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Drakkolich

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Solid answers. Thanks! I got a long distance work weekend (graveyard shift) coming up. Ill write up the interview questions there then hit u up here via messaging by Wednesday when I get back to the cockpit. Good job at passing down what you know via this thread. We'll help get the word out!

 

Here's another question. What exactly did Commander William Adama mean when he said:

 

That's easy that's board game dice roll it means on a six sided dice you actually have to have the 6 show up on it. Not a modified six (aka you roll the dice and 4 pops up but modifiers allow you to get a 6) but a true HARD 6.

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How high is "up"? I feel I should know this if I'm going to fly spacecraft. -bp

 

I'm not quite sure how to answer that, but if you're talking about hitting the exaustion zone. The kuat mesas ones are about lined up with the highest mesa in the map. For lost shipyards basically if you go up past any other asteroid in sight you only have about 1 second more of being able to boost.

I hope that helped.

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I'm not quite sure how to answer that, but if you're talking about hitting the exaustion zone. The kuat mesas ones are about lined up with the highest mesa in the map. For lost shipyards basically if you go up past any other asteroid in sight you only have about 1 second more of being able to boost.

I hope that helped.

 

Hell, I was just trying to be a smartmouth - and you actually came up with a viable, in-context answer!

 

Well done! -bp

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As a Verain Strike Fighter how do you think I should build? And what should my first upgrades be in my Verain style strike?

I use - Quads/Thermite/healing/power dive/Charged plating/deflection armor/damage/large/comms.

Edited by phoenixjon
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As a Verain Strike Fighter how do you think I should build? An what should my first upgrades be in my Verain style strike?

I use - Quads/healing/power dive/Charged plating/deflection armor/damage/large/comms.

 

So the Clarion/Imperium nickname is officially "Verain"?

 

"I'm bringing my Verain to C."

 

"Anyone need heals? I'm piloting a Verain."

 

"HALP I HAVE NO MANEUVERABILITY, I'M ON A VERAIN!"

Edited by TrinityLyre
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As a Verain Strike Fighter how do you think I should build? An what should my first upgrades be in my Verain style strike?

I use - Quads/healing/power dive/Charged plating/deflection armor/damage/large/comms.

 

Well clearly as the verain strike fighter you want to make sure to have repair probes but never upgrade them, just to make your wingmen as upset as possible. The rest of the build doesn't really matter, but extra points for making it as bad as possible.

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Why does "R" never work for me? 99% of my attackers come from behind, and a barrel roll and "R" still doesn't seem to bring me the shooter as my primary target :(

 

Please help. Thanks so much for this thread.

 

Also, I think I blew up a healer drone. Is this possible? Was it enemy or friendly? Can you shoot both, and if so, is it worth it?

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Why does "R" never work for me? 99% of my attackers come from behind, and a barrel roll and "R" still doesn't seem to bring me the shooter as my primary target :(

 

Please help. Thanks so much for this thread.

 

Also, I think I blew up a healer drone. Is this possible? Was it enemy or friendly? Can you shoot both, and if so, is it worth it?

 

Only way to "R" a target is when they has done direct damage to you. You can also "tab" until you see who is targeting you. Healing drones can be either friendly or enemy. If they are friendly you can't kill them. If they are owned by enemies, you can. If you can kill the owner of the drone instead of the drone then it is not worth sacrificing effort on the drone.

Edited by phoenixjon
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Why does "R" never work for me? 99% of my attackers come from behind, and a barrel roll and "R" still doesn't seem to bring me the shooter as my primary target :(

 

Please help. Thanks so much for this thread.

 

Also, I think I blew up a healer drone. Is this possible? Was it enemy or friendly? Can you shoot both, and if so, is it worth it?

 

So "R" only works for the last damage you took. If you barrel roll a missile you didn't take damage from it won't show who fired the missile. You can hit "R" multiple times to cycle through all the people that have fired on you and done damage.

 

There are two ships that can take a Repair Drone instead of a shield, said drone sits and heals all friendly ships around it, it has health and can be killed. So if an enemy had a repair drone you definitely could have killed it. :)

 

Feel free to toss out any more questions ^^

Edited by Drakkolich
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Is there a trick to placing mines/ Missile drones./ repair probes really precicely? I have oftern seen them tucked right under the vanes of a sat, or in a corner of an asteroid, or in the superstructures or in the wreckage in DenonEx ?

