Messages

1

Gameplay / Re: Spire Engineers

« on: June 20, 2016, 02:37:56 pm »

It depends on the build.  The Spire I typically run has a Lumberjack and light flak downstairs and a hades and artemis/flare/minelauncher upstairs.  The fourth gun slot is mainly used as support, with one engineer being gungineer and shooting hades pretty much all the time, and the other engineer shooting the 4th gun some of the time, and repairing most of the time.  The gunner swaps between LJ and light flak depending on the status of the enemy ship.  Once they get inside your arming time, you are pretty much stuck to trying to evade and tanking anyways and most of the time you are dead if that happens.

2

Q&A / Re: What's new?

« on: June 01, 2016, 01:52:22 pm »

Hwacha got buffed incredibly, CoF tightened considerably to compensate for nerfing heavy clip.  Effectively, burst is now a solid mid-range ammo type in hwacha.

The hwatcha got a significant nerf with projectile speed reduction.

Not so much a nerf as a skill increase, if you can lead it still works out to mid range.

3

Guides / Re: Mobula Guide for Control Freaks

« on: May 01, 2016, 02:21:47 am »

In the case of a charging pyra, it is actually a totally viable move to bring the hull engi top deck to shoot the gat.  Gatling and Merc should be able to do major damage to a pyramidion's armor before it hits you.  The carronade is more to make sure that the pyramidion can't follow your dodge because their balloon is damaged just enough to where you can slip under or over them.  That being said, even if said pyramidion loses armor before impact, they can still murder you against a wall if your back is there so be really careful (especially on canyons).

4

Guides / Mobula Guide for Control Freaks

« on: April 30, 2016, 05:43:56 pm »

Mobula Guide for Control Freaks

DISCLAIMER: This is not a meta mobula guide.  This is a guide about turning the most versatile ship in the game into a control ship. The only way this build works is if all members of your crew are paying attention and know what they are doing.

This is an advanced guide for one of my favorite ships in the game, the Mobula.  Why control?  Because it is a different playstyle to the current meta and is more interesting and nuanced in my opinion, hence this guide.

Step One: Loadouts

Guns
1: L. Carronade
2: Artemis
3: Mercury
4: Artemis/Banshee
5: Gatling

Crew
Pilot: Kero,Hydro,Drogue
Gunner: Heatsink,Charged,Greased;Wrench
Engineer 1: Mallet,Spanner,Chemspray;Burst (Hull Side)
Engineer 2: Mallet,Spanner,Chemspray;Greased/Burst (Balloon Side)

Step Two: Crew Assignments

The secret to unlocking the potential of the control mobula is flexibility in the crew postion and assignments.  It is for this reason this is an advanced guide; don't expect to go into a match with uncommunicative pubby crews and live.
What does that even mean?
Basically, it means that all members of your crew will be jumping from gun to gun to repairing fairly constantly, and as captain, you will need to make decisions that will seem strange and counterintuitive to your crew at times.  The advantage of this build is flexibility, as you can have many, many different viable combinations of damage types and ranges depending on positioning. A few examples include:

Merc/Art/Art (Long range disable/kill assist)
Gat/Art/Art (Close range disable/kill)
Gat/Carro/Art (Close range disable/balloon pop/hullstrip)
Art/Carro/Art (Close range disable/balloon pop)
Merc/Carro/Art (Very situational, but worth mentioning)

Each of these combinations are very viable for certain situations, and the key to success is recognizing the right tool for the job and telling your crew to get on the right guns.
You may notice that artemis is always a part of these combinations.  This is because the hull side engineer only is looking after a downstairs artemis, hull, and portside engine.  This is mostly to keep the damage to permahull low in sniping situations, although it helps when you get rammed as well.
Why Mercury?
The mercury field gun is the most powerful alpha-damage shatter weapon in the game.  Even with heatsink, which has the lowest damage per shot of the ammo types used (but three shots per clip), can disable heavy guns in a single shot.  It also has high damage against armor, and while it is a trade-off that the damage per second is low due to reload, it can still strip armor easily on lightly armored ships such as fish and squid.
Also, the gunner doesn't have to sit on it all the time.  About half the time, the gunner will be using the gatling.

