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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.
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Armor
/ Shield Status at 100%
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Armor
/ Shield Status, indicating damaged armor / shields
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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
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