n00bspace
Tutorial Part 8: Combat

Combat is another main part of Darkspace. You can attack both ships and planets, and they will give you different prestige amounts. All ships are capable of attacking other ships, however only certain ships with certain weapons systems can damage planets. First, we will discuss how to attack an object.

Firing Weapons
To fire weapons, simply target an object and press the spacebar. This will unload all the available weapons onto that target. Available weapons are ones that are recharged, aren't disabled due to damage, and can attack a target within it's firing radius. The firing radius differs depending on the weapon. For example, beam weapons are only meant for close range, while missiles can attack at far distances.

Complete List of Weapons Systems

However, there are some weapons systems that won't fire when you hit the spacebar. These weapons include the ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP, UGTO only), mines, bombs, and fighters. These weapons must be fired with a special hotkey. Otherwise, all your weapons will be fired upon a selected target.

Point Defense
Weapons have the capability to be set on Auto-Attack or Auto-Defense Auto Attack really doesn't do anything so you shouldn't use it. However, Auto Defense is a very useful command. Although all ships can turn this command on, only ships with beam weapons will use this system. When activated, Auto Defense (also known as Point Defense) will shoot down any incoming projectile weapons (such as missiles or bombs) that come within the firing radius of that beam weapon. This is very helpful if you're attacking a planet with defense bases, or in combat with a ship loaded with missiles. It can save you from a lot of lost hull points.

To turn on your Auto-Defense system, right click a beam weapon and choose "Auto Defense", or hit CTRL B to activate.

Choosing A Target
When choosing a target to combat, consider what type of ship you have. Lower ranked players will only have access to smaller ships, so they should not attack large ships such as cruiser and dreadnaughts, unless they are part of an attacking fleet. Also, some ships are specialized in construction, transport, and bombing, and are not meant for ship to ship combat. Once you have chosen a target, your next step is move close enough so your weapons will attack it.

Move To The Target
For your weapons to fire, you must be within your weapons firing range. The firing range for weapons differ for all weapons systems. If you want to find out what the firing range is, you can right click on a weapons system. This will bring the info on that weapons system in the Systems Display Box, as well as create a red arc where the weapons firing range is. For most beam weapons, this radius is around 100gu. For particle weapons, the range can extend to about 300gu. For missiles, this range can exceed 500gu, depending upon the type of missile. Here what your screen should look like once you right click on a weapons system:

Attacking
Now that you're withing range of your target, you can begin firing. As mentioned before, just select your target and hit spacebar, and this will unload all the available weapons on that target. But remember, weapons such as bombs, mines, emp, etc. will not fire when you press spacebar. You must activate these weapons systems with a special hotkey.

As you attack a target, you'll notice in the Target Display Box that the hull / shield % will decrease if you do enough damage. Keep this in mind relative to your own hull / shield %, which can be found on the Ship Status Bar. If you are at a lower % than your enemy, then you're probably going to get killed, and should get out of that battle as soon as possible. However, if your % is higher than your enemy, then you are doing more damage, and should continue to attack.

Shield / Armor / Turn Status
You can view the shield / armor / turn status of a ship in more graphical manner by hitting backslash ( / ). When you spawn your ship for the first time in a game, only the shield / armor status will be automatically turned on. This will show a series of green rings around your ship. The number of rings depends on how much armor / shielding your ship has. When the color changes to red, with a number of colors in between, that means that part of your shields / armor has been damaged, and is no longer protecting your ship at 100%. When you have the shield / armor status on, it will also display the shield / armor status of any targeted ship. If you press backslash ( / ) again, this will turn on the turn status. This will display a green area in front of your ship when you turn, to indicate how much you are turning. To turn everything off, press backslash ( / ) again.

Armor / Shield Status at 100%

 

Armor / Shield Status, indicating damaged armor / shields

Friendly Fire
Friendly Fire, also commonly referred to as "FF", is when your weapons damage a friendly ship or planet. This can occur on accident, say when you are in combat behind a friendly ship, and the enemy is behind that friendly ship, so your particle or projectile weapons hit that friendly ship. Accidents also occur when you have a friendly ship targeted for any reason, and you go to chat, but forget to hit the enter key first. So when you press space as if to chat, it will fire your weapons onto that selected ship. It can also occur on purpose, when someone targets a friendly ship and fires normally. Remember, FF costs you prestige, so know where your enemy and teammates are at all times during combat.

Self Destruct
Self Destruction occurs on command, and is rarely done on accident. This is because you must give the command to self destruct, then confirm that command. The command for Self Destruct is CTRL D. First, it will ask you to confirm the self destruct sequence, by pressing CTRL D again. Then it will go into a countdown sequence of 10 seconds. If you wish to cancel a self destruct sequence, just hit CTRL D during the countdown to cancel.

Kamikazi
Kamikazi occurs when you self destruct and that explosion causes damage to an enemy ship.

Attacking Planets
So far we have discussed ship to ship combat. Now we will discuss planetary bombardment. Attacking planets can only occur with Fighters, MiRV Bombs, or P Cruise Missiles. Structures on a planet will appear when you are within 500gu from the planet and you have to planet targeted. Of course, just attacking the planet itself with these weapons will damage the planet and give you planet damaged points, but it will not destroy structures or infantry units. To destroy structures or infantry on the planet, you must target these once you are within the 500gu range. Remember, planets with defense bases also act as point defense for the planet, and will destroy incoming projectile weapons attacking the planet, including fighters. Also, enemy ships orbiting a planet will usually have their point defense on so they will destroy incoming projectiles as well.

Tutorial Part 7: Building Guide < Tutorial Part 8: Combat
-

Home

n00b Guide
tutorial home
servers

entering a game
helm control
interface
planets
cap planets
building
combat

Build Guide
History
Factions
Ranks
Prestige
Badges
Ships
Contact
Darkspace
About
Palestar
Articles
Links
Downloads
Darkspace
GameCQ
Screenshots
Music
Wallpaper

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

-