Welcome to the family, enjoy your stay.

You'll get a variety of opinions with this post no doubt. Evidence there's more than one tactic to survival. Listen to what others have to say and develop your own is probably the best advice I could give.

Rob "Stinger" Lordier
Creator of the original Privateer FAQ
3+ years here and still lovin' every minute!
Favorite saying - Life is a journey, not a destination

Some PvP tips from a veteran at FL :

1: NEVER, I repeat, NEVER let someone get on your six and let them stay there !
While flying with a friend, he made that *exact* mistake and got wasted by a
Dagger, and he was in a Sabre with level-10 weapons. Naturally, I laughed
and wasted the guy attacking him.

2: Freighters have multiple turrets, and if it's a high-level freighter, it can waste
you, even when you're on it's six. Therefore, strafe around all the time (can
be useful in dogfights too) and NEVER stay still ! A moving target is so much
harder to hit then a stationary target, and when it connects it's usually only 1
beam instead of six. Never under estimate the power of a freighter !

I think this topic should be a considered as a sticky, as I'm sure many newbies will like to read this.

Good Day !

my opinion would be when someone is on your six, kill your engines (z), and then slow down to a complete stop (s/down/mouse wheel) as quickly as possible. I did this in a PvP, having lost all my nanobots and shield batteries, and slowed down to a complete stop with somebody chasing me with guns blasting and afterburners rumbling, and as he flew by, I dropped a few Ripper mines, which knocked out his Shields, and as he flew past, let out 2 Cannonball missiles, followed by a quick series of fire from my Skyblast B's, and he was history!

I learnt that from someone once, he did it to me! people don't expect you to grind to a halt, so it's a good tactic. However, don't show somebody your tactics, and then fight them, you want to kick their ass, then tell em how it's done! it works wonders, and you get people wanting to challenge you!

If you give people a false sense of security by letting them get on your six, grinding to a halt catches them off guard, and they don't know where you went! It's a sure-fire solution for n00bs in PvP, but NOT, i repeat NOT against NPCs.

A different tactic would be to let them fly past you, come round for a missile or gun run, then afterburn toward him, strafing past his missiles, launching two Neutralizer EMP missiles, then a Sunslayer torpedo, and watch him burn!

Heh. If you want to confuse your opponent to the max, use an agile fighter with a good thruster and afterburn around (Tactic only useful for non-freighter/transport ships). Stop on occasions completely with engine kill, aim, and launch a homing salvo. and a few regular cannonshots. Then repeat.

start the fight and look at your enemy tactic, a good skilled pilot can destroy the enemy by the drawback off his tactic...

_________________
Spamius Threadius

Just one second after the birth of the Universe, space was flooded with particles and over the next 300 million years stars and galaxies began to evolve into the kind of cosmic landscape that we recognise today. But there's one big problem. We shouldn't really be here. People, planets, stars, galaxies should all be impossible dreams. In theory, nothing should exist.

More of a what not to do here, but:

If it's a conventional PvP where both players see each other in advance and go head to head, DON'T just fly towards him and shoot, even if you're in a stronger ship, as you can't tell what he has on board. Instead, loose a few shots at the edge of your weapons' range, then break slightly so his first salvo goes wide. Don't fly in a straight line, but also don't turn too far until you're close to him, otherwise he can come up behind you. Drop mines at about 200m out to give them the best chance of hitting. Use the engine kill and start turning before you go past him, so you can loose another salvo into his backside.

Make sure not to waste shield batteries. If he's almost got your shields down and you're tempted to press F, first look at the attack run he made. If it takes him past your craft, leaving him needing to turn around, don't bother using them, you have a few seconds free regen time.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

If someone was on my six, I would cut my engines to a low speed (still moving - but slowly) and use the rear view camera to see my oponent. As you slow down he will come closer to you, you need him to be really close otherwise it will not work.

as soon as he is close, strafe sidewaysand as he was so close he wont be able to get a lock on you, without taking a wide turn to get back on you, by this time, he has past you . . . .and you have HIS six!

The Mercenary Navy - Power Is Everything
Vist The Mercenary Navy Online .

Great stuff - keep em coming!

I usually dont do pvp, but im interested what strats u use....

TommY out

Movin' in for the kill

??

Go head on, tap the afterburners and at the same time launch a sunslayer.Be carefull though....

Keep engine kill on for the whole fight. It's like turret mode, but at 200m/s and with maneuverability. Every time the enemy gets a good track on you, tap the thruster and you're heading off in a new direction. Great when in an LF; makes it REAL hard for anything to hit you.

Another one...more of an alteration on stopping and letting the other guy zoom past: X slows you down much, much faster. And gives you a little bit of reverse speed, so they go past even quicker. And, of course, it lets you zip back up to full speed as soon as you release the key.

