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Luc's every day tips.


Ttoilleekul

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How to get better without worrying about learning advanced skills." I see a lot of things in GSF that people are doing wrong. Really simple things that don't necessarily require "get good" to fix or do differently. And just by doing differently, would instantly improve said person's experience. So I will now be posting every day tips when I see these things happen.

 

Here's a couple to start with that I see quite often.

 

Feedback shield does not activate off rail guns. I often fire at another Gunship, and see them activate Feedback shield. Worse still, sometimes that Gunship is aware that its me shooting at them, and that it was a rail gun that hit them. Feedback shield activates off primary weapon fire. That means lasers. Rail guns are a secondary weapon, like missiles. I assume the confusion comes in because the primary weapon that Gunships use is rail guns, but that doesn't mean a rail gun is a "primary" weapon. Digressing slightly, Distortion Field is a better option 100% of the time on a Gunship.

 

How to use Concentrated Fire Correctly. I see a lot of people equipping Concentrated Fire and not knowing how to use it. It has a 36% crit chance for primaries, only a 16% crit chance for secondaries, and a very short 6s up time. These numbers make it almost worthless for Secondary weapons. The travel time of a missile or charge time of a rail gun can mean you easily waste half of the up time. The percentage chance is also simply too low to be worthwhile. I've seen videos of gunships with CF almost never getting a crit. Even if it did crit, the up time is so easily wasted. If you're trying to torpedo someone and time it to hit with CF, unless you are watching buffs, you are literally playing a lottery. Basically, you can waste a whole match trying to make that crit Proton happen. Its not "reliable." CF works best with lasers that have a low rate of fire (HLC, BLC), since those lasers hit big anyway, so the effect is amplified with CF. It still works well with lasers that have a high rate of fire (RFL, LLC), but not as well, unless you are an expert shooter with those weapons. Use CF when you are in an ideal shooting position, and don't activate it until you start shooting. A friend of mine often flies it on his Battle Scout, and it is devastating when used correctly. Generally speaking if you think you are making these mistakes with CF, you would do better to equip Bypass as an alternative, due to the longer up time, and come back to CF when you're more aware of how to use it. Lastly if you are using CF, you should spec your weapon tier 4 and 5 options to crit as well, if they have it.

Edited by Ttoilleekul
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Use of Repair Drones

Always spec your repair drone to refill ammunition. I see a lot of repair drones with shield regeneration selected. This has next to no value. Shields regenerate themselves already. Having a repair drone regenerate your shields just gets it done slightly faster. Ammo refill on the other hand has a lot of value. Any Ace Scout Pilot will thank you for having ammo refill. And considering how many missiles are being fired in any given match, think how much you help your team by having a way to refill.

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Fortress Shield is awful. Really really awful. A visual explanation works best with this one, so here is a

explanation of what I am about to say here. All I am doing here is repeating what Drakolich covered to try to increase awareness.

 

Fortress shield will add 130% to your shields. But when you deactivate it, it will remove 130% from your shields, regardless of how much shields you had left. So if you are at 100% shields, you activate Fortress shield so you go to 230%. You tank the damage from that Strike or Scout that is attacking you. Now lets say you took 100 damage. Easy to do for a good player. You now have 130% left. You start to think, "hey, I'm taking too much damage here", so you decide to move. Fortress shield will now remove the 130% it gave you. Leaving you at a big fat zero shields. I see people do this all the time. But, even if it didn't do this, at max 230% shields, it only takes a second or so longer to burn you down. If you take a Proton hit while its active, all that damage from the Proton will bypass your Fortress shields, because that's what Protons do, and you still die. Don't forget you are sitting still, so locking a Proton or burning you with lasers could not be easier.

 

The only situation where Fortress shields works, is if you are jousting another Gunship. So you are both facing each other, with clear line of sight, and you are both charging and firing rail guns until one of you dies. In that situation it will beat the meta choice component Distortion field. And I know what yo're thinking, that's good right? Fortress shield is good? No, its not. Distortion Field is better for literally every other situation, and you really shouldn't be trying to slug it out with another Gunship face to face with clear open line of sight, because even if you win, you are still going to take chip damage. Chip damage adds up and eventually you die. But, this gets into a whole different topic of how to fly Gunships. Even if you equip Fortress shield thinking you'll just use it to joust other Gunships, it will let you down at every other time. Try to use it against a Strike that attacks you, you die. I appreciate a lot of people use it because it's stock equipment or because on paper it sounds great, but as soon as you can you should be upgrading to the meta best choice component for Gunships, which is Distortion Field.

