Tactical Discussion

[HCarbonic]

I want to pick up where the gameplay trailer left off. It has been confirmed that before matches your squadron of 5 will develop a tactic in a briefing room. I want to not only speculate how that works, but also some tactics. Maybe if we get enough I can make a “playbook” with tactics and link it to these forums. 

Briefing room: will we be talking via heat sets, typed messages or pre set messages that say stuff like “I agree” and “flank this way”. And will we still have access to these features during flight to better coordinate attacks and regroup?

Tactics: I’m expecting to see a variety of unique and smart tactics in the game. These could be using bait, the use of tractor and laser beams, using cloud and asteroid cover, flanking, speeding up and slowing down, and many more but combined in different ways.

So, what do you guys expect for the briefing room and think tactical wise?

[DarthN3fari0us]

I'm expecting the holotable will show a breakdown of the objectives (weaknesses/defenses etc) and the general layout of the battle space so attack/defense approaches can be developed/agreed upon (which will then the squad makeup and starfighter loadouts), I doubt we'll get info about the opposing teams starfighter loadouts, and am curious if that's something that will be adaptable to (whether by returning to a command ship or by dying).

Based on the loadout screen the pops up briefly during the trailer, there is going to be a considerable amount of tactics that may be employed and that's AFTER determining which class of the four fighters will get the additional slot (since the squad size is 5).

I'm sure it will be all over headsets rather than canned messages, since there's a lot of information to consider.

This aspect of the game is something I'm very much looking forward to.

[HCarbonic]

@DarthN3fari0us With your first point, I’d doubt that we’ll be taken through all weaknesses and strengths through each briefing, as it will get old easily. And the problem with microphones/headsets is that some people in the squad might not have one, meaning they can’t communicate. It’s going to be interesting to see wether “wing mates” form, where a bomber or support could be protected by a fighter or interceptor, or even a bomber supported by the rest of the team if they want to do an approach where they can easily kill the other team, while one of them takes out the capital ships.

[DarthN3fari0us]

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@HCarbonic wrote:
@DarthN3fari0usWith your first point, I’d doubt that we’ll be taken through all weaknesses and strengths through each briefing, as it will get old easily. 

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It's really too early to say this.  Given the limited amount of modes and maps there is a distinct possibility that there will be modifiers to keep things fresh (at least I would hope).  I was going to mention in my first comment that we simply don't have enough information at this time to make any decent predictions about how this will work, but decided not to, I just based my comment on what we saw in the gameplay reveal.

I mean, yeah, some people may not have headsets, but I have a feeling they're going to want to get one, or risk being alienated from squads.  Given that everything is inside the cockpit and keeping a close eye on systems is going to be critical to gameplay there aren't many decent ways they could add a text box UI that won't be detrimental.  Don't really see canned voice lines being an option here either, as it would be a waste of inputs that are likely already mapped elsewhere (it would be really nice to know what kind of control mapping we're looking at).

Yeah, it's definitely going to be fun to see the different squad make ups.  I really can't wait for this game.

[HCarbonic]

@DarthN3fari0us I meant for the text boxes to be within the briefing room. Other than tactics, the rest of the briefing room will pretty much be flexing skins.
I just thought of a good way for the briefing to work: if we had a map of the enemies capital ships, and everyone can talk of the plan, then everyone can say whether they are ready or not. If everyone is ready it goes to the next phase of planning or whatever.
And what do you mean by modifiers? Do you mean community events like seen in Battlefront 2? Or people can play different types of the mode, like the Hardcore mode that was revealed in an interview?
Canned voice lines would not be the best option by far, but it could be all that some people have

[DarthN3fari0us]

@HCarbonic No, nothing like in BF2, I expect this is a considerably different experience much closer to a proper space sim than the arcade nature of BF2.

I mean things like entry points into the battle areas (hyperspacing in), different defensive layouts or defenses altogether (changing laser turrets to missile turrets etc), different patrol paths for capital ships and fighters (A.I. units) stuff like that.

Again, it's really hard to lay things down for this thread until we know more about the game.

[HCarbonic]

@DarthN3fari0us Ahh, when you said modifiers I though you meant modifying the game itself instead of how you play. It would be great to respawn in any side hanger of any capital ship that you like, and it would be crucial for defence and attack simultaneously. When I compared it to BF2 I wasn’t comparing how the game played, but nodding towards community events like Triple XP, and Fast Spawn.

[Topper_Harley_BR]

I think the briefing room is going to be something like the pre games on mobas, where everyone is selecting their ships and loadouts (heroes on mobas). So i think we might be able to see that the enemy is selecting as well, and then try to counterbalance.

As for tactics im trying to find info on fighter jet tactics that might be useful. I watched a video about su25s the other day, which are heavier planes, and they would go on duos, and one would go on a bombing run while the other would stay high and watching for enemy fighters. Its the type of thing that i think we can put in use, just making some adaptations. But still, we need to see how the game is going to play out.

[HCarbonic]

@Topper_Harley_BR Yeah, I’m almost certain that we’ll be choosing loadouts for the particular maps and tweaking them to suit the team strat. And thanks for the tactic, I had never though of checking tactics used in aircraft in wars. Some of them are so simple yet effective, and others can be devastating if pulled off well.

[HCarbonic]

To revive this thread a bit
- Try spinning (it's a good trick)
- Check out some of GreenFoxLeader's threads on these forums, he's gone deeper than I probably possibly could