[JTL] ARC-170 Multiplayer Ship Guide

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psikobunny wrote preNGE:

The ARC is a strange beast, that's for certain. With the proper mindset, it can be a mammoth force to be reckoned with, but it requires a lot of out of the box thinking. Let's begin by talking about what the ARC is not, because to use one effectively you have to handle it far differently than any other ship out there.

What the ARC is not suited for:

1on1 dogfighting- Trying to solo in the ARC isn't easy and while it can be done, its certainly not the best use.

PvP- further discussion in this thread and some thinking from ardent PvPers may prove me wrong, but I don't ever see this ship being a PvP force to be reckoned with, at least until the Cap Ship rumors pan out.

What the ARC is suited for:

PvE missions- note I said missions. There are some very specific reasons for that when we get into tactics later, but going out with a crew and hunting at a grinding spot probably won't work that well.

Gunboat Hunting- Accepted fact that a ship with turrets can make any gunboat look stupid. The ARC improves on this as it has two turrets and is far more agile than an MP ship.

Rethinking Piloting:

The key to success in the ARC is to radically adjust what your job is as a pilot. Even though you have a gun, missile control, and are in an agile fighter, what you are really there for is to line things up for your gunners. It's a team effort, and when you learn to focus on your flying and let the gunners handle the shooting, you will be surprised ar your results. Flying solo is a mix between maneuver and aim. When you don't have to worry about aiming, that frees your mind to concentrate on maneuver and good tactial position. Think of yourself as a combination pilot/Ops officer, and you will do well. Good spatial awareness is key, you need to maximize the amoount of time both guns can shoot your target, and that requires the ability to fly backwards at times (see below under hints)

Loading the Ship:

There are two keys to a good ARC. An engine that will make you faster than any NPC out there, and 2 good guns for your turrets. In fact I'd even go so far as to remove the pilot gun to give added space for tailguns. Since the tactics I elaborate later dont allow for much defensive skimping, I think two L8 guns for the tail, possibly an 8 and a 10, are the sort of firepower you'd want.

The chase is on:

The basic theory behind my use of the ARC is getting the foe to chase you. This is why I recommended and engine that exceeds all NPCs, and why I recommend mission use over spawn hunting. Mission ships will keep after you, and spawns will eventually break for home, in most cases. To put it simply, once an NPC is chasing you, he's not looping, diving, or trying to get in firing position. This makes them essentially a sitting duck for your gunners. As a pilot, you need to perform the reverse of the gunboat trailing move. Exceed the speed of your pursuit until you're out of firing range na dhave clear space in front of you. Target the closest, and match speed, then bleed it off until you are about 500-550m ahead of them. Once you're practiced this will be fairly simple, but with the defensive measures I describe later, even if they're shooting you, it won't be too hazardous. Make sure you track which ships your gunners are hitting, and repeat the move to get the next one in range as each is destroyed. You can fly in a straight line, but I tend to recommend long flat circles, to keep you from running out of space.

Defense:

Finally a Rebel droid program comes in handy! Your job as pilot, once you have the foes chasing you and in range, is to keep the ship flying. Using CtSS is recommended, but due to the nature of your tactics, I also recommend getting Rebel Shield Reinforcement Rear- Heavy or Extreme. This program can kick a reward shield up over 4k on the back, which is where 95% of your hits will come from. Couple this with a hefty sheet of plating on yout tail, and you end up with far better effective protection than normally.

Gunboats, Corvettes, etc.:

You will cry over how easy it become to take out your average gunboat in an ARC. The pilot maintains position underneath the ship, matching speed or feathering the throttle and twisting to account for turns. He is rolled on his side so that both guns have a clean shot at the gunboat. If the pilot has a gun, then the Corvettes can be just as easy. remove wpn5 on the initial pass, then let the gunners shoot at the trailing gunboats, or the shields, or whatever the target of choice is. Pilots can use missiles at will, and if you're a single ship, then taking the escort simple becomes a matter of leading them off, and shooting as they chase, just as I described above.

