| Author |
Advanced(ish) Tactics |
Chewy Squirrel
Chief Marshal
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 304
From: NYC
|  Posted: 2014-07-24 04:06
In an effort to share some less obvious tactics that veterans use with newer players I have created this document.
Advanced(ish) Tactics
*Need to lower your signature a little bit in a pinch? Shut off your auxiliary reactors. Each one is worth an extra .2-.3 signature.
*Want easy management of your shields? Set all of them to a single hotkey( say 1 for example) and then just mash 1 during battle. All of your shields will even out and go down evenly.
*Want to survive a little bit longer as ICC? Start combat with your shields off. Let the enemy strip your armor and a little bit into hull. Now turn your shields on. So now while the enemy is working on your shields, your armor and hull are regenerating!
Bonus! You now turn faster due to less armor weighing you down
Bonus! You now have more energy because your shields weren’t draining energy for the first part of the battle
*You can jump straight through a gate. Just ctrl-click somewhere far past it and look for the white line to turn red. This is one case where a red line won’t kill you.
*Want to accelerate a little bit faster? “Stutter Step” your increase in speed. The command doesn’t go through until you let go of the button.
*About to die? Use Shift-J to execute an emergency jump and jump straight ahead in the direction you are facing for a few seconds, and hope you don’t hit anything. There is however another use for Shift-J in the form of a “combat jump.” Press Shift-J twice in rapid succession(or mash) and you will move 1000-3000gu away from your current location depending on how fast you press. This is especially useful in small ships with cannons, and fast JD recharge times. Use it to out-maneuver any dread that may jump you and restore a favorable combat condition for yourself.
*If you have a few seconds before you die and can actually plot an escape jump. One of the better ways to do so is as follows: if you have a shipyard in the system you are fighting in and you can get there in one jump, press ctrl-y, F2, Space, and then ctrl and manually set a jump point some distance past the planet from where you are jumping, and then J. This will quickly select and get you to a friendly planet with a shipyard and hopefully a depot, and also put you well into the dictor giving you a lot more breathing room in case somebody chases you. If you just jump to the planet, you may end up a significant distance from it depending on how fast you were flying, and might barely be in the interdictor. This will make it very easy for someone to jump after you and finish you off.
If you have no planets or supply platforms, just ctrl-set a point in deep space, preferably in the same direction you are facing and not through a dictor. It is not recommended to jump directly to supply platforms as an attentive enemy can then find your factions supply base and damaged allies.
*How to point jump: For those who don’t know, this is the act of jumping extremely close to another ship in combat. This is most effective if you have an assault class ship. There is a huge distance buffer built into the default jump command, so if you just select another ship or object, you will end up way too far from your target. Instead, we have to manually set a jump coordinate to achieve this effect. So target the ship you want to point jump in F2, and then ctrl-select a point somewhere past that ship to jump to. Then with the jump distance buffer, you will hopefully end up right on top of them. The trick to this technique is how far to set that jump point from the ship you want to jump, as your jump distance is heavily dependent on how fast you are currently moving. And you usually want to be moving prior to a point jump so as to not let the opposing ship create a gap while you are accelerating.
The complete formula for jump distance is: Jump Distance = Distance - ((ship1's radius + ship2's radius) * 2) - (Ship1's current speed * 30). However, since we are jumping to a point, all you have to consider is ship1’s radius(your ship) and much more importantly ship1’s speed. The radius of your ship is mostly inconsequential to this, as even a dread only has a radius of ~20gu. A rough point jump estimate is simply placing a point (30*your speed) gu past the enemy ship. So for example, say you are in a destroyer trying to point jump an enemy ship and you are moving at 10gu/s. You would need to set a point (30*10) = 300gu past the enemy ship. Or adjusting for the radius of your destroyer : (5*2)+(30*10) = 310gu. Now there are a few extra considerations to take into account here. The enemy ship is also moving, so if you have a long jump time, you may need to compensate for their travel path and speed. You may also not want to jump point blank onto the opposing ship as core torpedos have an especially nasty splash. In this case just subtract, say, 100-150gu from the previous calculations.
