| Author |
=DSA= Dodging |
Captain Caveman
Cadet
Joined: October 12, 2002
Posts: 668
|  Posted: 2003-03-28 05:14
Dodging
An important part of any pilots arsenal of skills is their ability to dodge incoming fire. Often, the difference between a good pilot and a great pilot is the ability to keep their armour intact, or to limit the damage they take. Sometimes, evading a single volley of torpedoes can be the difference between your jump drive remaining functional, and allowing you to escape combat, or being disabled, and you being an easy target for any enemy ships.
Taking into account that beams do not miss and mines remain stationary, this limits the types of ordnance available to dodge as cannons, torpedoes and missiles.
Torpedoes
Torpedoes are the weapon which you will find yourself needing to dodge most often. Faster than your ship, with the ability to track your movements, they still remain relatively easy to avoid.
The above diagram shows a simplistic example of turning inside a volley of torps. This method of evasion is the basic template upon which all dodging is based. The weapons fired at you will always have a speed advantage. Therefore, unless you are close to the weapons max range, they will always catch you in a straight-line race. By turning inside the torpedo, you negate this speed advantage because their greater velocity means that they have a larger turning circle. Given that torpedoes have an effective range of approximately 450 gu’s, once they have passed your ship, they do not have enough time to turn around and begin another run.
That’s the basics. Simply turn your ship so that you are at right angles to the torps and they will invariably miss.
The next thing to think about, is the speed of your ship. To dodge torpedoes, as long as you are flying and turning at anything above ~15 gu’s/second, they should miss (N.B. This does not apply to Dreadnoughts. They are a special case and can only dodge torps in a particular situation. I will get to this later.). The best speed for dodging is usually ~20 gu’s/second. This will enable you to be stay even further away from a volley of torpedoes and will protect you even more should the enemy decide to detonate their torpedoes in order to cause splash damage. Flying at 25 gu’s/second will allow you to dodge the torpedoes further still, but will impinge upon your power usage severely, preventing you from returning fire, will make dodging IT missiles more difficult, and will damage your jump drive further still should you need to e-jump. If however, the above three problems are not an issue, then flying at full speed is the best option for dodging torpedoes.
The other problem you will come across when dog-fighting, is dodging multiple volleys of torpedoes. When several ships are firing at your ship at the same time, from a variety of attack angles, the thing to remember is that you will probably be hit by at least one of the volleys. The trick to staying alive, is to judge which direction to turn, in order to maximise your chances of survival. Take for example, a situation where three volleys of torps have been fired at you. One is approaching from behind, one from in front, and one from the side. By turning into the volley approaching from the side, you will most likely take a hit to the frontal armour of your ship, but you will escape an additional volley impacting your rear armour. Again, sometimes it is a case of picking the path of least destruction by being aware of your surroundings.
Missiles
The three types of missiles can essentially be sorted into two groups. The slower, less agile, but greater ranged IT missiles, and the faster, more nimble, but much smaller ranged Psi and AR missiles.
To dodge IT missiles, you must be in a cruiser class ship, or smaller. Dreads cannot dodge any type of missiles, period. The same principles used in dodging torpedoes applies to dodging missiles, except that your margin for error is much smaller due to the high speed of the projectiles, and their greater ability to track you. In anything up to destroyer class, dodging IT missiles is merely a case of turning inside the missile at speeds greater than 20 (N.B. Flying at full speed in a dessie will sometimes allow the IT missiles to hit your vessel if you do not time your turn correctly. This is because the increase in speed increases your own turning circle to such a point that you lose your advantage over the missiles). In a cruiser, you need to begin turning inside the missile when it reaches a point ~250gu’s away from you. This is not a 100% solution, and invariably some missiles will hit your ship, but it will at least limit the number impacting on your armour.
Dodging Psi or AR missiles in anything above a destroyer is impossible. Even dodging these missiles in a destroyer is a tricky affair. I have yet to find a definitive technique for dodging Psi or AR missiles, because they are so agile, but flying at full speed and turning as fast as possible will usually prevent some from hitting you. This is the reason why Psi missiles are so effective against Kluth dessies.
