11 replies to this topic

[scrapilot]

Probably the best way to survive combat in a command craft is to avoid the two quickest ways to become destroyed. The first quickest way to become destroyed is to not keep track of additional craft that are hyper jumping to your location to join the fight. Often when you enter a portal, you will first be attacked by a manageable two craft, but then be destroyed in about 20 seconds. In a matter of seconds several ships will hyperjump in to attack you, so that you end up having having to defend yourself against as many as six to eight craft. A good way to keep track of additional incoming ships is to use the fatal system. Since the ships come in so quickly you will need to program a button on your joystick to pause the game before you click on a button to assign a fatal. To pause the game, you can use the pause key or target any object and use the escape key. In the fatal list you will see a bunch of ranges for multiple craft. In one of the columns you'll see which targets are hyper jumping to the command craft, which is you. Therefore, the fatal system can be a good situational awareness tool in addition to a missile acquisition system. Pausing the game every time you need to assign a fatal is not really cheating, because in real life you would get to give commands quickly to your crew to do things like assigning fatal missiles quickly. You'll probably only have time to assign five fatal missiles but you can try to assign as many as all eight fatal missiles. It is a good idea to assign at least two fatal missiles to a target.

Even in general, missiles are an effective weapon despite the fact that they can be jammed. You should not just rely on the PTA turrets or the nose mounted fixed gun. The weakness with missiles is that you need to keep a lock on the target for as long as 15 seconds to burn through the jamming. To burn through the jamming, you need to maintain a lock on the target and launch a missile every five seconds. After the second or third missile, the next missiles will start hitting the target. This is difficult to do in the heat of battle. However, only some targets will end up jamming any missiles at all, and you will get a hit on the very first missile. I at least as often get a hit on the first missile as not. Furthermore, considering that it it often takes 15 seconds to aim the nose mounted gun, missiles are definitely worth using. It is also a lot easier to be in the range for a missile shot than for the nose mounted gun.

A second way to be destroyed, is to let enemy targets get too close or lose track of their aspect angles, or orientations to you. Every time I am taking heavy damage and target the last enemy attacker, I notice that the TV camera view of that craft shows a front view or orientation of it and that it is shooting sparks off. This means it has its nose pointed towards me and is firing its fixed nose mounted gun. To get its nose off me I turn sharply with the the rudder and dive. I try to get the targets TV camera view to change from a front view to a side view, which would indicate its nose is no longer on me.

A good way to get an enemy's nose off you is to dive or climb 45° and then move forwards towards the target. The TV camera view's orientation of the target should change from a front view to a top/bottom or slide view. It is a good idea to make sure that when attacking a target with the nose mounted gun that the target you're aiming at doesn't also have his nose pointed at you

You also need to keep your distance from enemy craft. A good way to do this is to make that go backwards key made into a sticky key so that you do not need to hold it down to keep going backwards. A good way to do this is with a keyboard remapping program such as one from vp-soft.com or a shareware program. The Saitek x-52 can also be programmed to do this.

You need to get your nose on enemy targets as quickly as possible to survive. Since a command craft has a low pitch rate, going backwards while turning will increase your turning room allowing you to get your nose on a target. Going backwards helps to compensate for a command craft's low turning rate.

Intruders can often be avoided by listening for a crew member to announce that something is out there. As soon as you hear a crew member say that, then you should pause the game and click on the button to turn the cloak on. Then do a hard turn and dive 45° downward. This will help the cloak make the intruders unable to track you and board your ship.

[canshow]

Those are some nice tips you got there. I got a few of my own.

Assign multiple shuttles to grab cargo pods from space instead of using your CC or just one shuttle. Sometimes shuttles just hover over the pod and not take the cargo, which may need you to get more than 1 getting it.

Never shoot at fighters if your in a carrier. You need ALOT of skill to kill fighters efficiently with turrets, so stick to the cruisers/carriers with your turrets.

When you get enough money, it would be very wise if you upgrade your ship, especially your shields. Upgrading your hull only delays the inevitable, your internal systems fail just as fast.

Maintain all of your fighters, and replace them when they are destroyed. Fighters can cover your ass in desperete situations, especially if you got 10 FCs on your tail.

When you go to sleep, leave some miners on a planet surface, so while you sleep, they mine minerals, and you can sell them to a nearby station in the morning for some $$$. And its also to prevent intruders.
-Also, make sure you put your entire crew off duty, gives them time to rest and bring their fatigue down and AI up.

Before jumping to an enemy starbase, make sure you cloak, or 90% of the time, your ass is gonna get destroyed, if not, severly injured.

Jam your radar if there are fighters on your tail, because missiles can rip through your hull faster than you know it.

Never join combat if your shields are below 2000. Its an easy way of dieng.

Warp or w/e. or cloak if your shields hit 1000.

Dont attempt to fly your carrier/cruiser over an enemy base...unless your like me, and can dodge most of the turret fire xD and make low dives and screw up the enemy turrets.

Disable Launch control, and put 1-2 marines in each of your shuttles when you have intruders, and make sure FC are guarded. Because those intruders can F up your craft if your not looking.

