Cadet I/When to run!

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When to run?


As you might have noticed, spending 5 minutes in a rescue pod is quite boring. It also hurts your team as you are not doing anything useful. Sure, sometimes getting podded is unavoidable, but there are a lot of situations in which you have the choice: stay and fight or retreat. We'll try to accustom you with the ancient art of "Run-Like-Hell-Foo".

There is a set of situations that you are supposed to flee, here's a short list:

  1. Tech in cargo - you have picked up a floating piece of tech (either 'natural resource' or stolen from a podded enemy). You are expected to do anything you can to deliver it to your nearest base. This is especially important if you got a hold of a piece of tech that matches the techpath your commander is pursuing. This is double-extra important if it matches your techpath and you are flying for one of the factions with long research times (BIOS, Belters, Technoflux). (What tech to pickup is covered in an upcoming lesson)

  2. "Pod city" - your team has failed to defend a base and all pilots (or almost all) except you ended up in pods, while the bomber is headed towards the next sector. Do not under any circumstances try and kill the bomber and/or his nans. The only thing you'll achieve is getting yourself podded too! Instead, turn your tailpipe on the bomber crew, get the hell out of the turret's range and then get those pods! That way, the next base will gain defenders and is far more likely to survive.
    This comes down to having a good situational awareness of what is happening in game, instead of running straight at the first thing that moves. Pay attention to the overall picture!

  3. Probe runs - you'll be in your little scout probing enemy sectors. It's pretty damn sure there will be some bored enemy player thirsty for your blood. If you have eye and see a superior ship (fighter, interceptor, even stealth fighter) heading your way, press that ripcord button. Even if you haven't deployed all your probes it's a lot easier to redock at base, get a fresh load of probes and give it another go, than it is to pod back to base and give it another go. Try to always be aware of your surroundings while cruising in enemy sectors.


There are more situations that require running away, but they are outside of the scope of this course and are covered in Cadet II.

How to run?

Well, sometimes you'll end up in some kind of messy situation, when you don't have the time to run and hide or ripcord out. Here are some tricks that might help your retreats be successful:

The Scout

Sometimes you'll end up in a middle of a huge furball (i.e. after your bomber run has failed, there are a lot of pods, but also a lot of hostiles). In those kinds of situations, your only defence is your speed. Keep heading in the same direction you are currently heading. The attackers will hopefully have to do a U-turn to get on your tail, that buys you the time to gain some distance. If you have some prox left, use them.

If you manage to get quite far (like 2000m or more) from the nearest source of "eye" (an enemy base, enemy scout) and your pursuers are quite far away (1000m or so), you can try to dismount your missiles and shields to lower your signature. They can't shoot what they can't see. If you lose eye immediately change your course, but not a big change as you don't want to lose too much speed. If there are some friendly pods in the sector, call to them and pick them up. Try hiding behind an asteroid so the opponent can not see you.

Try running through an aleph and hitting ripcord as soon as you're through. Hopefully they will slow down expecting prox and that'll give you enough time for your ripcord sequence to complete.

The Fighter

When bailing in a fighter keep some things in mind: you are slow. Interceptors will catch up to you in no time, stealth fighters and scouts can keep up at your pace even when you are at your top boosting speed. You are also clearly visible as your fighter has quite high signature, so hiding is usually not an option. Seems hopeless? Not really. You can ripcord out!

Ripcording out in the middle of the fight is usually a bad idea, as you will become a fat sitting duck. You have to buy those 10 seconds needed for the teleport to complete. To do that boost straight ahead, in the direction your motion indicator Vectorbracks.PNG is facing to retain and use your inertia. Once you reach optimal distance and speed (you'll have to experiment and find the 'optimal' values, as they depend on factions and available tech) and hit the ripcord button. Keep holding down your boost button while the ripcord countdown progresses! You will lose just a bit of speed during reload, but it will be buying you a few seconds, and those are quite critical at times.

The Interceptor

Interceptors have only one mean of retreat: Speed. They are the fastest ships in the game... but only if they have some fuel! You will not outrun anything in a fuelless interceptor. Watch your fuel usage and make sure you have enough fuel to get the hell out when things get too hot.

You can outrun every other ship in the game in your interceptor. Use that to your advantage. If you decide to run, boost in the same direction as your motion indicator. If you're not disorientated, start curving your flight path towards wherever your exit aleph is. Burn through a load of fuel, and while you reload check if you have lost eye (quite probable, your interceptor has a relatively low signature). If so don't boost any further! Try to sneak out of the sector. Stay off of the beaten path! Go way around the main travel paths and come up behind the aleph. If you are spotted again, boost towards that aleph!

Other ships

There are some other ships that can run and hide (like the capital class Assault Ship or any stealth ship), but their usage is outside the scope of this course. They are all covered in the Cadet II.

Conclusion

Running away is not dishonorable. It's a regular tactic used widely by experienced players. There is a place and time to run. With time you will develop a better understanding of what the team needs most at that particular moment. Smart scouts are running away whenever possible. Stealth fighter pilots are on the run whenever they are not attacking something. Don't hesitate to run. It's a good thing... if you make it!

Ripcording!


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