Things I haven't tried yet:

Even with an inexperienced crew, most of the things I described above should be pretty easy. So what else is there? I have had thoughts and ideas about ARCs and the new rash of Tier5 duties, as well as really tough missions like Lord Cssyc. If the Chasing technique works as well as my tests lead me to believe, then Those really tough missions just got easier, give it some thought.

Conclusion:

The ARC is a specialty ship. It's a different sort of gunboat killer than a Bwing, and has the advantage of a useful method of taking out other fighters. It's a joy to fly with gunners, and once you get a bit of practice at it, I'm sure you'll see that too. Enjoy!

Gilack Mehoipou [bloodfin]

Quintuple Master- Marksman/Squad Leader/Rifleman/Vortex Pilot/Politician

Made it before all hell broke loose.

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"I've made a few special modifications myself." -Han Solo

If you're going to successfully use the ARC-170 in PvP, you're going to need to upgrade your gear. In the ARC moreso than other ships, you're going to have to be on top of your game to survive because you'll often be anticipating other ships shooting at you as your gunner plugs away at them.

Power

Modified Mark V fusion reactor-commonly referred to as a "Mustafar reactor" because the schematic is granted as a quest reward there, the Modified Mark V works well for beginning ARC-170 setups. When you're hitting the high end of an ARC-170 loadout and trying to run all level 4 overloads, your Mustafar reactor ain't gonna cut it.

Kuat Systems Engineering RCT-Z Reactor-one of two high-end generation reactors that drops, the RCT-Z is a loot item. Its stats have been recorded from 0 generation all the way up to the 50000 range. 30000 or more generation is generally considered more than enough for ARC-170s; try to reverse-engineer it with a low-mass level 8 reactor that will get it below 20000 mass post-RE. Anything below 22k is fairly good, though. With good REed gear, 25000 generation may be enough; it all depends on how good your REs are.

Slayn & Korpil "Vortex" Mk III Reactor-the more rare of the two high-end generation reactors that drops, the Vortex has the same generation rate range as the RCT-Z. However, it drops as a L7 reactor, and is one of the most desired loot items in space. Generally, under 12k mass is an "acceptable" post-RE mass; "great" REs are in the 10k range. Legendary masses would be less than 10k and may require selling your soul to acquire. An aspiring ARC-170 crew should ultimately aim for a Vortex Mk III RE as the reactor in his or her ship. That extra mass will be invaluable later on when you're cramming every bit of gear into that 125k mass that you can.

For a capacitor, you're going to very much use whatever you can fit in at the end. While a L6 is optimal for that nice 50+ recharge with 1500 energy (or more realistically, 48 recharge with 1250 energy), your end-use ARC will probably have to do with less. A well-made L4 REed cap can make 43+ recharge with 1100+ energy, or even an L2 cap with around 1000 energy and 40 recharge can be enough if the crew's careful of its limitations.

Defenses

A simple chaff launcher is a necessity for protection against missiles. Don't bother with higher-end chaff.

Your armor and shields are going to vary by setup. You don't have the mass of, say, the advanced X-wing to load up with those beautiful 2555 f/b shields and 2k f/b fibertech armor slabs.

My personal ARC varies between a 2.2k f/b protecto-net and a 2.5k f/b reward shield, depending on the firepower I'm cramming in. That reward shield is nice for the abuse it can take, but a good L7 can almost take the same amount of abuse.

Underneath the shields, you should minimally have REed level 5 armor plates with around 1k protection. Even better would be REed level 6 reward pieces granting 1320 protection. You're going to be limited by the rest of your loadout, though.

Engine

If you're going to fly this ship with a crew, you're going to have to choose between a mark V crafted engine and a QID-based level 8 RE. The crafted engine will allow you greater control over engagements when you have pursuers; however, you're not going to want to outrun your pursuers completely if you have a gunner.

