Aaaargh!
SoulSkorpion
Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 423Members
Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 423Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">(my turn to vent)</div> Like the desc says, my turn to vent. Not about my life, though, but about a certain flight sim I've recently got working again. Wing Commander II.
It's been kinda fun, so far. Much harder than I remember (those ships are so fragile!) but so far there haven't been any missions which have had me completely stumped.
Until now.
I'm flying a Sabre. That's a heavy, torpedo-carrying fighter (although, for some reason, its shields really suck). Anyway, we're off to torpedo two Fralthra class cruisers. You see, you have to use torpedoes on these things because of their heavy shields.
So anyway, the first nav point's easy. Two Sartha light fighters, and we pick up an extra two Sabres for reinforcements. So now there are four of us. Piece of cake, right?
The two cruisers are defended by four Gothri heavy fighters. Between killing them and my imbecille wingmen shooting me by accident, I inevitably lose all my armour. Any wingmen who survive taking out the Gothri inevitable get shot down by the Fralthras' flak guns. So (if one of my wingmen hasn't killed me, at this point) it's me verses two heavy cruisers. Each Fralthra has a bunch of Flak cannon - pretty nasty (you wouldn't want to sit next to one for long) but not really too dangerous. However, they've also got a pair of anti-matter cannon. These are big honkin' guns used to fight other capital ships. From full shields and armour, one hit knocks them out. If your armour is so much as scratched, you're instantly dead.
Here's the thing. To successfully fire a torpedo at a capital ship, you have to point dead at it for twenty or so seconds before the thing can lock, and you can't move during this time. It's usually possible to sit outside a capital ship's range while you wait for the locking sequence to complete, but in this case the Fralthra have decided to chase me. The next thing is they fire those bloody anti-matter guns at me while I'm doing the torpedo run. Fortunately, their accuracy is random: sometimes they get it dead on and you have to afterburn at 90 degrees or so to avoid it, and sometimes they miss completely.
So to successfully torpedo one of these damn things, you have to sit for twenty seconds waiting for the torpedo to lock. In that time, if the Fralthra fires the antimatter gun, you <i>have</i> to break your attack run to dodge it. Then you have to start all over again.
There are two Fralthra. So, each attack run, each cruiser has a chance of firing the gun accurately and forcing me to redo the run. In addition, each cruiser takes <i>two</i> torpedoes to kill.
So, about ten minutes ago, I manage to survive both my wingmen and the enemy with all my shields intact. I managed to successfuly down one cruiser, and land a torpedo on the other. This is the furthest I've got in something like thirty attemtps at the mission over the course of several hours. I come in for my final attack run, parked outside the cruiser's range waiting for the torpedo to lock on. It locks, I accelerate and release. I veer off....
Bang. I'm dead. For some inexplicable reason, <b>I'VE MANAGED TO RUN INTO THE BACK OF MY OWN TORPEDO!
AAAAAAAAAAARGH!</b>
Oh well. Time to try again :/
It's been kinda fun, so far. Much harder than I remember (those ships are so fragile!) but so far there haven't been any missions which have had me completely stumped.
Until now.
I'm flying a Sabre. That's a heavy, torpedo-carrying fighter (although, for some reason, its shields really suck). Anyway, we're off to torpedo two Fralthra class cruisers. You see, you have to use torpedoes on these things because of their heavy shields.
So anyway, the first nav point's easy. Two Sartha light fighters, and we pick up an extra two Sabres for reinforcements. So now there are four of us. Piece of cake, right?
The two cruisers are defended by four Gothri heavy fighters. Between killing them and my imbecille wingmen shooting me by accident, I inevitably lose all my armour. Any wingmen who survive taking out the Gothri inevitable get shot down by the Fralthras' flak guns. So (if one of my wingmen hasn't killed me, at this point) it's me verses two heavy cruisers. Each Fralthra has a bunch of Flak cannon - pretty nasty (you wouldn't want to sit next to one for long) but not really too dangerous. However, they've also got a pair of anti-matter cannon. These are big honkin' guns used to fight other capital ships. From full shields and armour, one hit knocks them out. If your armour is so much as scratched, you're instantly dead.
Here's the thing. To successfully fire a torpedo at a capital ship, you have to point dead at it for twenty or so seconds before the thing can lock, and you can't move during this time. It's usually possible to sit outside a capital ship's range while you wait for the locking sequence to complete, but in this case the Fralthra have decided to chase me. The next thing is they fire those bloody anti-matter guns at me while I'm doing the torpedo run. Fortunately, their accuracy is random: sometimes they get it dead on and you have to afterburn at 90 degrees or so to avoid it, and sometimes they miss completely.
So to successfully torpedo one of these damn things, you have to sit for twenty seconds waiting for the torpedo to lock. In that time, if the Fralthra fires the antimatter gun, you <i>have</i> to break your attack run to dodge it. Then you have to start all over again.
There are two Fralthra. So, each attack run, each cruiser has a chance of firing the gun accurately and forcing me to redo the run. In addition, each cruiser takes <i>two</i> torpedoes to kill.
So, about ten minutes ago, I manage to survive both my wingmen and the enemy with all my shields intact. I managed to successfuly down one cruiser, and land a torpedo on the other. This is the furthest I've got in something like thirty attemtps at the mission over the course of several hours. I come in for my final attack run, parked outside the cruiser's range waiting for the torpedo to lock on. It locks, I accelerate and release. I veer off....
Bang. I'm dead. For some inexplicable reason, <b>I'VE MANAGED TO RUN INTO THE BACK OF MY OWN TORPEDO!
AAAAAAAAAAARGH!</b>
Oh well. Time to try again :/
Comments
I'm sure that's possible, and considering capital ships are, well, BIG; you'd have to
be blind as an assbat to not hit one ...
I'm sure that's possible, and considering capital ships are, well, BIG; you'd have to
be blind as an assbat to not hit one ... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
No... they need time to work out the phase patterns of the heavy shielding, or some such thing.
...
Heh. I think I exaggerated the wingmen effect. As long as I stay well away from the fight, they wear themselves out. If they're not there at all I have four angry Kilrathi on my backside instead of just two. Besides, if I attack one the rest will open fire on me, and Sabres pack quite a punch :/
...
For the record, I've tried three more times now. Oh, how I hate those cruisers.