Gar's Ultra Guide to HyperSpace v. Arnk

[Gar]

Whether you've just completed your first ship, or jumped on the bandwagon and saved up for an ad shark, you're still getting slaughtered. You seem to instadie, even though you have the almost religiously hyped AMPERE. You try to bounty in center with your warbird, only to be easily wasted by a passing ship, or you try to minibase with your spider or levi only to instadie to a decloaking shark. You can't seem to figure out why. You need:

 

GAR'S ULTRA GUIDE TO HYPERSPACE V. ARNK

 

The first lesson that all new to medium players need to learn is that they are totally wrong. Let me rephrase that: YOU are totally wrong. Listen to this MasterCard ripoff.

 

Repel: 19 dollars.

Burst: 34 dollars.

Tapping a key for invincibility or instakilling someone: Priceless.

 

The money-draining consumable items that you avoid are THE key to winning. You get $30 for a noob kill, $60 for a medium kill, $ or $90 for a kill of a real maxed out ship. It's almost magic that this perfectly equates to the cost of 1, 2, and 3 bursts. Let me state this clearly for those of you who aren't getting the picture:

 

Recharge doesn't matter.

Speed doesn't matter.

Thrust doesn't matter.

Armor doesn't matter.

Bombs definitely don't matter.

For the most part, guns don't matter either.

 

But Gar, you scoff, how can this be? And if so, what DOES matter? I'll tell you, friend!

 

Guns don't kill people. Not yours, and not primarily. You think they do, and you fire them at people, and sometimes they die, but it's not because of your guns. Guns only kill 'in combination', either in combination with a dozen other guns in a base, or in combination with the enemy's energy drain from his own actions in center. You disagree? Then think back on the last time you tried to plain gun down somebody who was only running away from you with full energy. Did it work? Probably not. Was it fun chasing them all over the map fruitlessly until you got SoP'd? No. Like I said, guns don't kill people. You should pick your gun for what it's really supposed to do: complement the other things you do. Bounce is superior, multifire is useless. Level 2 guns are the best overall, because you really want guns that don't suck with low power drain (remember, the energy you use to fire guns just gets you killed). In the end, just stick with Pulse Laser. There's no reason to get any other gun unless you're just trying to be a jerk.

 

Bombs definitely kill people, in a myriad of aggravating and inescapable ways. Wallbombing, shrap spamming, emp bouncing, thor storms... don't you freaking hate bombs? Because, of course, yours never do any of this. Only other people's bombs rape you. Yours explode harmlessly somewhere in metaphorical Siberia. Bombs still don't matter, though, because they're pretty much set for you. If you have type of ship X, you get bomb Y. In almost all cases, you should just get Salvo and be done with it. The extremely low bombdelay just can't be matched.

 

Armor doesn't matter. Most of them are pathetic. Many of them are totally undetectable by human eyes. The ones that should be good, the signatures, suffer from fatal flaws. Solid Nutronium offers a ton of cool numbers in exchange for 100k and a slower ship. Guess what? You still die instantly to bursts, which all enemy ships have. Radiating Coils cuts burst damage by half, and nullifies shrapnel. Cool right? Not really. You still get wasted by guns and bombs, and, even better, you'll just die to two bursts instead of one, which come nearly simultaneously thanks to the aforementioned Salvo. I bet you're loving these signature choices. In basing, you usually just die instantly to m!@#$%^&* spam anyway.

 

Speed, Thrust, Maxspeed, Maxthrust, Rotation... all that crap, doesn't matter. The differences are minor even in ships with great maneuverability stats like the Warbird. I drive a Spider (already the slowest ship) with -3 speed, -2 thrust, and -2 rotation. Total. Nobody can tell. In the case of the smaller faster ships, afterburners are what matter, so just get Maxwell Infusers and be done with it. Finally, all the maneuverability in the world won't help you in basing, which is what really matters.

