Am I doing something wrong?

Badut · Post by **Badut** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 1:14 am

I'm finding it quite difficult to kill other starships in combat. It usually takes me several minutes to kill a Hyena. I can get a couple of good shots in to bring down their shields but then they fly out of view and by the time I line them up for another shot, their shields have regenerated.

I can think of a few things that can contribute to this:

1) I'm still in my Llama albeit with upgraded weapons etc...
2) I lack hand/eye coordination (highly likely)
3) I'm using keyboard to control rather than joystick/mouse

Can anyone give me some pointers to be better in combat?
I'm getting tired of doing cargo runs but bounty/defend missions are just too tedious right now.

BTW Here is my Llama setup:
L3 reactor
L4 shields
2 ion beams
2 disruptor beams
Cloak
Scanner 2600
Advanced repair (not exactly sure if this does anything but I bought it anyway)

Workaphobia · Post by **Workaphobia** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 2:10 am

Badut, I was just about to post with the exact same problem. I find it impossible to kill any enemy ships, even though I've upgraded from a llama to a Convolution (dual laser beams and a disrupter installed, as well as a reactor upgrade). Enemies are just too far away, then when they are close enough they rip me to shreds if they're not distracted, and even if they're distracted and standing still I can barely hit them - unless they are freakishly close and static. I too use the keyboard, and given that I never sucked this much at Wing Commander I'm wondering if that's the cause. It really takes a lot of fun out of the game when the only missions I can do are transport ones that don't go through dangerous systems.

Any tips for practicing?

Also, how does one configure the game to use the mouse for steering, and is this the method most people use?

Badut · Post by **Badut** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:28 am

Hi Workaphobia. Interesting name BTW.

To survive long enough to inflict fatal damage on the enemy, I've upgraded my shields to level 4 (not sure if this is the max for a Llama cause I can't seem to buy anything better). This at least buys me enough time to inflict some damage but I still take too long to kill 1 enemy.

If you want to keep doing cargo missions, I'd suggest getting a Cloaking device. This will let you move anywhere without being harassed.

However, it still doesn't solve the problem of how to kill enemies quickly if I want to.

To use the mouse for steering, go to the bin directory under the vegastrike directory and do ./setup

Good luck!

Silverain · Post by **Silverain** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:32 am

See link to Game Configuration

energyman76b · Post by **energyman76b** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:05 pm

Hi,

my killrate increased drastically when I started to use 'mouse glide' maybe that will help you too.

fizze · Post by **fizze** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:08 am

right, silverrain, i dont really see a connex to the game configuration, alas....

whatever

yeah, the problem is, you should wipe them ships shields off, inflict some hull damage, and then fire off 1-2-3 missiles for the kill.
works nice for hyenas, and for bigger vessels too.

I've learnt to really like my dual missile launchers for that purpose.

mouse gliding, sliding, bliding, joystick, all keyboard, whatsoever doesnt really have an impact there. not for me, at last.

Badut · Post by **Badut** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 12:40 am

Last night I discovered the joys of autotracking.
My Llama can now take out hyenas and plowshares with ease.
Some people say autotracking is expensive at 94k but for what it does, I think it's way too cheap.

I'm gonna go and get a shield regenerator (whatever it's called) and then I'll be content to do cargo runs plus some simple bounties until I have enough to buy a new ship.

Workaphobia · Post by **Workaphobia** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:55 pm

Well I think I'm on the path to more money now. I didn't run vsinstall until a couple of days ago, and before that setup always gave me an error about not being able to find a configuration file. For some reason the game itself was still playable. Anyway now that I can control the settings, I reduced the speed to normal from double, and set the mouse glide option on. That seems to have helped significantly, as I have no killed a few enemies.

Unfortunately, afterwards I ran into an unlucky crashing streak, mostly when trying to dock (I learned the hard way that the Convolution can't dock at many civillian stations). Also a capship appeared randomly in the middle of space when I was flying at full velocity - not fun. But that's all outside of the scope of this thread.

fizze · Post by **fizze** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 7:47 am

heh, no worries about being OT

yeah, that "appearing" capships you crash easily into can be fixed, or lets say: tweaked to be less disturbing.
just search the forums.

re: autotracking: well, it IS expensive, but I wouldnt waste it on the llama, tbh.
imnsho doing cargo runs is fairly nice, and one can still easily escape bogeys rather easily. If you find yourself a few busy sectors, you can do 2-3 cargo runs to the same system at a time, which obviously is more lucrative

Badut · Post by **Badut** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 6:10 am

re: autotracking: well, it IS expensive, but I wouldnt waste it on the llama, tbh.
imnsho doing cargo runs is fairly nice, and one can still easily escape bogeys rather easily. If you find yourself a few busy sectors, you can do 2-3 cargo runs to the same system at a time, which obviously is more lucrative Smile

Well, if I'm doing pure cargo runs, then shields and weapons would also be a waste on a llama (a cloak will do). However, I want to put the kybosh on the occasional pirate so maxing out my weapons and armour is worth it.

fizze · Post by **fizze** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 12:11 pm

well cloak is futile, since it spoils all the fun, for me at last.
its nice if you are on a bounty, though.

well, weapons arent as nice as decent afterburners and experienced manouverability with your ship, whatever it is, trust me.

I hardly ever go on in on a few Hyenas, even if I could whoop their butts. its simply too time consuming.