I usually don’t like to complain, but it really annoys me when I shoot a recon ship 100 times with a coil motar and he doesn’t die, but a recon ship can kill my Acid Hydra in about 15 shots with an EM gun. What does the game have against me?
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Star Conflict doesn’t educate new players enough. Go here to learn more. http://www.youtube.com/?app=desktop&persist_app=1 New tutorials are regularly added.
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Use Aimbooster or Osu as training tools so you can deal damage to your target more often.
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Screenshot your build for Acid Hydra, then upload the image to imgur.com and finally the image here. Bad ship building can lead to bad performance of a ship.
from all the ceptors, the recon is the one, which can counter your sniper from early game most effectively, since it makes sense to have high thermal resis, is fast and small, can warp to your position and can decloak you, zap your shield, mine you, etc. this relationship changes a bit over tiers, but the rivalry between recon and sniper still exists until lategame (even if it is harder and harder for a recon to get you)
if you want maximum efficiency, learn a recon like the swarm yourself, learn its strengths and weaknesses, and use this information to your advantage as a sniper.
I thought I would take it a step further, instead of a pic of my setup and everything, here is a video of it and an average battle for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rchHGRA-4Lg
Please don’t forget to tell me how much I suck!
give us the build
Mattratt, your problem stems from the way you fly that ship. It is not meant to be a front-lines ship. LRFs in general are not meant to be on the frontlines, although some can be built to be on the frontlines if they have engineer support.
Some things to try on your acid hydra:
1: Use a minefield instead of cruise missiles. Minefields are great tools to defend beacons, as well as defend yourself from pesky inties that try to plasma arc you.
2: Switch out the weapon overcharge for a tachyon charge. It will help with your accuracy when you use the sniper.
3: Switch out the shield booster for a repair kit. The acid hydra is an empire ship, meaning it is meant to hull-tank. Using a repair kit will benefit you more.
4: Switch the regenerative coating out for a galvenized armor.
5: Use a vernier engine for your engine slot. It will give you extra maneuverability you need to turn to fight to the sides or behind you.
Also, that map isn’t the best for LRFs. If possible, try using an interceptor or fighter on that map if you want to be in the action more.
Also use the EM Scattering Field to your advantage.
I am uploading a video as we speak of the Acid Hydra.
Pay attention to how I use my modules and my positioning as a frigate. Watch how I try to avoid being fired on.
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Try to destroy microlocators because they give away your position when cloak and prevent you from cloaking in the first place. If you have Coil Mortars on don’t even try to destroy them unless they are against a wall because you will be unable to hit gem because of the high spread.
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Destroy things that hit you automatically while cloaked like drones because they can give away your position. Watch how I destroy engineer drones in the second battle.
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Often I face indecision on who to attack first as you can see in the video. Don’t do indecision.
Thanks for all the help, I don’t have a lot of money right now so I will do some PvE missions.
I thought I would take it a step further, instead of a pic of my setup and everything, here is a video of it and an average battle for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rchHGRA-4Lg
Please don’t forget to tell me how much I suck!
So the problems with the build have already been mentioned, but I think I’ll go over them one more time, anyways.
First off, do try to have at least one module in every slot, even if you don’t know what to put. Every slot has at least one module that can give you an advantage with no disadvantages, after all. If you can’t do that, play PvE in a lower tier until you can.
Second off, do try to have at least most modules at mk.2 or better. Again, if you can’t do that, play PvE. Although you can play PvE with white equipment, it’s still a better idea to just do it in a lower tier.
On to the weapon. Since you’re using coil mortar (not a bad weapon for the ship), that means you have two main problems – low rate of fire and low projectile speed. Spread isn’t an issue, especially due to the explosion mechanics of the weapon, so skipping the iridium slugs is a really good idea, since you’re just wasting craft materials. Instead, use either of the green ones – projectile speed or rate of fire. I personally use the rate of fire ammo, since that makes one issue go away entirely on LRF. But since the projectile speed is still low, and since projectile speed is what you need to consistently hit interceptors, I’d put acceleration coils into the capacitor instead of a heatsink. Horizon is a really good module to use with coils, since the default range isn’t spectacular, and you don’t want to be on the front lines that much in an LRF.
For the missile slot, minefields are always good, both for offensive and defensive play. They can keep covert ops from using plasma arc, keep interceptors from capping a beacon easily, and change the shape of the battlefield. It’s also good for making the less smart folks on the other team that keep trying to kill you (I dunno about you, but I always get them) regret it once or twice. Or more, if they’re particularly dumb.
For your actives, it seems you like staying mobile and dislike using the long range mode. This means that EM Scattering and Weapon Overcharge are rather less than useful for you. Instead, take IR pulsar and two multipurpose. IR pulsar isn’t amazingly useful unless you play aggressively (and you do, from that video). If people are locked on to you, once you activate IR pulsar, they won’t be able to lock on to anything for 30 whole seconds. Ish. This means relative safety from guided missiles and certain weapons. Because you’re in an Empire long range, hull tank is more important than shield tank for you. So, take a hull repair and hull resist active. Resist actives are really useful for when you’re under heavy fire - basically, when a covert ops pops up behind you, use it.
For your playstyle: I can give you a lot of tips, there.
LRFs are not fast.
This means: Take the warpgates on the map. There’s only two times that it’s faster to fly straight to beacons on that map, and that’s if you’re either 600 m/s fast and want to skip the warpgates at spawn or if you’re already halfway to the beacon.
