Oolite Bulletins

Hi commanders!

I want to discuss about to handle 5 or more pirates.

My tactic, so far, is to fly away (slowly, to hold the pirates on a distance where i could hit them but they do not hit me) and kill some pirates on long distance with the rear laser.
Then i turn and kill the other ones by front lasers. Therefore i fly with fuel injectors to the pirates. On shorter distances they will turn to get me into their crosshair again.
Then i will hold my ship and kill the other ones.

The problem is, that some pirates are running off after some hits, especially at long distance fights.

How do you handle many pirates at once?


Best regards,
Viper

I'm a full-on injectors barrel roll attack person - straight through the middle of them - throttle back - and choose the nearest target, kick 6 kinds of s*** out of him until he screams, bits fly off, and he explodes, weaving all the time (never fly in a straight line for more than 5 seconds), and repeat until ELITE...

Well, if you're determined to make the kills, I suppose you have to be careful what ships you attack at long range. If you start drilling pirates who frequently have fuel injectors, then -- when things become too unequal, i.e. they're not dishing out any damage to you and soaking up a whole bunch themselves -- you can't blame them if they cut and run. You could preferentially use your rear laser on non-fuel-injecting ships, like Pythons and Mambas and Morays, and try to get up close and personal with Kraits, Asps, Fer-de-Lances etc. It doesn't mean that these guys won't hightail it off over the horizon at some point, but you'll have that much more time to try to finish them off if they do.

Sometimes, though, you just have to accept that some will get away. Like the Wolf I tussled with the other night: it was <......THIS...BIG......>.

The most important point is: Don't let him go when he is deadly wounded, but finish him!

When I am using my rear laser and one of the pirates turns and runs away, because perhaps in the wrong moment my laser overheated, I turn around, fly towards the group and finish him with my (cold) front laser, no matter what. Maybe the others open fire on me, but I still have time to turn around again and use perhaps my injectors, before they have done any real damage to my ship. And in the meantime my rear laser got time to cool down again. So I can take one the next one.

But the clue to every combat is: If you open fire on an adversary, finish him off in your first salvo. Sometimes it is advisable to let your laser cool down completely, before you take on the next one. If your heading away from them with roughly their speed, they will just follow you. No need to hurry! They are lining up very nicely, begging to get killed one after the other.

usually i find the groups mixxed up as 1 python 2 or 3 mambas asps or cobra mark I's occassionially a cobra 3 ,remorse or tiger sometimes 2 of the mediums what i do is fly into them and blast 2 or 3 of the lights (i can usually take out 3 light fighters befor my mil. laser over heats)then i go for the mediums (my super cobra is maxxed out on shields) so the remaining ships cant damage me fast and by the time i have lined up the medium my weapon is 2/3rds cooled and with dead on targeting i wont even overheat again befor the next ship gets destroyed then i go after the other medium(if there is one) then the heavy in this kind of fight i usually never take any damage and rarely get my shields below yellow.

i have run into many different mixxed groups my all time fave was 1 remorse 1 cobra mk 3 and 3 pythons in under 2 minutes i had the remorses cargo floating around and the cobra and all 3 pythons floating dead inspace and thier captains captured all ready for me to blow them up and pick thier cargo up at my liesure was a nice haul and i was keeping nothing worth less then 60 cr in value (lots of gold and gems in that haul heehehehe)

I usually use the tactic by which you target a small vessel for long range (making sure that you lock all the others into the targetting computer for later disassembly ), nail it and, if you can take out another one before they start shooting back. At that point I go for the ones that have fewer missiles (less need to ECM), then the larger fighter/traders (Cobra IIIs and the like) before dealing with the traders (for the inevitable cargo and escape pods). Keep weaving and don't let your shields drop below 50%. If they do, then jink, roll, dive and generally boogie until the shields are green again. repeat until there's only you, a bunch of cargo pods and floating wreckage.

Captain Hesperus

i dunno if its just me,,,, but if i fuel inject to about 5 km of a group of fugitives they start blasting back,,,, but then if when you get real close,,, you stop, dead, they do to!
they wiggle up and down like hey are not sure what to do about you,,,,



then you hit them with close range laser fire and hit the ecm early....

i dunno if its just me,,,, but if i fuel inject to about 5 km of a group of fugitives they start blasting back,,,, but then if when you get real close,,, you stop, dead, they do to!
they wiggle up and down like hey are not sure what to do about you,,,,

You're not alone. That also my tactic. Stay inside the bundle of pirates and do dog fights. They are not that agile as a player and it is more fun than shoot them from a distance.

Target one from afar, guns blazing. Once destroyed, afterburn passed them and turn round. Target another, and fire an optional missile.
If front lasers overheat, let them queue up at your rear and fire a full volley out the back.
Then back to close quarters out the front, chasing them as they sway.

Nail pirates with fuel injectors first. Nothing more annoying than trying to run away, run away, with 1 or 2 of the blighters chasing you and the rest waiting for you to turn and fight again!

I usually stop my ship and pick them off from a distance with my military laser. I line a ship up by firing a single shot and adjusting my position slightly until I can hear the laser hitting the ship, then blast away. Can usually take the ship out before my laser overheats or it decides to move :p

If they get too close or my front shields are taking too much of a beating, i fuel inject away from them until they mostly turn yellow on the scanner and then stop, turn around and repeat.

I tend to pick off the smaller, faster ships in the group first, and save the biggy for last.

PS. this tactic doesn't seem to work very well when I come across a couple of renegade boa's or the like :p

If you've got some of the OXP beasty ships loaded they can be ferocious and you need to well armed and shilded to take on a bunch of them.

having the cloaking device makes it easy. so easy that i don't use it...

See whats the targets..asps and FDL's are usually boosted to hell and back,so make them do the leg work...if its sidewinders and mambas..target the middle pair..and shoot through,get one,get another..pivot and wait to cool off.

the big ship will be invloved by now so keep out of its way,Boas and pythons have no qualms ramming you,pick off the remaining pair of defending ships,and then blast the ass off of the BIG ship (boa/python). scoop away until happy

FDLs and Asps,get them hard and fast..if they run,chase them for 30 secs..see they're intentions,coz they can and will curve back into the fray.

Missiles are a last resort..I buy ECM hardend everytime against FDLs and Asps..but they can outrun them.


I never trust a FDL..so I kill on sight.

Eric Walch wrote:

i dunno if its just me,,,, but if i fuel inject to about 5 km of a group of fugitives they start blasting back,,,, but then if when you get real close,,, you stop, dead, they do to!
they wiggle up and down like hey are not sure what to do about you,,,,

You're not alone. That also my tactic. Stay inside the bundle of pirates and do dog fights. They are not that agile as a player and it is more fun than shoot them from a distance.

Ummm... wouldn't that be considered exploiting a bug in the game? Stopping your ship makes the enemy ships stop too instead of making passes at you.... really sounds like something needs to be fixed.