| Author |
ICC Jump Cruiser; Deployment and Utility |
Bardiche
Chief Marshal
Joined: November 16, 2006
Posts: 1247
|  Posted: 2008-06-07 21:23
(Been a while, eh?)
ICC have been long reknown for boasting an army of Cruisers. From the useless Wormhole Generation Cruiser to the favored Heavy Cruiser. Most people stick to Assault Cruiser and Heavy Cruiser for combat. I'm going to offer you my view of a vessel that can be used as well: An alternative to the Heavy Cruiser. The Jump Cruiser modded for battle.
Requirements:
Rank: 1st Rear Admiral
Badges: I forget.
Tech level: ??
Resources:
Don't know from the top of my head. : (
Mounts and Standard Components:
(note that these values may be off: the arcs I am 100% on, the devices I am not)
(#, mount type, stock components, arcs)
(F=fore, A=aft, L=left, R=right, Full=F/A/L/R)
1x Jump Drive I slot
*1x Tachyon Drive (A)
3x Drive slots
*3x IE Drive (A)
4x Armour slots
*1x Standard Armour (F)
*1x Standard Armour (L)
*1x Standard Armour (R)
*1x Standard Armour (A)
4x Shield slots
*1x Reactive Shield (F)
*1x Reactive Shield (L)
*1x Reactive Shield (R)
*1x Reactive Shield (A)
4x Special I slots
*1x Auxiliary Power Generator (Full)
*1x ECM (F/L/R)
*1x Scanner (F/L/R)
*2x ECCM (F/L/R)
8x Standard Mount
*2x Standard Chemical Laser (Full)
*1x Standard Chemical Laser (F/L)
*1x Standard Chemical Laser (F/R)
*1x Railgun (F/R)
*1x Railgun (F/L)
*1x Railgun (A/L)
*1x Railgun (A/R)
5x Standard Launcher Mount
*1x AR Missile (F)
*1x AR Missile (F/R)
*1x AR Missile (F/L)
*1x IT Missile (F/L)
*1x IT Missile (F/R)
2x Bomb Rack
*1x MiRV Bomb (F/L)
*1x MiRV Bomb (F/R)
Outfitting
Okay, the Jump Cruiser... If you just read the above arcs, you should notice one thing. This thing has five front-mounted standard launchers. That's as much as the Assault Cruiser. Throw in five fusion torps if you want, or any other torp: I prefer fusion.
Generically you always put P Cannons in each slot, although I advise keeping one Full slot for a beacon or pulse beam. Really, you can put one of those in whichever slot you want, but full usually works best.
Toss in three Aux Gens into your killer machine, and leave the last slot open for an ECCM. Why ECCM? Well, against those pesky ECM'ed Heavy Supplies and Scouts and Frigates, of course. If you feel you -need- that En Regen, put a fourth Aux Generator. Generally I don't feel it is warranted.
Three IE Drives. I hate faction shopping, and so should you; But put whatever Drives you want, so long as it isn't AFE. Generally, IE Drives do the trick.
Armor: Reflective if you are being a badass enough dude to fight K'Luth, otherwise, keep Standard. Why Standard? Cover it in a sec.
Racks: Keep as is, or change to Neuts. You're only bombing as a secondary goal here.
Usage
From its flavor text, the Jump Cruiser is meant to engage foes in space while lending support to ground troops. In DarkSpace terms, this means you get to pewpewpew and boomboomboom all in one vessel. You know how they say bombing draws out combat?
And how you need a combat ship to do combat? This Cruiser combines that, so make use of it.
The primary role of this ship will be to draw out combat for the allies, and engage the enemy when they engage you. By no means does this mean to imply you are going to SUCCESFULLY bomb: I mean, leave that to dedicated bombers.
For the rest, it functions pretty much as an Assault Cruiser with rear armor, less pcannons, better energy management.
Ingress
Ingress is, as always, simple. You select a point relevant to the battle zone, jump in, go pewpewpew at whatever bears a red diamond. Since you are also a bomber, Ingress can also be perceived at sticking a suitable distance away from the planet as you unleash your bombing fury on those defenseless peasants.
I should scrap this section from future guides, methinks. It's kind of... Well, duncey, don't you think?
Deployment
Deploying a Jump Cruiser is really only if you feel that you need to bomb alongside combat. As far as damage output goes, it's less than the Heavy Cruiser (lacking that rear-torp really does matter, depending on your fighting style), and also less than the Assault Cruiser.
So if it's raw damage output you want: Stop reading here. You're looking at the wrong ship! If you want a multi-performable ship that can draw out combat, keep reading.
Engagement
Engagement is as any battle ship. I won't go into detail of battle strategy: I feel that I am not qualified to tell you how to fly, because my record of flight sure ain't impressive.
What I will tell you is to remember your mounts in combat. Assuming you have one full slot for beacon/pulse: You have three guns firing to the back, with a little tilting you can get two extra guns and two torpedoes to fire at an enemy behind you as well. You have five guns facing forward, with five torpedoes to accompany them. Two torpedoes to the side, with four cannons.
This means you are well-covered on each side, although rear is really your weakest point in terms of direct damage dealing. Treat this ship as an Assault Cruiser, but remember that you can make use of that armor you have.
