Ask me anything / Training

[Ryuku-sama]

Imperium. It's the only ship I've never flown before this week. I always found it didn't have enough offensive pressure just by looking at the components. And I was right. After a few upgrades (still rocking Protorp, Shield Projector and Combat Command for now), I'm still finding I have no *********** killing power.. I normally end up with 1.5-2 KDR and 0.5 damage done-received ratio. My accuracy is slightly lower than my usual standards (47% instead of 55%) with Freq Quad but it is mostly because I don't have enough killing power outside of them so I end up trying risky shots way more often. Is the Imperium only a tank/healing platform or can it have decent offensive pressure.

[Drakkolich]

Imperium. It's the only ship I've never flown before this week. I always found it didn't have enough offensive pressure just by looking at the components. And I was right. After a few upgrades (still rocking Protorp, Shield Projector and Combat Command for now), I'm still finding I have no *********** killing power.. I normally end up with 1.5-2 KDR and 0.5 damage done-received ratio. My accuracy is slightly lower than my usual standards (47% instead of 55%) with Freq Quad but it is mostly because I don't have enough killing power outside of them so I end up trying risky shots way more often. Is the Imperium only a tank/healing platform or can it have decent offensive pressure.

 

The Imperium's starting component choices are just terrible. You will want to change components on it very quickly, once you're using Quads and either torpedo you can do some reasonable damage.

 

However this ships power is more in team support / attrition fights. With directionals and repair probes it's just a monster in defense power. It's not a tip top competitive ship but in my opinion is probably one of the most fun ships in the game to play once mastered. Torpedo's are just really fun to use, Quads are one of my favorite lasers I like Damage capacitor with them on this ship as you aren't trying to go for burst damage anyways it lets you keep your weapon energy this way.

 

Having both armor and reactor minors with power dive, directionals and repair probes it's just really hard to kill. Once you get upgrades on it your kill/death ratios kind of go crazy as it's really hard for most things to kill you.

 

 

As for your question on offensive pressure it doesn't really generate that kind of pressure what it does do is relieve pressure from your teammates because of how freaking long anyone has to take to kill you.

 

I hope this answered what you were looking for, I'd suggest to keep playing the ship however it gets really really fun to play with upgrades on it.

[DamascusAdontise]

The Imperium is hands down one of my favorite ships. Yes it does lack some of offensive output of other ships, but the surviability more than makes up for that. Between quads and protorps I still end up getting a decent amount of kills and damage (average 30-50k and a handful of kills) but its real strength is two fold: Distraction and Team Support.

 

Much like a bomber the T3 strike stakes out a plot to operate in, and mostly stays there. With the repair probe and power dive you can effectively tank / distract several foes at once while providing heals and a staging area for your team. Allies can pick up targets that are moving slow trying to land a hit on you. Works well for ally scouts and GS.

 

When they switch targets to your teammates go on offense, get locks as they fly away or riddle them with the quads. Most of the kills I get are pure attrition (a few hits here and there culminating in a slow death) its also adept at using protorps to pick off damaged targets (I get a lot of my kills that way)

 

Only difference is I run charged plating on mine so I can dive into minefields if need be (never mastered directionals, ill have to work on that - really hate that there is a delay in switching and that you have to switch multiple times to go from front to back shields)

[Verain]

Clearly Clarion!

 

The only strike fighter to have both defensive secondaries, it's also the only strike fighter with potent group utility.

 

Both of the really cool torpedoes are available, as are the cool quad lasers.

 

 

If you are running Republic and you are going with a thermite, consider also having bypass. Outside of that sort of interesting side case I don't have much to add to Drak's stuff.

[Ryuku-sama]

So basicly my assumptions were true.. It is a tank. Not enough mobility to maximize its short range Quads, not enough sheer DPS to build up any killing power. Relying on long lock-on torpedoes to get kills without the presure of having two torpedoes to always force the target to be mobile and evasive. Power Dive can get you some breathing space but it isn't that useful for chasing. Its only roles are simply being a general annoyance by staying alive and tickling the opposition and healing its team.....

[Shadaii]

Hi!

