Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek From: danny@cs.su.oz.au (Danny) Subject: Re: working with starbases Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 01:57:22 GMT OK. I think I posted this before but I have added some stuff. Now I have to work out how to include the stuff in Red Shirt's latest posting... Any comments appreciated. MAKING USE OF YOUR STARBASE Here is some advice for people playing on my team while I'm basing. Most of it is be applicable to other bases too. It is NOT a guide to basing (see Balton's playing-sb for that). **Ask not what you can do for your base, but what your base can do for you** I base to help my team win. My primary purpose is normally to store and protect armies, but there are other things I can do, both for the team and for you individually. Armies: Do not ask me whether I have armies or not. I will regularly send army count calls, either when the number changes or when the last message has scrolled of my team message window (which is about 8 lines long). When picking armies up off me do not worry about incoming torps. I will det them for you and you should take no damage. It's probably best not to try to pick up of me in the middle of an ogg wave though. If an ogger is after you your best bet is to get behind me and let me try to find him with a torp spread or phaser-lock. If we have lots of planet bound armies and you can't use them all (only one kill maybe), it may be a good idea to ferry them to me so that they will be safe from SC bombers. Remember that I have a carrying capacity of 25 armies. It is probably best not to ferry to me when I am doing space control on the front line. Kills: If you are looking for some kills and I am in the action, then hanging around me is a good way to get some. I will do my best to give kills away (they are no use to me) by holding people down with my tractors/ pressors and softening them up so you can nail them. However I do not like having enemies nearby and shooting at me, so try to get them fast. You will find that ships that have been struggling with base tractors for any length of time will tend to be short of fuel. (Sometimes my ogg reflexes take over and I will phaser a half dead scout just before you get him. I'm working on it...) Logistics: You can refit (to a different ship type) on a starbase. You can refuel and repair on a base. So a base is like a mobile home planet! There is the additional advantage that my firepower tends to deter enemies from approaching. If you are on my tactical and need help fast (eg you are 80% damaged), toggle your shields on-off-on-off-... and I will try to tractor you in. (If you are coming in to pick up armies you can get me to speed up your run in in the same way.) If I am being ogged then do not try to use me as a base. There are likely to be a lot of torps flying/ships exploding, and you will do a lot of damage to me if you blow up while docked. Boosting: If I am around our home planet/entry point, I will use tractors and/or pressors to give you a boost towards the front line. I try to be careful not to get this wrong, but I will probably send you the wrong way sometimes. LOOKING AFTER YOUR STARBASE Since a base is such a useful thing to have, it is worth investing some effort in keeping it! Mostly I can look after myself, but there are some situations when I appreciate support. The first is when they are trying to ogg me. This will usually involve waves of 4+ ships coming in cloaked. One or two escorts can do a lot of damage to an ogg wave on the way in, especially if they are good at phaser-locking (hitting cloaked ships with phasers). The best thing you can do here is to use the numerical advantage the ogg should give our team to take their planets. (If you genocide them they can't ogg me :) But if you do get a chance to hassle someone who is coming to ogg me by all means do so! Forcing them to use fuel dodging and/or cloaking early will reduce the time they have to plan their approach and/or the amount of stuff they can shoot at me. Towing: It is important to get the base to where it can be of the most use as fast as possible. A base can move much faster with the assistance of another ship and tractors or pressors. Procedure for towing a base is to move over the base in the direction of movement while the base tractors you (you will etemp fast if you do the tractoring). If there is more than one ship then the others can tractor me themselves, however do not ever tractor me unless you are sure I want it - it is particularly annoying not being able to orbit a planet because someone is tractoring you. If I want a tow I may flash my shields to request one. Close escorting your base: I do appreciate escorts when I'm being ogged, but two close escorts is the most I would ever need/expect except when seriously damaged/crippled. Do not fire torps over the base - cloaked enemy ships can det them on me, and I may be waiting for a cloaked ship to uncloak so I can pressor him away from me before killing him. Try to phaser lock cloaked ships/catch them with a torp spread - even if you only score one hit it will give me something to target the base's heavy phasers on. If there are uncloaked ships firing at me from a distance, you should det the torps for me (fly alongside and hit "det torps" repeatedly) - with practise you can det a lot of torps without taking much damage. Detting torps is particularly important when several ships are firing at me at once - I can usually dodge a torp spread from one ship without collecting more than one or maybe two torps. The other purpose of a close escort is to give me something to tractor/pressor myself off. A base can improve its manoevourability greatly by doing this, and that matters a lot when dodging torps or cloaked incoming ships. The Advanced Base: If it is necessary to hold a critical front-line planet, or clear a critical front-line planet for a take, or front line space control is needed, the base will often move forward. Under these circumstances it is very exposed, and may need support in a hurry if the enemy try to ogg it. The Crippled Base: If the base is crippled (moving at warp 1), then the most important thing is to get it to a repair planet as fast as possible. So a tow should be organised (the base can still use tractors and pressors fine). If more than one ship wants to help then pressoring is slightly better than tractoring as it puts you between me and potential oggers. The critical thing if a crippled base is being attacked is to kill the enemy ships before they get close enough to do any damage (counter ogging). It is essential to try and phaser lock cloaked ships and uncloaked ships firing from a distance should have their torps detted (it's much harder to dodge at warp 1 than at warp 2) and be killed as quickly as possible. The Wtemped Base: The major constraint on a good base's survival is his wtemp limit rather than his hull/shields. If I send a distress call and don't appear damage, it may be because I am wtemped (look for the W in the call) or close to wtemped (the message will give the percentage). A wtemped base cannot use its weapons or det (but can T/P). The most vital thing when trying to protect a wtemped base is to stop enemies getting near it and to kill anyone who uncloaks on top of it real fast (don't worry about the explosion doing damage, multiple torps will do far more). If you are out of fuel you might want to dock with me and use my fuel (since I can't). (NOTE: don't do this when I am not wtemped, 'cause I will run out of fuel and you will blow up on me.) Thanks to Tim Healy (Angel of Death), Craig Boas (Balton) and Herbert Enderton (Red Shirt) for suggestions. Please mail me about anything you think I've left out. Danny Yee.