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Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:44 am
by M.Steiner
BD and I had a co-op match of Vanduul Swarm last night where the whole game was spent focusing on the decoupled mode, something I had never quite mastered and something I often forgot to use. For those unfamiliar with it... let's say you're flying towards a group of enemies straight ahead and you're firing away but they fly past and to the back of you. Rather than changing your direction and trying to chase them down you can hit decouple, do a 180 and continue engaging. Your ship continues to go in the same direction you were going before but in this example you're essentially flying backwards whilst being able to shoot what's on your ass. Real handy.



I still need to take this knowledge into other games and have it become the norm for me, keeping in mind that those will be less scripted than this one was (since by BD keeping his distance, I was the one controlling where the engagements took place by being the AI's nearest target) but with BD's help I finally "get it" now and can start putting it into practice.
Another thing I was having problems with was knowing where I am on the map and when decoupling, hitting a map boundary behind me (sometimes you don't have enough time to stop even with the audio warning). From now on trying to keep the central tower within view, or figuring out where I am in relation to it when decoupling so as to better judge my distance and surroundings.

Those of you who haven't played much of the game yet or perhaps struggling/neglecting to use decoupled mode should definitely give this a watch when you have time. It's the longest video I have uploaded to YouTube but if it's as helpful to some of you as the session was to me then it was worth the time it took to upload :)

Anyway.. the vid:
Here's a video I recorded the day before too (I posted it in the 300 series thread as well so some of you may have already watched it). In this you can get an idea how one might use decoupled mode (along with boost) to get around some of these tracks at high speed too. I'll repost it here for convenience:

[Also, Anny. When you have time and you get to the "to do list" we have in the members forum, can we prioritize this YouTube embed problem (that's flashing the white page/site navigation when loading into a thread) please?. Been seeing it pretty much every day for almost 2 months now and it's really starting to annoy me lol. Thankies!)

Re: Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:08 pm
by Anubis
Should make this a news topic, as a tutorial type video is a great idea... :)

The stylesheet issue is in fact the one I'm actively working on, so it is my first priority have no fear. Just getting the time to get into the meat of it is proving challenging :(

Re: Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:07 pm
by BlackDove
Just a final tip after watching your video: it's okay not to be shooting at all times.

When the enemy is out of range, use that as the opportunity for your guns to cool down. Shoot at them only when the square reticle appears, and even then only somewhat sporadically. Prime time to shoot is when the circle reticle appears.

Re: Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:58 pm
by M.Steiner
Anubis wrote:Should make this a news topic, as a tutorial type video is a great idea... :)

The stylesheet issue is in fact the one I'm actively working on, so it is my first priority have no fear. Just getting the time to get into the meat of it is proving challenging :(
Nps mate, appreciate it! :)
and yep that's a good idea. I've been meaning to make another news post for the main page so this would be ideal. I'll try and get one posted up tonight. [Edit: Done!]
BlackDove wrote:Just a final tip after watching your video: it's okay not to be shooting at all times.

When the enemy is out of range, use that as the opportunity for your guns to cool down. Shoot at them only when the square reticle appears, and even then only somewhat sporadically. Prime time to shoot is when the circle reticle appears.
Aye, good tip.
Your previous tips on it not being a race and to take your time (now along with using decoupled mode) have helped me a great deal with that already too. When I started out I was getting the overheating warnings constantly but not as much now.

Re: Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 5:20 pm
by Ash
Managed to get some time in on my Super Hornet today, used a bit of the decoupled mode, but need to practise more.
Currently I'm actively thinking when to decouple, rather it just be a natural reaction when the situation arises.

Still using my MS Precision 2 so tend to fly very 2 dimensionally (alla FS2)

Any word on the turrets/ gimbals auto aiming rather than manually? currently just treating the loadout as fixed.

Nice video by the way, nice to see how others fly the Swarm.

:thumb:

Re: Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:52 pm
by BlackDove
You ought to use the "look ahead" mode for the gimbals, which is demonstrated in MS' latest videos. It auto-moves them towards the target, and compensates somewhat against the pure horseshit that is the KBAM and using a TrackIR setup.

Note MS isn't even using the strafing, which is a total of whole other 3 degrees of freedom you're not used to using, but have to. It completely changes the game once you start strafing.

If you get on IRC, we can all play together and you can learn while we play. Goes faster.

Re: Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 1:51 am
by Ash
Thanks for the info BD, I'll go find the Gimball Setting and change it for my next play session.

:thumb:

Re: Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:05 am
by M.Steiner
Actually, looking at this it may be "Target Focus" since it's R3 which I've been using on my gamepad.

Re: Decoupling with the Burning Stars

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 12:05 pm
by BlackDove
Yeah, it's under the "target" section of commands, and I believe it's the last one there too. Called Target Focus or something.