Vent Mothers

[overmind]

I've tried these ideas. It seems to work at first, but once the Vent Mother gets in close it's short range weapon takes apart the lead ship. If I try to move the lead ship to maintain the distance it dies to lava bombs as it turns around.

Also, do you know which weapons autofire at missles/etc? Some do, some don't.

[nihilix]

Yeah - I also seem to recall that the flanking ships need to move forward near the end, and fire on the tchorak... depends on how much damage you can deal.

Another big hit is to use the cloaked Bloodfang with a great shield. Retreat everything but your fastest ship, ram it from behind with the cloaked ship, check your shield until it goes down to 10%, then stop and wait for shield to regenerate and ram again.

But you need the cloaked Bloodfang to do this...

Re: the weapons - If you look in the .ini files, you can find out. I think there are only two, both particle throwers.

[PvK]

overmind said:
I've tried these ideas. It seems to work at first, but once the Vent Mother gets in close it's short range weapon takes apart the lead ship. If I try to move the lead ship to maintain the distance it dies to lava bombs as it turns around.

The Vent Mother can barely move, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep out of its short range with the lead ship, especially using Pause to keep the action under control.

I have had some luck with ECM devices that jam the seekers, too, causing them to fly off target.

I must say though that I've lost many very good ships taking on Vent Mothers and their kin. Though I have killed a few too.

(PvK wonders if overmind has played "Empire of the Overmind"?)

PvK

[Phoenix-D]

ANY ship with a cloaking device will work, not just the Bloodfang..the Fang just happens to be better at it. To make up for that, decloak right before ramming to get a volley of weapons fire in before you hit, then recloak.

[overmind]

Starcraft, actually.

I'm guessing both games took the term from Arthur C Clarkes 'Childhoods end'.