Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: General Battuta on March 08, 2009, 11:17:25 pm
-
Just finished a playthrough on Insane. All in all, not too bad! The main campaign is surprisingly well-balanced for that difficulty.
A few interesting observations, all running counter to the idea that a) capital ships are easy to kill, b) Alpha 1 is god, and c) Shivans have only crap ships.
1) Having a fighter on your tail is serious business.
1a) Having a Nahema on your tail is awful. Who knew that ship was such a good dogfighter? And it can outrun...everything. Once, on Argonautica, one just hung off my Perseus' tail and dropped me from 100/full shields to 8/no shields.
1b) Having a Nephilim on your tail is just hell. It can't usually stay there very well, but it if it does - yowch.
1c) You should never fly in front of a Seraphim formation.
1d) The Astaroth doesn't suck as much as I thought. The Mara is more than solid. The Dragon deserves its reputation -- I saw one last a good ten seconds while being C31ed by four Kayser-armed friendly wings. If these carried better weaponry they'd be really irritating. Shivan fighters seem to be very specialized, and while they don't do well outside their roles, they're pretty decent within them.
2)Attacking even the smallest capital ship is risky business. This is due to AAA beams. Flak makes it exponentially worse against destroyers. Blobs aren't generally a serious threat unless your shields are down.
2a) Flak is hell. Bomber crews must have an ungodly casualty rate.
3) Allied Command has pretty good tactics. Command is not dumb. Recon elements do a lot of good spotting in the FS2 campaign, and friendly warships are (generally) employed well.
4) Speaking of command, the last few missions of the FS2 campaign are really superb at making you feel like a squadron leader. More than any previous mission, they depend on your guard assignments and orders. I felt really cool on 'Clash of the Titans', telling various wings to guard each cruiser and then setting Gamma after each inbound bomber wing. 'Apocalypse' requires you to identify the critical targets the Shivans are going after and focus your protection on them. Fun stuff.
5) The Infyrno isn't junk. If you could carry a few more, it'd be my anti-bomber weapon of choice. You can take out entire formations with one hit.
It's cool that I'm still getting new stuff out of this game after ten years of play.
-
I've had to withstand the torture of exchanging circles with a Manticore on Insane while flying an Ares. If I didn't have ~ + I on, I would die very quickly.
-
It's not the Manticore that you're chasing, it's the other ships that take you out while you're doing it.
-
I heard somewhere that if you don't target ships, they don't spin round and start really attacking you. Such as attacking a bomber wing, if you don't target them, they don't fly off from the others. Is that true?
-
They follow their orders to the letter, so as long as you don't shoot at them, they won't break formation. The same applies to fighters attacking a large ship.
There are, of course, ways to destroy fighters and bombers without them noticing. That's why we've got Infyrnos and Piranhas.
-
That's why we've got Infyrnos and Piranhas.
Piranhas are bloody useless
Anyway, in an attempt not to succumb to recent fashion and pull threads way off topic
With slightly better friendly AI who valued self preservation a bit more I think Insane would be slightly more fun. ATM there are some really insane missions. I've passed Slaying Ravana once, on Insane, only to be killed by a Manticore as a I jumped out. Never touch the main campaign on insane again.
-
I haven't even passed normal. :lol:
-
I haven't even passed normal. :lol:
At least that's better than me. Cheated my way through Insane and completed Very Easy without cheats. In other words, I haven't tried playing through the main campaign on Easy without cheats.
-
That's why we've got Infyrnos and Piranhas.
Piranhas are bloody useless
Anyway, in an attempt not to succumb to recent fashion and pull threads way off topic
With slightly better friendly AI who valued self preservation a bit more I think Insane would be slightly more fun. ATM there are some really insane missions. I've passed Slaying Ravana once, on Insane, only to be killed by a Manticore as a I jumped out. Never touch the main campaign on insane again.
That was the hardest mission for me. Try either attacking from the Ravana's rear and disabling the flak guns or using the friendly Sobek as cover.
The only time the Piranha ever seems to do any good is when Nahemas start just tossing them everywhere. Even then the individual munitions don't do much, but the shockwave is occasionally pretty deadly.
