Let's Play X3TC: Suicidal Squid

[Mafro]

I'm planning on the TM and fighters being AI, with me being in the hydra.

If I put all fighters in a single wing, I can order the wing to attack all enemies and then order the TM to retreat, right?

From that point, is there a command I can use to order the TM to engage with just missiles while holding its distance? Maybe set the Use Missile percentage to 100% and then order it to Idle once the missiles are fired?

[ancienthighway]

Rather than using Attack All Enemies, use Attack My Target.

I'm under the impression the order to Retreat will cause the TM to go to an adjacent sector, but i could be wrong about that. If it leave you in sector, your TM will most likely out of missile range. Ordering it to attack would then move it into harms way.

I think it best to keep the cargo hold for jump fuel and fighter resupply, setting the fighters missile usage to 50% or greater.

[Threesixtyci]

If you're gonna stay in system you're better off just using fighter drones. MKII's never sell, anyways.

[Mafro]

Rather than using Attack All Enemies, use Attack My Target.

I'm under the impression the order to Retreat will cause the TM to go to an adjacent sector, but i could be wrong about that. If it leave you in sector, your TM will most likely out of missile range. Ordering it to attack would then move it into harms way.

I think it best to keep the cargo hold for jump fuel and fighter resupply, setting the fighters missile usage to 50% or greater.

Thanks, ancienthighway, I like all these suggestions and will plan to follow them.

I just started the Terran Escort plot and got in my first real firefight. I was absolutely terrible when it came to accuracy, which got me sweating, but the hydra's shielding made it largely a non-issue. Upon reflection, I think the accuracy issue might have something to do with having had multiple weapons with different ranges, shot speeds, and so on selected at once. I'm guessing it didn't make the targeting reticle very effective. I'm switching around weapon groups to avoid this and better manage laser energy (quite limited on the hydra).

I intend to do one Terran Escort mission every couple gaming sessions, interspersing empire building sessions to hopefully keep us well ahead of the minimum-hardware-needed curve. The episodes I post will be named accordingly, so those following can skip any they so choose.

I've just added a Boron angel to our little fleet, mainly so we could start the Jonferco corporation missions, the first of which requires a TP. I intend to do at least one corporate mission each session, and slowly get into the good graces of all the corporations. Threesixtyci also mentioned the value of luxury transport missions, which we'll now be able to cash in on (though I'm only doing hard+ missions worth at least a few hundred thousand each).

I'm still looking for a shipyard that will sell us a Split boa, or better yet an OTAS Zephyrus (no spoilers please! ), but once I do I plan on swapping out the pleco for one of these faster TMs. As it stands, the pleco always falls behind until it eventually auto-jumps to keep up.

Lastly, we're ALMOST at the rank needed to buy Teladi Falcon Haulers (Company Trader 93%) and I've found a shipyard that sells them. So, I hope to add one to our fleet every two or three gaming sessions until we have our TM full (maybe keeping one bay open for any ships we might capture). I'm also going to stock a few fighter drones - I've already bought some - and see how those work.

So, our little fleet is now:
1 Hydra (personal ship)
1 Pleco (using it to ferry purchased ships)
1 Angel (used for TP missions)

And we have 1 sector trader, who has failed to find any good trades thus far:
1 Dolphin

We also have 4 or 5 ships we bought on sale that I'll be repairing and selling for a profit...not terribly exciting, but it's good money (and I fast-forward through the repairs in editing, so viewers won't get bored).

Thanks for all the advice thus far! I've posted a link to this forum from my video description, as you guys have been smashingly awesome!

[Mafro]

Well, I came THIS close to dying in my most recent gaming session, soon to be uploaded as Episode 19. I wasn't paying attention and rammed a jump gate at full speed. It stripped 600MJ of shielding from my hydra in probably two seconds and then started in on the hull. I had about 40MJ of hull left when I finally got myself untangled from it. I wonder if pilot error is going to ultimately end this DiD game...something eventually will....

In happier news we got a lot of things done this session:
* got our sector trader successfully working (finally!, though I don't know how to check his level )
* completed the first Jonferco mission
* bought and equipped our first Teladi falcon hauler, though I'm learning that the AI is even worse at TM docking than I am (and that's saying something!) - it just stops a few hundred meters from the TM half the time
* Successfully used our Argon discoverer to deploy 4 advanced satellites, helping expand our network

Next session will be all about the Terran Escort plot...hopefully we can complete a couple more missions.

[Threesixtyci]

Your lack of accuracy is due to flying with a mouse and that cursor following fire mode. Also, M5 are hard to track, but only take one or two hits to kill on all but the weakest guns. (BTW: if you hadn't have followed the convoy, the enemies would have never spawned around it. Making the convoy incident free all the way to it's objective.)

I use a joystick so I don't know what activates bore fire mode, but you need to fight in Bore Fire mode, if you want the combat to go easier. and make sure that the Targeting is set to ON and not SEMI. Doing that will make the lasers home to their targets and you'll know it's active because the lead reticules blink red, instead of staying a solid red. Main benefit of using a stick and rudders is that you can use the mouse as a pointer and activate popup menus and UI Icon stuff, directly from the screen.