 

Which brings me to Energy and Recharge, the field of the fabled AMPERE!!11. You hear it every day. 'I have AMPERE!!11'. 'You got AMPERE!!11 on that thing? You're so tough to kill!'. The only thing you should know about the Ampere Imploder is that you wasted your money buying one. Remember how speed, thrust, and the like don't matter? That means Resonance Sphere is 8/1 and non-sig, while Ampere is 7/7 and sig. But Gar, you say, 7+7 = 14 > 8+1 = 9!!!! That's a huge difference, right? Except, the thing is, Recharge doesn't matter. Recharge the stat matters, but +Recharge bonuses mean almost nothing. Why? Because every ship starts with 1000 to 1300 Recharge already, and adding +10 Recharge (the max) only increases your recharge about 50% for any given ship. Recharge is the energy you gain back in 10 seconds, so the energy you gain back per second is your Recharge stat divided by 10. 1000 recharge means 100 energy per second. Using the Warbird (1000 recharge min, 1530 recharge max) as an example, add one recharge: 1000 becomes 1053. Divide by ten. 100 becomes 105.3. Wait, a point of recharge is 5 energy a second? FIVE?!?! On top of that, how many seconds do you spend mid-battle recharging, anyway? Answer: usually 1 to 4, if you're not instakilled. Energy, on the other hand, is immediately useful. For the same ship, the warbird, each point of energy is 75 more energy that you start with and that you can regen up to. So, each point of energy is 15 'stored' seconds of one equivalent point of recharge. On top of all of this, most ships have 4 to 7 recharge anyway without sacrificing anything. That means the benefit from focusing on recharge is actually very small. So in the end, Resonance Sphere's 8/1 non-sig > Ampere's 7/7 sig. Naquadah Gen + power strip is 6/6 non-sig, almost equal to Ampere's 7/7 sig. My current Spider gets 8/9 without a sig reactor. AMPERE IS A MYTH. Energy rules everything, and this is backed up by all the pros driving max energy ships rather than max recharge ships.

 

So this brings us to the few things that do actually matter:

Energy

Repels

Bursts

Thors

 

Thors are fun to use, but are mainly reserved for rich privs that can afford to waste an entire ship dedicated to thorstorming and $100 or $150 a life on the off chance they'll smoke a bunch of people.

 

Energy is your survival. Get as much as you can. The real amount you need is easily defined: enough to use all your repels and bursts.

 

Repels exist to give you temporary invincibility while you fire bursts. Use them alternating between Bursts (at Salvo speed of course).

 

And the REAL secret that the pros don't want you to know!

 

The pinnacle of individual killing ability comes down to Bursts. You've seen it on sharks that came in and ruined your fun, but thought it was gay. You didn't realize that the so-called 'pros' are really just 'joes' with Burst hotkeys! Follow this guide by buying Salvo, getting as much Energy as you can, and getting Repels and Bursts on your ship. I've whittled away all the red-herring signature items for you in preparation for your passage into manhood: the buying of the Combo Mount. This little doodad will bring your Repel total to 4 and your Burst total to 3. Obviously, if you're in a Shark, you can't get sigs, but if you're in a shark and using Reps and Bursts you're already a pro anyway.

 

THE ULTRA GUIDE TO HYPERSPACE V. ARNK:

 

Using your Energy/Salvo/Burst & Rep ship whose other items do not matter, approach Enemy X, whose ship setup does not matter, and use this strategy, regardless of your or his skill level:

 

1: Fly at him using your Pulse Laser a little bit.

2: Repel.

3: Burst.

4: Repel.

5: Burst.

6: Repel.

7: Burst.

8: Repel.

9: Die.

10: Resurrect from Antideath.

11: If any enemy remains, fly at him using your Pulse Laser a little bit.

12: Repel.

13: Burst.

14: Repel.

15: Burst.

16: Repel.

17: Burst.

18: Repel.

19: If basing, die. If dueling, laugh, as your enemy probably died back in step 5 or 15.

20: If basing, attach to friendly Lancaster and repeat. If dueling, gloat over skillful victory.

 

There you have it. This is the ultimate key to being a pro in HyperSpace v. Arnk. I don't even need to wish you luck, as there is no way you can lose if you follow this guide. Remember, tap your burst hotkey 1 time for noobs, 2 for medium players, and 3 for vets, and they'll always explode with no chance to defeat your skill! Just remember your wise teacher, Gar, as you advance in money and exp until one day you buy a 2M Alien Tech and then immediately sell it again for Antideath.

Edited June 19, 2008 by Gar

[Lera]

noob'd

[nolan123]

noob* lera noob

[Exiili]

Mwhahahahahhahahahahahaahhaaa.

Funny, true and entertaining.

[Syrith]

Haha, that's not the way you rush successfully, despite popular noob belief.

 

P.S. If you rep them nme away and then burst, there'll be virtually minimal damage done. You're just pushing them away from your bursts.