This also means: Stay where you are unless you’re needed elsewhere. Play as heavy support or heavy assault as you wish, but running around and capturing beacons is not your job. On that map, that means capture beacons when your teammates need the help, and stay in the middle to control the mobility (warpgates, yo) around the map for your team otherwise.
This also also means: Use your afterburners when going to and from places. Even though you’re not energy stable in that ship, you didn’t use afterburners as much as you could have.
LRFs are not manueverable.
This means: You can’t deal with interceptors easily on your own. So take minefields and stick with your teammates. Failing either of those, get to a beacon you control so the drones can help you take the interceptor out.
This also means: Stay near cover when you can. Out in the open is exactly where you’re weakest, since that means you’ll have to dedicate more time to getting to cover, or trying to rotate around so you can actually fire.
LRFs are not tanky.
This means: Stay with your teammates as much as you can, so they can help you deal with people who want to kill you.
This also means: Healing modules are super nifty. So are resist modules.
This also also means: Stay near cover. This bears repeating.
LRFs are serious damage dealers.
This means: If you see an enemy ship, you should be leaping at the chance to blow it up.
This also means: Unless you’re actively defending the thing, don’t stay at a beacon.
This also also means: Don’t stay at spawn and snipe if you aren’t good at it. Not that you did it or anything, but just don’t.
Other tips. Suppressing fire isn’t the most amazing thing in this game, but a rate of fire build with coil mortars can do it rather well. One thing that LRFs excel at is suppressing the enemy. If you’re in a Jericho long range, you can force them in with heavy fire, and force them out with a guided torp. If you’re in an Empire long range, you can force them into cover better than in a Jericho one. Just the laser beam from looking at things in sniper mode is often enough to make people get behind cover – and, in fact, if you can get in a good position, you can flank them from above or below, and force them out of cover for your teammates. But if sniper mode isn’t your thing, heavy fire can do a similar job, albeit with less range and more likelyhood to get killed if you try flanking the enemy without support.
I watched your video for trying to figure out your gameplay, and your mindset.
You have a good feeling for the coils already, and sniping the drones shows me, you have some idea about the sniper weapon aswell.
I didn’t read all the tips already, so excuse me if I doublepost one (I tried to read all the comments)
but, at a first look, following I have to say:
- if you are not sure about a module slot, equip a module without drawbacks. it’s better than nothing. This can be a collision comp or vernier for the engines, some resists on other modules, or energy regen in the cap; cpu is highly dependant on your weapon of choice anyway. Make sure, you have the slots filled, don’t waste them. As mentioned earlier, and especially after looking at your coil handling, i would say, take a vernier.
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Same about ship slots. Take some ships with you, it gives you more incentive to try out new roles, or start to think tactically. The more roles you can cover, the better you will see you can work together with your team. Sometimes if you get low skilled teams, it takes a while until everybody finds each other, and reacts to the enemy; I don’t blame you for not enabling the full ship view in the overview yet, but later on, a good player does not check the names, he also starts to see the cards not yet played in the enemy team; e.g. how many engineers can they field, how many ceptors, etc. At the start its more confusing, so this is just an advice over time. I only need to glance at the board for a second now, and know exactly the ships that come, and might come; of course I don’t do that either every match.
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Try to catch up with other roles to T3, before you move on. It’s not as crowded as it’s used to be, but T3 is still a good place to meet skilled players, bigger matches, and the modules are cheap enough to experiment with the ships. Also, T3 is really well balanced in terms of roles, I can say, all R8&R9 ships, may there be golden or white, have viable strengths and weaknesses.
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You use shield drain, shield boost and shield hardening on an empire recon. Swap the hardening for a heal at least.
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You stay hidden behind the beacon to capture it with a ceptor. Nothing wrong with that, but keep in mind, it makes you really vulnerable. Also, in the fight with the bubbles (aka Singularity Cannon), the beacon will not protect you; that weapon shoots through it. Use your mobility to counter a fighter. It is a good exercise in orbiting to capture beacons without stopping the ship.
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Besides the module suggestions (healing instead of shield boost, etc.) on your LRF, I didn’t see you actually using your camo as defense; especially when you were alone with the Eagle-B the second time. As you see it coming for you, a well timed camo, after some initial push in a direction, can make you a hard to spot turret. You are allowed to rotate just dont push any thrusters. In that situation, you almost got him with the coils, the camo might have done a difference. If you take modules, make sure, you use them to your advantage; it will help you decide which modules to take.
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As the tackler cloaked you immediately stopped your guns. This is advanced, but you might want to skill this “microskill” earlier, but letting the gun fire for some more rounds and just continue the mouse path as if the tackler is still where you saw him going, might even hit him or kill him; try not to train yourself to stop firing at cloaking targets. I think such a skill would help you a lot, since you seem to already handle the weapon well in other regards.
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Don’t use cruise missiles, it’s a sniper, you have mines - or torpedoes - in T3. Not that cruise missiles have no place in the game if well used, but as a sniper you want to have maximum damage.
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use up and down strafing (alt, space) if you feel you are about to be arced. most Ceptors will arc you in the same orientation as you have. Also, since you have troubles with this, really, use mines!
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your team was doomed on this map for having a double sniper start.
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use vision more. You looked around, but sometimes I felt, if I were in your shoes, I would have looked more frequently, what is going on.
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don’t try to warp so close; albeit, it is good to start practicing close warps, it is far more important to take a warp target quickly, since the few seconds you aim for your warp could one day be your death against a well timed ecm.
So, I hope you could read something which might help you on your path to glory.