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In the spirit of passing knowledge to those who might use it, here are some of my recommendations for a rather under-used ship, the lancaster.
The lanc's big weakness is that its bullets are slow and therefore easy to dodge. In general, the slower a bullet is, the more important it is to read the momentum of your target. If you fire directly at their current location from anything more than point blank range, they'll escape easily. But there are ways to work around this.
First some general guidelines though:
- Be prepared to switch between single and multifire at any moment. It seems obvious if you've spent some time in the javelin, but I don't see other lancs do it very often. When you fire a shot (single or multi), most players will expect the next shot you fire to be the same. If your first shot was a single fire, the other guy will not expect the wider coverage of a multifire immediately after. If your first shot was a multifire, the other guy will expect a certain delay before you can recharge for a second multifire shot and may leave himself open. You can often surprise him with a quick single fire shot right after the multi. No other ship can use this tactic offensively as well as the lanc.
- Avoid depleting all your energy. The lanc's second big weakness, after its slow bullets, is its slow rate of fire / energy cost per shot. Unless you really have someone cornered or are going for broke, try to leave yourself enough energy so that you can always fire one more time, or afterburn if necessary.
- Use afterburn shamelessly. The lanc has some generous afterburn time and can still fire during or immediately after a fairly long afterburn thrust. Because it's an under-used ship, fewer people have a sense of how soon you'll be able to fire vs. how long you've been afterburning, so exploit that. Right after another ship (other than spider) fires is a golden opportunity to thrust into their face and fire. Afterburn is a great way to add speed to your shots. Use it to vary the speed between shots to keep an opponent guessing. Again, other ships can do this too, but it's most tactically variable with the lanc.
- Use wall bounces for extra speed. This is a corollary of using afterburn. If you afterburn into a wall and do not release afterburn or the direction you're thrusting, the wall will give you a bounce that briefly boosts your speed. Turn as you afterburn into and then away from the wall (or afterburn going backwards), and you can fire a very fast lanc shot with this method. It may take some practice if you're not familiar with using wall bounces. Another good way to catch people off guard.
Ship to ship combat:
The third weakness of the lanc is that it takes 2 shots to kill a ship with full health. What can you do about it? Make sure you have enough energy and accuracy to hit with two quick shots, or make sure the enemy does not have full energy when you fire.
Warbird: The warbird's maneuverability and fast recharge mean that you essentially have to make the warbird miss, and shoot while he's recharging. You have enough afterburn to dodge shots beyond close range. Try to draw the shot, and keep the warbird guessing with both single and multi, and slow and fast shots. In my experience, the warbirds are most likely to fall for the quick multi + single combination. Eventually, you develop a feel for when most warbirds like to fire, and how they like to evade. Remember the importance of predicting their path, and don't expend all your energy.
Javelin: The lanc cuts through them like butter. The jav's slow recharge and maneuverability make it a pretty easy target. When under attack, most javs will fly around an obstacle or corner to safely recharge after bombing. Run them down aggressively with afterburn and wall bounces. After they have bombed, you have a long window during which a single shot will kill them, so feel free to expend a lot of energy to get in their face. If the jav rockets, use afterburn and exploit their limited turning radius while rocketing to evade the rocket shot. If you fire a multifire shot directly at them while they are rocketing directly at you, it is very difficult for them to dodge except at fairly long range. The other thing to watch out for with javs is the arse bullet defense. Avoid flying too close to the jav when going in for the kill. If a jav is flying backwards at you, move orthogonally from their trajectory.
Spider: Probably the lanc's biggest threat. I recommend mostly single fire, because multi will leave you with too little energy, compared to the energy they lose and shots they'll have left if you hit. If you miss with multi, you are completely screwed against a spider. Of course, there are exceptions - if you can fire at a spider when you know he's fired a few shots already, or he is EMPed, etc. You'll have to be tactical and clever against a spider. If you can use less energy dodging shots than they spend firing them, you'll eventually have the upper hand energy-wise. But even a crappy spider can easily take you with him if you charge with guns blazing. If you're battling in base and the other team has spiders, you won't be very effective against them.
