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News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: Combat Help  (Read 8165 times)

Alex

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Re: Combat Help
« Reply #15 on: May 10, 2019, 02:17:13 PM »

(I'll just add: I know some people mostly play with their flagship set on autopilot, and it works for them. Not exactly the "intended" way to play, but it can work, and if you happen to find that fun, then hey, why not?

Also: the first few missions have you commanding smaller ships, which has a more action-y feel. As you get to cruisers and capital ships, the feel of those is a lot slower, and may be more to your preference, with victory in large part being about tactical positioning.)
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goduranus

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Re: Combat Help
« Reply #16 on: May 12, 2019, 07:43:32 AM »

I'll just add: I know some people mostly play with their flagship set on autopilot, and it works for them. Not exactly the "intended" way to play, but it can work, and if you happen to find that fun, then hey, why not?

I think it is partially the result of battles getting bigger and bigger(I remember at one old patch the player's fleet caps out at 100 supply points, but now a fleet worth 200 is a minimum for fighting starbases) and situational awareness becoming more important than piloting skill as a result.

Although, these day I do often find myself manually piloting ... a tanker equipped with Operations Center :P
« Last Edit: May 12, 2019, 06:20:39 PM by goduranus »
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eidolad

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Re: Combat Help
« Reply #17 on: May 12, 2019, 12:33:18 PM »

The simulator is actually a tough school.  You are alone in that ship and the enemy is focusing entirely on you.  To learn your ship:  begin by selecting

a) weaker enemy ships.  freighters/tanks with pop guns.  Learn to close with enemy, fire up to max flux, move away, reduce flux etc.). 

b) slower but powerful ships.  Learn to close with superior enemy, actually hit them, and get away, all without overloading.  When to have shields up...when not to.  When to flux vents...and how to dodge when the big ships pops a Reaper at you.  Get better at scoring on that big ship.

c) Only then move up to equivalent enemy ships.

But a more easy school is via a battlefield "buddy system" (many variants exist):

When the battle begins, give some orders:

a) assign a combat ship to escort you...that ship is going to stay nearby (this adds more risk to that ship since their locus of movement is "close to you".  But you are Da Boss).

b) pick another combat ship that you would like to buddy up with...stay on their flank and help THEM.  Keep your back to your buddy if possible when some other enemy wants to focus on you.  That way, your mutual point defense works together against nasty things like Salamander missiles.

other general ideas:

a) weapons on autofire...just pilot, control shields, and manage flux. 

b) see your weapon ranges.  For your main guns:  switch to them to update the range indicators, then switch away to some non-existent weapon group (I never have more than four actual weapon groups).  The game area will still display the most recent weapon arcs/ranges for you.

c) In .91a that the zoom out feature is enhanced so you can really zoom out.   So you could pause combat...zoom out, and take a minute to see if you are a good place.  Or is a bad place?  Pick a direction and bug out.

edit: well it SEEMED to me in my first .91a playthrough that zoom out feature was enhanced but that might have just been due to lack of sleep.  It seemed that my Hammerhead looked a bit smaller on default zoom that I was used to...

« Last Edit: May 13, 2019, 04:28:38 PM by eidolad »
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