Sujet sur les Liners

So, you see Lines. And you think my god. I want to be that. It is important to consider a few facts and The purpose of this post is to help people understand Lines.

These great behemoths of your wildest dreams or hellish nightmares come with some stipulations that you should consider before purchase. And I also want to give the run down on how some of these things work to help you make the best choice for you. It is intended to be a guide, but also a discussion on theory. Let's keep this one Clean, K?

Line Types:

Interceptors: Fenrir / Aesir

These Lines are purchased with cubits and are considered to be already in an advanced state. With their speed and manuverability they are intended to jump in, charge down an objective and deliver a quick deadly punch. However their drawbacks come with a limitation of power, so they may have some trouble running some set ups like Missiles or Missiles and Cannons mixed. They are fantastic at breaking up escort groups as well, with proper skill training, popping or breaking up strikes. Their speed and agility does allow them a great deal of freedom and can prevent them from being overwhelmed. An important fact to remember as this is a wonderful Fast attack line, is they are best in Wolf packs, usually an outstanding support for other Lines or keeping up with an escort group.

Command Ships: Hel / Vanir

If power, support, and versatility is your thing, then this Line ship may be for you. It offers a great platform for guns and flak, as well as EW and Electronic support for a large area. Do not let the hull points fool you, this ship is exceedingly deadly simply for the fact it can run many systems like Flak and Guns, or spam 4-6 volleys of missiles (depending on your regen skill) and it also has the armor to hang in and out run or out turn an Assault. These ships are ideal for large capacitors as well as many options for loadouts, its sometimes called the "Everything" ship. Its drawbacks are that it may not be as fast as a Interceptor Line, but it can in the end break 50 m/s and turn smoothly. It has less armor than an assault, however with skills and plates it can easily get over 5100-5200 HP.

Heavy Assault Lines : Jormung / Jotunn

Do you like being large and incharge? Then the Assault Line is your choice. This Goliath offers just that. SIZE, and ginormous armor. These ships are often best for major fleet pushes and are the corner stone of many strong defences. Boasting end-game armor of over 8000! These are surely note worthy. However. With something so tough, there must be a draw back. These floating fortresses, are Slooooooooow. They turn Slooooooow. And they can be out manuvered easily by other lines and escorts. Solo Assaults often find themselves victims to wolf packs or skilled gank parties. Their power supply often leaves them favoring guns as it is super easy to get in your minium missile range ( thanks Big Point ) and staying there. When even the weaker lines can crawl up on you and mount on your back, there is very little to do but squirm and die, or jump out and pray all that armor can get your missile slinging butt out of there.


Weapons: Remember lines are an enormous investment. Your guns and missiles are your key elements, and upgrades are expensive. Take the time to be sure what your role and play style is before you get deep into upgrading, then decide it just sucks. CAREFULLY read stats and understand 2 things. What range you like to fight at, and how close you actually get to your target.

Long Range Missiles: Like to reach out and touch someone? These missiles will chase down even some of the fastest escorts. But becareful as strikes can easily out run them and dodge them. However they can, given skills and upgrades, allow you to bang on an OP safely our of range.

GP Missiles : More agile and have a shorter range, but they are good for dealing with escorts and nailing careless strikes.

Short Range Guns : WONDERFUL if you like to just get in there and hammer something. These rapid fire guns are ideal for smashing lines and if you can tank it, OPs and Platforms. They do have a limited range so consider how close something will get to you. With out high gun skills you will miss alot, and also spend tons of power. High Gun skills and you can make escorts and other lines shutter in fear, This gun is a good choice for Interceptors and Command ships. It does work well on the Assaults, but bear in mind your regen is not the best.

GP (mid range guns) : These cannons offer the best of both worlds, and many times if you hunt NPC lines you can find level 3 cannons, so theres already some tylium saved. These guns are not as fast as the Short Ranges but do pretty good on re-fire. The also offer a semi-decent range upgraded. You can hold your own with these against many opponents, and still send escorts (and with level 9 and 10 gun skills) strikes, running for cover. It is a wise choice for all three Line classes. Again consider range and how close you ideally want to be.

