De-Noobify me

[Kongstad]

Never expected me to make a thread like this... *sigh*

But it's needed!
Since I've joined you guys on Spanish side I've quickly learned that you guys are a bit more dedicated to this game than my previous British guild. That's nice and dandy, feels like Old RL again back in Planetside before WoW tainted us :cool:

Anyway, back in the day I could sit and dedicate 8-10 hours a day to play mmo's. Especially back in the Planetside days. But now that has changed. I cant play everyday anymore, unless I sneak out of bed when the miss is asleep ;) Which sucks cause will take me months to get to 50 and even then I don't know how much of an asset I can be to the Legion.

So Im so freaking confused when you guys talk refits, 4th rates, ships of the line and generic pvp tactics. Ive been reading through most of the threads on this forum and recent threads on the Roberts forums in a attempt to try and understand most all these things. But so far the only tactic I know off is the carribean Handbreak ;D

What are refits.
What ships should I go for next? Stralsund ? Im almost 22
What are ship of the line's purpose? Other than acting as an orbital strike?
What marks/comms should I save?
What strategies / methods of approach to PvP do we use?
How can I help out with resource gathering? Someone said it was better to turn in cash but I dont really have that much after buying my locust sleek corvette.
How do ports go into contention exactly ( read the prima guide.. but yeah its dodgy )
How do we stop it?

Thats all I could come up with for now. I think I got most other things under control and I finally learned not to block other peoples firing side ;) ( I did it once okay! :P )

[Gunhead]

Nice to have aboard again Kong. It's a pretty common thing nowadays for 'gades not having that much time on their hands. People've gotten hitched, spawned fresh newbs, moved from being students to worker bees and so forth. Sometimes we nip more time to feed the gaming beast within and sometimes we don't have time to play at all. Such is life, years roll, geezers talk :p

I'll try and give some insight on the stuff you've asked about:

What are refits.
Refits are improved variants of the "stock" ships. When people are talking about refits most of the time they mean the career specific upgrades. For example the first career refit for privateers is the Expedition Packet-Boat at rank 17, which is a variant of the Hermes Packet-Boat. You get these refit ships by bringing a ship deed (NOTE: it has to be a deed, if you've already launched the ship you can't refit it) and the appropriate refit writ to your career house in San Juan. The refit writs you can get for Marks of Victory and/or Magistrate's Marks of Favour from Admiralty Office in San Juan.

What ships should I go for next? Stralsund ? Im almost 22
The next most suitable/popular ship classes to get are for a privateer the Cerberus frigate at 27 (or the Arrow privateer frigate - which is a refit from the Cerb - at 29) and for a naval officer the Stralsund frigate at 27 (or the Falcon naval frigate - again a refit - at 29).

What are ship of the line's purpose? Other than acting as an orbital strike?
Like the name indicates ships of the line (SoL for short) are the backbone of a line fighting formation. They're basically mobile (kinda mobile anyways...) gun emblacements with firepower and armour that surpass every other ship in the game. Ships of the line come in four "rates" depending on the number of guns on them and are at their best in big fleet manouvers: port battles. Their slow speed and lack of manouverability make them a rather poor choice for open sea operations.

What marks/comms should I save?
Check the appropriate hand-in dude in your career house in San Juan (Naval HQ for NO's, House of Marque for privs) to see what you'd like to save them for. Marks of Victory you should save for refit ships mainly, Royal commendations are used to get the end-of-the-line ships.

What strategies / methods of approach to PvP do we use?
Depends on the squadron composition and even then it varies. One key thing is to stick together and form up in a line. It allows ships to cover behind each other if they're taking heavy damage. Most importantly one guy calls the shots and you make 'em as called, Planetside squad discipline. Don't go prancing about on your own unless free formation's called. An isolated ship is as good as sunk.

How can I help out with resource gathering? Someone said it was better to turn in cash but I dont really have that much after buying my locust sleek corvette.
Check with Volw. Contributing to the production chain you don't have to bother about buying ships, they'll be provided by the Legion. If there's no room for building assignment in the chain you're best off shoveling money to Volw and Fluf, keep pocket chance of 3-5k db and give the lads the rest. If you don't contribute you don't get ships from the Legion yards, simple as.

How do ports go into contention exactly ( read the prima guide.. but yeah its dodgy )
Ports go into contention by building unrest on them. This is done by either doing the hand-in/blockade missions available from the Rebel Agents in enemy ports or by sinking ships belonging to that nation outside the port (you have to be within the port's "SOI" for the kill to add to unrest, roughly no further than 50 miles from the port).

Once the unrest hits 5000 a Pirate PvP zone with 50 mile radius will pop around the port. In that zone pirates and privateer with Sanctioned Piracy skill can engage (and be engaged by) all other players regardless if they're PvP-flagged or not. A single player kill in the zone adds to unrest about 5 to 10 times more than an NPC kill.

Once the unrest hits 7000 the Pirate zone blooms into a full red zone. This zone has two perimeters: inner full PvP zone extending out 50 miles in which anyone can attack any enemy player and outer Pirate zone extending out 100 miles which has the same engagement rules as described above.

