Tips on Dog fighting in Armada?

S

saracen

Spaceman
Greetings,

I recently had the joy of discovering my old Armada CD and installing it via DOSbox. It runs very well. The one thing that frustrates me is the dog fighting AI. Veteran and novice levels are easy enough, but the Ace level can be very frustrating. It seems that the computer just wants to joust with me the entire time. I've also noticed that the damage my weapons do seem to be less than what the enemy is capable of doing to my ship; is this a misperception or has damage done by weapons (or the power of my shields) been tweaked by the difficulty level?

I've also noticed that, on occasion, an enemy ship will start acting 'confused.' It will fire at nothing, will not attempt to flee, spin, and joust like it normally does, and will allow me to get right up on it and chew it to bits. This happens most often when I have died and I enter a new ship (its as if the AI can't see my new ship) or if I run off from the center of battle, leaving my wingman to fight, and come back after my shields have recharged. Also, wingmen seem to be more useless here than in any of the other WC games (even WC 1!). I've been playing for several days now and only once has a wingman actually succeeded in destroying an enemy ship (and this was in a Banshee).

So, any hints or suggestions? I remember to AI being frustrating when I played this game as a kid, but I chalked it up to my own lack of experience/hand eye coordination. At this point, I have no problem winning difficult missions in the other WC games, including Privateer which seems closest to the Armada game engine.
 
The problem isn't really with the AI - it's with the speed. Ships are significantly faster in Armada than in any other WC game, but their maneouvrability is about the same. So, there are big turning radii, and far too often, by the time you turn around to face the guy behind you - he's long gone. Staying on someone's tail is also very difficult because of this. It's a bit like a dogfight between modern jetfighters...

One thing you need to do is get more accurate with long-range shots. The further away an enemy is from you, the easier it is to stay on his tail. The only time you should ever try getting close is when you have a DF you want to launch.

Other than that, SAVE YOUR FUEL! In the gauntlet, you'll face a lot of enemies - and Armada is very good at tempting you into using afterburners all the time. Don't do it.

Finally, in the gauntlet, you will encounter, every once in a while, ace pilots. They're not marked in any way, as far as I remember. They're just better. They don't pose a significantly bigger threat, but they are harder to take out. Especially with the Arrow and Dralthi aces, I have personally found it simply impossible to shoot them down - the only tactic that seems to work is to wait for THEM to run out of AB fuel - and then they become nice and easy to blast.
 
That must be what's going when the enemy pilots start acting odd- they've run out of fuel. Man, that just takes forever though. Another thing I've discovered is that all you actually need to win in campaign/armada mode is a single heavy fighter. Just build one, dock it with your carrier, and win every single battle by drawing the enemy ships toward your carrier where they will be ripped apart by flak if they go splat against the carriers phase shields first. But that takes the fun out of the game.
 
The strategy also varies depending on the ship. Like Quarto mentioned, the turning radius is huge, so feel free to slow down and make a tighter turn. This makes some of the lighter, more maneuverable ships effective in combat. Also, if you're flying a faster ship, sometimes it pays to afterburn out a bit, turn, and then go in for a fresh attack run.

I prefer the heavier fighters so you can smash hard with guns, but I think the Armada engine really accentuates why there are light, medium and heavy fighters. They each have their advantages. Lastly, the leech missiles on the Wraith are probably the single best offensive item in the game. Be sure to have some around to leech Gorans if you're playing Confed.
 
Controlling fighters can be a pain as well. With no mouse support that I can remember it almost forces you to use a joystick. If you're playing though dosbox as I am these days, set your dosbox parameters to 2 axis and use a gamepad. I use an onza te with xpadder and map out the rest of the buttons on it how I like. That alone helps out tremendously when it comes to dogfighting on the higher difficulties.
 
I know I am a bit late to the thread but Armada is also the WC title I had the most problems with the dogfighting. Like Quarto said, I often ran out of AB fuel and I was always very hard pressed when flying a ship with only medium or short range guns, such as the Kor-Larh...I never made it past the second wave of mission 7. Fighting more than a single Gladius (that has superior speed and weapon's range) was impossible for me (at least at the time, maybe I should give it a new try). I never had it that the enemy ran out of AB fuel.

Also, one thing that was never clear to me: we all know, FF missiles go after the nearest enemy, not necessarily the one you have locked on. Yet in Armada, I always remember the FF going after the ship I had locked on, even if there were other ships enemy around that I thought would be nearer.
 
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