I prefer a QID base in my 170. It gives me very good speed to let my gunner have space to shoot, while it grants me agility to be versatile enough to hang with interceptors in a turn fight. It's the best of both worlds.

Offenses

For a crew, you're looking at two or three guns. A lot of this choice will depend on how many people you want in your ARC, and how much mass you have to spare elsewhere:

Level 7-Not a lot of punch, but quick refire and relatively lightweight mass. If your gunner is a bit sloppy, the quicker refire will allow them to spray a bit-although that will quickly drain your capacitor.

Level 8-Massing substantially more than the L7, a good hit or two from a Borstel or Tri-cannon will send most foes packing. With only 13.4 energy/shot, your cap will stand up much better in combat-even if it's only a L2 or L4. The trick is squeezing them into a tight spaceframe.

Two guns versus three guns

As one of the few people who is experimenting with one of these, I can say I don't see it as practical to use all three gun slots on the ARC-170. The fields of fire for the gunners don't overlap much, and two level 7 cannons-which would probably be the choice for gunners-would quickly drain the capacitor off. By using only one tail gun, the pilot is better able to work with his gunner on setting targets up.

I personally recommend going with one pilot and one gunner, but feel free to experiment.

Missiles

An ARC-170 has two general choices for effective missile use.

Mark II Image-Recording Missiles-the quickest lock for the least damage, IR2s are fairly easy to use in combat. With a very limited magazine, however, it's easy to quickly run out of warheads in combat. They won't be one-hit killing any targets (unless you're fortunate enough to hit the aft end of a front-adjusted interceptor), but they're enough to damage a target's defenses or cripple it if it's already taken a hit.

Mark III Proton Missiles-massing the same as an IR2 launcher, mark III protons will have a much bigger magazine and pack more punch-but are harder to lock. They are a fairly common missile to use in PvP, and with a lucky damage roll, may pierce shields, armor, and hit a vital component. These are often the best choice for beginning pilots, and veteran pilots often prefer them for that heavier hitting power and larger magazine.

Droid Commands

In general, no matter what the loadout is, the ARC-170 needs to run RO4/EO4/CO4/WO3 to be considered high-end PvP-capable. More optimally, you'll need to run WO4, as it is essentially a one-gun ship.

Weapon Overload 3 v Weapon Overload 4

While some people consider it no debate, there are times when running WO3 is advantageous. If you find yourself running short on capacitor power early on in engagements, you might want to consider sticking with WO3; on the other hand, if you're hitting your targets but not doing enough damage to break through shields and armor, you should consider WO4. It is a personal preference choice; experiment with both.

In general, especially if you're using an L7 cannon, most pilots will prefer WO4. Every bit of punch helps when you're running on single guns.

Shield Adjusts

Adjusting shields on an ARC-170 is a tricky concept. Ideally, the ARC crew is equally comfortable engaging targets in straight-up turn fights or by strafing passes and picking off pursuers. Judge your experiences; if you seldom take a frontal hit, consider adjusting your shields aft to give yourself an extra second for the gunner to blow someone off your tail.

While using a gunner, I recommend never adjusting your shields forward.

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Introduction

Superiority Interceptors. It's an odd mix between potent Superiority Fighters and Interceptors. They have the generous mass of a Superiority Fighter along with the big hitbox. They have the speed mods and the handling of Interceptors, along with the limit of only one gun.

This category includes the Vaksai and the SP configuration of the ARC-170. Though the mass the speed mods vary slightly, they still work in much the same way. They are both easy for a new player to outfit. As one's RE Stock matures, these two fighters can be converted into potent combat machines. To paint a picture, imagine a big sumo wrestler figureskating.

The mass on these fighters make them versatile. You can outfit them for Fighter Jousting, Dogfighting, POB Killing, or just about anything in between. Most of that will be explained later.