I'm fairly newto GS and I was hoping someone could explain to me how the accuracy "stat" works. For example the Wingman ability increases my accuracy over 20s. But what does that mean exactly? Does the reticule for hitting get larger and thus making my shots easier to land? Do my shots have a higher chance of landing (which would suggest that even landing shots under the reticule have a chance to miss...which I did not know about). Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[phalczen]

Hi!

I'm fairly newto GS and I was hoping someone could explain to me how the accuracy "stat" works. For example the Wingman ability increases my accuracy over 20s. But what does that mean exactly? Does the reticule for hitting get larger and thus making my shots easier to land? Do my shots have a higher chance of landing (which would suggest that even landing shots under the reticule have a chance to miss...which I did not know about). Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Naturally, its your own skill and ability to aim to line up the targeting reticule over your target within the larger circle of your user interface which is your firing arc. The size of that circle is different depending on your primary weapon equipped. However, certain companions have a passive bonus called Improved Kill Zone that increases the size of the firing arc (HK-51 is one such companion which is available to all classes and factions).

 

However, here is where stats and the RNG enter into the picture.

 

1.) First, there is the Accuracy of the weapon. Each primary weapon type has a different accuracy. Accuracy decreases linearly with distance, and the accuracy %'s displayed under the tooltips for the weapon's close, mid, and max ranges will help you to plot the slope of the line. It has been developer confirmed that the accuracy is a continuous variable, not stepwise, so if your close range is 500m and mid range is 1000m, for example, accuracy does not drop off suddenly from 999m to 1000m, but rather falls linearly as you proceed from 500 to 1000 m. Accuracy can be improved with the crew passive Pinpointing, or with the active copilot ability Wingman. Accuracy varies depending on the primary weapon type (certain weapons are more accurate than others).

 

2.) Second, there is something called a Tracking Penatly. Imagine the ideal scenario: you are stationary, your target is stationary, and your target is dead center of your firing arc. Your tracking penalty in that case is zero. For every degree off center your target is, there is a certain reduction to your weapon's Accuracy rating. The closer you are to the edges of your firing arc, the harder it is to land a hit on your target. Tracking penalty differs between primary weapons, and can be improved within the upgrade trees of some weapons. The reason why tracking penalty exists is because your weapons are gimballed, meaning that they have a rotational arc of a certain size that allows them to fire in a direction distinct from the direction the ship is heading in. They are like the prototypical gun turrets of a WWII bomber.

 

3.) Finally, your target has a stat called Evasion. Evasion can be modified by certain armors, shields, active abilities, and crew passives. You can be at ideal distance, dead center, stationary, and still miss your target because of the target's evasion.

This is akin to the ground game Accuracy and Defense Chance stat. You can be a Marauder at 5m from a Guardian and still have your saber swing parried because of the Guardian's Defense Chance.

 

So, if you seem to be firing at the right spot but your shots aren't hitting, it could be:

1.) You are firing at the extremes of your weapon's firing arc, and being hit with a large tracking penalty.

2.) You are at the extreme of your weapon's range.

3.) Your target has evaded your shot.

4.) Or, lag. Lag meaning, the actual location of the enemy player is outside your firing arc, weapon range, or both, but his/her position isn't updated on your screen because of lag on your end, their end, the server, or any combination of the above.

 

If you find lots of problems with landing blaster hits, try switching to a weapon/capacitor combination with a slower rate of fire and higher accuracy ratings, and switching to crew members with Improved Kill Zone, Pinpointing, and Wingman.

[Bolo_Yeung]

Hi!

Do my shots have a higher chance of landing (which would suggest that even landing shots under the reticule have a chance to miss...which I did not know about). .

Exactly.

 

Assuming you shoot straight onto the target, the game calculates your accuracy minus tracking penalty (how far from the center of your field of fire did you shoot) minus target evasion.

Now, Wingman increase your (and two friends in 3000 meter range) accuracy, thus increasing a chance to hit even the high evasion target..

 

Edit: The explanation above is much better

Edited January 26, 2015 by Bolo_Yeung

[SWCNT]

Hi!

