Tuesday, December 13, 2011

StarHawk Corner - Jetpack Tango


The Rocketeer vs Ground Troop

By Erebus-of-Dark
Edited by Guardian_Bob

Jetpacks have an advantage over troops. Why shouldn't they? They paid the Rift for the advantage. Players can only obtain a jetpack through buying, not through dropped items. That being said, there are some ways for a single troop to survive against the jetpack.

  1. Be aware!
    • Jetpacks are always shown on the maps when flying, whether they are shooting or not. This gives a ground troop a good opportunity to spot incoming jetpacks from across the map. More importantly when you're not getting hit, and you see a red dot on the mini-map that is moving fast, it is almost surely a jetpack. If it is coming straight at you, they are probably moving in for the melee or shotgun kill.
  2. Evade!
    • If you see that red dot coming straight at you and your back is turned, don't look at it like some gawking teenager. Let then get in close. only when they are pretty close should you start strafing and turning. If they came in for that melee you need to wait till they commit and you can follow up with your own melee. If this fails they'll be much closer to the ground and you can follow up with the shotgun. The key is letting them think they are getting an easy kill unnoticed.
  3. Stay at range
    • If a jetpack attacks you from a distance, you can use your sprint to evade their fire. Doing so makes you just as hard of a target to hit as they are. Zig-zag and move away. When you become harder to hit, the jetpack usually becomes easier to hit back as they tend to stay still as they aim. This puts you on even ground as they can't move up and down as much, just like you. Most jetpackers will close in, rather than try to aim and lose maneuverability. If instead they move in close you need to keep sprinting away without taking fire which should give you lots more time to find cover. As they keep closing they will get faster, so keep strafing.
  4. Find cover
    • When you get a jetpack on your tail, find cover quick. This gives you a spot to recover, keeping you in the fight longer. Also it will narrow the field of fire making the jetpack come at you at only certain angles which reduces the benefit of his mobility. If you can only both shoot each other face to face, the playing field is level.
  5. Threaten
    • So far this has been a lot of running around and hiding, how about we fight back? First step is to threaten. That may mean making the fight long distance and firing with your rifle (if they are shooting you with one, remember they are now a lot easier to target). Or it might mean blasting a few random shotgun blasts when the jetpack gets close. It might even mean dumb-firing an RPG in jetpack's direction if you don't have time for a lock to at least let him know you got an RPG. The trick is, don't concentrate on getting the kill, instead concentrate on staying alive. Dodge first, fire second. This is a battle of attrition, the longer you last, the more you will hinder your target. Many jetpacks will try to hit unsuspecting troops en-route as an easy kill, so your goal is to prove that you're not an easy kill. The jetpack will likely move along to their original objective.
  6. Survive
    • Doesn't sound very impressive, but this is the key to winning against jetpacks. They have limited fuel for all that flying around. If you can stay alive long enough at some point you will see the Jetpacker do one of two obvious things:
      1. Go to ground (with some obvious sputtering of engines, showing his fuel is actually gone).
      2. Fly straight as a shot to a higher ground.
  7. Return Fire
    • If he landed on your ground without fuel, they are now a troop just like you. Time to show him the folly of their ways, as they are weak to all the same troop to troop attacks. If they tried to fly away and you have the RPG this is likely your only shot at getting a kill so use it. You can also use the Rifle here as players tend to seek high ground in a straight line.
  8. Move on
    • If they escape you to higher ground, congratulations. You've survived against a superior force in one on one combat. Now it is time to go back to your objective. Unless you are defending, a jetpack will not hunt you down specifically again. They will continue their own mission in frustration that they lost a supposedly easy kill.

Did you know

  • Did you know that mines will jump from your hawk to a turret? You can take one out without missing a beat if you're careful.
  • Did you know you can hawk stomp an auto turret? Not sure if you're supposed to, but you can.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

StarHawk Corner - Newbie Help


A quick note here from now until the 21st I'll be moving, so StarHawk Corner posts may not happen as quickly as they were last week.

Just Starting in StarHawk?

