Oolite Bulletins

Hi there, I'm having some problems trying to kill some targets from Random Hits. I've no problem with the "cheap" ones, but now I'm going for the "second stage" targets. I've noted that they're always with a bunch of goons, they all fire at me at once and I can't do anything but run or be blasted. Sometimes I can get them from behind, shot at my target (always the head of the convoy) and then it goes through a witch hole, so I can go through the hole and "isolate" the target from the goons. Then I have to fight him "one on one" and i can kill him. The problem is that I make this trick work 1 of 20 times or something like that, is very frustrating. So my question is if I'm having a wrong approach, if you have some hints or tips regarding this kind of target......

Thanks in advice, commanders....

iperich wrote:

Hi there, I'm having some problems trying to kill some targets from Random Hits. I've no problem with the "cheap" ones, but now I'm going for the "second stage" targets. I've noted that they're always with a bunch of goons, they all fire at me at once and I can't do anything but run or be blasted. Sometimes I can get them from behind, shot at my target (always the head of the convoy) and then it goes through a witch hole, so I can go through the hole and "isolate" the target from the goons. Then I have to fight him "one on one" and i can kill him. The problem is that I make this trick work 1 of 20 times or something like that, is very frustrating. So my question is if I'm having a wrong approach, if you have some hints or tips regarding this kind of target......

If you don't already have them, get military lasers on fore and aft facings, injectors, extra energy unit, and if you can afford them both shield boosters. Then, here's what I do.

When approaching the target, keep a close eye out for the small specks of them ahead, and drop out of torus drive before they get on to the scanner. Get just into scanner range on short bursts of torus, injectors or even normal flight for the slower marks.

Staying at 20km plus, quickly lock up a few of the escorts into target memory, pick one, brake to low speed, and blast them hard with your military laser. Then, flip over, accelerate to full normal speed, and blast another one with your aft laser. With any luck you have two dead or fleeing.

Keep cycling fore and aft lasers to keep them cool - use side lasers too if you're a good enough shot. So long as you stay above 15km range from the pack, the escorts with beam lasers won't be able to hit you, and the ones with military lasers won't be able to aim well enough to reliably hit you, and should overheat soon enough.

Then your tactics depend on what the mark is:
- if it's a fast ship with injectors, hit your own injectors and you can probably leave any non-injector escorts (most of them) behind.
- if it's a slow freighter, just keep flying in a roughly straight line away. Draw off the weaker escorts and kill them while they're out of effective range, then go back for the freighter later.
- if it's a fighter but without injectors, you can still use your injectors to keep at long range and draw off any injector-equipped escorts they have, but you're probably going to have to fight the pack as a pack.

iperich wrote:

I've noted that they're always with a bunch of goons, they all fire at me at once and I can't do anything but run or be blasted.

It is also the result of a change in Oolite 1.77. Before, their weapons didn't heat up and their shots were evenly distributed in time. (Actually their weapons got a random heatup time after each shot)

With Oolite 1.77, the targets have the same laser heatup behaviour as the player. That means that they initially can hit you faster than before. But, when you survived that initial salvo, they will hit you less than before. This is indeed other behaviour than Little Bear calibrated the strength of the escorts for. If this change indeed means that the initial salvo is to strong for a standard ship with only shields from the core game, and the only solution is to run away, the laser strength of the escorts of the second type of taret maybe has to be tuned down.

Remember too, that a well-planned hit isn't simply about rushing in with guns blazing.. you're stalking prey, and need to approach the task with that mentality.

As cim has indicated, you need to be engaging at maximum range, and picking off as many of the bodyguards as you can before taking on the mark. Stealth, planning and patience is called for. Some tips on how to go about this can be found in another post I made here.

(Also, there's sometimes a tendency to forget about missiles when on a RH mission, due to the fact that we mustn't use them on the mark. But so long as you're careful with your targeting, there's nothing stopping you from using a hardhead or two to keep the worst of the henchmen off your back while you finish the job.)

Eric Walch wrote:

If this change indeed means that the initial salvo is to strong for a standard ship with only shields from the core game, and the only solution is to run away, the laser strength of the escorts of the second type of taret maybe has to be tuned down.

Fair point here. It might be a good idea to tone those mark 2 ships down a bit. I'll put it to my todo list to take a closer look at it.

Thanks guys... I will try what you suggested and I will tell you what happened... But in the end I'm really afraid about what's next with the really hard targets in Random Hits... xDD

iperich wrote:

But in the end I'm really afraid about what's next with the really hard targets in Random Hits...

The above tactics will also serve you well when up against the toughest marks..