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Upgraded armor, is it that helpful?


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I bought BCM a long time ago and played it every now and then, never got into a game more than an hour and would die burning and screeming. Recently, I have started a game and I'm now a day in it at least. I'm working on randoming the gammulan empire. I'm flying a Battlecruiser MK1, after trying each ship, I just liked this one more. I really liked the sunflash, but with no RE, I cannot get artifacts to work. Well, my question is about upgrading systems. I bought the best shields first, saved up for titanium V, (or whatever the best one was). After installing it I went off to kill some gammies. I neared the gamma planets and got constantly attacked over and over again by capital ships...and there fighters. The CC's are easily defeated, the fighters are a bit harder. My shields dropped and I took a SINGLE laser hit on my armor. What I would like to know is why this single laser hit damaged numerous systems with only getting my hull/armor down to 99. I don't see what upgraded armor does for me besides prolong the time I have to stare at my CC cracking and popping after the reactor goes critical (thats been how I die every time). Armor should protect the hull and systems, and after being hit enough, let more and more damage get through. BUT, I am not a game developer, nor am I SC , and I know you did this for a reason.

(Saving up for generation and a new video card, gonna be the best game ever!)

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Thanks for the reply, but, it did not help. Shields keep weapons from damaging the armor and hull, no system damage can occur while they are up. I did upgrade both my armor and shields. My question is how does more armor HP's help, when your ship takes system damage from every hit, even if your armor is at full. I did notice that fighters can be brought down to 0 hull and still fight. I have to keep shooting them for awhile even though they seem like they should go boom. CC's don't do this. So, how does upgraded ARMOR help?

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I am led to believe that armor simply prolongs the life of your ship... ie, when I upgrade my Megaron to Titanium V (6250 armor) from Titanium II (2500), it takes that much more beating to destroy my ship so it in turn, slows down the rate of damage my systems take. But I do know what you are talking about. When I was tractoring a ship, I took less than a second's worth of damage from a ships PTA system, and I had all my systems damaged with Titanium V armor... but it was nothing critical so I lived

As for helping you live, I can help you out there a bit. I have my EMD on almost ALL the time... it stops intruders when its 100% and makes missles less effective against you... but you can not launch yours. In combat, keep some speed (I usually hit 4 or 5), and keep ready on the afterburnerns. FIND YOUR SHIPS PTA SWEET SPOT! When you find it, get your enemies in that spot, fighters will drop like flies with 70% PTA intensity; use the Tacscan display to assist you. As for stations, I will give you a one word hint, cloak Try to capture them, much better rewards. Any other questions I would be glad to answer; throw me a private message. I know I look new, but I have been playing this game alot for the couple weeks I have had it and I have yet to die...

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Yep, keep moving. Do RANDOM A/B and R/R bursts will throw off enemy aim. The AI shoots when it has a good solution, so if you keep moving all over the place the AI won't shoot! (well, won't shoot much)

For MOST ships, the PTA sweet spot is directly in front, but it really depends on the ship.

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Yes, keep jiving the ship around when you hear enemy fire and hitting the A/B in bursts... good hint. EMD is your friend as well...

The sweet spot is very important though... when your enemy is not firing lasers at you, get him in that spot on your Tacscan display and watch his ship wither away...

The Megaron, my favorite ship, has a PTA sweet spot slightly off the rear circle indicator on the inside of the Tacscan display and on the same plane as you are on (no vertical shift)...

(---+---(---+---()---+---)---+---)

@@@@@^^@@@@@^^

PTA sweet spots, put the enemy red dots on the Tacscan where these arrows point for the Megaron and keep your distance relatively close.

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Oh, another thing... I had no problem with fighters. I end up disabling so many of them I can't tow them all to be salvaged, and the hostile station keep sending shuttles to tow them back... And I keep killing shuttles!

Basically, set speed zero. The fighter should jump to you. Hit R/R for a second, release. You should jump back about 1 km or so. Wait. If the enemy's good, he'll come out of HJ within 15 km of your location. Your PTA should engage, but join in with your main guns and missiles. When he gets closer than 10 km hit R/R to keep the range open. Keep him in the PTA sweet spot, and keep shooting missiles every couple seconds with lock.

In a minute or two the fighter should be toast.

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quote:

Originally posted by Pyromaniac:

My shields dropped and I took a SINGLE laser hit on my armor. What I would like to know is why this single laser hit damaged numerous systems with only getting my hull/armor down to 99.

You must have an exceptionally good situational awareness to be so sure you were hit by a SINGLE laser hit. Are you sure it wasn't a stream of hits?

There already is a threat about armor and getting hit. Suggest you find it.

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Wow, thanks for all the pointers! As for there being another question already on the forums, I thought my question was different enough to be asked. You may be right about being hit many times, but my shields were down only for a split second. My systems took very small damage, but was spread over numerous systems. More anoying than damaging really. When I am a cruiser I had lots of problems with intruders, I didn't know about the EMD preventing a beam over, so thanks alot! I'm not really bad at the game, just havent played it much at a time, and could never find that perfect ship for me, though I like the Megaron and Battlecruiser MK1-MK3.

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quote:


I didn't know about the EMD preventing a beam over

I didn't know about this one either. It was always that HJ or cloak where the only options to prevent intruders.

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As opposed to most games, armor doesn't protect you completely (or to the least - to the same degree) until there's none left. Armor protects you, yes, but you start getting system damage quicker and quicker as armor depletes. It simulates the effect of having holes in the armor, since it would be illogical to think that being hit repeateadly in the back would reduce armor equally everywhere on the ship.

Any questions?

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