Strengths

You have firepower at your disposal. Your ideal enemy is a superiority fighter or a big bomber. Both these fighters have a nasty wide laser fire, so focus your fire on the afore mentioned fighters with the big hitboxes. Ideal targets include TIE Bombers, TIE Oppressors, Xwings, Ywings, anything in the Freelance Tree, KSE Firesprays, and my favorite: other superiority interceptors. I'll cover POB ships later.

Weaknesses

Fighters with small hitboxes are your worst nightmare. If you can't make your fighter dance on ice, RGIs and Awings will pick you apart with RE Borstels on WO4. You MUST fly evasively at all times. Learning to aim while flying evasive is the key to mitigating this weakness, and can be used to a degree of success.

Starting out - Once you master pilot, you are free to start working on your loadout. For someone who lacks any RE gear, it is possible to make a simple crafted loadout.

+ MkV crafted engine with MkV overdriver

+ MkV crafted blaster (alternatively, a Borstel Disruptor or Incom "Tricanon" will work too.)

+ MkIV crafted shield with MkIV intensifier

+ Mustafarian ModV reactor (also crafted)

+ MkII crafted capacitor or whatever you can fit.RE2 or RE4 will also work.

+ Any droid interface you can fit. Nothing higher than cert 7. MkIII crafted is a good bet, giving the best bang for your buck.

+ User the rest of your mass for armor and your T2 L4 reward booster.

+ Don't forget the chaff launcher!

You'll want to use reactor overload 4 and capacitor overcharge 4. Once you get to engines and weapons, it gets a bit more complicated. You'll eventually want to run level 4 overloads on both, but your reactor won't allow it yet; energy drains on crafted engines and guns is way over the top. You may be able to get away with running EO4. If your lucky, you may even be able to upgrade your gun from overload 3 to overload 4. Even if your reactor can manage to foot the power for WO4, your capacitor won't be able to keep up with the modded EPS on the gun.... At least not yet

Message edited by CommTampers on 02/15/2007 08:31:48.

02/14/2007 11:08:38 Subject: Vaksai/ARC-170 Superiority Interceptors PvP Guide

CommTampers

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Joined: Jan 18, 2005

Messages: 3419

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Improving your loadout (RE Guide)

There are several critical steps to upgrading from the Crafted Noob Loadout. Two initial options are available.

Starter Engine - One option is the engine. Your best step is switching to a RE8 engine. You can either borrow one or follow my instructions. First, do your starmap quest. If it fails to give you a Quantum Ion Drive in the mid 90s or better, then look for one on the bazaar search. Ideally, you'll have one that is 95+ pre-RE. Next step: find a Hoar Chal Military Grade Engine. It has the best hitpoints available for level 8 engines. It is the reward for any freelance squadron's exit mission. If you aren't freelance, either grind it or bum one off a guildie. Now that you've taken care of top speed and hitpoints, this leaves you with Mass, Power Drain, and Pitch, Yaw, and Roll to take care of. Use a combination of loot farming and bazaar hunting to find what you need. For reactor drain, hold onto anything below 1600. Drains can go down to the low 1300s, but you won't be using this engine for too long. Mass can range down into the low 20k range, but ~25k to 26k should suit your purpose. Nolvadex X9 engines are known for good mass among L8 engines. For PYR, look for 70-72. These values can range upwards of 76, but this is only a temporary engine. Finishing this engine is the best way to cut your reactor drain right away.

Super Reactor - The other primary option is finding a reactor to boot the energy pulled by a boatload of crafted parts on Overload 4. You have less stats to look for, but the generation rate will be very hard to find. RE8 reactors can be pulled off for this job. Kuat Systems Engineering RCT-Z Reactors can drop with very high generation rates. Anything in the 20k range should suit your needs. You stow away anything with generation in the mid30k range or greater. Hold onto anything 27k mass or lower. 23k and lower should be saved for ones with the Uber gen. rates. Look for other KSE reactors, plus the Incom Mark 5 Reactor and the Mandalmotors DXR-6 Reactor for mass stats. Once you take care of generation and mass, go the extra mile and pick up a Republic Sienar Systems Military Grade Reactor. It is the reward for the T4 exit mission in any Imperial squadron. It has 911 hitpoints, a great safeguard against anyone who targets reactors. You can also throw a Mandalmotors DXR-6 reactor. It is RE8 but cert 6, allowing you to use it at an earlier cert.

