PLAYING DD (ALTERNATE) An alternative look at playing DDs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: blojo@xcf.berkeley.edu (Jon Blow) Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek Subject: "Better" DD players' guide Date: 22 Jul 92 18:42:47 GMT I recently read the old destroyer player's guide by Robert Hill and, as someone who flies DDs most of the time, found that I had things to contribute that weren't present in that guide. So, I here present to you an "alternative" DD player's guide. It makes some references to the original for clarity and to emphasize certain points. Throughout most of the guide, it is assumed that you are fighting "clued" players, but this fact is made explicit where it becomes important. I didn't go into too much detail-- a lot of the stuff I commonly do in a DD just seemed too weird to stick in here. If there's enough call for it, though, I could write up a more detailled version. Any requests and comments on this guide that have more intellectual content than "dude, destroyers suck" are welcome. -Jon (Hell Peacock), Proud Pilot of the Ship of Lose. FOR NEW PLAYERS: The "destroyer" is the second smallest ship in netrek, larger than a scout but smaller than a cruiser. They are correspondingly fast and maneuverable, but their weapons are less powerful than the heavier ships'. The destroyer is commonly referred to as "The Ship of Lose" for many reasons, some having to do with the fact that the destroyer is popularly considered to be unbalanced (toward the weak side) with respect to the other ships; the rest of the reasons have to do with the playing styles of many people who fly destroyers. The two-letter abbreviation for "destroyer" is "DD". In this guide, the two terms will be used interchangably. (The following ship stats thing quoted directly from Hill's guide): SHIP SPECIFICATIONS: Internal damage/shields: 85/85 Maximum warp speed: 10 Torpedo Speed: 14 Maximum fuel: 7000 Torpedo damage/fuel: 30/210 Plasma damage/fuel: 75/2250 Phaser damage/fuel: Good:60-85/595 Maximum armies: 5 Bombing: Fair Cloaking: Good Maneuverability: Good Acceleration: Good Deceleration: Great Tractor/pressor strength: Fair ENEMIES: Scouts are generally easy to fight in a destroyer. You can outgun them and out-tractor them, and as long as you don't fly in a straight line, you can chase them. A destroyer has more than enough firepower to quickly doosh a scout who has decided to try and bomb a planet, thinking (often quite incorrectly) that the DD cannot arrive in time. Enemy destroyers are by far the easiest opponents for the simple fact that nobody else plays destroyers much, so anybody you see flying one is probably pretty bad at it. When fighting a destroyer, keep in mind the tactics highlighted here and expect the enemy to use them. Battleships are not too difficult to fight because of their poor acceleration, but a clued BB will tractorphaser you, or just detonate your torpedoes all day without blinking twice. DD/BB combat is likely to be long since it is difficult to kill a BB on one tank of fuel unless the BB is a hoser or you are ogging it. Combat with Assault craft is likely to be as prolonged as that versus a battleship due to the AS's large damage capacity. However, AS's have even less fuel than you do, and once they're out, you're in. Starbase: Destroyers can be very useful when attacking starbases, but only under certain circumstances. Do _not_ attack a starbase alone in a destroyer unless the starbase is lame-- a clued, nonlagged SB can invariably toast a DD with phasers before the DD manages to uncloak. However, destroyers are very useful in a multiple-player coordinated ogg of a defended starbase, since the destroyer is able to get behind the base quickly and relatively safely. It is true that you do less damage than other shiptypes, but you have a much higher probability of actually doing the damage than any other shiptype. CRUISER: The cruiser is by far the destroyer's worst enemy. In a "fair fight" (one-on-one, no lag, all clue being equal), the destroyer generally doesn't stand much of a chance of survival. Destroyers can do a fair job of ogging cruisers, however. Throught this guide, you will notice occasional specific references to cruisers; they are important. BASIC TACTICS: (This section is presented as a stepping-stone for the discussions of weapons and advanced tactics.) RUN Destroyers are traditionally looked upon as the "scavenger" vessel, AWAY: or the "runner-scum's choice". There is a simple reason for this: they are very good at running away. Many of the hints below are aimed at helping DD pilots flee more effectively. Do NOT run away "too much". Intelligent exceptions can be made to