[RT]

I'd like to add some things on what canshow said.

canshow, on Mar 1 2009, 05:00 AM, said:

Assign multiple shuttles to grab cargo pods from space instead of using your CC or just one shuttle. Sometimes shuttles just hover over the pod and not take the cargo, which may need you to get more than 1 getting it.

That was right in the BC games, shuttles weren't using the Z axis efficiently. I don't think I ever saw that problem with the UC series.

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-Also, make sure you put your entire crew off duty, gives them time to rest and bring their fatigue down and AI up.

Actually, your crew only gains experience while on duty. Also, if you send them off duty before you go to sleep, they will eventually get back on duty without you telling them to, as soon as their FF is down to 0, so they'll most likely have built up FF again once you (as in, the player) get up, though not as much as they used to I guess, it all depends on how long you sleep

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Before jumping to an enemy starbase, make sure you cloak, or 90% of the time, your ass is gonna get destroyed, if not, severly injured.

True, unless you found a blind spot, in which case you just have to deal with the defense crafts. If your aim is to destroy the station completely, get as close to the station as possible, putting it between you and the defense fleet. If they're on the other side, they'll shoot the station.

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Jam your radar if there are fighters on your tail, because missiles can rip through your hull faster than you know it.

Definitely true. The way the jammer works in game, it's a 99% win button against missiles.

[Supreme Cmdr]

scrapilot, on Feb 13 2009, 05:02 PM, said:

The weakness with missiles is that you need to keep a lock on the target for as long as 15 seconds to burn through the jamming.

False. The only missiles which need to maintain a lock are those with CTL guidance logic. Check the appendix.

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To burn through the jamming, you need to maintain a lock on the target and launch a missile every five seconds.

False. Launching a missile every five seconds is just wasting missiles because each missile will maintain a separate track on the target. The only reason to launch several missiles against a target, is if they are CTL with a quick lock or if they are ATL or ATL/V and you wan to dispatch the target quickly. Launching several CTL missiles at a distant target (e.g. beyond 100km) is a waste of missiles because unless each one has a lock, they will all fly in dumb fire mode.

If you are in close engagement with a large or stationary target, the tracking logic makes no difference, since the missile will fly straight ahead and hit the target anyway.

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It is also a lot easier to be in the range for a missile shot than for the nose mounted gun.

Not entirely true. Depending on how close you are, the gun's laser setting and firing speed, nose mounted guns are far more effective. e.g. a one shot which can do 500 damage, is far less effective than firing a stream of shots, each with 50 damage.

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A second way to be destroyed, is to let enemy targets get too close or lose track of their aspect angles, or orientations to you. Every time I am taking heavy damage and target the last enemy attacker, I notice that the TV camera view of that craft shows a front view or orientation of it and that it is shooting sparks off. This means it has its nose pointed towards me and is firing its fixed nose mounted gun. To get its nose off me I turn sharply with the the rudder and dive. I try to get the targets TV camera view to change from a front view to a side view, which would indicate its nose is no longer on me.

This is only true if the attacker is a fighter. Cap ships rarely use their nose mounted guns because their turrets (more powerful than guns) will engage targets long before they are able to line up a shot with their FMGs (Foward Mounted Gun). You only need to watch for where their turrets are mounted and avoid them. So really, if an FMG is pointing straight at you, there is no chance of a turret ever hitting you if you maintain that angle. This is because most ships don't have turrets mounted in areas that allow them to fire ahead or behind. And all turrets have a 45-60 degree firing arc.

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Intruders can often be avoided by listening for a crew member to announce that something is out there.

Only the TO will ever say this. And she has to be on station.

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A good way to do this is with a keyboard remapping program such as one from vp-soft.com

No such link exists. Either correct it or remove it.

[canshow]

Id like to retouch on some things RT added to my tips.

Shuttles still cant use that Z axis that good in UC either. Ive had problems with it several times, on the free release version, and on UCCE version. You cant really fix everything from the BC series. There will always be bugs


Actually, I've tried it before, and my crew gained AI when they were off duty. IDK if its supposed 2 be the other way, but thats how the game treats me. And well, its better to have a lower level of fatigue than a higher one, aint it?

And, most of the time, i dont destroy the starbase. I just rip through its shields with a high powered turrets, and then use low power until i can disable the the starbase and capture it. I dont see any point in destroying starbases, even if they do rebuild, i mean, what if theres an artifact in there? Still, I may blow them up for fun xD..

Oh, and i have something to add as well.

Make sure when your chasing a target, make sure your to the space in front of them, instead of going AT them. Its called motion tracking.
.

I quit UC for like almost a year and im getting back into it, so my stuff can be sketchy

[Supreme Cmdr]

canshow, on Mar 1 2009, 01:19 PM, said:

Shuttles still cant use that Z axis that good in UC either. Ive had problems with it several times, on the free release version, and on UCCE version. You cant really fix everything from the BC series. There will always be bugs

Shuttles collecting pods has NOTHING to do with the Z axis. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Either it can't locate the pod, the pod is empty, the shuttle cargo bay is full or there is a certifiable jackass in the shuttle.