Alternatively, there is the Slayn & Korpil Vortex Mk3 Reactor. It is RE7. The generation rates are similar to the Kuat RCT-Z, but you can use lower masses. Should you be lucky enough to find one of these rare loot drops, use it with one 13k mass or lower. Save any uber generation rates for 10k or lower mass, since chances are that any high gen drop of this reactor is a 'once in a lifetime' drop, at least with my luck.

The Reward Shield - The next step to moving your loadout toward varsity grade is preparing a good shield. While some people can make level 7 shields work by farming for protecto-nets again and again, RE8 shields are a much better bet for Superiority Interceptors. All squadrons, regardless of faction, grant the pilot a reward shield during Tier 4. They provide 2443 points before REing, but after the RE they provide 2555.2 hitpoints of front/back protection. For a starter shield like the one you want to use, hang onto anything under 30k mass and 2k power drain. You can build a better one later; you can get more reward shields by grinding another squadron. Recharge isn't as important, but hang onto anything 13 and up. As you farm for more parts, you can continually build better versions.

Reward Booster RE - Another cheap way to squeeze more performance from your fighter is to RE your Level 4 reward booster, the one with 49 recharge and ~1900 energy. L4 boosters drop often and will make your job easy. The reward booster covers the stats for hitpoints, energy, recharge rate, acceleration, and sometimes mass, though it is possible to find a rare loot with better mass. The only two stats that you have to look for would be consumption rate and top speed. Hold onto anything below 157 consumption and anything 25 speed and up. Be sure to check Paladon's Booster Graphics Guide to make sure you don't throw a bugged booster into the tool first. A safe bet would be to throw in a reward booster first. Completing an RE booster will give you a tad extra speed plus a lot of extra burn time, though crafted boosters are a better option if you opt for high speed boosters.

RE Armor:

Improving armor is important to improving your protection. Publish 27's removal of PvP decay in space has gone a long way in allowing RE armor in PvP. For a Superiority Interceptor, cert levels 6 and 8 are the best options. Here's why:

RE8 armor protections are easy as pie to find. Nym's Starmap quest grants Fibretech Plates for completing the first lag of the quest. The protection will RE to approximately 2k. For mass, use anything in the 13k mass range or better. On rare occasions, they drop with mass under 10k, but dream on.

RE6 plates are the other most viable option. Though your protection will be a bit less, you only have to pay half the mass of RE8 plates. Look for the following for 1269 protection pre-RE: Tier 3, 4th mission: Kuat Systems Engineering Handcrafted Durasteel Plating (freelance) or Tier 3, 1st mission: Corellian Engineering Corp. Triplate Armor (rebel). For mass, use a plate with mass around 6k.

RE6 and RE8 aren't the only options; they are just the easiest to assemble. Level 7 plates can provide decent protection: ~1400s protection and ~7k mass. L9 and 10 plates will drop an insanely low mass plate, but only during some blue moons. For those strapped for mass, a quality RE5 plate is a good idea. They can be done with 1100 protection and 5000 mass, though I looted one with 2k mass. Anything less than 1k of protection is suicide in such a fighter with an enormous hitbox.

Your entry level RE8 engine might suit your style well, but it won't suit everyone's. The other two options are the speedcrafted MkV engine and a L10 RE. I'll get more into styles of flying them later, but this is how to RE them. The MkV is crafted. Conductivity is bugged, but a shipwright using the 30k Veteran Reward Resource Packs can pull off the 120 speed cap. Expect to pay lots of money, like seven figures. As for the L10 engine, you will need to dedicate a lot of time to building it. You will want to use drain as low as possible, but <1400 is a good starting point. Shoot for 42k mass, preRE. You should shoot for pitch, yaw, and roll to be 80+, or else it won't be worth the extra mass compared to a L8 engine. For top speed, shoot for the mid 90s. I've seen upper 90s, but they are EXTREMELY hard to find. Shoot for 800+ armor/hitpoints postRE.

