Mercury Cult - Now on Live! Go Fly!

[Talonsbane]

What??? The guys shouted: "Contacts!!!!" I turned a bit and a huge Avenger was in front of me, very close. I just had to pull the trigger. Not a single bullet missed

Such talent. The only way that I can shoot at a ship & not miss is if I'm inside that ship. Even then it's a coin flip if I'll hit the ship before shooting myself accidentally.

 

[marcsand2]

Such talent. The only way that I can shoot at a ship & not miss is if I'm inside that ship. Even then it's a coin flip if I'll hit the ship before shooting myself accidentally.

There is a reason why I love the overclocked gatling guns as fixed weapons

In-game description

The Mantis GT-220 is a hydraulically-driven Gatling-type rotary cannon designed to deliver smaller rounds at a very high rate of fire. The Mantis is designed to shred armor on very fast targets, sacrificing power for absolute saturation of the target area.

Mantis GT-220 Gatling - Star Citizen Wiki

The Gallenson Tactical Systems Mantis GT-220 Gatling is a size 3 vehicle ballistic gatling. It is a part of the GT-series hydraulically-driven Gatling-type rotary...

starcitizen.tools

 

[Black Sunder]

I don't know what kind of weapons I want to put on my MSRs, got any suggestions @marcsand2 ?

 

[marcsand2]

You don't want to get into dogfighting, soo some decent cannons, preferable ballistic? And the C-788 isn't an option. I tried that. Point blank seeing the shells hit didn't do shit. That was a long fight against a CS2 target.

 

[Black Sunder]

You don't want to get into dogfighting, soo some decent cannons, preferable ballistic? And the C-788 isn't an option. I tried that. Point blank seeing the shells hit didn't do shit. That was a long fight against a CS2 target.

What about gattlings?

 

[Blind Owl]

Y'all need some help. Get your Test A****s into the PU and explode with the rest of us. @marcsand2 is pretty good at ensuring that happens!

Edit: (Even if it was just a gank as I came out of QT... ;)

Hahaha, IIRC @marcsand2 is good at making everyone explode. I'll be leaning on flight ops to learn how to fly and fight soon enough I reckon.

 

[Ayeteeone]

What about gattlings?

A couple of thoughts on this..

What will work 'best' will ultimately depend on two things. The first is the handling of the ship. If the handling is crisp and quick enough to track smaller fighters, then Gatlings (or other repeaters) could be the best choice as they do superior damage over time. If the handling is NOT fast enough to track a close fighter (Freelancers barely get there) then Cannons would be indicated, as they can deliver a lot of damage as you make a crossing/timed shot. Reading into this, the target is as much a part of the equation as the MSR.

An example - I fly my 315p with fixed GT-220's. Against small stuff like Bucc's, there are misses, but the hits quickly eat them. For anything larger than a single seat fighter it becomes a no-brainer as that ship has no problem keeping it's guns on anything even slightly larger than itself.

The second is controls/playstyle. This one is harder to quantify on a DPS table, and really comes down to how well YOU as the pilot can control the ship+weapons combination. Fixed work well but take quite a bit of practice.. gimbals (even since the last balance pass) do an excellent job of making up that error between your ship position and the target. They can also allow a slower handling ship to apply much more pain to a smaller one. Anyone who doubts that has never been on the business end of a MIS. (ANY Freelancer. Stay out the front!!)

The MSR looks to have 2 size 3 hardpoints under pilot control. For the size of ship this is not a lot of power to project, so aggressive piloting will probably be the answer, and a reliance on crew. The two turrets come in underwhelming as well; CIG has not positioned this as a combat ship.

However - with a crew, or eventually NPC's/blades, there isn't anything small to medium that can stand up long to those six guns pouring fire. And in concept the coverage for those turrets is superb.. there do not appear to be any blind spots in the design.

I am expecting this ship to become my new daily driver so have put a lot of thought into how it will need to fight and thus the length of this post. Component choices and handling are the two areas that are still grey, so we will see.

@Black Sunder None of this is stuff you don't already know, but hopefully others will find the thought process useful.

 

[Cugino83]

The MSR looks to have 2 size 3 hardpoints under pilot control. For the size of ship this is not a lot of power to project, so aggressive piloting will probably be the answer, and a reliance on crew. The two turrets come in underwhelming as well; CIG has not positioned this as a combat ship.

I'm probably wrong but or may be they update the specs during the development of the ship but the MSR should sport:
- 2 2xS2 turret
- 2xS2 on a custom turret for the pilot (something like the Mustang have), not removable.

So yes, defenetly not something you'll want to find yourself dogfighting.

That say, I second @Ayeteeone on his consideration about agility and manuvrability, but for my dayly setup I think I'll stick with a full Attrition setup: overclocked they can deliver wuite a punch in a short time, have mid range (2km) and don't have to warry about ammo, so even in case of a prolonge fight with some small pirate I should't have any problem.
I'll also set the MSR with cluster missile: those are great for take down shiled and in conjuntion with the attrition should ease some combat...

