Patherfinders--real Space Marines

[Shadow Reaper]

I've been watching a lot of Katie of late, just because she does such great narrative over her vids. I stumbled blindly onto her episodes with crews handling larger craft. Without any brutal military precision, her team handles Retalliators, Hammerheads and Carracks to deadly effect, and her crrew is just one of many being fielded by Skunk Works. They're having fun, but you can tell chit chat is minimal as they're all always working hard at their jobs. They know what they're doing all the time.

So color me surprised to find her take it up a notch training with the Pathfinders. If you've ever wondered what it costs in discipline to be truly effective--the guys who will certainly WIN against those who don't follow these disciplines--here you go. I'm not saying we need a group like this in TEST, but it would be awesome if we had the choice. Perhaps we do and I have just never seen the vid?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnxInh82Yyk

 

[Shadow Reaper]

More Katie--the Skunk Works training with another org, the Raccoons, using grav bikes to board ships from the stern of a Carrack. I think this would be done better with the smaller Nox and better still from the X1 force when it comes out. Makes me lament--we still don't know if the Nox will fit in the back of a Vanguard.

View: https://youtu.be/BuRQR3nSN94

 

[Harkonan]

I think a lot of TESTies plan to be part of coordinated groups ... some of it happens on Discord now.

The reason you don't see a lot of it now IMHO is because we're still in Alpha and so much of the mechanics are incomplete or subject to change. The more persistent and consequencial the Verse becomes, the more groups you'll see form.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I agree completely, and I know there are already some groups who play and train regularly at TEST. I haven't heard tell of any super tight "mil sim" groups.

The Skunks, Pathfinders and Raccoons are all interesting groups for the depth of their sim work that we can learn from--hence my posting here. Something else to mention about Katie, who runs a Skunk crew all from ED, where she was an Elite Commander.

She did a vid where her crew fought first from a Retaliator, and got their asses kicked because their one and only torp was shot down, and their HH target closed on them and damn near killed them. IMHO, that was sloppy Captaining due to lack of familiarity, and had they micro-jumped past their target (which they totally could have done--any experienced Captain and Navigator knows how long to micro to put yourself at optimal weapons range) to torp range they could have owned that battle. Instead they dwaddled for about 10 seconds while the HH closed and they only barely escaped. The HH shot the shit out of them before they jumped away. It was like they had no plan for the battle past launching the torp and despite they knew the instant it was shot down, they did NOTHING, while their enemy came for them. They jumped away and later came back with an HH and knocked out that opponent. After that they used a Carrack to kill an HH. Same crew in all three ships. I have little doubt there will be a vid of them crewing a Redeemer to great effect. It's the team that makes the team--not the ship.

What struck me in the vid was they referred to the Carrack as their command ship, for various reasons including the situational awareness it offers and the med bay. They use a Carrack for boarding missions because they can respawn on it. I also noted Katie noted they could put a second Pisces aboard (which they did) by docking it on top of the closed hangar bay doors. Apparently the doors will lock down whatever is on top of them.

This interests me and should all of us because the Carrack's singular weakness is no missiles--but it appears one could lock down a Ballista on top of the hangar (if you didn't need the hangar) and you would have all that firepower available to the Carrack. So to remind, if the Ballista willl lock on top of a Carrack and folks can find a simple way to get it up there and off again (no small task but doable), the Ballista adds an S2 turret with its own shield and power supply, a pair of S5 missile lanchers that hold 4 salvos and do 40k points damage together, and 2 S7 missiles that do 100k damage each. That is BIG TIME BOOOOM, especially when you note how much faster the Carrack is than the Tally.

Makes me want to play crew on an Ultra-Carrack, at least until the Polaris and Idris are in 'verse..

 

[Aramsolari]

Yeah I like Katie's stuff.

She's apparently a big deal over at the Elite Dangerous community and her dumping that game for Star Citizen is a major coup.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Epic tank battle:

View: https://youtu.be/jCRzuG8H8og?list=RDCMUCbcYPE10gBDIYzFyFX2WI7w


Given they have the connections to get in these battles, and we certainly have the players and equipment superior to them, maybe we should see what we can do for each other? How did they get that sort of "mission"?

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Yeah I like Katie's stuff.

She's apparently a big deal over at the Elite Dangerous community and her dumping that game for Star Citizen is a major coup.