I'm fairly newto GS and I was hoping someone could explain to me how the accuracy "stat" works. For example the Wingman ability increases my accuracy over 20s. But what does that mean exactly? Does the reticule for hitting get larger and thus making my shots easier to land? Do my shots have a higher chance of landing (which would suggest that even landing shots under the reticule have a chance to miss...which I did not know about). Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Welcome to GSF!!!

So fully understanding the accuracy stat also requires an explanation about tracking penalty and firing arcs. Let's use rapid-fire lasers as an example, according to the game, rapids have a firing arc of 32 degrees and a tracking penalty of 0.8% per degree. Furthermore, they have the following accuracy for close (520 meters, 110%), medium (3120 m, 85%) and far (4160 m, 75%). You may be wondering, what is a firing arc? All you ever see is a circle on your screen, which is what people lazily call the firing arc. Note that I'm refering to the big circle, and not the reticle that you move with the mouse. Anyways, the circle is of course 360 degrees, so where does the 32 degrees come from? The circle you see is the base of a cone, the angle of the tip of the cone is what the 32 degrees refers to (see here:http://i.imgur.com/ZxovJd2.jpg[/img]"]http://i.imgur.com/ZxovJd2.jpg). In the diagram you can see how the cone would have a larger base for larger angles. So when an upgrade increases your firing arc, your circle gets bigger. Now the tracking penalty is depicted on the right side of the diagram, if your reticle is in the middle of your firing arc, you have a 85% chance of landing the shot--assuming medium range distance. As you move your reticle left or right this value drops. Each laser has a different dropping rate defined in % per degree. So given the above example, if you activated wingman your accuracy will increase from 85 to 105% for the middle of the circle.

Edited January 26, 2015 by SWCNT

[Shadaii]

Naturally, its your own skill and ability to aim to line up the targeting reticule over your target within the larger circle of your user interface which is your firing arc. The size of that circle is different depending on your primary weapon equipped. However, certain companions have a passive bonus called Improved Kill Zone that increases the size of the firing arc (HK-51 is one such companion which is available to all classes and factions)..

 

Thank you very very much. Your post has fantastic info and is exactly what I was looking for, and needed. It answered my question and more! Thanks for your time!

 

Edit: Also cheers to SWCNT and Bolo_Yeung, it always helps to see an explanation from different points of view.

Edited January 26, 2015 by Shadaii

[Drakkolich]

Well it looks like the others answered the accuracy question pretty well already. If you're still confused about anything though feel free to ask. Thanks to everyone who gave the great answers.

[Verain]

(stuff)

 

This was a really excellent post.

[Yojiro]

A quick question for a specific scenario - what would be, in your opinion, the best option if you're flying a SG and being homed in by a sting or FF? (apart from blowing to bits and grabbing your own). Would you try to evade and go back to safety or would you attempt to engage?

 

I ask this because as a dedicated SG pilot I am facing horrible difficulties with stingfires.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Yojiro

[Ryuku-sama]

A quick question for a specific scenario - what would be, in your opinion, the best option if you're flying a SG and being homed in by a sting or FF? (apart from blowing to bits and grabbing your own). Would you try to evade and go back to safety or would you attempt to engage?

 

I ask this because as a dedicated SG pilot I am facing horrible difficulties with stingfires.

 

Retro-jouster with ion/HLC./cluster.

[Yojiro]

Retro-jouster with ion/HLC./cluster.

 

While I thank you very much for the reply, I am not exactly asking for a counter-build. I am mostly looking for those little nuances in-flight that the aces have/know and that evade average pilots like myself.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Yojiro

[Ryuku-sama]

While I thank you very much for the reply, I am not exactly asking for a counter-build. I am mostly looking for those little nuances in-flight that the aces have/know and that evade average pilots like myself.

 

Stay mobile. If you have retro up, engage, retro to stay out of BLC range and hammer ions while locking a double volley cluster. Then go evasive until you have retro back up. I normally use Supression to negate Quad'n'pods build.

 

If you have an opportunity to fire at your scout while evading, use HLC for the small shield pen.

 

Use LoS a lot.

 

SInce you will be on the run a lot, use QCS.You will have less shield but the extra regen and the engine regen during boost is worth it.

