Hello, played single player SFC for a bit and read these forums for an equal bit, learned many people found copies of OP at Sam's. So I went and now have my own (the cd-key worked fine). Was hoping to join AOTK2 if it's not too late? I'm not sure how everything works yet but of course I'll read the rules at least.
Also was wondering if recorded games work at all. I had downloaded some from xenocorp and either they were a different patch version and wouldn't show up in the list, or the game would crash immediately upon loading the "film". Was hoping to watch some of the best players duel it out, because playing vs. admiral AI I see no reason to maintain the high speed's everyone talks about unless vs. a missile or plasma ship. I guess also vs a Lyran you may as well stay outside range 3.
But if I were a Fed vs Klingon, he's free to go speed 31 while I go 10 with overloads. If he closes, he loses either the front shield or rear shield if I do a HET just before he hits me, at which point I switch to normal and possibly take some offline to maintain a good enough speed to keep on his weakened shield (and at 31 he clearly did not have full weapons himself, so he's in trouble at this point). If he "saber dances" instead of closing then I just switch to proximities...they are roughly equivalent in damage over time to his disruptors at longer ranges, however my phaser 1s are better and my slower speed allows more ECM and shield reinforcement. Either way he loses. It seems for him to win he must stay for a knife-fight and make use of the maneuverability advantage and side-intersecting phaser arcs... basically he could always fire full weapons while presenting a new shield every time. If I were to win in THIS situation I would have to sit there defensively and charge up while taking as little damage as possible, then try to go fast enough to get an angle on his weak shield, and finally if necessary an HET to get the firing solution. Then he would try to speed up enough to avoid me getting that angle, possibly too fast to catch. With similar power curves that means it's my phaser 1s vs his weak rear shield and his ph2s vs my weak front shield, and ph1s only get better as the range increases relative to 2s, so I'm happy to sit back and reinforce/ECM while this is happening.
As far as I can tell, the "minimax" strategy at work in a Fed vs Klingon frigate engagement is a knife fight where the Klingon goes JUST fast enough to keep his missing shield away after the initial engagement but slow enough to keep a turning fight. If he's too slow my shields are stronger and I can HET, if he's too fast he's degrading his own weapons through range faster than mine AND without a strong rear shield! So he has to run at an angle, not getting shot directly in the back but still staying close in order to fire all ph2s at reasonable range.
Perhaps HE could do the HET in the beginning and go for MY rear shield (in the initial pass he should present a forward-side shield), and just stay there forever on my tail with front shield reinforcement on a still-full front shield vs just my ph1s until my photons recharged, at which point he could have begun to open the distance once again to take minimal damage from those. THAT is what I'm afraid of. Not saber dancing!
Maybe this is the wrong forum for a tactics discussion, but nobody discusses these anywhere that I can fnid, except the barren tactics section of these same boards. Given the lively discussions on any RTS game's boards, I was surprised that people don't seem to discuss SFC in detail that much
In any case, I look forward to joining you all online soon