Forums » General

Found a Little Trick for Newbies

Aug 17, 2005 Nikana Olos link
Okay, if this qualifies as a bug, don't sue me for exploiting it, I was told by multiple people on the forum that it was okay to use, and even to post under "General."

It may not work for everyone, but I did it a couple times successfully, so I thought I'd post it here to help new players out. it might have been a fluke, so if it doesn't work for you, tell me and I'll edit this post appropriately.

I found a little trick that might make it much easier for people to kill collectors (great for the Basic Combat Training mission).

If you get really close to a bot when it's mining (as close as possible, try to touch it with the nose of your ship) and you open fire on it, it will try to turn toward you. However, for some reason, it can't decide which direction you're in, and you have several seconds to continue blasting it before it moves further away and begins to fire.

I have no idea why it does this. Perhaps since your ship takes up almost 180 degrees of the bot's viewing radius, the AI can't figure out which direction you're actually in. Who knows? But it let me get a couple of easy kills without taking any damage, so I'm not complaining. =)
Aug 17, 2005 genka link
Uh-oh.
This is some major exploiting there mister! You're in big trouble!
Aug 17, 2005 Arolte link
LMAO!! Genka, you're killing me here. Hahahaha...

/me wipes a tear from his eye

Okay, but seriously, yeah it's alright to post this on the general forum. The AI for the bots are kinda dumb right now and they're working on improving it. If it helps you get easy kills, then go for it. Most bots already have an annoying habit of dodging energy shots too easily. So think of this as payback.

But rest assured the more advanced combat missions will require you to take down bots that don't mine as much (if at all). On top of that you'll have to deal with the splash damage that follow, after killing a bot that close to you. So you're probably better off aiming from a distance like normally.

In any case there have been far easier ways of leveling up in the past. And this is nothing compared to those other problems. So knock yourself out and good luck. Don't worry about reporting bugs like this publicly. What matters is that you even bothered to mention it, which is a good thing.

=)
Aug 17, 2005 icbm1987 link
Um... My advice for newbies who are taking on collector bots... turn FA off and learn to love your universal-brake[spacebar]

I'm starting over with an alt... and it's just funny how I used to have trouble with collectors.

-Zoras
Aug 18, 2005 Shapenaji link
Actually, this works with tycorps too. You ignore the 2 following you, and chase after a third, when you line up behind them and start firing, the bot can't decide which way to go and poof
Aug 18, 2005 Beolach link
TyCorps are more difficult to catch up with though, as the collectors sit in one place and mine, while TyCorps move around on patrol.
Aug 18, 2005 Shapenaji link
Yeah, but they're really not that hard to sync up with.

I was doing this to get about 1 tycorp every 6-7 seconds, with axia posis
Aug 18, 2005 icbm1987 link
What were you flying Shape?

Would a Quad posi/neutII Hornet work?
Aug 18, 2005 Shapenaji link
Flying my normal ship, Orion Rev C with Axia Posis,

but it works with any light fighter,

Haven't tried it with the hornet, but I'd be a little worried as to how well it would run away from the pursuing tycorps.

The nice thing about the light fighters is you zip up, bam, then rapidly move to the next one,

the hornet will kill them faster (an Orion hornet might be REALLY good) but might not zip around and line up fast enough with the next one.

Worth a try though.