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Author Topic: The 'I suck at combat' thread.  (Read 16571 times)

tylertoo

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The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« on: March 02, 2019, 02:51:28 PM »

Newb here.  I've played through the combat tutorials and the campaign tutorial, and I pretty much suck at combat.  Specifically, I'm piloting only the Hammerhead and trying to strafe using the shift key.  I find it very awkward to manage the shift key, WASD, shields and alternating weapons all at the same time.  I have not been pausing in combat but maybe I should. 

I'm an old guy, and reflexes are gone anyway, but I would like to know if there are things I could do that might make combat less awkward, particularly for my left hand on the keyboard.  Or maybe I just need to practice.  Or put it on autopilot ;).

Thanks for any tips.  Other than that, I'm loving the game.
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Re-bot

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2019, 03:52:17 PM »

the is an option in the settings that inverts shift. this will let you have strafe on by default and shift will then turn it off (opposite action).
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Inventor Raccoon

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2019, 04:02:20 PM »

With a Hammerhead, you might find it easiest to set your front hardpoints and turrets to autofire, and only manually control your missiles. That way, all you need to concentrate on is firing missiles at vulnerable enemies, movement, shields and Accelerated Ammo Feeder (just press F when you're ready to unload on an enemy - it recharges quite quick so use it often). It sounds like a lot but with a bit of practice you should be able to get the hand of it.

Putting your ship on autopilot might not be the best idea. Your friendly ships act with the expectation that there'll be a flagship, and fight a bit passively to avoid unnecessary ship losses. It's best if you're piloting manually, so that you can try and make pushes or risky movements.
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Shad

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2019, 04:14:06 PM »

Newb here.  I've played through the combat tutorials and the campaign tutorial, and I pretty much suck at combat.  Specifically, I'm piloting only the Hammerhead and trying to strafe using the shift key.  I find it very awkward to manage the shift key, WASD, shields and alternating weapons all at the same time.  I have not been pausing in combat but maybe I should. 

I'm an old guy, and reflexes are gone anyway, but I would like to know if there are things I could do that might make combat less awkward, particularly for my left hand on the keyboard.  Or maybe I just need to practice.  Or put it on autopilot ;).

Thanks for any tips.  Other than that, I'm loving the game.
Hammerhead is not a very newbie friendly ship. It's relatively slow, it has very narrow arcs of fire and massive turret blind spots. Start with a mobile ship. The Wolf is probably one of the best for that. It's got speed, it's got generous weapon choices. At destroyer level, get Medusa for the same reasons.

Or just take it easy on the piloting and sit back in a carrier like the Drover or Heron behind friendly ships.
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Thaago

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2019, 04:43:31 PM »

Newb here.  I've played through the combat tutorials and the campaign tutorial, and I pretty much suck at combat.  Specifically, I'm piloting only the Hammerhead and trying to strafe using the shift key.  I find it very awkward to manage the shift key, WASD, shields and alternating weapons all at the same time.  I have not been pausing in combat but maybe I should. 

I'm an old guy, and reflexes are gone anyway, but I would like to know if there are things I could do that might make combat less awkward, particularly for my left hand on the keyboard.  Or maybe I just need to practice.  Or put it on autopilot ;).

Thanks for any tips.  Other than that, I'm loving the game.
Hammerhead is not a very newbie friendly ship. It's relatively slow, it has very narrow arcs of fire and massive turret blind spots. Start with a mobile ship. The Wolf is probably one of the best for that. It's got speed, it's got generous weapon choices. At destroyer level, get Medusa for the same reasons.

Or just take it easy on the piloting and sit back in a carrier like the Drover or Heron behind friendly ships.

I disagree with the first part of this; it sounds like the OP is having some trouble getting used to managing lots of things at once, and a highly mobile ship is usually worse in this regard (phase skimmer is pretty unforgiving, and the Medusa has an Omni shield!). Hammerhead is a good ship for beginners because it doesn't have those fancy tricks but has the firepower to be solid.