*The tab button cycles your camera control when an enemy is selected. “Target” is extremely useful to (temporarily) free up a hand from the mouse while in combat. You could instead then use one hand to control your weapon groups (number keys) and another to control maneuvering (arrow keys). Of course you often want to switch back to manual camera control to survey the combat situation, and so your hand might be moving from keyboard to mouse pretty often.
*And yes, manually controlling your weapon groups is important. While the spacebar is tempting, it is usually not the best thing to press. I personally assign each unique weapon to its own group, and not just by type. So this means your beams and heavy beams and ELF beams get a different key, your cannons and your core cannons get a different key, and your torpedoes and core torpedoes and ELF torpedoes get a different key. Why? Because there are many situations when more fine control is important. Here are a few examples:
For beams:
- Situation :Enemy is shielded
• Fine control option: Fire light and heavy beams but not ELF beams
• Why: as ELF beams will not drain energy when they hit shields, it may be better to attempt to breach shielding with other weapons before firing the ELF beams as ELF beams have an extended cooldown. Or it may be better to use the ELF beams and their 50% bonus damage vs shields to help breach the enemy shielding. Either way you have options.
- Situation : enemy is 209gu away. The max range of your disruptors(k’luth light beams) is 210 gu. (this applies to any factions light/heavy beams, but the ranges used are from the k’luth beams)
• Fine Control Option: Fire your assault disruptors only.
• Why: The enemy can easily slip into 210gu+, wasting your disruptor shot and your energy. Assault disruptors which have a 300gu range will comfortably be able to fire off their entire duration (as long as the enemy doesn’t get out of arc, of course)
For torpedoes:
- Situation : enemy is shielded.
• Fine control option: Fire standard and core torpedoes, but not ELF torpedoes.
• Why: ELF torps, even with the 50% ELF bonus to shields do relatively little damage compared to a standard AM torpedo.
- Situation : You are very close to the enemy
• Fine control option: Fire regular torpedoes and ELF torpedoes, but not core torpedoes
• Why: Core torpedoes have a massive splash radius that will damage you as well as the enemy ship if you are close. Might be better to not use them in this situation.
Of course, timing your weapons is another huge advantage. For example, beams can be fired almost anytime when you are within range, but with torpedoes you may want to wait until the enemy gets closer, flies straight at you, or is turning towards you before firing to increase your chances of hitting.
Missiles and cannons are a little bit of a different situation. Some people swear by assigning each missile to a different key (or just right clicking on them sequentially) to fire off a steady stream of missiles. They claim it helps get past PD. But I don’t subscribe to this theory, and believe it actually makes getting past PD more difficult. Therefore, I prefer to fire off all of them at once. And since there is rarely a reason to have multiple types of missiles, 1 hotkey is all you need.
As for cannons, since they are usually used to attack smaller, more maneuverable ships assigning “sub-groups” to even the same weapon sometimes makes sense. So you might have 3 or 4 “fire groups” of regular cannons, and 1-4 “fire groups” of core cannons. Then you would fire them off sequentially in the hopes that some will hit the smaller ship. Of course if the small ship makes a mistake and flies straight at you, or gets too close then it is spacebar time.
Note: The staggered cannon strategy is also sometimes used for core torpedoes. Staggering core torpedoes will raise the chances of hitting a small ship with a core torpedo from laughable to very unlikely.
*While on the subject of hitting small ships with core torpedoes, let me introduce manual weapon detonation. Pressing Shift+Space will detonate all weapons you have fired wherever in space they may be. Caution: Shift+Space will also toggle your point defence Shift+hotkey will detonate all weapons assigned to that hotkey wherever they are. See, another reason for more precise hotkeys! Why would you do this? Three reasons:
1. Your weapons are about to hit a friend.
2. Your weapons are about to miss an enemy.
3. Someone just flew straight into your mine field.
Reason 2 is most significant in the realm of core torpedoes. Since they have that massive splash radius, you really only need to get them somewhere in the vicinity of ship to deal their area damage. So fire your core torpedoes at that small ship, wait until they are close, and manually detonate them.
*Light and Heavy beams can be used to PD just as well as PD beams. They just can’t be set to automatic. Of course using this strategy requires a Korean level of micro management, but the rare useful circumstance is that a heavy beam can sometimes be used to hit that one annoying fighter.
