Am I missing something in combat? Horatio

[JErosion]

So I started a game as the Horatio, and I got the combat version of the teir 1 ship unlocked and made a new ship using that hull as a base, I gave it armor, short range laser and missles... and it did not fire at all, and just got itself killed, I even reloaded my save and the same thing happened. or do i need to post this as a bug?

[Helldiva]

Sometimes the same thing happens to me playing for the Imperium. Even with a mix of long and medium range with missiles and short range beams, ships don't return fire and get killed. The only thing i can think of is, that the description for missiles is wrong and they are long range only, so that i don't have medium range weaponry...or it's a bug ?

[Shrinkshooter]

instead of using the two extremes, use the mid range laser and the chainguns instead. Those both fire at every single range. If those don't work then it's a bug. I think other people have experience something like this, but I haven't seen it myself.

[UR ESTROGEN DEALER]

Short range lasers are horrible and I would never put more than 1 missile on a ship... Just load out your fleets entirely with the Long range lasers and throw a missile in here&there; for reference, long range lasers were the only viable combat option in ES1 as well.

Generally, in T1, the "attacker" class ship should look setup something like this: 1 Engine upgrade, 2 shield upgrades, 2 long range lasers.. the "defender" or Tool ship, in T1, should look like this: 1 engine, 1 missile, 2 shields.. I've been steamrolling left and right with this setup (as Horatio) for quite some time, general rule of thumb is long range lasers/shields will win the day for all hull types, especially under consideration that Horatio should primarily be played as a mid-game military power, although military is NOT our strong suit due to our population advantage all victories/play styles are accesible if need be (projectiles/short lasers are great for a Craver play style, I.E. bumrush, but Horatio should never be rushing anyone like Cravers will be)

Feel free to message me for any help you may need.

-Brock

[JErosion]

I started a new fresh game, after unlocking the tier 1 ships again I made a similar set up on the same ship type(Maicho-class or something), gave it armor, loaded missles into the front weapons slot and kinetics into the rear slots, while in combat, the missles did not fire at all and the kinetics only started to shoot about half way through combat, the enemy ship took only a fraction of the damage it should have

[UR ESTROGEN DEALER]

I don't know what to tell you, man, I just gave you a setup that works and you decided to go ahead and do the exact opposite of it lol What's even the point of making this thread if you're going to ignore given advice?

[JErosion]

Actually I started that new game inbetween checking for replies to this post, I tried yet a third set up, just kinetics and lasers, both fired however, I noticed that the pirates, get to shoot at me forever before the weapons on my ships can even get around to returning fire, I can understand if it because weapons have certain set ranges, but the missles(supposely long and medium range) never fired to two of my games while the kinects and the regular lasers(which tool tip says both are all ranges) are only kicking in during medium range.

[JErosion]

Alright started a game as another faction United Empire, same thing sot of happened, I designed several ships with patrol class and the corvette class, When I placed missles in the (double weapon slots) the side ports they did not fire, but with single weapon slots they did, same way with the single slots

[Quinox]

I believe I have an answer to this, now that you have some control over the fleet movements, the weapon blisters seem only fire if they have Line of Sight to the enemy. I've had the same Horatio ship not fire at all when the game sent it straight at the enemy, and then turn around and fire all match when I changed tactics to make it turn to the side.

Meaning, if you put a fleet on a straight line path up the middle, it seems to not be able to fire it's side mounted weapons at all, since they never look towards the enemy in front of them. It doesn't matter on the flank formations since they're already to the right or left of the main enemy group.

It seems like a massive oversight to have a combat tactic early on that moves ships directly towards the enemy, and thus have weapons that never fire due to never seeing the enemy. However, this seems to be the case.

[Shrinkshooter]

Actually that is a good point, you have both front and side mounted weapons. The side mounted weapons are the ones on the module slots that say x2 symmetrical, because they're on either side of the ship. If they don't have that modification, generally it's only a single weapon that's point forward.

It's why when you select "long" as your ship range, it shows you the ship path as moving to the right, then to the left, in order to bring its side weapons to bear. With middle or close range, the ship can only go forward, obviously, and so it heads straight at its targets which doesn't allow the side guns to fire until it gets to its commanded range.

If this is the problem, the solution is this: put ONLY the long range laser or the missile onto the single weapon slot, and put either the long range lasers and/or chainguns into the symmetrical x2 slots, and use close or mid range combat. This way, the missile and laser will fire as the ship is closing in, and when it begins banking, the other lasers and chainguns will begin firing.

Alternatively, you can just make your ship nothing but long range lasers and missiles and keep it at long range. It should be firing almost all the time.

[JErosion]

Thanks that does seem to be the issue, My ships still took a couple of hit before they were in position to return fire, I just wasn't sure what I was doign wrong since the Machio class ship is all broadship weapon placement

[UR ESTROGEN DEALER]

Originally posted by JErosion:

Thanks that does seem to be the issue, My ships still took a couple of hit before they were in position to return fire, I just wasn't sure what I was doign wrong since the Machio class ship is all broadship weapon placement

I tested out the specific issue you were having, the results are as follows:

1) if you 'watch' the battle (I.E. Manual) there's a chance of this glitch happening and affecting the outcome of combat, dependant on the Battle Card selected.

2) On the contray, during an 'Auto' battle, all of your ships will fire correctly regardless of Battlecard/weapon setup, and more often than not, will yield better results than a manual/'watch' battle

Conclusion: Simply use the 'Auto' battle selection for now, I know the aethestic is cool, but honestly it's not like 'Watch' makes any difference to 'Auto' besides the pretty views. Secondly, after I test this a bit more, I'll create an article on Games2gether.com, on your behalf, to address this issue. For future reference Games2gether.com is the and always will be the best place to post any concerns regarding Amplitude Studio games.

[JErosion]

Also this bug seems more likely to happen with single ships, but with multiple ships on your side it doesn't