Carrier piloting is a good idea though - this can give practice at handling ships without the pressure of being in the front line.

With a Hammerhead, you might find it easiest to set your front hardpoints and turrets to autofire, and only manually control your missiles. That way, all you need to concentrate on is firing missiles at vulnerable enemies, movement, shields and Accelerated Ammo Feeder (just press F when you're ready to unload on an enemy - it recharges quite quick so use it often). It sounds like a lot but with a bit of practice you should be able to get the hand of it.

...
^

90% of the time I fly with all guns on autofire and just concentrate on maneuvering, missiles, and deciding if the shield is on or off. Technically I'm wasting flux by keeping the HE guns firing at shields but... most of the time its not that important. Pausing to switch groups is a pretty good idea because things can get pretty hectic as well. Also, if you ever want to hold fire completely without toggling every group, the 'x' key does that by default as a toggle.


the is an option in the settings that inverts shift. this will let you have strafe on by default and shift will then turn it off (opposite action).
I usually just hold down shift because I'm stuck in my ways, but changing it to the inverted mode where you don't need to is a good idea.
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Megas

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2019, 04:50:28 PM »

Quote
Technically I'm wasting flux by keeping the HE guns firing at shields but... most of the time its not that important.
I do this too even if I fire weapons manually.  One, even HE puts some hard flux on shield (if not much) and two, either AI sometimes drops shields and eats HE anyway, or keeps shields up and not try to armor-tank kinetic shots.  Enemy may try to flicker shields if you only have kinetics, but not if you mix HE with kinetics.

Ditto when I use fragmentation weapons like Vulcan, Flak, or Thumper.
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tylertoo

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2019, 07:46:52 PM »

Thanks everyone for the great tips!  I had no idea you could invert the shift function so it's always on; I will definitely try that.  I will stick with the Hammerhead for now (and possibly think about a carrier later) and will set front hardpoints and turrets to autofire as suggested.  Those two changes alone, along with a lot of practice, should help.  Onward!
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AxleMC131

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2019, 08:43:49 PM »

Hammerhead is not a very newbie friendly ship. It's relatively slow, it has very narrow arcs of fire and massive turret blind spots.

I wholly disagree with this. The Hammerhead is, after the Wolf, THE definitive beginner ship. It has one spot in the rear where turret coverage is limited, yes, but otherwise I don't agree with your points at all.

The Hammerhead has:
- Perfectly adequate mobility for a destroyer
- Above average hull integrity and armour protection
- A wide shield and good flux stats
- A versatile but also punchy weapons loadout that's almost impossible to equip badly
- Good turret coverage to the front and sides, and the ability to converge every single weapon forwards
- A brutally simple "press F to profit" ship system with basically zero drawbacks to using
- A low maintenance profile

And it's also the ship the player is taught to use in the main menu tutorials, so when they start playing the game they've also got some experience in it. All round it's a solid destroyer that can fulfill basically any role and is extremely easy to use.

(The Wolf I would say beats the Hammerhead on all accounts, aside from being a frigate with a narrow shield and much lower survivability if it gets hit. The Wolf also has capable weapons and the flux grid to back them up, plus carries what I consider the most forgiving ship system in the game that allows quick escapes if the player screws up badly.)



@tylertoo Yup glad you know about the invert shift function now, many people have trouble with the default strafe controls so knowing that you can flip it is always handy. Definitely keep with the Hammerhead since it's so easy to learn, but if you'd prefer something smaller and nippier (but also less able to take punishment) the Wolf frigate is strongly recommended. Other than that, everything InventorRaccoon said I second.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2019, 08:50:51 PM by AxleMC131 »
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TaLaR

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2019, 08:57:55 PM »

Quote
Technically I'm wasting flux by keeping the HE guns firing at shields but... most of the time its not that important.
I do this too even if I fire weapons manually.  One, even HE puts some hard flux on shield (if not much) and two, either AI sometimes drops shields and eats HE anyway, or keeps shields up and not try to armor-tank kinetic shots.  Enemy may try to flicker shields if you only have kinetics, but not if you mix HE with kinetics.

