combat difficulty

[Gertjan]

Well, i'll get it out bluntly: the difficulty curve (well, wall) as far as combat goes is bovine manure if you ask me; somewhere 2 hours into the "tutorial" missions, the game puts you against 10+ reivers (the old ties defence mission), where even two are dangerous, and killing one takes 5+ minutes.

the darned things manouver like crazy, i cannot even keep visual lock on them for more then 3 seconds at a time, let alone aiming. hitting their ships is all but impossible without swivelled guns.

the combat against the two reivers i managed to win using about 20 sunstalkers, but since i cannot buy any new ones, i cannot fight worth anything, and avoiding more then 3 ships is hard enough as is, let alone 10+.

i guess i'm missing something, but my only option at this point is restarting the campaign and spending a week in albion to get more shields, URVs and missiles (whose existence i didn't learn about before going into DeVries).

the game does a VERY poor job explaining combat, even the very first agression i encountered (scripted) took me 4 tries of 5 minutes each before winning on a fluke.


yes, i know i can change difficulty, it is the lowest it can go. also, i know about drifting, i do nothing else; i spend 90% of the time in that fight on (trying to) dodge, but since there's lasers coming in from 6 directions, that doesn't work either...

[Lupo]

There are several things regarding combat to take into account, save money and equip the Skunk with better shields and weapons, you pop in and out of the plot at any time so it is fairly easy to do when missions get tricky. Use stations for cover (careful with the friendly fire) and do not engage swarms of fighters, hit them from afar with missiles and use hit and run tactics, if you try to dogfight more than 2 fighters with the basic Skunk you will get fried.

20 Missiles for 2 Reivers seems extremely poor, make sure you do not launch the missiles too close to the targets, the Sunstalkers will not hit head on, but will deviate left or right and come around to hit the target from behind, so there is a bit of technique to launch them for the best effectiveness and you are launching them while following the target make sure you do not shoot it down with your fire.

Radar can be changed with shift-m, from navigation to combat and disable the information overlay with shift-r for a clearer view.

[Aleideka]

I was very bad at combat till i found out that i could dubbleclick an enemy and "follow target".
The autopilot follows the target, i boost in till i am 2 km close, shoot missles, boost a bit furter and start to shoot. Shooting the enemy down is easy when you autofollow.

[nobrien]

Yea unfortunatly just another exsample of the design of the skunk not really knowing what it is, Vs fighters it doesnt have the fire power as one 1 gun barrel is fireing which leaves you under powered even vs the weakest fighters who can dodge and fire 2-4 barrels of shield chewing dmg very quickly, NO turret is the big one tho ALL other types of ships have 2 barreled defence turrets but the ONLY player ship has 0.

The cost of basic upgrades for shields/engines and software leaves you just flying a brick untill you figure out how to make some decent cash.

But the Skunk is allways underpowered as by half way thru you pretty much have all of the weapons/equipment bar maybe 2-3 items and then you just spend 90% of the time playing exactly the same type of combat game very little defiance which gets very boreing.

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

Lure them closer to stations and other solid objects... Geometry will confuse them a little bit.
Also, the plasma cannon and pulsed maser are NOT good weapons. Buy particle accelerator and innertial hammer, combine them (particle to bring down shields, hammer to bring down hull).

Strafe all the time like mad.

Hit & run tactics all the day... Destroy one enemy ship, then run like hell to recharge shields.

You can deploy some URV drones, they will distract enemies.
Also carry an engineer aboard Albion Pride, he will repair damaged modules like guns or shields.

If you have a few millions somewhere around, you might buy a Stromvok frigate from the Canterran shipyard in Darned Hot air, it will knock out any fighters.
Or capture a Light/Heavy Sul from the PMC.


Combat is easy, you just need practice and massive awareness. Learn to use other options than just direct shooting. Personally I never even use missiles, only playing hard difficulty all time.

[Gertjan]

yeah, so pretty much restart the game from where i am.
i only got the free starter weapons, and no way to get new (carena has no stores that i could find, cant get back to albion intill aftwr this mission, rahanas unavailable to make money, no drones available...)
this is inded bag game design, i am at a point where i got what i got, make due.

i guess i'll look for a swivel gun mod, since for some reason my strafe speed is reduced to nothing in combat and the reivers move erratically.
strangly enough, some vids i watched could hit with the plasmela at close range, and stayed near the stations, i was told to go to the superhighway, no structures or help nearby

[Lupo]

Originally posted by nobrien:

Yea unfortunatly just another exsample of the design of the skunk not really knowing what it is, Vs fighters it doesnt have the fire power as one 1 gun barrel is fireing which leaves you under powered even vs the weakest fighters who can dodge and fire 2-4 barrels of shield chewing dmg very quickly, NO turret is the big one tho ALL other types of ships have 2 barreled defence turrets but the ONLY player ship has 0.

The cost of basic upgrades for shields/engines and software leaves you just flying a brick untill you figure out how to make some decent cash.

But the Skunk is allways underpowered as by half way thru you pretty much have all of the weapons/equipment bar maybe 2-3 items and then you just spend 90% of the time playing exactly the same type of combat game very little defiance which gets very boreing.

Totally disagree, you do not take into account Skunk shields or missiles and stretching it drones. Even using the basic Skunk you should not have a problem with up to 2 fighters, now if you are trying to get close and personal with them, you are playing to their strengths. Same applies to Skunk guns, Inertial Hammer is devastating at very close range, the Particle Repeater is great when firing while tracking an enemy ship as it acts like tracer fire. Strafing and shield/boost management is crucial, boosting toward your enemy is just expending your shield for nothing and if the enemy ships hold formation they will make mincemeat of your ship. The flying towards enemy ship while firing, then turn around to catch his back jousting model of fighting does not work in Rebirth.

