The Glade 4.0

Capture the Core really highlights to me how shitty the radar ball is. It helps me not at all in determining how close/far my teammates are, where the cores are, etc.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Agreed

I noticed that the RADAR was fundamentally useless on my Aurora in my first attempt at a Swarm game.

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I've had no problem using the radar.

I have no idea at all how to fire missiles on my 300i though.

I can see them there, I can't seem to get to them to activate them in the weapons console. I only have left right and middle on my mouse so I can't seem to use my default. Middle clicking my mouse for the lock doens't change a damn thing on my screen.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Should be middle click, I think. The enemy ship has to be selected as your target (with the HUD ring collapsed and settled around it) and it has to be pretty close to the middle of your screen. First middle click should lock, causing another ring to collapse around it, and then you can fire.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I have no idea what "selected as your target" means let alone HUD ring collapsed and settled around it.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Okay, I'm gonna post the video I had handy (in that it was on one of the threads I was perusing on the SC forums already) as a point of reference since the guy uses said features pretty consistently.



Okay. So when I say "selected as your target" I mean you've hit your target enemy hotkey and have the wireframe of the enemy ship you're trying to launch a missile at in the orange upper right HUD display area.

The HUD ring collapsed and settled is the orange ring you see around what he's shooting at. That shows which ship you've targeted. The collapsed part refers to the way it animates in when you first target it -- it starts with a big ring that kind of revolves around it for a second or two while your computer hones in on the target (this will probably be expanded on later, when modular/upgradeable targeting computers and sensor systems come into play as a gameplay mechanic). When the computer has finished scanning your target, the ring changes slightly and stops animating, instead just following the ship's orientation in 3d space.

The missile lock animation is the red ring you see flying in from around the edges of the screen. When that's finished animating, you're ready to fire a missile. The missile is the red-orange engine trail that follows his targets around before exploding.

Oh, and this is also a good opportunity to point out the green diamond reticle that you've asked about before. That indicates the gimballed weapons are tracking a lead for you to align your crosshairs with the extrapolated flight path interception trajectory.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

duuuuuuuuuude.. what sorcery is that?

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I've been saying from the start that there's some depth to mine in the flight model, though I'm probably not going to be the best out there to do it, lol.

That sorcery is what boom and zoom with decoupling passes looks like in Arena Commander. The choice of a Hornet is a little odd, here, since it's slower (and, I think, has less primary thrust for acceleration) than a 300i. I get the impression it was abetted by some poor situational awareness on the part of his enemies, particularly the 300is who should have been able to pursue him handily as he sought to extend and disengage, which is why I find myself questioning his choice of ship for those tactics.

I'd honestly like to see that uncut and maybe at normal speed. I find it tough to gauge reaction time and distance compared to my own experiences when the footage is speed up.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I've never gotten a wireframe view of the ship I'm fighting. So still have no clue. I'll try to play more around with it in free flight sometime but you're telling me to do things without telling me how.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

what control method are you using elm?

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Keyboard and mouse.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Sorry, Elmo. Part of it was that I wasn't sure which steps you were missing, and the other part is that since I've used KB/M for all of 2 Vanduul Swarm sessions, I don't remember the keybinds for the functions that have always been on my joystick for me.

Lemme look up.. okay. The Arena Commander Pilot's Manual has keybindings listed on page 22.

Target Nearest Hostile and Cycle Hostile Targets are R and T on the keyboard, respectively. Those will direct your targeting computer to select and scan your enemies, after which you can acquire a missile lock on the selected target when near the center of your forward view.

That also explains why you've never received the green diamond crosshair -- your targeting computer can only calculate lead with your gimballed weapons for the active target.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Ohhh new buttons to use! So once I hit a scan button and it knows what the enemy is I can then use missile lock and fire?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Yes.

Also, 'G' should "pin" the current target to a list in the middle of your right-hand screen UI. Targets so pinned will get their own full display on the radar sphere (which is why I don't always use pinning -- it gets very busy, very fast, making it harder to read) and will come up immediately without re-scanning when you're cycling targets.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

So do you unpin them by destroying them?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Yeah. I think 'G' with them targeted might unpin them, as well. I've not tried.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

OMG THIS GAME IS SO EASY NOW!!!

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Made it to wave 13 and called it quits.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

I'm glad you are doing better. I wish I could learn how to do some of those tricks in that video.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I've only had time to play maybe once or twice a week for maybe 30 minutes each time since I got my new rig. It is incredibly easier to lead now that my gimbled weapons are tracking properly. Missiles are nice to but even without them I can thrash a hunter in 4-5 seconds.

Going to get comfortable in this ship and then start to practice real non-atmospheric piloting in free flight a bit. I've skimmed some surfaces before but there is no way I can shake missiles like in that video. It seems they are locking and hes not doing anything at all and he has evaded.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Yeah, no kidding. I tried popping some lasers into my Hornet's nose weapons (not gimbaled) and dropping the turret entirely to save some power before they fixed the power consumption. One wave, I ran out of ammo (no, they overheated and blew up, that's right) for the wingtip Mantises, and damn, it's hard to lead with no indicators whatsoever and no gimbaling. That wave took forever.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades