First, I must admit I am a guns-only dueler because I like to fly (*trying not to say anything about the FL joystick decision!*). I also never seriously use external ordenance, i.e. CMs, missles, torps or mines, even though I carry them.

Eagle (highest VHF turn rate, thus the most agile)
1 Tdc
1 Skyblast B
4 Nomad blasters
1 Skyblast B turret
Hornet, Ripper, adv. CMs

I will admit a couple of well placed torps or high level missles and I am toast. But then I also move around a lot so occassionally I can survive long enough in a duel with missles and/or torps to win. The key to defense is moving enough to never present a steady target. I use it all - strafe left, strafe right, engine kill, (of course) thrust and ocassionally engine slide (what I call glide). I also remove the middle wing from the Eagle - the idea is the ship has a smaller cross section. It also reduces the overall hull value.

For offense it's easy but even harder - aiming, aiming, aiming. While for torps and/or missles its a placement thing, for guns it's all about getting the circle around that little + sign. Sitting outside the cockpit gives a a slightly greater field of view. Also firing continuously is needed to fire under the menus and other HUD things that are at the edges of the screen. You can't start firing while your targeting circle is under the menus but the guns will continue firing if you were firing previous to the targeting circle going under the menus. Another thing is the misconceptions in turn rates - each type of ship have identical turn rates! I explain all this in another post but basically thrusting during a turn creates an optical illusion that you are turning slower. Still if someone else is also turning and thrusting, you can get a bead on them (instead of running precise circles behind them) if you stop (no thrust) or even engine kill. If it is a guns only fight (great because it costs NOTHING!) then usually the one that bears guns on their target more often will win - they have more chances to aim and thus hit. Since the time guns are on target is often brief, I have switched to blasters. They are the second most damaging gun in the game but fire faster thus the higher chance more than one shot will land. This though is highly subjective and still being "tested" by myself.

I don't claim to be the best and never have. I also don't always win even in guns-only. I have been playing FL for months though and have had some success in these endevours but have also lost heavily sometimes as well. As Justinian said, victory is not just winning. Our allies and I have won just by always being ready for the next round while those we fought against wandered or faded away. Like most things, you'll get from FL what you put into it. See you all in space.

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server

Ship: Sabre
Loadout:
4x nomad blasters
2x Kraken type 2
1x adv. debilitator turret
cutter mines
Hornet CD

This is a do-all configuration that seems to work well for PVP. I don't like using ammo weapons (missiles, torps, mines) in duels; they cost money every shot. Guns are free, so I have a synched setup that's just less than the maximum possible hull damage per second (which would be krakens, cannons, and Sunfury turret, all diff rates).

The tactics: cut engines on go and hit the afterburners. Use afterburners to steer, and strafe to throw your opponent a curveball. On the first pass, NEVER go directly head to head. Scissor out and take a slight deflection shot. You'll avoid more missiles, and your opponents guns that way. From then on, boost, fire, mine, turn, boost. If your opponent is a gun guy, use your strafe wisely to drastically reduce speed, or just jink out of his line of fire. Unless your opponent cuts his engines too, he can't maneuver well enough to counter this.

What is Engine slide? and does the quick turn (using Stafe in the opposite direction od the turn) turn the ship around faster then Engine kill?

Burn the land and and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me. *Firefly*

Sabre/titan/eagle set up

2 nomad blasters
2 nomad cannons
2 tizonas
razor mine
hornet cruise
best shield
full nanos and shield


Heretic

my drake:

2 Pyros type3
2 borrocos
cutter mines
wasp CD
Adv.cms

Engine slide is hitting the Z key in a default keyboard setup. This takes the ship out of a 'flying through a massy medium (air, water, etc.)' type of flying. This is normally (could be done with lots of thrusters at all cubic points in all outward directions, but why?) impossible in space since control surfaces (or any surfaces for that matter) can't interact against nothing i.e. space.

The turn rate is fixed and I attempt to explain it here. But you bring up a good point. Anything that moves you to turn faster in relation to your target is good. Stopping (i.e. the 80 speed, in a fight no one has time to ratchet engine speed up or down) or reverse (the -15 speed) would change your perception in relation to your target . Same thing would apply for strafing in the opposite direction to your turn. So yes, in relation to your target , it would appear you would turn faster. IMHO.

Carlsoneo, I started to run a Drake when I found one combination that kicked my butt. The credit goes to F/A-18 Hornet.

2 level 7 guns (doesn't matter, for the ocassional evil NPC)
1 Catapult missle
1 Sweeper missle
anything else

The Drake has the best turn rate (I can't find the document that listed turning rates for all ships If someone knows where this info is please point it out again, thanks) of all the ships. If you keep moving about and as long as you don't get a broadside, a Drake will survive. When Hornet when against me I had to glide like crazy so I could have a stable platform to shoot down his missles. I was able to shoot down over half of them but the EMP and hull damage between the Sweeper and Catapult respectively wore me down. Out of 50 missles each he was down to only one missle! Obviously the guns are useless here. I soon eqipped a character with a similar loadout and easily defeated the next Eagle I duelled. I will admit I shot nearly all my missles so it can get very expensive even if they are only level 5 missles. See you in space.

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server

I'm still experimenting with Eagle loadouts, but here's my Level 10 (Class 6) ships:

Drake:

1 Borroco
1 Pyros Type 2
2 Angelito Mk II
Hornet CD
Driller mine
Adv. CM

-OR-

1 Borroco
1 Catapult Missile
2 Pyros Type 3
Hornet CD
Driller mine
Adv. CM

Drom:

3 Borroco
2 Angelito Turret Mk I
3 Pyros Turret Type 2
Driller mine
Adv. CM

MUST use weapon group switching between pulse guns & turrets.

Class 6 Graviton & Adv. Thrust on both ships, of course.


Oh, and I cut the stupid/ugly wings off the Drake and it truely looks wicked!

"Got anything for me?" - Trent, A.K.A. 'Mr. Eloquent'

Edited by - Frobozz on 2/19/2004 12:31:18 PM

ok, here goes

i fly an eagle with 4 nomad blasters, 1 salamanka II, 1 tizona del cid, an advanced CM, Sunslayer Torpedos (50), Screamer mines, class 10 shields, and Advanced Thrusters.

as for tactics, i try to avoid engine kill except when they are almost dead and i have shields. mainly this is due to torpedos (i seem to be a sitting duck) and i last longer without it. also, i dont like strafe because it slows my ship down. generally, i avoid pvp duels, but i have fought in my fair share. i win about half the time, and im not that bad a pilot. course, i just took a month break from freelancer, but now im playing mods. sorry, but now id better quit before im too far off topic.

-Stupidity breeds Stupidity-
-One by one, the penguins are stealing my sanity-

Eagle VHF
Currently:
4 Tizona Del Cids
1 Cannonball Missile
1 Lancer Missile
1 Starkiller Torpedo
1 Swatter Mine
Lvl 10 Shields

Tried this out on a hunch and it was FAST. TDCs pack so much shield busting power that it was over almost before it began. Shields dropped, staggered the launch of a torpedo, then a Lancer, then a Cannonball, finally a mine. Second time around I got cocky and got beat, not not that quickly. Any thoughts?

@ Frobozz - I have Duelled other Drom's in a Drom before, as well as watched it happen. It is a LOAD of fun to watch, even more fun to do. Best one I saw was a Drom vs Humpback. Humper was spitting mines to save his life, the Drom was manuevering to get at him from anywhere but behind. Beautiful!

Thanks for everything so far, a lot of good information in here. Please keep it coming!

Edited by - Justinian on 11-10-2003 16:25:27

Well, I know why I use torps. After I put in 2 TDCs and 4 Nomad Blasters,
there's no room left for Missiles! Torp is slow but packs a whollup-
Starslayer ammo is as cheap as Catapult, but damages like a Firestalker!
I use 'em up close point blank, like Mines. Preferably in Thrust. Or as a distraction playing 'chicken'. But I'm no expert in dueling. (understatement)

"Got anything for me?" - Trent, A.K.A. 'Mr. Eloquent'

My ship is a Drake with 2 Pyros type 3, 2 borrocos, Hornet Cruise disruptor and Ripper mine. I almost never stop hitting strafe when I'm fighting because it keeps the easyist(straight on) shots from occuring, thus keeping me alive. I don't really use Engine kill because I find the Z key hard to hit when I'm using thruster and strafe.

Burn the land and and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me. *Firefly*

My Ship is a Dagger. I run it with a basic set-up -

1 x Adv Stunpulse (3)
1 x Slingshot missile (3)
2 x Dragoons (4)
1 x Pyros Turret (4)
Driller, Cutter or Ripper (depending on where and what I'm at)

Playing PvP - lotta fun to duel one on-one-with Daggers, Droms and so on. Getting a few Daggers together is great for hunting Large Prey (including Eagles).
Playing the AI - gets a rush going in Alpha, need a real good run in Beta (due to the radiation and length of time to achieve mission objectives), 2 keeps it a challenge in Beta, 3 makes it too easy.
I just go for the jugular Keep moving, stay alert and keep an eye on your wingmans' back, make sure he's watching yours.
Slake.
P.S. My idea of a fun mission is a level 43. In a Dagger, but.

The Hammerhead is a tad delicate, but it is the Drake of VHF's in manueverability.


2 Adv. Debilitators
3 Skyblast B'x
1 Firestalker
Starkiller
cutter mine

I try to force my opponent to dodge my missiles/torps so I can manuever to his 9 oclock. Once I am there I can get 2-3 gun passes with my quick skyblasts before a ponderous eagle/sabre/barndoor can get enough space to turn.

wash. rinse. repeat.

My problem is once I see my enemy's hull start to go I get greedy and go for a head-on run that usually ends with me in little pieces..

As far as flying, I have my keys completely remapped for 'engine kill' flight, and almost never use 'normal mode'. On a good day I can control the ship envelope to give me a 30 degree gun arc -- when a pilot in 'normal' flight can only fire straight ahead without changing his vector. Alas this can be a huge problem when my opponent keeps firing wasps/hornets... as these little buggers will knock you back into 'normal mode' flight.

wHaT's uR vEcTor, ViCtoR?

I've been experimenting this setup for a few days:

Dagger
2x Adv Scorpion
2x Sweeper missile launchers
1x Pyro Mk 1 turret
1x Wasp CD launcher
1x Driller mine launcher
1x Advanced CM launcher

This is really a just-for-fun setup, relying totally on manuevrability. I can completely strip shields off Eagles easily, but so far haven't won a PvP yet (hey what do you expect from a level 4 ship??). I may have better luck against Titans.

I can manage level 38 missions with this setup, will try higher levels soon! :p

Edited by - CW on 18-10-2003 12:35:50