I'm not a complete n00b, but not by much. By that I mean, I quickly played through X3R mainly for the plot and planned to do the same with X3TC, but I hit a snag. During the Terran plot, there is a mission where you have to fight off some ships from a pirate base you follow a guy back to, but I just can't kill them all before they get me. My combat ranking is veteran, and if I understand correctly, the higher the ranking the harder the combat. Anyway, I need advice on how to take these guys out. I have a few ships running energy from the free small solar plant you get on Harmony or Perpetuity, and I've gotten around 3.5mil from that. I found one of the free ships, a Barracuda, which is what I'm flying mostly. It's got 3 x 25MJ shields and 3 x High Energy Plasma Throwers.
I guess what I'm asking for is advice on how to proceed.
X3TC Terran plot help
Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum
If you are where I think you are, your doing quite well for how early you are in the game. As for your problem, what are you fighting and how many shops are you fighting. Also what are you using for controls? My preferred combat controls are using the mouse to steer. (Just push space and your ship will follow where your mouse is) If it's just 2 or three ships, you should be able to take them easy with some veteran tactics.
The very first thing that you should get is fight command software mk2 if you don't already have it. The auto lock makes fighting little fighters infinantly easier. To use it make sure that its on. You'll know its on by looking at your weapons in the bottom left corner and you'll see something along the lines of auto lock: then it will say either, off, semi, or on. What auto lock does is it fires your forward lasers for you so that they will theoreticaly hit every time. However you have to have the bore sight trained on the little circle that indicates where to shoot, then you just use control to fire and the software does the rest for you.
Next you want to use strafing and rolling. When I face any enemies I'm always strafing at all times. You can strafe using WASD. Continue switching the direction that you are strafing in and combining rolling with strafing is an effective retreat tactic.
You also may want to get more fire power look up some missiles and lasers in the encyclopaedia and go buy some.
This is all I have time to say right now, I will add later.
Edit: do you even need to fight them? Is it the part where you have to scan the pirate base, I think you can just run, I could be wrong.
The very first thing that you should get is fight command software mk2 if you don't already have it. The auto lock makes fighting little fighters infinantly easier. To use it make sure that its on. You'll know its on by looking at your weapons in the bottom left corner and you'll see something along the lines of auto lock: then it will say either, off, semi, or on. What auto lock does is it fires your forward lasers for you so that they will theoreticaly hit every time. However you have to have the bore sight trained on the little circle that indicates where to shoot, then you just use control to fire and the software does the rest for you.
Next you want to use strafing and rolling. When I face any enemies I'm always strafing at all times. You can strafe using WASD. Continue switching the direction that you are strafing in and combining rolling with strafing is an effective retreat tactic.
You also may want to get more fire power look up some missiles and lasers in the encyclopaedia and go buy some.
This is all I have time to say right now, I will add later.
Edit: do you even need to fight them? Is it the part where you have to scan the pirate base, I think you can just run, I could be wrong.
Last edited by delstars on Mon, 23. Sep 13, 07:19, edited 1 time in total.
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Timsup2nothin
- Posts: 4690
- Joined: Thu, 22. Jan 09, 17:49
Depending on what you are flying you may just be hopelessly outgunned. If so, come back with a bigger bat.
However, general combat tips for facing situations like this one:
Use your jump drive to get to the gate, then fly away from them. The ships will come after you at their top speeds. Since their top speeds are likely different they will string out. By the time the fastest one catches you it will be by itself and one on one combat is a lot easier than one on a gang combat. There might be a pair that have closely matched speeds, but if not you can just fight the whole string one by one.
Fighting drones are a nasty distraction that will keep a target busy while you shoot it, or even destroy it themselves.
Missiles work, especially if you can spam off large numbers of them.
Last, but not least, back to the first thing I said. If they consistently blow your M5 out from under you, come back in an M3. If they are blowing an M3 out from under you, a corvette will probably solve the problem.
However, general combat tips for facing situations like this one:
Use your jump drive to get to the gate, then fly away from them. The ships will come after you at their top speeds. Since their top speeds are likely different they will string out. By the time the fastest one catches you it will be by itself and one on one combat is a lot easier than one on a gang combat. There might be a pair that have closely matched speeds, but if not you can just fight the whole string one by one.
