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Solace (183) |
Guides/Resources |
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TABLE OF
CONTENTS
There's a different guide in
each post. Titles are big/bolded to make finding them
easier.
1. Basic survival checklist - By Solace 2. Myre's
hunting guide - By Nightmyre 3. Group hunting rundown - By
Solace 4. Guide to RCing - By Blah 5. Guide to Ship Design -
By Nightmyre 6. Another Guide to Ship Design - By Initiate 7.
Nebula Bashing Guide - By Iccyh 8. Target Hunting - By
Iccyh |
11/12/04 12:20:20 EST |
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Solace (183) |
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BASIC SURVIVAL
CHECKLIST By
Solace
In general *Move as
fast as possible *Don't check messages or anything of the sort
while IS *Disable player tags while doing anything not involving
docking. *Use image pack if using IE *Use cached images if
using Opera * BE ON IRC AT ALL TIMES WHEN
ONLINE This is vital in a number of reasons --
survivalwise, because it will allow you to be alerted of enemy
hunters, aggie nets, and other dangerous conditions. * Dock in
safe, high level ports with few other
targets.
Trading *Check scout drones you
cross over for onliners *Trade randomly, not in a rhythm. *If
you run into an aggy stack, don't look at the report, move as FAST
as possible. *Do not for any reason stay IS longer than you need
to. *Use scanners to check for aggies (or neutral stacks, if at
war) before you start trading. *Equip your freighter with a SSJD,
scanners, cloak, DT, and SRG (if possible) *Be aware of hunters
in the system through system notices/forum posts. Keep tabs on their
activity and movement (as shown by slight changes in their
EXP)
Resourcing *Do not fill ports over
24k goods, otherwise this will change the system map and alert
watchful hunters. *Resource randomly, NOT in a rhythem. *Every
so often switch to full scouts and undock/dock a few times to see if
you're being camped. *Memorize the locations of the "refine all"
and "dock links" on your moniter screen so you can move there as
quickly as possible *Remember that the "refine all" page does not
have to load before you click "DOCK," so deally try to hit "DOCK" as
fast as you can, before the page refreshes. *Do not resource over
major ports.
Combat (solo) This will be
covered much more in depth in later posts, but briefly. *RUN if
you see more ships than you expected in the combat report (unless in
a group fight) *Pay attention IS at ALL times. *Be very
familiar with the way to get to REP ALL *Remember you can deploy
if you're panicked but don't want to run. *Run if you start
taking significant EMP damage (unless they are badly damaged and you
can finish them off). *Glance at weaponry in the combat report -
if their ship is specifically built to kill your shiptype
(flux/htorp versus your pure shield, for example) or yours is
particularily weak against theirs (sabot/htorp vs droneship, for
example), you probably want to run.
Ship
Building *Make note of the owners of the drones you ping
at the stations. In the station, check which ones are online. See if
they seem to be camping you (constant refreshes on last
activity). *BANK excess money at stations as you buy
upgrades.
Align Shifting *Memorize where
"dock" and "undock" are so you can hit them quickly. *Pick a
remote/obscure port to shift in, not *If aligning DOWN, go to a
HIGH aligned system to a port which is selling illegal goods (which
you can see since you're neg align), buy a load, undock, redock,
lose a ton of align (and a bit of cash/turns) and the cargo, repeat.
This will save time. Make sure you have some cash on hand to keep
buying the goods *If aligning up, have food in your holds before
aligning up. Less effective, but saves some turns. *Watch whose
drones you ping when entering the system. Sometimes hunters will
watch your remote examine, see you shifting align, and start a
systematic search through the
system.
Dronelaying *Be VERY careful,
because this exposes you for a long time IS. *It's critical to
note drones you are pinging at the ports, and the station. It's easy
to tell if someone is dronelaying if they keep jumping back to the
station, then to a different port *Also be aware of any onliners
in the station. They might see you popping in and our frequently,
and call in a friend. *Buy the right number of drones in the
station so you don't have to waste turns *Excess drones should be
shield drones. *After dropping a stack, jump back to the station
using the "engage jump drive" button, not the "plot course button,"
to save yourself a second or more. |
11/12/04 13:09:21 EST |
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Solace (183) |
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MYRE'S HUNTING
GUIDE By Nightmyre
So, you
wanna go get revenge on that guy who kept killing you while you were
trading, eh? Or perhaps you want to kill those traders that keep
stealing all your trade routes? Or maybe you just want to go
genocidal on some poor helpless newbie? Well, despite what you might
think, its not as easy as just getting a ship, sitting in sector,
and refreshing like mad.
In my mind, there are three
different types of hunting, each with their own specific strategies.
This little guide will be split into three sections, each addressing
one of the types, namely - Trader hunting, Solo hunting, and Group
hunting.
Trader Hunting:
In most
people's eyes, this would be considered the 'easiest' form of
hunting, because theoretically there is no 'risk' involved. However,
it can quite easily become very, very dangerous if you don't do it
properly.
Trader hunting comes in a few steps. Firstly,
target acquisition, then camping, then finally
killing.
Target acquisition is probably the most difficult
step here. You have three 'main' methods towards achieving this goal
- Scout drone pings and informants. Scout drone pings are probably
the faster way of going about it, but they have the distinct
disadvantage that most people tend to not trade over scout drones
who's owner is active. Informants are useful too, but again, smart
traders won't trade with another person non-allied with them in
port. The only 'reliable' method to acquire a target is to watch
their experience and, when it starts going up, try to guess where
they are trading.
