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Flying
Tips for TIE Fighter
By FM/CPT
Bret K'thraz/Yod 2-4/Wing IV
1. Introduction
All right, you just entered the EH page for the first time. Your
first reaction must have been "Wow, this is great. I wanna
join this TC thing, looks cool". Then you see the requirements
and say, "Damn, 250,000 points? I'm no wizard!".
Ok, maybe you already got your tfr ready. But even then, here are
some flight tips to help you CTs and other pilots to get some high
scores in TIE missions and make a name for yourselves.
Note that these tips may not be the best thing to do, heck, they
may even be the worse thing to do in a situation, but this is the
things I do while flying TIE, and it works for me. So, here they
are.
2. Unshielded Craft
First, lemme walk you through some basics of flying in shielded
and unshielded craft. The difference is obvious, in a T/F, T/I or
T/B, you can't afford getting shot even once. You may say, "Hey,
I heard that T/B can withstand about 4 or 5 shots". That's
wrong, way wrong. Even one shot can explode your sensors and/or
your CMD, and then you're as good as a blind man trying to cross
a street in NY on the rush hour (K, maybe it's a bad comparation),
but the point is you're in serious trouble.
So, when flying unshielded craft, you gotta be always on defense.
You see any of those little rectangles on top of your HUD light
up, you immediately break from whatever you're doing and target
whatever is attacking you (If it's a fighter), or get away from
whatever is attacking you (If it's anything larger than a Patrol
craft).
2.1 Dogfighting in Unshielded craft
One of the hardest missions in TIE Fighter is the first T/F mission
of the
Combat simulator. In that one, they put you up in a lone T/F against
as much as 12 X-Wings at the same time. Talk about bad odds. But
the mission is winnable if you know some tips (And got some luck).
First rule of dogfighting in unshielded craft is: avoid head-ons.
As I said before, in a T/F or T/I, you can't afford getting hit
even once, and going on head-ons isn't exactly the best way to do
that. The only exception to this rule is when someone is aiming
a missile at you, but this will be covered in another section. So
remember, when heading for an enemy fighter, never center it on
your cosshair, or you're dead.
Second rule: When dogfighting in an unshielded craft, never ever
fly in a straight line for more than a few seconds. Again I'll use
the first T/F mission of the combat simulator as an example. Suppose
you're against those 12 X-Wings. The HUD warning light will be flashing
most of the time, so you can't stay behind your target until he's
dead, because you'll die first. Instead, you must take quick shots
at your target and then break off and evade the laser shots. Keep
doing this until your target is history.
This can also make acquiring a missile lock in the middle of a dogfight
hard. If you're almost on red and see there's someone shooting at
you, try to release the missile even though it's still acquiring
the lock. If the target's near enough, it'll get it anyway.
Third rule: Kill whatever is attacking you first. Even if you're
on escort missions, your first worry when flying an unshielded craft
is to destroy any threats to you. After all, how will you complete
the goals if you're dead? So, if you see 3 Y-Wings going after the
ISD you must protect and 3 A-Wings coming after you, go to the A-Wings
first, then worry about the Y-Wings.
Also, you should always match speed with your target, but remember
to go back to full speed when you need to break away.
2.2 Bomb Runs in Unshielded Craft
When going on a bomb run in a T/B, you're in for trouble. The key
words are "Heavy Rockets". These babies can do serious
damage to anything you target, and are way better than bombs, because
you get two times more rockets than bombs (If a fighter can carry
2 bombs, it can carry 4 rockets). So, if you multiply, you get slightly
more damage with the rockets. Obviously, only fire the warheads
from far away, never get in the ship's firing range.
But before going after the cap ship, make sure no one within a 5
kilometer radius is coming after you or your wingmen. Why your wingmen,
you ask? Because wingmen have a tendency to get killed very fast,
specially the ones in T/Bs, and chances are that after an enemy
fighter gets your wingmen, it will come after you. So, just begin
targeting the ship you're after when you're sure there are no threats
to you close.
Now, when you're against a cap ship on unshielded craft, don't even
try using lasers. When you're out of warheads, either reload or
wait for other craft to destroy it. The chances of you going on
a bombing run with lasers only and getting out in one piece is very
small, and it has more to do with luck than with ability.
2.3 Evading Missiles in
Unshielded Craft
This is one of the most important rules of dogfighting in unshielded
craft: You see that little red rectangle on the right of your HUD
flashing yellow, you press the "E" key immediately and
go after whoever is aiming that missile at you.
On the dogfighting section I said there was one exception to the
head-on rule, and here it is. The best way to evade missiles on
an unshielded craft is to go head-on with your attacker and destroy
the missile soon after it is launched. But you must be careful not
to get destroyed by laser fire after you destroy the missile, so
after you see the warhead blowing up, get the hell out of there.
