Cadet PRS The Interceptor

Introduction

So you want to be an interceptor pilot? That's excellent! I can assure you that you have made the correct decision - all other ships are inferior to your shiny new ship! However, not everything about being an interceptor pilot is rosy, you need keen awareness and lots of practice to become a real top ace. But don't worry, Camaro has some hints to get you on your way (pun intended - oh ffs only noobs call hvy ints hints, juckto).

You're just one member of one section of your respective team. Metaphorically speaking, one component of a larger machine. Knowing how to use your ship together with other players in a variety of roles - from combining firepower in dogfights to defending weaker ships in escort runs - makes the larger machine that much stronger and victory that much more likely.

Your interceptor is an armoured, fast, but short ranged killing machine. You need to play to its strengths while covering its weaknesses, and learn the best tactics for shooting down enemy pilots. And please, for the love of God, DO NOT SCOUT WITH YOUR INTERCEPTOR

Interceptor Strengths

• Hitpoints, your ship has the greatest armour and hit points of any small craft ship. (Excluding faction-unique ships such as the Vanguard or Mustang ... which are generally offset by a greater research cost/time)
• Weapon Damage, you have a great amount of firepower available at your fingertips. Your miniguns have an awesome fire rate, high damage per second, and are effective against almost all other ship classes. Their only downfall is their low range. (Arguably a Fighter carries more firepower, but really it is a pathetic Jack Of All Trades, and is no match for you in terms of sheer carnage.)
• Speed and agility, your ship is blazingly fast! It has high agility and acceleration, combined with one of the best mass to booster-power ratios in the game, making the interceptor the most manoeuvrable ship in the hands of a skilled pilot.
• Low Sig, your interceptor has a low radar signature when cruising. If you can restrain yourself from firing the boosters at the first opportunity like some gung-ho idiot, then you can sneak up on your enemies and open fire before they even spot you.

Interceptor Weaknesses

• Scan Range, your ship has the worst scan range ever at a paltry 400m! In comparison, a Scout can see 2400m. You will need to be wary of stealth fighters and learn to track their missiles to find the culprit. During offensives you will find yourself completely blind without a friendly scout to spot enemy miners, constructors and other targets.
• Fuel reliant, your ship is completely dependant on fuel, with a much lower top speed and acceleration when relying on thrusters only. If you run out of fuel - you are a sitting duck.
• No ricord, your ship has no ability to ripcord! As such your only way to move around the map quickly is to dock at a base and transfer stations before relaunching. Hence you must evaluate the time it will take you to get back to the nearest base if, say, you needed to defend a base on the other side of the map. Make sure you don’t get stranded too far from base!
• No Shield, that means that any damage you take will stay until you dock at base or find a friend to repair you. Powerups can repair you, so keep an eye out for them when you're in danger.

Interceptor vs.

vs. Interceptors

Your skills and your skills alone are what will determine the winner in this fight - you must practice dodging bullets while making all your shots count. Don't waste ammo shooting at space or you'll be cursed by the evil Reload Demon at the worst possible moment. Don't be afraid to run if things look grim, but time your exit with a full load of fuel to give yourself a decent lead, and head in the same direction as your momentum vector or otherwise you'll stall fighting your own inertia. Additionally, don't try and fight someone with a much greater Kill Bonus (KB) than you do, chances are they gained that kill bonus because they're better at killing than you are.

• More fuel, you're chasing ints who are as fast and agile as you, move in for the kill once the enemies exhausted their ammo.

vs. Fighters

Figs have incredible spiking power. Go head to head with the fighter, strafing to avoiding dumbfires, then spinning around and rocketing after the fighter, while you shove bullets up their booster. Think of it as if you were a piranha. You're more agile then most of the other fish in your body of water. Tear them up before they get within missile range. Your ship has the upper hand at short ranges, but the fighter has many tricks he can throw at you before you get into range. Never go head on at a fighter! They can shoot dumbfires straight down your gullet and those things hurt, a lot. Either sneak up behind the fighter or maintain a side thrust during your approach which will throw off dumbfires (and sometimes seekers). Although you have a lower top speed on thrusters, your ship is much faster than a fighter while boosting! You can chase down fighters easily, but beware - fighters can lay deadly mine packs (which do damage based on the speed you fly through them ... rule of thumb is never fly directly behind a fighter unless you're so close that you’re through the minefield before it arms itself (~500m)).

• More ammo, you have shields and hull to get through before the fig is dead.

vs. Stealth Fighters

Stealth fighters will always beat an interceptor if they can stay uneyed, but if you spot them they die very easily. The trick is to use your side thrusters (default = numpad keys) to dodge their missiles and to visually track these missiles back to their source and hunt that coward down.

The sfs will likely try to pick off the nans with hunter missiles. If you don't have pp or scouts with decent scan ranges, chances are you won't find the sf and thus you're better off in a nan.

• Extra Counter measures, you need to stay alive long enough to find the sf's firing missiles at you.

vs. scouts

Treat a scout the same as you would a fighter, but remember that a scout is far more likely to run ... but don't be fooled, what they're really doing is trying to fool you into eating prox mines! Never fly in the same path as the scout, but fly in a parallel line - until you have caught up with the scout and then move in for the kill! And never follow a scout through an aleph at high speeds!