The Big F***ing Gun - A good RE10 gun is vital to Vaksais and ARC-170s. Two guns are most vital to the project: Corellian Beamrail Guass Canon and the Hoershe & Kessel Modified Elite "Scorcher." The CBGC sometimes drops with decent mass, high min & max damage, and/or high vs. shields. The Hoershe is the ONLY gun that drops with vs. armor .7xx range. It also has a great vs. shields rating, but the Armek Elite does too. Look for min damage stats around 2.7k and max around 4.6k. Look for .40X refire rate or lower, since you're shooting for .38 or better, post RE. It is possible to find guns with Energy Per Shot below 30 before the RE, but shoot for low 30s on your first gun. For your first gun, shoot for an energy drain under 2000.

Message edited by CommTampers on 02/15/2007 08:36:27.

02/14/2007 11:09:04 Subject: Re:Vaksai/ARC-170 Superiority Interceptors Flight Guide

CommTampers

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Joined: Jan 18, 2005

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Flying

Note: The line between turnfighting and speed-fighting capabilities will be blurred when Chapter 5 hits. Some trends may change. The new engines may be able to switch back and forth between turnfighting and jousting. After a few weeks of post-Chapter 5 PvP, this guide may need to be changed.

Getting Started: You'll want all of your droid overloads to be level 4. That includes Reactor OL, Capacitor OL, Engine OL, and Weapon OL. Don't worry about your capacitor, Capacitor OL doesn't have a drain penalty, though that is no excuse to neglect that stat when REing your final capacitor. If your reactor can't handle the EO4 drain of a MkV crafted engine, then use a RE8 or 10 engine. If your reactor can't handle the RE engine, then get back farming, nub. You will also want to run weapon overload 4. Since these two fighters are allotted only one gun slot, you'll want to squeeze the most damage possible from it. Don't waste your mass on a crafted gun; their damage is paltry, since they have weak vs. mods. Use an RE 10 gun no matter which style you fly. If you don't have a RE10 gun, then use a RE9 gun. If you don't have an RE 9 gun, then use an RE 8 gun. If you don't have an RE 8 gun, just throw in your raw Borstel Disruptor or Incom "Tricanon" and hope your reactor can handle its drain on WO4.

Style 1 - Turn Fighing

This style works for engines with ~73+ PYR. Essentially, you'll want an RE8 or RE10 engine. It can be pulled off with a MkV Crafted Engine with experiment points dumped into pitch and yaw, MkVs are better off in jousting setups. It is also good to have a good booster: either RE4 with good burn time or a crafted with good speed.

To get started, you must get a feel for how your fighter handles. Get a feel for the slide, acceleration and the PYR stalls. Your first objective is learning to fly defensively. You have pitch, yaw, and roll. Be sure to use all three at the same time, all the time. When you turn, be sure to turn on a diagonal acceleration. Remember the Pythagorean theorem: pitch squared plus yaw squared equals the hypotenuse squared. In short, you'll turn harder on diagonal vectors. This leads me to my next point, stalling. If you hold one turn turn direction for too long, your speed will drop, leaving you easier to pick off by an RGI or Advanced Xwing. To avoid this, keep a continuous roll and keep altering your turn direction with it. Add in the random jerk in a random direction. From the bogie's point of view, you'll be jumping around erratically and he/she will have a hard time hitting you.

This style of flying can be dizzying, so it is important to be spatially aware. With a continuous roll, it is very easy to loose sight of your enemy, so be aware of the target pointer on the perimeter of your screen, but avoid that by keeping the bogie in your sights at all times. This technique is very hard to master, so be patient. For the actual aiming, refer to Warstory's guide.