(You should note that the AI can launch missiles and fire lasers
at the same time).
But you cannot always do this, especially if the fighter who is
attacking you is in close range. Still, you should try to destroy
the missile. This can be very hard if you are in a T/B and got half
a dozen fighters on your tail, but still, it can be done if you
keep turning until you get the missile on your crosshair. One shot
will do, and then you're free to go after the guy who launched the
missile.
3. Shielded Craft
Well, let's talk about the good stuff now. Sure, on those four first
battles you kinda got used to the T/F and T/I, and think they're
much better than those rebel X-Wings. Wait 'till you get in a shiny
T/A or T/D. And of course, almost all of the EH custom missions
are flown on shielded craft, so read this section carefully.
Flying on a Shielded craft (The T/A, T/D, MIS and GUN) is a whole
other deal than flying on the unshieldeds. Forget everything you
read on the previous chapter, when you've got shields, you always
gotta stay in the offensive. Stay on those fighter's tail until
they're dead, kill tons of CRS with lasers only, got a missile after
you? Don't worry, just let it hit and transfer some laser energy
to the shields. But of course, don't sweat it, you're not invulnerable
(Unless you set it on the options menu :P). I'll cover all the techniques
of flying shielded craft with detail on the following sections.
3.1 Dogfighting in Shielded
Craft
By the time you get to the fourth battle of TIE you're probably
paranoic. Everytime you see those little lights on the HUD flash,
you pull your joystick by instinct. Don't worry, you'll soon get
in your hands a shiny T/A, and won't fly any unshielded craft for
a long time.
The key for dogfighting in shielded craft is proper management of
the LES system. You must always keep a good speed combined with
strong shields. But there's one thing you shouldn't do. Never press
the "F10" key. If you just set your shields to recharge
you'll lose some critical speed and it will take too long for the
shield to reach full power. The best way to charge your shields
is to transfer energy from the lasers. But I don't suggest you transfer
all the energy until the shields fully recharge. If you're in the
middle of a dogfight, try always to keep your lasers supercharged
(The brighter green). So my whole point is, the basic configuration
for dogfighting in shielded craft should be shields on normal and
lasers on full (Of course there are also beam weapons, but these
will be covered later). Then if you need more speed, set your shield
recharge to minimum or zero, and keep transfering laser energy to
the shields as needed. You should note that in the T/A and T/D,
if you set your laser charge to maximum, they'll recharge even with
constant fire, so don't be afraid to use the laser energy transfer
technique more often in these crafts.
All right, now you got your shields up, lasers ready and is laughing
at the poor X-Wing who is trying to get away from you. Suddenly
the HUD light begins flashing. Don't worry, you got strong shields.
As long as your secondary shields (The outer "circle) is still
there, you got nothing to worry about. The only situation where
you should break away is if you see the prymary shields getting
on yellow and you can't transfer any energy from the lasers. Then
begin evading, wait until your shields are up again and go back
to the original target. It's better to destroy that one first and
then go after your attacker.
There really isn't much more to say about it. Generally, just use
the digfighting abilities you got the same way you did in unshielded
craft, the only difference is that you don't need to break and evade
everytime someone is taking a shot at you. And also, remember to
match the speed of your target.
3.2 Bomb Runs in Shielded
Craft
Now here's where the shielded fighters make the most difference.
In a shielded craft, cap ship killing gets much easier (especially
if you got ion cannons). If you know the way, you can take a whole
fleet down with just shields, lasers, and a lot of patience.
If you got the warheads for the job, use them, it's much faster
and easier than using lasers, but if you don't, follow the steps
below. In both cases, it's better to make sure no fighter is targeting
you before starting your run, or things may get ugly.
The first thing you should do in these conditions is to shoot down
your target's warhead launchers. Note that not everytime the cap
ships shoot missiles at you, and the only way to find out is attacking
them. So, just in case, go first to the warheads, even before shooting
a single burst a the ship. If you don't get a missile warning seconds
later, the cap doesn't have warheads and you can move on to the
next step. However, if you see missiles coming your way, continue
firing at the launcher you were aiming at. If you're lucky, you
can take it out in one run. If you couldn't destroy it in the first
run or if the ship has more than one launcher, break off and try
to destroy the missiles. Warheads launched from cap ships aren't
as accurate as the ones fired from fighters, so they're easier to
shoot down. Keep doing this pattern until you take out all warhead
launchers. Only break off before taking the launchers if you really
need to, because once the ship fires the first missile at you, it'll
keep firing until you either get out of range (about 6km) or destroy
the launchers.
Once you've taken out the warhead launchers, retreat and charge
up your shields and lasers to maximum, then go for the laser guns
and turrets. Guns go down very fast, with one or two shots, but
the turrets require more shots, about 12 of them. (Sometimes, depending
on the ship, it can be hard to spot some laser guns. This can be
solved by pressing the "," key, which cicles trough the
ship's individual systems, until you get the gun highlited). Continue
this proccess, breaking off to recharge as needed, until you either
destroy all guns and turrets or clean one side of the ship, thus
creating a "blind spot", where the ship can't hit you.