The final method is the most difficult, so
I'll elaborate on it a bit. Unless you plan on only hunting random
people who stupidly trip your scout drone nets or trade with active
players in their port, you are going to need to hunt specific
targets - otherwise known as Target Hunting. To do this, you will
need to know a fair amount of information on your targets. Firstly,
you'll need to know who trades in the system you plan on hunting in.
Secondly, you'll need to know WHERE they prefer to trade. Try to get
a large list in order to give yourself more of a chance of finding a
good target. Once you have this list, watch the online players list
(OPL) to see if any are online. If you see them online, then watch
their experience, either from the rankings page or from their
alliance page. Also you can watch their alignment if they are not
already at the system alignment. Once you see them trading actively
(align going up/down or exp going up), you need to find out what
port they are trading at. Traders generally pick one cluster and
live at it. After you find out which port they are trading at, you
go onto the next step, namely camping.
Once you've acquired
your target and location, you need to camp outside their sector and
refresh like mad. Of course, this isn't entirely riskless, as you
could easily be ambushed. As such, it is HIGHLY recommended that you
go for the full 100% chance to see in your sector. If you have say a
50% chance, and you camp, and a warbird jumps you, all they need is
for you to fail on your first refresh to see them, in order to shoot
and probably kill you. You should also have a fairly fast
connection, so that you can quickly run if you are jumped. While
camping for your target, you should try to resist shooting any
random guy who wanders by, as you'll warn your target that you are
waiting for him if you do. If your target does not undock for a
while, it is advisable that you retreat a few sectors away into a
low-visibility sector, and wait for him to continue trading actively
again, as you either have given yourself away, and your target is
either waiting for you to leave or calling a hunter to kill you, or
your target has finished trading. Also, NEVER dock with your target
to see if he is still inside, as the second he sees you, he will
stop right away; the ONLY time when you should is when you are
ABSOLUTELY certainn that you will not be seen - check their refresh
status - if they are rapidly refreshing, don't try it - otherwise,
check their refresh status after looking inside and undocking. NEVER
look in the port while you are still docked, use your cache to see
who was inside after undocking and retreating. If they refreshed
while you were in the port, then you're screwed. Once he actually
starts trading, you can move onto the final step.
Actually
killing your target is possibly the easiest step. Unless your
opponent has a very fast connection, all you need is a single
examine -> attack to kill him. However, if the target is very
fast, this is not always the easiest thing to do. There are a few
tricks you can use in order to better let you kill your target. The
first, and most obvious, is to simply buy an Interdiction Field.
This will allow you to stop your target from leaving 50% of the
time, if he has no SRG. However, this has many major drawbacks. If
the target undocks and sees the aura, he will likely simply re-dock,
as he will know you are there instantly. However, a very fast trader
generally instinctively has his mouse ready to move, which means he
will likely try to do so. If the target has an SRG though, he can
freely leave sector, and there is no way he will continue trading.
Also, even with no SRG, he still has a 50% chance of getting away,
which means that you again give your position away if he gets out.
It is, though, the easiest method. The next method, which is more
'popular', is to drop a couple of aggressive drones outside the
port, along with a full scout stack. If the trader moves into
sector, and the stack triggers on him, it buys you a few seconds to
kill him. However, again this has some major drawbacks. Firstly, if
the target has a drone transponder, he has a 50% chance to avoid the
drones, at which point he will immediately dock and not undock for
quite a while. Secondly, if the port is low-visibility and the
target is cloaked, theres a good chance that the drones will not
even detect the target, and once the target sees the aggressive
drones, he will know you are there. And lastly, even if they do
trigger, theres no guarantee that the target won't simply be fast
enough to move out of sector instantly. The final method has the
least 'drawbacks', but it also has the highest risk. This method
involves actually getting an examine off - if you can't even get
this, then you can't use it. What you do is, examine your target,
then time the attack so that it occurs after your target UNDOCKS
from the port. Which means you have to know how long he takes to
dock/sell/buy/undock. If you time it properly, instead of getting
the 'your target is docked' error, you will actually get a
successful attack. However, as with the best of plans, this one has
a glaring problem - namely that you cannot refresh current sector,
as that will invalidate the examine. If a hunter shows up, you are a
sitting duck. And naturally, once you actually GET the kill, it is
HIGHLY advisable that you leave sector IMMEDIATELY, as you have just
given your location away to everyone in the game.
As a
summary:
Acquisition step:
- Drone nets --
Advantages: Easy to lay down, quick acquisition of a target. --
Disadvantages: Target has an easy time avoiding you if he is
careful. - Informants -- Advantages: You don't announce your
position, and people don't necessarily notice online people in
port. -- Disadvantages: If the trader is smart, he won't trade
while someone is online with him in port. - Watching
EXP/Alignment -- Advantages: You don't announce your position,
and you don't announce your intention to hunt. -- Disadvantages:
Requires alot more research, and requires you to spend more turns
looking for your target.
Camping Step:
- Aim for 100%
visibility - Try not to camp for too long with a slow
connection - Try to avoid shooting random targets who wander
by - If your target stops trading, go hide somewhere. NEVER dock
with the target. Wait until he starts again.