I like that she's a real student. For an org leader to go train with other orgs takes some humility and is really excellent leadership. I think she singlehandedly brought the Skunks over from ED. There seems to be a lot of them, and combined with the Raccoons and Pathfinders, she has connected to a lot of players in a short period of time.

 

[Harkonan]

I like that she's a real student. For an org leader to go train with other orgs takes some humility and is really excellent leadership. I think she singlehandedly brought the Skunks over from ED. There seems to be a lot of them, and combined with the Raccoons and Pathfinders, she has connected to a lot of players in a short period of time.

From my experience ... the "RPish" groups who take things seriously and want to learn proficiency tend to be extremely formidable. Top notch communication and knowing your role goes alongggg way.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Mil Sim is especially formidable because they use the specialized jargon of real military groups. Specialized jargon and methods develop out of need, and enable super-enhanced communications. You'll note much of what they say to each other is only barely intelligable unless you have that training, but with the training they all always know what is going on.

I am trying not to gush over it because in times past I have been chastised here by all the folk who jump in and say "I don't want to work that hard" but of course, there's room for all sorts of play here.

I can tell you, I would not want to bump up against any of these three groups while playing a "relaxed" game. That just because I don't like having my ass handed to me. For myself, I want to learn enough to be super-prroficient at stealing ships. Terrestrial ops holds much less appeal for me, though I'd be interested in flying close air support. To do that right, best is use an Idris or something else with cap shields.

 

[Harkonan]

Coordinated boots on the ground gameplay could be SOOOO good in this game if they can get the framerates for server/client stable enough.

I almost would prefer some kind of automatic restricted access area for ships during bases defenses ... just so we could have some EPIC ground battles instead of ship cheese. lol

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Watch the tanks vid above. The frame rates seemed fine to me.

Here's another vid of the Carrack in ops, with Katie handing over her ship and crew to a new Captain--her last command of that ship as she moves on.

View: https://youtu.be/T7K0Y7SfNQE


Interesting point, that the new Captain doesn't know beforehand not to roll the ship, nor to orbit the target. (The Carrack needs to be nose in for all batteries to bear on a target. It therefore wants shields about 50% forward and 17% on all the others. This should all be preset. You should know what you plan to do before you enter battle.) You'd think that would have been in previous training.

Also, again I see no micro-jumping. I am always surprised at how few players recognize the value of the Q drive in battle. Instead, they're flying the Carrack like a fighter when it is not. I have seen extended vids of an Eclipse player who used the Q drive for micro-jumping over and over and over again. Just to be clear, if you choose a drive with an especially slow and efficient jump speed--like the Agni on the Carrack--you not only get fantastic range and duration. You also get enhanced precision in micro-jumps or jumps that you abandon mere seconds after starting that carry you across the battlefield instead of away from it. However, if you choose a Military Q drive, it will have just 3-4 seconds spool time instead of 20. The ability to micro-jump well is therefore a primary consideration in choice of a Q drive, and micro-jumping well takes practice. Personally all things considered, if I don't need the extended range, I would choose the military drive for quicker, more responsive jumps, and overclock it during battle, and during all practice for battle. (Overclocking the Q drive only reduces the spooling time, but the second or two this saves is time you can rotate to fire on your opponent.)

So for instance, say you're on a Tally and loose a torp only to have it shot down, and the HH you fired on predictably closes on you. You have about 10 seconds before it closes the gap and all those guns come to bear on you. If instead of trying to run through normal means (bad idea--the HH is faster than the Tally), you Quantum past your opponent and abort after just a few seconds, then turn and fire again from ideal range. You're behind them and this is disorienting to them. They saw your Q trail so they might not even check to see if you left the battlefield. They might assume you left, which means FREE SHOT! Large ships should not attack without a plan of how to use their Q drives in combat. They are certainly not just for escape.

Micro-jumping is the art of the Navigator. That person needs to know the precise spool up time of their Q drive, the stage 1 acceleration, the stage 2 acceleration, and have memorized typical jump times, for a 10 km jump, 20 km, etc. Navigators or pilots need to practice these things in advance of a battle. All large ships benefit from this, and even some small ships. If you're in an HH or Redeemer facing a Tally, you should be using the Q drive to jump right on top of them when they can't see you. Micro-jumping is the space equivalent of maneuver warfare--the art of defeating the enemy by incapacitating the enemy's decision making through shock and disruption. It is the central art of all modern war.