Anatomy of Incursions: Difference between revisions

== Autonomous fleet members ==

Sometimes you can afford to give certain members free reigns in what they shoot, if they are knowledgeable about incursions or fly a specific ship that doesn't quite fit your pre-determined roles. More experienced players for example could determine on their own if there's room for taking a few shots at an incoming frigate before moving on to the cruisers. Some pilots could be entrusted to direct their own drones instead of assigning them to the dronebunny, if for example they have the range and ability to use them to shoot ships that spawn outside normal drone control range. This would of course require that the pilots are well accustomed to the needs of the fleet commander and knows the limits of their ship, so as not to waste their potential.

 

In certain fleets it might even be worth it to simply call ''New wave!''' instead of actually calling specific targets, leaving comms open for more important information or simply to allow for more conversation. This of course assumes you're running with experienced players who know what to shoot already. Be mindful of new people joining the fleet, so you adjust accordingly.

 

 

== Situational target calling ==

While there are some standard target orders and priorities, there's often room for improvement based on a number of variables.

 

The individual skills of the pilots in your fleet can range from low skilled to high skilled, their ships from tech one to pirate faction battleships, their modules from meta 4 to tech 2, faction, deadspace or even officer modules. Ships can fit for short or long range, people can be more or less experienced and more or less attentive to your sudden commands etc.

 

All these things make for very different fleets and you'll need to factor that into how you run your fleet. A very high skilled and blinged out fleet can easily neutralize threats whenever you tell them to, allowing you to leave potentially dangerous targets for later, in favour of removing damage from the field. The same couldn't be done in a fleet where the damage application is low or when people aren't reacting fast enough to new target calls.

 

This also means that a good balance of short and long ranged ships is necessary to achieve optimal performance.

 

With poor range projection it can sometimes be more beneficial to have some of your short range ships shoot the enemies that are close, even though they are of lower priority simply because they don't have the range to shoot anything else. Just remember to make a second call for them to swap back to their primary target once they get into range.

 

The other ships, capable of ranged projection, could then be directed to targets further out that the short ranged fleet members cannot reach. While this might lead to higher overall incoming damage early on (since the high priority targets won't die as fast) it would lead to faster overall completion times because each ship in the fleet will be able to utilize their damage capabilities better.

 

Similar to range projection, some ships will have an easier time applying their damage to certain sized ships or speeds due to tracking.

 

Whenever targets spawn at range, there's a window of opportunity for any fleet with ships able to lock fast and shoot at a distance. While on approach, enemies come in at a low angular velocity with their microwarpdrive turned on and thus much easier to hit compared to when they slow down and start orbiting under your guns. Given enough scan resolution, good enough range and tracking, even battleships can pick off smaller ships as they come rushing towards you. Most tech one battleships have no real means of doing this, but faction battleships and strategic cruisers are usually more than capable of finishing off a few frigates before they even get close.

 

Some sites will have targets that you don't necessarily need to kill to finish the site. Sometimes they can be ignored completely, like in the case of the '''Eystur Rhomben''' in [[Override Transfer Array]] sites and the '''Antem Neo''' in [[Overwhelmed Civilian Facility]] sites.

 

In other sites, like the [[True Creations Research Center]] and [[The Kundalini Manifest]], you trim down the waves to a point where your logistics can handle the incoming damage, after which you ignore most of them (except a handful of respawns) in favour of finishing the main objective.

== Specialized fleets ==

Some communities specialize in just [[Incursion sites#Vanguard sites|Vanguard]] or just [[Incursion sites#Headquarter sites|Headquarter sites]], perhaps even focusing on specific type of sites as well for increased efficiency. Some even build fleets for the sole purpose of competing against other fleets.

 

One examples of specializing vanguard fleets would be to have all long range, alpha focused ships that fit tracking computers and target painters, with just one or two ships like '''Vindicators''' with webs to handle the few ships that slip past. Some drop down to one single logistics ship in vanguards in favour of having another damage dealer on grid, relying on skilled pilots and well-fitted ships to simply reduce the incoming damage to a manageable level before the Sansha are able to apply it. For competition fleets it's not unusual to run a little heavy with 12 members on grid instead of the usual 10 or 11, to ensure that they win every competition or at least gain a favourable edge over other fleets.

 

Another example would be fleets that focus on reducing warp speeds as a means to both allow them to quickly move to another site to compete, but also to simply reduce the time between sites. While it might seem weird, there's a certain point where improving your ongrid performance further isn't effective anymore due to diminishing returns. With ascendancy implants and warp speed rigs and modules you can sacrifice some of your damage application in favour of greatly reducing the time it takes you to warp, ending up gaining giving you overall faster completion times when factoring in moving.

Third, it is a widely held belief that competitions are measured in raw damage done to the Sansha. This means that hitting the armour and hull (which have little to no resists) earns you more points compared to hitting the shield (which has high resists). As such, trying to prioritize making hits to armour and hull is a common strategy to gain an edge, because if you can alpha away the armour and hull on a ship, you ''"win"'' that ship even if someone else chipped away the entire shield. Given how a cruiser like the '''Auga Hypophysis''' has 31,185 raw hit points, compared to a frigate like the '''Tama Cerebellum''' with its 5,390 raw hit points, you can clearly see the value in focusing on the Auga to make sure you get the most points from that, even if it means completely ignoring the 3-4 Tamas on grid.