 9, 2012
356 and Exile
I came to sector 356 several days ago in the hopes of having some good combat and good times. What I found was a handful of unforsaken alliance players sitting there, doing nothing but hitting salvage, and making smart comments from time to time. I was disappointed.
After a few days of trashing them in comms and smashing their fleets when they tried to hit salvage, stealing their loot when they weren't looking and giving their bases nice rimjobs, most of them left the sector. Before I pat myself on the back, I notice that most of exile had left their home sector. wtf, where'd they go?
LOD alliance landed in most of their places. I don't know them, and now that I'm in a sector full of friends I act like a nice fella, and discuss battle pirates techniques and opinions on things. I got very bored, very quickly and before too long I hit a few random people for extra resources to start my last scorpion build.
Sector 356 is one of the sectors that doesn't pretend to have 'no-hit' rules. You can attack people there, and folks don't freak out, they just hit you back and/or discuss what went wrong and such. The more I looked around, the more I realized, LOD was eating all the level 8 and 9 salvage within 5 minutes of my base, and their level 35 top tech mass-spender had an attitude with me. I hit one of the LOD fleets, killed a nice siege mortar HH fleet while he hit salvage. He got all kinds of mad at me, and then the fun began.
I was half tuned out of the game for several days, but this level 35 guy kept waltzing thru my base with half damage. I'd like to see him hit my base, to see how he's getting thru with such little problem. He has superior hammerheads, won in the first or second raid event. His fleet is sufficient to beat most bases and it doesn't bother me that he has flattened mine, but I make fun of him relentlessly anyway. I never ask for help from anyone, but I often ask folks to come along to have some fun with me. I don't invite anyone to 356, and Sloaney left with the other friends a few days ago.
I stayed extra days to repay a favor to Bassman, and go to a sector with him when his friends are ready to move out. Playing with LOD has turned out to be the best thing I've done in weeks. These jokers are hilarious, and though I did enjoy this sector a while ago... it's nothing like what it used to be. There's nothing but carebears and politicians here now. I'm thru with exile, and their bastardized little carebear alliance Deep 6. Now I'm hitting wherever and whatever I want, since none of them want to stand up and defend their ideals of having a free sector anymore.
So, The-Cleaner (level 35 top coiner) takes 25 mil from me every 36 hours, and I steal all of that back from fleets that are either mining or hitting salvage within hours of him hitting me. Now I spend my hours, waiting to leave... hitting fleets at random to see who whines the loudest. So far its Joe_W on the top whine list. Dreadfullness (LOD alliance) is a close second.
Bring it, sheeple. I'm just getting warmed up.
After a few days of trashing them in comms and smashing their fleets when they tried to hit salvage, stealing their loot when they weren't looking and giving their bases nice rimjobs, most of them left the sector. Before I pat myself on the back, I notice that most of exile had left their home sector. wtf, where'd they go?
LOD alliance landed in most of their places. I don't know them, and now that I'm in a sector full of friends I act like a nice fella, and discuss battle pirates techniques and opinions on things. I got very bored, very quickly and before too long I hit a few random people for extra resources to start my last scorpion build.
Sector 356 is one of the sectors that doesn't pretend to have 'no-hit' rules. You can attack people there, and folks don't freak out, they just hit you back and/or discuss what went wrong and such. The more I looked around, the more I realized, LOD was eating all the level 8 and 9 salvage within 5 minutes of my base, and their level 35 top tech mass-spender had an attitude with me. I hit one of the LOD fleets, killed a nice siege mortar HH fleet while he hit salvage. He got all kinds of mad at me, and then the fun began.
I was half tuned out of the game for several days, but this level 35 guy kept waltzing thru my base with half damage. I'd like to see him hit my base, to see how he's getting thru with such little problem. He has superior hammerheads, won in the first or second raid event. His fleet is sufficient to beat most bases and it doesn't bother me that he has flattened mine, but I make fun of him relentlessly anyway. I never ask for help from anyone, but I often ask folks to come along to have some fun with me. I don't invite anyone to 356, and Sloaney left with the other friends a few days ago.
I stayed extra days to repay a favor to Bassman, and go to a sector with him when his friends are ready to move out. Playing with LOD has turned out to be the best thing I've done in weeks. These jokers are hilarious, and though I did enjoy this sector a while ago... it's nothing like what it used to be. There's nothing but carebears and politicians here now. I'm thru with exile, and their bastardized little carebear alliance Deep 6. Now I'm hitting wherever and whatever I want, since none of them want to stand up and defend their ideals of having a free sector anymore.
So, The-Cleaner (level 35 top coiner) takes 25 mil from me every 36 hours, and I steal all of that back from fleets that are either mining or hitting salvage within hours of him hitting me. Now I spend my hours, waiting to leave... hitting fleets at random to see who whines the loudest. So far its Joe_W on the top whine list. Dreadfullness (LOD alliance) is a close second.
Bring it, sheeple. I'm just getting warmed up.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Dont Feed the Monkeys
I lick a finger and stick it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. It was a bad choice to come bunk with EXILE for a week. I run with a gang of pirate scumbags and we enjoy a game where we land somewhere new, and lay waste to as many as we can, while belittling their efforts to stop us. This sector 356 is full of people that would rather be great friends. The UNFORSAKEN and UNFORGIVING alliances are pretty much gone, to sector 358... even further from us than their old home in 357. Suits me.
