Countermeassures

countermeasures don't seem very effective, I've dropped 2 or 3 before the missile hit and they don't help. If you pick them up on your radar try to stay at least 1.5 KM away at all times or they're likely to fire one off.

Try Adv.Countermeasures. They got 90% efficiency.

Good guys go to heaven...Bad guys go...EVERYWHERE[![![!

Alright, I'm going to let you in on a little secret... This may be regarded as a cheat or may have been well documented before, but I honestly haven't heard anyone mention it.
Once you hear the incoming missile sound while you're in cruise mode, cut your engines ('z'). You will cruise without slowing down instantly. Your speed will drop by about 1 every second or so, but that's more than sufficient to avoid enemies.
One of my earlier tactics when I first ventured into the Omicrons with my weak stats was to cut my engines, then hit my afterburners. My speed would very slowly drop from 200, but it didn't use up my thruster power, enabling me an advantage to outrun my foes. I would often turn around (but still drifting in the opposite direction) and fire my weapons at the pursuing enemies (I didn't have a rear turret), which would cause them to evade, thus giving me extra time to flee.

Pegasus, try turning around without firing. They still fall behind quickly. It's not your fire that's doing it. It's an AI bug. They get confused when you fly backwards.

Cool. I've used the "Z" technique before, but not with the cruise engines. Knew it worked with afterburners but didn't know it did with cruising.

As a sidenote, I didn't have as much trouble as I thought. It's a HUGE asteroid field (40 minutes or so to sweep), but the Dagger's with C/D's were only in a very small part of it, so I ended up just fighting them those few times. Get me some spare weapons anyways.

Thanks for all the responses!

Actually, I've noticed another possible bug, this one pertaining to the C/D and engine kills. It seems to me that whenever I hit engine kill immeditately after I hear the 'incoming missile' warning I will get hit by the C/D. Now, I realize that since my cruise engines are shut down (technically all of my engines are shut down) the C/D should have no effect on my speed. Well, as I have learned on many occasions, this is not true. So far, every time I hit engine kill and get hit by a C/D my speed immediately drops down to 80 and my engines are re-engaged. The only times this does not happen is when I shut down my engines before they have even launched their C/D (afterall, why would they fire one if I'm not cruising anymore). Anyways, it's just something that I've noticed over the days of playing. Cheers.

Edited by - Ein-7919 on 28-03-2003 10:44:02

The way I see it is that even after you cut your cruise engines, you are still travelling within the 'warp field'. This field is what is disrupted by the C/D device rather than it affecting your engines. In this context it works as it should, but thats just how I interpret it.