The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Okay, I was just mining Theta Gicels(or something like that) and now i got like 5 Ilwrath holes chasing me!!! it's pretty much on the very startt of the game is there anyway I could reach earth? (or are there any tactics destroying about 10 Ilwrath ships. I already visited Alpha centauri on the start and it has like 9000 RU there, so I got all the thrusters and jets)

I posted a screenshot and resized it, I have only 1 save, and I dont want to start it all over  :(

(http://www.frailart.net/members/lithium2k3/gameshot1.JPG)

About the only thing I can think of is to try warping out of the encounters(select your main ship and then when the battle starts press ESC).  If there's too many chasing you, though, you may just be screwed.  If you're mining in Giclas, I would imagine that some of the ships chasing you are Pkunk, which would be a relief.

Just out of curiosity, what made you decide to mine in an area swarming with Ilwrath ships?  That's a bad idea, man.   If you like danger THAT much, you may as well go mining in Crateris and Horologii for some REAL fun.  :D

The image is not clear enough,but I think you can escape by going up,you're in the top of the speed limit and maneuverability of the ship,so you have a chance.

If you can't escape you can either fight and kick their ass(try with the Fwiffo ship and the Crusiers first) or better,just kill one iwraith ship and then escape(press ESC key) when you just killed your enemy.In a few seconds you will be out of the battle,with a bit of luck you will make it.

The image is the time I warped out of the Theta Giclas system and when you leave a system it takes a few seconds until you can move(the ship is rolling over and resizing)  but I can't move.. the holes coming too fast.
As for the tactic.. well.. the first hole that comes for me contains 4 Ilwrath ships, I destroyed 3 of them with spathi  but it took me DAMN long to do it, of course after a few mistakes by crossing through the fire and crashing in the planet:) I destroyed the last one with the cruiser, but then a pkunk hole.. and then another 3 Ilwrath ships....... and there are 3 more holes chasing me..  and the worst thing is that I can't recrue lil Fwiffo, I just can't move... :(

Go into the content folder and switch ilwrath.shp with vux.shp or umgah.shp which ever you prefer :P I'd change to vux because you can pwn them with the cruiser, umgah MAY zip behind and kill you :P

Sure it's a bit of cheating but better than starting over eh?
After youre safe again change em back

Are you crazy? ilwrath place is the best for mining!!!! Lots of ru there and the ilwrath ships are so easy to kill with your flag ship!!!!! Just fight with them, they are so easy but the problem is the planet hates me so i always lose many crews "crushing" in it >:(

The trick to avoiding the planet is: most exactly north-south and east-west trajectories will always miss the planet. If you go straight north-south or straight east-west, your chances of running across the planet are vastly diminished.

This means your flagship with one ion cannon should be able to easily take out the Ilwrath, if you just trick them into chasing you straight north-south on a line that does not include the planet (and is preferably decently far from it).

Fire only when your ship is facing the exact middle of the screen (the auto-center then means that the ilwrath ship is on the other side). Note that this is easiest to judge when you are flying north-south or east-west (no surprises there).

I'll admit your support ships aren't the best at fighting Ilwrath, but your task is definately not impossible.  Try practising some matchups against Avengers in the SuperMelee.  I've fought more oncoming ships than that, and with worse odds too!  Haha, I remember one time, this group of Dreadnoughts and Marauders...  well, that's another story altogether.

Just try it out and hey... if you lose, you can just reload your game.  If you don't lose, all the better.  :P  You're also not very far in the game (hate to tell ya), so starting over is definately not too damaging to what you've done.

Oh and another thing... You can save before you start each fight... that will really help you to avoid starting over.... (Isn't it annoying when you lose in the last fight because you hit a meteor and you fly straight into the avenger ship?!?)

Also, in the future -- the spread fire cannon doesn't help against the Ilwrath. Save battery power by leaving it off (admittedly it is good for the Slylandro)

Fighting against the sylendro with your flag ship without the trackers is a mistake. You will lose many crew members... Use Fwiffo instead.

If you want to peel out of a star system in a hurry, stay off the auto-pilot (unless you plan on heading "north").  Why?  When you leave a system and pop up into hyperspace, you will see this little animation of your ship spinning round and round (counter-clockwise, I believe).  At the end of the animation, your ship will be facing north.  Then, once this animation is complete, the auto-pilot will kick in and continue rotating your ship counter-clockwise until it is pointing toward your destination.  When you have full turning jets it might seem like one fluid animation, but it is actually made of these two steps.