Terrier: They have high top speed but slow acceleration, so their momentum is easier to read compared to other ships. Still, it can be hard to hit a fast ship with slow bullets, so aim and time your shots carefully. When a terrier is headed for a wall at high speed, shoot so that your bullets arrive at the wall when the terrier does. If a terrier is flying straight toward you, you can fire at them for a near-certain hit, but evade orthogonally in case they are planning to fire at you and port away. When a terrier is flying toward a bottleneck, such as the tube or in mid, you can fire a slow (backward thrust) multifire shot to spray the bottleneck for a near-certain hit.
Lanc: If you miss once, one shot will kill you. A lanc dogfight is usually about who misses first. Otherwise, there isn't much else to say that hasn't already been said. Lanc duels aren't as interesting to me as other same-ship duels...
Some other pointers that are probably obvious but I'll mention here anyway:
Use a deliberate miss to flush an enemy into a predictable path, especially if it's into a wall or corner.
You can combine a multifire shot with a single shot at a slightly different angle to create a radially expanding golden shower of lameness.
Fire while thrusting backwards for a very slow "bullet mine" shot. In open space or in the tube, fire a slow multi shot followed by a fast multi shot at the same angle to create a deadly golden wall of lameness.
Explore angles at which you can fire bullets through one-tile holes. The lanc has a unique firing pattern, which means there are shots only the lanc can make.
Practice firing "around corners" - use multifire with part of the ship's nose protruding past the corner.
When javs are bombing base from mid, or generally when the enemy team is being held at mid, warp to spawn, afterburn to mid, and spray them from beneath. One lanc cleans up a mess of javs.
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That's all I've got for now. Feel free to contribute additional tips, although I've never seen them for lanc.
Cranky vets who will only say worthless things here as usual can piss up a rope.
The lanc's big weakness is that its bullets are slow and therefore easy to dodge. In general, the slower a bullet is, the more important it is to read the momentum of your target. If you fire directly at their current location from anything more than point blank range, they'll escape easily. But there are ways to work around this.
First some general guidelines though:
- Be prepared to switch between single and multifire at any moment. It seems obvious if you've spent some time in the javelin, but I don't see other lancs do it very often. When you fire a shot (single or multi), most players will expect the next shot you fire to be the same. If your first shot was a single fire, the other guy will not expect the wider coverage of a multifire immediately after. If your first shot was a multifire, the other guy will expect a certain delay before you can recharge for a second multifire shot and may leave himself open. You can often surprise him with a quick single fire shot right after the multi. No other ship can use this tactic offensively as well as the lanc.
- Avoid depleting all your energy. The lanc's second big weakness, after its slow bullets, is its slow rate of fire / energy cost per shot. Unless you really have someone cornered or are going for broke, try to leave yourself enough energy so that you can always fire one more time, or afterburn if necessary.
- Use afterburn shamelessly. The lanc has some generous afterburn time and can still fire during or immediately after a fairly long afterburn thrust. Because it's an under-used ship, fewer people have a sense of how soon you'll be able to fire vs. how long you've been afterburning, so exploit that. Right after another ship (other than spider) fires is a golden opportunity to thrust into their face and fire. Afterburn is a great way to add speed to your shots. Use it to vary the speed between shots to keep an opponent guessing. Again, other ships can do this too, but it's most tactically variable with the lanc.
- Use wall bounces for extra speed. This is a corollary of using afterburn. If you afterburn into a wall and do not release afterburn or the direction you're thrusting, the wall will give you a bounce that briefly boosts your speed. Turn as you afterburn into and then away from the wall (or afterburn going backwards), and you can fire a very fast lanc shot with this method. It may take some practice if you're not familiar with using wall bounces. Another good way to catch people off guard.