That sayed the best weapon for danger zones will be a full stealth setup and weapon turned OFF to minimize the EM signature (even if the Attrition doesn't add that much to it compared to the other energy weapon).

 

[Gambit]

Is there any other medium ship whose turrets can cover 360 on each hemisphere of the ship?

If you guys played X-wing Alliance (of course many of you did), putting auto fire on turrets and keeping the target on your "equatorial" line would make both of them fire any time while you made the effort to stay on target. So I am really hoping for this, although it surely even worth it for 2 extra players - it must be able to blade them

 

[marcsand2]

What about gattlings?

Gatlings are good for dogfight, close range. Like Ayeteeone noticed, if you step in front of them, hasta la vista. They also are very good if you want too saturate the whole area with lead, 24 S4 gatlings on a Hammerhead do wonders.

But then again the Hammerhead can take some beating, so I doesn't matter if you get close. The Mercury doesn't excel in getting a beating. It also won't have that much turrets so you can't saturate the whole space around it with lead.

In that case I would equip the main guns with long range cannons. Maybe a few turrets with Gatling's against fighters.

I don't know how much hardpoints it has. I will see when it comes out. It has some, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. You can't play the game and earn a decent living with only shooting around

 

[marcsand2]

Hahaha, IIRC @marcsand2 is good at making everyone explode. I'll be leaving on flight ops to learn how to fly and fight soon enough I reckon.

nope, not everyone. There are guys that put up a good fight and win, after 15 minutes fighting. There are also guys that look at me and I explode after a few seconds.

I personally like the 15 minute fights more. Don't go down before every part of the ship is red. Left wing red? don't worry, I also have a right wing. Flip 180 and continue. There the challenge is to stay close in the danger zone, but make it as hard as possible for the other guy to win. Eventually he will win, but he has to work for it, and hard.

 

[Blind Owl]

nope, not everyone. There are guys that put up a good fight and win, after 15 minutes fighting. There are also guys that look at me and I explode after a few seconds.

I personally like the 15 minute fights more. Don't go down before every part of the ship is red. Left wing red? don't worry, I also have a right wing. Flip 180 and continue. There the challenge is to stay close in the danger zone, but make it as hard as possible for the other guy to win. Eventually he will win, but he has to work for it, and hard.

I have so much to learn sensei!

 

[marcsand2]

I have so much to learn sensei!

First lesson: survivability.
Zoom and boom is a very annoying tactic for a dogfighter, but it keeps you alive. You stay much longer a target. If your attacker switches to another target, you can sneak up behind him.
[EDIT]
Ah yeah, once you are the last man standing, there is no other target to switch to. The best counter against zoom and boom is to wait until the target comes back, then concentrate all fire on him. He will fly into the bullets

 

[Blind Owl]

First lesson: survivability.
Zoom and boom is a very annoying tactic for a dogfighter, but it keeps you alive. You stay much longer a target. If your attacker switches to another target, you can sneak up behind him.
[EDIT]
Ah yeah, once you are the last man standing, there is no other target to switch to. The best counter against zoom and boom is to wait until the target comes back, then concentrate all fire on him. He will fly into the bullets

Sounds like sound advice! I'm gear up to start playing. I've waited long enough, lol. Soon!

 

[Black Sunder]

Well if the goal is to throw out as much firepower as possible to discourage people, then Gattlings seem to be the option to go with. They would halso have lower EM/IR sigs then laser weapons which would help it sneak away.

 

[Cugino83]

Well if the goal is to throw out as much firepower as possible to discourage people, then Gattlings seem to be the option to go with. They would halso have lower EM/IR sigs then laser weapons which would help it sneak away.

That depend on the attacher weapons, ship and in general the actual combat situation.
Gatlings relay on the quantity of lead you put on target to do damage, if the attacker hass a good ship, with good shields and some high alpha damage (alpha damage means single shot damage btw...) it could probably sustain your few hits while lending you some big punch... in the end the one who'll go down will be you, since even with few hit sustained the damage taken is far more.

Remember that combat is ALWAYS a matter of situations, the tactics that works in one case is not garanteed to work on other, that's why experience is a valuable asset: it provide you the knowlage to evaluate the actual situation and momentum and take action accordingly.
All the data and math mumbo-jambo are wortless if you can use in the right way and in the proper situation.

 

[Cugino83]

Just 6 task to go right now... and then the MSR will go into polishing....almost there...

 

[BUTUZ]

Ooh I am excite! I better start playing SC again!!!

 

[Black Sunder]

Steady Gentlemen, we're.....

 

[Black Sunder]

We're weeks away now from the MSR. REJOICE!

PEACE THROUGH FUNCTION!
THE TECHNOLOGY OF CRUSADER!