What this means is that, if you have set the auto-pilot to send you northwest (in this case, to Sol), your ship will rotate an extra 7/8th of a revolution before you go anywhere.  During this time, you are a sitting duck for an interception.  Instead, put it on manual, and hold down the accelerator as you leave the system.  When you pop up into hyperspace, you will asap jet to the north, which also happens to be away from that little bubble on your picture.  After you have put some distance between you and the bubble, manually steer to the northeast (not all at once), then switch to auto-pilot.  Bottom-line: manual navigation is in the game for a reason.  Use it.

I thought the mothership came out facing the direction you were facing inside the starsystem when you left it? So if you go out facing south, you'll face south in HS as well. Can't prove it though, as I haven't got UQM on this machine... Confirm anyone?

Either way, the direction you leave the system is not gauranteed to be the direction you need to be facing in hyperspace.

This is entirely true.  I don't know how many times I would rotate my ship while cruising to leave a start system in order to orient myself in the right direction towards the next star.  I thought everyone took advantage of that.  I definately did.  My best advice when leaving a star system and you know enemies will soon swarm is to just accelerate as quickly as possible.  It doesn't matter which direction you're going until you're far enough away.

The worst incident had to be in Yehat space for me, where I had no clue which of the ten ships around me were friendly or not...  I just zipped ahead as fast as I could, bobbing in between black dots as fast as I could until I was out in the clear.  Oooo, I love doing that.   ;D

Yeah, I couldn't remember the exact details when I posted because I didn't have it installed on that machine.  I was confusing it with how you face north after combat.  You do pop up facing the same direction you were when you exited the system.  What I meant to say was that if you exit the system facing NNE, the spinning animation will take a little longer than if you exit the system facing due north.  On top of that, the auto-pilot will then spend yet more time turning you to the direction you want to go.  So if you want to get out of there fast, you should point yourself north while exiting the system AND not use the auto-pilot.

OTOH, under certain circumstances, it may be better to face NNE when leaving a system.  If the enemy is very close, you could stop spinning at the same instant that he intercepts you.  In this case, it may be better to face NNE.  During the extra time that you spend spinning, the enemy will fly right by and will then have to circle around for another pass (was that in Top Gun?).  While he's circling around, you can peel out.

I should be no problem at all. You can fight all the Ilwraths with your mother ship.

Two Ion Guns without Dynamos.

Ouch...

Generally it's a bad idea to send a mining rig into Ilwrath space. In fact in most cases it's pointless to have a gun early on and instead spend the RU on something more pertinent. Of course this means you HAVE to fall back on your support ships (Battle Master Fwiffo, anyone?) until you have enough resources to convert your ship into a true Dreadnaught-killer.

Actually my Dreadnaught-killer config tends to fare poorly against Ilwrath (what with the cloaking and all), so I have a strong tendancy to avoid that area until I've sent them to thier collective doom.

I disagree. Ilwrath places are the best. They have many RU there and You can get many Bios there. After 1 system or 2 there, you can get from melnorme the better gun and to buy it, then their ships are easy to kill. The only better place i could think of mining is the orz space. Many RUs, Bios, Alies, important device and Melnorme.

Did you read his post? He said that a ship optimized for mining will not defeat Ilwrath very well. No surprises there.

Still he can kill them, it will take him a while but it is possible.

My favoring deep exploration starship has:
-One Fusion Cannon
-One Dynamo
-Full jets and thrusters
-two crew pods and 4 cargo pods.
-two fuel tanks

It's good enough for killing the probes (and Ilwarth with some skill).


P.S.
I never add extra gun before getting auto tracking system.
I would not need then anyway due to good turining and they just eat up lots of energy.

Due to Spathi-fu, I can get away with

2 crew pods
3 fuel tanks
11 cargo

;) I like this arrangement, since I like mining. Others might find this simply appalling.

My mining config is usually similar to this, with the exception that in my first run I tend not to have quite so many cargo bays. Generally on my first (highly selective) run I take 3-4 (depending on RUs) then 5-6 on the second run. The last two times I've done my selective mining experiments I seem to never fill up completely on my second run, due to crew casualties during mining. I should learn to take better care of my crew.

That's a problem for me too. I meant 3 crew pods, not 2.

Well, for me, using Fiffo usually means very loooooooooooooooong battles (and sometimes extra frustaration).

Becasue of that, he's only backup for my forces.

Are you kidding? He can kill koar-ah, Ur-quan, Thradashh, umgah.... Well almost all of your enemies quickly!!! Fwiffo is the best warrior you get!

even the simple mining ship can defeat an ilwrath, as long as you put the gun in the back, I think. Has anyone tried it?

Yes this is what I have done myself.  One cannon in the back, face the Dill-Rat and then run and fire when he gets close.  It works as long as your timing is right.