Killing
Step:
- Interdiction Field -- Advantages: Easy to get and
use. -- Disadvantages: Gives your position away, weak against SRG
users, and not guaranteed success. - Aggressive Drones --
Advantages: Harder to notice, weakens your target a bit. --
Disadvantages: Gives your position away, weak against DT/Cloak
users, and again, not guaranteed success. - Delayed Attack --
Advantages: Doesn't give your position away, and if timed properly,
works very well. -- Disadvantages: Need flawless timing, very
risky if hunters are around. - Leave sector immediately after
killing your target. NEVER stick around and hope that another trader
shows up.
Solo Hunting:
This activity
is VERY risky, so you probably should avoid solo hunting unless you
know what you are doing. The difference between Solo hunting and
Trader hunting is that you are not hunting traders anymore - you are
hunting WARSHIPS. Things that can shoot back at you. And things
which can kill you. You need to be absolutely certain that you know
what you are doing, or you could very easily end up in a pod
instead. Solo hunting again, comes in a few steps - Acquisition,
Targetting, and then Fighting.
Acquisition:
Acquiring
hunter targets is not the same as acquiring trader targets. There
are several distinct differences involved. The main method again, is
scout drones. However, this time, you have to hope that they are
actually hunting somewhere that you HAVE droned up. As such, it is
not a very reliable method for getting a warship kill. The more
reliable methods this time, are Informants and Notices. Informants
actually work very well for catching hunters. Generally, a trader
who is in port with a hunter can bait the hunter fairly easily,
unless the hunter is very careful. By actively trading until the
hunter undocks, the trader can bait for you. And then, when the
hunter undocks, the trader can call you in to kill the hunter. As
long as you have reliable informants, you can use this method with
fairly good consistency. Notices are another method for getting
kills. If you see someone is killing consistently in a system, it
generally means that they are using drone nets to get them kills. As
such, they generally will camp locations a lot more often. When
scouting a system for possible kills, be sure to check where they
have scout drones. You don't want to alert your target that you are
looking for him. Once he gets a kill somewhere, you can try to jump
to the location, to see if he is still waiting outside. Of course,
you should jump two sectors away and scan in. The other method for
killing warships is to try to actually bait them out yourself.
Docking with them, and then camping outside, could entice the target
to try to undock and take a shot at you. Also, pinging their drones
to pretend you are trading could lure them in. However, this is very
risky and foolhardy, as you could easily be dragged into a 1v2 fight
or worse.
Targetting:
Once you actually know where
your target is, you need to approach him very carefully. You can't
simply jump straight to the sector and try to shoot him, because you
risk getting completely smashed if you try. What you need to do is
to jump at least 2 sectors away, preferrably into a low-visibility
sector. Then, you scan your way in until you find a cardinal point
around his location that you can scan from. Try not to use a
location where he or someone else online has scout drones, as you'll
possibly give your location away. Once you scan in, immediately back
off, and then use your cache to find out what ship he has. Check his
race and his level, then check his ship rating, and decide whether
or not you can attack him, and what sort of strategies to use while
fighting. Once you have decided whether or not you can handle him
alone, check out his alliance. See if he has any allied hunters
online. Sometimes, hunters will deliberately bait themselves to
other hunters, waiting for someone to come attack, and then call for
their partner to come in and get the kill. After you have decided
whether or not you will actually go in for the attack, make sure
that A) your drones are configured properly, B) your IRM if you have
one is configured right, C) your weapon firemode is properly set,
and D) you are cloaked if you have a cloak. Then, don't hesitate any
longer. More you hesitate and keep thinking, less chance you'll have
of getting it. And most of all, FOLLOW THROUGH! Don't enter sector
and then suddenly decide you want to retreat and think so more, or
else you'll simply give yourself away!
Attacking:
This
is perhaps the most important step. Failure to execute this final
portion properly could end you up in a pod when you should have
otherwise not been. First thing to do when you are ready to attack
is to examine->attack IMMEDIATELY upon entering sector. Don't sit
there refreshing for a bit trying to decide! After triggering once
on your target, quickly glance at your defense and judge whether you
want to fire a second shot or not. But be fast! You need to be very
confident with your ship, and know its capabilities, BEFORE fighting
someone else. If you think you can fire another shot, then do so
immediately. If you don't, then retreat and repair. Trying to repair
while fighting is a very risky tactic, unless you know you can do it
properly. Remember that your target is likely to try to shoot you as
well. If he sees that he did not take very much damage, he is quite
likely to try to attack you, and its probable that he can get a shot
off before you repair. If you try to repair while fighting, you
could end up dying because he shot too fast. However, don't panic
and run immediately after shooting. Just because you've taken
damage, does not mean you can't win. As I said above, know your
ship. If you think you can kill him, then go ahead and do it, don't
chicken out! One last thing you need to be wary of though. If when
you shoot him, you see that there are more ships firing than should
be, RUN IMMEDIATELY. You just MIGHT get out alive if you react fast
enough. And of course, after killing your target, immediately
retreat, and only then repair. Docking is the simplest way about
this.
