Matrix Games Forums

Hi guys

Just wanted to let you know that I find the dynamic campaign really exciting. It just gives the game so much more immersion than other space sims with linear missions. Excellent work !

One question: I can't find descriptions of the various weapons employed by the starships anywhere ?!? I think a couple of lines about each weapon would do wonders for my understanding of the tactical dynamics of the game. It seems like a weird omission...

So, how long are the various missile ranges ? Does x-ray weapons effectiveness degrade over distance, and how do they rate compared to grasers and pdb's ? stuff like that...

Personally I think that in addition to the manual there should be a 'technical briefing', a booklet a few pages long and written as if the player were actually a pilot in Force:Space. It could briefly describe each friendly ship and provide reports on enemy ship. Perhaps it could point out vulnerabilities in verious capships.

However, to answer you're question, you cant currently find this info anywhere.
I'm 99% positive the beam weapons (Lasers and Grasers) degrade linearly over distance. I'm not sure if bolt type weapons (PDB and fighter guns) degrade over distance.

I love the game but the lack of any reference material is a real pain. Right now I am still in the trial and error stage trying to figure out what weapons are on the enemy ships and which ones to stay away from etc.

I believe in the 'forces' tab of the campaign you can look at what weapons are on the various capships. For example, on the Asher-class DD it'll say X-ray(4) torpedo(2) Fore PD (1) Aft PD (1)

Yep, I died to many a mine finding out the ranges for the various weapons on the little fighters.

well AFAIK:

Laser weapons - ~50km. Fighter primary weapons- 10Km *MAX* range. All "Primary" (or "Bolt") weapons have damage falloff however, and are much more effective at closer range. Fighter SRM- ~25km. Mind that's from the launch point. so if an enemy fighter is closing you may be able to launch early, or if its moving away the range will be shorter. MRM is again 50 km i think. I'm not sure what the range is on starship PDBs, but rough guess, 35km. Missiles have a range of 100km. Note however that its nearly impossible for missiles to get through at this range. Missiles are most effectice if the enemy PDBs cannot bear *OR* if you severely damage the enemy PDBs with your other weaponry. Lasers are useful for this.

Also its important to understand the actuall effective range for each weapon for YOU.

Fighter weapons having a max range of 10km means nothing if you cant hit anything over 4km.

Given the capacitor drain the effective range is the most important of all. It also changes with what type of ship you are engaging. For example a Razor to me is much easier to hit at high ranges then a Viper or a Cobra, simply because it manouvers like a pig. LCAs (what does LCA stand for anyway?) and bigger I have an effective range of 10km on as they dont move and are soooo big.

What Id like to know is the accelleration stats of the different fighters and the v_limmit as these are the key stats to dog fighting. As long as I can outmanouver them it doesnt matter how much damage they do.

Tex

Tex

Great input ! Thanks. Formal data is still required of course, but this sure helps.

I have one other question: I'm currently managing a destroyer squadron, but I'm having difficulties coordinating the ships and I find I could really use a formation setting for the cap ships. Fx. cap ships don't respond to the Move to Patrol order. The generally turn towards the assigned point in space but don't move.

Nav points are problematic as well. When in the campaign, all nav points come with the objective 'attached' to it. I see no way to make ships go to a nav point and assume a defensive posture.

At the moment, I usually resort to giving all ships order to escort my lead ship. This at least makes them follow me. Problem with this tactic is that they usually trail me by 25km or so, which is less than optimal when I engage the enemy frontally.

"Move Patrol" works fine. Sometimes however itll do zilch if the ship doesn't have a navpoint (of any kind).

If you want a ship to move to a position and hold there/defend, use the "Hold" (varies between none and 15 minutes) command. Once the ship reaches the navpoint, it will move to a stop using the braking thrusters. That does unfortunately mean that large capships may overshoot by a large margin if you point them there at high speed...Keep that in mind.

I usually use a combo of Move Patrol and Engage, works fine.

ORIGINAL: Count Sessine

At the moment, I usually resort to giving all ships order to escort my lead ship. This at least makes them follow me. Problem with this tactic is that they usually trail me by 25km or so, which is less than optimal when I engage the enemy frontally.

I found this annoying in 3.8.x beta versions. Recommendations?