[canshow]

Supreme Cmdr, on Mar 1 2009, 03:18 PM, said:

Shuttles collecting pods has NOTHING to do with the Z axis. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Either it can't locate the pod, the pod is empty, the shuttle cargo bay is full or there is a certifiable jackass in the shuttle.

Lmao, i like how you worded that SC, GJ xD

[scrapilot]

"The weakness with missiles is that you need to keep a lock on the target for as long as 15 seconds to burn through the jamming."


False. The only missiles which need to maintain a lock are those with CTL guidance logic. Check the appendix."


I was referring to the tips file in the documentation folder, which advised you needed to launch a missile every five to eight seconds to overcome the jamming. A non-CTL missile's ability to acquire a target is unaffected by jamming. However, a missile's ability to hit a target after it is launched is affected by jamming. To overcome the jamming, you need to reacquire the target every five to eight seconds to launch another missile. This is where I come up with saying that "The weakness with missiles is that you need to keep a lock on the target for as long as 15 seconds to burn through the jamming." You need to keep a target in view for an easy acquisition for that length of time.

"To burn through the jamming, you need to maintain a lock on the target and launch a missile every five seconds.



False. Launching a missile every five seconds is just wasting missiles because each missile will maintain a separate track on the target. The only reason to launch several missiles against a target, is if they are CTL with a quick lock or if they are ATL or ATL/V and you wan to dispatch the target quickly. Launching several CTL missiles at a distant target (e.g. beyond 100km) is a waste of missiles because unless each one has a lock, they will all fly in dumb fire mode.

If you are in close engagement with a large or stationary target, the tracking logic makes no difference, since the missile will fly straight ahead and hit the target anyway."

That you should not ripple fire missiles for the purpose of overcoming jamming is good advice. For a target that uses jamming heavily, you need to be close enough for a launched missile's flight time to not be much longer than eight seconds. You may need to be closer than that for targets that jam missiles well. To hit a target that uses heavy jamming, you would need to vary your distance so the flight time is the above-mentioned amount, wait for the missile to arrive at the target, and then launch another missile.

As for the keyboard remapping link, VP-soft.com is a site that is no longer in business, although other sites refer to this address. If you go to shareware.com and enter the keywords keyboard remap, you will find some good keyboard remapping programs.

[fluxax]

As I'm playing BC series quite long (almost from the begining), and UC series too, I decided to share a couple of my thoughts in this thread.

In case of intruders I allways have at least 10 marines combat ready and searching the command craft, not only when intruders are on aboard - allways. When 1st shift of marines has something about over 20% Fatique level I change them with another at least 10 (combat preped ofcourse) and so on. Next thing is, when intruders come board my ship i switch off launch control and transporter control in Logistix. So they have no escape.

The advantage of having allways some number of marines ready to combat is that if I'm focused in heavy combat is space I do not have to remember to ready the marines, when intruders board my ship, and when intruders came - they have "welcome comitee" on my ship to take care of them .

Looking at the intruders activity, when they are moving over the ship, I was seeing many times that they like to go to cargobays and steal some of my equpiment, and later they usually go to shuttles, and try to launch them.
So when marines remove the problem of intruders once again I allways check in all shuttles cargo bays, if there is some stealed equpiment left by intruders before they died, or has been transported to Detention hold. Usually in UC - there is allways something to put back in cargo bays of mother ship.

It is a good habit to send probe to region where You suspect that there will be enemy forces, especially in large amount, when your ship is badly damaged, and you want to travel this way.

In case of shuttles and assinging marines to pilot them - this is not bad idea, but only if there is no flight enginers free at the moment. If there are, I always use flight engineers instead of marines - they aren't pilots, but they better pilot shuttles, and they unlike the marines do not like doing "joy rides" when collecting cargo pod(s).

[DennyMala]

I keep my launch control off all time unless I need it.
Much better in preventing craft stealing.

[fluxax]

dennymala, on Apr 25 2009, 01:14 PM, said:

I keep my launch control off all time unless I need it.
Much better in preventing craft stealing.

You're right, I have it usually switched off, but when I'm going to enemy terriory, I would like to launch FCs, and then I have to enable launch control. Sometimes I forget to switch it off again just after launching supprt craft, when I'm attacking/defending with my mother ship in heavy combat. But I dont have enabled launch control, when intruders are aboard, never.

BTW when intruders board my ship, I want to have already ready force to fight them as intruders are going to kill my crew and me if there is such oportunity. This what I wrote is not only used by me to prevent craft stealing, the best way of prevention in this case in switched off launch control and transporter control, but to quickly restore peace and order on my ship, because consequences of letting intruders going here and there over ship, could be not nice. Ofcourse I know that there is CO, and its his task to fight intruders, but I prefer to do it in my way - Resnig likes to send unarmed marines to fight intruders, when there is such opportunity . So I manually prepare marines to fight in they way described above, in prevoius post, and these marines that I dont need at the moment I send to medibay, where they are waiting for My orders - CO can do nothing with it.

[DennyMala]

True completely. I was talking about launch control only.

I have my marines scheduled in three shifts any moment. Rest, preppin' (bakcup for operations) and seaching.