Summary:
Acquisition:
- Drone Nets --
Advantages: Same as for trader hunting, easy to use and gives you
fast results. -- Disadvantages: Gives your position away, it is
also rare to actually have hunters ping your drones. -
Informants -- Advantages: Easy to bait a hunter, Quick, generally
reliable. -- Disadvantages: Need reliable informants. -
Notices -- Advantages: Automatically gives you location of your
target, something you can do without any prior setup as well. --
Disadvantages: Target will not necessarily be in the sector after
killing someone, not altogether reliable. - Self-Baiting --
Advantages: Target is easy to find since you are in port with him,
or pinging his drones. -- Disadvantages: Very, Very risky. Use
with extreme caution.
Targetting:
- Jump to a 'safe',
low visibility sector - Scan your way in until you are one sector
away -- Pick a cardinal point around your target which has no
drones preferrably - Scan into your target's sector until you see
him, then retreat immediately - Look over your target's rating,
level, and race, and decide if you can fight him - Look at your
target's alliance list and any MDP/MOP/FA'ed alliances and see if
any allied hunters are nearby - Double check your fire mode,
drone setting, cloak status, and IRM settings - FOLLOW
THROUGH!
Attacking:
- Fire one shot IMMEDIATELY upon
entering sector - Judge and see if you can fire another shot -
If you think you can't, retreat and repair - If you see more than
2 ships in your attack, retreat immediately |
11/12/04 13:25:19 EST |
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Solace (183) |
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GROUP HUNTING
RUNDOWN By Solace
A
brief runthrough of the most important things to know when
participating in a raid jump/group hunt/op escort.
* "PLOT
XXX" means to enter XXX (coordinates) into the nav computer, so the
jump link appears and you can move with one click. NOT to jump into
the target sector. Call ready after you've plotted.
* "JUMP
to XXX" means just that: JUMP. Jump even if the target sector is
within walking distance.
* "Get within one jump" means you
should move until you are within one jump of the target sector (in
other words IN THE SYSTEM) with the target sector plotted and ready
to be clicked on. DO NOT GO ALL THE WAY. If told to get within one
jump, get there and call ready.
* Have ONE person lead the
hunt squad. Decide beforehand who's calling the shots, and follow
their instructions.
* DO NOT ARGUE IN SPACE.
* In
group fights, designate TRIGGERS beforehand, players with good
visibility / fast connections. THEY will trigger on enemy ships. YOU
should be repping all as fast as you can.
* If your
resolution is high enough, set up so both mIRC and TDZK to show on
the same screen. Set the mIRC font to be small/easy to read so it
functions better in less space. If you cannot do this, quickly flip
back to IRC every few seconds between refreshes to see if any new
instructions have been given.
* On most jumps / movement, the
hunt leader will count down the jump in order to get everyone in the
sector at the same time. "on three, jump to 42083!"
"3...2...1...JUMP!" You should arrive in the sector right as, or in
the second after, he says jump.
* DO NOT ASK FOR
CONFIRMATION. If the countdown has begun, don't ask questions. Just
do it. If an order is given ("plot 23099!"), don't ask for
confirmation ("so we're supposed to plot to 23099??"). Hesistation
will get the squad killed. |
11/12/04 13:30:15 EST |
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Blah (89) |
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GUIDE TO
RCING By
Blah
Welcome to the wonderful
profession of saving (or ending) lives. RC's, short for Repair
Carriers, are as important to raiding as the raiders themselves.
However, while we may be as important as the raiders, we do a lot
more work then they do. They have the luxury of being able to sit in
open space and still participate in the raid; only one of them needs
to be active. The RC's are constantly at work, making sure the raid
can actually continue.
Your job seems simple: repair the
raiders after each combat round with the port or planet. After
you've done it for a while, it becomes that simple, but the starting
out part is generally complex to some. A general run down of
repairing someone: -click examine on the person you will
repair -click the repair link that appears -marvel in the
wonderful repair screen that appears, for you shall be seeing it a
lot -since the game auto-selects the person you examined, click
the repair button at the bottom of the screen -rinse and repeat
for next target
That is the most basic method of repairing.
Examine-->Repair-->Repair. However this is a time consuming
thing to do for more than 1 raider. There are two other methods,
depending on what browser you are using.
For IE/Opera/Firefox
users, you do the Examine-->Repair-->Repair, but when the
current_sector screen loads saying, "You have repaired [this person]
for X turns, gaining [so much] experience!", hit the back button.
This returns you to the repair screen, allowing you to select the
next raider to repair by clicking the button next to his name, then
repair again. Rinse and repeat for all the raiders.
For Opera
users, you have an option to use tabbed windows. You set up multiple
windows, one for each raider you intend to repair. You then set them
up so that the repair button is visible in each window. When you
need to repair, click the repair button in each of those windows,
and they are all repped. Hit the back button on each of those
windows to return to the repair screen and wait for when you need to
repair.
Now that you know how to repair, and the different
repair methods available, I will go into set up for an op. First,
you should be in #fury-rc and #furyraid. #furyraid is a requirement,
you'll be calling (I'll go into calling soon) there and will find
out where to go from the raid com (99% of the time will be myre).
#fury-rc is where repair assignments are given out, and where you
can freely complain about anything you want with regards to the op
(including complaining about myre, despite his presence in the
channel. He knows the usefulness of a private ranting
channel).
The basic run-down of an op: You show up in the
channels. Squads get set up (RC's should be on the escorts squad
DEPLOYED in the sector), and the plot for the sector is given. DO
NOT MOVE UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO. I've seen people die from that.