this guideline depending on how much enemy attention you are drawing (i.e. how useful you are being overall), but it should always be kept in mind: if you spend too much time running away or wimping out, you are not doing your team any good, and you'll probably die eventually anyway. Running away should only commonly occur under two circumstances: 1) An unforeseen emergency occurs while you are attempting to accomplish an important objective, AND it seems likely that you will have a better chance to accomplish it in the _near_ future, or 2) You have just accomplished a major objective and wish to escape with a ship capable of performing another major mission immediately. In short, run away only to preserve the state of a useful ship. That does, however, *not* say "run away _always_ when you have a useful ship". There are many objectives that are a lot more important than the state of your ship, and which you will probably die accomplishing. _These_ are the objectives you should be saving your ship for, and they should be given priority. Kills don't do your team any good unless you use them well. Keep this in mind and you will be much more effective than the stereotypical "runner scum". FUEL: In a DD, fuel is your most important resource; guard it carefully. As long as a destroyer is in reasonable shape and has fuel (*and* paying attention, of course), it cannot be ogged unless it is willing to take the risk. If you are not willing to die, fuel is your only defense against an angry cruiser. You *must* save enough fuel to get away at maxwarp (and/or cloak) in order to survive. The DD's cruising speed (warp 7) is not sufficient to escape a cruiser, no matter how much you plan to try to outmaneuver/outdistance it with right-angle turns and the like. CLOAK: Cloaking is useful. Do it a lot. More discussion on this later. DET: Detting enemy torpedoes is often a good idea, even in a destroyer. Though a destroyer doesn't have much hull, you can afford to abuse it. At 75% damage, a destroyer can still move at warp 4. Detonating your own torpedoes is essential. When in close-range combat, a destroyer's lifetime is generally measured in enemy phaser shot units. Because of this, you need to be able to dish out a large quantity of damage in a short period of time, which is difficult because of the DD's relatively weak weapons. This quite often means detonating your own torpedoes so you can fire more, even if some of the torps in the air are about to strike a target. SPEED: Accelerate and decelerate a lot. I've found shifting between warps 4, 7, and 10 to be very effective. Your maneuverability is your best defense, so use it. WEAPONS: Torpedoes are the destroyer's primary weapon. There's not much that can be said about DD torps that aren't true for anyone else. Note that your torps do the same damage as AS torps but are slower. They do less damage than those of any other ship except the scout. Phasers are useful in a DD but are not a good general weapon; their range is short and their damage weak. The old DD flyer's guide rates DD phaser damage as "good", but neglects to mention that closing to "good" range in a DD is quite hazardous to your health. One example of a good time to use phasers is when fighting a (clued) heavy ship that you have severely damaged; he goes into Warp-2-Extreme-Dodge-Mode and is difficult to hit with torps. Destroyer plasmas are a joke. Don't even bother with them unless you're really bored. They do 2.5 torpedoes worth of damage and cost almost 11 torps worth of fuel. Remember that this fuel is your most critical resource. There's not much to say about DD tractors/pressors that doesn't apply to any other ship type. Remember that they are fairly weak in this case, but they're not too weak to be useful. ADVANCED/SCENARIO-DEPENDANT TACTICS Planet taking: It is undoubtedly a controversial opinion, but I find the DD to be the best overall planet-taking vessel. Because of its high speed, a DD is usually able to pick up armies and run for an enemy planet within 30 seconds of getting a kill, which does not take long, especially with damaged, scavengable enemies floating around. Hill's DD guide cites the 5-army capacity as a disadvantage. This is illusory since during a "real" game the following generalizations are (usually) true: 1) Your team doesn't have more than 5 accessible armies. 2) You don't have enough kills to carry 5 armies. 