Author Topic: Death of a fleet....  (Read 1372 times)

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Offline wodin (OP)

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Death of a fleet....
« on: March 30, 2011, 03:43:54 PM »
Well my Construction Jump ship was attacked a destroyed (my first combat)...so I sent my Battle task force into the jump point the fleet consisted of a mix of anti missile ships, anti ship missile ships and beam ships...my ships where all at about the 8100 ton size with fair weapon power....I assigned all the fire controls previously....anyway before I knew it the fleet was destroyed by 800 ton enemy ships firing beam weapons and gauss cannons...they also went a a fair speed at some points...and there where at least 25 contacts.they weren't called precursors so I suppose it was a very hostile NRP race......so to my questions...

1. My construction ship was destroyed before I knew what had happened...are there any settings so the game turn will pause at certain events i.e enemy contact or when an enemy takes a shot etc?

2. I had thermal contacts but didn't see any thing else however they must have come close...am I doing something wrong? My max active radar was 55mk. My ships did fire at times but they didn't seem to fire enough....some never fired at all even though the enemy must have been close....I thought there might have been another screen similar to the system map but a combat one showing the positions of all the ships at a tactical level....My ships did fire missiles and beam weapons at times but I only had thermal contacts showing on the system map.

3. Combat was confusing....how do I assign targets ship and how do I manouver...is there anything like an intercept order or evade order or retreat etc etc?

4. How automatic is combat? Is all the manouvering done under the hood?

5. Are small fast ships with a beam weapon and lots of them the best way to go?


Thanks for any help....
5. I had 25 thermal contacts...does this mean there was 25 enemy ships or could say one ship give off a few thermal contacts due to moving?

 

Offline James Patten

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Re: Death of a fleet....
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2011, 04:54:32 PM »
Combat is best done by using the F3 system window to see what the current situation is, and there's a combat summary window, might be the F9 button.
 

Offline Shadow

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Re: Death of a fleet....
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2011, 05:28:54 PM »
The enemies you encountered are best left alone till you have ships that can outrun the 800-ton contacts you mentioned. Their meson cannons, as you may have noticed, ignore both armour and shields. Therefore, your best defense against them is sheer speed, so to keep your vessels outside their firing range but within yours.
 

Offline Andrew

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Re: Death of a fleet....
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2011, 05:39:41 PM »
1. My construction ship was destroyed before I knew what had happened...are there any settings so the game turn will pause at certain events i.e enemy contact or when an enemy takes a shot etc?

The game normally pauses when a ship takes damage or detects hostiles. In this case your construction ship probably had no sensors and did not detect the attackers until they opened fire and then died in the same 5 second impulse

2. I had thermal contacts but didn't see any thing else however they must have come close...am I doing something wrong? My max active radar was 55mk. My ships did fire at times but they didn't seem to fire enough....some never fired at all even though the enemy must have been close....I thought there might have been another screen similar to the system map but a combat one showing the positions of all the ships at a tactical level....My ships did fire missiles and beam weapons at times but I only had thermal contacts showing on the system map.

I suspect you did not have your active sensors on. One possible reason for this is if your ships had just jumped in they would not be able to use sensors for some time(I forget how long but it is much longer if you came though a jump gate and did not use jump engines)

3. Combat was confusing....how do I assign targets ship and how do I manouver...is there anything like an intercept order or evade order or retreat etc etc?
No such orders. On th ecombat screen you assifn targets to fire controls but see above if you where under jump delay no active sensors so you cannot engage

4. How automatic is combat? Is all the manouvering done under the hood?

Things live evasive maneuverign yes, you need tio tell your ships where to go on the system scrren and they will move in that direction firing at the targets you set and point defense will fore as per the rules you set

5. Are small fast ships with a beam weapon and lots of them the best way to go?

No
It sounds to me like you got ambushed by small ships coming out of jump , if that fleet had attacked you in open space they would have had to close several million kilometres through your missile fire and if you had enougth missiels would have been wiped out. Without knowing your designs I cant tell if they where more than you could cope with but it seems like you gave them an ideal target :( either becasue you where under jump effects or had not turned on your active sensots

Thanks for any help....
5. I had 25 thermal contacts...does this mean there was 25 enemy ships or could say one ship give off a few thermal contacts due to moving?

25 ships
 

Offline ardem

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Re: Death of a fleet....
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2011, 05:45:12 PM »
Combat is a tricky thing to master, I am still learning tricks of the trade.

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1. My construction ship was destroyed before I knew what had happened...are there any settings so the game turn will pause at certain events i.e enemy contact or when an enemy takes a shot etc?

The game normally stops on spotting a hostile contact on thermal, since these a small size ships and I am assuming the thermal sensor on you construction ship is not very powerfully, you may been destroyed and not seen it coming.

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2. I had thermal contacts but didn't see any thing else however they must have come close...am I doing something wrong? My max active radar was 55mk. My ships did fire at times but they didn't seem to fire enough....some never fired at all even though the enemy must have been close....I thought there might have been another screen similar to the system map but a combat one showing the positions of all the ships at a tactical level....My ships did fire missiles and beam weapons at times but I only had thermal contacts showing on the system map.

This is where I was confused first combat, the ranges for missiles compared to laser weapons it totally vast, basicly treat your laser weapons like point defence systems, even if there against other ships, you have to be basicly ontop of each other to use them. Your missile systems both AS and AM are your range systems, and primary attacking point. Also do not use Automated fire, to my mind it does not behave as you or I would it also never fires when you  want and always fires when you don't want. First thing I do is turn off every ship off automated fire.


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3. Combat was confusing....how do I assign targets ship and how do I manouver...is there anything like an intercept order or evade order or retreat etc etc?
I use a mix of 3-4 windows in combat, Windows number 1 is of course the system map, I use this view the enemy locations and visual represent targets. Window Number 2 is the combat window (The cross hair icon in the system map view) This is where I assign targets to Fire Control - Note One fire control for each target, you also set you point defence options here if you choose automated fire it goes and resets all your point defence and fire control options this is where it ticks me off. You select the fire control and then click a target if a weapon system is in range the target will show up in the bottom left hand corner if not, then perhaps ecm are involved. Window 3 the order screen this allows be to direct the fleet to the target, to the jump gate or a stop. Window 4 the ships icon, I use this for assigning damage control, actually would be great if you could do this in the combat screen but that another suggestion for steve.


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4. How automatic is combat? Is all the manouvering done under the hood?
Forget manoeuvring, you either run to the target or run to the nearest jump gate. And when the enemy even has more then 1000 m/s speed advantage he will always run you down.
There is no evasive actions to avoid missiles if that what you mean.


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5. Are small fast ships with a beam weapon and lots of them the best way to go?
This depends on your enemy, but speed is important, I have killed off lots of fast beam enemies with missiles at range. If you are low tech at the moment I would recommend mainly missile ships, because your lack of speed, a laser beam ship or two just in case these smaller ships come in range or all our of missiles.



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Thanks for any help....
5. I had 25 thermal contacts...does this mean there was 25 enemy ships or could say one ship give off a few thermal contacts due to moving?
Thermals contacts can also be torpedos and missiles, but you can normally distinguish them.


I hope this helps a little it does take some time, the more battle you have the more ohhhh! moments you will have.
 

Offline wodin (OP)

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Re: Death of a fleet....
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2011, 09:16:21 PM »
Thanks everyone....