This post is dedicated to you and trying to bring you into what's going on with this beta. So let's start out, this beta isn't like a normal beta. Most betas these days are glorified demos. They are meant to help find some bugs, but generally not much more than that.

StarHawk is different in this respect. The developers are looking for much more. They are tweaking everything from weapon balance to actual game mechanics. What that means is you, new recruit, can't sit on your butt and not participate.

Crashes

So the first stop on this tour will be about crashes. They will happen, your PS3 will freeze. So back up your saved games now. When the game freezes or crashes, you may have to hold the power button on your PS3 to reset it. When your PS3 comes back up, it will ask if you'd like to send a crash report to Sony. Say yes.

Let me repeat that, if asked to send a crash report to Sony say YES.

The crash reports are used by developers to identify what's wrong and why the crash happened. They are vital to developers.

Forums

You'll be expected to participate in the forums. Please do so, here's a link: http://community.us.playstation.com/community/games/shooter/starhawk/starhawk_beta

Don't worry, that link only works for PSNs that are actually in the beta. Now before you go shooting your mouth off, there's a couple of things you need to do. First look to the right of the posts, there are subspaces. Are you in the right one for what you want to talk about? If you're talking about weapons, that probably doesn't belong in the general discussion. If instead you're talking about something that cuts across multiple sections or general game play, yes the top level forum is probably good for that.

Second, look to see if someone has posted something similar. It happens a lot, and there are already a lot of posts. If so, don't start a new topic, add to the existing one first. If you do need to start a new topic make your title descriptive.

Finally, this is a place to share opinions and ideas, but doing so without justification is generally frowned upon. If you don't like something, say why. If you can't say why, at least try to give the devs an idea of what's really the problem. Here's an example:

Shotgun Sucks (BAD)
The shotgun is over powered (BETTER)
The power of the shotgun when at a medium range is too much. It can go further than the rifle and cause more damage. (BEST)

Note, the last one tells what is wrong and why. The first one does nothing to help.

Bugs

If you're playing, you might stumble upon a bug. I know, heaven forbid, but it might just happen. You can go to the forums and complain or you can file a bug report and have it fixed. There is a special subspace for bugs and a sticky post on how to post a bug. Do start a new topic for new bugs or if it is already existing and you feel you have extra detail to add, add it. "Me too" isn't any extra detail. Take pictures and video if you can, and attempt to repeat the bug before posting. (If you can't repeat it, do post anyways.)

Thursday, December 1, 2011

StarHawk Corner - Being Sneaky


Sneaky Uses for Things

There are some tricks people should try out. These come from the space map. The first is a set of platforms under the map. Grab a jetpack and go for them. You can sneak across the map into the enemy base without drawing a lot of attention.

Three hops and you should be grabbing their flag.

Just know you can't use the same way out.
Additionally, in Space you can land on the asteroids. Why might you want to become a sitting duck?

To plant some mines of course. Throw them all around, and then get out of there.

These tips come from Seventy_X_Seven and LeatherHeart respectively. Also MadProffeser points out you can land your hawk in a couple of places under space, so you can use your repair tool.

1.0.5 Update

Yesterday saw another new release from LBI. Those guys can churn out builds. The major changes were to limit the range of the shotgun while increasing the range of the rifle. Accuracy and spread of the rifle were not affected. This leads some players to complain the wrong portion was changed; however, it would be best to wait for hard numbers to confirm or deny the effects of this change.

Did you know

  • Did you know that on the Acid Sea bridges, there are two levels? Not sure what it is useful for yet, except avoid jeeps/detection
  • Did you know you can't jump out of a flying hawk, even in mech mode? You'll get a can't dismount prompt
  • Did you know the first bullet of a rifle burst is always dead center? Just wait long enough between bursts to have it trigger
  • Did you know the rifle does more damage against the head? Pop off a few rounds, and check it out.
  • Did you know the rifle is fairly effective against the auto turret? Make sure you wait between bursts, and aim for that red light.
  • Did you know the jetpack has limited fuel? Watch it and don't run out!
  • Did you know you can't auto scrub missles in the warning phase? Even changing into a mech won't scrub them. The only way to get rid of them is to dump a flare or have them hit something else.
 
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