A tiny little trick I want to impart: Remember how I said to keep Reflective or Standard? Before taking any damage, disable your shields. Let your armor soak up some 20% damage to one or two sides, and then turn them back on. While your shields prevent further damage to armor, your armor regens: Giving you the advantage of lasting maybe one or two volleys longer. It also conserves energy. Hooray!
Planetary Engagement
Even though you are a Bomber, you aren't really engaging the planet. Fly at the planet from a reasonable distance (about 2k), and make sure it notices you. Lob some bombs in its general direction. A planet under possible siege by a Bomber usually draws foes to you like I don't know what. Make sure not to enter the dictor range and be prepared to jump to 3k away from the planet, so you can engage at ease without worrying your head over silly missile spam.
Additionally, if you face some prebuild/defenseless/low pop planets, you can also use this vessel to go cap some planets in the name of the ICC, all the while standing by for combat. Attacking defenseless planets also calls others to arms.
[u]Egress[/u]
JUMP Cruiser. You jump. This is what you do. Face away from planets, stars and interdictors, hit Shift + J when you feel uncomfortable. Turn up engines to full speed, go hard to the left or right. Plot a jump to a new location, jump.
If by then an enemy saw you, repeat the process until you can jump away without an enemy near you: That throws off most trackers.
/////
So there you have it. The Jump Cruiser can perform well enough in battle: It can fight Torpedo Cruisers, Scales, Battle Cruisers, Battle Dreads and probably a bunch of other things as well. Though this ship lacks a rear-mounted standard launcher for the popular "catch my tail" strategy, it can serve well enough in such moments to do good damage. Its five front-mounted torps make it suitable to assault an enemy in Assault Cruiser style, while generating distance from that same enemy again can now be done with both rear armor and more cannonfire to your rear.
(: Yeah, I don't think this guide is as good as any of the others (Really, combat ships are pretty generic), but I just thought i'd point out to all those ICCers out there that there's more Cruisers than just Heavy and Assault.
//edit: aw darnit, I forgot to remove the [u] tags again!
[ This Message was edited by: Bardiche on 2008-06-07 21:34 ]
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DMC-13
Admiral
Evil Empires Inc.
Joined: February 16, 2008
Posts: 187
From: Huntington Beach, California, USA
| Posted: 2008-06-07 22:34
Wow Bard, excellent info. I'll try it out next time I play as ICC. I don't suppose you'd have a set up like that for K'Luth would you?
DMC-13
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Bardiche
Chief Marshal
Joined: November 16, 2006
Posts: 1247
| Posted: 2008-06-07 22:40
I so seldom play K'Luth, and given that I am PB now I can't idly switch factions just to tinker how the K'uth ships work.
Moreover, I'm a straight to the face sort of person. I don't like this cloaking and sneaking around. Sorry! Try asking some of the K'Luth regulars.
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_x$witchBladex_ [1.480 Fanboy]
Grand Admiral
Joined: February 26, 2003
Posts: 849
From: Upstate New York
| Posted: 2008-06-07 23:05
Quote:
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On 2008-06-07 22:34, DMC-13 wrote:
Wow Bard, excellent info. I'll try it out next time I play as ICC. I don't suppose you'd have a set up like that for K'Luth would you?
DMC-13
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There really isn't anything you can do as K'luth in this version other than use the Scale and possibly some Dreads if you are smart. For the most part you want to outfit all normal disruptors with cannons (particle/psi) and have torps for heavy attacks.
Previously, it depended on the ship and your fighting style...but alas we don't have that pleasure anymore.
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Admiral Ackbar
Ensign
Joined: March 26, 2008
Posts: 108
From: Home One
| Posted: 2008-06-08 07:10
JC!!! i have 3 set ups for the jump cruiser
Setup 1 PD Bomber JC Level6:
- 2x MiRVs lvl6
- 4x Standard Armor lvl10
- 4x Reactive Shields lvl10
- 2x IE Drives lvl10
- 1x PFE Drive lvl10
- 5x IT Missles lvl6
- 8x Pulse Beams lvl6
- 2x ECM lvl4
- 2x Aux Power Gen lvl4
- 1x Tachyon JD lvl10
Setup 2 PD Bomber JC ECM:
- 2x Nuetron Bomb lvl 0
- 4x Standard Armor lvl10
- 4x Reactive Shields lvl10
- 3x PFE Drive lvl10
- 5x IT Missles lvl6
- 8x Pulse Beams lvl6
- 4x ECM lvl4
- 1x Tachyon JD lvl10
Setup 3 Combat Bomber JC:
- 2x Nuetron Bombs lvl 0
- 4x Standard Armor lvl 10
- 4x Reactive Shields lvl 10
- 3x IE Drives lvl 10
- 5x Fusion Torpedos lvl 6
- 8x Particle Cannon lvl6
- 4x Aux Power Gen lvl4
- 1x Tachyon JD lvl10
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Fornax
Marshal
Raven Warriors
Joined: April 30, 2002
Posts: 906
From: Jacksonville, FL
| Posted: 2008-08-04 09:28
Looks like something interesting to try - I've been experimenting for awhile with Border Cruisers for the same reason - the number of torp slots. Really, it hasn't been a bad experience. If anything, the ship has survived longer than my straight Heavy Cruiser.
Nax
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