Letouk Mernel
   |
Posted - 2005.09.22 22:55:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Jokque
Frigates are the smallest and most agile ships, good for taking out bigger ships (?)
Not neccessarily.
Frigates are the smallest, relatively agile, and cheapest ships, for sure. But "frigate" is a broad group, with the T1 frigates (available to newbies because they require little skills to start with) and then you have Interceptors, Assault Frigates, Covert Ops... All these are specialized forms of frigate, and they have some pretty high skill requirements.
Frigates do die fast if hit by bigger ships, and most of the time they WILL get hit. In order to avoid being hit, you need to maximize a bunch of skills for speed, power, CPU, agility, etc., and use speed modules like MWD's or Tech 2 afterburners, in combination with "don't fly straight towards the enemy" and tactics of that nature.
Unfortunately, even with that, players in bigger ships will be smart enough to defend themselves against frigates somehow: if they can't hit you with their big guns (cause you're too fast), they may have drones, webifiers (slow you down), nosferatus (drain your capacitor... no power = no speed), various jammers (so you can't lock them), etc.
NPC's, on the other hand, don't use electronic warfare so much; it's mostly guns with them. But, unfortunately, NPC's come in groups: cruiser + 4 frigate escorts, for example, and the frigates will rush you while the cruiser will stay at range and pelt you from there. As a result, it's pretty hard to survive vs. bigger ships; you're not given the opportunity to use speed/range for much.
Otherwise, cruisers are the next "bigger" class of ships, and with them, there's enough power grid and CPU to install some defenses (armor plates, or better shields), while you also have options (instead of just guns, you can now use a complement of guns, drones, missiles, EW modules, webifiers, jammers, etc.). But, they're slow, no more using speed as an avoidance mechanism.
Finally, battleships, they generally take the "slow but armored" concept to the limit. Their guns have trouble hitting frigates, but pilots bring friends, or if not, have sufficient drone bays, or EW capabilities to stop frigates dead.
There's variations of what you can do with every class of ships, from tanking to all-out damage (and hope they die before you do), to EW / jamming, or sniping (being able to hit at ranges of over 100 km).
But, in general, that's how the ships behave, and for missions you'll usually need a ship equal in size to the biggest NPC you'll encounter, hence the suggestion of frigates for Level 1 missions, cruisers for 2, and battleships / heavy cruisers for 3.
|