Strategy Articles!

[Fyron]

17.6.3.1 IF your opponent uses Seekers or Drones, small or medium amount or in size:
Fighters, Missiles, Crystalline Torpedo, Drones.

You should have the articles say that you _always_ want to have 1 or 2 PDCs on your ships no matter what the enemy is currently using. This section implies that it is ok not to use PDCs if your enemy isn't using missiles and such. But, doing so would leave you very vulnerable to a sudden change of tactics (I have seen many players in PBW fall into such traps).

Originally posted by teal:
So what's rock/paper/scissors about that?!

Nothing, really. Stock SE4's weapons are not very well balanced. The only RPS that comes in is whether you research PPBs before or after ECM and Combat Sensor IIs. Someone with more advanced ECM and CS using DUCs can slaughter your fleet armed with PPBs because their ships will be hit much less often than yours will be.

[ May 22, 2003, 20:30: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Nothing, really. Stock SE4's weapons are not very well balanced. The only RPS that comes in is whether you research PPBs before or after ECM and Combat Sensor IIs. Someone with more advanced ECM and CS using DUCs can slaughter your fleet armed with PPBs because their ships will be hit much less often than yours will be.

The way I see that RPS comes into play is that no one weapon is uber, unstoppable. Just like in RPS, the Rock can knock out the Scissors, in turn the Scissors can cut up the Paper, in turn the Paper and cover up the Rock. Just like in SEIV, no one weapon will destroy them all, you have to hope that whatever your hand shows (RPS) will be the one that can take out the person you are fighting against.

At least that's how I see it.

[Stone Mill]

Thank you, Fyron.

Added:
17.6.4.8 IF your opponent is not using Point Defense:

THEN:
a. In general, deploy Fighters, Missiles, Crystalline Torpedo, Drones, satellites; missile boat fleets, carrier fleets.
b. Fighter stacks will decimate missile boat fleets, since missiles can’t target them.
c. Note: You always want to have 1 or 2 PDCs on your ships no matter what the enemy is currently using, even if they are not using missiles, seekers, and such. But, doing so would leave you very vulnerable to a sudden change of tactics (I have seen many players in PBW fall into such traps). (Imperator Fyron )

[capnq]

17.6.3.1 IF your opponent uses Seekers or Drones, small or medium amount or in size:
Fighters, Missiles, Crystalline Torpedo, Drones.

THEN:
a. Use Point Defense (PD) on your ship designs, Design PD ships. Continue to research PD to increase damage output.
b. Use Point blank direct fire weapons. Get in close.
c. To stay alive, move out of range of the seekers. Also known as “missile dance.” Use optimal range or max range. (Difficult in simultaneous games.)

b. & c. seem to contradict each other. Can somebody reword and clarify this?

[cybersol]

Originally posted by Stone Mill:
Note: You always want to have 1 or 2 PDCs on your ships no matter what the enemy is currently using, even if they are not using missiles, seekers, and such. But, doing so would leave you very vulnerable to a sudden change of tactics (I have seen many players in PBW fall into such traps). (Imperator Fyron )

Don't you mean to say:
Note: You always want to have 1 or 2 PDCs on your ships no matter what the enemy is currently using, even if they are not using missiles, seekers, and such. Because not doing so would leave you very vulnerable to a sudden change of tactics (I have seen many players in PBW fall into such traps). (Imperator Fyron)

[Fyron]

SM:
Yeah, you kinda butchered my post and made it make no sense. The middle sentence of that paragraph was important.

Rags:
No weapon is "uber", but most of the weapons are much much weaker than the main line and cost more research points. It is possible to win with them, but you need superiority in numbers or some other are to do so. All else being equal (racial stats, training, number of ships, size of ships, etc.), the person using Torpedos will lose much more often than win to the one using PPBs, for example. This is because in the long run, PPBs are a lot more powerful than Torpedos (much higher damage ratio). I wish it wasn't this way, but it is. Some racial weapons can be used in place of some parts of the main line, but many others them are rather weak.

Higher damage per shot is overwhelmed by higher damage ratio in most combat situations.

Originally posted by capnq:

quote:

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17.6.3.1 IF your opponent uses Seekers or Drones, small or medium amount or in size:
Fighters, Missiles, Crystalline Torpedo, Drones.

THEN:
a. Use Point Defense (PD) on your ship designs, Design PD ships. Continue to research PD to increase damage output.
b. Use Point blank direct fire weapons. Get in close.
c. To stay alive, move out of range of the seekers. Also known as “missile dance.” Use optimal range or max range. (Difficult in simultaneous games.)

b. & c. seem to contradict each other. Can somebody reword and clarify this?

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b. If you have a lot of PDCs compared to the number of enemy seekers/fighters, get in close because you can overwhelm their seekers/fighters and take no damage.
c. If you do not have a lot of PDCs compared to the number of enemy seekers/fighters, you can survive by moving out of range of the seekers after firing your weapons. This is also known as "missile dancing". The idea is to make the seekers move up to their maximum range. At that point, they disappear and can do no damage. Use optimal or max range (difficult in simultaneous games).

[ May 22, 2003, 23:48: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Krsqk]

You might also add that ramming ships are frequently vulnerable to engine destroyers. Ramming ships that don't move don't ram much. They tend to focus on armor for hitpoints, since the attacker's shields are not counted when ramming. Of course, they could still slip a single shield generator on there, but many forget to.