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Charged plating is awful. Really really awful. Charged plating is another component that on the surface looks great. "Damage reduction increased by 60%." What could be bad about that? Surely that's a no brainer? Nope. Damage Reduction, whether from Charged plating or from crew choices, does not work against any weapon that has armor piercing. In the current meta, those weapons are Proton torpedoes, EMP missiles, Concussion missiles, Heavy Laser Cannons, Burst Laser Canons, Rapid Fire Laser Cannons, and Slug rail guns. In other words, all the most commonly used weapons in the game. About the only weapons Charged plating does work against, are Clusters, Light Laser Canons, Quad Laser Canons, and drones and mines. What this means is that virtually every ship in the game is running armor piercing in some form or another, and most of the damage you take in every game is going to be from armor piercing weapons. Here is a

to another of Drakolich's videos that show this visually for those that need it. I see a lot of Bombers and Strikes running this, and all of them assuming that its reducing the damage they are taking. I even see them activate it when I start shooting at them. With my armor piercing weapons.

 

I recently spoke to one guy I saw in a game who was using Charged Plating on his Starguard. He was happy to accept help and we got on really well. He claimed he was winning most jousts because he has Charged Plating equipped. But what is actually happening is that he is winning most jousts in-spite of charged plating, because he is simply better than most of his opponents. If he equipped QCS or Directionals, he would instantly see his game play improve from not having a handicapped ship. And that's what this post is about. Getting better by making better simple choices, without having to worry about learning advanced skills.

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1. The number of times I’ve seen gunships activate Feedback Shield when I was shooting at them in a gunship. To be fair, I’ve done when I forgot that I’d switched to Feedback Shield. But, yeah. Totally useless when there’s a gunship on you.

 

2. Concentrated Fire on a battle scout is absolutely sexy, provided you know how to aim well. It actually works fairly well with Rocket Pods because they fire fast enough that you can get two or three off during the duration of CF.

 

3. I’ve never pulled up to a Repair Drone with ammo refill and said “man, I wish this had shield regen”. Literally every time I’ve seen a Repair Drone and found out it had shield regen instead of ammo refill, I’ve been disappointed. As an avid scout player, I burn through Rocket Pods so damn fast.

 

4. Oh, I love seeing Fortress Shield. It’s a giant beacon that screams “please kill me”. Even with gunship jousting, I’d prefer Distortion Field. That, plus strafing means that the enemy is almost guaranteed to miss. That way, I still have my shields when we’re done.

 

5. I absolutely made the mistake of thinking that Charged Plating was good. And there was a time where it was. But, as was pointed out, armor piercing is everywhere. Even if the extra armor helps you survive, if you can’t kill the other guy fast enough, it’s not going to matter.

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Attacking Gunships

The vast majority of the time, it will benefit you to do this silently. That means don't try to lock them. Keep that right mouse button finger still! This is something I see all too often. In fact, I am virtually unable to recall a time someone tried to attack my Gunship without locking a missile, its that uncommon. Even some very accomplished pilots, still don't do this correctly.

 

If a Gunship has not seen you, locking them will only tell them to start moving, and you will lose the kill. If you are coming head on with a Gunship, and he is looking right at you, a Tier 1 Strike or Tier 2/3 Scout will out gun a Gunship. So again, locking him will usually make him move, and you lose the kill. The vast majority of Gunship pilots can be taken out where they are if you do it silently, regardless of whether they have seen you or not. But a good Gunship pilot, you are never going to get that kill by locking them. Not unless they are being pressured by multiple foes, and you are the one lucky enough to land the killing missile.

 

There are some exceptions to this rule.

1) If You're using Clusters. Most pilots do not react fast enough to clusters, so they reliably hit more often. But again, don't try it with a Strong Gunship pilot.

2) If the you are low on health, and you don't want to take more damage, but a Gunship is looking right at you. Lock that missile. This will make most Gunship pilots move, and therefore he can't slug you. But again, a Strong GS pilot will not fall for this trick. He'll likely get a shot in before you make him move.

3)When you absolutely should lock a missile, is when that GS pilot has already moved. Force his missile break, then try again. At worst he breaks for cover and is no longer helping his team. At best you net a kill.

