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Topic: Tactics and strategy of SC ships (Read 40198 times)
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Razorback
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We are all *happy campers*
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One problem with the Yehat in a grand melee is that their shields will be overtaxed to keep their butts in one piece. One or two ships, not a huge deal. Start going beyond a 2 - 1 ratio though and you won't be able to block everything.
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AngusThermopyle
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A paranoid android.
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The funny thing about this thread is that I think a few times in the game, certain characters mention fleet-type engagements.
For example, Zex had some sort of Intruder Square formation (or something like that), that saved the VUX's butts from the Alliance.
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Holocat
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Even in SC1, the Alliance has a few strong points. - point defense. Combining the point defense of several Earthlings should be able to destroy any incoming fire.
- the Y-form is fast enough to circle around the enemy, in an Indians-and-settlers way.
- the point of the Scouts is that only one has to get through to do a great deal of damage to a fleet.
- if the alliance can make a hole in the enemy formation, a single Penetrator making a high-speed run along the back of the enemy lines can seriously weaken the entire enemy fleet.
- the Skiff may not be able to decide where to teleport too, but if they fail, they can just try again
-The lack of Y-form maneauverablity leaves it vulnerable to massed guided-weapons fire as well. If attempting a circling maneauver, thraddash torch trails would be similarly effective at both causing the Y-form to move more evasively and knock down the low power missles it carries... if the Traddash hadn't hit the stone age again...
-Though the scout is a good bomb, my experience as a lazy, feline arm-chair general/strategy game player tells me that they're even better as a threat; Fleets of these ships will be avoided like plague, with the flu, covered in cooties. :3 Conversely, large fleets with massed fire can pose a problem for a scout penetration, despite their maneauverablity.
-If the fleet is diciplined, the Syreen will probably get blown to bits; I played with that ship a lot in SC1 and it normally doesn't have enough crew endurance to survive against most line ships. Also, if the fleet is tight or diciplined enough, other than shifting crew from ship to ship the call won't do much; It doesn't have a lot of pull unless you get really close, like rubbing against them close.
-The skiff can try again, and it might end up in a sun, or an allied starship. If there's a large fleet battle going on, with ships everywhere willy-nilly, well...
I'm not saying the aforementioned alliance tactics won't work, but in the spirit of fair play I felt the potential problems/counters of these tactics should be outlined.
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Holocat
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given my delusionary tendencies, I could be wrong, but isn't it the other way around? Large numbers of small, fast projectiles don't pose a threat, as it can be held down and hits everything in range, but fewer, heavy, hard-to-dissipate projectiles, the foremost example coming to mind the plasma blast of a podhome, the most difficult.
I am of course assuming that the projectile hitpoints for each race has remained the same.
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« Last Edit: November 15, 2006, 11:20:45 pm by Holocat »
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meep-eep
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given my delusionary tendencies, I could be wrong, but isn't it the other way around? Large numbers of small, fast projectiles don't pose a threat, as it can be held down and hits everything in range, but fewer, heavy, hard-to-dissipate projectiles, the foremost example coming to mind the plasma blast of a podhome, the most difficult.
I am of course assuming that the projectile hitpoints for each race has remained the same.
That's if you have just one Cruiser. If you have more which fire all together on the heavy projectiles, the Cruisers will destroy the projectiles just as easilly as a single one would destroy a single light projectile. The problem is the limited energy of the Cruiser. If there are a lot of small bullets, the Cruisers will run out of energy quickly, unless they manage to synchronise with eachother so they don't all fire when a single cruiser would do.
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“When Juffo-Wup is complete
when at last there is no Void, no Non
when the Creators return
then we can finally rest.”
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Culture20
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Or a series of Avatars could accelerate someone like a rail-gun. Orrr... since an Avatar isn't drawn to it's target, two Avatars could accelerate each other. 
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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I am presuming that on this mass battlefield, there is no wrapping.
If you have are facing fewer enemies than you have cruisers, you can spread them wide. Those that are pursued just run away. Those that are not pelt the enemy with nukes. The same strategy could apply to Mycon.
Chenjesu, on the other hand, would best be clumped close together. They would fire mostly parallel, to make it nearly impossible to avoid the flak. Also, their fire seems to be entirely friendly-safe, which is very good for fire supporting a close engagement. And it seems to have unlimited range, which is also nice. If/when the enemies come close, have them form into squares in which each broodhome is facing the rear of the one in front of it. Then the Broodhome's main weakness, its rear, is thoroughly covered - it is directly in front of the nose of the ship behind it.
The other ships have tactics much more dependent on what the hierarchy is doing.
What would hierarchy strategies be?
VUX and/or Mycon can disperse to make their curtain of limpets and plasmoids as unavoidable as possible. Have an Umgah stationed every few along the line; if skirmishers close on one of them, it can zip in to assist. With the limpets coming in from all directions, it should not be able to avoid the cone for long, nor get around it.
Alternately, VUX could use the square I described for the Chenjesu; only if they're that bottled up, any ship with any kind of range at all will tear them to bits (unlike the chenjesu, which can afford to stay still against nearly any foe). Perhaps it would be better for their square to orbit, so they can drift in some preferred direction. This may be what ZEX was referring to.
Alternately, one could bunch up your Mycon and VUX, and keep some Androsynth nearby for defense: when the enemy come close, the Mycon stop firing, the androsynth start. The bubble cloud will keep the enemies at bay. This will be less effective as artillery, though.
I see the main role of the various skirmishers against this combination as being to force the enemy into tighter formation, which both reduces their effectiveness as artillery and increases their vulnerability to it.
The straight-fire long-range units such as dreadnaughts would not follow this.
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Cedric6014
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I wonder, before this thread develops any further, if people should consider a number of things:
1) Would the screen wrap? I wonder how this could work
2) Would ships sustain damage from frienly fire? Perhaps yes, or perhaps no except the mycon plasmoid or any other self-damaging weapons
3) On what ship would homing weapons lock on to? The nearest enemy craft? or perhaps you toggle the ship you are targetting - defaulting to the nearest (would require an extra control button).
Having multiple ships in one arena changes so many dynamics of melee play, and, as discussed earlier would no doubt affect the values of each ship. Im thinking the Ilwrath Avenger would be super deadly as with no relative position it will be extremely defficult to locate
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