*Wormholes can be used offensively. Shift-wormhole hotkey opens a wormhole right in front of you. Fun times can be had if there is also an enemy ship there. Or you can target the end point of the wormhole in the middle of your heavily defended cluster for extra fun points. Just don’t send anyone into any celestial bodies as that is a violation of the rules. Anywhere else is fair game.
Hint: to avoid someone else doing this to you, orbit a planet, and do not move if someone wormholes you. You will “flash” between two locations but ultimately end up where you started.
A few more from Incinarator! Thanks!:
*When using a missile ship (especially as K'luth) having an enemy hide behind a planet or other obstacle does not mean that you can not hit them. If you fire at a point in space the missiles will curve around in large loops near that spot. If you position the point very carefully, you can hit enemy ships from around obstacles you would think were impossible. You probably won't kill them, but it's better than nothing.
*Likewise, when using fighters it is not impossible to hit an enemy hiding behind a planet. Instead of just sending your fighters out after them mindlessly, send them off to a point far behind and to the side of your enemy's cover. After the fighters pass by the cover, assign them to attack your enemy. This allows you to maneuver your fighters around, and they will continue to attack from whichever direction they come in towards your enemy from.
*When building a planet it is not always wise to leave enough technology for an invading enemy to rebuild an interdictor if they bombed it off in the course of capturing it. Using one cortex nexus or two subspace networks and offense 1 bases will keep you from losing damage because of the low tech, but will keep your enemies from immediately building an interdictor if they capture that planet. Conversely, if you successfully repel the invaders after they have destroyed your interdictor you will now have to either leave the planet with no interdictor or have to get the tech back high enough to build another one.
Some “Obvious” info some players do not know
* Ctrl-B activates your point defence vs enemy missiles and fighters.
* You have to turn off(right click) your engines before you can replace them at a planet.
* You have to turn off your shields (Ctrl+S) to replace them at a planet.
* Not all planets have metals (annoyingly), check in F3.
* There is no reason to not accept a group invite.
* Always carry infantry
* Weapon coolers do not do what you expect them to. You want weapon condensers to reduce weapon cooldown. Weapon coolers are (for the most part) worthless.
* You have to be within 500gu of a depot to get (most of) the repair effect of a planet. No, just being in orbit doesn’t count. Make sure you are within 500gu.
* Conversely, you don’t have to be within 250gu of a shipyard to use it. Being in orbit counts. Same for a starport. Same for loading troops.
* You have to have all 8 enhancement slots filled on your ship to send an enhancement to someone else.
* A cruiser with just ECM or ECCM is almost completely worthless. Yes that means you, people who fly the mirage and try to stealth a ganglia.
* Stay under 1000gu but over the max range of that factions core torpedoes (worst case scenario is ICC at ~750gu without range enchancements) when facing an enemy battle/line station, and the station cannot hit you.
* If I am in a stealth ship (strike cruiser/strike dread/naga/eclipse/etc etc) and you are not, please do not follow me.
* E selected the nearest enemy. R selects the nearest enemy. Ctrl-p selects the nearest starport. Ctrl-y selects the nearest shipyard. Ctrl-r selects the nearest depot. There are other hotkeys but these are the most useful.
* Typing /y before your message broadcasts to everyone. /t to just the person you are targeting.
* You can use the beta server the theorycraft. Every time you press “Update beta profile” on the left side of the DS website you get 20k credits in beta. And every ship is available to you regardless of rank or badges in beta. So test out ship and enhancement combinations there.
* Clicking on another constellation(server) in F2 will load all tactical data available to your faction from that constellation. So even if you see no enemies or friendly contacts in F2, you might not be alone. Click on every constellation first in F2. Also red flashing when you are spawning indicates a likely source of action.
* What constitutes a constellation? It is a group of systems that are separated from other system by a brown line instead of a blue one. For a better visualization of this, see http://www.darkspace.net/wiki/images/0/07/Cluster_map.jpg
* Some other complications constellations introduce:
* Moving between them resets your speed to 5, along with the status of some gadgets
* Moving between them causes more of a lag/delay than between blue gates.