Ship to ship combat:
The third weakness of the lanc is that it takes 2 shots to kill a ship with full health. What can you do about it? Make sure you have enough energy and accuracy to hit with two quick shots, or make sure the enemy does not have full energy when you fire.
Warbird: The warbird's maneuverability and fast recharge mean that you essentially have to make the warbird miss, and shoot while he's recharging. You have enough afterburn to dodge shots beyond close range. Try to draw the shot, and keep the warbird guessing with both single and multi, and slow and fast shots. In my experience, the warbirds are most likely to fall for the quick multi + single combination. Eventually, you develop a feel for when most warbirds like to fire, and how they like to evade. Remember the importance of predicting their path, and don't expend all your energy.
Javelin: The lanc cuts through them like butter. The jav's slow recharge and maneuverability make it a pretty easy target. When under attack, most javs will fly around an obstacle or corner to safely recharge after bombing. Run them down aggressively with afterburn and wall bounces. After they have bombed, you have a long window during which a single shot will kill them, so feel free to expend a lot of energy to get in their face. If the jav rockets, use afterburn and exploit their limited turning radius while rocketing to evade the rocket shot. If you fire a multifire shot directly at them while they are rocketing directly at you, it is very difficult for them to dodge except at fairly long range. The other thing to watch out for with javs is the arse bullet defense. Avoid flying too close to the jav when going in for the kill. If a jav is flying backwards at you, move orthogonally from their trajectory.
Spider: Probably the lanc's biggest threat. I recommend mostly single fire, because multi will leave you with too little energy, compared to the energy they lose and shots they'll have left if you hit. If you miss with multi, you are completely screwed against a spider. Of course, there are exceptions - if you can fire at a spider when you know he's fired a few shots already, or he is EMPed, etc. You'll have to be tactical and clever against a spider. If you can use less energy dodging shots than they spend firing them, you'll eventually have the upper hand energy-wise. But even a crappy spider can easily take you with him if you charge with guns blazing. If you're battling in base and the other team has spiders, you won't be very effective against them.
Terrier: They have high top speed but slow acceleration, so their momentum is easier to read compared to other ships. Still, it can be hard to hit a fast ship with slow bullets, so aim and time your shots carefully. When a terrier is headed for a wall at high speed, shoot so that your bullets arrive at the wall when the terrier does. If a terrier is flying straight toward you, you can fire at them for a near-certain hit, but evade orthogonally in case they are planning to fire at you and port away. When a terrier is flying toward a bottleneck, such as the tube or in mid, you can fire a slow (backward thrust) multifire shot to spray the bottleneck for a near-certain hit.
Lanc: If you miss once, one shot will kill you. A lanc dogfight is usually about who misses first. Otherwise, there isn't much else to say that hasn't already been said. Lanc duels aren't as interesting to me as other same-ship duels...
Some other pointers that are probably obvious but I'll mention here anyway:
Use a deliberate miss to flush an enemy into a predictable path, especially if it's into a wall or corner.
You can combine a multifire shot with a single shot at a slightly different angle to create a radially expanding golden shower of lameness.
Fire while thrusting backwards for a very slow "bullet mine" shot. In open space or in the tube, fire a slow multi shot followed by a fast multi shot at the same angle to create a deadly golden wall of lameness.
Explore angles at which you can fire bullets through one-tile holes. The lanc has a unique firing pattern, which means there are shots only the lanc can make.
Practice firing "around corners" - use multifire with part of the ship's nose protruding past the corner.
When javs are bombing base from mid, or generally when the enemy team is being held at mid, warp to spawn, afterburn to mid, and spray them from beneath. One lanc cleans up a mess of javs.
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That's all I've got for now. Feel free to contribute additional tips, although I've never seen them for lanc.
Cranky vets who will only say worthless things here as usual can piss up a rope.
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