I gave my friends the list of exile players in sector and said- everyone else is fair game, but don't mess with exile. Sloaney and I are members in the alliance, but we haven't done anything with them in quite a while. Our show goes on, and we are headed to a sector we've been thru before. Possibly a salvage week, since the crew was pretty well fed up this past week... while living in a cage. Somebody actually hit YellowDevil in the face with a peanut. He slung some poo at the snot-nosed punks.
I gave my friends the list of exile players in sector and said- everyone else is fair game, but don't mess with exile. Sloaney and I are members in the alliance, but we haven't done anything with them in quite a while. Our show goes on, and we are headed to a sector we've been thru before. Possibly a salvage week, since the crew was pretty well fed up this past week... while living in a cage. Somebody actually hit YellowDevil in the face with a peanut. He slung some poo at the snot-nosed punks.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Angles and Dangles
I had 2 Sea Scorpions, vs 3 dreadnaughts and 2 Hammereads. The hammers were using D55 siege missiles, and at max range are far less than mine, even if he's using rocket booster3. The dreadnaughts are faster and are using strike missiles. That means I have the range advantage. Unfortunately, this prey is online... I'm gonna have to work for it!
We both turn our fleets to starboard, and while I stack my 2 scorpions, he sends his fleets off to a few random positions behind them, and aims a dreadnaught at me. My four assault missile D53-Rs on each scorpion pack a good punch at 96 range. The highest range weapon on the game. The three Cutlass2 missiles on each scorpion have a slighly less range, but still outrange the strike missiles and siege missiles. His strike missile dreadnaught dies without firing, but I didn't notice that other dreadnaught rushing to get me within his range while I'm busy finishing the other.
I lose one of my two scorpions. They're big on firepower, low on armor.
As I gently and patiently maneuver my scorpion to where his half dead dreadnaught is, his third dreadnaught is aimed directly at me. I see his game now. He drags my attention away with a decoy, then sends the backup on a collision course to get into my range. I click on the port side with my fleet, then I send them all starboard. When he sees me click port side, he adjusted the path of his intercept ship to my new angle (angle of convergence). After he adjusts his intercept, then his main fleet (that I'm plucking missiles at), I click my fleets to starboard side, and watch as he forgets to retarget the intercept ship. I keep the second dread in my sights long enough to nearly kill it, then he moved a hammerhead into intercept position, and launches it at me while I'm trying to damage his third dreadnaught. It nearly got me in range too, but I was paying close attention. I'm watching his intercept ship's angle of approach now.
It was a constant game of cat and mouse, where he'd lure me into angling my ship toward his flee'ing ship, just to find myself in a head-on angle with a heavily armored dreadnaught or hammerhead .. barely enough time to aim the other direction before he's within firing range. I watch and listen for the assault missiles to fire, then impatiently watch the cutlass missile launchers... if they start firing I need to correct my angle immediately... for 5 minutes I kept my fleet safe, and when the battle timed out I sent the lone survivor home.
I tell him, "It was nice to fight someone that really puts some thought into piloting, well done wackdan." I do a similar technique when fighting fleets that outrange me, the attacker has to pay close attention and react to your movements correctly, every time, or it gets hit.
I'll have my fourth booster3 assault missile scorpions in 5 days. Then I start building my base fleets.
We both turn our fleets to starboard, and while I stack my 2 scorpions, he sends his fleets off to a few random positions behind them, and aims a dreadnaught at me. My four assault missile D53-Rs on each scorpion pack a good punch at 96 range. The highest range weapon on the game. The three Cutlass2 missiles on each scorpion have a slighly less range, but still outrange the strike missiles and siege missiles. His strike missile dreadnaught dies without firing, but I didn't notice that other dreadnaught rushing to get me within his range while I'm busy finishing the other.
I lose one of my two scorpions. They're big on firepower, low on armor.
As I gently and patiently maneuver my scorpion to where his half dead dreadnaught is, his third dreadnaught is aimed directly at me. I see his game now. He drags my attention away with a decoy, then sends the backup on a collision course to get into my range. I click on the port side with my fleet, then I send them all starboard. When he sees me click port side, he adjusted the path of his intercept ship to my new angle (angle of convergence). After he adjusts his intercept, then his main fleet (that I'm plucking missiles at), I click my fleets to starboard side, and watch as he forgets to retarget the intercept ship. I keep the second dread in my sights long enough to nearly kill it, then he moved a hammerhead into intercept position, and launches it at me while I'm trying to damage his third dreadnaught. It nearly got me in range too, but I was paying close attention. I'm watching his intercept ship's angle of approach now.
It was a constant game of cat and mouse, where he'd lure me into angling my ship toward his flee'ing ship, just to find myself in a head-on angle with a heavily armored dreadnaught or hammerhead .. barely enough time to aim the other direction before he's within firing range. I watch and listen for the assault missiles to fire, then impatiently watch the cutlass missile launchers... if they start firing I need to correct my angle immediately... for 5 minutes I kept my fleet safe, and when the battle timed out I sent the lone survivor home.
I tell him, "It was nice to fight someone that really puts some thought into piloting, well done wackdan." I do a similar technique when fighting fleets that outrange me, the attacker has to pay close attention and react to your movements correctly, every time, or it gets hit.
I'll have my fourth booster3 assault missile scorpions in 5 days. Then I start building my base fleets.
Friday, March 30, 2012
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