Ditto when I use fragmentation weapons like Vulcan, Flak, or Thumper.

Yep, not really a waste.

Another option to prevent shield-flicker is threat of heavy near insta-hit weapon (like Heavy Blaster or Phase Lance). For these, just pointing the gun at enemy within range produces similar effect (and if they try to armor tank anyway, you can punish them).
« Last Edit: March 02, 2019, 09:05:05 PM by TaLaR »
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Shad

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2019, 01:45:10 AM »

Hammerhead is not a very newbie friendly ship. It's relatively slow, it has very narrow arcs of fire and massive turret blind spots.

I wholly disagree with this. The Hammerhead is, after the Wolf, THE definitive beginner ship. It has one spot in the rear where turret coverage is limited, yes, but otherwise I don't agree with your points at all.
I'm just going off my experience. Playing Hammerhead early on, nearly made me drop the game due to constant frustration. The Hammerhead is very prone to getting flanked and the bulk of its firepower if forward fixed. It's completely fine when you already know what you are doing, but when you are a beginner who is still getting to grips with manoeuvering, the ship is a nightmare.

As a beginner, I needed a ship that could turn on a dime, with good mobility. The Wolf/Medusa is perfect for this. If you use the flicker defensively, it forgives you for mistakes like being flanked.

But in the end I settled on a Heron in the first playthrough where I survived until the endgame.
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Euphytose

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2019, 03:09:18 AM »

The Medusa is definitely, at least in my opinion, the best player piloted destroyer. As for the Hammerhead, I also agree that fixed mounts aren't easy to use. The Enforcer may fit the best "beginner" ship type since it can hit at a very generous angle, is resilient, and has a very simple ship system.
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From a Faster Time

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #11 on: March 03, 2019, 03:35:07 AM »

Besides what everybody else has told you, it's just practice and getting used to it.
To put it simply when you start off, every single thing you do manually, once you get used to certain things you do them automatically. The more used to stuff you get the more complexity you add on as your capabilities expand.
In essence, try simulator to practice some ship control, was very helpful to learn any engagement I felt was difficult.
Second, try to pilot the ship yourself as much as possible, handing it off to the AI is more of a "Yeah just clean it up, you can't possibly *** this up".
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2_Wycked

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #12 on: March 03, 2019, 05:16:56 AM »

the is an option in the settings that inverts shift. this will let you have strafe on by default and shift will then turn it off (opposite action).

Man, I probably have a hundred hours in this game and had no idea you could do this! I've always struggled with strafing so will def try this.
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tylertoo

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #13 on: March 03, 2019, 06:05:04 AM »

Thanks again folks, checking in here for help has proven even more helpful than I expected.  What a great community!

So I sheepishly admit I had forgotten about the 'F' key to accelerate ammo, even though it was in the tutorial.  I hadn't been using that at all!

Anyway, based on all this great advice, I'm going to try this for now.  I will:
    --Invert the shift key so strafing to the cursor is default
    --Stick with Hammerhead (can't really afford a new ship now anyway and don't want to start over)
    --Leave all guns on autofire as Thaago suggests
    --Remember to use F for accelerated ammo!
    --Remember to use X to hold autofire!
    --Focus on missiles, shielding, venting and maneuvering
    --Practice, practice, practice!

In essence, try simulator to practice some ship control, was very helpful to learn any engagement I felt was difficult.

Where do I find this simulator?  Is this a reference to the missions?

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Cyan Leader

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Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #14 on: March 03, 2019, 06:27:51 AM »

On the loadout screen.

Spoiler

[close]
The "Run Simulation" button near the bottom.
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