In some cases (Especially with frigates), it's better to destroy
all guns and turrets, because even a little change in direction
of the ship may get the turrets of the ship in a position where
they can reach you again, and, if you've accelerated the time, you
may not have time to react.
Well, once the capital ship is defenseless, just make sure there
are no enemy fighters around and just sit there, firing at the ship
until it blows. If you got ion cannons, disable the ship once the
shields are down to make sure it can't enter hyperspace. (To speed
this, you can accelerate time by pressing ALT+T).
This may sound hard, but when you get the hang of it, you'll be
taking caps down with real ease.
You should note that in some EH custom missions, the cap ships are
ordered to "go after you", and they'll constantly turn
to face your craft, kinda like a slow fighter. If this is the case,
the technique above gets pretty impossible, so you should just go
head on, fire a couple of shots, break away and repeat the proccess.
3.3 Avoiding Missiles in
Shielded Craft
Well, the procedure for avoiding missiles in shielded craft is essentially
the same that was described in section 2.3. But in a shielded craft,
you should think before going after the missile. For example, if
the ship you gotta destroy is almost escaping or there is a full
squad of T/Bs going for the ship you must protect, sometimes it's
best to just continue and let the missile hit you. All ships can
withstand a normal missile hit if they've the primary and secondary
shields full charged. Notice that I said "normal missile".
If there is an advanced missile after you, the situation changes.
In this case, you should go after the missile, unless you're in
a T/D. A T/A will get hull damage from an adv. Missile even with
both shields fully charged, and the GUN and MIS will get heavy shield
damage, needing lots of laser energy to get the shields to full
power again. The T/D, on the other hand, will get moderate shield
damage, but the shields can be recharged very fast. Note that this
applies to the "hard" skill setting. On easy and medium
levels, your fighter gets stronger shields.
4. General Tips for Getting High Scores.
Wether you're flying a competition, or you just want to get some
FCHG points, you should always use these tips to get the highest
score possible.
- Accuracy. The TC uses
laserless score in competitions. That means that your final score
when you submit your .tfr will be Total score - (lasers fired
*3). That means that the more you fire your lasers, the less you'll
score in the end. That, in turn, means you gotta fire as less
as possible, which means you gotta destroy ships with as few laser
shots as you can, which finally means you gotta be accurate. The
rule does not apply for ion cannons. A good technique is to disable
ships with ion cannons and then kill the hull with lasers.
- Everytime you fire a warhead
and misses, you lose 50 points. (Note that this refers to individual
shots. If you fire in quad fire-linked mode and none hits, you
lose for points. The same applies to warheads). It may not seen
much, but sometimes you squeeze the trigger a lot, especially
in a MIS…
- Don't lose your ship.
If you completed the primay goals, you can die and still get the
"mission succesful" screen. That's not good though,
as you lose 5000 points for getting your craft destroyed. And
in big competitions, that's a tough blow.
- Don't call for reinforcements.
Reinforcements are bad for two reasons. One, you lose 5000 points
for calling them. Two, they take away your kills. So don't call
for help unless you really can't complete the mission.
- Don't destroy friendly
craft. Destroying even one friendly T/F will make you lose 10000
points. Note that if you destroy a friendly ISD for example, you
lose those 10000 points, but the ISD is worth more than 10000
points, so you end up gaining points. However, destroying friendly
capital ships to get points is considered cheating in the EH,
and you may even get kicked out for that.
- Wingmen are bad. Despite
what you may read in other strategy guides, know this: Wingmen
are evil, wicked people that just want to get your kills and prevent
you from getting a high score. So, as soon as you begin a mission,
send all the ships that obey your orders to go home.
- You should always fly
on the "hard" skill setting. On hard, you get a score
25% higher than you'd get if you flew on medium. If you fly on
easy though, you get a score 25% lower than you'd get if you flew
on medium.
- Complete as many goals
as possible. In EH custom missions, the ammount of points you
get for completing secondary and bonus goals is set by the designer,
but it's usually a fair amount of points.
- Never, ever fly with invulnerability
or unlimited ammo turned on. If you turn these settings on for
even one second during the mission, your score will be reduced
by 90%. That's a major blow to your career plans. Also, never
fly with collisions off, as your score is decreased by 12.5% of
the score you'd get if you flew with collisions on.
FM/CPT Bret K'thraz/Yod
2-4/Wing IV/SSSD Sovereign
GS/SSx2/BSx6/PCx4/ISMx16/MoI/LoC-Sx59/DFC/CoB/LoAx2/OV
[LGNR] {IWATS-M/1/2-SM/2}
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