Oolite Tactics

[phkb]

The original tactics wiki page was a bit light on for content, so I've put together a slightly more comprehensive document in it's place:  Oolite Tactics

Let me know if I've missed anything critical, or if something doesn't make sense. Maybe I've said too much and it should be pared back. Comments welcome.

[Cody]

The linked Dealing with Thargoids page could probably do with updating too - things have changed in interstellar space.

[another_commander]

Very good stuff. Seems to cover most cases nicely. One tactic that I did not see mentioned but can be also effective (although it may seem counter-intuitive) is: as a rookie pilot, if you find convoys heading towards the planet, join them and fly close to the mother. The journey will be long and maybe boring, but your chance of survival goes up. In case of pirate attack, stay close to mother and hope that a stray laser shot will hit it; try to force it even, if possible. If that happens, you now have a group of fighters on your side, as they will attack the pirates trying to defend their boss.

If this seems too time consuming to be enjoyable, keep in mind that only the first trips need to be like this. Profits from trading increase exponentially so if you manage to go on for just a few long, boring trips, you will be able to start equipping your ship and then maybe switch to another set of tactics.

[phkb]

Thanks, a_c, added.

@Cody - do you mean the bit about the Thargoids being somewhat reluctant to move out of your way? My observations is that Thargoids will start moving randomly once they start ejecting Thargons. Would that be an accurate assessment?

[Astrobe]

Maybe mention the correct buy order for equipment: sell pulse laser to buy injectors, then ECM and beam laser.

Also, at the beginning, since you can't really do anything else but trade to buy the basic equipment, one should advise players not to buy equipment as soon as they have the money, but only when they have excess money after filling their cargo bay - not counting gems/plat/gold, which can absorb lots of credits.

The reason why this is the optimal buy order is because the pulse laser does nothing especially against ships with high energy regen like Ferdies (you can overheat a beam laser on them and they'll barely be on low energy...). Combat is therefore out of question, so all they can do is flee on injectors (Ebortsa's lucky charm helps with that). But a beam laser without ECM is also of little use, because the player often has to face multiple ships with multiple pylons (and they more often than not have all of their missiles...); and as soon as you bring one of them to low energy, it will fire all of its missiles and almost the only option here is again to flee on injectors. The bottom line is that they won't survive without injectors (spending one hour masslocked and dodging will bore you to death too...) and engaging combat without ECM is also not a good idea. Until you have those three, all you can do is Torus, be masslocked and de-masslock maybe with injectors (because, hey, you can't identify them until you have yet another expensive piece of equipment) for maximum safety.

Additional pieces of advice:
- if you go the contracts route, keep track of the standard credits-per-days rate so you don't take too juicy contracts and end-up followed by half a dozen of assassins in almost every system.
- shorter jumps are safer because you'll have more fuel for escaping with injectors.
- gems/plat/gold for extra profits if your cargo bay is full and still have credits to invest.

[Cody]

- do you mean the bit about the Thargoids being somewhat reluctant to move out of your way?

No - the use of energy bombs, which thankfully are no longer core kit (and are not necessarily an ideal tactic in interstellar space now), is what I was meaning.

If you manage to destroy all the Thargoids, congratulate yourself. Then, scoop up all those harmless Thargons.

Warships keep on appearing now - you might splash all the welcoming committee at midway, but more will come. Which of course means that all those 'harmless' drones may re-activate - splash them all! I don't think there's a limit to how many warships may appear - a dev would know - but I once spent over thirty minutes at midway splashing warships and still they came. Should Interstellar Rescue be mentioned, and if so, how? Subtly, a mere hint, or fully?

[phkb]

Thanks everyone, I think I've included all the suggestions in one form or another. Let me know if something else springs to mind.

[Rustem]

Good addition to the Missile options is information(links) about hardened and multi-warhead missiles:

a universal missile (from I-Missile OXP, CaptSolo):
- I-Missile, very fast, highly destructive, and ECM resistant. Simply the best missile on the market.

a multi-warhead missiles, vary modification (from Nexus Missile OXP, UK_Eliter):
- Nexus Missile, provides various multi-warhead, semi-automatically-targetting, missiles.

an against thargoids missiles (from Fer-de-Lance 3G OXP, UK_Eliter):
- Sweeper-resistant navy missile, fast, powerful naval missile, designed for use against thargoid mine-sweepers and other powers thargoid carriers, battleships, cruisers.

May not full info, only links to them. Full info may be locate to the Missile tactics page.

[phkb]

Thanks, Rustem. I've added the first two, as they are specific missile OXP's. I haven't added the third one, as it's primarily a ship OXP, and there could be some unintended game balance issues from including it (some of the 3G variants are quite powerful). Even with some of the items I've mentioned specifically there are some balance issues to consider. I want to try to avoid making that part of the document another OXP list, so I've now added links to both the main lists (from the download manager, and the wiki itself). But I think with the list that's there now, there's a sufficient starting point for players to help them find what meets their needs.
Thanks again.

[Redspear]

While I've made the case for the beam laser before (can't be damaged or truly exhausted), the idea that injectors + fuel = escape is not necessarily true.

Pirates can have injectors and when they do they will often have more fuel than the player. They won't always have as fast a ship as the mk III but they could have one that is faster, in the case of the asp, significantly so.

So injecting, without first getting a fast enemy to 'back off' is often expensive and sometimes futile. Even the slower ships can cause you to burn more fuel to escape if they have injectors. Against mobs of enemies however, it's often the beginners best bet.

Should the player manage to take down a pirate and perhaps scare off the others (quite possible if facing up to three, maybe four sidewinders/kraits and equipped with a beam laser), there will be a not insignificant bounty (likely enough to refund a missile and have some change).

Injectors are great, so much so I think they should be standard issue but sometimes, just like the pulse laser, they're next to useless and that tends to go unstated.

[burbon]

me playing on Adder. my recomendation is in close range with numerous enemies try fist to destroy most weak(cobras, morrays, kraits), leaving FerdeLance, AspMark last of all. few times i met targoids in interstellar space, they can destroy full upgraded Adder easy. thats why i keeping the only pylon with q-bomb just for that case(jumping to interstellar space)

[Cody]

Welcome aboard, Commander... life can be tough in an Adder!

[Diziet Sma]

me playing on Adder. my recomendation is in close range with numerous enemies try fist to destroy most weak(cobras, morrays, kraits), leaving FerdeLance, AspMark last of all.

That's generally a good tactic at any time. The smaller/weaker ships can do you just as much harm as the big ones, but are a lot easier to kill.. so getting rid of them first is the fastest way to reduce the number of bad guys shooting at you.

[Astrobe]

I believe Fuel Tank OXP (3LY of fuel on a pylon) should be mentioned. It's a pretty good life insurance. The price tag is a bit ridiculous given how flexible it is. OTOH a more "fair" price tag (I think around 400Cr would be more correct as it is at least as valuable as a hardhead) would make it not affordable in the very early game, when it is the most needed; and a higher price tag won't prevent its use in the later stages of the game anyway. At least it has a medium TL requirement so there's more than one reason not to use it carelessly.

[phkb]

Thanks for the suggestions, article has been updated.