Edited June 19, 2008 by Syrith

[QUAX]

My Ampere Imploder pwns.

[Sharpflame]

This is pretty true. I set up my warbird to have +10 recharge, focusing on only recharge in hopes that I could just dodge bullets and be recharged to max energy all the time. Nope, not when you have almost no energy, it was about as useful survival-wise as a stock warbird.

 

 

By the way, if this is really a guide, it should be in the Guides forum, amirite?

[f3ar-evil]

Ampere imploder is not a myth. You forget that Naquadah Gen + power strip = 6/6 non-sig Yes, But Ampere + Powerstrip = 8/8. Also, It doesn't come with Afterburner energy usage +5 and the extra bomb damage that naquadah comes with.;

 

Also, That rushing guide of yours, The burst rep thing. Well, Like Syrith said, It's highly ineffective

I would recommend spamming a little bit of pulse, THen rep once, go forward, burst twice, and then finishing your life off with either a Pulse/salvo Rush or just trying to get in a good position for AD (Corner for kills, Past enemy with momentum for flag steal)

 

Also, In duel, bursts do nothing.

 

 

All in all though, Though-provoking.

[»Ceiu]

Your math is off and your theory is even more off.

 

You sir, fail.

 

 

Energy is in "amount recharged per 10 seconds". Which means 1530 recharge nets you 153 every second. That's a whole lot better than 5. Also, the rest of your post is mostly banter and is the complete opposite of how the zone actually works.

[Exiili]

Which is:

Thor, thor, thor, warp, macro, summon - repeat ad nauseam.

 

And Cerium should read the math part more carefully

[»Ceiu]

Oh, lawl.

 

Yeah, I wasn't reading it too carefully. Regardless, I don't think that's how it works.

[Arry]

I might add that MaxSpeed makes your afterburners faster (I'm pretty sure), and -afterburners makes them cheaper. My warbird build is very fun as it focuses on afterburners first, detection second (oracle), dodging third, and last but not least, guns, specials, and sop for teh kills. It may not be leet like the setup mentioned above, but it's !@#$%^&*a fun!

 

In center I pretty much use pea shooter to annoy people until they chase me. Then I use afterburners to dodge and get out of the way of their attack. I can stay away from pretty much everything even at close range. Spiders have trouble rotating to kill me. Sharks can't hide from me. Warbirds run out of juice (even ampere warbirds don't last forever and usually fall to three SOPs or a few sops and some fast shooting pea shooter), javs can't hit me with their silly bombs unless they have prox, levis also suffer from rotation and I just get behind them or attack them from bad angles (bad angles for them). Weasels, terriers, meh.... suffer from a combination of all of the above, and lancs can't cloak or hit me worth a darn. I use fast shooting to mop up weaklings. And if anyone wants to chase me.... SOP! gg ez noob'd lulz!11

 

In base I have low energy but I use wave disperser to avoid wall bomb damage. I make sure I have an ally in front of me to absorb bullets and bombs while I fire away nonstop with pea shooter. If my energy gets low I pull back quickly. I can guard lancs from incoming cloaked sharks because they can't cloak against me (oracle). Since I use pea shooter I'm getting more shots in than most people so I have a better chance of getting the kill.... (yes it means I'm kinda stealing kills from teammates who deal most of the damage, but it's effective). I can lay a line of sop to deter sharks who do manage to get past me. I can chase anyone with my afterburners even through the hypertunnel and I can see mines with oracle so I can dodge them easy.

 

Overall, it's a great ship, requires a lot of dodging, but that just makes it more fun! Sometimes I don't even attack, I just dance around people at close range and see how long I can keep it up!

 

Here's my current setup (keep in mind... this build is for FUN, not for uber-annihilation!)

 

Fusion Reactor - balanced reactor with a discount on afterburners (I view afterburners as more important than almost anything because it's so fun to use them.

Wave Disperser - keeps me alive in base from wall bombs

Power Strip - a little extra energy never hurt

Maxwell Infusers - afterburners, nuff said

Inertial Damper - better afterburners and rotation

Pea Shooter - decent fire rate and most cost effective bounce gun in both energy and money, I use it for mop up and directing the flow of the battle, along with effective base domination. In center I'm likely to do some fast shooting with afterburners to mop up a weak enemy.

