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Heavy Cruisers


Ockham
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As we all know, Terran Raiders only have access to 5 differant Heavy Cruisers.

Heavy Cruisers are the weakest capitol ships in UC, and they don't come stocked with fighter escorts. In short, you need to know how to use your Heavy Cruiser or else SP & MP life will be short and not so sweet.

I created this thread so TDH members can have a place to discuss the pro's/con's, differances, strategies and opinions concerning the Starcruiser, Starwarrior, Solnar, Questar, and Sunflash Heavy Cruisers.

I also created a table in Excel with all five heavy cruisers and their stats if anyone wants it. It's much easier to compare differant ships with the Excel Table than it is with the appendix.

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I'll start off by saying a few quick things about my fav ship atm, the starwarrior

It's HJ transit time of 35sec is insane! It's as quick as most Super Fighters with concern to HJ transit time. Only medium and light fighters along with Mk1/Mk2 shuttles have quicker HJ transit times.

The starwarrior is very small. In fact, its the smallest(height/width/length) heavy cruiser you can choose.

And the shield/armor quality is still decent. Questar and Sunflash have better armor and only Starcruiser and Solnar have better shields. So its pretty much average shield/armor.

I like the positioning of the turrets.

I believe 5 are on the top deck and 4 are underneath.(correct me if I'm wrong)

When firing your main guns you'll notice one turret underneath your ship can fire straight ahead and usually hits whatever target you are firing at.

I DONT like how the starwarrior only has 2x Mk3 Shuttles. I wish it had Mk1 Shuttles because they have twice the cargo space and MUCH better HJ transit time.

On a side note, the Solnar is the ONLY Heavy Cruiser that has 2x Mk1 Shuttles. I assume that could be a big advantage to a team of raiders in MP.

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Guest Shingen

I like the Solnar because of it's shields and the fact it has four main guns in it's nose. PTA coverage isn't the best, but the MK1 shuttles are a big plus for getting pods quick.

As far as tactics when flying cruisers, the main thing is speed and firepower (ie: vagrants). Crusiers can fly circles around most carriers, and with upgraded shields, stay in a fight as long as a carrier.

The problem comes when said carrier either cloaks, or deploys fighters (or both). In cases such as these, it's good to have a supply of mines, and a close finger near the NID key.

When things get too hot, there's no shame in targeting the closest planet/moon/gate, and jumping out of the line of fire!

Mine paremeters are also a good idea when facing multiple hostiles, like a Stormcarrier with 8 fighters or several carriers with 4 fighters each.

It's best to concentrate on the big guys first, and let your mines divert the fighters.

Starstations and ground bases are another conversation.

In MP, it's best to upgrade shields before anything else, because it's really the best defense against all those enemies out there.

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About PTA coverage...

I usually park my ship admist a few fighters, press F9 and observe where my turrets are and how they fire.

Is there a more accurate/scientific and easier way to find out about a ship's PTA coverage?

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Well, I don't think that any one Heavy Cruiser can claim supremacy. I like to think of my own strengths when considering the options.

For me, personally, the Sunflash makes sense. I know that there won't always be a wingman for me to rely on. I also know that most people that play fly the bigger and better equipped ships. We however, are raiders. We have to make our way in a multiplayer environment where bigger is considered better.

The Sunflash with shields upgraded (as Shingen has wisely mandated as a priority on entering a game) is a formidable foe. For one she is well armored. Coupled with strong shields she can go jab for jab if not toe to toe with most vessels.

She is slower than her Heavy Cruiser sisters but at 500km/s she can outpace all Carriers. Speed is only a factor when compared with Super Cruisers which can cruise at unholy speeds.

The Sunflash counters in the weapons department with 12 turrets and 4 main guns. While the ratings of theTURRETS might be decreased their number is most beneficial when cutting and running fails to be an option and the walls are closing in. The main guns of the Sunflash are potent (ranking as a middle range for the Super Carrier class) and give this smaller ship stopping power.

Obviously the Sunflash is not a Carrier. What she is however is a well rounded vixen, a girl that's been around the block and knows how to take care of herself. I do not face foes with any real apprehension (especially when my shields are upgraded) but I do use common sense.

The bane of our class of vessels is the lack of fighter support. Obviously you have to take into account the fact that fighters exponentially increase the enemy's abilities. Adding the weapons of fighters to the tactical capabilities of larger vessels removes parity between our smaller class vessels and their larger behemoths.