 

And any way to boost the speed/ travel range of bombers. Sometimes if we push the enemy back to their spawn, getting a bomber across the map in TDM takes forever! Scouts hoover up all the power ups.... like they need them .... Grr!

 

THX. Keep up the god work.

Edited by Storm-Cutter
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Is there a trick to placing mines/ Missile drones./ repair probes really precicely? I have oftern seen them tucked right under the vanes of a sat, or in a corner of an asteroid, or in the superstructures or in the wreckage in DenonEx ?

 

And any way to boost the speed/ travel range of bombers. Sometimes if we push the enemy back to their spawn, getting a bomber across the map in TDM takes forever! Scouts hoover up all the power ups.... like they need them .... Grr!

 

THX. Keep up the god work.

 

So placing mines/drones is pretty simple they float about 1000M behind you maybe a little less after fired, so if you want to place them in a specific spot use the numpad #2 button to look behind you and they will float to that spot. Pretty much just put your back to wherever you want them and drop em.

 

For bomber builds to improve engine speed/efficiency, there is the obvious engineering crew passives that can give both 10% more engine power and 13% more efficiency. You can also use shield power converter, its last upgrade can give you 15% more engine power. In a team setting having a bloodmark/spearpoint with tensor field is really invaluable for helping bombers get around as the last upgrade gives everyone hit by it a bunch of engine regen on top of the already awesome speed buff.

 

I hope that's the kind of stuff you were looking for, if i missed something just ask again :)

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What's a good place to learn the less-well-documented finer points of GSF? Increased firing arc vs accuracy vs evasion vs damage reduction, sensor/focus/dampening, what the various bomber drones do etc?

 

Thats a tough one, first off you can see all the weapons information by going into your preferences, starfighter and check the box for advanced weapon tooltips ( or something like that ) that will give you all the info you want on each weapon.

 

If your looking for a build calculator you can go to dulfy they have a good one there to see what kind of upgrades you would want to get ahead of time. Here's the link to that http://dulfy.net/2013/11/16/swtor-galactic-starfighter/ .

 

I'm not sure what you mean by firing arc vs accuracy vs evasion vs damage reduction. But if you want to know how any of those work (or all of them) just post a billion questions here and ill answer them all :)

 

I can answer the sensor ones for you though, sensor range is the range at which you can see an enemy ship minus their dampening. (Example: If I'm 20000M from you and you have 21000M sensor range you can see me. But if I had 2000M dampening you wouldn't be able to see me yet.) Sensor focus is added on top of your sensor range in the direction you are looking, so you can actually detect things past your sensor range by looking in that direction. Communication is how far you can tell your allies what you see, and were pretty sure aslong as one players communication range reaches anothers they both share information.

 

I know I probably didn't get everything you wanted, if you could maybe ask a bunch of smaller more specific questions that would probably be easier for me to answer. Feel free to poor em on ^^

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OK then, here're some more bite-sized questions:

  1. Accuracy and Evasion - Is there a difference between increasing my accuracy by 10% and reducing my target's evasion by 10%? Is there a point to boosting my accuracy above 100% if my target has evasion?
  2. Evasion, Damage Reduction, and Hull - In the long run (over many hits), what's the difference between +10% evasion, +10% damage reduction, and +10% Hull? Does evasion grant a chance to avoid missile damage? Does damage reduction apply to hull only, or hull and shields?
  3. Missile Range - I get that missiles with 5000M range can lock on & fire at a target 5000M away, but can that missile travel more than 5000M? If fired at max range, can my target escape by boosting out to 10000M AFTER I've fired (out-ranging the missile)?
  4. Missile Tracking - Once fired, can any missiles be out-maneuvered, or are they guaranteed to hit unless the target uses an engine maneuver or puts an obstacle in the way?
  5. Laser Range - Do lasers do more damage at close range? If so, say I have a laser with 4000M range that does 300 damage to a target 2000M away and 200 damage to a target 4000M away. Does +10% range increase the damage done at 2000M to something above 300, or just let me hit a target at 4400M for <200 damage?
  6. Damage vs Rate of Fire - In the long run, what's the difference between +10% laser damage and +10% rate of fire? Is one significantly better than the other? Does +10% rate of fire increase energy consumption?
  7. Comm Chaining - Do comms chain? Example: (X --- A --- B --- C) A can see X, and B can see X because B is in comm range of A. C is in comm range of B. Can C see X?
  8. Turn Rate - Should I be rolling to place my targets at the top/bottom of the screen so I can take advantage of pitch vs yaw turn rate, or does it not really matter?
  9. Ship Mastery - What is it and why do I care?

