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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.

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Guides / A Complete Guide to the Mine Squid

« on: June 20, 2015, 11:02:50 pm »

El Muid: Super Secret OVW Files


DISCLAIMER: This build is seriously goofy and will result in lots of death, destruction (a lot of which will be your own), and hilarity. That being said, flying this ship is the most fun I have personally had in GoIO for a long time.


So what is El Muid anyways?


El Muid is taken from the historical figure El Cid, a midieval Spanish badass.  It is also a shortening of Mine Squid, and that is what we are talking about here (if you want to read more on El Cid, check out the Wikipedia page).
A mine squid is a squid with a mine launcher on it. Simple enough, right?  It is really quirky and fun to fly, and this guide is here to help you figure it out.



Step 1: Guns loadout

Slot 1: Mines

Obviously, since it is called a mine squid there are mines involved.  In fact, they are going to be the main armament of your squid, which means a mine launcher on the front, or side, or both.  The main thing to remember is that the velocities of the ship and the mine launcher add.  So mines on the side can reach more targets and share arcs with more guns, but it makes it far more challenging on your gunner.  Squids are highly mobile, so even if your gunner loses arcs on the front, it is usually easy to bring them back into arc.  So, usually I would suggest a mine launcher on the front (slot 1) and something else on the side (slot 2).

Slot 2: More Mines, Carronade, or Banshee/Mortar

More mines can be useful, but it is usually hard enough to maneuver with one mine launcher's worth of mines in your way. If you have two crack minelayers, you might want to consider it.

Carronades are fantastic companions to mines, because they restrict mobility (in this case balloons), making it much easier on your mine gunner, because hitting with mines is about predicting where the enemy will be.

Banshees and mortars pair well with mines because mines do a lot of piercing damage, and the explosive damage can make for the fastest kills in the game.  In particular, a single lochnagar mine can take a pyramidion's hull armour down in one hit and buffed greased banshee can kill before a single spanner rebuilds that hull armour. Mortar is more damaging than banshee, but the arcs are finicky and mortar is extremely difficult to shoot off the side of a fast-moving squid.

Slot 3: More Mines, Flare, or Whatever

The rear gun is mostly used in conjunction with tar, so mines (or whatever you want to put there with generous-ish sideways arcs) tend to work. Flares can light up the tar, which helps especially if your allies are sniper support ships.


Step 2: Crew Loadouts

I always take the same crew loadouts on this ship regardless of what guns go where.  Simply put, crew loadouts are as follows: Mine Gunner (Lesmok/Incendiary/Lochnagar), Main Engineer (Mallet/Spanner/Fire Tool), and Buffgineer (Wrench/Buffkit/Fire Tool).

Buffing focus is the balloon and engines, buffing the hull on a squid is useless and buffing the mine launcher doesn't actually help it.  Buffgineers also usually maintain the hull at range once the buffs are done.  The Buffgineer also shoots the side gun when the ship is not in danger, so have them bring an ammunition type that is useful for that gun.

Main Engineer takes care of the engines and balloon.  It is usually a good idea to have one engineer with a Fire Extinguisher and on with Chemspray for a balance of fire suppression and extinguishing power.

The mine gunner is the key to the whole enterprise of the mine squid.  Their job is simple: shoot mines.  There are several other fine guides on how to shoot mines on the forums, so I won't go into gory detail here.  Just remember one thing, that the velocity of the ship adds to the mine that you launch, so you can launch mines wayyyyy farther on a full speed squid than you can on a munker.



Step 3: Pilot Loadout

Tar. You need it. Lots of it, in fact.  Squids are fast, and highly maneuverable, so you can usually put that tar cloud right where an enemy ship is.  It is also really helpful when you are making a tactical retreat (running away), discouraging pursuit.

Kerosene/Moonshine.  These adds a lot of range onto your lesmok mines, making the mine launcher a solidly mid-range weapon.  This is especially true if you combine bursts of moonshine with stamina when the launcher fires.

Phoenix Claw/Hydrogen.  Claw is useful for tarring and turning the front launcher into arc quickly, and turning tight corners.  Hydrogen is useful for escaping bad situations, especially when you lose 2 or more engines and cannot dodge laterally.



Step 4: Flying the Mine Squid

This is really more of a loose guide, and while I mention a few specific cases, the general ideas behind it are more important than the examples.

Stealth and Speed: Play Your Strengths

This squid, like any squid, will never win a slugging match with another ship.  Every other ship in the game has more firepower, and is harder to kill to boot.  All hope is not lost, however.  The squid's secret weapons? Stealth and Speed. A full speed squid is virtually impossible to fully disable at range, and squids can go places other ships have a hard time reaching, as well as being harder to see due to the small silhouette.

Stick to clouds, stay in cover, and do everything in your power to not be seen by the enemy team until you engage.  This usually means you have to do some unorthodox approaches to fights, giving the main action a wide berth and sticking to the sides of the map. Another useful stealth tactic, especially in a squid, is to fly close to the ground where even small obstructions can hide you from prying enemy eyes.  Also try to conserve your stamina during this phase, as you will need it later.

(Three examples of these types of approaches are going around the far western edge of Northern Fjords, going west under the big rock in Red Sepulcher, and going west around the Leviathan in Dunes and cruising in on cloud cover.)

Now, once you have gotten to a direction your enemy isn't expecting you to come from, you have to strike fast.  Full throttle, moonshine/kerosene (save your stamina), and minelauncher going as fast as it can cycle. Pick a target, pull up to it and tell your buff engi to prepare the side gun and give your mine gunner a chance to drop a loch mine or two, then GET OUT regardless of whether you killed the enemy.

The getting out part is crucial because while squids have the second-most permahull in the game, you are still really squishy and those surprise mines you just launched have probably angered the opposing team, causing them to want to focus you down.  This is when you just go crazy with the stamina, the tar, and all the piloting abilities. You might want the gunner to camp the hull if they don't have targets, otherwise more mines are usually best just for sowing additional chaos amongst the enemy.

Which brings me to the last point, which is this: your purpose in life as a mine squid is to harrass, disable, and generally confusticate the enemy team while your team kills things.  If you can stay alive long enough to trade two kills for your death, then you have done your job.  If you feel you are going to have to carry the team and you desparately care about winning, this isn't the ship for you.  If you like mines and tar, this is absolutely the ship for you, and you should at least give it a go.



Practice!
As with any ship, this one takes practice, especially for the combination of gunner and pilot, because of the way that the velocities of the mine projectile and the ship combine, it takes a while for the gunner to get a feel for how the pilot flies, and it takes a while for the pilot to get a feel for how the gunner shoots.

A Note on Counters:
You can try to fight a hwachafish with this, but unless you have a VERY good mine gunner, I would not recommend it. Most other ships in the game can be at least stalemated with varying difficulties, hwacha galleons are probably the second most annoying after hwachafish.

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Feedback and Suggestions / Piloting recommended loadouts

« on: May 22, 2015, 01:45:02 pm »

I want to recommend myself a loadout, because I am bad and forget to set loadouts for myself.