* You cannot jump or wormhole between constellations. Systems within a constellation are fair game.
* AI cannot move between constellations
A few more from Incinarator! Thanks!:
*Using offense 1 bases is almost always better than using any other kind of base. Offense 2 bases only deal 1250 damage to the 1050 of offense 1, but cost double the workers, more power, and much more resources.
*Using anti-bombardment and defense bases are relatively pointless since they fail at both defending against ships and at protecting the planet. An enemy bomber will barely notice the PD these bases give.
*The PD% number on a planet is actually how much % of each bomb's damage is taken off when they hit. It has nothing to do with the damage output of the planet.
*ELF torpedoes are critically important for K'luth. Without them it is nearly impossible to use your cloak more than once in a fight. Changing all your standard torpedoes to ELF is often a wise decision.
*If you have adjusted your speed upwards or downwards, but your ship is not changing speed, simply press the s key. This tells your ship to stop turning and to accelerate to the speed that the bar is at.
*PFE drives give you more energy storage and production at the cost of speed. Conversely, AFE drives take energy storage and production, but give speed. K'luth AME drives are like AFE, but give even more speed.
*Just because you cannot see a platform or ship because of ECM does not mean you can't shoot it. Using the 'pointfire' function you can still hit ECMd and even cloaked targets. Simply hold down control and click where you think the enemy is, then fire.
*Interceptor fighters and support stations are amazingly good at defending from incoming enemy projectiles. These are two very useful tools that are often disregarded despite their power.
*Dreads and stations can turn around and return through wormholes that are made by other dreads and stations, including if they are forced through a hostile wormhole. They cannot turn fast enough to return through a cruiser's wormhole.
Some semi-obscure pieces of information from the dev log:
Visual Detection Changes
- Ships now become more easily visible through ECM as they move faster.
- Scouts
-- Visible at 20 gu when below 5 gu/sec
-- Visible at 140 gu when at full throttle
- Frigates
-- Visible at 60 gu when below 5 gu/sec
-- Visible at 360 gu when at full throttle
- Transports
-- Visible at 60 gu when below 5 gu/sec
-- Visible at 240 gu when at full throttle
- Engineers
-- Visible at 75 gu when below 5 gu/sec
-- Visible at 300 gu when at full throttle
- Supplies
-- Visible at 60 gu when below 5 gu/sec
-- Visible at 300 / 240 / 180 gu (T1 / T2 / T3) when at full throttle
- Destroyers
-- Visible at 90 gu when below 5 gu/sec
-- Visible at 450 gu when at full throttle
- Cruisers
-- Visible at 120 gu when below 5 gu/sec
-- Visible at 480 gu when at full throttle
- Dreadnoughts
-- Visible at 360 gu when below 5 gu/sec
-- Visible at 1080 gu when at full throttle
- Stations
-- Visible at 600 gu at all speeds
Planetary Research Changes
*Planets now gain Tech at a rate of 1 per update for every 10 Population, up from 1 for every 20 Pop.
*Planets now gain Tech proportional to the difference between current Tech level and current Research level; the greater the gap, the faster it rises.
Subscription Changes
- Subscribers now receive some additional perks in DarkSpace:
* 10% prestige boost.
* Their icon in the lobby now shows them wearing pants.
* They now have 12 ship slots instead of 8.
* They can use the /nameship command in-game to change the name of their ship.
* A badge is displayed next to their ship name in-game.
Fighters
* Fighters can now be issued a new target. Shift+hotkey (default N) with no target selected will return all fighters to your ship, whereas Shift+hotkey will issue all fighters a new target that they will immediately go for.
* Pressing Shift+hotkey on an ally will result in fighters circling very close to that ship. Interceptors will use a point-defense beam to fire at all incoming projectiles and fighters, while other fighters will just hold position.
*ALT+R will now target your ship so as to easier facilitate protect mode on fighters.
* Interceptors now have dedicated beams to use in fighter-to-fighter combat. They no longer have an anti-ship beam and are now purely anti-projectile fighters.
