Let’s be honest, I have something of a reputation for being negative. I’d like to think my negativity is not unfounded, but I acknowledge that there are times when it’s nice to be positive. So, despite not playing nearly as many Dreadnought battles as I’d have liked to, I thought I’d make this thread.
Five Reasons to Love Dreadnought Battles
1: It’s like Star Wars: Battlefront 2!
If you did not at any point sit down in front of your PC, PS2 or XBox with a copy of Battlefront 2 and play space battles until you passed out due to not remembering to stop and eat once in a while, you have clearly been wasting your life. Battlefront 2, alone or preferably with friends, was awesome fun. Who couldn’t love jumping into an X-Wing and flying low across the hull of a Star Destroyer while trying to blow off a shield generator or some other vital component, all the while trying to evade the attentions of TIE Interceptors or turrets?
Yeah, that’s EXACTLY what Dread Battles feel like! Flying low to the hull of a massive warship that can swat you out of the sky without even trying, jinking past turrets, attack drones and enemy players to capture key points or blow off some hardware is a great selling point of this game mode, and it’s just as fun when defending! The thrill of spotting an enemy interceptor and trying to blow him out of the sky before he destroys a weapon system or cripples your shields is unmatched anywhere else in Star Conflict, and it makes me want to break out the Star Wars soundtrack all over again.
2: Dreadnoughts do not give a xxxx!
Dreadnoughts are busy starships. They’ve got torpedoes to launch, attack drones to deploy and enemy capital ships to tear apart with their main guns. They don’t have time for you. Their main batteries deal more damage in a single shot than most players can inflict in a fifteen minute game, and they aren’t going to adjust their sights because you happen to think you have right of way!
One thing all pilots must learn very quickly is where their Dreadnought is aiming, because odds are your own ship will blow you out of the sky at least once. Next thing to learn is where the enemy Dreadnought is aiming, because if your own ship is happy to scatter your atoms across the sector, you can bet the other guy is!
Third thing to learn is that Dreadnoughts are not impressed by your guns. Don’t bother trying to vent your frustration on enemy shields - short of knocking out the key systems or turrets, your guns do squat. Dreadnoughts do not fear attack craft. Your role is not to kill the enemy ship, but to inconvenience the enemy enough that your ship can make the kill. And that’s exactly how it should be!
3: Dreadnoughts fight on the move!
There’s something really fun about this seemingly trivial fact, but I love the fact Dreadnoughts are constantly moving. I remember that moment of sheer terror when I took cover behind a rock, only for the rock to take offence and leave me to die. The fact the battlefield is constantly undergoing subtle changes is totally unique, and I love that.
I also love how, once again, Dreadnoughts do not give a xxxx. Any rock that dares try to block their line of fire is obliterated, meaning there tends to be less cover toward the aft of the ships than the prow. It also emphasises the raw power of your faction’s warship - these rocks can take an entire game’s worth of fire from two teams of attack craft, yet can’t survive one second against the main guns of a Dreadnought!
4: Dreadnoughts look badass!
You have to admit that Dreadnoughts look amazing. We’ve seen them in various states of disrepair in PvE mode, but to see a live one is something else. I went back to Hidden Maintenance Shop the other day just to look at the half-built ship there and appreciate how cool these things are when they’re in their prime and murdering the hell out of everyone. So when you get the chance, take a moment to bask in how good these things look. Especially the Empire one.
5: Dreadnoughts belong to you!
Doesn’t matter how much of the Iridium used to build it was yours, or how active you are, or how often you’re called up - when it’s finally your turn to step up to the plate and defend your Corporation’s Dreadnought against an enemy ship, you’ll want to defend it. You’ll want to defend it more than anything, because it’s yours. It’s not just some generic beacon, but a vessel that was built by you and your Corp, and that makes it personal. It makes you feel part of the Corp, and part of the universe in a way that previous attempts at Sector Conquest didn’t. The rewards are nice, obviously, but if you’re anything like me you’ll just be pouring all that extra iridium back into the Corp so you can make the Dreadnought even bigger and better, because it’s YOUR Dreadnought, so why settle for anything but the best?
So those are my reasons for loving the Dreadnoughts and the new Sector Conquest mode. Now that I’ve said something nice, I can go back to complaining about how every single patch since 0.7.13 has ruined the game forever.
But you have summarised it very nicely! Now I just wish there were more HD videos of dread battles on youtube so that I can go and watch them opperate in their full splendour! (playing on low graphics settings really spoils the atmosphere of the dread fights for me, especially when still getting FPS drops every time an asteroid explodes)