[Drakkolich]

A quick question for a specific scenario - what would be, in your opinion, the best option if you're flying a SG and being homed in by a sting or FF? (apart from blowing to bits and grabbing your own). Would you try to evade and go back to safety or would you attempt to engage?

 

I ask this because as a dedicated SG pilot I am facing horrible difficulties with stingfires.

 

I'm very of the opinion that in most circumstances a Rycer/Starguard can't beat an equal skilled Sting/Flashfire.

 

However I can talk about what you can do to give yourself an edge.

 

I'm going to assume this is Deathmatch because in domination you probably just want to play defense and keep the Scout busy.

 

The first thing you need to figure out quickly is what kind of Sting/Flashfire you're fighting. Is it Quads/Rocket pods or Burst/Cluster? These two builds have very different engagements for you. I also don't know what kind of Starguard/Rycer you are flying so I'll be going very wide on my strategies, you want something really build specific we can address that in a later post.

 

Vs Quads/Rocket pods: The most important thing here is to never ever joust, you will absolutely lose even he is at half health the amount of damage is ridiculous. You want to get in close to nullify his ability to use Rocket pods on you. This still makes it really hard for you as your close range weapons are about as good as his and he still has an offensive cooldown on you. It will however stop you from just exploding instantly. By getting in close vs him you give yourself more time to land a missile as well as give your team more time to shoot threw all his evasion.

 

Vs Burst/Cluster: This is where you are just going to lose every time this build excels in dogfights. The only way to normally stop this builds damage is to run since it has to be in close to do it and since the Scout is always faster then the Strike fighter that just isn't an option. Your best bet is to just find some heavy line of sight area and frustrate the hell out of him so he changes targets as soon as he does turn on him and repeat till he dies.

 

 

General tips: Watch for their cooldowns if Targeting telemetry or Blaster overcharge are up it's not time to fight it's time to evade. Scouts tend to get overconfident and not pay attention when they are out of cooldowns once they fade pop yours and turn on him, that's your window to win.

 

Prioritize engine power management over everything else, even if your shooting most of the time stay in power to engines you will do 15% less damage with your lasers however the extra 75% extra engine regeneration is going to keep you alive to keep doing that damage. You shouldn't have any problems with weapon power as you shouldn't be shooting that long and you are probably using Regeneration extender for your magazine.

 

As a Strike fighter dragging enemies over to where you want to fight them is important, pay attention to where your allies are especially your gunships and drag the Scouts your fighting to about 10k from the Gunships so they get railed on while chasing you. Don't bring the Scouts to right on top of the Gunships as you don't want to screw over your teammates but also if the Scout turns to go after the Gunship that's when you kick in to offensive mode again and chase him.

 

 

I hope this helps, my style is very Cat/Mouse when playing Strike fighter It's probably why I like the Imperium/Clarion so much.

[Yojiro]

Thank you very much for both replies!

 

I am currently running Quads/Heavy/Concussion with Directionals and Retro. Can't really remember the other components out of the top of my head.

 

As an example of the nuances I mentioned earlier, I wouldn't have even considered running the full engagement on power to engines, as the moment I have a shot I immediately switch to blasters. I will definitely be trying that later on.

 

I am willing to be blown up time and time again as long as I get to learn how to not get blown up as often.

[Verain]

I can offer some advice when being chased around. If I had an equal or greater skill type 2 scout on me as a type 1 strike, I know well ahead of time that I couldn't kill him.

 

1)- Slow the game down. You want to not take damage, get your resources back, etc.

2)- Pick some way to contribute with this. If this is TDM, you'll want to be on the lookout for powerups that can change the dynamic, and friendly gunships to drag him in front of during the times when you have good shields and boost. If this is domination, consider going to a friendly satellite to scrape him off of you, or a contested satellite if you won't be the only one fighting for it.

3)- Use of obstacles. You want to use obstacles to hurt his turning advantage. This will give you several long periods of time where he can't attack you.

4)- Shield strategies. Both strike shields get their energy back pretty reasonably fast. I would set power to F3 and use boost around with him targeted. Whenever I have a spare moment (aka, I'll be out of LOS for 4+ seconds with quick charge, or I'm about to have gone 3 seconds without taking fire with directionals), press F2. In this way you are fighting a pretty big attrition game, as you have a solid regeneration rate and other tricks here.