 

I tried to make this one simple because it borders on being too complicated for what this thread is about. If you take one thing from it, just don't lock missiles when you attack a Gunship. You will soon see the difference, and you will soon learn when you should try to lock them.

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Basics of how to aim

Again, going to keep this simple, because this post is about getting better without learning "advanced" skills. So this is purely about the basics, and if you don't know this, you will immediately improve simply from knowing it.

 

Aim at the traveling point of your target, not the actual target. Visual explanation.

 

This is a big part of why a lot of people struggle to do damage with lasers, and have really bad accuracy figures.

When you have a target selected, you will see a two-part red indicator. The 1st part has 4 arrows pointing at the target showing you where they actually are in space. The 2nd part is a red circle showing you their direction of travel. The point in space that they are traveling to. This 2nd part is where you need to place your reticle. Your cross hairs. Your mouse. This is called leading your target, and applies to real life aerial combat too. If you aim at your target, by the time your lasers arrive at the point in space where your target is, the target won't be there anymore, and you will miss. So to hit them, you need to aim in front of them, so that your target flies into your lasers. GSF is nice to you here, because it actually shows you where this point is, rather than you having to work it out yourself.

 

This applies to all primary weapons (Heavy lasers, Burst lasers, Rapid fire lasers, Light lasers, Laser cannon, Quad Lasers) and will work as long as you are in range, and evasion / accuracy buffs / debuffs (RNG calculations) are in your favor. I won't go into further explanation about evasion and RNG here as it gets more "advanced." This does not apply to secondary weapons (all missiles and rail guns). For those, you just aim at the target directly.

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I actually found many of these tips useful. I just stated back casually, and am beginning to realize how much I need to to learn/relearn.Thanks

 

Good to know. It's no secret that it's my belief half the reason we have unbalanced matches is due to the lack of player skill among the masses. Fact is, if everyone played to mid-tier or above level, matches would be utterly different. But when I last raised this point, a retort came that not everyone is cut out to achieve those levels. And that is quite true. So what I hoped to show with this thread is just how easy it is to improve. Yes higher end advanced stuff is quite tricky, and some of it I am still working on myself. But this stuff here, if the average player applies it, they immediately, with next to no effort, become much much better.

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Basics of shooting - not being reliant on missiles.

Long winded ramblings. Very simple advice. I've talked about how to aim, lets talk about how to force yourself to get better with lasers. One of the big issues in GSF is reliance on missiles rather than lasers.This largely exists because of "Protorp wars." Everyone new in GSF realizes very quickly just how hard shooting is. They then realize just as quickly how much damage a Proton does, and voila, everyone thinks that missiles (specifically Protons) are the way to do damage and get kills. They then spend every match desperately trying to land Protons in the hope of making kills. I count myself among these people. I made this mistake. But the fact is, anyone reliant on missiles is lacking an important aspect of their game play. When I was just getting to grips with GSF I was told by Mendac; "80% of your damage should come from lasers." This is something I 100% stand by. Now, you could say, " but I fly a missile boat like the Pike / Quell, why do I have to bother with lasers?" But the answer is do you want to improve? If you don't, you're probably not reading this. If you do, then listen up.

 

Here is my big tip for how to stop being reliant on Protons, and missiles in general, and force yourself to become effective with lasers. Take Protons off your ship and use Clusters instead. Again, this was a tip given to me, and it worked. This was when I learned to not automatically press my missile finger. This was when I learned to joust, and beat most people in jousts. Clusters do precious little damage on their own. So spamming them won't get you kills if you aren't hitting with lasers too. Suddenly you will have to focus on your aim. Suddenly you will have to pay attention to range. Suddenly you will learn to position your ship to damage with lasers rather than relying on locks. Is it harder at first? Yes. Will you get less kills at first? Yes. Will it benefit you in the long run if you stick with it? Absolutely. And to anyone thinking "this doesn't apply to me, I already get lots of kills and damage with lasers," I say this. Take Protons off, and you will learn how good you really are. Yeah, if you're regularly getting high kill numbers, you're pretty decent. But if you can do it without Protons, you're better. Whether you're noob trying to learn to shoot, or you think you're pretty good but fancy trying this, you can put Protons back on your ship when you've seen how much difference this method makes to your play. I am not saying don't fly with them period. I am saying learn not to rely on them.