I heard somewhere that if you don't target ships, they don't spin round and start really attacking you. Such as attacking a bomber wing, if you don't target them, they don't fly off from the others. Is that true?
Yes. Definitely true.
-
I have beat it on hard, but have tried most missions on insane several times.
-
I heard somewhere that if you don't target ships, they don't spin round and start really attacking you. Such as attacking a bomber wing, if you don't target them, they don't fly off from the others. Is that true?
That's why you go right up their six and blast them with Kaysers and Tempests so they blow up before they can engage their afterburners. By the way, exactly why are they called afterburners?
-
Because that's what they're called in real-life.
Maybe it's also because they come out from the exhaust.
-
That's why you go right up their six and blast them with Kaysers and Tempests so they blow up before the can engage their afterburners. By the way, exactly why are they called afterburners?
Because in the jet aircraft where the term is derived from, the act of dumping and igniting fuel after (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterburner) the engine's turbines provides a temporary burst of increased thrust.
-
I heard somewhere that if you don't target ships, they don't spin round and start really attacking you. Such as attacking a bomber wing, if you don't target them, they don't fly off from the others. Is that true?
That's why you go right up their six and blast them with Kaysers and Tempests so they blow up before the can engage their afterburners. By the way, exactly why are they called afterburners?
That doesn't really work when the bombers are coming towards whatever you're defending.
-
get behind them?
-
Well, sometimes one wheels off when you attack it sort-of head on, by the time you've finished destroying it, the others are in a position so that it is easier to attck them from behind. Mainly because I always order my wingmen to attack the fighter wings, so I'm left with the bombers.
-
I usually send my wings after the bombers. It's pretty hard for me to handle bombers and their bombs.
-
I usually send my wings after the bombers. It's pretty hard for me to handle bombers and their bombs.
Given that you've already played BP, I don't suppose you've noticed that the Shivan warheads in BP are a hundred times more dangerous than the canon firecrackers we've had then. :p
-
I've seriously lost count of the times I've died from those...
-
Anyway, in an attempt not to succumb to recent fashion and pull threads way off topic...
Recent? :lol:
-
Well, this thread's only one day old, you know. ;)
-
When I'll finish on insane, my thought will be "Damn i'm so good" and then i'd return to normal to pwn a tiny bit more ^^
-
Given that you've already played BP, I don't suppose you've noticed that the Shivan warheads in BP are a hundred times more dangerous than the canon firecrackers we've had then. :p
Before I died for the 5th time in Forced Entry, nearing the Seraphim bombers I was constantly checking my shield levels. When I finally died - again - I was thinking "This game is rigged."
But I guess it had to be so since a Cyclops is apparently more powerful than a modern nuclear bomb.
-
I have played extensively on Insane mode. Slaying Ravana I only survived (in an Ursa, no less) by circling around the Ravana far out of weapon range. I let the Sobek deal with it while telling bomber friendlies to engage (and fighter friendlies to protect my ass). Overall, the Ravana isn't a threat if you stay a few KM away. Not really the point of being a bomber then though. I've been killed by AAA's a few times before reverting to the "run and hide!" tactic. Besides that, stay away from the back side of the Sobek. Waiting 1km off and away from the Ravana nearly ensures survival. Oh, and if you dare be close to it as it goes off, you ought to have high hull and good timing. Riding the shockwave is a good way to avoid being killed at the last second by fighters.
-
Tip for all interceptor pilots, ramming bombs is not the best way to destroy them.
-
Playing on Insane is not for the newbie, definitely. There was one time I accidentally started a mission on Insane without realising that it was Insane. Died ten seconds in. :lol:
-
I need to do this next time I play through the main campaign. I remember trying it way back when and dying so many times that I gave up.
-
I have played extensively on Insane mode. Slaying Ravana I only survived (in an Ursa, no less) by circling around the Ravana far out of weapon range. I let the Sobek deal with it while telling bomber friendlies to engage (and fighter friendlies to protect my ass). Overall, the Ravana isn't a threat if you stay a few KM away. Not really the point of being a bomber then though. I've been killed by AAA's a few times before reverting to the "run and hide!" tactic. Besides that, stay away from the back side of the Sobek. Waiting 1km off and away from the Ravana nearly ensures survival. Oh, and if you dare be close to it as it goes off, you ought to have high hull and good timing. Riding the shockwave is a good way to avoid being killed at the last second by fighters.