Repair assignments are given out in #fury-rc as the raiders do final
checks. You move IS with the raiders, check aura settings (Baryon is
negative, rest are positive), set repair drones, DEPLOY (I can't
stress how important deploying is), and start repping every time the
trigger says "FIRED!". The port/planet dies, you move out when the
raiders do to next target, rinse and repeat.
For the art of
calling. For some reason people don't like this task, I personally
enjoy it a lot. The idea is after you repair your designated
targets, you return to the repair screen and keep refreshing (F5)
until all the raiders are repaired. You can tell because all of the
numbers on the left side of the screen (right above the buttons used
to select repair targets) will be 1's or 0's. That's the easy
method. Multiple raid squads becomes more difficult, but you
shouldn't have to deal with multiple squads very often. The reason I
say 1's or 0's is because the escorts will have used power to scan
or jump into the sector, and often don't repair themselves. Once the
numbers are good, you go to #furyraid and call "REPPED". The trigger
then fires another shot, you repair, and call again. You do this
until the port/planet dies.
Design time! Designs depend on
funding, but due to the economic nature of fury, I have created 1
bill RC's. Cheap and effective. For non-tamarans, simple add 10 Main
Engine and 9 Drone Gangar upgrades to a stock carrier. Add on an
External Repair Module, Energy Transfer Module, Subspace Jump Drive,
and you're set. You will be told what aura you need to bring. For
Tamarans, it's 13 Main Engine and 6 Drone Hangar upgrades, same
equipment. Since you have a SSJD as a racial equipment, you can
bring two auras. All of this, aside from auras, can be bought in
9k.
Non-Tamaran Build Path: 9201 - Carrier, ERM,
ETM 9266 - SSJD, 10 ME's 9201 - 9 Drone Hangers
Tamaran
Build Path: 9201 - Carrier, ERM, ETM 9266 - 13 ME's 9201 -
6 Drone Hangers
For some final points: -Baryon Flood
Generator = Drone Aura -Radiation Pulse Emitter = Accuracy
Aura -Gravitron Disruption Field = Damage Aura -Ion Stream
Emitter = Repair Aura -Squad = Escorts -DEPLOY -Drone Aura
= Negative -All Other Auras = Positive
That's
about it, I reserve the right to edit this at any point in time if I
think of anything else that is relavent. In the meantime, I leave
you with some mild entertainment; my own personal top twelve
annoyances and top ten loves of RC'ing :)
Blah's Top Twelve
Annoyances as an RC 1) Not told who is raiding until everyone is
IS 2) Being asked to switch drone auras 3) Double
triggers 4) Lack of volunteers to call 5) Escorts requesting
reps (during the raid, before/after is fine) 6) Being told how to
do my job 7) Unneeded chatter in raid channel 8) White text
when trigger says "FIRED!" 9) 'Rep me' from raiders when they
arrive IS 10) IRC nicknames don't match in-game names 11)
Nightmyre!! ;) 12) 8 and 0 are the same thing after staring at
those numbers for 2 hours
Blah's Top Ten Loves of
RC'ing 1) . means so much more 2) Solo repping a 3 hour raid,
and the praise that follows 3) Getting a simple thanks at the end
of a raid 4) Being a requirement for raids gives you certain...
privileges that you wouldn't normally get ;) (Note: now that we have
a large number of RC volunteers, you new guys don't get this one.
mwuahahahahahaha...) 5) Praise for speed 6) Unquestionable
trust over time 7) Learning all there is to know about
raiding 8) Planet restocking 9) 'Pinging' escorts when time
permits :) 10) Get my own RC channel to bitch, moan, and rant
about problems during the raid |
11/12/04 14:39:41 EST |
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Solace (183) |
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GUIDE TO SHIP
DESIGN By
Nightmyre
reposted from
forums:
Introduction
This guide is by no means
something to follow to the letter every time you design a ship. Feel
free to be creative and add your own things as well. Its purpose is
to provide a rough set of guidelines as to what you should be
looking for in a ship.
When you are designing a ship, you
need to first decide upon what you want to do with the ship. One of
the biggest mistakes people make, is trying to do everything at
once. Unless you plan on spending a lot of money, you cannot
efficiently design to hunt both traders and warships.
When
designing ships, decide upon one of two specializations -
A)
trader hunting B) warship hunting
These two fields are
vastly different. The types of ships you want to use for the former,
would not do a thing in the latter. And if you design an efficient
warship, trader hunting is simply wasting valuable turns.
A)
Trader Hunter
A trader hunter is a ship that specializes in
killing traders of any kind. This includes resourcers, freighters,
interceptors, and corvettes. Typical trader hunters will have high
speed, high vision, NO DEFENSE, and BARE MINIMUM FIREPOWER TO
ONESHOT KILL.
I cannot stress how important those two bolded
things are to making a good trader hunter. If you waste unnecessary
shiplevels on getting defense and firepower, you'll end up spending
quite a bit more money than you should have to - and in my opinion,
the best trader hunter is a cheap one. There is absolutely no reason
to spend more than 2 billion on a trader hunter, and you can easily
get away with spending as little as 500 million. Infact, typically
the ships I get the most kills in a round in, are the ones I fly
immediately after round start, which are usually under 200
million.
