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How effective are countermeasures? Post your opinion here

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Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 12:14 am

How effective are countermeasures? Post your opinion here

Just curious what everyone else's experience has been with countermeasures. How effective are they in general? Do they work against Torpedos, mines or cruise disruptors?

My experience has been mixed; they seem useless against cruise disruptors (even though they are technically semi-homing missiles). I have an advanced countermeasure suite, and the only thing it seems effective against is low-level missiles. Thoughts? Am I using it wrong?

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 12:23 am

works fine for me, though not really needed, if you know what your doing you can even dodge cruise disrupters most of the time ... but well I am lazy so I use most time just 5-10 cm instead ^_^

Mav

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 12:34 am

I don't really use them...I just move around a bit and I usually can get away from them pretty easily...the countermeasures don't hurt your chances of not getting hit or anything, but with a really good ship and some skills you shouldn't really need it. Hope this helps...

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 12:36 am

I can usually get to cruise without any help, but it takes several tries. It just seems like using countermeasures doesnt help my chaces at all...and I thought that was the whole point of using them.

Do you know if they work against torpedos and mines or is it just missiles?

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 1:31 am

against torps, yes, against mines? don´t think so.

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 2:25 am

Countermeasures are USELESS.... they rarely work.

If someone fires a normal missile you can usually avoid it by firing thrusters and moving out of the way.

As for cruise disruptors, 9 times out of 10 the missile will hit you instead of the countermeasure. Which is bloody irritating when you drop a dozen of them as a freighter and STILL can't get away.... >:-(

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 3:31 am

Seems to work about 40-50% for me against comp opponents.

-Annilyna

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 9:17 am

I think the key there is against comp opponents.

When I use missles I tend to fire them only when really close. giving alot elss time for countermeasures.

Give me distance or debris/asteroids and I can dodge most missles in a fighter, not quite as well in a frighter I admit.

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 11:24 am

Only time I will use them is on cargo run, to stop any Cruise Disrupters or if heavily beaten up on a difficult mission and yes they do work. But dont just fire one as the AI dont just fire ONE missle, plus the first flare sometimes doesn't work fully and your still hit.

Playing as [0[Pinger on:
UK Hub 217.39.29.71:2375
[DBX[ Major Woodys 81.96.60.65:2375

Post Fri Mar 21, 2003 10:06 pm

I agree. Countermeasures are extremely useful if you're flying a big, slow Dromedary or Humpback. Missiles hurt more than lasers, so the more you can keep off, the better. Perhaps the most effective use though is in keeping your cruise engines online. If I'm playing single-player, I don't mind switching to afterburners, but that messes up formations in multi-player, so cruising is better.

I don't even bother with guns. When I'm hauling freight, I just equip mines and countermeasures, then hire escorts. Without countermeasures, I'm sure I'd have lost a full haul of diamonds more than once.

Post Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:58 am

What I've noticed and this may not be true if you have installed a mod or add-in, but when doing a freight run or running away from a bad fight switch your active weapons so that the only active weapon is your counter measure dropper. I put mine on my mouse so I just hit my thumb toggle and bam, auto CM dropper. The CM set as the active weapon automatically drops a countermeasure at the "most effective time" according to the book. What I've noticed is it will stop 75% of normal missles and if I drop a couple extra and change heading I can escape the cruise disrupters. Mind you I haven't gotten past all the single player missions yet so it may not work at the higher levels.

Post Sat Mar 22, 2003 6:07 pm

Best way so far (at least in my experience) is to drop several immediently when you hear "Incoming missile..." and dodge as best you can while doing so.

-Annilyna

Post Sun Mar 23, 2003 5:09 pm

The reason you have trouble countering disrupters (as opposed to missiles) is missile actually have to hit your ship. Disrupters have a blast radius (EMP) and it just has to be *close*.

Also, counters only last a few seconds then dissipate. If they're not far enough behind you (meaning you have to be thrusting at least to put some distance), the disrupter may indeed be countered and hit the flare, but the EMP still hits you.

That, coupled with the ridiculous speed of the disrupter and the relative snail's-pace in charging the cruise engines means you're probably going to have to thrust and then cut the engines and just coast.

Post Mon Mar 24, 2003 12:15 am

Countermeasures are just a waste of credits!! doesn't work for me 99.9% of the time! your better off to invest in stronger sheilds! now that helps alot!

Post Mon Mar 24, 2003 12:50 am

Countermeasures do work and are cheap. Even the advanced ones are only 40 creds a piece.

You have to have them for the big freighters because you cant dodge effectively, esp when you are trying to run away.

The reason they dont work as well against distupters is that they have a 50m area of effect. Compared to 16m for a normal missle.

The more distance you put between yourself and the countermeasure, the better. Obviously if you drop 1 or 10 or 50 countermeasures in the last couple seconds they wont do anything since you sill still be in the area of effect, even if the missle does take the bait.

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