Step Three: How to Fly

The first thing you need to know about flying this build is that it is really unique.  You have to be careful about altitude especially, as it is crucial to keep even with your targets when using the merc, and above targets when using the gat.  It is very important to tell your crew what you are about to do, so they get to the correct guns.
So obviously, you have to know when each combination works well.  This is where plain old experience and experimentation come into play.  Some engagements are obvious, like when a galleon is sitting at range, you want to simply disable his guns and hull with the merc/art combinations; others are not so simple.  Charging goldfish can be confusing as to the best way to deal with them, for example.  My personal favorite is to have the hull engineer camp hull for rams, the balloon engineer on the carronade to drop them, and the gunner on the merc to take the gun out.  Fly even with the fish until they start firing and have your gunner shoot the mercury one or two shots, then try to dodge the ram with hydro while the carronade scratches the fish's balloon.  As soon as you hydro, the gunner needs to go to the gatling to keep up pressure on the hull.  It helps if you turn the port side forward so all guns can maintain arc when doing this.  This sort of maneuver works on pretty much all charging ships except squids.  Long range mobulas you need to charge so you can carronade down their balloon, same with long range junkers.  While doing this, your merc gunner probably should be using heatsink to maximize the chance that the enemy ship is going to disable you with its own guns.  Basically, if it is a short range ship, try to disable it at long range and if it is a long range ship force it to engage at short range.  With proper coordination the mercury and the artemis are all-range weapons and you can leverage that fact.
The second thing you need to know about flying this build is how to dodge.  You can stall long range fire by randomly cycling between hydrogen and drogue chute, suddenly changing altitude and suddenly stopping.  This maneuver will tend to throw off even good gunners for a few shots, which could be what you need to get into cover.  If you have drogue chute, you don't have to worry about the balloon death as much as well because even if you trade balloon kills, a mobula with drogue chute will still fall slower than most other ships without it.

Counters

Squids.  A decent squid pilot will get behind you and stay there.  Not too much you can do once that happens except call for allied help.  If your ally is off somewhere else, you are probably dead.
Hwachas.  More of a soft counter, at range a hwacha can take out most of your gun options in a single barrage, which is not good.

5

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Player-suggested tips

« on: March 05, 2016, 08:18:36 pm »

My contribution, although I lumped pilot and captain together because they should NEVER be differentiated roles.

General Tips:

1. Voice Chat: If you have a microphone, use it!
2. In lobbies, X broadcasts to the whole lobby, C for your team
3. In matches, X broadcasts to your ship, C between captains on the same team

Captain/Pilot:

1. Stay with your ally as much as you can; most ships cannot survive alone
2. When you die and need to respawn, try to respawn as far from the enemy ships as possible to avoid ambush
3. Be careful when using hydrogen, the effect lasts after you deactivate it
4. You will get the most performance out of your ship by combining stamina and pilot tools
5. If you want your crew to do something, tell them

Engineer:

1. Start by carrying a Mallet, a Spanner, and a Fire Extinguisher
2. You will almost never need two fire tools
3. Both Mallet/Pipewrench and Spanner/Pipewrench are poor combinations

TIps on How to Get Buff
4. If you take a buff kit, most pilots get the most use out of buffed balloon and turning engines
5. Prebuffing means leaving something with one hit left until fully buffed
6. When you spawn in, buff and then prebuff the entire ship if you have time
7. Gun buffs don't last long, so wait until you are ready to shoot until topping off the buff

Gunner:
1. Know your ammo types, and why your captain wanted you to use them
2. Know what guns should be pointed at what parts
3. Use the right ammo for the range the enemy is at
4. Shoot guns at flying airships until they go boom

6

Dev App Testing / Re: "When Ambush Comes to Shove" - Week 2 is being tested this weekend! (change log)

« on: March 05, 2016, 07:17:46 pm »

Lochnagar Shot reduced clip size reduction to -60% from reduction to 1 shot, reduced damage increase from 62.5% from 125%, reduced rotation speed reduction to -70% from -90%, changed damage to gun model so that is deals proportional damage per shot until gun is destroyed e.g. if gun has 2 shots then each shot deals 50% damage vs a gun that has 4 shots were each shot deals 25% damage—to ensure that Lochnagar has use cases after Heavy Flak changes.

But muh Loch mines!   

Spire reduced turn acceleration to 10d/s2 (from 15), reduced top turn speed to 8d/s from 12—to make it easier for other ships to flank the Spire.

Not really sure this is necessary, Spires seem to be in a decent spot right now, and probably don't need to be nerfed.

Squid back gun turn inwards (towards right side of ship) 40 degrees from 0—to make it easier for less experienced players to use the Squid in normal play.
Squid increased forward/backward acceleration to 8m/s2 (from 6.66)—to make it easier for the Squid to change position and react effectively in close range combat.

Definitely not my favorite adjustment.  Squids are one of the few ships in the game that have a relatively high skill ceiling and these changes seemed entirely focused on lowering that, by making an already fast ship faster and much easier to get bifecta on.

7

Guides / Re: A Complete Guide to the Mine Squid

« on: October 27, 2015, 04:38:33 pm »

I actually have recently switched to running carronade on the side, as it is far easier to use than the mines, and using ramming and loch mines for permahull damage.  Still loads of fun, even if it can be more of a gamble...

8

The Lounge / Re: The first Clan that you joined?

« on: July 23, 2015, 02:53:38 am »

I joined for mines, I stayed for mines.

<3 mines

9

Q&A / Re: Learning to Pilot

« on: July 23, 2015, 02:42:36 am »

To go back to your original question, just try different things.  I found the best way to learn to fly was to actually crew on some very experienced captains' ships and just payed attention to what they did. But here are a few general tips for those interested in breaking into flying.