 

The Starguard / Rycer is the best ship to do this with as it has an emphasis on lasers compared to the other two strikes. It carries two primary weapons and one missile. If you try this on the Pike / Quell you'll still be trying to shoot that 2nd missile. Plus if you learn this on the Starguard / Rcyer, you'll find yourself much more effective in the Pike / Quell missile boat when you go back to it, and you'll be able to maximize that ship rather than flying it purely for it's missiles.

Edited by Ttoilleekul
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Basics of Survival

Staying alive is something too many people do not take seriously enough. So into the basics of this.

1/ If you have used your missile break, find cover fast. Use objects around you to stay out of line of sight until your missile break returns. IF you have a secondary break like Distortion field or EMP field, you can afford to use the 2nd one before you break for cover.

2/ Pay attention to the mini-map. Move it into a better location if you find it hard to look at during play. If you see a lot of red arrows and blobs clustered together on the map - don't fly into it! Don't even fly close to it!

3/Prioritize survival over offence. Think about your attack. Try to weigh up the odds of success and coming out alive. If it feels bad, don't do it.

4/ Don't see Red Don't let emotions rule your decisions. You're likely going to end up ignoring damage and missile locks and end up dying again.

5/Don't ignore taking damage IF you have a persistent lock tone, or you are taking damage, and you don't feel confident to handle it, Bug out. Find safety.

6/ Stay with your team.If you are not an Ace, or a very experienced strong vet, then going Leeroy Jenkins will just result in you feeding the other guys easy kills.

7/ Kill Death RatioTry to come out of every match with a positive KDR. More kills than deaths. IF you are achieving this 90% of the time, you're on the way.

Edited by Ttoilleekul
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Finally took time to read through all of this. Also your server analysis post. Nice work. I bet that one took a lot of time. Glad to see my server is going well;)

 

Good points about the importance of lasers. You forgot to mention it is the fun weapon. I use missiles or torps differently than others I guess. I like to keep pressure on with a close range lock, if I can, while bursting with my primaries. I will let the secondary go only to finish some one off usually. Otherwise there is a good chance of wasting the shot. Or If I know they are going to escape I will gamble on a release and move on to another target. Not into chasing a single person for the whole match. If they are that much better than me then I need to practice elsewhere.

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Finally took time to read through all of this. Also your server analysis post. Nice work. I bet that one took a lot of time. Glad to see my server is going well;)
Glad you liked it.

 

I use missiles or torps differently than others I guess. I like to keep pressure on with a close range lock, if I can, while bursting with my primaries. I will let the secondary go only to finish some one off usually. Otherwise there is a good chance of wasting the shot. Or If I know they are going to escape I will gamble on a release and move on to another target.
This is pretty common actually. A lot of poeple rely so hard on missiles they work out stuff like this while still being inherently bad with lasers. Not saying that's you, but they do. Still, good to work on not needing missiles though - you'll thank yourself if you do.
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I thought that you were saying that most people only use missiles.
You understood correctly. But these people who rely heavily on missiles still learn to do things like holding the lock for a late release to try and catch you before you hit your break, or locking you from close range. Or forcing the break with one missile then trying to land a Proton while your break is on cool-down. There are lots of tricks like this with missiles, and they are all good to know and learn. But its the heavy reliance on these tricks that is the problem. As I said, if you want to know how reliant you are on missiles, equip your ship with clusters and you will soon find out.
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Challenge accepted:hope_01:

 

I will fly a fresh toon a with vanilla ship to make it as challenging as possible for me. T1S with your other primary suggestions equipped. Let's see what happens. Post the results next week for the curious.

 

Edit: probably should have typed out tier one strike. forgot S is for scout. I am committing to 100 matches in a Vanilla ship with nothing upgraded. I will unlock the components I like. And use clusters. Might take more than a week depending on my free time.

Edited by Gundahar
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Challenge accepted:hope_01:

 

I will fly a fresh toon a with vanilla ship to make it as challenging as possible for me. T1S with your other primary suggestions equipped. Let's see what happens. Post the results next week for the curious.

 

Look forward seeing it :)

 

Also regarding ship designations - Scouts get the letter S, Strike Fighters get the letter F. So T1S is Tier 1 Scout. T1F is Tier 1 Fighter. Don't worry - took me ages to get this.

Edited by Ttoilleekul
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