Do Xenon utilise Flight Assist Off?

[Scoob]

Hey all,

Just wondering whether the Xenon can somehow use Flight Assist off in combat. Based on what I'm seeing, it looks like they can. For example, moments ago I was on the tail of a Xenon M and he was pulling away from me..then, instantly he's facing me and shooting (and hitting) yet his vector was still away from me.

Other ships, namely SCA, don't appear to use this tactic, whereas the Xenon do a lot, making it impossible to stay on their tail as they can flip over and shoot you while not changing vector at any appreciable rate. This gives them a lot of time on target and their guns hurt.

Anyone else seeing this behaviour from the Xenon?

Scoob.

[Imperial Good]

All Xenon ships have extremely skilled pilots. Many of the combat moves they pull off are only available to NPC pilots with 3 or 4 stars of experience. Most NPC pilots are nowhere near this skilled and hence do not pull off any such moves.

Additionally all Xenon ships are pretty much "best in class" when it comes to statistics, for now at least. This means that ships have very good flight properties such as acceleration, top speed, pitch, yaw and roll rotation, etc. As such they can effortlessly pull off some combat moves which cannot really be done by some of the ships pirates fly. For example the Minotaur Raider literally flies like an out of control truck.

The Xenon also have access to XL Destroyers, something players do not. The K is their XL destroyer while the I is pretty much a destroyer of a size class of its own (XXL?). The data files suggest the K is the XL destroyer while the I is the XL carrier, however the I lacks any carrier functionality and instead has an absolutely ludicrous number of turrets.

[The-Gizmo2]

Yeah I've seen Xenon fighters do this also.

The Xenon I in the encyclopedia is classified as a battleship, while for whatever reason in the 3D game it reads as a destroyer. I'm inclined to believe the encyclopedia.

[unit757]

I believe the I is classed as a Battleship actually.

It's funny that the K is an XL destroyer in this game, whereas players only get L destroyers (they still feel like frigates though), and in Rebirth it was an L destroyer, and players got XL destroyers.

[RodentofDoom]

Hey all,

Just wondering whether the Xenon can somehow use Flight Assist off in combat.

Yes they can.

The M's & N's use the manoeuvre a lot, whilst P's seem to use the Kha'ak approach to combat.

[Scoob]

Thanks for the replies. I't good know know that this is a skill thing as well as a general better ships stats thing. It's going to be great when we can actually train our pilots. I've left mine patrolling and fighting for days in prior games, but they barely gain a single Star from zero. As I capture many of my ships, I generally put novice Crew in them, though for trade ships I sometime cheese it any buy a cheap ship just for the pilot - it's silly we have to do that.

The base game really needs to give us option to hire better crew, at a cost and not just gain them through mission rewards...oddly my Argon vs. Xenon mission offer that gave crew rewards has vanished *sigh*

Scoob.

[photomankc]

Thanks for the replies. I't good know know that this is a skill thing as well as a general better ships stats thing. It's going to be great when we can actually train our pilots. I've left mine patrolling and fighting for days in prior games, but they barely gain a single Star from zero. As I capture many of my ships, I generally put novice Crew in them, though for trade ships I sometime cheese it any buy a cheap ship just for the pilot - it's silly we have to do that.

The base game really needs to give us option to hire better crew, at a cost and not just gain them through mission rewards...oddly my Argon vs. Xenon mission offer that gave crew rewards has vanished *sigh*

Scoob.

When you reach the point that you have enough of them to put into a few big fights, they will get skilled up in a hurry. My carrier fleet, after a few micro-managed attacks on stations and enemy patrols were a great source of 4 and 5 star pilots. I'm fairly sure they didn't all get built that way. It seems successful attacks build them up fast. Just flying around does nothing.

[Chris0132]

It's so... weird that the game has pretty good AI but deliberately doesn't use it most of the time due to the whole skill level thing.

[Scoob]

My Corvette Pilots have basically been at war for hours in my home sector due to Xenon, Kha'ak and even SCA incursions, so I'm hoping they'll have gained some stars at least.

Scoob.