If you neutralize the flak guns on the rear of the ship there's a blind spot you can hide in above the engines.
Assuming you're quick enough to kill enemy fighters, you can take out the Ravana from there.
-
Tip for all interceptor pilots, ramming bombs is not the best way to destroy them.
Nice.
-
I don't see the point. FS2 on normal is hard enough, then again, if you like clicking "DO NOT SKIP THIS MISSION" again and again and again, I guess a higher difficulty is your thing.
See the thing is, I could probably play on higher difficulty, but there would have to be a compromise: I need teammates that are not bloody idiots; I shouldn't have to return the fighters to my wing just because one fighter is flying in a straight line and is being raped by the entire enemy force. Would be interesting if they maneuvered like the enemy does. :blah:
-
I don't see the point. FS2 on normal is hard enough, then again, if you like clicking "DO NOT SKIP THIS MISSION" again and again and again, I guess a higher difficulty is your thing.
See the thing is, I could probably play on higher difficulty, but there would have to be a compromise: I need teammates that are not bloody idiots; I shouldn't have to return the fighters to my wing just because one fighter is flying in a straight line and is being raped by the entire enemy force. Would be interesting if they maneuvered like the enemy does. :blah:
They do. You haven't tried cheating through it yet, have you? :p
-
I don't see the point. FS2 on normal is hard enough, then again, if you like clicking "DO NOT SKIP THIS MISSION" again and again and again, I guess a higher difficulty is your thing.
See the thing is, I could probably play on higher difficulty, but there would have to be a compromise: I need teammates that are not bloody idiots; I shouldn't have to return the fighters to my wing just because one fighter is flying in a straight line and is being raped by the entire enemy force. Would be interesting if they maneuvered like the enemy does. :blah:
There were only a few missions I had to replay. *shrug* It was certainly easier than the various Halos on Legendary.,
And the wingmen AI is really quite good. They evade just like the enemy does. Not sure what's going on on your end -- maybe you gave them bad orders? You need to be careful about how you command your squadmates.
From now on Insane will be my default difficulty for retail. It probably depends on your experience with the game.
-
Insane without cheats is really for the very best pilots. With cheats, it's a rollercoaster ride for everyone.
When I first tried the FS2 demo on Insane, all my wingmen and reinforcements died in the first five minutes.
-
Your wingmen don't die 'too fast' on insane. They die at a reasonable rate given the odds against them. They're really pretty solid.
With good wingman commands, you can keep your fellow pilots alive for most of a mission. (Focus-firing one enemy fighter at a time is quite a strong tactic.)
-
I don't see the point. FS2 on normal is hard enough, then again, if you like clicking "DO NOT SKIP THIS MISSION" again and again and again, I guess a higher difficulty is your thing.
There's a "never show this again" option, you know.
-
I don't see the point. FS2 on normal is hard enough, then again, if you like clicking "DO NOT SKIP THIS MISSION" again and again and again, I guess a higher difficulty is your thing.
There's a "never show this again" option, you know.
The only missions I ended up clicking that on were 'Slaying Ravana', 'Their Finest Hour' (oddly difficult), and, um, a few others...can't remember what.
-
The only one I used that one for was Bearbaiting, and in FSPort Playing Judas.
-
Oh, I don't mean that I skipped them -- I played every mission. I just hit 'don't show me this again' after failing five times and kept going unto success.
...however, I can see how Playing Judas might require that.
Bearbaiting wasn't that hard once we took out the forward flaks. I left two beam cannons for the next mission.
-
The reason I skipped Bearbaiting is because I did practically everything (destroyed all the beam cannons, practically all the flak guns and killed the Beleth) but I warped out before the second wave of Gemini arrived. :rolleyes:
-
That's why we've got Infyrnos and Piranhas.