Cannons
Faster then torpedoes or missiles, and firing in multiple volleys, cannons can be the easiest, and the hardest weapons to dodge. Because of their high speed, at close range (anything less than 250 gu’s), cannons are almost impossible to dodge in anything above a frigate. However, because they only fire at the position you will be if you flew in a straight line on your present heading at the time of their launch, at longer distances they are easy to dodge. To do so, simply observe where the projectiles are heading and turn away from them. Cannon ordnance does not track your ship so moving out of the line of fire will prevent them from hitting you.
Dodging Basics
(i) Unless you are orbiting a planet or being repaired, never stand still. You cannot dodge when you are not moving.
(ii) 20 gu’s is usually the best speed to fly at for dodging.
(iii) Scouts can dodge anything except beams.
(iv) Dreadnoughts can only dodge torpedoes at extreme ranges, if they are flying at full power, and turning into the torpedoes perfectly. Other than that, their flying bullseyes.
(v) Use the cover of enemy ships to shield yourself from damage and cause friendly fire.
(vi) Planets make great barriers for missiles, torps and cannons.
That’s about all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to add or criticise.
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Senshino Rei
Cadet
Joined: November 11, 2001
Posts: 130
From: Switzerland, Zurich
| Posted: 2003-03-28 06:22
This is a good topic and i cant say anything against it but just say the word Pulse Beam ICC to avoid missiles, thats all.
i will now give advice where i can to them who want to hit players who dodge
Quote:
| Torpedoes
Torpedoes are the weapon which you will find yourself needing to dodge most often. Faster than your ship, with the ability to track your movements, they still remain relatively easy to avoid. |
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Torpedo causes area damage, also known as splash-damage, if a enemie is going to dodge ur torpedos, you still can confirm a manual Detonation by pressing ctrl- space. the torpedos on this way causes a little damage at least. WARNING: the same order also activates/deactivates point-defence for all beam weapons.
Quote:
| Missiles
The three types of missiles can essentially be sorted into two groups. The slower, less agile, but greater ranged IT missiles, and the faster, more nimble, but much smaller ranged Psi and AR missiles. |
|
there isnt a special way to ensure hits trough missiles. just the general one. for avoiding u also can use scanners and icc-pulse beams. but this isnt standard-
Quote:
| Cannons
Faster then torpedoes or missiles, and firing in multiple volleys, cannons can be the easiest, and the hardest weapons to dodge. |
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if the enemy dodges cannons, u will have to begin keep firing. thats a special combat style also inflicts physological disconcentration at the player.
hitting Basics
(i) dont try to become a space-bar-fighter. u can organize ur weapons to groups by rightclicking it and set a number 1 to 0.
(ii) If Torpedos dont hit, dont keep firing but go closer and use Beams or/and firing when the target is in about 70 gu's (beware of hitting yourself).
(iii) use the cltr-space bar option to get dodging ships
(iv) take care of your energy, velocity, shields and recharging can make you a battle loosing
(v) Dont fire just because the weapons shows green. especialy hidden kluth dreads ofthen get friendly fire because u dont know how huge the hit-cube of ur friends is.
(vi) Fighters can be launched behind planets, missiles and torpedos will crush it.
(vii) If u use fighters, missiles or cannons and your target dodges it. go to use a "keep firing". that means u launch each weapon one by one in a cadence of fire so as soon ur last weapons is launced the first is recharged again. several effects this trick shows up:
1st, the numbers of hits will increase because every fire will get a new place to fire at.
2nd the enemie has to concentrate hisself to dodge the fighters, cannons, or missiles and cannot commence a attack without problems.
3rd. the enemie just see explosions on his ship, dont recognize every other incomming fire at time at just thinks "gosh, there is a hell out there! They gonna eat me!"
4th the enemie spends more time in dodging incomming fire than looking where planets are, where others of your team are, where other incomming fire comes from.
i hope i didnt confuse anyone with this 
_________________
Firepower makes you every Battle winning,
Agility makes you never a battle loosing
[ This Message was edited by: Senshino Rei-chan =DSA= on 2003-03-28 15:45 ]
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