Classic Fight Mode might be the toggle for Bore Fire Mode, I'm not sure, though. Don't know the default bounding for the toggle either. It's Shift N on my setup, but I changed most of my bindings, if not all of them.

When the Targeting is set to Semi you get those lead reticules. When it's set to ON the lasers converge at the distance that the target was at when you fired, and will also homes to the lead reticule. the reticule flashes red when the homing is activated. There is no homing if you are using the mouse cursor to aim.

As for range, the ships computer uses the longest ranged gun as it's in range thing. But all other lasers that can't reach that range will fire and waste energy. So it's best to either make use of the laser banks and memorize what guns fire at what range and cycle thru your 4 firing settings or to match guns with their ranges. I use the first method....

[TycHouse]

(TC) Yes correct, default Classic mode is shift N and pressing K will cycle your aim through Off, Semi & On i think you need Fight s/w 1 and 2.

[Nanook]

(TC) Yes correct, default Classic mode is shift N and pressing K will cycle your aim through Off, Semi & On i think you need Fight s/w 1 and 2.

One or the other will do for the autoaim features, for both TC and AP.

[Mafro]

Thanks guys!

I tried playing around with boresight versus cursor fire control in a non-DiD save. Seems like boresight with autoaim on is much more accurate most of the time, though I found when I was in very tight with a ship, circling with it perhaps, that cursor fire control worked better.

So, I think I'll use both, alternating between them based on circumstances.

Thanks for the tips!

[Mafro]

Thanks guys!

I tried playing around with boresight versus cursor fire control in a non-DiD save. Seems like boresight with autoaim on is much more accurate most of the time, though I found when I was in very tight with a ship, circling with it perhaps, that cursor fire control worked better.

So, I think I'll use both, alternating between them based on circumstances.

Thanks for the tips!

Okay, just uploaded the latest episode and the combination of boresight and cursor fire control worked great! My accuracy was SO much better than in my previous attempts...so thanks!

Now I'm wondering if I'm using missiles most effectively. My missiles seem to miss fairly frequently. For example, I fired a couple wasp missiles at a pair of Xenon N's and it looked like out of the 16 warheads only 1 or 2 hit. I was expecting that at least half the warheads would hit, in which case both the Ns would've been taken out.

Do I need to be facing the target when I fire missiles? Is there a way to "lock" onto missile targets? Finally, what is a typical hit ratio for a targeted missile with enough speed and range to intercept its target?

[ancienthighway]

In my experience Wasps will hit some, but most will miss fast moving targets. If you want to one shot M5s, use the Hurricane. The Wasp can one shot a slow moving M5, but unless in the heat of combat you look to see the speed of your multiple opponents, you won't know if Wasps will be effective.

[Nanook]

The biggest problem with the wasp is actually it's main strength, it's swarm behaviour. On first pass, one or more of the swarm may hit the target. But then, they often go into this dance around the target and time out before hitting anything. The 'dance' is caused by them moving too fast to make a sharp enough turn to hit the target.

Because of that, I rarely use them to take out individual fighters. I prefer to use them to spoof turrets, whether on a fighter, freighter or capital ship. Get enough wasps in the air and you're pretty safe from enemy turret fire while you concentrate on dealing with the ship itself.

[Mafro]

In my experience Wasps will hit some, but most will miss fast moving targets. If you want to one shot M5s, use the Hurricane. The Wasp can one shot a slow moving M5, but unless in the heat of combat you look to see the speed of your multiple opponents, you won't know if Wasps will be effective.

The biggest problem with the wasp is actually it's main strength, it's swarm behaviour. On first pass, one or more of the swarm may hit the target. But then, they often go into this dance around the target and time out before hitting anything. The 'dance' is caused by them moving too fast to make a sharp enough turn to hit the target.

Because of that, I rarely use them to take out individual fighters. I prefer to use them to spoof turrets, whether on a fighter, freighter or capital ship. Get enough wasps in the air and you're pretty safe from enemy turret fire while you concentrate on dealing with the ship itself.

Interesting. On paper the wasp is a MUCH better missile, with almost exactly 4x the damage per credit as well as 4x the damage per cargo unit. It's also faster. But the hurricane has 3x the turn radius and also has proximity detection, coupled with a 200-meter blast radius. Also, in practice, the wasp warheads will never all hit at once, which means shields will regenerate between damage, limiting damage to the hull.

So...I'm going to see if I can source hurricanes instead of wasps for use against M5s and M4s.

Still as Nanook points out, seems like wasps are an ideal mechanism for distracting turrets and fighters targeting missiles.

Does the AI ever use a fighter's main guns against missiles?

What do you guys think about the firing sequences below for use against particular opponents? I'm imagining I'm going to be going against Xenon a lot in the Terran Recon plot. The goal of these firing sequences is to kill or, preferably, cripple the target for capping.