As a guideline, for a good trader hunter you should
aim for:
roughly 30 speed roughly 50 - 70 scouts,
depending on where you will hunt roughly enough firepower to
oneshot a 500/500 ship. this means either about 1200 shield/armor
damage, or about 500 shield AND 500 armor damage. Also, enough
dronekilling power to kill about 10 normal combat drones - this
usually amounts to two cyclone flak cannons, or swarm
missiles. enough targetting to guarantee 100% accuracy against
200 maneuver x2 and 10 leveldifference. this means roughly 120-130%
accuracy.
B) Warship hunter
Hunting other warships on
the other hand, is a significantly different experience. Now you
have to pay attention to many other factors, and unfortunately, the
one that falls off the list is speed. Unless you want to spend alot
of money, or sacrifice in specific areas, you cannot go above base
speed.
The following guidelines apply for warship
design:
Defense maneuver ship - aim for 750 maneuver, +-
50 shield ship - aim for 3000 shields, +-500 drone ship - aim
for 100 drones, +- 25 carrier - aim for 250 drones, +-
50
Firepower maneuver ship - a typical maneuver ship
should have anywhere from 1000-1500 shield damage, and shouldn't
bother with any drone damage, unless they were specializing in
killing droneships, in which case they should have around 800 drone
damage.
shield ship - remember that when designing a shield
ship, your life is very limited. you have typically the defense to
survive two shots and no more. this means that unless you have
enough init to guarantee an out-init, you HAVE to be able to kill
them on your second round. against a shield ship, you'll want roughl
2000 shield/armor damage, or if you go into specifics, the ability
to kill 3000 shields and 1500 armor in two shots. Against a drone
ship, you want a minimum of 1000 drone damage, preferrably as much
as 1500.
drone ship - unlike shield ship, you typically have
a large advantage when flying with drones - namely that most ships
that use drones have naturally high init. however, don't let the
damage from the drones fool you - you should be mostly ignoring the
damage they give. as a rough estimate, take only half the damage
that your drones say they will do, as the amount they really will
do. beyond that, follow the same guidelines as the shield
ship.
accuracy - aim for 110% accuracy with the gun you are
using.this generally means 8-10 tcomps.
vision - aim for 100%
visibility in 100% visibility areas. this generally means 40 scouts
+ scanner or 50 scouts without.
speed - base. if you have
alot of money, you might get more, but speed is a waste
here.
Specials
killing maneuver ships:
if you
want to be able to kill manu ships, you will need to be able to do
roughly 700 damage to them per shot. a good maneuver ship is
configured to be able to 3-4 shot kill you, and have the defense to
survive 4-5 shots at 500 damage per shot. if you up the ante and do
700-800 damage per round to them, you will win out. how do you
achieve this? well , the best way to go about it is to just use more
targetting computers. Typically, 14 targetting computers with a
standard weapon complement, will make short work of a maneuver ship.
However, you could also be unique, and go with special weapons.
Harpoon missiles work very well for this, coming with a built-in 3
targetting computers. 75mm gauss cannons work nicely, but they can
only kill armor. Flux secondaries have insanely high damage, so even
if you hit only one, you do quite a bit of damage to
them.
killing AI ships:
against AI ships, you will
want to be able to either pirate them or kill them outright.
pirating is the easy part - you can very easily configure your ship
to simply oneshot full EMP them, by getting around 1500 shield
damage and 1000 EMP damage. but killing is more fun. to kill an AI
ship, you will want a minimum of 50 AI pierce. special guns help out
here - particularly 75mm gauss cannons with grooved slugs, which
come built in with some added armor piercing. |
12/04/04 12:25:39 EST |
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Initiate (455) |
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ANOTHER SHIP DESIGN
GUIDE By Initiate
First
at all You always need the following equipments no matter what ship
You are flying: 1)Cloak Device(sometimes the manu ships doesn't
need cloak device) 2)Subspace Jump Drive[(exceptions:if you're
hunting in a region where you can replace it with a more usefull
equipment and switch to SSJD) for example i was switching to
Harmonic Amplifiers last round when i was hunting in Nexus and
changing to SSJD if needed for jump,call for
help,etc.] 3)Scanners(exeptions:if you're an idiot or just want
to die faster)
IMO You should decide where You`ll hunt
first,not what You`ll hunt particulary.Anyway i prefer to use 40
scouts for 100%,50 for 80%,60 for 60%,70 for 40%,80 for 0% vis.In
other words always trying to cap the visibility around 100% for a
cloaked Wraith at the same level as I am.
After that -
Weapons and Accuracy.Most of the time I use PHPs and SHP with the
same accuracy or mostly 10-15% difference to prevent adding more
targeting cause one of them doesn't have enough acc.(like
CFCs/HTorps combo).After this there another decision You have to
make - what You`ll hunt.For a sniper I recommend 15-16 TComps(most
of the time i used HBC+EMPs,drain power pwns the IRM of the manu
bird and most of the time it's one shot).Against a normal shield
bubble I use 8 to 10 TComps(also depending by the weapon
combo).Anti-drone ship - 6(the drone weapons have really high
accuracy and the accuracy against drones is always capped at
80%).
