A Noob's *Very* Long Rant About Combat

[Cody]

Not sure if the following still applies, as I ain't tried it myself for years:

What does work is going forward and backward through your target memory with +/- Those targets are locked as target.

[Venator Dha]

Not sure if the following still applies, as I ain't tried it myself for years:

What does work is going forward and backward through your target memory with +/- Those targets are locked as target.

Just tried it and it works. It must require the Target System Memory Expansion though? Not first on a Jameson's to buy list.

[ffutures]

so the cheap ones are only useful if your target is alone and low on power, in which case lasers are probably going to do the job anyway, and more often than not explode on launch (enemy ECM response seems WAY too fast on this, incidentally, shouldn't there be a teeny delay for the enemy to notice the alarm going off?)

As I said above, Auto-ECM is fitted as standard to all NPCs so long they have ECM at all... so this OXP compensates for that imbalance against the player.
Somewhere it has been stated in this forum that basic missiles could be used as defence against hardheads, but I never could lock or shoot another missile onto the (core) ECM hardened missiles when trying that.

I assume you're talking about the Combat Balance OXZ mentioned earlier in the thread - where can it be downloaded? It doesn't show up on the wiki or the game installer. And how badly does it screw up game balance in other respects?

[Norby]

If Oolite only sent 1-3 ships at a time

All ships are created right when you load a game or arrive into a new system, all are flying mostly independently and fighting even while you are docked so there is no such "sent" thing which would be adjustable easily. This is also a reason why we have time acceleration in developer versions only: for example a 4x speedup demand 4x computing power and degrade your FPS similarly due to the limits of your hardware (60->15).

You really should avoid dangerous systems and safe ones with dangerous neighbours also until you have not decent upgrades. An equipment can warn you before hyperjump if your experience is lower than suggested in the target system: Unsafe Systems Warning

[ffutures]

If Oolite only sent 1-3 ships at a time

All ships are created right when you load a game or arrive into a new system, all are flying mostly independently and fighting even while you are docked so there is no such "sent" thing which would be adjustable easily. This is also a reason why we have time acceleration in developer versions only: for example a 4x speedup demand 4x computing power and degrade your FPS similarly due to the limits of your hardware (60->15).

You really should avoid dangerous systems and safe ones with dangerous neighbours also until you have not decent upgrades. An equipment can warn you before hyperjump if your experience is lower than suggested in the target system: Unsafe Systems Warning

This isn't related to the misjump warning device, is it?

[Norby]

This isn't related to the misjump warning device, is it?

Is not. Moreover misjump analyzer is not for new players imho due to is not perfect.

[ffutures]

This isn't related to the misjump warning device, is it?

Is not. Moreover misjump analyzer is not for new players imho due to is not perfect.

That's one way of describing it

[Anonymissimus]

I assume you're talking about the Combat Balance OXZ mentioned earlier in the thread - where can it be downloaded? It doesn't show up on the wiki or the game installer. And how badly does it screw up game balance in other respects?

I has no wiki page apparently. Called Auto-ECM in the addons manager. I see it like that it does not screw up balance but establishes it instead. Oolite does, as a real time game, abuse the ability of AIs to do multiple things simultaneously and in incredibly quick succession and is therefore balanced against the player. Many real time games make things hard for the player because of this, a bad habit. A human cannot do that, we have other strengths. Best results can be achieved if humans are assisted by AI. In this case, it's an immediate reaction to a missile being fired instead of needing some reaction time. Tends to drain energy fast though.

[Diziet Sma]

I recall one time, off to the side, there must have been a big naval engagement going on.. and somebody set off a q-bomb, as blue globes suddenly erupted way off in the distance.. had to have been a big fight, as the fireworks went on for what seemed like several minutes, across hundreds of kilometres.)

What NPC is using the bomb ? So far I've only seen it happening with contract targets from random hits OXP.
Would make some sense for the navy, as it's pretty effective against thagoids ... thargons are without injectors and usually around in high numbers.

I was too far away to know for sure.. and it was a long time ago. I do use Random Hits though.. and almost certainly had Galactic Navy installed back in those days, so it's possible that a mark accidentally got tangled up with a big Naval battle..

a cop, apparently intentionally, taking a missile to protect the player.

Hm, how could a ship intentionally take a missile targeted at another ship... ?

If I recall, the Viper zoomed in between a Commander and his opponent, whilst a missile happened to be enroute.. it wasn't really intentional, of course, but it gave the appearance of someone making a noble sacrifice. Hence my use of the word 'apparently'.

