building a strategy

Welcome to the new war raging across hundreds of light years at once, with mechanized Titans as the main fighting force.

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Coyote27
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Post by Coyote27 »

Here's another fun one, maybe not the best but it's effective.


Titan Name: <FacelessButcher> (Light Close Combat Titan)
Chassis: Morola L2
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Weight: 70.0t (70t maximum) Height : 9 [meter]
Bmt : 21 (57 kph) Reduce Heat: -3.0C/sec.
Jmt : 16 (75 kph) for 64 secs Cost : 132815 ($)


Equipment:
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Component/Type/Location

Engine :CyberSys [Engine 3] [CBT ]
Heatreg.: Delinit H6 [Heat 6]
Shield :Simson-Light [Shld1] [RT ]
LifeSup.:Livotto [Life 1] [Head]
Scanner :CyberSys S [Scan 1] [Head]
Computer:Triton TC [Comp. 4] [LT ]
JumpPort:Aerojol [Jump 2]


Weapons:
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Location/Weapon/Ammunition/SL

[CT ] BLACK RAY GUN
[LA ] POWER AXE
[RA ] CHAIN SAW


Armor:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Loc/Internal/Armor/Points/mm

[Head] (11) Dullaroy 017 [025mm]
[RT ] (19) Vicenium 024 [040mm]
[CT ] (19) Vicenium 022 [037mm]
[CBT ] (13) Vicenium 016 [027mm]
[LT ] (19) Vicenium 024 [040mm]
[RA ] (17) Vicenium 024 [040mm]
[LA ] (17) Vicenium 024 [040mm]
[LowT] (13) Vicenium 024 [040mm]
[RL ] (15) Vicenium 024 [040mm]
[LL ] (15) Vicenium 024 [040mm]

Armorindex: 5.44 [Total APts/T]
Internal: 158 [APts]
External: 223 [APts] Max:[065mm]
Total Armor: 381 [APts]


JOCK requirements:
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Piloting: skill on Light Titan incl. Jump
Weapons : Energy C.C.
Warfare : Defensives Scanner
Skills : Medical Recon
-Coyote
Voidhawk
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Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 10:09 pm

Post by Voidhawk »

Another important aspect of battlefield tactics that I overlooked all too often when I first started playing is deciding what to fire and when. For instance, a wise jock will save his precious GC shots until he gets a good clear shot or two with his BRG; he'll go for the knockdown first to increase his odds to hit with his big guns. Or maybe he'll wait for his teammate to score a hit with HIS BRG before firing. One of the things I really, really love about this game is the interaction between the different weapons, and all the different combinations you can use to blow up the good guys... er, bad guys.

Pay attention to your weapons' recharge cycles, try to anticipate and plan shots in coordination with your teammates instead of just firing when a weapon is available and your to-hit probability is decent. Good shots are good, but deadly shots are... yep, deadly. ;)

One fun thing I've taken to doing recently is luring enemies into heavily wooded areas, attempting to cripple them with CC or called shots, and then setting the woods around them on fire with another titan from afar.

I did this tonight to an unfortunate Banzai, lopped one of his legs off with a chainsaw, jumped out of the hex, and lit the forest with a Highlander who was perched on a nearby hilltop. Yeah, I could've just vaporized the poor guy with the Highlander but it was so much cooler hearing those internal ammo explosions from the crippled and overheating Banzai's 6 MG's as the unconcerned Highlander turned to deal with the next threat. It didn't take long for the Banzai's engine to go boom. And to think, he was fully intact before he went down... just short a leg. Sniffle. :D

A pity jocks don't get kill counts for extra cruel stunts like that. Hehe.
Thorgrim
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Post by Thorgrim »

Well, if you're playing one of your custom teams, then blowing titans up is a bad deal. You lose salvage money, and that titan cannot be eligible for being salvaged out of the battlefield too. ;-)
And that only works for lighter titans with small heat regs, and no shield.
Iceman
Voidhawk
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Post by Voidhawk »

Hm, yes, good point!

It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision, I already had a lock+green scan on the Banzai with my Highlander and normally would've just gone for his head. But that little sucker had been chewing my Sensei up with those MG's, so I decided on a more appropriate punishment for him at the last second.

