Vent Mothers

[overmind]

How do you deal with these guys without the Chromium Gong?

[Graeme Dice]

Particle Vortex Cannons, multi-missiles, and hopefully a fast ship with a neptunium railgun.

[TaoLibra]

Vent Mothers are actually quite easy to kill, and you don't need either a PVC or a MML to do it. You need at least two ships to do it — although more is always better — and the lead ship must have point defense weapons and a good battle computer. It's easiest with the big Terran military cruiser as your lead, because then you can have *two* point defense guns as well as another weapon. Also make sure that you have as many long-range or medium-range weapons as possible.

Put your lead ship slightly ahead in the formation, so that the Vent Mother will lock onto it; but don't bother approaching it, just let it come to you. When it gets near enough to start shooting at you, leave your lead ship sitting still and let the point defense guns take out the lava bombs. Once the Vent Mother is firing all its lava bomb launchers, immediately send all your other ships out towards the Vent Mother's flanks — NOT directly at it, and make sure they don't get in the line of fire between it and your lead ship.

The Vent Mother has a one-track mind, and won't shift its focus to the other ships. Once your other ships have gotten within firing range (or about half the distance between the Vent Mother and your lead ship, whichever), stop them and turn them to face inward at the Vent Mother's line of movement.

Then just sit back and watch the Vent Mother get chewed apart trying to run your gauntlet. As long as you've been careful not to place any of those flankers too close to the Vent Mother, the only ship that should take any damage is the lead ship — and maybe not even that, if you have good shields.

[nihilix]

Tao is right - another important hint is the FIRE command.

Here's how to do it: Put two multi-weapon guys to your flank. slightly back. Have something like the PVC or the MM or the tach ray with the sardion on your main ship.

Take the other two and move them forward slightly - like a 15% forward from your main ship. Put big messy lasers on them - the urlu beam, the positron, anything. Micrometeorite works too.

Tell these guys - and your lead ship - to FIRE about four ship-lengths in front of your main ship. This will lay down covering fire which will take out most of the lavabombs.

With them covering, and you nailing the momma space yam, you will avoid the lavabomb. Look out if she gets close enough to use her short-medium weapon.

Fighters, who will not be locked on, can install as long range a weapon as possible, and fire from the back outside of her anti-fighter weapon.

[overmind]

I've tried these ideas. It seems to work at first, but once the Vent Mother gets in close it's short range weapon takes apart the lead ship. If I try to move the lead ship to maintain the distance it dies to lava bombs as it turns around.

Also, do you know which weapons autofire at missles/etc? Some do, some don't.

[nihilix]

Yeah - I also seem to recall that the flanking ships need to move forward near the end, and fire on the tchorak... depends on how much damage you can deal.

Another big hit is to use the cloaked Bloodfang with a great shield. Retreat everything but your fastest ship, ram it from behind with the cloaked ship, check your shield until it goes down to 10%, then stop and wait for shield to regenerate and ram again.

But you need the cloaked Bloodfang to do this...

Re: the weapons - If you look in the .ini files, you can find out. I think there are only two, both particle throwers.

[PvK]

overmind said:
I've tried these ideas. It seems to work at first, but once the Vent Mother gets in close it's short range weapon takes apart the lead ship. If I try to move the lead ship to maintain the distance it dies to lava bombs as it turns around.

The Vent Mother can barely move, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep out of its short range with the lead ship, especially using Pause to keep the action under control.

I have had some luck with ECM devices that jam the seekers, too, causing them to fly off target.

I must say though that I've lost many very good ships taking on Vent Mothers and their kin. Though I have killed a few too.

(PvK wonders if overmind has played "Empire of the Overmind"?)

PvK

[Phoenix-D]

ANY ship with a cloaking device will work, not just the Bloodfang..the Fang just happens to be better at it. To make up for that, decloak right before ramming to get a volley of weapons fire in before you hit, then recloak.

[overmind]

Starcraft, actually.

I'm guessing both games took the term from Arthur C Clarkes 'Childhoods end'.