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I think I can answer 8 - yes turn rate increases at 6 o' clock and 12 o'clock positions, so roll your ship before climbing or diving. -Though I might add that if you and your target are evenly matched, you'll not out-turn one another - Best to veer off or back off or boost away and re aquire your target from a different position. Also look out for pairs of ships trying to out turn one another. - The enemy ship can make easy prey, coz people often get hung up on one opponent and fail to spot a vigilant wingman.

 

9 ship mastery is taking one of each component to the top tier of upgrades. You gain a bonus in req for doing so for each ship - fleet req around 250-ish IIRC. - And from then on gain 10% req when that ship's rewards are handed out at the end of the match. You also gain a GSF achievement. I think that mastery for req bonus purposes is automatically granted for ships bought with Cartel coins - as a sweetener.

 

Can anyone fil in 1-7?

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Drak's likely asleep, so I'll fill in for him. ;)

 

1. Accuracy and Evasion - Is there a difference between increasing my accuracy by 10% and reducing my target's evasion by 10%? Is there a point to boosting my accuracy above 100% if my target has evasion?

Yes, there is a difference, and yes, boosting accuracy above 100% matters. The way most players understand accuracy is (and I've tried to test this): chance to hit target = weapon accuracy (based on distance to target) + accuracy buffs (Wingman, Targeting Telemetry) - accuracy debuffs (like Supression) - weapon tracking penalty - target's current evasion (modified positively or negatively). When off-center, increasing your accuracy 10% is more beneficial because it accounts for accuracy loss due to weapon tracking and range in addition to overcoming a target's evasion. Reducing a target's evasion 10% does not help you overcome a tracking penalty and does less if the target doesn't have 10% or more evasion. Accuracy is generally more effective and useful in most scenarios because lots of targets don't run 10% or more evasion. Though not directly related, here's a dev post that's a great read on some of the intricacies of GSF and touches on accuracy.

 

 

2. Evasion, Damage Reduction, and Hull - In the long run (over many hits), what's the difference between +10% evasion, +10% damage reduction, and +10% Hull? Does evasion grant a chance to avoid missile damage? Does damage reduction apply to hull only, or hull and shields?

Evasion increases the chance that lasers, turrets, rocket pods and gunship railguns miss you. It does nothing to affect mines, bomber railgun drones or lock-on missiles. It does not reduce or otherwise modify damage, all it does is reduce the chance certain shots hit you.

 

Damage reduction reduces any damage you take from any source that does not have armor penetration/ignore. Unfortunately, a whole slew of popular weapons come with armor ignore upgrades (Burst Laser Cannon, Heavy Laser, Slug Railgun, etc.). This is typically stacked to counter mines, Quad Lasers, Cluster Missiles and other weaponry that have no armor ignore. It appears to affect only hull, not shields. Thus you can infer that the best time to pop additional damage reduction against an opponent with no armor ignore is when you have no shields. This isn't always true, but something to keep in mind.

 

Additional hull strength just gives you a larger HP pool to survive burst damage attacks. It is generally considered less effective than the alternatives because it does nothing to reduce damage from any source, just increases your time to live by a minor amount. Even on a bomber, 20% extra hull amounts to 400 HP, which is less than a shot from most weapons.

 

 

3. Missile Range - I get that missiles with 5000M range can lock on & fire at a target 5000M away, but can that missile travel more than 5000M? If fired at max range, can my target escape by boosting out to 10000M AFTER I've fired (out-ranging the missile)?

4. Missile Tracking - Once fired, can any missiles be out-maneuvered, or are they guaranteed to hit unless the target uses an engine maneuver or puts an obstacle in the way?

Yes, if the target boosts out of range of the missile after it is launched, the missile projectile will absolutely still hit it (barring a missile break mechanic).