Lazy Commanders will see their careers end quickly. This is a sad fact. However Commanders among our number that can learn to fight and survive will make minced meat of the military fleets that cloak, launch fighters and engage in mop up ops for their AI counterparts.

A prosperous day to you all.

Takvah

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Anyone have any ideas on how differant heavy cruisers could compliment one another?

Also, I've been toying around in SP with my starwarrior trying to see how well I can out manuvuer larger ships...

I realized I can weave in and out of the front structures of an AESTROM(its amazing how big those things are...).

Ya, and I also drove my ship literally inside the hull of a VIOLON. I pressed F9 and tried to get a visual of my ship, but no dice.

Not sure if this can be of any help to anyone, but its interesting nonetheless.

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I was thinking of one possible strategy where the heavy armoured cruisers (i.e. Sunflash, Questar) would jump into the region first, thus distracting any possible threats and dropping mines as we go Then we have our quick and offensive cruisers (Starcruiser, Starwarrior, Solnar) to jump in given the signal and clean up the non-military vessels, littering the region with valuable loot.

While this is happening, our 'tanks' are giving the military craft the runaround H/J'ing to various navigation points and taking a few shots in the process. When the cleanup is complete we then all converge on the remaining military vessels and wait patiently at the other end for them to come out of HS, then boom!!!

Ofcourse you need to take into account that we will not just be up against carriers, and the cruisers and support craft will create an interesting challenge.

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lol! nice

The Sunflash is a very good "tank" indeed. What is also nice about the Sunflash is that it has the best HJ recharge time out of any heavy cruiser.

So we could have one or two Sunflash ambush a carrier convoy and fight for 30 sec (30s = HJ recharge time).

In those 30 sec, I would assume all carriers would launch their support fighter craft.

Our friendly Sunflash cruisers would then HJ away to meet up with their backup at a predetermined location.

The AI controling enemy support craft would most likely chase our Sunflash(s) and HJ(an experianced commander might not let their fighters fall prey to this trick)

I figure it takes 30 sec or less for fighters to make a hyperjump.

It takes a heavy carrier at least 90sec.

In this situation, we can engage the fighters who will arrive at least 15sec earlier than the Sunflash(s).

Then we can decide if we want to either:

Retreat and HJ out of the system for whatever reason.

(it takes Sunflash 75sec to HJ and then fully recharge and the quickest heavy carrier HJ transit time is 90sec)

or!

Lay a mine field and prepare to destroy incoming carriers without their annoying fighter craft.

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I've always been testing and playing with heavy cruisers, mostly because I do like a pirate's life.

A few corrections on what was stated above:

The Starwarrior has 8 turrets, two on the bow and stern along the dorsal line, other two on the upper nacels, and two groups of two, on the lower bow (these rarely fire though) and lower stern. This provides good vertical coverage, specialy on the top. Keep your sides and tail away from the enemy.

The Sunflash has actually 9 turrets. Six of them are on the forward section of the ship, four on top and two on the lower section. The other three are on the rear section. Much like the Starwarrior, the firepower is concentrated verticaly and again on top.

My sugestion when using either of these ships is to place yourself under the enemy vessel, in paralel, or imediatly behind. The Heavy Cruisers are by far the most maneuverable capital ships, use that advantage.

Oh and before I forget. Takvah, you were in Starfleet Command as a Klink? Ooooooh... I may have battled you.

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I played Starfleet Academy, although I did play Starfleet Command a time or two. I just didn't much like the idea of missiles in the Star Trek universe heheh. Doubtful we fought in SFC but if you meant SFA, I played that a lot and I had quite the reputation. There were two camps for SFA the cheap bastards on MPlayer (free service and you got what you paid for) and we paying customers on Kali (a great program for its time that made LAN games playable online).

Anyway thanks for correcting me. I thought it had 12 turrets and 4 main guns reading the appendix. I guess from what you wrote 12 turrets in the appendix includes the 4 main guns. My bad I should really have gone and counted them while in F9 mode... lazy me.

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I was on MPlayer, before GSA killed it. I played Starfleet Command. I had a reputation of being "Da Lousy Fed", since the only way to bring me down was to bring a plasma armed K7 to bear... old times... very good old times.

And I always count the turrets. Also, I found out that usual the turrets fire in 30┬║ cone (this is the average value, sometimes it seems wider other times it seems more narrow) in relation to an imaginary line perpendicular to the base of the turret. And some turrets dont fire at all actually.

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