I blame it all on the crazy cyborg piloting the Highlander, and any financial losses incurred will definitely come outta his paycheck next month (erm... as long as he's ok with that). :D
Thorgrim
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Post by Thorgrim »

Not only that, you also cannot shoot them or scan them after the explosion, for XPs :D
Iceman
Hetz
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Post by Hetz »

A big one is fire only on heat black. "What!" I hear you cry........"No Alpha Strikes?" If you like to alpha strike and you duel a veteran you're going to be in a short and ugly (for you) game. At bare minimum I'm going to be firing 5% more accurately than you are, usually more than that. My titan will be cooler so if a shield fails I have some headroom to absorb the heat before my ammo starts making those funny popping noises :)

Design your titans around one main wep type and with no more of that type than you can dissipate heat for within that weapons recycle time. My 1st design like that was my Mugger. 3 AC20s and 2 LLs. Larkin and Rosary after being introduced to the Mugger lowered the AC20 range from 10 to 8 :) The sequence goes like this: fire the 1st 2 AC20s/wait 2 secs and fire the 3rd/wait on recycle next wep/fire/wait on heat black/fire/wait on heat black. You now have a titan that fires an AC20 every 7 seconds with no heat penalty. Not many titans can hold up under that for very long.

Start your jocks off with CC and one wep skill so you aren't spreading XPs all over the place. Then consider how this is going to affect your designs. As your jocks improve you're going to need really good (recon/light/med/heavy/assault) beamer/missle boat/cannon/special wep designs. Don't try and design titans to be good at everything, they wind up ok at everything and great at nothing. Other people may tell you otherwise but after more than 300 net duels this is what's worked for me.
Hetzer
LarkinVB
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Post by LarkinVB »

Originally posted by Hetz
Don't try and design titans to be good at everything, they wind up ok at everything and great at nothing. Other people may tell you otherwise but after more than 300 net duels this is what's worked for me.


In my team I have a very good jock on an assault with Gauss, AC12, Light Meson, Plasma, Large Laser and EM Pulser. Its a good design as it isn't rendered useless by shields, has a decent medium range capability and can lay smoke as well as light woods. On top of this may cause internal trouble too. But you are right Hetz, beginners should concentrate on one weapon skill + CC. In WS very high skill/attribute values are more expensive so you might prefer get a second weapon skill after reaching about 80% in your first.
TLV
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Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2003 8:20 pm

more !

Post by TLV »

Tanks for all this good advices, dont hesitate to give more !

Tlv
Thorgrim
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Post by Thorgrim »

Just keep in mind what weight class you're piloting (there's life beyond assaults...), the skill of your jock, and his chances to hit. Then use good judgement. Keep an eye on your heat meter and on how well/bad you're doing in the battle. Desperate situations require desperate measures :D
A good scan will also tell you if it's worth taking risks or not - or *when* 's the right time to take them.
Notice that CC and HtH attacks suffer only half heat penalty.
Iceman
TLV
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Post by TLV »

Again :D

I try to build my first jokes but they always get a very low chance to hit (2-4 % :( )

Even if i put a lot of points on the type of knowledges wich are important for the weapon i will give them. My titans are also falling a lot.

A this time my problem is : i can't even get to touch my oppenents when i play with my own jokes.

Hope u will help the noob i'am this time again

TLV
:rolleyes:
rosary
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Post by rosary »

Don't walk through a swamp or water. It requires a skill check. If you don't succeed you'll fall and sometimes not get up. In one campaign map the idea is to hide and let the enemy stumble over themselves then you can attack a much weakened foe at total strength.

Concentrate your firepower with full strength. Stay in a cohesive fighting group. Divide and conquer your enemy. Get to know your weapon ranges and stay within the optimum distance from your enemy. If 5 hexes is the best range for your weapon stay 5 hexes away as long as you can. If 5 hexes is the best range for your enemy don't be 5 hexes away. Hide if needed.
Ambushes work extremely well in TOSWS. I dedicated many a map to ambushing the enemy. Get a good idea of your enemy through scouting the battlefield. a little jump is all that is needed sometimes. Wait if needed. Be patient.
Voidhawk
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Post by Voidhawk »

Some tips for creating new jocks (YMMV, this is generally the way I do it):

First and foremost, don't forget the order that the first three jocks for any given team are generated in. Your first jock will be the Leader, your second the Manager, and your third the Mechanic for the rest of the team.

I try to get my leadership for the first jock to around 50 and then dump the rest of his DP's into the weapon category that he's already best with. I usually top off one weapon category, add a point or two to some attrubutes until I can get the max higher, and then top it off again until I'm able to get one weapon skill to at least 60. If I have to sacrifice leadership to get to 60, then I'll do that. Leadership is important later in the game, but not nearly as important at the beginning as being able to hit your enemies is.

