Raven's Talon

[Squee913]

Hello! Me again with questions

So, I'm still slowly getting the hang of PVP (killed my first pirate the other day) I spend almost as much time hunting these forums for information as I do trying to get the Liberty Navy to actually care when their citizens are being pirated. (I mean honestly... I see a LH actively shaking people down and send 3 PMs to 3 separate Liberty Navy players with no response. I finally fly to Manhatten and inform all of you, and your response... your exact response, "Oh... is that all? I thought it was something important." The only person I found that gave a damn at all was a police officer... from Bretonia... Shame on you guys... If you can't be bothered to do your job, at least push though my Bounty registration so I can do it for you!)

Sorry... I had I point somewhere... behind that rant... oh, there it is! So I have fallen in love with the Talon. Maybe it is that she has saved my life a few times, maybe it is because her black paint with all green running lights just look neat, but whatever the case I love her. Problem is, I honestly don't know how she stacks up in a fight.

The obvious thing to do is just fly a bunch of different ships and see for myself, but that does not really fit my RP. My guy... most guys really... would not have the cash to test drive 10 different ships. So, I thought I would do the next best thing, ask veteran pilots. So we are clear, unless the Talon is just awful, I really do not want another ship, even if it would be better:

1. If my chosen profession is pirate hunting, how do you think the Talon stacks up? From what I have gathered so far, she turns a bit slow, but can take a beating. Should she be able to take on most pirates smaller than a gunboat and have a chance of surviving?

In addition (if you are feeling chatty)

2. Is she more of a jouster, boxer, glider/slide etc. When I train, what do you think I should be practicing the most with that ship? Any thing I need to be extra careful with in that ship?

3. I'm not really a weapon group kind of guy. I tried 3 shield busters and 3 hull busters, but with shield bats and the like, I felt like I was switching groups more than flying the ship. Right now I have her loaded out with two class 9 debiliators and 4 purple goddess. I chose the goddess because they seemed just as good as my other options and even had a slightly higher dps, but from what I gather on the forums, people seem to think the suck. Problem is no one really says why they suck, just that they do. Thoughts?

4. I read half a million threads about fighters not being able to take out bombers fast enough for it to matter, but they were from a long time ago. The complaint seemed to be that a fighter could out maneuver a bomber but they just did not have the power to take one down before it killed a capital ship or trader. Is this still the case in 4.86? Are bombers still outclassing fighters?

If you read this far, thanks for the time! This community has been very friendly. Hopefully someday I can return the favor

[Rodnas]

Some random thoughts:

If the Ravens Talon fits for you it fits it is a long and slender ship- and while i am quite bad at pvp my impression always was it is easy to hit while jousting/boxing and much harder in all other "modes". Just try to move up and down while evading should be more efficient then left and right

Now, in theory- if you train long enough to become the deathbringer of disco, the Talons drawbacks(slow,low armor, somewhat easy to hit frontally) will be neglectable

If you wnat to look at ships from a pure numerical point of view look here at this nice little comparison i made , though you should take it with a pinch of salt and review it to suit your needs


On the Chainguns: the problem might simply be that they have a different speed than your shieldbusters, thus offsetting the target recticule- you could circumvent it by using weapon groups though....well, i would advise for Flashpoints or Codename guns propably, not sure if taking a corenerf by using faction guns is the way to go ....

Fighters outclassed by bombers?
in a 1vs1 fight where the VHF piot has te same skills as the bomber pilot, the vhf will win. There are quite some very good bomber pilots around who will make you feel the pain though...
If you want to defend a transport from a bomber you will have a hard time if it is not some heavily armored and armed transport, as the bomber will propably shoot his SNAC, evade for 6 seconds like mad, then rinse and repeat....if you are a hotshot you might make it, but if the bomber s dead set on killing that trader, chances are he will do so....

Hope i could help a bit, maybe someone else ahs more insights

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Read about: The Benitez Familia and Trueno Benitez

---Not available for any disco stuff these days(and for an extended period of time to come, too ---

[Squee913]

wait... having different speed guns screws with your reticle?



Ok, I'll try finding some weapons that match the shield busters. Failing that I'll try weapon groups... Thanks a lot fella!

[Ursus]

The RT is a fine ship, but its kind of sluggish. Most freelancers prefer the Eagle because it is more agile, and agility gives you the advantage over an equally-skilled opponent (you will turn sooner, so you will fire sooner and you will evade sooner). You can get a feel for how the RT stacks up by looking through the Wiki data dumps. http://discoverygc.com/wiki/Fighters its outdated but still mostly accurate.

Weapon groups are important. Keep all of your guns active on the default group, then you can make different combinations for the others and use them when the opportunity presents itself. Most dogfighting is a little shooting and a lot of turning, so you tend to have plenty of time to charge powercore between jousts. But, if you ever get behind a bomber you will want to turn the debs off so you dont drain power core, and an all-hull group is good for that. An all-shield group is good for other situations too.

Yes, different weapon speeds will affect your aiminig and contact. You can see this by aiming at a moving target, then toggle a slow weapon off and on and watch the reticle shift around. The reticle uses an average of weapon speeds and if you have wide variance, then all of your weapons are likely to miss the target. Its best to have them all the same speed. Faster weapons are generally easier to aim with too.

A good bomber can kill a bad transport pilot in most cases, even with a VHF chasing after him. This is because its pretty easy to go full-evasive and take little damage, and a decent bomber pilot can drop a torp then fly evasive while recharging power core, then repeat the cycle. All you can really do is try to make him take longer to get successful hits. In that regard you can give the transport more time to escape, but he has to take advantage of the opportunity, and a lot of them wont. If you are escorting somebody, any kind of conflict means you failed--you need to emphasize on scouting and avoiding combat, not on fighting.

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Discovery 24/7 Negotiating Tactics:

[Thunderer]

wait... having different speed guns screws with your reticle?



Ok, I'll try finding some weapons that match the shield busters. Failing that I'll try weapon groups... Thanks a lot fella!

To EVERYONE: The position of the crosshair is made by calculating the place where the target will be, if it continues moving in the same direction at the same speed, when your fire reaches it. If half of your guns are 600m/s, and the other half 750m/s, the faster ones will conjugate fire slightly before the target, while the slower ones will conjugate it a bit after the target. So, none hit it. Physics 101. People, please, get it already.

Actually, there is an allowed error. With 50m/s error, you probably won't be able to hit missiles, mines, etc, but you will hit ships, all except that little Kusarian thing, which can even escape cruise dissruptors.

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Bretonian Treaty Database Bretonian Armed Forces Recruitment Center
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[Squee913]

Thanks for the help people, as always!


Debeli_Boda, be reasonable fella. It is not as if the average new player should just know that kind of information. It makes plenty of sense once you hear it, but it is fairly easy to browse the forums and never see this information.