Now's the time to choose how much weapons You`ll use.I
think this mostly depends by the fact what are You going to hunt.If
You're targets are traders/resourcers try to make sure You`ll have
at least 200 drone dmg+450 shield+450 armor dmg(this doesn't mean
You need to have 200/450/450 dmg rates in www.redial.net,I mean all
Your weapons are capable to make this damage in this order).Using a
Destroyer means You don't need any hardpoint upgrades to reach those
damage rates.When I fly a cruiser or ranger and I`m targeting
leveling ships i don't upgrade my hardpoints too,just using extra
drones for the drone cleaning(if needed) and part of the shield.Of
course this means You need a decent level,cause if You target a
leveling ship I guess the target will be with atleast 5-10 levels
above You.The killing machines a.k.a. warbirds without speed use at
least 8 or 10 Secondary HPs and most of the time base Primary
HPs.About them I only prefer to say - use replacable weapons from
the same class(not obligatory,but it's a bonus) and watch out where
You hunt (this means that You can reaload easy the Secondaries.I had
a situation - hunting in 9K and reloading in 33K only with 16
speed....Believe me - You don't want to waste 2 days turns only for
a reload!).
Also You have to make sure You have a good
initiative since there's a big random number in the equalation.Try
to get around 100(with the level bonus for the init included) if
possible.
Well that's it....If You still have any money left
spent them for some defence and speed(a luxury for a WB) ;)
Here are some simple examples for Derivian to get the main
idea:
Derivian Destroyer for 100 %
vis http://www.redial.net/shipcalc2.4.php?s=DerivianDestroyer-5-0-18-32-36-25-0!3-20!8-0!12-54!10-12-0!5-6-0-4-0!3-6-10-0-40-0!6-30-0!13- Note:HPB
can be switched to PHB if needed
Derivian Cruiser(could be
used for any visibility,depending by the drone
formation) http://www.redial.net/shipcalc2.4.php?s=DerivianCruiser-4-0-18-33-39-25-30-0!2-17!6-0!14-44!6-1!4-0!6-7-0-12-0!2-2!2-9-0-40-100-0!5-30-0!13- Note:Depending
by the alignment the secondaries or the primaries can be switched to
other Energy weapons like Flux or Rift Missiles and become a
shield/armor bubble eraser)
Derivian
Carrier http://www.redial.net/shipcalc2.4.php?s=DerivianCarrier-6-0-18-24-25-40-0!3-31!2-0!18-39!2-1!8-0!6-8-0-20-0!6-40-260-0!5-30-0!13- Note:Multi-functional,can
kill almost everything,can die from everything :)
Classic
Derivian Nebula
Destroyer: http://www.redial.net/shipcalc2.4.php?s=DerivianDestroyer-5-0-18-25-31-27-0!3-28!8-0!12-39!6-1!4-4-0!7-8-5-0!2-2-14-0-80-0!6-30-0!5-1-0!7- Note:HTorps
are the switch in this case.Here I should say that the Nebula Hunter
ships aren't designed to kill other Wbs(may be only other Nebula
Hunters).They should have lots of TComps(most of the levelers in the
nebulas are high leveled and with some extra manuever upgrades).Also
the speed is a must there,because You`ll need to do a lot of moving
around and scanning while trying to figure out where the ressourcer
You're trying to target is hiding ;)
|
12/05/04 20:25:33 EST |
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Iccyh (5140) |
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NEBULA BASHING
GUIDE By Iccyh
Nebula
Bashing!
While I'm not as practiced at this as some, I've
worked with the best when it comes to n00b bashing and I've my own
style which works quite effectively. Please keep in mind that I'm an
Opera user, so I take things like being able to look back and open
multiple windows for granted.
For a bunch of reasons, 18k is
far and away the best place to go n00b bashing. There are lots of
n00bs there and they usually in ressies. This means that they're
easy to track and easy to trigger. More than that, unlike a place
like 9k, you'll occasionally run across some nice high levelled
types who are ressying at some port in the middle of nowhere in 18k.
There are still a lot of hunters in 18k, but they tend to stay near
the stations and the major port clusters while the targets are
fairly spread out.
So, you're in 18k. This means you're going
to need a ship that's got at least 100 drones on it, regardless of
what hull you're working with. It also means you're going to need to
some speed, since 18k is pretty big. For races, Tamarans and
Derivians make the best pure bashers, as they spend less turns
jumping and get a scanning bonus, respectively.
Since you're
going to be firing at ressies and the occasional trader rather than
warbirds, defense really isn't much of a concern. Just playing with
a few designs, you can get yourself a high speed ship that does
~1.2k shields and armour damage, enough to one shot a ressy or
trader for about $2b. For a high speed ship, you don't want
something expensive, you just want something disposable so that when
you have to reship for group combat or 'cause you got podded, it
isn't like you're wasting a lot of money.
So, you've got a
ship and you know where you're going. Before you even head to 18k,
there are a couple rules you need to know. 1. Never jump straight
to a station or port (some exceptions, noted later). Always jump at
least one sector off and scan in. 2. Know who's hunting the area.
Check the notices and check drones when you get to 18k. See who's
online, know who you have to watch out for. 3. Watch where you
park. 18k is a fairly central system and it's targetted for raids on
a regular basis. None of the ports get very high, as the activty in
18k is fairly spread out rather than central, so the few higher
ports tend to get crowded.
So, you're going into 18k. The
first place you're going to stop is likely one of the higher level
ports. Make note of who is there, since at the higher level ports
you can usually find a number of the people hunting in the area as
well as some of the levellers you'll want to be
hunting.
