Those luddite cowards!

A home for tales of personal killcounts and engagements between vast armadas, as well as the odd recounting of that time you saw an alien capship taking out a mining base while trying to parallel park.
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TK-313
Star Pilot
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Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:38 pm

Those luddite cowards!

Post by TK-313 »

Now here's a story: I get a clean-sweep mission on luddites in a nearby system (that was some 48K creds...), go there, visit a couple of spots, gun down a couple of thugs... And then all of a sudden things go pretty weird :)

Just another planet to scan (something icy this time) and of cource, once I'm through with that, another fanatic shows up. He's a good 600 kilometers away and is closing in, while I aim my guns right in his face... However, about 300 kms away he changes course slightly and zaps PAST me at SPEC speed, never giving me a chance to nail him, then vanishes from the radar in seconds (and mine covers 48 000 kms... Didn't the gravity well slow him down?) :shock: Alright, I say, let the codemeat roam a bit and get his bugs out of his head. So I land, do some busyness and mending (heeey, who the hell scratched the paint?! They're dead! Already...), take off... Whoa. My bounty has brought a buddy with him. Or, maybe, it's not his buddy, since he's hanging almost 7K kms away with a pretty unconcerned look. Well, doesn't actually matter, since whenever I approach any of them, they either zap out so fast I have no chance of catching up (sitting in a planetary gravity well sucks), or engage their SPEC, try to outmaneuver my auto, maintaining a stable 280-300 kms from me (takes so long I have the time for more than one cup of coffee), then zap out again. What the hell, is my Llama so scary? Are my 3 kills so close to Elite rank? Looks like I'll eventually learn manual SPEC flight and take them out, but say, is that a bug, actual cowardice or (hehe) luddite pacifists :?:

P.S. And the robotic bartender says there has to be someone behind these luddite fanatics. Follow the white rabbit/luddite?..
Last edited by TK-313 on Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
CLoneWolf
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Re: Those luddite cowards!

Post by CLoneWolf »

Hi and welcome! :mrgreen:
There's a very useful feature to keep an eye on wimpy (or important for any other reason) targets: you have 9 available slots to memorize targets of interest, by pressing alt-number with number going from 1 to 9; to recall them, press ctrl-number.
Still, the most scared ones might fly past your radar range and be eventually lost, but to prevent that you might try aggravating them with a good spam of hostile messages (press F4 at will while targeting them); maybe they'll become more determined in eliminating you... or die trying :mrgreen:
TK-313
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Re: Those luddite cowards!

Post by TK-313 »

Thanks, that seems to work... Sometimes. One other time the luddite just didn't listen and I pissed off some passer-by who was unlucky enough to have my targeter turn to him when the actual thug went out of range. Good thing the guy decided not to play cowboy.

However, even more weirdnesses popped up... There were no targets at the planet this time. There were 2 at some capship, but one of them decded to be clever for a change and zapped to the other end of the system while I was turning his wingman to debris. Another two checkpoints gave me one luddite each, yet the kill list stated there were 2! Another checkpoint was empty, but again supposed to come with two targets. This contract is sure to give me MUCH fun :mrgreen:
CLoneWolf
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Re: Those luddite cowards!

Post by CLoneWolf »

Meh! Those are not Luddites, they are Bunnites! Hopping crazily around the galaxy! :lol:
TK-313
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Re: Those luddite cowards!

Post by TK-313 »

Oh my. This contract IS giving me quite some fun. It restarts every damn time I save with not enough luddite heads in my sack, so now that's a dozen kills, and everyone save for the uln and the aera is happy with me (even the pirates 8) I wonder if they have any bases, their ships are so FUN). And just as many to go yet :wink: And I REALLY am surperised with how the autotracking works. It can kick in without even a lock on target or it can have some other plans and not engage at all... Damn cheap lasers, I want a military tracker :lol:
Last edited by TK-313 on Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
CLoneWolf
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Re: Those luddite cowards!

Post by CLoneWolf »

Saving while a multiple objectives mission (patrol or clean sweep) is in progress has a naughty side effect: it gets the mission restarted AND recalculated :wink: (you'll see different scan targets for instance)
You'll need to be able to do the mission in one go, but it's not that hard, as docking and repairing without saving won't wipe your progress.
TK-313
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Re: Those luddite cowards!

Post by TK-313 »

Yeah, I got it already... But it's not the repairs thing that's bugging me. If I don't shoot the 2 bastards at a checkpoint FAST, 1 gets away never to be found. Looks like I need a better autotargeter or the standard one functioning in a less voodoo way. Any ideas on how to use it?
eracc
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Re: Those luddite cowards!

Post by eracc »

Okay, I am sure you are aware that you need to aim at the little diamond shape to actually hit your target if you are still using your stock Llama. I have found that enabling mouse movement works better for me than the keyboard for this. If you buy auto-targeting, for 90k creds per mount, at a commerce center or other major dock, that will help some.

Also, do spawn the insults to your hostiles like crazy. I use F6-F7 while cycling through my [H]ostiles list very fast. Once they stop responding to you they are as angry as they will get and will probably try to annihilate you. So far, this works like a charm.

Finally, save up and buy something that can take medium to heavy long range beam weapons. My first new ship in my new trials of VS (I haven't played in a long time.) is a Pacifier. I have loaded it with long range microwave lasers and auto-tracking. Even before I could afford auto-tracking, this is a Luddite Killer. :)

I have two saved games. One I "cheated" for money, the other I am playing straight. I have found that I am enjoying playing the straight game over the cheat game this time (so far ...).
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