Effective tactics that are “unethical” or downright exploitative
Unfortunately, there are several very popular exploits that are very often used to gain some advantage which I probably cannot detail here without getting in some sort of trouble. It is unfortunate because these exploits are almost a part of standard gameplay and result in a disadvantage to those not in the know….
If anyone has any suggestions on a topic that may have slipped my mind, let me know.
And hell, who knows? Maybe even a 10+ year veteran will pick something up. Or will share something that I've never heard of.
[ This Message was edited by: Chewy Squirrel on 2014-07-24 15:45 ]
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Incinarator
Chief Marshal
Joined: May 24, 2010
Posts: 237
| Posted: 2014-07-24 05:18
Posting the contents of that file into your post here would make it easier to respond and add to it. That being said, here's some from me.
Advanced Tactics:
When using a missile ship (especially as K'luth) having an enemy hide behind a planet or other obstacle does not mean that you can not hit them. If you fire at a point in space the missiles will curve around in large loops near that spot. If you position the point very carefully, you can hit enemy ships from around obstacles you would think were impossible. You probably won't kill them, but it's better than nothing.
Likewise, when using fighters it is not impossible to hit an enemy hiding behind a planet. Instead of just sending your fighters out after them mindlessly, send them off to a point far behind and to the side of your enemy's cover. After the fighters pass by the cover, assign them to attack your enemy. This allows you to maneuver your fighters around, and they will continue to attack from whichever direction they come in towards your enemy from.
When building a planet it is not always wise to leave enough technology for an invading enemy to rebuild an interdictor if they bombed it off in the course of capturing it. Using one cortex nexus or two subspace networks and offense 1 bases will keep you from losing damage because of the low tech, but will keep your enemies from immediately building an interdictor if they capture that planet. Conversely, if you successfully repell the invaders after they have destroyed your interdictor you will now have to either leave the planet with no interdictor or have to get the tech back high enough to build another one.
Some 'Obvious' Information:
Using offense 1 bases is almost always better than using any other kind of base. Offense 2 bases only deal 1250 damage to the 1050 of offense 1, but cost double the workers, more power, and much more resources.
Using anti-bombardment and defense bases are relatively pointless since they fail at both defending against ships and at protecting the planet. An enemy bomber will barely notice the PD these bases give.
The PD% number on a planet is actually how much % of each bomb's damage is taken off when they hit. It has nothing to do with the damage output of the planet.
ELF torpedoes are critically important for K'luth. Without them it is nearly impossible to use your cloak more than once in a fight. Changing all your standard torpedoes to ELF is often a wise decision.
If you have adjusted your speed upwards or downwards, but your ship is not changing speed, simply press the s key. This tells your ship to stop turning and to accelerate to the speed that the bar is at.
PFE drives give you more energy storage and production at the cost of speed. Conversely, AFE drives take energy storage and production, but give speed. K'luth AME drives are like AFE, but give even more speed.
Just because you cannot see a platform or ship because of ECM does not mean you can't shoot it. Using the 'pointfire' function you can still hit ECMd and even cloaked targets. Simply hold down control and click where you think the enemy is, then fire.
Interceptor fighters and support stations are amazingly good at defending from incoming enemy projectiles. These are two very useful tools that are often disregarded despite their power.
Dreads and stations can turn around and return through wormholes that are made by other dreads and stations, including if they are forced through a hostile wormhole. They cannot turn fast enough to return through a cruiser's wormhole.
[ This Message was edited by: Incinarator on 2014-07-24 05:44 ]
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Chewy Squirrel
Chief Marshal
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 304
From: NYC
| Posted: 2014-07-24 06:10
Thanks Incinarator! I just spent some time trying to figure out what limited BBcode is supported here and converted it to a forum friendly format. Also, all great suggestions! Missile and fighter (...and building) tactics slipped my mind. I added your suggestions to the top post.