Long Range Guns: These long guns offer you a slower rate of fire, but in the case of many lines, give you the ability to reach out and nail your victim who is trying desperately to get out of dodge. They are also ideal for Assaults as they are not as taxing on power, that and your not chasing anything down tubby! They allow you to snipe and reach out to 1500+ (with skills and moderate upgrades).

FLAK : :-D Do you hate Starbuck and Scar wanna bes? I do too. Well let me introduce to you the Flak cannons. These puppies are designed to make a strikes life a living hell. While your top and bottom may remain vulnerable, you can offer your fleet a nice place to draw enemy strikes in and give them something fun to swim in. Warning! Very laggy...or...PROTIP...very laggy... :-p The thicker you make your Flak field by upgrading or adding multiple flak cannons, the more effective they are. Remember this is a SUPPORT WEAPON. They will not insta-pwn Vipers/Raiders. They will however tick, tap, ping, bang, thump them and give your strikes and escorts a nice blanket and boost to fight in. Very costly to run long periods.

Point Defence Cannons: Anti-Missile cannons, one per side is great, 2-3 per side, is a strike killer. SUPER costly to run long periods but great to turn your side to incoming missiles and cover allies and OPs from missiles.

CRUCIAL SKILLS:

Armor Skills. All armor skills are critical with lines. Reason being is that you are not very fast no matter what you use. Escorts and Strikes can swarm you. Also lowering the critical hit chance helps you hang in longer, as most likely your the primary target. ALSO, heres another gag, your repair bill. Line ships cost VAST amounts of titanium to repair, or cubits. The longer you can hold out the better.

Guns. Line guns are not the most accurate things in the world, infact you can even miss outposts and Platforms. You need to be able to beat down your target. It is a good rule of thumb to have Level 5 MINUMUM in all gun skills before stepping into a line. Level 5 you start hitting escorts reliably. Level 9-10 you start becoming a fleeing strikes worst nightmare.

Missiles. Nothing is more annoying than that damn beep beep beep when a missiles is fired at you. Imagine if you will hearing that ongoing 6-8 times. Its important to have rapid lock to a decent level like 5 to be able to spam alot of missiles at charging escorts and strikes before they get into range. But also since the missile changes in 1.6, your critical chance is crucial. With the 1.6 minimum range, your best bet to counter is to have the main missile skill up, to increase that range, and increase the opportunity you have to fire.

Piloting. Turn rate is VERY important. These beasts turn very slow with low skills. Piloting 5 is HIGHLY recommended. Avoidance....your not dodging anything brotha. ^^

Capacitor : YES YOU HAVE A HUGE CAPACITOR IN A LINE, but also have weapons that cost alot of power to use. Your Power is just as crucial as your life, and regeneration is important.

Engineering : Especially Boost tuning is very important. It may cost you 6 tylium a second to burn, but you may as well milk as much speed out of it as possible.

COST OF LINES:

Ok heres where game balance challenges your potential god hood Adama Jr.

Cost of a base Assault or Command Ship : 2,000,000 Tylium
Cost to Advance the base : 60,000 Cubits
Cost of an Interceptor : 135,000 Cubits

Cost to Jump : 700-2000+ Tylium PER Jump
Cost to Boost : 6 tylium PER second
Cost for 1000 rounds of Gun Ammo : 25,000 Tylium
Cost for 1000 Missiles : 100,000 Tylium
Cost for 1000 Flak Rounds : 25,000 Tylium ( KEEP IN MIND THESE GUNS FIRE FAST! )
Cost for 1000 PD rounds : 10,000 Tylium ( KEEP IN MIND THESE FIRE FASTER! )

Average cost of running a Line in heavy combat for an hour : 100,000 Tylium Gun, 150,000 - 200,000 Missile, 100,000 Heavy support.

Rule of Thumb, DO NOT USE YOUR LINE IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN 500k Tylium!!!