Pros to turn-fighting:

Flying evasively can make you very hard to hit.

A great choice if you managed to pull off a L10 engine RE that hits the 2.1 radians PYR with EO4.

Great for duels and one-on-one encounters

Cons to turn-fighting:

Vulnerable to missile-fire

Must be extra careful when engaging multiple opponents. A turn-fighter paired with a jouster wing-mate can put you in your place.

RGIs and Awings can make your life a living hell.

Style 2 - Speed-fighting (Jousting)

Ideally, you'll have a MkV Crafted engine near the 120 speed cap. This could also be pulled off with a 110+ speed QID RE. If you are lucky enough to get a fast QID, you will be able to avoid the weaknesses that a typical jousting setup has and alternate your styles with turn-fighting. Since a speed-crafted engine will pull approximately 24000 energy on EO4, you WILL need a high generation reactor. A good booster is also a must. Shoot for a crafted booster just fast enough to bring your speed over 2000. Once it has enough speed, experiment on consumption rate for a longer burn time. MkII and MkIII boosters are both good choices. Only use a MkIV booster when it doesn't pull mass from other, more important components in your fighter.

The first part of jousting is the opening pass. IT IS NOT THAT SIMPLE! If you fly in a straight line and adjusting only to keep your enemy in you reticule, the next place you'll find yourself is at the station, meaning YOU'RE DEAD. Instead, a relatively easy evasion technique would be the corkscrew. During the head-on pass, maintain a roll. As you near within 1000 meters of the bogie, begin a combination of pitch and yaw, with the yaw vector in the opposite direction of your yaw. This alone will make you hard to hit. Add in some erratic jerks in random directions to increase your enemy's difficulty in hitting you. On top of that, you can utilize your chassis's sliding ability to keep your reticule on the enemy while shifting from side to side and evading. I've been able keep my reticule on my enemy while evading the bogie's opening fire.

Be careful; guns aren't your only enemy on that opening pass: a TIE Oppressor with tri-linked missile tubes will kick you back to the landing station. Missile locks from the opponent are a nasty danger of jousting. Sure, all TIE Oppressors, Firesprays, and Ywing LPs will carry them. Though most other fighters are limited to one tube, they can still be dangerous. A successful MkIV proton missile hit on WO4 is enough to kill your fighter in a single hit. There are several ways to counter a missile hit in the joust. The simplest way would be to boost through the pass to limit the time they have to get a lock on you. Another way is to carry your own missiles. If you can squeeze off a missile first, they'll have to chaff it, giving a perfect distraction. That way, you can save your own chaffs. If worst comes to worst, you can still use your chaffs. The drawbacks are still unnerving to not avoiding a missile lock. Lag can let the missile(s) hit you before you even get an alarm for it and get a chance to chaff it. On top of that, TIE Oppressors will hurl three missiles at you. Good luck trying to chaff all three when they won't release the missiles until you are VERY close in the pass.

Once you pass the enemy, provided you averted dying to the bogie's guns or missiles, you have two options. The first option is to keep going at full speed until you are far enough to turn around and repeat the process. The other option is to pull a hard turn and try to pick off the bogie from behind. If the enemy tries to out-run you, you still have the upper hand. If the bogie is a turn-fighter, things could get a little dicey. Don't let the "mini turn-fight" go any longer than 10 to 15 seconds. If it goes too long, your adversary will out-turn you and put some holes in your fighter. If it starts to get dicey, use your booster and get out of there.

In team play, speed fighting gives a more tactical advantage to helping out your wingmates. When friendly turn-fighters are keeping enemies tied up, you can use hit-and-fade maneuvers to knock them out. As a speed fighter, you also have an advantage in chasing down POB ships. If you do plan to take on POBs, however, be sure not to do it alone. Some POB captains enlist the services of highly skilled gunners. Be sure to have other friendly fighters draw the gunner fire.

