Matrix Games Forums

Well I tried my hand at flying a starship and of course was destroyed pretty quickly. I was flying a rather large and impressive destroyer and took on what should have been an easily killable smaller ship but for some reason my starships main forward battery refussed to fire when I clicked to do so.

The mode was set to manual and I seemed to be in range. The weapon fired before when I did not have a lock on anything. What could cause this and how to I get them to fire without setting them to auto?

EDIT: Durr.... I feel like a moron.. Apparently I was just outta range or something. They seem to be working fine now. Oh well![8|]

50km = range of beam weapons.
They don't auto-gimble onto fighters for some reason, nor do they auto-shoot at them.
Targetting subsystems is more efficient than not targetting anything. For some reason when you're not targetting a subsystem the beams start by missing the target then strafe over it - doesn't make much sense.

some subsystems are weak spots...try targetting different systems and see what happens. Also angle of attack can really make a difference...

The beams dont seem to do a whole lot against capital ships for some reason. As far as the gimble aspect, I kinda wish it could be turned off alltogather to allow me to target subststems/turrets as I see fit without having to cycle through an ungainly list during a battle. I guess the only way to accomplish this would be to clear the target and fire blind but that would preclude torpedos.

 Also I'm not real clear on how the shields work or what they really do. I would assume that having shields at 100% would reduce some damage but I have destroyed ships while thier shields still show as full. Doesnt seem much like star trek where the shields must be worn through before hull damage starts occuring (not that this is a bad thing mind you).

I love games with long learning curves tho. Makes finally achieving sucess alot more rewarding. Very good game.

As stated, there are weak points of most ships, you need to fire at those subsystems with your beams. Otherwise you will do practically no damage (because the enemy shields are on).

Shields do work - turn them off and torps will rip you to shreds! They just lessen damage, not stop it compeltely.

For some reason I have had more luck hitting enemy starships with the PDA cannons on the ship than I do with the main forward guns. Seems like they do far more damage in a much shorter time. Which subsystems should I focus on when an enemy has full sheilds?

If you take out there fusion reactor, then there shields generally will have no power. I generally hit subsystems in this list.

1. Using Lasers/Grasers: Torpedos, Rail Guns, Lasers (If the are facing you head on, otherwise ignore the lasers).
2. Using Lasers/Grasers: PBDs, you can usually get a few in one shot.
3. Using Lasers/Grasers/Torpedos: Fusion Reactor/Shield Generator
4. Watch shields drop
5. Destroy helpless ship.

Thats the problem I was telling you about tho. Fireing the ships main guns doesnt disable subsystems behind shields. The susbystem stays at 100% after each shot and is never disabled. The only way to disable a system in my experiance is to slam it with torps.

Maybe Ill try some voodoo on enemy destroyers next time..

As already stated elsewhere, you need to target certain subsystems. Different ships have different weak-spots. Just shooting at the fusion ususally won't work (except on frigates).

Had an interesting encounter with a couple of frigates while playing last night. I destroyed the destroyer that was escorting them and then decided to use my main guns to finish off the frigates to save torps. When I targeted thier reactors and fired, the only damage that was apparent was to the hull and it was on the order of 4 or 5% pts per volly. I cycled thru and fired at each subsystem and was only able to cause damage to the PDS batteries.

I had plenty of time as it was just me and the frigates and they were not returning fire. I was at nearly point blank range (the frigate I was fireing on filled up most of my view (I intended to back away when I made the kill to prevent damage)). I was able to manuver around the enemy ships and try differant angles to get thru to the reactor but it didnt seem to make any differance. I ended up using a couple torpedos to make the kills and they both died with full health on thier reactors...

The Nike and Athena torps have a penetration value that gets thru shields.  So torp strikes are a quicker way to get damage thru.

Well for one thing it depends on angle of attack. For example you won't be able to shoot the enemies forward lasers if you're behind the enemy. But yes, most ships don't take damage to reactors (though as stated elswhere, I've had some success with frigate reactors).

Nah, you can get Fusion Reactors real easy. You just need the right angle. For broadswords, for example, if you are to there port or starboard, and a little bit behind them, you can hit it real easy. (Y=you)

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Vendattas have two reactors, and you need to be on more of a 90 degree angle for them.

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Volnaris are pretty simple, just get below them and you can hit it. The reactor is behind the large "Wing". (R=reactor)

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Just play around, you'll find them. I suggest using a fighter to scout out the positions of the reactors.

or try this,
in a head to head approach try to get a Tiger class frigate to your starboard and fire on laser 2.
 
One shot will usually take it out completely...
 
it would be unfair by my book to give away all the weak spots of every ship though...
 
also use the orbit cam to see where you are actually targetting. If you lock lasers on something on the farside of a ship, they typically will not fire. It's seems to be a 'line of sight' firing determination...