The most embarassing thing to happen is to run out of gas in a system and have to mine your way out or find something that can kill you quickly. Since most fighting is done in the south...this can be tough, I recommend freighter spawns.

Note: I am sure each line pilot has different Ideas, and different statistics. This is my take as a professional Cylon Liner. This thread is to educate and discuss Lines before people spend vast amounts of money, and/or Tylium. I just want to give people a perspective of what they are getting themselves into. Feel free to discuss, and any data that is reasonable I will edit in this main post.

Strikes are the starting craft, each one has it's own role, but can bet "Crossed" between roles.

Per the Triangle Strike Ships beat Line Ships, Line Ships beat Escort Ships, and Escort Ships beat Strike Ships.

This post will be pretty big, so I hope you like reading, i'll explain the weakpoints in strategising points/routes of attack on each individual ship. Know that information, can keep you outside of it's firing radius, exploit the blind spots, and move in for the kill. Regardless of what kind of ship you have. Although Lineships, if you're in a Lineship and taking a Strike Ship on by yourself, you're dead. Just jump. don't bother fighting a strike because you're going to lose if that Strike knows what he's doing. Don't matter if it's a Viper, Raider, Heavy Raider, Raptor, Marauder, or Rhino. You're dead.

SO. Let's start with weakpoints on the Cylon Strike Ships:

Because of the size of the Raider, exploiting it's blindspots will completely dictate the angles you attack it from. No matter if it has three cannons, or five. Use caution on the angle. I've never seen a Raider with five cannons, but when they have four, they are all forward aiming. Take the front of the Raider, and the arc of the points on the wings. make an imaginary circle to the front, and anything outside of that small circle, is outside of it's arc of fire.

Best way to attack a Cylon Raider, is from the side, or the rear. Preferably at a lower elevation. Because it's cannons are mounted on top, keeping the low ground, even from the front to front, will make it harder for him to shoot you.

Cylon Heavy Raider:

The Cylon Heavy Raider is large, it's arc of fire is even shorter than the arc of fire of the Raider, in comparison to the size. take the two front "posts" if you will, anything in that section it can shoot at, since it's guns are all mounted on top, just like the Raider, keep the lower elevation to decrease weapons capability to shoot you. Any direct assault fromt he sides, or rear is the easiest, and safest. You can destroy a Heavy Raider easily before it really has any real time to react if yout ime your shootings within 400 meters. If the Pilot hasn't located you on Dradis by the time you're that close to him, he deserves to be destroyed.

Marauder, I've never played as a Marauder, but judging from what I've seen, it's firing Arc, anything within it's wingspan point to point, and approx 15 degrees outside of the tips, both top and bottom, can be fired at. Taking a Marauder head on, regardless if you're above or below (especially above) is putting yourself subject to his/her cannons. Let it pass you, ang attack it from the rear sides, or direct rear. ALWAYS avoid going head-on with it at all costs.

Cylon Escorts:

Spectre, Spectre is a Command Ship, but it's an Escort, it's weapons seem to shoot from the top through both sides, and then there are two near the front (but not the tip) towards the middle. All of it's weapons are on the very top, if you can identify top to bottom, stay as low as possible elevation wise at all times. It can shoot targets out to the rear and out to the sides, and the front (essentially creating a 360 degree arc of fire) depending on the angle, it can bring two weapons to bear on you at anytime. Don't attack it from above if at all possible, again, go to a lower elevation, and it can't hit you. Watch your angle compared to it, and you can have free-fire on it, and it wont be able to touch you. Watch how it turns etc on you.

The Wraith:
It has a blindspot 100 Meters dead center to the front. from the dead center front, to the tip of each wing, it has a full 90 degree hit radius on both sides to the front. If you're further than 100 meters, it has a complete 180 degree arc of fire. Again, it's weapons are mounted ontop, keep a lower elevation as much as possible. if you see one, best way to initiate an attack on it, is directly from the sides, the rear sides, rear, or directly underneath it. You'll be able to do maximum damage before it can react to you, if you time your attack right, and whether or not the player is checking Dradis often.