Same goes with the Manager and Mechanic for their skills (business and damage control respectively).

For a three-man starting team, I'll just about always have one jock with at least a 60 in energy weapons, one jock with at least a 60 in cannon, and one with at least a 60 in CC. Any leftover combat points for the former two I'll usually put into CC as well.

Scanner is one of the most valuable other skills for rookies. Jocks with good scanner skill not only scan faster, but they also have a better chance at succeeding with scans, and green scans (+8% to-hit!) are one of your best friends on the battlefield. So, put as many points as you can spare here.

On the battlefield, it's already been mentioned that firing while moving is generally not a great idea for any jock. This especially applies to rookies who can barely hit the broad side of a barn while they're standing still. So always wait on move before you start gunning!

Crouch before firing whenever possible. It gives you an additional +5% to-hit AND has the added benefit of lowering your titan's profile, thereby making you HARDER to hit! Now that's what I call a good deal.

Scan early, scan often! A simple crouch and a (sometimes not-so-simple to acheive) green scan will give you a total bonus of +13% to-hit! Not too shabby! A crummy yellow scan still gives you +4% to-hit, and combined with a crouch will give you +9%. So unless the enemy is pressing you hard, go for those critical scans!

Try not to fire on enemies in heavy cover. They're tough to aim at in forests. Wait on target or opponent until they move out and then let 'em have it. If they refuse to come out, target their hex and torch it. And while you're doing all this, why not scan them again? :D

As far as titans, I'd highly suggest you play around with some of the factory designs before building any of your own. There are some really super-effective designs in there, so take advantage of them! Once you get used to your jocks, their skills, and the different weapons and components, then will come the time when you might want to start building titans to suit a particular jock. But remember, no matter how many guns and how much armor you put on a titan, it's still only as good as the guy piloting it. ;)

Hope that helps a little. I'm sure some of the vets will chime in to correct any of my oversights (which are in great abundance, I'm sure) and offer tips of their own.
Thorgrim
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Post by Thorgrim »

Originally posted by Voidhawk
Scanner is one of the most valuable other skills for rookies. Jocks with good scanner skill not only scan faster, but they also have a better chance at succeeding with scans, and green scans (+8% to-hit!) are one of your best friends on the battlefield. So, put as many points as you can spare here.

Crouch before firing whenever possible. It gives you an additional +5% to-hit AND has the added benefit of lowering your titan's profile, thereby making you HARDER to hit! Now that's what I call a good deal.

Hope that helps a little. I'm sure some of the vets will chime in to correct any of my oversights (which are in great abundance, I'm sure) and offer tips of their own.


Well, not many oversights in there. ;) The jock creation procedure is almost exactly the one I use.
I usually raise Reaction to at least 13, sometimes 14. Reaction is an attribute that influences your performance in battle, so a high value there is very helpful. Constitution is also very important, but in the early stages of a jock I usually don't go beyond 10 or 11.
As for skills, well, that depends. Scanner is important, but I wouldn't say it's the most valuable. Without a good scanner too, the skill isn't all that effective. Scan times of 30~40 secs are not uncommon. I usually scan during the deployment phase or the mop up phase.
I like Electronic Warfare too, to get faster locks - and it awards OXPs in WS for defeating active scans. And Defensive, to have a better chance to fine tune the heat reg when battle starts and increasing protection levels. Larkin likes Survival ;) And in WS, most other skills have other benefits, like lowering your upkeep, raising your bravery, awarding XPs for miscellaneous actions.

As for crouching, yes it is a good deal, but like every good deal, it has drawbacks too. Move skill checks have a 5% penalty (weapons hits for example). You can't fire weapons mounted in the LOT and legs. And don't forget you're crouched when your opponent gets to point blank, you can't use CC/HtH attacks when crouched :D
Iceman
Thorgrim
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Post by Thorgrim »

BTW, I usually use a human for my first jock because of Charisma being easier to improve, a Rep I for my second and a Rep D for my third. Gender is also important, females tend to produce better CC and GM jocks in the early stages because of their better Instinct development. Cyborg males can be made very tough very easily due to the double bonus in Constitution.
Iceman
TLV
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Post by TLV »

Thanks to u :)

I just won my first battle with a joke i created with your tips :D

I go back to the battlefield !

TLV
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