Author Topic: Urges of a Goldfish Pilot  (Read 10299 times)

Offline Indreams

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Urges of a Goldfish Pilot
« on: December 29, 2014, 03:27:12 am »
In my opinion, Goldfish is a good ship for a pilot. Wide view of the surroundings, commanding view of the deck, and completely detached from the scurrying crew.

But the Goldfish has one problem for the pilot. It's very tempting to jump off the helm to repair hull or man guns, but it's very hard to get back on helm.

But the urge! The drive! The enemy ship is right in the flame arc. No engineer is repairing the hull. That gunner is shooting that gun without repairing it first. The urge! The jumpy feeling on the legs!

Does anybody else feel the same piloting a Goldfish?
« Last Edit: December 29, 2014, 03:29:24 am by Indreams »

Offline Crafeksterty

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Re: Urges of a Goldfish Pilot
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2014, 06:26:42 am »
Yupp, but thus is why you need to make it super important for the engineer whos responsibility is the hull to be fully aware of the hull at all times. You cannot do it, you rely on the crew. Make sure it is clear.

Offline nanoduckling

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Re: Urges of a Goldfish Pilot
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2014, 07:34:13 am »
Depends on the situation. If we can and need to move the ship then I trust my crew, no point captain tanking if the guns cannot shoot (unless it is a capture point map). If we cannot move the ship the way we need to or we need the front gun rebuilt or we don't need to move the ship then I will jump down, often letting the engineer know to prioritize something else (typically the front gun if in arc and down or the engines so when I'm back on the helm I can be useful again). I've even jumped on side guns before when in a 2v1 because the engines were too damaged to use shine, the engineers were busy, the front gun had arc on one enemy and there was another on a left carronade. Set the controls to 'get the heck out of dodge', jump down and balloon pop so you can disengage. Point is sometimes, but rarely, giving in to that urge is the right tactical decision.

If none of this applies then I trust my crew, even if they are new. I'd rather let my crew learn than try (and fail) to compensate on my own. So long as they don't repeatedly make the same mistake over and over I don't care if folks mess up on our ship. The way to make me grumpy is to not listen, not to do things badly. And a pilot with a spanner and some random ammo type cannot compensate for an inexperienced engineer or gunner anyway.

For me the worst temptation on a fish is to take one when it isn't necessarily appropriate because of the command advantages. If your ally is communicative but inexperienced and your gunner good there are few ships which free you up to help your ally like a lumberfish, especially against good opposition. As you say the pilot has a good field of view, has limited utility to the engineers (occasional balloon rebuilds and very occasional hull rebuilds), good view of your crew and an easy to maintain arc on the main gun. It is also pretty fast allowing you to pick ranges and positioning, all things you can use to compensate for your allies inexperience so long as they approximately implement a plan with you. Since it is an easy ship to do all these things in you can devote time to talking to your ally and helping them if they run into problems.

The temptation part comes in when you bring a goldfish in the hope that your ally communicates because the opposition is strong and you end up without any raw killing power. Your ally doesn't communicate so you've freed up pilot resources for little more than jabbering frustrated into a mic, they don't know what they are doing so they don't kill anything and they die, repeatedly. You just cannot kill the enemy as fast as your ally dies. None of the standard fish builds are fast killers, and the best for this kind of communicative role (the lumberfish) is the slowest of the bunch. Closest is a hwachafish but even it has a three step process (disable, strip, kill) for killing versus most DPS ships two step (strip, kill), and it is more demanding on the pilot as you swing back and forth to the gat, you cannot be baby sitting your ally while doing that.

I've made this mistake on a couple of occasions now where I've known after the fact better pilots and captains would bring say a brawling spire. Sure you make the match more dependent on the skill of you and your crew, but polite captains who appreciate their crew and try to provide them fun matches get good crews even if they are mediocre pilots. It works in part because your ally acts as a tempting distraction while you do your thing. The enemy knows a frontal assault on you will be hard so the try to focus down your ally and you just kill one of them with the spires massive firepower.

Offline Arturo Sanchez

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Re: Urges of a Goldfish Pilot
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2014, 07:54:08 am »
nop-never even occurred to me.

Because by the time I'm down I'm locked on the hull as the enemy continues to shoot a stationary target.

I'm on balloon or main engines only and rarely since most times I'm dead super fast as my crew can't handle 1 freakin flamer and telling my blender fish to "not fly so close".


Or I got AI crew that calmly deals with everything and I'm focused on training my gunner and implanting the importance of his gunning being the life and death of the ship.

So I might not be down there but I am definitely squashing my crew with my overwhelming pressure.

Offline Omniraptor

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Re: Urges of a Goldfish Pilot
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2014, 01:22:41 pm »
I sometimes hop off to rebuild the balloon, especially if the runaround engi is busy downstairs. But that's the only use-case.

Offline HamsterIV

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Re: Urges of a Goldfish Pilot
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2014, 11:25:01 am »
You can do more to ensure the survival of a goldfish from the helm than being an extra deck hand. Galleons and Pyras are too slow to dodge and have so many guns that an extra deck hand can turn the tide in some situations. The goldfish not so much. If your crew is under performing no amount of running about the deck is going to save you, so you might as well accept your fate.

Offline Sammy B. T.

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Re: Urges of a Goldfish Pilot
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2014, 05:46:24 pm »
Maybe if you're a lumberfish thats only backpedaling?

As Hamster said, dodging from the helm is far better than being stationary while helping to repair. As with all shis, you can't really repair your way out of a problem. You either need to kill/defeat the enemy, or get out of there. The best repairs are just a slower death.

Offline Dutch Vanya

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Re: Urges of a Goldfish Pilot
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2014, 05:59:40 pm »
No point in flying the second most maneuverable ship if you aren't going to maneuver!