5)- The overfly. You badly want him to fly past you, and once he's chasing you, you can try to get the measure of the man and see if you can orchestrate this. If it is relevant and you have them, punish him with ions and cluster lock if he overflies. If you don't have ions or stripping his shield won't matter (aka, you're the only one who can hit him), then go for anything that deals even a little hull damage. There's no guarantee you'll be able to get him to actually do this, however.

 

 

It's a lot like being on a gunship, but when he is peeled or misplays you can't capitalize. However, you are much more defensible than on the gunship. Basically, I'd look for friends while trying to stay out of his crosshairs.

[zvbm]

I hope this helps, my style is very Cat/Mouse when playing Strike fighter It's probably why I like the Imperium/Clarion so much.

 

I'd like to give my 2c as a pilot who flies the t1 strike very offensively. That said, I completely agree with Drako and Verain that against an equally skilled battlescout the odds aren't in your favour.

 

I usually run with quads/heavies/clusters/directional shields/retro and wingman. The key element is surprise. If you can open on the scout with quads and a simultaneous cluster lock, they will be forced to use a missile break or die. From then on, the strategy changes based on cooldown use and the scout's loadout.

 

If it's a quads/pods or a BLC/pods scout, set shields to front and pretend to joust and go evasive as soon as he pops his cooldowns. Once the cooldowns run out try and get him to joust again and with shields to front you can come out on top. (Don't forget to re-adjust your shield priority while evading) Top scout pilots however will not joust without atleast one cooldown up and it ends up being a very long drawn out dogfight where you end up relying on the shield piercing from your clusters.

 

If it's a blc/cluster build, maintain your distance. Quads > BLC outside the 2k range. Bait them into using their cooldows and joust when you're comfortable. Don't be afraid to use retro early to get a few shots in while still staying outside their effective range. You can even consider swapping to heavies for a second if you can generate the distance.

 

General tips:

Always keep an eye on the scout's buff bar. If they pop DF/TT/BO at any time during a joust, boost past and try again.

Lean to corkscrew while evading. It's really hard to consistently land hits on someone who's corkscrewing.

Stay close to obstacles to neutralize the turn rate advantage. You may end up crashing a few times but stick with it; it's a valuable skill to have in GSF.

 

Hope this helps.

 

~Zen

 

P.S: If a battlescout has upgraded TT, it's up for 15 seconds out of every 30. Takes a lot of patience to deal with that. tl;dr - Nerf TT!

[Yojiro]

I definitely need to work on corkscrewing. One of these days I swear I'll "hire" a sting ace to focus me down so I can learn the hard way!

 

Thank you very much for the feedback so far! It's really refreshing to see strike fighters being mentioned by the most active players on the threads outside the Stasiepedia - It's always all the other ship classes .

[MDVZ]

A quick question for a specific scenario - what would be, in your opinion, the best option if you're flying a SG and being homed in by a sting or FF? (apart from blowing to bits and grabbing your own). Would you try to evade and go back to safety or would you attempt to engage?

 

I ask this because as a dedicated SG pilot I am facing horrible difficulties with stingfires.

 

Escaping a scout in a strike is no small order. They're faster and can boost longer. If a battlescout pilot is after you, and you're in a starguard, you pretty much have to fight. Its very possible to win though. Pit your strengths against their weaknesses (it seems so obvious when said like that).

 

Strengths of the battlescout.

 

BLC/Clusters - Made to win knife fights.

 

Pods n' quads - excellent ambusher and jouster. Best at killing things that are standing still or moving in a straight line. With TT providing crits this has the fastest overall TTK in the game (only a starguard killing a scout can kill faster, to my knowledge). Not shabby in a turning fight, as quads are good at that and it has the high turn rate of the scout frame, but the pods help it little when a targets moving round a lot and quads have higher tracking penalty and less ability to take snap shots than BLCs. Not weak in a turning fight, exactly, but the weakest battlescout in a turning fight.

 

BLC/pods - compromise; good knife-fighting in the BLCs, but no clusters, good ambush and joust with the pods, but BLCs force it to get a little closer to do that well. The pilot of this ship quite possibly chose this build for the armour pen in BLCs to combine with pods, because CP is a pain in the arse.