The Banshee, it has two cannons to the front, and to the rear, it shares the same frontal blindspot as the Wraith. 100 meters it's cannons can't touch you at the front. at the rear, it's blindspot is 75 meters dead center. It can bring two cannons to bear from the front, and two cannons to each side, and two to the rear. At the rear, it has a blindspot (at least it looked that way earlier today) dead center at 75 meters. Underneath it, there are no weapons. Safest way to attack it with minimal damage like the others, are from a lower elevation.

Line Ships:

Hel directly from the front, it can only bring a max of two cannons onto you based on how it's turned to you, because if it's large size, unless you're in an Escort at long range, or in another Lineship, it has to turn left and right constantly to bring rounds onto you. If you're directly above it, it can't hit you. Take the center point of the thickest part of it, and towards the back, there is a 75 degree blindspot it can't shoot at. Again, at lower elevations, it's an easy target. It can't shoot you at lower elevations due to weapon placement. So if you're in a strike group, break up, have a guy go from as high up as possible and come down on it, while others hit directly from the bottom and another goes as far back to the rear, turns around, free reign at the rear, it can't get you.

The Fenrir, unlike most Lineships, it has two cannons on the bottom, so if you hit it from the front, being at a lower elevation IS safer, but it'll still have two cannons to bring on you. Take the middile of the ship, look at the part where it starts to get thick, and anything behind that point, both top, and bottom, is a blind spot. It can't shoot you past that point. top bottom, or sides. To engage a Fenrir, NEVER attack head on, go off to the sides, get behind the section where it starts to thicken up, turn around, free reign to completely blast it sky high.

The Jormong:
To the Front tip of it, both top, and bottom, don't matter about angle, it can bring a cannon to shoot you. It has three cannons on each side towards the top. Only blindspot is after you pass it's front, top cannon, anything between it's sides it can't shoot if you're on top. If you're on a lower elevation, there are no weapons to shoot you with once you're pass its tip point. At the rear, it has a blindspot within 150 meters, it's rear cannons can't touch you if you're lined up center with its engines. Anything at a lower elevation, it can't touch at all. I've seen them in action, and players had to rotate ASAP the instant targets started getting across the sides, or below it. Which tells me that's where a blindspot is the player was trying to defend.

Colonial Ships:

Strike Ships:

Viper: For a point of reference, look where the front tip is, and make an imaginary circle aroun the tip, to the tip of it's wings. Anything outside of that circile, it can't shoot. Get Low, or to the sides (angles, or directly to the side, or directly to the rear) and it's free reign. Skilled Pilot will allow the Viper to pass, and release all it has.

Raptor: if the pilot doesn't have a gun on the front, bottom tip, lower elevations it can't touch. draw a horizontal line past the point it's wings start getting thick, and that is the blindspot it can't shoot you past that point. Just like an Assault Ship, or a Raider or Heavy Raider, don't attack head on. However, unlike the Heavy Raider, the Raptor has no blind spot at the front below. which is the trade off between the Heavy Raiders Blindspot, and the Raptors Blind Spot.

Rhino: Top elevation, to the front, there is a blindspot within 100 meters. Unlike the Marauder's 50 meter blindspot. It has two cannons on the top mounted on the tip of each wing. below it, there are two cannons. So whether higher or lower elevations, attacking it head on is suicide. Past the tip of each wing to the rear, or directly on the side, is free reign. It can't touch you past that point regardless of elevation. So keep that in-mind when you go toe-to-toe with it.

Escort Ships:

Scythe, blindspot from the front, the part where the tip starts to get thick, to the rear, is a complete blindspot. (above) below it, go from lower elevations. BUT, in the MIDDLE of it on the bottom, there is a cannon. once you past the thickest part, to the rear, it can shoot you. if you're at a low elevation coming in from the rear, it's cannon can hit you with ease. when attack from the rear, or the side, keep at a higher elevation. When attacking from the front, keep a lower elevation. It's tricky, but you will get used to it the more of them you clobber.