[ffutures]

I assume you're talking about the Combat Balance OXZ mentioned earlier in the thread - where can it be downloaded? It doesn't show up on the wiki or the game installer. And how badly does it screw up game balance in other respects?

I has no wiki page apparently. Called Auto-ECM in the addons manager. I see it like that it does not screw up balance but establishes it instead. Oolite does, as a real time game, abuse the ability of AIs to do multiple things simultaneously and in incredibly quick succession and is therefore balanced against the player. Many real time games make things hard for the player because of this, a bad habit. A human cannot do that, we have other strengths. Best results can be achieved if humans are assisted by AI. In this case, it's an immediate reaction to a missile being fired instead of needing some reaction time. Tends to drain energy fast though.

OK - I've long since decided against installing that one due to power consumption, didn't realise that was what was being discussed. I prefer to wait a few seconds to see if I can get multiple missiles with a single pulse and/or outrun them instead.

[Anonymissimus]

If I recall, the Viper zoomed in between a Commander and his opponent, whilst a missile happened to be enroute.. it wasn't really intentional, of course, but it gave the appearance of someone making a noble sacrifice. Hence my use of the word 'apparently'.

Did the cop die even ? Viper interceptors are well equipped I thought, with 1 shield upgrade at least, they should be able to endure a missile hit without destruction...

OK - I've long since decided against installing that one due to power consumption, didn't realise that was what was being discussed. I prefer to wait a few seconds to see if I can get multiple missiles with a single pulse and/or outrun them instead.

Indeed, that's its disadvantage. I often toggle it on/off because of this. But most of the time it saves some time...or a life if someone bangs a missile onto your nose (and it's not a hardhead).

[Diziet Sma]

An equipment can warn you before hyperjump if your experience is lower than suggested in the target system: Unsafe Systems Warning

Thanks.. I was going to mention that OXZ, and forgot!

This isn't related to the misjump warning device, is it?

Is not. Moreover misjump analyzer is not for new players imho due to is not perfect.

That's one way of describing it

One way, yes.. given that the only way it can detect misjumps before they happen is by intentionally creating them itself, then warning the player. My incidence of misjumps increased several hundred percent, thanks to that OXP. So it was quickly removed.

If I recall, the Viper zoomed in between a Commander and his opponent, whilst a missile happened to be enroute.. it wasn't really intentional, of course, but it gave the appearance of someone making a noble sacrifice. Hence my use of the word 'apparently'.

Did the cop die even ? Viper interceptors are well equipped I thought, with 1 shield upgrade at least, they should be able to endure a missile hit without destruction...

I'm only recounting someone else's story, so I have no idea.. I think it did die, though. Not that strange, really, it had been a long and hard-fought battle, as I recall, so the cop had probably taken considerable damage.

[Diziet Sma]

I has no wiki page apparently. Called Auto-ECM in the addons manager. I see it like that it does not screw up balance but establishes it instead. Oolite does, as a real time game, abuse the ability of AIs to do multiple things simultaneously and in incredibly quick succession and is therefore balanced against the player. Many real time games make things hard for the player because of this, a bad habit. A human cannot do that, we have other strengths. Best results can be achieved if humans are assisted by AI. In this case, it's an immediate reaction to a missile being fired instead of needing some reaction time. Tends to drain energy fast though.

Agreed..

My memory on this is probably faulty, but I seem to recall in the original Elite that NPCs had the same fast reflexes when it came to triggering the ECM. So that's probably where this "feature" of Oolite started from. It would be nice to see it fixed.

[Alex]

Welcome to the Ooniverse My ammo crate,
As you'll have noticed, heaps of help available. And I think they covered most of the stuff you need.

But.. I don't think they stressed enough just how important it is as a Jamison, Stay outta the space lanes! On entering a systeme, Fly at 90degrees away for at least 10 seconds before heading to planet.
By far the cheapest and easiest way to make the trades, get the dosh, buy the gear.
Then Extract full revenge for all the noobies woes.

... but be glad you missed version 1.80, where the combat difficulty inadvertently got overly ramped up.

<grumbles>

Wasn't actually aware of that, but explains my Caddy not being Uber with it's 3 tail turrets. I like 1.80
In this incarnation, have just under 14,000 confirmed kills, so no noobie at combat and still get my Iron clad ass handed to me more often than you'd think.
Makes the Oooniverse that much more unpredictable and addictive in my opinion.

[Cody]

I like 1.80... no noobie at combat and still get my Iron clad ass handed to me more often than you'd think.
Makes the Oooniverse that much more unpredictable and addictive in my opinion.

Aye, I rather liked 1.80 too - but 'twas deemed too tough.