Starshatter Tactics

[Bcasner]

Thought I'd start a thread mentioning some tactics that I've found that are working rather well...

1. Vector missiles for the win. Those have tremendous range and almost always take out an enemy with one hit. The Phoneix seem to be sensitive to countermeasures and should only be launched within 25 km of the baddie.

2. Guns can take out shielded freighters! Don't waste your precious missiles on frieghters when you find one, just pick one spot and hammer away, wait till you get full weapons energy again and fire away again! Rince and repeat and it'll go down. IT DIES SLOWLY, but it will go up in a fiery blast of glory, pretty neat debrie field thrown out by those things.

3. When the big boys play, stay out of their way. Resist the urge to "help" your cap ships when you're flying fighters. When you get into range of the bad capital ships, you'll most likely find yourself doing the "get out of the way of all those missles!" dance. If you DO have to put your neck on the line, try to line up with it's engines and approach from that direction, those things are death to small craft.

4. When cap ships are fighting, STAY in the scenario if your side is winning... I've found that certain ships stick around in the scenarios until something takes them out. If your side is mobilizing to attack the bad guys, stick around and watch the firefight. Streaming lasers and missle battles are cool to watch and for the most part our guys do a pretty good job. If you're lucky, they will destroy the bad capital ships and future scenarios that you run will have a higher chance of success.

5. Use Missiles On Mines! If you have to get close enough to use your guns, they'll use theirs on you! Bob and weave, use your after burner to throw off their aim, DON'T FLY STRAIGHT when mines are near.

6. Wingman are your friends. Wingmen are also ... creatively challenged on occasion. As soon as you launch, put them in formation with you. If you forget, they'll do their own thing! Makes fights very lonely when you do them solo as you dodge all those missiles... Related to this is remember to sic your wingman on the baddies you want to fight FIRST. They do very well and once in battle they can hold their own, which takes a lot of heat off you.

Just some intial impressions, more to come later! [:)]

[John DiCamillo]

If you have a joystick with hat-switch, circle-strafing works well on mines. Another tip, I usually set up a custom loadout for minefield sweeps: rockets plus all short-range missiles. This gives me two extra missiles that the mines can't dodge or decoy. If you see your wingman getting in real trouble in the minefield, order him back to base with Alt+R. Otherwise, he'll keep slugging mines with guns until they're all dead or (more likely) he is. You can use the radio to ask him for status and he'll tell you if his ship is damaged or if he's winchester (out of missiles).

[Mehrunes]

Better yet, clean up minefields with a capital ship. They're completely defenseless against X-Ray lasers. [:)]

[TheDeadlyShoe]

True but you might get Kitts pissed off at you [8D]