Also, remember to check the drones anywhere you go,
not just the scouts. If someone has resource drones around, that
likely means you've found a spot where they like to ressy. Keep in
mind where you've seen their drones.
So, now you're in 18k
and you want to find something to kill. You've two basic
choices. 1. Set up a drone net. This is the more conventional
option. I won't get into this into detail as I don't have much
experience with this. However, most of the people you'll be hunting
won't necessarily be cloaked, if you're looking to n00b bash. You
don't need full stacks quite as much as you need to have them in
good locations. 2. Watch the system map. This is the less
conventional option, it's what I prefer and it's a useful thing to
learn how to do. This is what I'll be describing.
As I
mentioned earlier, I'm an Opera user. This means I'm able to easily
deal with multiple windows as well as to go back to see pages I've
been at previously. It makes things like EXP watching and checking
the system map *extremely* easy compared to other
browsers.
To watch the system map, what I do is this: With
the system map open in a new window, I'll click the "Display" button
in the top right corner, then check back to see if there have been
any changes in the goods being bought and sold. If something's
changed, that means you've got yourself a target. Plot the port
where it emptied and go.
There is one major problem with
this, you need to be *very* fast in order to make it work reliably.
If it's a trader, you have a fair shot at catching them as they
continue to trade, but if it's a ressy (and that's what it will be
most times), you need to move *fast* as they'll usually finish a
good then move on to the next port. Good luck finding a ressy that's
moving around in 18k without blowing a *ton* of turns. More than
that, you only get one shot, even if you are fast. If you are quick,
you can see if the ressy is still in port, but after that, the only
time they'll undock will be to either move or jump to the next
location.
So, here are a few tricks to catch them, in
situations like that... 1. Jump straight in. To do this, you
need to be very careful about where you're jumping, you need to make
very sure you're not going thing at a port cluster or at a station.
If one of those is camped, you could easily end up jumping into some
wbs that you are *not* able to take on. 2. Set an aggy. The
ressy should have absolutely no idea that you're there, unless they
got terribly lucky and refreshed just as you were in port. So, if
you drop an aggy and they go to jump away rather than moving away,
they're dead. 3. Be patient. You don't always have to go after
something when you see it in the system map. If levellers are
foolish enough to fill/empty goods, they'll usually do it in more
than one place. If you can see some sort of pattern in how someone
might move, you can guess where they might go. For example, you see
crystals disappear on the system map and there's another port buying
crystals next door, it wouldn't be a huge leap to guess the ressy
you're after just went over one.
Using this method, as well
as just chasing a few people around, I once managed to get something
disgusting like 20 kills in a night on one occasion back during 2.2
when I was in STS. I was flying a level 210 cloakless carrier, you
don't need a big ship to get a lot of kills, you just need to know
what you're doing. I know this works.
Some of the concepts
here (such as the system map stuff) is very useful when doing other
types of hunting, such as going after one specific target. I find
this is more interesting than just chasing after pings as it takes a
little more work and I think it's safer, no one knows to expect you
to be around unless you've been in the notices recently.
So
yeah, that's all I've got. I hope it helps. |
12/10/04 18:36:13 EST |
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Iccyh (5140) |
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TARGET
HUNTING By Iccyh
Call
it target hunting, call it trader hunting, whatever. Killing
levellers.
06/08/04 15:47:18 EDT Iccyh (3106) R >FL+O
piloting IGF Dollars and Cents destroyed [LoF] Stealth Mode Guy!,
owned by TheRealCyber (521), in Sector 25001.
The idea here
isn't to toot my own horn, but to describe how it is I work since
people have expressed interest in the past. This wasn't any major
kill or anything, but it's good demonstration of how you can take
someone entirely by surprise, when they think they're
invulnerable.
Now, this guy was no brain surgeon (he didn't
check the notices and see that I hadn't already killed two people
today at that exact port), but he *did* have a few things going his
way, as he has a huge drone net all across 25k with 50 scouts on all
of the stacks, and he's got a system that LoF basically
owns.
What he didn't have were scouts at the node or any kind
of luck. I'd been sitting in 24k IS for hours (as to avoid drones, I
sit IS in random sectors rather than park at a port) watching LoF
EXP. I saw him jump around a ton without his align changing,
suggesting that he hadn't left the system (I knew he was here since
I'd seen his scouts on the previous kills and while checking out
LordFear). After he finished jumping around, he started doing what
looked like ressying (his EXP went straight up with no signs of
movement).
From checking out LF, I knew there was only one
sector I could catch a ressy in 25k (aggies on the other two
possible ressy ports), so I walked there (LoF has aggies in the most
random places around here), waiting for him to come IS, didn't ping
him when I moved in (50 scouts, 2 level advantage in 40% = 42%
chance to see), and got the kill.
Even if I had pinged him at
the node, I'm fairly sure he would have gone and EXPed because that
would have been the only ping he'd get from me.
So anyway,
that's how I work. I avoid places were people can see me at all
costs, so that when I move targets will have no idea that I'm
looking for them and so hunters looking to put me in a pod will have
a hell of a time finding me.
---
Note on this, it's a
little old (note the date on the kill). I'll fill this out and
update it later, but this is a fair start to understanding how to
find and kill people. |
12/10/04 18:41:42 EST |
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