 

TT and BO mean that even if they have the same gun as you, their gun is better than yours.

 

High evasion (when specced for it, which it probably is).

 

Large engine pool.

 

Fastest ship class.

 

Best turn rate.

 

Probably got two missile breaks.

Weaknesses:

 

Made of paper. Its defense in all common builds is not getting hit at all.

 

Short range. BLCs are the most common battlescout weapon, and they are the shortest range weapon in the game. They don't get really dangerous till about 2km or so. Nothing to be trifled with at ~3km, pretty crap at the edge of their range.

 

Dependent on cooldowns for maximum damage and defense.

 

What strengths are available to you in a SG?

 

Some combination of quads/ions/heavies/concs/clusters - directionals give you quite a few tools very dangerous against scouts if used well. Wingman and pinpointing in all cases to overcome some evasion and accuracy degradation from tracking penalty.

 

There you have:

 

A weapon that's amazing at stripping shields. Scouts have very little shielding.

 

The longest range primary in the game. Most scouts have BLCs, the shortest range weapon.

 

Lock on missles that do a little less or little more damage than a scouts full hull strength, but they're hard to land on a good scout.

 

Stronger shields that you can also bolster in the direction attacks are coming from to mitigate any burst you can anticipate.

 

A solid dogfighting weapon in the quad; the same as some scout builds, but inferior for dogfighting to BLCs.

 

And in the strike frame you have...not much, but quite a lot more hull and an ok turn rate (less, but ok).

 

What to do with it that exploits your strengths and circumvents theirs?

 

Missiles - most battlescouts are built with 2 missile breaks, so wait till they're both gone (look at the scouts de/buff icons) or release the missile as close to the scout as possible: boost in or when passing in a joust and place it in their cockpit by hand. A double volley cluster is a tiny bit shy of a scouts full hull. A conc will one-shot a scout with no shields every time.

 

You can use ions to get to the point where the missile kills them; with a bit more than 1400 shields, it's only one second off ions to get rid of them completely at <3km, then follow up with a missile. Ions-conc on a scout is one of the fastest kills it's possible to get in the game. Ions-DV cluster isn't far behind, needing a coupe of additional shots from the ions to slightly damage the hull (don't bother switching weapon yet: that will take longer). Switch to quads after releasing the missile in case they survive. You shouldn't need more than one more shot to land.

 

Knowing this, you can tank a couple of mid-range blaster hits and a cluster while you line up a shot carefully while locking your missile, wait for tone, click blaster, boost in, release missile into face: dead scout.

 

If you end up in a knife fight, retro is arguably more useful for getting (and then hopefully holding) a better position, because of the scouts better turn rate and BLC's deadliness in a turning fight. You can tank a cluster. A few, actually, so the break isn't that valuable. You can't take being hit by BLCs at 500m for very long. You don't want to be there. Use retros to get some firing time back for yourself.

 

Heavies can let you engage from outside the scouts weapon range. Handy in jousts; slow down between ~6 and ~4km and you get a completely free shot or two. If you can keep good track of a scout that isn't targeting you, heavies can outright kill them without them getting you in their weapon range at all.

 

Combine heavies with missiles to the face in the same way as with the ions, using the extra range for the extra damage to take their shields down before boosting past them, or as you pass one another in a joust. Continuous HLC hits from 6.2km away will get rid if their shields quite easily as you close on each other, probably eat into their hull a bit, and a well timed missile is a dead scout. Make absolutely certain your directionals are forward, though, as you're going to take the full burst of the scout in the face (phrasing!). Unless they get lucky with crits or it's a podscout, you can survive that, where they probably can't survive the missile.

 

Alternatively, fly toward them but more evasively (even boost to give them less time in their optimal range) and don't worry too much about landing blaster hits for the last 2.5km or so of the joust, focus on evading their fire and landing the missile. If you saw their hull start to go down before then, the missile will kill them.

 

At close range, quads are good guns, but while its perfectly possible to kill a battlescout with just quads, that's not stacking the deck in your favour, it lets them play to their strengths. Engage at close range with quads if they're already damaged or their shields are already down and your hitpoints work more in your favour.

