Topic: Anyone care to talk tactics?

[Nemesis]

Unless you're flying a "fast" warship with plenty of spare engine power, speed is crippling and reduces firepower.... unless one is a dishonourable Kzinti hiding behind drone racks.

As I've said before your disruptor's have 3 settings, other heavy weapons have at least as many settings.  One of those settings is OFF.  There are tactical reasons to fly with some weapons disabled and phaser recharge rate at less than 100%.

For Romulan early tech players, look speed up in a dictionary or ask non- early tech Rommie players about it.

I quite like the R-BH myself, one of my favourites.  I've flown the R-WB against an F-CA (and won).  How important speed is, is variable.  For some ships it isn't important at least against some enemies. 

When flying Romulan I use ALL the plasma settings.  Enveloping, shotgun and most importantly UNDERLOADING.  If you don't then you are missing a significant part of the potential firepower of the ship. 

Some ships, like the Klingon F5Y, have only Disrupters which eat power, not forgetting the cloaking device, so speed is a problem if one wants to shoot back.

The K-F5Y is a bastard ship that shouldn't exist.  It should dump the disruptor's either for a longer term arming weapon (Photon or Plasma F) or for special sensors and be a scout.  The cloak combined with disruptor's is STUPID.

[Age]

Some ships, like the Klingon F5Y, have only Disrupters which eat power, not forgetting the cloaking device, so speed is a problem if one wants to shoot back.

The K-F5Y is a bastard ship that shouldn't exist.  It should dump the disruptor's either for a longer term arming weapon (Photon or Plasma F) or for special sensors and be a scout.  The cloak combined with disruptor's is STUPID.

That is why I always change mine to photons.

[Panzergranate]

I agree, I've only flown the F5Y a few times and the lack of Phasers is more than an agravating Achille's Heel. In a one off skirmish LAN scenario to capture a Hydran Listening Post Freighter (see the ADB SSD site), I didn't even manage to fire the Disrupters more than once before the Hydran's fighter complement took me out. Lack of Phasers was the problem in more ways than one.

The weak Disrupters, on the F5Y, couldn't even penetrate the un-reinforced shields of the H-LPF, and can only just make a point or two damage through only small freighters of any race, unless the target player decides to reinforce the target shield.

So, the F5Y is kind of pointless and useless for any role in SFB and SFC.

Just try setting up a FMSE scenario with an F5Y versus one or more small and large freighters.... and prepare to be frustrated.

The K2 scout, which fannon has apparently as the alledged "Small Klingon scout vessel", in one TOS episode shown as a whirling light show in the distance, because of ECM jamming, lacks both cloak, Disrupters and a meaningful amount of Phasers (a few PH 2), relying on strong ECM for defence.... which doesn't really workout in practice.

The F5S scout sorely needs a cloak, but does have Phasers.

The F6S, as the SSD given on the PHD website, is probally the best scout option prior to the BOP's debue, carrying Disrupters in the top engine nachelle.

Actually, the F5Y isn't even much of a threat, so isn't even worth firing at, in a large battle, unless one has run out of viable targets.

[Julin Eurthyr]

This is scary news! I never knew that the first point of damage disappeared after a while. As if doubled internals weren't enough, there are partially regenerating doubled internals?!?! (partially because at least things like hull or lab do not regenerate over time)

Notice I did say "but if that first point of damage is erased".  This is what appears to happen often when I fight the I-CA with a K-D7, I haven't had the same difficulty with other ships.  It may be because of the difference in firepower/size being enough that I just can't inflict the same damage quickly enough that it shows up.  A ship with more "punch" does not seem to have the same issue.

As far as I know, the only things that regenerate "free" are engines (approx. 1 box every 2-4 turns) and shields (rates based on labs).

"Stun points" don't.

However, there are "features" in the repair system that can mess with someone's head.  As a veteran ISC pilot, I know of quite a few ways to "stretch out" an I-CAx series hull's "survivability"...

1.  The "stealth hull", aka the shuttlebay.  The shuttlebay pads a few important rows on the DAC after hull is gone but before you really start gutting a ton of weapons.  A single screw can repair the entire 6 box shuttlebay of the "combat" I-CA family, restoring 12 more "padding" points to protect the ship.  Shuttle bay repairs are also fairly quick.