Fighting drones are a nasty distraction that will keep a target busy while you shoot it, or even destroy it themselves.
Missiles work, especially if you can spam off large numbers of them.
Last, but not least, back to the first thing I said. If they consistently blow your M5 out from under you, come back in an M3. If they are blowing an M3 out from under you, a corvette will probably solve the problem.
Trapper Tim's Guide to CLS 2
On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Dead is Dead, and he is DEAD
Not a DiD, so I guess it's a DiDn't, the story of my first try at AP
Part One, in progress
HEY! AP!! That's new!!!
On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Dead is Dead, and he is DEAD
Not a DiD, so I guess it's a DiDn't, the story of my first try at AP
Part One, in progress
HEY! AP!! That's new!!!
Ok so I rushed through your post a bit, if you played reunion, you probably have a handle on combat itself.... probably, even though I own it, I've never really played reunion. But I hope you still found something of use in the previous post. Also I just got access to my computer and looked up the barracuda, the regular one only has slots for 2 25mj shields so you must be flying one of the other versions of it, if not, your wasting cargo space with the extra shield generator.
Regardless, you say you only have 3 HEPTs, that's not even half of its potential. The barracuda can hold up to 8 lasers. You should seriously consider getting at least a a couple more HEPTs. Fill all of your available slots.
I would also recommend perhaps filling one of those slots with a phased repeater gun if you can find one. Those things are good at draining shields and hitting small fast targets. It's range is limited but you can assign it to a different weapon configuration so that you can choose when to fire it so that it doesn't waste energy. The only problem with them is that they don't do that much to hull, but for small fast ships it should slow them down enough for you to finish them off with HEPTs.
Just something to note, when you look at a lasers info, when it says damage, it isn't referring to damage per shot, but rather per second, that being said there are some weapons which you can not really measure how much damage they can do. The big one is a PSG which fires a giant shock wave and wreaks havoc on.. well everything, but that's a capital ship weapon so don't worry about it. The other one is a plasma burst generator. I just saw a m5 get taken out in one shot by that thing, and there's a chance that you can equip that. Those weapons are weapons that effect an area. They can hit many times in a short matter of time.
Your barracuda can also equip silkworm and thunderbolt missiles. These are two of my personal favourites for fighters, others may be able to dispute this but they will definitely help, however you may want to find something a bit faster for those little m5's. Missiles can be a huge help in combat. One of the tactics that I use is to pick off the escorts of a large ship, say a Xenon Q, so that while I'm flying around it, I'm not getting shot by not only the Q, but also it's escorts.
That leads to my next point, chose your targets wisely. If there's a large number of small ships that are easy to kill, try to get rid of most of them as soon as possible, then focus more on the big ships. You could also use what Timsup2nothin said and run away from them so that they chase you and thin them out so that you can face one at a time. You can't win every battle with brute force, (debatable) you usually will have to use a bit of strategy.
This advice is very generalized, it would help greatly if we knew your exact situation so that we can give you specific advice that applies directly to the situation your in. Things we need to know exactly what you are flying, (as I said earlier the regular barracuda can't use all the shields you stated) what you are fighting, (m5's, m4's, m3's) and how many ships you are fighting. Being that your fight rank is only veteran, I doubt that you'll be fighting anything larger than m3's.
Regardless, you say you only have 3 HEPTs, that's not even half of its potential. The barracuda can hold up to 8 lasers. You should seriously consider getting at least a a couple more HEPTs. Fill all of your available slots.
I would also recommend perhaps filling one of those slots with a phased repeater gun if you can find one. Those things are good at draining shields and hitting small fast targets. It's range is limited but you can assign it to a different weapon configuration so that you can choose when to fire it so that it doesn't waste energy. The only problem with them is that they don't do that much to hull, but for small fast ships it should slow them down enough for you to finish them off with HEPTs.
Just something to note, when you look at a lasers info, when it says damage, it isn't referring to damage per shot, but rather per second, that being said there are some weapons which you can not really measure how much damage they can do. The big one is a PSG which fires a giant shock wave and wreaks havoc on.. well everything, but that's a capital ship weapon so don't worry about it. The other one is a plasma burst generator. I just saw a m5 get taken out in one shot by that thing, and there's a chance that you can equip that. Those weapons are weapons that effect an area. They can hit many times in a short matter of time.