There is an aim assisted option in the game options, depends what control you are using it may help you.

[Gertjan]

There is an aim assisted option in the game options, depends what control you are using it may help you.

now that is useful. i use keys+mouse; perhaps that allows accuracy of more than 5%

[Squee]

Originally posted by Lupo:

Inertial Hammer

My Fav. :D

Also what really helps me to take less damage is to swirl ( or whatever you want to call it ), not just around my axis but also strafe at the same time to really make a spirale movement . So Q/E keys combined with A/D. Aiming is more difficult but definitely got hit less.

[Stryderunknown]

On the subject of hit and run, you'll find that if you have more than 3 enemies coming at you then it's likely more than one wing of fighters. There is a chance that they aren't all the same type of ship, some are faster than others. This means you can lure them away over distance which causes a gap between the faster ships and the slower ones. This reduces the number you have to fight/dodge, at least until they all catch up.

Boost is extremely important and Upgrading Shields and Engines makes sure that you can both take shots and have enough energy to boost away. (Test to see how much boost bar you need to get 20km away from something, so you know what reserve you need to recharge)

[nobrien]

Originally posted by Lupo:

Originally posted by nobrien:

Yea unfortunatly just another exsample of the design of the skunk not really knowing what it is, Vs fighters it doesnt have the fire power as one 1 gun barrel is fireing which leaves you under powered even vs the weakest fighters who can dodge and fire 2-4 barrels of shield chewing dmg very quickly, NO turret is the big one tho ALL other types of ships have 2 barreled defence turrets but the ONLY player ship has 0.

The cost of basic upgrades for shields/engines and software leaves you just flying a brick untill you figure out how to make some decent cash.

But the Skunk is allways underpowered as by half way thru you pretty much have all of the weapons/equipment bar maybe 2-3 items and then you just spend 90% of the time playing exactly the same type of combat game very little defiance which gets very boreing.

Totally disagree, you do not take into account Skunk shields or missiles and stretching it drones. Even using the basic Skunk you should not have a problem with up to 2 fighters, now if you are trying to get close and personal with them, you are playing to their strengths. Same applies to Skunk guns, Inertial Hammer is devastating at very close range, the Particle Repeater is great when firing while tracking an enemy ship as it acts like tracer fire. Strafing and shield/boost management is crucial, boosting toward your enemy is just expending your shield for nothing and if the enemy ships hold formation they will make mincemeat of your ship. The flying towards enemy ship while firing, then turn around to catch his back jousting model of fighting does not work in Rebirth.

There is an aim assisted option in the game options, depends what control you are using it may help you.

Well ofcourse you do, but the new guy is just starting, 2 hours into the tutorial he says so has none of those resources untill he gets around mk3 engines strafing does nothing, missles and drones are expensive, you say dont get close thats were the fighters are good yet you then say the only good guns are close combat ones shotgun and repeater, for all of that you tell him what doesnt work but give no alternatives, The skunk has none of the features that class of ship has IE turrets multyple forward fireing weapon systems, cheap fighters get as many as 4 and a M6 gets 1 is just bad design full stop.

It takes 4-500k to get it to a basic minimum combat ready state and thats more for ppl who know what to do and were to get it early.

[Alith-Ahnar]

You can make millions in just a few minutes as soon as you got the mininglaser.

Scanning for containers is the perfect choice for a quick cash infusion without risk and danger and it usualy does not take that long either.

Inaddition there is always the Scrapmetall market you don' have to dock at a station for that at all just fly to a zone contact the Junk Vendor and buy all scrapmetall and refine those to alloys takes 1k metalls for maybe 130k to 170k, returns around 600k atleast a piece just pure profit ain't takes up that much time either.

Next is dong mission you could even do hard Cartel Raid and Xenon missions without firing a single shot just stay close to the station pickup the scraps and sell em quick money without effort in no time in addition to faction standing.

Here is so much more to make money in the game that you have your Skunk upgraded in no time as long as you don't force yourself in the thinking i only can do what i could do in this X³ game or demand to have a iWin button Uber Ship right away.

The skunk is plain OP even on Hard difficulty the cash to upgrade it to that state is peanuts if you consider how easy you could get that little that is needed.
(Well the Tradecomputer mk2 and mk3 are ridicules overpriced)

[nobrien]

None of that is wrong, most of it is in guides aswell and really helpfull for ppl to read alot of that stuff was what my mate did when he first started but when you first start just getting around is confusing and trying to buy stuff is too,and doesnt change the fact that they dont know what the ablion skunk is suppose to be, it has far more room up front for multy barrel weapon sytems than a single man fighter and has acres of area on the rear and sides for def turrets hell even its own video when you find it it has atleast one turret visable im sure there was talk of a mod replacing it but havent heard anything about that for ages.

It just doesnt make sence.

[Stryderunknown]

off-topic with skunk gun usage,

When you have all guns on the ship, you'll find that when you fire the firing pattern comes from different directions depending on the gun you are using. (try shooting crates open to see which direction the gun fires from) it would suggest that the guns are retractable and switch out in position ( in at least relationship to the cockpit aesthetics).

Perhaps for lore sake, the reactor of the skunk can't handle having the shields and engines powered with multiple weapons, so you are reduced to using one weapon at a time.

[nobrien]

lol nice try, however according to annoying yisha the skunks systems were in safty override which she fixed way back in the begining :}