Topic: Newbie advice

[NFLed]

Hi everyone, I hadn't heard of this game until very recently.  I just started playing the tutorials and am struggling (to say the least) on the last one in which my romulan ship is pitted up against a federation ship.  I can't seem to do any lasting damage or not much.  I cloak and then when facing the enemy and barely in range I uncloak and shoot all barrels then cloak again but that just temporarily damages their shields and by the time I go around for another go at it their shields are up to strength again.  Half of the time they seem to be expecting my de-cloak and they shoot while my shields are down and after a bunch of tries of this the tutorial ends incomplete (fail).

I have tried a few different tactics including going toe-to-toe and some other move-and-hit but toe-to-toe doesn't seem to work as my weapons charge so slowly compared to theirs and any time I cloak or de-cloak near the enemy they seem to detect me right away and shoot while my shields are down.

What am I missing?  It's a tutorial and I would think it would be easy but for me it's anything but easy.  I'm wondering if I should just go on to the single player campaign but not if the tutorial is easier than the campaign missions.

Thank you in advance.

[MrBad151]

The second you start to uncloak the enemy can indeed see you.. they can see you even when you are cloaked, they just can't get lock on.  Without lock on you can't fire missiles or plasma at a target, but you can fire direct fire weapons i.e. phasers, at a huge range penalty. 

Cloaking, at least in SFC, isn't all it should be.  Most Romulans I know almost never cloak.  They just use the extra power the ships have for cloaking in other ways.  If you have to cloak.. something you can do is try to stay behind the enemy and uncloak behind him (less weapons pointing in your direction) be ready to recloak if does an High Energy Turn to face you.  Then just work your way back behind him again.  You can cloak and uncloak a whole lot more than he can HET.

SFC is a great game...  One thing I think that did hurt it was a steep learning curve.  Once you start to get the hang of it, it gets a lot easier.. until you face a seasoned HUMAN pilot.  The best computer ship is NOTHING vs a human. 

[Nemesis]

It helps if you state which version of the game you are playing (SFC III plays differently than the previous games).

Myself I never played SFC III, so if that is your game I can't help you.

You said "barely in range", in SFC I and II the weapons degrade with range and if you are barely in range the damage will be negligible.  You most likely need to be in closer.

Using the cloak is something you need to do very carefully,   It consumes so much power that it greatly slows your rearming rate and slows you down.  Mostly Romulan players rarely cloak and then only for brief time.

[Fedman NCC-3758]

Hi everyone, I hadn't heard of this game until very recently.  I just started playing the tutorials and am struggling (to say the least) on the last one in which my romulan ship is pitted up against a federation ship.  I can't seem to do any lasting damage or not much.  I cloak and then when facing the enemy and barely in range I uncloak and shoot all barrels then cloak again but that just temporarily damages their shields and by the time I go around for another go at it their shields are up to strength again.  Half of the time they seem to be expecting my de-cloak and they shoot while my shields are down and after a bunch of tries of this the tutorial ends incomplete (fail).

I have tried a few different tactics including going toe-to-toe and some other move-and-hit but toe-to-toe doesn't seem to work as my weapons charge so slowly compared to theirs and any time I cloak or de-cloak near the enemy they seem to detect me right away and shoot while my shields are down.

What am I missing?  It's a tutorial and I would think it would be easy but for me it's anything but easy.  I'm wondering if I should just go on to the single player campaign but not if the tutorial is easier than the campaign missions.

Thank you in advance.

I may get tried for treason, but,

Take all your heavy weapons offline except one.   Divide that extra power between the remaining heavy weapon and your primary disruptors and your shields.   If you are able, plant a mine in the Fed ship's path.  He'll turn to avoid striking it.  That will make it safer for you to cloak.  Move away from the Nebula while your heavy plasma recharges.  De-cloak at a safe distance before approaching him.  Don't forget to re-enforce your shields.

Wash rinse, repeat as necessary.





::Fed now heads to the bridge of his Sovereign to await his arrest::

[NFLed]

Thank you for the responses so far.  I should have clarified that I'm playing SFC III.  I'm still in the tutorials and they didn't go much over the power requirements but if I recall correctly the Romulan ship they give me in tutorial 6 has 2 heavy weapons so I can try taking one of those offline and put more energy for the other, the disruptors, and shields.  If cloaking isn't all that then I think I'll skip it, that seems to be where my ship is pounded the most in getting hit while uncloaking or cloaking.  I guess I'll just keep plugging away at it, it's only a tutorial so how hard can it be lol.  If I just can't get it then I'll move on to the regular (single player) campaign.

I read the manual before buying the game and it's almost exactly what I expected which is good.  The learning curve doesn't seem too bad at all ... or rather, at least learning the controls doesn't seem too difficult.

[NFLed]

I finally was able to beat that federation ship.  I went toe-to-toe although not so close that they can transport in for hit-and-run.  My forward shields were good enough to last as I pounded their forward shields and then hull, once my shields were gone I cloaked and went far away, came back after awhile uncloaked and went at it some more.  Three passes of that and it was enough.  I'll see whether the campaign has missions as tough as the tutorial!

[Nemesis]

You might want to post in one of the specifically SFC III subforums.  Searching through them would likely find you some hints as well.

Good Luck.