----------------------------------------
Proud owner and operator of a Patriot!
Proud owner and operator of a Stiletto!
Proud ally of the Bounty Hunters' Guild!
Proud hater of Nomad weapons!
Proud user of all things underestimated!
----------------------------------------
For the last time...there is no "N" in "TURRET"!

Edited by - NukeIt on 3/26/2004 12:43:30 PM

never play chicken with another fighter unless you're absolutely sure your shields can take what they're gonna dish out when they charge you, and you can dish out more than they can take.

also, if your shields are getting low, get dodgey. it's senseless using up shield batteries if you still have shields left. they'll regenerate. once they do, get back into combat. save those batteries for regenerating your shield if it goes down in a jiffy.

never sit and snipe unless you're dueling. someone wuill see your ship and start shooting at you. staying sstill generally gets you killed, and is a nice way to tell missiles and mines "HIT ME!"

asteroids are not all bad. they can serfe as both cover and a nice tight turning raduis if you're fighting someone who's doing a wide arc around you.

a fun way to reduce your turning raduis dramatically is to hit reverse while you turn. this does two things. it confuses the hell out of whoever you're chasing and makes them feel a game of chicken is in order, and it messes up anyone on your six, because they get slammed in the face with a bunch of ship-buttox. be careful with this if you're in an asteroid field though. if you slam backwards into a rock, you can mess up that niice turn you had, and you have to re-orient yourself. that can cost you big time.

missiles are pretty much ineffective against someone who knows how to outmaneuver them. a little thruster boost, and it's not locked onto you anymore. also, mines are pretty easy to dodge if you know what you're doing. thus, countermeasures are pretty much useful for missiles you can't dodge because you're either perfectly lined up and don't want to deviate or you don't have enough room to thrust and turn a little.

Mines you have to be careful with. they're not exactly high-powered, so you should only really use them as a distraction to get someone to think again about staying on your six. of course if they insist, feel free to dump mines on them.

probably the most effectve missile tactic i've seen used is this: get your foe's shields down all the way. as they charge at you, dodge around a little and launch a missile as they're about 50 meters form you. unless they're a god, they generaly won't be able to dodge quick enough, and the missile will go for the ship before it goes for a countermeasure that's farther away anyways. however, this is only really useful if you have high-powered ordinance. the lower-grade missiles are pretty much best used as flak for distraction. i'd say slingshot and moonstalker ordinance is about where missiles come in handy.

never underestimate rapid fire guns. they may not deal much damage, but they tend to hit you a LOT. get very dodgey if you're in a rapid-fire dogfight. lower fire-rate guns are just as bad, because you may not get his often, but it HURTS when you do get hit. it's allright to be a little more self-centered, but beware of the high levels of damage you can take from just one hit, never mind getting hit repeatedly.

shield rippers are scary.

---

probably the most effectve missile tactic i've seen used is this: get your foe's shields down all the way. as they charge at you, dodge around a little and launch a missile as they're about 50 meters form you. unless they're a god, they generaly won't be able to dodge quick enough, and the missile will go for the ship before it goes for a countermeasure that's farther away anyways. however, this is only really useful if you have high-powered ordinance. the lower-grade missiles are pretty much best used as flak for distraction. i'd say slingshot and moonstalker ordinance is about where missiles come in handy.

---

lol... can knock my own type off ship down in 1 head-on (pvp). by using missiles... just launch a emp-missile non-stalker missile combo just before passing eachother and get the usual "what was that???" line from the other

i used at sometimes at very close range, so his ship woulded be destroyed in the line off the "incoming missile" what the computer is saying.

don't be scared for thus slow firerated guns, as long as he can't get u in sight (more agility fighter), co'z he will miss mostly with the only shots they can fire at you, rapid-fire guns are this way more devastating for your ship and shield, and must be seen as very dangerous when they have also shield rippers on their ship... an eagle with the following outload is very dangerous for all other ships with the same or worsher agility (also must be taken down with high risks, co'z you will be in the line off fire very quick).

eagle;
- tizona del cid (shield buster)
- cannonball launcher
- neutralizer (if possible the paralyzer) launcher
- gmg class 9 gun (firerate 8.33, skyblast mk II )
- gmg class 9 gun
- gmg class 9 gun
- any turret
- any torp/disrupt

_________________
Spamius Threadius

Just one second after the birth of the Universe, space was flooded with particles and over the next 300 million years stars and galaxies began to evolve into the kind of cosmic landscape that we recognise today. But there's one big problem. We shouldn't really be here. People, planets, stars, galaxies should all be impossible dreams. In theory, nothing should exist.