Pros to Jousting and speed-fighting:

Control the pace of the fight

Great survivability

Ideal engine for flying with a wing-pair

Easy to chase down POBs.

Fastest ship in game

Really annoys whoever tries to chase you down

Cons to Jousting and speed-fighting:

Watch out for B-wings, Advanced Xwings, and Firesprays. Their wicked spread can swat you out of the sky.

You must learn to hate B-wings with a passion!!!

Other Vaksais and ARC-170s are both your strength and your weakness.

Closing Notes I

Even if you choose to strictly turn-fight, you will still need to learn the tricks of jousting, and vise versa. If you turn-fight, you *will* need to learn to counter-joust the jousters. If you joust and speed-fight, you will inevitably run into a speedfighter that is as fast as you; you wil have to turn around and engage them and outfly them. The bottom line is: Be Flexable.

Closing Notes II

This guide is based on my and others' experiences with this fighter class. What I see as the best way to use the Vaksai and ARC-170 might be different from someone else's view. On top of that, PvP trends are always changing and vary from server to server. 8 months ago on Starsider, it was considered suicide to fly with a speed-crafted engine instead of a high-PYR RE8 or RE10 engine. Since then, PYR-based engines were rendered obsolete by increasing hit-and-fade tactics. While I try to keep this guide as modern as possible, trends will continue to change. If they do, feel free to post here so I can keep this guide updated.

Closing Notes III

Could this be applied to the TIE/Aggressor? A lot of the themes expressed in this guide are pretty universal as far as PvP goes. Yes, I suppose they could be applied to the aggie. Consider the differences though. The TIE/Aggressor has a little less than half the responsiveness possessed by the ARC/Vak. The speed mod is .95, slower than the .97/1.0 mod possessed by the other two chassies. On the other hand, it has a very small hitbox, second only to the JSF, a.k.a. the Flying Fetus. Unlike the other two fighters, the aggie has a tight centered gun line, much easier to aim with than the wide graphical spread on the ARC or Vaksai. If I ever do go imp, you can be sure I'll expand on it SMILEY

Message edited by CommTampers on 02/15/2007 08:48:24.

02/14/2007 11:09:22 Subject: Re:Vaksai/ARC-170 Superiority Interceptors Flight Guide

CommTampers

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Joined: Jan 18, 2005

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Location: Minnesota

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Some Post Chapter 5 Update Notes

Chapter 5 introduced some new parts to Space PvP, the main being two new engine subcomponents. The important one allows MkV engines to hit 117 speed yet retain decent PYR. A quality shipwright with good resources, an entertainer buff, and a suit can put together some insanely good engines. Picture 117, 77 pitch, 75 yaw, and 69 roll all in one engine. With this engine availible, you can bet X-wing pilots, and Oppie pilots, would gladly give up 3 points of speed (from the 120 speed standard overdriven engines) to gain a generous boost in PYR. In fact, this was enough to convince a year-long vaksai pilot (me) to switch to an x-wing. These new engines allow them both PYR and high speed in the same package. Here's some advice for the Vaksai pilot:

Don't joust x-wings! Then again, that's always been true, but now they can adjust easier. I can't count how many people thought they could joust an xwing. Just an easy way to go boom.

Your higher responsiveness no longer guarantees superiority in a turn-fight. An xwing will have an easier time spraying you with fire; an Oppressor will have an easier time getting a tri-IR2 missile lock on you. Be sure to lay out some supression-fire, while remaining evasive. When it gets too dicey, use your superior speed mod and boost out.

Important with both points 1 and 2: Evade like mad! This has always been true, but now even other speedballs will have an easier time getting a beat on you.

On the other side, these new engines are easy to throw into a vaksai or ARC-170 just as well. This enhances the turn-fight prong of the two-prong approach of flying SIs: alternate jousts and turnfights. Just remember to keep your turnfights short and to boost when you run into trouble.