Your barracuda can also equip silkworm and thunderbolt missiles. These are two of my personal favourites for fighters, others may be able to dispute this but they will definitely help, however you may want to find something a bit faster for those little m5's. Missiles can be a huge help in combat. One of the tactics that I use is to pick off the escorts of a large ship, say a Xenon Q, so that while I'm flying around it, I'm not getting shot by not only the Q, but also it's escorts.
That leads to my next point, chose your targets wisely. If there's a large number of small ships that are easy to kill, try to get rid of most of them as soon as possible, then focus more on the big ships. You could also use what Timsup2nothin said and run away from them so that they chase you and thin them out so that you can face one at a time. You can't win every battle with brute force, (debatable) you usually will have to use a bit of strategy.
This advice is very generalized, it would help greatly if we knew your exact situation so that we can give you specific advice that applies directly to the situation your in. Things we need to know exactly what you are flying, (as I said earlier the regular barracuda can't use all the shields you stated) what you are fighting, (m5's, m4's, m3's) and how many ships you are fighting. Being that your fight rank is only veteran, I doubt that you'll be fighting anything larger than m3's.
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Bill Huntington
- Posts: 2493
- Joined: Mon, 2. Feb 09, 17:34
Terran mission
Mrhanman, you are missing a great profit opportunity! Those Xenon Ls you see flying around at the start of this mission are not the tough Ls you usually face. Note their numbers do not start with X. The point, they are pretty easy to cap, with just about any M4 or M3. You can sell them for at least $500 K, sometimes more. And many times they have PBEs and 25MJ shields. If you don't have an M3, it's not the best, but it's not bad either.
I usually cap 2 or 3 out of the four, without reloads or at least without very many reloads. And here is the best part: The mission repeats if you don't follow the pirate. So you can decide how Ls you want to cap! So how much money to you need right now?
The scanning part of the mission is not that hard. Do it in Kestral or Disco, have the bad guys follow you for a good while, jump back to the Gate when they are all past it, run to the Station and scan it. Not hard.
I usually cap 2 or 3 out of the four, without reloads or at least without very many reloads. And here is the best part: The mission repeats if you don't follow the pirate. So you can decide how Ls you want to cap! So how much money to you need right now?
The scanning part of the mission is not that hard. Do it in Kestral or Disco, have the bad guys follow you for a good while, jump back to the Gate when they are all past it, run to the Station and scan it. Not hard.
Bill in S.F., enjoying the game
As I recall, there's no requirement to actually fight the pirates at all--the objective is to scan the station, so use a fast ship to lead them away then double back to do the scan. (I'm pretty sure this is why you get given a Rapier immediately prior to doing the mission, so you've got a fast ship to do it in!).
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Threesixtyci
- Posts: 1404
- Joined: Fri, 24. Oct 08, 02:57
You don't have to fight what comes out of the base....
Get a M5 with fully upgraded speed. You can use the ones Terran gave you, if that's all you have, but a Kestrel would be your best choice with it's 600+ m/s.
You only need about 15 seconds of idle time to complete the scan part of that mission. With an M5 you let them chase you, when their slowest ship is about 20km away from the base, you circle back around and head for the pirate base. You stop at the base at about 15 meters from it and wait for the scan to hit 100% (it will scan automatically) and then boogie on out of there. Terran M5's can't carry a jump drive, but the Disco, and Kestrel can. (need a M class cargo hold...need a M class to carry satellites and passengers, too.)
Get a M5 with fully upgraded speed. You can use the ones Terran gave you, if that's all you have, but a Kestrel would be your best choice with it's 600+ m/s.
You only need about 15 seconds of idle time to complete the scan part of that mission. With an M5 you let them chase you, when their slowest ship is about 20km away from the base, you circle back around and head for the pirate base. You stop at the base at about 15 meters from it and wait for the scan to hit 100% (it will scan automatically) and then boogie on out of there. Terran M5's can't carry a jump drive, but the Disco, and Kestrel can. (need a M class cargo hold...need a M class to carry satellites and passengers, too.)