Maul. It has a cannon to the front, below, and to the front above. If you're far enough (outside of 200 meters) the cannons on each wing can hit you, if you're above, it can bring three cannons to bear on you at once. get in close, if you're going to engage it, try and get behign the tips of both wingtips, or if you're atacking from a lower elevation, once you get passed the first cannon, it's free reign if you're below it. to the sides, anything past the wings it can't touch. So plan your attack accordingly.

Glaive, front, top, two cannons to bear down on you. Between the two front, top cannons (to each side of the bridge on the widest points) with a Strike ship within 100 meters to the center, front, it can't hit you. Once you pass the front part of it, and it starts getting thicker, there are two cannons on each side. It's front cannons can also shoot off to the side. Don't attack it from the side unlees you're at a lower elevation, when I destroyed the last three glaives, they weren't able to shoot me at lower elevations, and once you pass the thin part of it, it's cannons can't touch you, whetner you're above, or below it. As usually, juicy spot is underneath, it's free reign. as well as the rear past the thin portion of it.

Line Ships:

Jotunn: This ship is tricky... If you're above it, it has two cannons in the front to hit it. And two cannons on each wing tip in the rear, one on top, one on bottom of each "wing". If you fly in the middle of it, (past the front cannons) on top, or bottom, it's cannons can't touch you. If you're above between the rear wings, it can't touch you, and as long as you stay above or below within the wingspan, it can't touch you. Or if you're a the rear it can't touch you. Those are the weak spots. If you're flying a Strike, it's weapons are incredibly inaccurate against you anyway. So don't worry too much about it's guns. But do be cautious about flak cannons, they are annoying...

Aesir: When you go up against an Aesir, Remember it has a 270 degree coverage. only thing it's top cannons cannot cover is the rear, and rear angles. If you're below it, it has one cannon at the front tip. once you're past that cannon, it's free reign from below. From the top, fly towards the top, along the middle section, it can't shoot you. There is a blindspot between the front cannons, and first set of side cannons. the first set of side cannons only have a 90 degree radius toward the front, sides, and the next set only has 90 degree towards the rear. Between the farthest rear cannons (on the "tips" of the thick part at the rear toward the front) and the next set of cannons towards the front, there is an 180 degree kill zone for both cannons to go on you. So if you attack it from the side, be on as low of an elevation as possible. From the thickest part on the rear to the front/immediate sides, there is a 180 degree fire zone. Stay out of it. Go past the ends, and it can't shoot you. But keep in mind, if you're attacking from above, the third set of side cannons can hit you. So stay as much towards the middle as possible, or as far to the rear as possible. Anything underneath it, once past the first cannon ont he bottom, it's free reign to be destroyed.

Venir: This ship, is crazy LOL. When you go up against a Venir, get within 200 meters between the two tips on each side, and it can't shoot you. there is a HUGE blind spot bwteen the two "rods". between the two rods, and the side pieces that stick out, there is a 90 degree killzone for both cannons on each side. (think of an "L" shape on each side of the rods away from the middle)Towards the rear of it, once you pass the first two sets of cannons on either side, there is a cannon on each side that acts as an "L" Shape defence, if you stay in the middle of the ship, or towards the engines, it can't hit. you. Anything below the ship, and it can't hit you. But watch for EW attacks, because IDK for certain, but when I went against a Venir, my Heavy Raider literally self-destructed. I got past the two middle spikes, making my way along the middle of it towards the engines, and out of nowhere I go from 500HP to 0 immediately after I was attacked with EW. So IDK if it does or not, but it seems to have an EW weapon that can make ships blow themselves up. So keep that in mind when fighting it. (which is probably to make-up for the lack of weapon coverage)

Hope this helps, any questions for clarification, feel free to ask.

NOTES:
When tackling Line or Escort Ships, it's always easier if you have another person or more people, because then you can coordinate the attack on the weak points.

Conclusion je vais garder mon petit viper advanced upgradé au maximum