Once the unrest hits 10000 the port goes into battle mode: a port battle is scheduled to take place 48 hours from the moment the port "flipped", the winner of that battle claims the port for their nation. In battle mode you can still build up points for your nation on the port 'cept it's now conquest points which can be used prior to the battle to get advantages for your side.

Who gets to participate in the battle is decided by lottery where your Personal Contention Points for that port act as tickets - the more you have, the better your chances to get an invite. Personal Contention Points = the unrest points you contributed + the conquest points you contributed.

How do we stop it?
By trying to lower the unrest by doing hand-in/patrol missions in the port available at the Garrison Commander or by sinking ships of the attacking nation (or pirates, afaik sinking pirates reduces unrest regardless the attacker) outside the port.

[DarthS]

Don't feel too out of touch; most of us played the beta so we had a headstart. I think a lot of people are in the same boat, as they can't play as much they'd like too (we're all getting old :(). But as the XP you get from grinding NPCs depends on your rank and ship compared to theirs, a lowbie in a group with high-level Renegades grinding on groups of level 50 NPCs is going to soot up the ranks.

Ships of the Line (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_the_line) are called that after the style of fighting of the era, which was always done in line formation (see Guns guide (http://forums.renegade-legion.org/showthread.php?t=11220)on how we use it in the Legion). 1st, 2nd and 3rd Rates are stupidly expensive (millions of doubloons) so you'll rarely see them outside of port battles. 4th Rates are more affordable, and will probably be standard PvP ships for high level players (I think Seph has one already).

[Kongstad]

"Basically to start we see how our ships "spawn" into the fight and call the shots from there. Squadron leader will check who's in a "natural" point spot and calls to form up on him. That ship will be the point ship in the line and will on call drop to battle sails (hit "b" or adjust your sails below the line two thirds up your sail/speed indicator) while other ships make their best speed to form up behind him. Don't try to pick a spot, go where your ship's initial position would place you compared to other ships in the squadron."


Battle sails? also heard someone talk about dropping anchor. All I know off for navigating is WASD...

Explain please :P

And thanks for the excellent answers. Im already digging through it all like a hungry whore ( Like rebel )

[Gunhead]

Battle sails means you've dropped some sails (below the line two 3rd's up on your sail & speed indicator bar on ship panel) so they'll take less damage from enemy fire.

It was a thought for a long time that as long as you've set your sails below that line your ship was considered to run at battle sails but recently there was a word from devs that it isn't infact the case. To get the sail/mast "defence bonus" from dropping to battle sails you'll have to lower your sails below the line enough to see the animation of actually lowering the sails on your ship.

So the info and hitting 'b' isn't valid anymore as it doesn't actually take you to "real" battle sails (pressing 'b' takes the sail indicator below the line but if you look at your ship all sails stay up).

[Guy]

Another noob question - how long should I stick with the starting boat? Seems good enough for what I'm doing now, but clearly going to be rubbish in the not-too-distant future.

[Gunhead]

Up to you basically. Stick with it as long as you feel confident for it to be able to handle the job (missions mainly). Peg stuck with his indestructible La Belle until rank 21 when got a Postillionen frigate.

[Kongstad]

Leo I cant wait with toys so I got the bermuda sloop, then the mediator cutter and finally locust corvette. As soon as I could. But now I got powerlevelled I went from the starter ship to the mediator cutter ( Used the mediator for solo missions and then newb ship when getting powerlevelled )

Then finally my real ship the locust sleek corvette here at lvl 20.

I have noticed before that some sails was spread out and some wasnt. But okay now i know that. The line guide was really awesome too. Should be stickied in the potbs forum. I meant to post this thread in there too but somehow placed it out here. Maybe someone should move it to that forum incase of snoopers :D

[Flufball]

Roughly you can stick in your basic ship till you hit 20ish and from then on you'll want something bigger. If you need something inbetween you're best off going for a civvie ship (that is - a ship bought from the ship-deed person in the shop, these are classed as civilian ships and are weaker than their player made counterparts).

[Volw]

actually, bermuda sloops go for like 5-6k off the market and it might be a good investment at lvl 8.

[Hovis]

The Booby is a great ship to power level in.

1. You can get anywhere very fast.

2. It's very low level so it gains XP well.

3. It will usually survive a murphy spawn.

Get one, freeload off a high level XP group (nobody will mind), you'll gain half a dozen levels at a sitting. Edited to add, carry nothing but a little ammo. More room for loot. There will be loot.

[DarthS]

Battle sails? also heard someone talk about dropping anchor. All I know off for navigating is WASD...

Explain please :P

Just to clarify, the effect is that at full speed your sails will take more damage from enemy fire and your guns will be less accurate. Once your speed drops below the mark on the line you'll get an accuracy boost of about 5%.

[Kongstad]

I noticed that last night. Pulled of much more damage ( I.e. accuracy ) by sailing slower.

So when im powerlevelling with you lads It would be best if I was on a level 1 ship rather than a locoust corvette becuase I would get more exp on a lvl 1 ship?

*Gonna bring a desperation raft :D *

[Volw]

Well .. it's was judt pointless to buy it (for 30k!!) if you are getting pled.