Oracle System - FREE X RADAR! TAKE THAT YOU NASTY SHARKS AND CLOAKING LANCS! ALSO I CAN SEE MINES ON RADAR TAKE THAT YOU BASE MINING NOOBS AND YOU TUNNEL STALKERS! (also has some minor bonuses to other stats)

String of Pearls - WTHSOPBBQ!!!11

Retro Rockets - uber thrusting for quick manuevers.... actually... having no sublight and maxwell is almost as good. The whole idea of no sublight is that you have two speeds, 1 for shooting and aiming, and another for dodging and chasing (afterburners).

 

Wall Mount - just for fun, haven't done much bricking yet tho

Defense Mount - trying this out for a bit, I had 2 siege mounts, but without salvo thors kinda suck

Jump Engines - just for fun, haven't used it much

 

ON MY WISHLIST: Parasite (s!@#$%^&*), maybe a transwarp key or summink, extra capacity items, and a big LANC to hide behind!

Edited June 20, 2008 by Arry

[Gar]

NEW!!!!! NEW!!!!! New alternate strategy based on advice from f3ar-evil!

 

1: Fire your pulse laser a little bit.

2: Repel.

3: Burst.

4: Burst.

5: Burst.

6: Repel to get in a good position for Antideath

7: Resurrect.

8: Burst.

9: Burst.

10: Burst.

11: Repeat!

 

Remember, steps 3-5 and 7-9 are interchangeable!

[9vgnc3eZ01]

Eh, recharge still has a use when you are running all day and night. But you need a lot of it with a lot of energy for a fast ship to actually make it useful. The other time is when you're gunlining or bomblining in base (without rushing either). But even then, recharge compliments energy, while energy is essential.

 

NOW TO RELOS'S GUIDE TO RUSHING

 

Another thing to note is that nrg is free, while repels, bursts, and thors are not. Therefore the cheapest rushing ship would be the $5000 cost spider, who starts with 2050 nrg and has a long reach with its guns. However, you want to upgrade to pulse so you can do some actual damage with your rushing ship. Also, get rockets asap. Repels and bursts aren't useful with you're rocketing forward, so just buy a brick mount instead. Finally, after you max out your Health buy Solid for gun eating or Ampere for a more gunlining focused ship.

 

Next possible rusher is the Weasel. 2300 HP, and is fast enough to screw rockets and just go repel/burst. Your extra HP is minimized when they get more bullets in the air due to your slower speed. But thats why you're on the defending team with the levi bombliners, so you can profit off your burst and repel spam. Once you clear this imbalanced hurdle you're set to blow the already inferior attacking team away. Yay for a great example for HS's balance.

 

Now the Shark. If you're new and don't know by now always prioritize getting though>killing. AD helps with this a lot. Then you can get the flags and warp because the all-newb team who defied odds and got through you guys didn't have antiwarp!

 

Also a few tips:

-Prioritize shark rushers. They're hard to kill unless you focus your shots on them, much unlike the weasel (but be careful of them as well.)

-Fast guns=good for rushing. Time is short before you die, so get all the output you can. (...Unless you're a rushing ship that also gunlines I suppose)

-Relos has 1 and a half fish

-Rushing with high energy ships are always a good option if your efforts are unless. Lanc rushing is extra special because you're fast enough to not need rockets. But what if you rocket with solid nutronium, repel 3 burst 2 (with capacity), Phaser until death, AD, and repeat? Thats about 10000 HP of Pain there counting the armor! Gunlining would be ineffective, and people would learn to repel again! And if everyone repels like they should, there will be ITEM SPAMMING! Hip, hip hooray, what a flawed system we have today---

 

HS discourages item spamming... so why are the mechanics made FOR it? massive failure. If you don't want item spamming, you make alternatives that AREN'T item spamming. Meaning you shorten gun delay a lot and make it a gunlining fest,or something else? Hey seriously, basing needs a definitive when it comes to style. If we want big tanks to be rushers so there's less requiredness for bursts and repels, then that works.

 

Why do I complain about HS? Well, I have faith that someone will change it. Either there is item spamming or there isn't. Make your minds up already, and make the items reflect your decision.

 

Well, that's it for today's edition of "Relos's _____ Column". Stay tuned for more, more, more long rants. Yay.

Edited June 20, 2008 by Relos

[Gar]

But what if you rocket with solid nutronium, repel 3 burst 2 (with capacity), Phaser until death, AD, and repeat? Thats about 10000 HP of Pain there counting the armor!