Piranhas are bloody useless
One thing Fast Mod didn't do was make child weapons (Cluster Baby and Cluster Baby Weak) have a high turn rate and velocity like the other missiles did, give them the same variables as the Harpoon and Piranhas wipe out EVERYTHING.
Do the same to the MX-52 and it becomes an effective swarm weapon.
-
That's why we've got Infyrnos and Piranhas.
Piranhas are bloody useless
One thing Fast Mod didn't do was make child weapons (Cluster Baby and Cluster Baby Weak) have a high turn rate and velocity like the other missiles did, give them the same variables as the Harpoon and Piranhas wipe out EVERYTHING.
Do the same to the MX-52 and it becomes an effective swarm weapon.
I wasn't playing with Fast Mod.
You can mod any weapon to make it more effective, but in this case, it was the FS2 main campaign with no mods.
-
I never bothered with Insane. They can slide, I can't. :rolleyes:
-
I wasn't playing with Fast Mod.
You can mod any weapon to make it more effective, but in this case, it was the FS2 main campaign with no mods.
I know you weren't. :P
I was just saying they're actually effective then.
-
The reason I skipped Bearbaiting is because I did practically everything (destroyed all the beam cannons, practically all the flak guns and killed the Beleth) but I warped out before the second wave of Gemini arrived. :rolleyes:
...yeah, that'd be one hell of a ballbreaker.
-
The reason I skipped Bearbaiting is because I did practically everything (destroyed all the beam cannons, practically all the flak guns and killed the Beleth) but I warped out before the second wave of Gemini arrived. :rolleyes:
I did that once myself, but instead of skipping the mission, I replayed it again and forced my guns to dual BFRed. Got many more kills on my second run, so that offsets everything. :D
-
The reason I skipped Bearbaiting is because I did practically everything (destroyed all the beam cannons, practically all the flak guns and killed the Beleth) but I warped out before the second wave of Gemini arrived. :rolleyes:
I did that once myself, but instead of skipping the mission, I replayed it again and forced my guns to dual BFRed. Got many more kills on my second run, so that offsets everything. :D
I HAVE to try that
-
Just finished a playthrough on Insane. All in all, not too bad! The main campaign is surprisingly well-balanced for that difficulty.
A few interesting observations, all running counter to the idea that a) capital ships are easy to kill, b) Alpha 1 is god, and c) Shivans have only crap ships.
1) Having a fighter on your tail is serious business.
1a) Having a Nahema on your tail is awful. Who knew that ship was such a good dogfighter? And it can outrun...everything. Once, on Argonautica, one just hung off my Perseus' tail and dropped me from 100/full shields to 8/no shields.
1b) Having a Nephilim on your tail is just hell. It can't usually stay there very well, but it if it does - yowch.
1c) You should never fly in front of a Seraphim formation.
1d) The Astaroth doesn't suck as much as I thought. The Mara is more than solid. The Dragon deserves its reputation -- I saw one last a good ten seconds while being C31ed by four Kayser-armed friendly wings. If these carried better weaponry they'd be really irritating. Shivan fighters seem to be very specialized, and while they don't do well outside their roles, they're pretty decent within them.
2)Attacking even the smallest capital ship is risky business. This is due to AAA beams. Flak makes it exponentially worse against destroyers. Blobs aren't generally a serious threat unless your shields are down.
2a) Flak is hell. Bomber crews must have an ungodly casualty rate.
3) Allied Command has pretty good tactics. Command is not dumb. Recon elements do a lot of good spotting in the FS2 campaign, and friendly warships are (generally) employed well.
4) Speaking of command, the last few missions of the FS2 campaign are really superb at making you feel like a squadron leader. More than any previous mission, they depend on your guard assignments and orders. I felt really cool on 'Clash of the Titans', telling various wings to guard each cruiser and then setting Gamma after each inbound bomber wing. 'Apocalypse' requires you to identify the critical targets the Shivans are going after and focus your protection on them. Fun stuff.
5) The Infyrno isn't junk. If you could carry a few more, it'd be my anti-bomber weapon of choice. You can take out entire formations with one hit.
It's cool that I'm still getting new stuff out of this game after ten years of play.