 

And finally, watch their buffs. If they have TT/BO up, fly more evasively. Being in a scout doesn't confer the pilots magical extra accuracy, you can still avoid fire. If they've burned their breaks, focus on locking a missile.

 

I didn't expect to write a wall of text. I do expect a large number of corrections

 

Anyway, I mostly fly battlescout, and against good strike pilots this **** has ended me on more than one occasionI also used to use similar methods to the above with heavies, clusters and p-torps when the pike was my favourite ship. If you can do it in a pike....

 

Best of luck

Edited January 27, 2015 by MDVZ

[Drakkolich]

I definitely need to work on corkscrewing. One of these days I swear I'll "hire" a sting ace to focus me down so I can learn the hard way!

 

Thank you very much for the feedback so far! It's really refreshing to see strike fighters being mentioned by the most active players on the threads outside the Stasiepedia - It's always all the other ship classes .

 

Well the reason we don't talk about Strike Fighters much is because in most match ups they lose to an equal skilled pilot on another ship. If the Rycer/Starguard was a really good competitive ship you would see it talked about more, but in my opinion it just isn't.

 

I don't mind talking about how to deal with specific situations on certain ships, however if I were teaching you how to play to win the most games I would be telling you to take the Rycer/Starguard off your bar.

 

The ship is very fun and I've played a ton of games on it, but for me it just falls in the just for fun list of ships.

[Verain]

Escaping a scout in a strike is no small order. They're faster and can boost longer. If a battlescout pilot is after you, and you're in a starguard, you pretty much have to fight.

 

Not at all true. In fact, you can go tightly hug some object while constantly moving. You turn less and boost less, but you can deny him a kill window indefinitely. I recommend this in my post for the simple reason that standing and fighting is a guaranteed loss.

 

Made of paper. Its defense in all common builds is not getting hit at all.

A Starguard has nothing that forces damage to happen. The missile locks are easily broken by LOS, boosting out of circle, button 2, or button 3. The blasters are subject to evasion. This is a valid point if and only if you can drop an evasion and lock evading weapon, such as a concussion mine.

 

they are the shortest range weapon in the game

 

They have the same range profile as light lasers and rapid fire laser cannon, which makes them "a short range weapon". BLCs are also very viable at high deflections.

 

What strengths are available to you in a SG?

 

Absolutely nothing that will help you versus a scout.

 

 

Missiles - most battlescouts are built with 2 missile breaks, so wait till they're both gone

 

If you can lock a concussion onto a scout in solo combat, you weren't fighting a scout, you were fighting a hamburger or other foodship. If he has disto missile break and blindly wastes that, then at most he's a cheeseburger.

 

A good battlescout will bring either 2 breaks on a 20 second cooldown each, or one on a 20 second cooldown and one on a 15 or even 10. He has no reason to ever allow himself to be struck by a missile in solo combat. Period.

 

 

Heavies can let you engage from outside the scouts weapon range.

 

If the scout is at heavy range, of course you should shoot him with them. But this shouldn't be more than a couple hits. Still, this is definitely the approach to take if you can get it. The question is a scout that is attacking him, however, and I think you'd have a really hard time landing heavies on such a scout.

And finally, watch their buffs. If they have TT/BO up, fly more evasively.

 

If they have either of those up, fly such that THEY CANNOT HIT YOU AT ALL. You aren't dogfighting them with those things active, you are food looking for a plate to lie down on. Fly past them, put a wall in between, burn your engine maneuver, whatever you need.

[MDVZ]

Not at all true. In fact, you can go tightly hug some object while constantly moving. You turn less and boost less, but you can deny him a kill window indefinitely. I recommend this in my post for the simple reason that standing and fighting is a guaranteed loss.

 

 

An oversight that you can of course use the environment to frustrate an attack, and I happily concede the point, in general, on average. Not a guaranteed loss, if he doesn't though. Scouts do get killed by strikes. Good scouts at that.. More a very risky gamble. I don't think it's an even close to equal fight, but to say the scout will always win like it's a law of physics or something is extreme. He's been informed of the risks, experienced the consequences and difficulty - that's why he's asking, and he wants to know what his options are. 'Fight' is among them; there are ways. They might not be good ways But that's kind of part of the context here; he knows it's always going to be an uphill battle in a SG against a battlescout.