I rush with a solid nutronium spider with 2 reps and 2 bursts, using Pulse. Honestly, size is a major factor: you're so large that you will instadie regardless of your energy and armor. There's just too many bullets flying around in basing.

[Mat Cauthon]

19: If basing, die. If dueling, laugh, as your enemy probably died back in step 5 or 15.

u can burst in duels now? this zone is getting messed up

 

 

NEW!!!!! NEW!!!!! New alternate strategy based on advice from f3ar-evil!

 

1: Repel to gain a good rocketable path to the nme

2: ROCKET!!!

3: Burst.

4: Burst.

5: Burst.

6: die and spawn behind nme lines with your rocket momentum

7: Resurrect.

8: Burst.

9: Burst.

10: Burst.

11: Wait to die

 

Remember, steps 3-5 and 7-9 are interchangeable!

 

i made the corrections in bold

Edited June 22, 2008 by Mat Cauthon

[f3ar-evil]

i was talking about a shark, which don't get rockets + 3 bursts, I'm !@#$%^&*uming you're using your rushing levi.

[tcsoccer and neptune]

even though i haven't played in forever, i'm pretty sure that rotation and thrust and speed to matter.

[Gar]

even though i haven't played in forever, i'm pretty sure that rotation and thrust and speed to matter.

The stat matters, for example, a spider's min thrust is 10 and maxthrust is 20. The +bonuses don't matter. The reason for this: the differences are just too small. Using the spider example, let's say you have a heavy reactor, solid nut, and an energy sublight so that your thrust bonus is -2 (like my spider). What's your thrust? 8. Now let's say you sacrifice solid nutronium, your energy sublight, and a heavy reactor to get your thrust bonuses up to +10. What's your thrust now that you've castrated your ship? 20. So I have a huge amount of energy and the strongest armor, and you have double my thrust. What did that get you? NOTHING! 20 is still ultragarbage, considering most other ships easily get 30 to 50 thrust without even trying, especially with afterburners. Same goes for speed. Rotation is actually useful, but it's not hard to get.

Edited June 27, 2008 by Gar

[Dr Brain]

You're dead wrong about not getting prized negative thrust bonuses. You do.

[Gar]

Good to know, and it just further enhances my point. My -2 speed and -2 thrust spider really travels no differently than anyone else's.

[»Ceiu]

Indeed. The only stats with a very visible difference are energy (for obvious reason) and recharge (because it's got such a huge range). Mobility stats are rather low -- mostly to prevent the supership setups from last reset.

[Unix]

Noticeable stat differences come when there minimum and maximum range between two numbers are increased.

 

A 10% increase will be more noticeable if the range is 100-1000 compared to 500-1000

[Gar]

Yep, a point which I was going to make but then realized that you can't really lower alot of the stats without making the ships unuseable. Spider's min thrust is already 10. Any lower and it simply wouldn't move at all

[Stibbymicto]

Here's my current setup (keep in mind... this build is for FUN, not for uber-annihilation!)

 

Fusion Reactor - balanced reactor with a discount on afterburners (I view afterburners as more important than almost anything because it's so fun to use them.

Wave Disperser - keeps me alive in base from wall bombs

Power Strip - a little extra energy never hurt

Maxwell Infusers - afterburners, nuff said

Inertial Damper - better afterburners and rotation

Pea Shooter - decent fire rate and most cost effective bounce gun in both energy and money, I use it for mop up and directing the flow of the battle, along with effective base domination. In center I'm likely to do some fast shooting with afterburners to mop up a weak enemy.

Oracle System - FREE X RADAR! TAKE THAT YOU NASTY SHARKS AND CLOAKING LANCS! ALSO I CAN SEE MINES ON RADAR TAKE THAT YOU BASE MINING NOOBS AND YOU TUNNEL STALKERS! (also has some minor bonuses to other stats)

String of Pearls - WTHSOPBBQ!!!11

Retro Rockets - uber thrusting for quick manuevers.... actually... having no sublight and maxwell is almost as good. The whole idea of no sublight is that you have two speeds, 1 for shooting and aiming, and another for dodging and chasing (afterburners).

 

Wall Mount - just for fun, haven't done much bricking yet tho

Defense Mount - trying this out for a bit, I had 2 siege mounts, but without salvo thors kinda suck

Jump Engines - just for fun, haven't used it much

 

OMG YES!!!