Xenon N: 1 hurricane
Xenon M: 4 hurricanes
Xenon L: 1 thunderbolt followed by 2 hurricanes (timed for close impact)
Xenon LX: 1 thunderbolt followed by 5 hurricanes and 1 wasp (timed for wasp to hit first)
Xenon P: 6 thunderbolts followed by 2 wasps (timed for wasps to hit first)
Xenon PX: 12 thunderbolts followed by 4 wasps (timed for wasps to hit first)

[ancienthighway]

How you engage will depend a lot on what you are bringing to the table. If you are doing the patrol with just the Hydra, you plan your attack one way. If you are bringing your TM with fighters along, you may have a different plan.

Hydra plus fighters attacking a P/PX - put lots of wasps on target to tie up the turrets protecting your fighters.

Hydra alone - maximum damage on target.

Against P/PX with fighter escort - separate fighters from M6 by flying away from M6, missile attacks on fighter along with turn and using main guns.

[Mafro]

How you engage will depend a lot on what you are bringing to the table. If you are doing the patrol with just the Hydra, you plan your attack one way. If you are bringing your TM with fighters along, you may have a different plan.

Hydra plus fighters attacking a P/PX - put lots of wasps on target to tie up the turrets protecting your fighters.

Hydra alone - maximum damage on target.

Against P/PX with fighter escort - separate fighters from M6 by flying away from M6, missile attacks on fighter along with turn and using main guns.

Good points, all of them - I hope to make use of them next session.

I just now finished an excellent session in terms of making money, and should be picking up our second Teladi falcon hauler at the beginning of the next session. From there we'll start the Terran Recon series of missions (something about following a non-Xenon ship and scanning its base).

Given the apparent recon nature of these missions, I'm considering picking up a Teladi kestral and carrying it with us in our pleco. That will turn the pleco into a Swiss army knife of sorts, with options for more militaristic missions (the falcon haulers) as well as scouting/scanning missions that require speed (the kestral). The kestral also seems like the ideal getaway ship, should we run into something we can't handle militarily...though the sheer splatter factor it offers scares me....

I also picked up a Caimain Super Freighter and am equipping it to be our first universe trader, as our sector trader has reached 9th level. I'm hopeful we'll be able to accelerate our income by building out a modest fleet of UTs, whose profits can then be funneled into military endeavors and to support plot campaigns.

Lastly, I failed at a return ship mission this last session, so I've got a squad of Boron police after me. I'm trying to avoid killing them, as I've finally made the Knight of the Kingdom rank. I tried to sacrifice the ship I (accidentally) stole, but it doesn't seem like it's able to leave the protection of the Boron equipment dock where it's parked. I may try jumping it to a far away sector and hope the police die on their way to destroy it (they don't seem to have any interest in attacking my other ships or me directly).

Anyway, lots of fun!

[ancienthighway]

Read the mission briefing carefully before starting.

[Threesixtyci]

If I'm in a Hydra for a capture, my only strategy is to using Ion Disruptors until everything is destroyed in their cargo bay.

As for stealing ships.. the police won't disappear until either they're dead or the stolen ship is dead.

[Mafro]

Read the mission briefing carefully before starting.

Thanks...I'll be sure to give it a thorough review. I appreciate you cluing me in to something here, without any spoilers. Well done!

As for stealing ships.. the police won't disappear until either they're dead or the stolen ship is dead.

Well, I sent my falcon hauler to attack a octopus, which it swatted easily. However, that octopus appears to have been replaced with two makos...so killing them doesn't seem to be a good idea. I also went down from 18% to 8% of Knight of the Kingdom.

So, I'm down to sacrificing the ship (which would be fine - it's a Demeter Super Freighter XL that has something like 20% of its hull left - it would take forever to repair) or sending it to a faraway sector in the hopes the police die on the way. I could probably jump it to Zyarth's Dominion, which would require the police to go through Xenon Sector 598. I might try that just to do it, even though I don't care much about the ship.

In future, I shall either avoid return ship missions, or make their timely completion a priority....

[Nanook]

...
In future, I shall either avoid return ship missions, or make their timely completion a priority....

Stealing ships can be fun and quite profitable. If you want to keep it, you've got the right idea - once the cops appear, jump the ship past one or two Xenon sectors and the Xenon should take care of the cops for you with no rep loss.

However, another option is simply to jump it to a shipyard and sell it. Unless your trade rank is extremely high, you'll get many times more credits selling the ship than completing the mission, especially if you have time to use your repair laser to fix it first.

[Threesixtyci]

There is a way to steal a ship and have them pay you about 400 credits, too. But you have to get lucky.

You have to find a deliver ship mission that you can unload the ship you're returning (delivery ship missions can be very specific of what they want though). If you get lucky and happen to find one. The deliver mission will give you the cost that a ship yard would give you plus the reward, and then the return ship guy will give you 400 credits for your trouble when the ship is declared destroyed, which happens soon after you complete the delivery mission. Which equals Rep gain on both ends for stealing a ship for another guy.

Also have to make the time restraint of both missions for it to work.