From: esj@cs.brown.edu (Eugene Santos Jr.)
Subject: Tooo long a followup [Was: Re: Hell Peacock]
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 18:53:26 GMT

In article <1bdj16INN1un@aludra.usc.edu> jimmyhua@aludra.usc.edu (Jimmy Huang) writes:
>esj@cs.brown.edu (Eugene Santos Jr.) writes:
>
>>Yes, dogfighting is a good skill to have. The best players are usually
>>good dogfighters too. But it's not really a necessary skill. Everything
>>you mentioned above can be accomplished without being a good dogfighter.
>
>>1 - Obtaining kills (Offense)
>>	You can scum them from injured opponents, use 2+ team tactics
>>	and give away kills to team, scum kills by killing oggers
>>	ogging a friendly carrier or base, etc. Killing base oggers is 
>>	a very popular thing nowadays to get easy kills.
>
>If everyone was clued but couldn't dogfight.. where would they get kills?
>All oggers would be dead (no injured opponents). What carrier with no
>kills? Killing base oggers? That takes skill (good phasorlocking ability.
>Good streams of torps (elements of good dogfighting). 

I already mentioned how you can get kills from more than one way on that
list above. I have had many people scream at me for picking on crippled
ships and/or stealing someone elses kills.

>>3 - Defense against planet takers
>>	I know several people who don't dogfight very well but can protect
>>	planets against a taker who is a superior dogfighter. The key is
>>	to never actively engage the opponent. Yes, I mean runnerscumming
>>	but not for the sake of running away. It's a very predictable
>>	path orbiting a planet. A tactical placement of torps will
>>	discourage a would be taker. Using pressors (not tractors), to
>>	dislodge opponent. Once carrier cloaks, there is NO dogfighting
>>	involved anymore.
>
>NOT! A superior dogfighter would push the runnerscum so far back. The
>planet taker could take, without having to cloak!!! The guy who cloaks
>while trying to take planet under defenders are people who have no 
>insurance that they are that much better, and so tries to rely on 
>the uncertainty of his position. (giving up his firepower). 
>
>As for orbiting planets, (yes, predictable), but only when you know
>when and where he first starts orbiting. Tricks such as go through 
>planet (overshoot on purpose), or pause, can really puzzle defenders. 
>This works great on LPS when no one wants to escort you in. 

By the time your superior dogfighter pushed the runnerscummer back,
if the team is at all clueful, someone else would have shown up by then.
It's much harder to puzzle a clueful defender. You get him to fire
some shots, but he will always conserve enough fuel for more salvos
when you do start orbiting. I'd give the planet taker a 30% chance of
succeeding against a moderately clued player.

>
>>4 - Escorting
>>	You mutual on enemy, blow up on them, phaser them, just cripple
>>	them, tractor, pressor, etc. no dogfighting here.
>
>What if there were more than one defender? oopps. 
>What if the planet was close to the home planets? Big ooopps. 
>What if he cloaks and tries to ogg the carrier!? Uh-oh. Can't find
>him unless you had skill.  

You assume that there is exactly one escorter. It's usually one-to-one
mutual for escort and defender. Most oggers will die when trying
to ogg a carrier with one or more escorts without getting the carrier.
Multiple phaser-locks are all you need. Never fire torps over a friendly
carrier.

>
>Jimmy
>
>P.S.
>Pace it, You use dogfighting to your advantage, and it is therefore
>essential to a) being a good player b) winning the game. And 
>engagement is a relative term.  Theoretically, SB's can only take
>on one person at a time. But i've seen, really good sb's tractor
>one guy, phasor one guy to death, and torp another to death, while
>giving the tractored prey a kill to his teammate at same time, i.e.
>3 explosions in one sec, and the tractored guy died last. (Then, again,
>only on calvin :) )

I do use dogfighting to my advantage. But, when I end up in a high
clue game on bronco or in an INL game, my dogfighting skills are definitely
inferior to the other players. Thus, I have to counter them some other
ways. I now pick up kills by ways such as anti-scout bombing, escorting,
base gives me kills, etc.

BTW, your SB comment seemed non-sequitor to me.

Quovadis

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