Proxima battle during mission 18, ...help?

[Noquid]

First, the "advice" says to move the bulk of your fleet to Maelstrom, meaning don't take much to make the Proxima "trigger". Yea right. I brought all of my fleet to trigger Proxima after a number of failures trying to follow the advice, and got Proxima to trigger. So I go to the site where Proxima jumped to, take out the minefields and spend too much time on two ships that won't go below 50% health. (One "scarlet" turned blue one time in multiple battles and the other ship never turned blue, so you fire away at invulnerable 50% health ships and in the meantime get destroyed.) So you focus on Proxima, get it to 50% health and I'm very near death. In comes another Core Worlds group that magically is somehow aware of our plans and also knows where the Proxima would jump to. I need Diplomacy III, which I don't have, so end up having to fight them as well = fail over and over again. So what do you have to do here?? Sublight and run in circles again?? Definately not immersive.

[Geek]

Yeah, this is one case wher you should not follow Raynor advice and bring your fleet with you at all times. Focus on Proxima and let your fleet handle the rest. Of course, you should have a good ship, repair items etc.

[Kel'Ithra]

If your marauder you can do it. Transport than cloak... then when cloak runs out move around, roll, then laugh evily as Emmerix starts freaking out.

But if your not a matauder you need decoys... but you might also loose ships for that last fight. Which might force you to rebuild some ships after. You need every ship you can build for that very last fight.

[Noquid]

I have to say that I've never experienced such a polite and truely engaged group of dev members. The same goes for the user population on this forum. But ... :)

Anyone familiar with "dunking for apples"? You have a barrel full of water and a number of apples floating around. I feel like I'm one of the apples when I play this game. Someone is reaching into the barrel and swirling the water so they all spin around in the barrel. Yes you have shield management and hull management plus when to use one of your 4 skills, but that's about it. Plus the majority of my battles involve hoping I'm hitting my target because my own ship is blocking my view, which seems to be the best available view for battle. (turret view, "r" or "." to target, "K" to lock on target) So I'm not only in a barrel floating around in a circle, but my view is blocked by my own apple.

[Nuclear]

The point of view problem you can solve whith zoom out. Spam-Click "-" (minus) from keypad.

I can also give you a turning trick (that I learned in SPG2). Click turret view while already moving, spin to the direction you want, then return to normal view. The regular turning is a loose and wide arch, specially in a big ship. With that trick you can do sharp turns. With practice you do it faster than regular flying moves.

[Kel'Ithra]

Just use auto fire when using big ships. I never use "K" I just fly around altering my ships position based on the plasma rounds firing or not. Since always have rail guns firing. Just the plasma can't fire at certain angles on my ship. So I just rotate and roll as my shield values shift.

"F" is your friend and "R" for nearest target.

But the first phase is about surviving a minute. Second phase is where the giant fleet comes in as necessity and requires more preperation.

As long as you can take the hits and shift your shield orientation and have the good shield and hull consumables you can make it so only proxima pokes at you. Still hits hard but won't kill you if you have a carrier or dread with proper enhancements.

[Eatmoremeat]

This might be a bit of cheesing, but maybe you can load a previous save and go find some artifacts that give you a perk points so you can get your diplomacy to 3? I had diplomacy at 3 and without having to fight that second wave of ships the battle is pretty easy. I still don't like the invincible phases or the two warlords though and also proxima not going below 25%.

[Kel'Ithra]

Yeah i kept shooting at proxima wondering why it wasn't taking damage.

[EoLynn]

I remember in that battle that at some point you have to get close to it and activate/deactivate something. Having my Fleet keeping the enemy ships busy. And yes, those ones were staying at 50% until I "advanced" in the mission plot.