2.  Take advantage of the "phaser priority rule".  All I-CA variants from W on up (W,P,Y,Z) carry 3xPh-3 on each side in a single hardpoint per side.  The first 8 phaser hits will take out an entire Ph-3 bank and a Ph-1 bank (if the shots come in through shield 6 that commonly takes out the LS Ph-3 bank and the LF Ph-1 bank).  Repairing those 2 banks quickly enough will protect the remaining Phaser banks on the I-CA hull, requiring another 8 phaser hits to knock them off again.

3.  (Ab)use the "hardpoint repair system".  This one is more commonly used on the CC family (especially the "stock" design with both PPDs on one hardpoint) but is also applicable to the I-CA.  The PPD is the second longest weapon to repair in the game (behind the Pl-R), and the CC's twinned PPD hardpoint is the single-longest repairing heavy weapon hardpoint in the game.  As the repair system keeps the hardpoint in "repair mode" for the "full duration" whether completely restoring the hardpoint or just cleaning one stun damage off of it, tossing a repair onto a "stunned" PPD just before it takes a second hit will make it "invulnerable" for the full repair cycle, but it will remain fully functional during the entire timeframe.

[Panzergranate]

Actually, APR, AWR, BTTY, Lab, Sensors, Scanners, Impulse and Warp are all freebe repairs.

Having a repair strategy is just as important as the game strategy. Damage Control is about managing all those lucky hits your assailants managed to score on your ship.

If short of magic screws, I tend to pool weapons repairs on one side of the ship so that I can at least have the ability to have some concentrated firepower in some direction.

I've also noticed that systems under repair can be hit and destroyed, so sometimes it is better to wait until the onslaught, say a Drone wall is over with, then start with the repairs.

Another strategy, in a multi-player game, is playing  a "Ptarmigan Bluff", where like the wild fowl, one delays any repairs for several minutes, makes a bogus attempt to disengage, which gives the enemy a chance to scan the vessel and see all those blacked out weapons systems.

The enemy will ususall, if sensible concentrate their fire on the more combat viable allies that pose a real threat. The enemy will believe that they'll be able to catch up and make a kill or capture later.

One can then start handing out the magic screws and make repairs, before making a surprise return to the battle.

I've played it a couple of times and have seen it played in both SFB and SFC LAN games.

In SFB, it plays on abusing the enemy's use of "Tactical Intelligence" rules, though in SFB one is pretending that there is no Damage Control Teams left onboard or that the damage has overwhelmed the surviving Damage Control teams. In SFC, that one has run out of materials for repair.

 

[Age]

Actually, APR, AWR, BTTY, Lab, Sensors, Scanners, Impulse and Warp are all freebe repairs.

I wouldn't say Warp is freebie repair as you have to use parts to repair your warp engines and it take more than one depending damage.

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

Lab, Sensors, Scanners, ... are all freebe repairs.

Just wondering, how do you know that these three systems repair automatically like the power systems? I don't like how labs, sensors, and scanners are "invisible" while you are in a match, and you can't repair them with the magic screws (although sensors show up on the repair panel in SFC2 and OP).

Is there a way we can test this? Maybe taking a 4-lab ship with a bunch of damage, waiting a while for the labs to come back, and then seeing if the shields come back as quickly as normal after the labs have had a chance to be fully repaired.

[Nemesis]

Actually, APR, AWR, BTTY, Lab, Sensors, Scanners, Impulse and Warp are all freebe repairs.

I wouldn't say Warp is freebie repair as you have to use parts to repair your warp engines and it take more than one depending damage.

Power systems definitely do regenerate.  You can repair them as well but given time they do self repair.

[KBF-Crim]

Dont forget guys...some things...are simply a result of the translation to real time crossed with the limitations of human programing...

[Panzergranate]

I've already seen the shields repair after 10 minutes due to Lab repairing itself in a game many times over.

However, there does seem to be a set order of self repair with Lab repairs coming way down the list. I've noticed that Lab doesn't seem to repair until after full engine power is restored.

It needs further experimentation to figure out what is actually going on, but I figure that Damage Control operates in a similar fashion as in SFB, with the priority that a player would logically assign to repairs being automated.

Damage Control does seem to also be capable of being destroyed. I've had instances where ships with low Damage Control ratings just remain as unrepaired hulks, even when I'm flying the affected ship.

The rate of repair also seems to vary suggesting that the automated Damage Control can itself suffer and be affected by battle damage so is a valid hit location in SFC.

The "Magic Screws" may be just a way for a player to have some limited prioritising powers over the automated Damage Control system.