> Start off with your pilot tools as Kerosene, Phoenix Claw, and Hydrogen. Use your crew for spotting.
> Start with Goldfish, Junker, or Squid with wide-arc guns (gatlings, banshees, flamethrowers, artemi, carronades, or flares)
> Canyon Ambush and Firnfeld are the two easiest maps to learn flying on because the terrain is mild but there is still decent cover

> As a pilot, you have 2 jobs: Job 1, point guns at enemy; Job 2, avoid getting killed.  Everything you do is to accomplish one of these two things.

Now of course there is all the other stuff that goes along with piloting, like crew loadouts and communication. Basically, have recommended loadouts ready or you will end up with very strange things.  Communicate with your crew and allied captain.  You don't have to rebind your keys that much, but I suggest changing map to something more convenient (I use MMB).

10

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Canyon Ambush Map Size

« on: July 23, 2015, 02:21:59 am »

In my experience, camping your spawn is the slowest way to lose a match on canyons.  There just simply are very few places you can sit at and snipe against a smart, aggressive enemy where you can be effective before they are in your face, killing you.  It is true that in competitive you can use the timer to your advantage but ultimately it is not a winning strategy.

Also I thing that the current state of small maps where it is easy to spawncamp is just fine, especially since they chopped your spawn options in half for Duel at Dawn.

11

General Discussion / Re: What Your Favorite Ship Says About You as a Player

« on: July 23, 2015, 01:58:45 am »

EDIT: These are all my pilot ones, and definitely not things I have said in-game.... >_>

Pyramidion:

"I regret this decision...."


Spire:

"The best defense is a good offense, so why aren't we all shooting?"


Goldfish:

"Ram ALL the things!"
alt. "What do you mean, 'too close for Lumberjack?'"


Junker:

"Everybody loves mines, right? Right......"


Galleon:

"I definitely did not leave the throttle on full while I repaired the balloon."


Mobula:

"Place front towards enemy."


Squid:

"I hope I have a good crew, cause I just took about 3/4 of our permahull out on terrain...."
alt. "TAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR"; "Just Keep Swimming"; "We don't need hull, we need more speed; fix the engines!"

12

General Discussion / Re: GOI usb custom controller

« on: June 27, 2015, 09:22:56 pm »

Are you an engineer perchance Trolly? This is easily the coolest thing I have seen posted here.  I used to have horrible issues with turning, raising, map, and multiple voice channels before I got my new laptop so everyone who pilots on lower-quality machines understands the problems you are solving, and I think you have solved quite admirably.



Ignore Ceresbane's ("Maximillian Jazzhand") negative comments, everyone else does.

13

The Lounge / Re: Explain your Username!

« on: June 27, 2015, 09:03:13 pm »

VomAct is a family name that comes up in several of Cordwainer Smith's short stories (if you haven't read any Cordwainer Smith, I highly recommend it).  Characters that carry the name include the last leader of a cybernetically disenhanced race, a malevolent scientist, and three ruthless and despotic sisters that found the largest and longest lasting government in the history of mankind.

I also took my other main online name from another of his stories, this time from a personality scanned into an electronic form, the Lady Panc Ashash.

14

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Another MM rant (concerning 3v3)

« on: June 26, 2015, 01:51:33 pm »

An idea for you is to create a 3v3 lobby yourself, invite whoever, then open to matchmaking.  Usually it will fill fairly quickly unless you get stuck with a single captain slot empty or something like that.  Often, I get rematched into a clone of my last game as well, last night I had 5 consecutive matches with the same allies and enemies, none of which were actually voted rematch.

15

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: to think pyra is even more sluggish than this now

« on: June 26, 2015, 01:47:23 pm »

Pyras do need a forward acceleration buff, that much is clear.

However, that being said, I personally am grateful for this current meta of not taking pyramidions because it opens a lot more options for tactics and loadouts as opposed to matches with 4 metamidions and silly dps wars.  This is because those matches were boring for the most part.  Now, because of the added options introduced by stamina and the fact that there is no longer a clearly dominant strategy (metamidion + hades/flak pyramidion) the game is a far more interesting and vibrant experience.

Pyramidion is not a bad ship per se in its current state, it just no longer holds the monopoly on tanking, ramming, firepower, and speed.  It has been reduced from the clear best ship in the game to slightly less useful than the rest of the ships.  It is a solid jack-of-all-trades, master of none, but it isn't massively underpowered as Ceresbane suggests.  What the spire and squid buffs did, along with the pyramidion nerf, was make the game more balanced.

I stopped taking pyramidions after the nerf not because they sucked, but because I was so sick of flying pyras that anything else was an improvement.  All Muse did was make the other ships viable.  They did, of course, probably over-nerf the pyra, but restoring it to its former glory is definitely not the answer.  Perhaps an acceleration buff and a top speed buff, but the permahull is perfectly fine in my opinion.