 

This dev post explains missile locks perfectly. There's some supplementary answers here as well!

 

5. Laser Range - Do lasers do more damage at close range? If so, say I have a laser with 4000M range that does 300 damage to a target 2000M away and 200 damage to a target 4000M away. Does +10% range increase the damage done at 2000M to something above 300, or just let me hit a target at 4400M for <200 damage?

Yes, lasers typically do more damage at close range. The farther away you are from a target, the less accurate and less damage a laser will deal. Turn on detailed tooltips and mouse over weapon components and you'll see the various damage/accuracy/range values. Increasing range also increases the damage dealt by the laser and the accuracy of the laser at those original ranges by pushing out the accuracy/damage curve farther than it was originally. If you're interested in more information, a number of veteran pilots go over Range Capacitor and range extensively here.

 

6. Damage vs Rate of Fire - In the long run, what's the difference between +10% laser damage and +10% rate of fire? Is one significantly better than the other? Does +10% rate of fire increase energy consumption?

10% laser damage increases each laser shot's damage by 10%. You do not fire more shots or expend more energy. This is preferable when using Burst Laser Cannon because shots are not "click and hold" - you take snap shots with a single click and want each individual shot to deal more damage. It is also generally preferable when using Quad Laser Cannon, because the power draw of Frequency Capacitor (when coupled with Quads) is much too high to sustain for a reasonable period.

 

10% rate of fire increases the sustained firing rate by 10%, which increases energy consumption but fires additional laser blasts over time. This is preferable when you aren't hindered by power draw and don't take snap shots very regularly (your time on target is not <1 second). Why? Because firing rate is given at a higher rate than damage (the real tradeoff is 10% damage vs 10% range vs 15% firing rate) so it generally equates to the largest potential damage gain.

 

7. Comm Chaining - Do comms chain? Example: (X --- A --- B --- C) A can see X, and B can see X because B is in comm range of A. C is in comm range of B. Can C see X?

Though I haven't extensively tested this, I'm pretty sure comms chain, and your example would have an answer of "yes". It would explain why you can see targets 100,000m+ away. Here's a tidbit of information regarding sensors.

 

8. Turn Rate - Should I be rolling to place my targets at the top/bottom of the screen so I can take advantage of pitch vs yaw turn rate, or does it not really matter?

Roll so that you always pitch/yaw, it is far more effective at tracking enemy targets and turning more quickly. Kudos on a great question!

 

9. Ship Mastery - What is it and why do I care?

 

Ship mastery is attained if you get any Cartel Coin ship or master (upgrade completely) one component from each section of a ship. Keep in mind that some ships have two of the same section, like Secondary Weapons for a GSS-3 Mangler, and both sections need to have a mastered component for the ship to be considered mastered. Once mastered, a ship gains 10% additional ship requisition in combat, allowing you to upgrade other components more quickly, transfer additional requisition to fleet requisition, or even earn fleet requisition faster with that ship (since 10% of your earned ship requisition is added as fleet requisition at the end of every match).

 

A lot of this (and more) is covered in my guide here (or in my signature), though it may take some searching to find a specific answer. If anything I've said is incorrect (and can be backed up with some form of data), veterans feel free to correct me. :)

Edited by TrinityLyre
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10% laser damage increases each laser shot's damage by 10%. You do not fire more shots or expend more energy. This is preferable when using Burst Laser Cannon because shots are not "click and hold" - you take snap shots with a single click and want each individual shot to deal more damage. It is also generally preferable when using Quad Laser Cannon, because the power draw of Frequency Capacitor (when coupled with Quads) is much too high to sustain for a reasonable period.

 

10% rate of fire increases the sustained firing rate by 10%, which increases energy consumption but fires additional laser blasts over time. This is preferable when you aren't hindered by power draw and don't take snap shots very regularly (your time on target is not <1 second). Why? Because firing rate is given at a higher rate than damage (the real tradeoff is 10% damage vs 10% range vs 15% firing rate) so it generally equates to the largest potential damage gain.

 

Just too add a little something with range capacitor vs damage capacitor.... Damage increases with range linearly.. So it basicly means that increasing your 5000m range will increase the damage at 5000m a little and the max range damage will be at 5500m... The increase isn't as big as with damage capacitor... I think someone said it was 9% increase but I can't find where...

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