QFT
Except the thing with the Infyrno, I still hate it.
Especially the last mission on Insane made a lot of fun... I had so many problems surviving those 5 dragons without the fire support of the lemnos (if I lost it), and when I didnt lose it I was stupid enough to fight head on vs a wing of seraphims ^^
I really recommend playing the campaign on this difficulty, while it can get frustrating, it's a totally new experience.
Worst mission was "A game of tag", I died there so often...
-
I'm convinced 'A Game of TAG' is impossible on Medium, even.
Tagging the Taurvis are no problem, it's avoiding the god damn friendly fire from the ultra-AAAfs.
-
"Avoid the beams and you won't get hit pilot!"
-
It's true, though. Don't fly towards a charging beam. :p
-
I'm convinced 'A Game of TAG' is impossible on Medium, even.
Tagging the Taurvis are no problem, it's avoiding the god damn friendly fire from the ultra-AAAfs.
I don't find a huge issue with that, but I find myself occasionally having to make kills with my primaries and screaming variations of the word "F*ck" at the screen as I experience first-hand the lack of a punch overall HL-7s have.
-
Yeah...I noticed just how terribly handicapped I was without proper missiles. I need, at the least, a rack of Tempests as much as a convoy needs protection from bombers.
A Game of TAG isn't too difficult if you stay close to the Warspite and know where it is whenever you circle a Shivan. Commander Vincey did say, "Get in behind the target and launch your TAGs." which I think should be taken literally.
-
It's true, though. Don't fly towards a charging beam. :p
ULTRA-AAAs don't really charge. :P
-
It's true, though. Don't fly towards a charging beam. :p
ULTRA-AAAs don't really charge. :P
Correct, they Pwn
-
A Game of TAG isn't too difficult if you stay close to the Warspite and know where it is whenever you circle a Shivan. Commander Vincey did say, "Get in behind the target and launch your TAGs." which I think should be taken literally.
Taking that literally is exactly what gets me killed by friendly ULTRA-AAAs. They spear the Taurvi, then proceed to hit me, who is behind the Taurvi. I probably should try intercepting them from the side, but then I run into the problem of missing because the TAG comes out of the wrong missile tube... :doubt:
And it's pretty had to actually catch an ULTRA-AAA charging, especially in the nebula (and the fact that it takes virtually no time to start up).
-
Using the 3d Radar with Radar Icons made that mission much easier for me, since it was easier to keep track of my position relative to the Warspite.
-
Using the 3d Radar with Radar Icons made that mission much easier for me, since it was easier to keep track of my position relative to the Warspite.
Can't you already target all friendly warships from extremely long ranges even in a nebula?
-
Well, yeah, but TAGging the Shivans safely is essentially a geometry problem. With the 2d radar, or the normal 3d one, I often lost track of which dot represented the Warspite. With the Icons, I was able to determine quickly (and without messing with my targeting), if it was safe to TAG a shivan. It wasn't so much about the ranges as about the battlefields' layout.
-
Yes, I never really used the 3d/icons radar as it really cluttered up my radar especially in BoE missions so I gave up with them. :nervous:
-
The 3D radar is nice, and I'm used to it already. Which is why I don't revert to 2D even in As Lightning Fall.
-
The 3D radar is nice, and I'm used to it already. Which is why I don't revert to 2D even in As Lightning Fall.
I've enabled 3D radar once, and then disabled it immediatly, I'll give it another go now and see if it yields anymore success.
-
I suggest trying to get used to it. If you don't use it often, you can't use it properly.
-
3d radar made As Lightning Falls virtual hell for me. -_-
What's this about... icons?
-
I'm guessing the following: Ship Select-esque icons in that small sphere.
Not the best idea in the world, in my opinion, but I have to see it for myself.
-
Urgh I'm simply not a good enough pilot to do it on insane. Hard I can just about stomach, well done mate.
-
Urgh I'm simply not a good enough pilot to do it on insane. Hard I can just about stomach, well done mate.
I still have many, many hours of Freespacing before I'll be able to take the whole campaign on insane
-
Next to never is the amount of time I need.