[ This Message was edited by: Chewy Squirrel on 2014-07-24 06:11 ]
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Incinarator
Chief Marshal
Joined: May 24, 2010
Posts: 237
| Posted: 2014-07-24 06:52
Some numbers to take note of. You also might consider adding a link to Jack's stat website in there. You might also consider adding in this link to my research on builds for the everpresent barren planets. http://imgur.com/a/lzxVA
Hull Hitpoint Values:
Scout: 35200
Frigate: 53500
Destroyer: 160,000
Cruiser: 406,400
Dread: 1,040,000
Station: 2,468,100
Defense Base Values:
PD 1: 350 damage, 4% PD
Def 1: 800 damage, 2% PD
Off 1: 1050 damage, 1% PD
PD 2: 350 damage, 6% PD
Def 2: 950 damage, 4% PD
Off 2: 1250 damage, 2% PD
MI: 450 damage, 5% PD
Also, another addition to the obvious column is that solar generators produce VASTLY more power in binary or higher order solar systems, and that they work best around the equator (the sixth row from the top) spread equally in a ring around the planet (normally with three empty spaces between them).
[ This Message was edited by: Incinarator on 2014-07-24 07:34 ]
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I be rebuilding your planets!
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Incinarator
Chief Marshal
Joined: May 24, 2010
Posts: 237
| Posted: 2014-07-31 17:18
An obvious one that I see ignored all too often....
-THE BEST WAY TO MAKE PRESTIEGE IS TO NOT DIE! PERIOD! DO NOT DO IT!
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Gekko-Go
Marshal
*Renegade Space Marines*
Joined: August 08, 2010
Posts: 20
| Posted: 2014-08-03 12:07
there are only 2 reasons not to join a group. The first reason is players switching factions to sabatoge. extremely rare and probably against the rules somewhere, but happens.
the second reason is if a player self-destructs their ship, which any player with any common sense should understand that you can do more damage if you just keep shooting until you die, and try to blow up over the enemy ship.
don't "follow" or "shadow" someone who is jumping. the jump glitch is not dead yet, and your ship might jump to their position 1-2 seconds after their jump...which will be a grand 2-300 gu away from where you started. the same goes for jumping out of interdictor fields...wait a few seconds after you clear the field, as sometimes your ship may not quite be clear(not sure if this is caused by lag, the hitbox of larger ships, or the field's geometry).
don't blindly enter a WH if you can help it. the other side is not exact. take 2 seconds and check the nav, or you risk slamming into a planet/sun.
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Incinarator
Chief Marshal
Joined: May 24, 2010
Posts: 237
| Posted: 2014-08-03 17:52
Quote:
On 2014-08-03 12:07, Gekko-Go wrote:
there are only 2 reasons not to join a group. The first reason is players switching factions to sabatoge. extremely rare and probably against the rules somewhere, but happens.
the second reason is if a player self-destructs their ship, which any player with any common sense should understand that you can do more damage if you just keep shooting until you die, and try to blow up over the enemy ship.
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First is not a good enough reason (not common enough), second was fixed a long time ago.
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Senti-Onikawa
Admiral
Joined: September 21, 2011
Posts: 37
| Posted: 2014-08-08 18:12
I've found the "shut off your shields before combat" thing to work really good. Alternatively, cycle your shields so your armor has time to recover, then turn off your shields. This helps to conserve energy and allows you to take more damage over time. Just as well, firing arcs are pretty easy to predict after the first couple shots. During combat, move as often as possible (making wide/sudden turns, etc) so when an opposing ship fires, it's more likely to miss because you've already adjusted your trajectory. The "no sheids YOLO" thing helps you with this.
I've used the "individual hotkleys" thing for a while now. Again, confirmed that it works. Actually, with except to cruisers/combat dreads, I've found anything with mines/missiles a lot more easier to handle BECAUSE they've been on a separate hotkey from my other weapons.
Another thing that I've found that works exceptionally well (as mentioned on post already) is the "single hotkey for shields". Balance shields last longer than focusing all shields and trying to divert them to that area.
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-xTc- ExisT
Chief Marshal
Army Of Darkness
Joined: March 20, 2010
Posts: 534
From: Red Lobster
| Posted: 2014-08-09 18:51
It is possible to build a terran planet with 100% PD. The result is a planet totally immune to any kind of bomibng, even asteroids! It even, surprisingly, deals very strong damage to enemy ships.
It is flawed, though, because the build doesnt have any room for any barracks, not even one, making it extremely vulnerbale to tranny rush.
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