 

A Starguard has nothing that forces damage to happen. The missile locks are easily broken by LOS, boosting out of circle, button 2, or button 3. The blasters are subject to evasion. This is a valid point if and only if you can drop an evasion and lock evading weapon, such as a concussion mine.

 

'Forces' is an interesting word. I don't think anyone thinks that this is a guaranteed kill. It's counterable, obviously. It's challenging to pull off, but effective if you can. If the strike pilot can create and maintain a middling distance for blaster fire and a window for a point blank missile shot, no button helps. A scout has to recognise that that is about to happen and create distance to use a break, or get out of the firing arc, and othewise close distance to exploit better turning and close range blasters. Accepting tanking clusters by using using retros to get better firing positions and at least temporarily escape the scouts far more dangerous blasters is also using a strikes strength against a scouts weakness. These things don't tip the balance, but they decrease scouts the advantage and bring skill into the battle for both the scout and the strike. The scout has the easier end of that deal by quite a ways, but that's pretty obvious when you're saying things like 'Right, what you do is get right in there to the distance where the scout is deadliest, avoiding blaster fire maybe taking a missile in the face on the way, or just praying, while maintaining a missile lock of your own, and put that missile in his back pocket' .

 

Absolutely nothing that will help you versus a scout.

 

Hyperbole

 

If you can lock a concussion onto a scout in solo combat, you weren't fighting a scout, you were fighting a hamburger or other foodship. If he has disto missile break and blindly wastes that, then at most he's a cheeseburger.

 

A good battlescout will bring either 2 breaks on a 20 second cooldown each, or one on a 20 second cooldown and one on a 15 or even 10. He has no reason to ever allow himself to be struck by a missile in solo combat. Period.

 

We both know that's not always the case. No true scoutsman fallacy There would be no tactical value in forcing people to burn missile locks if it were. You're assuming that the scout is in total control of the starting conditions of the encounter, and no one said solo combat. He might be the scouts target, no one said anything about the scout only being targeted by him. Good scouts have huge targets on their backs. Even I'm under missile lock a ******** of the time and targeted by ships right through my sensor range. it's entirely possible, likely, even, that he's been taken out by overly aggressive or otherwise sub-optimal scout pilots that have gone for him without breaks up, an opportunity to be capitalised upon, no? The scout might be a machine, albeit an imaginary one, but the pilot isn't; exploit any lapses in diligence. It's not reliable, bit happens, so use it.

 

 

If the scout is at heavy range, of course you should shoot him with them. But this shouldn't be more than a couple hits. Still, this is definitely the approach to take if you can get it. The question is a scout that is attacking him, however, and I think you'd have a really hard time landing heavies on such a scout.

 

 

Agreed: not easy. Wingman helps a lot, but it's certainly not easy.

 

If they have either of those up, fly such that THEY CANNOT HIT YOU AT ALL. You aren't dogfighting them with those things active, you are food looking for a plate to lie down on. Fly past them, put a wall in between, burn your engine maneuver, whatever you need.

 

Just for emphasis, yeah sure . Again, correction accepted.

 

On the whole your post serves to emphasise that this is all stacked against the strike, which is appreciated. Getting a lock is hard, scouts have two breaks and good pilots use them well, closing to a distance where they can't use them before releasing a missile is hard, the scout can evade it, they get damage increasing system abilities, they have high evasion, making them harder to hit at range and very unlikely to hit off-centre, their properties and capabilities stack against you in a turn fight etc etc. We all said all that already. I tried to offer some ways to give him a better chance in a fight with them. I know they don't work very often, but they do work.

 

This general uphill struggle the T1 strike experiences in something it's ostensibly made for is of course one of the reasons it's not favoured for high level play, but it's not toothless, and if he's enthusiastic but not playing super-seriously, arm him with the understanding that this is always going to be very hard and rarely end well, but also arm him with some things he can try, and practice if he wants to fight.

Edited January 27, 2015 by MDVZ