3) You're a fool to carry more than 5 armies anyway. When taking a planet, take your time. Of course, you should *always* be cloaked. Zoom around the planet for a while; let the enemy shoot at you a bit. Go in and drop when you see an opening. In a destroyer at warp 3 or 4 you can stay cloaked and keep dodging torps for quite a while. Don't get hit, though, because if you do, you'll get phaser locked, which basically means instant death at that proximity. You can afford to drop some armies on a planet, leave it to avoid torps, and then re-orbit to drop the rest. You can afford to change your mind and zoom off to take a different planet than the one you originally intended; even clued opponents may not notice until a little too late, and will probably be too slow to stop you. This works well with core worlds. People often say that it's dumb to cloak on the same screen as the enemy, but you can get away with it in a destroyer. It can be useful to do this if you need the extra fuel for extended cloak distance. If you're trying to take one of a few remaining core worlds, the enemy is going to see you coming anyway; you won't be giving away any "surprise factor" by waiting to cloak. If, on the other hand, the element of surprise is what you're really after, then start your cloak run when out of enemy scanner range. This generally only works versus a weak team because when playing a strong one, you won't be able to get out of scanner range and stay that way for long. If you can do it, though, you can usually stop at a friendly fuel planet along the way; remember that when cloaked you are not detectable until you are very close to the enemy, so you can afford to stop without being seen. Defending: Hill's DD guide states that the DD is a "powerful defender". This is partly true. The destroyer can be useful in terms of light space control and as a deterrant; however, they are not very useful for general planet defense. It is difficult for a DD to put out enough damage to kill a cloaked heavy ship and escort in a time-urgent situation (e.g. they are taking a planet), especially if the DD is not fully fueled. The best way for a DD to defend is to make sure the enemy doesn't have any armies. Ogging: Destroyers can be good ogging ships because they are so maneuverable and so fast. An ogging DD should match velocity with its target and uncloak directly on top of it to achieve maximum phaser damage. DDs can also be effective at something I have termed the "Fool's Ogg" for lack of a better name. A DD will generally engage in a fool's ogg when the target is deep within its core worlds surrounded by many defenders; the DD does not expect to kill the target. It cloaks far out (by necessity to avoid being destroyed by the target's teammates) and, by the time it reaches the target (having been cloaked a long time and dodging energetically to avoid being squished), the destroyer uncloaks on the target with about 1000 fuel remaining. This is generally enough fuel to do a moderate amount of damage to the enemy, as well as causing him to use up much of his own fuel. A good series of 5 or 6 fool's oggs will keep the target and 2 or 3 opponents busy refueling, repairing, and generally watching for you, while the rest of your team has a corresponding numbers advantage. It will, of course, hose your ratio, if you care about that sort of thing. Lag: Network lag is very dangerous to a destroyer, because the lag effectively steals the destroyer's maneuverability, which is its main defense. Most ships can afford to take a few torps when lagged, but a destroyer will go foom. Note also that lag can work especially to your advantage if it is present on both sides (or only the enemy side). If a destroyer quickly changes direction and accelerates right before a fit of lag, the enemy will not notice the change until some time has passed; by then, it is too late for the enemy to catch up unless they are flying a light ship. Morale: Destroyers can be effective morale weapons. The destroyer's high speed and refueling rates give you the ability to be in the enemy's face constantly. They are generally looked down upon but can be *very* dangerous, especially when underestimated. A big cruiser or battleship who is constantly being obliterated by this small craft can become frustrated and/or depressed. One of the most effective things a DD can do morale-wise is to cloak and dodge torps being fired by 4 or 5 enemies. When they fire and fire and *cannot* hit you, they will generally begin to panic. It can be very frustrating for an enemy to throw lots of torps at you only to watch you "effortlessly" dodge them with your _shields_down_. Keep watch over your own morale. You have to remain fairly wired to fly a destroyer combat-effectively. If you keep getting blown away and become tired and/or frustrated that you are unable to get a kill, take a break. Fly a different ship for a while. ------------------------------ End of PLAYING DD (ALTERNATE) *****************************