The FringeSpace Project

Multiplayer Guide

Tachyon: The Fringe’s multiplayer is divided into two parts – “Basewars” and “Arena”. In Basewars, two teams (Bora and Galspan) have to build/defend their base’s defenses and finally destroy their enemy’s life support, located in the center of a huge space station. Basewars has some unique teamplay and tactical aspects, which you don’t find in any other Space Sim I know of. Basewars games take place in several “Sectors” – one for each team’s home base and at least one for “mining”. These sectors are connected by “Tachyon Coil Generators” (TCG’s), represented by a glittering light blue orb within several pylons. Travelling from one sector to another is achieved by simply flying through the blue sections of these orbs.

Arena is normal melee space combat, which can be used for either 1vs1 “duels” or melees (FFA). There is a way to fight team melee in Arena too, but I havent found out yet how that works. Up to 64 (on a Novalogic-run server, or 32, on a player-run server) players per team can participate in a game, depending on the servers speed and available RAM. The largest game I (original author) took part in so far had about 50 players totally (20+ on each side). Basewars battles between equal teams can take hours to finish (longest one I (original author) took part in went on for about 5+ hours). Arena matches have a fixed timeframe after which the “round” ends, the results are displayed and a new round is started. The maximum number of players is only possible in Novaworld hosted Games (“Halogen Run”=Basewars and “High and Mighty”=Arena). A fast computer and connection (Cable or DSL/ADSL speed) can host up to 32 players, with only about 10% of the lag you usually get in XWA ! Even on my old 56k modem I can host the double amount of players as in XWA (6-8 players) – with almost no lag 🙂 Tasks to perform: (Base Wars)

There are mainly 7 tasks one can perform in a basewars game:

1. Mining : Fly around and collect the shining crystals by flying through them. The crystals represent “Credits”, which you have to drop of at your base at a green orb there by flying through it. Each ship has a display at the top middle of your HUD, which shows the amount of storage capacity already used up in % . It doesn’t make much sense to drop off the Credits before that display shows less then 100% storage used up, unless your base needs only a few credits to gain a certain advantage (Tech level or Tech lock [see following] ). For each 2000 dropped credits there appears a small dome at the base, which represents those credits (Credit Plant or CP). After enough credits have been brought in, your base gains a new tech level which may make new weapons and/or hardware upgrades available. At Tech levels 3 and 6 “Tech lock” is achieved, which means that your base will not lose that tech level, no matter what happens! The crystals themselves can mostly be found in a sector remote from your base, many times inside of huge asteroid caverns, nearly never at your bases sector. Mining is absolutely essential to each basewars game and most of the time, the team with the best miners wins the game.

2. CPing : Fly to your enemy’s base and fire the heaviest weapons you have aboard your ship at his Credit Plants until they are destroyed. When you destroy one or more CP’s, the base will lose a tech level or, if not so, at least lose the 2000 credits that CP represented. This means the enemy miners will have to mine again to regain what they’ve lost! When CPing, count on it that all the enemy defenders and the gun platforms will be gunning for you, to shoot you down. A CPers life is quite a hard one, since he usually will get killed a lot without having the time to fight back much. Fighting back will only distract you from your current duty, which is to destroy the enemy CP’s – not his defenders! However, if you get under heavy pressure, running to a distance safe from the guns and/or killing some of the defenders might ease the pressure a bit, or give your ships energy the chance to regenerate, to enable you to launch your next attack. A team with good CPers might be able to compensate for slow miners or heavy patrols in the mining area, and in so doing, buy the time for its miners to fulfill their task !

3. Turretin : Fly to your enemies base and destroy his static defense systems (gun platform turrets and space mines). Space mines can be easily destroyed by a single hit with heavy lasers. Guntower turrets can be destroyed by either destroying the towers energy plant (a red box with a red X on it at the side of each platform) or by simply firing a couple of shots at the turrets (guns) themselves. As when CPing, your enemies will be hot on your tail if you decide to perform this task. Lateral thrusters (see hardware upgrades below) are a big help when performing this task, since the turrets are unable to calculate an exact aimpoint to hit you as long as you have the lateral thrusters engaged! Taking out all the enemy’s defenses may open the way for a successful CP or bombing(see below) run for your teammates…

4. Escort miners : This is the perfect task for light interceptor type ships in the beginning of a game. Follow your miners to the mining sector but DON’T mine there, but attack any opponent that heads for them. When all the miners made it back to your bases sector safely, you might also want to mine your bit, drop the credits and then HURRY back to protect the miners again.

5. Harass miners : Fly to a mining sector but DONT mine there, instead attack any enemy ship that enters the sector. Doing this provides your team with two advantages at the same time. First of all, your enemies mining will be delayed, second, your own miners can mine the sector in peace as long as you are able to keep it clear of opponents!

6. Defending : Stay at your bases sector, near or at least in sight of the TCG(s) leading to the sector. IMMEDIATELY attack and destroy any enemy that tries to enter the sector ! Thus you will prevent them from CPing or turreting your base. Performing this task is PRETTY good aiming training, since CPers/turreters are mostly very skilled pilots, who know how to dodge enemy fire while attacking their targets. Don’t land while your base is still under attack to rearm your ship, better use what lasers or other energy weapons you have to destroy them first! If you don’t destroy them, but decide to land and rearm, you might find yourself in the situation that the weapons you wanted to load are no longer available, since a CP got destroyed while you were landing/landed…

7. Bombing : Upon reaching tech level 10 the “Helios Rocket” becomes available. This weapon is the only one capable of destroying the enemy’s “Life Support Plant” (a huge dome in the center of the base). Land and load as many Helios Rockets as possible, then fly to your enemy’s base and target the Life Support Plant, finally shoot all your Helios Rockets on it. These rockets are unguided weapons and very, very slow ! So it makes only sense to fire them at very short range and while aiming straight for the target !! As all “hardware” weapons (not using energy), Helios Rockets can be destroyed, while en route to their target, however they are very hard to hit… Ships and their roles:

Galspan ships :

Pegasus : Light interceptor – medium shields – very weak armor – fastest ship in the game – very agile – weak weapons/hardware loadout – perfect for Cping/Turreting – good at defending bases/miners(due to its tremendous speed) – good at harassing miners – poor mining capability – poor bombing ability (can carry only 2 Helios) –

Poseidon : Multirole bomber – medium shields – medium armor – low speed – medium agility – medium weapons/hardware loadout – ok for Cping when the turrets get eliminated – not good for turreting – – good at defending – medium at defending/harassing miners – medium mining capability – medium bombing capability –

Orion : Multirole fighter – good shields – medium armor – medium speed – good agility – medium weapons/hardware loadout – ok for CPing/turreting – ok for defending – good at harassing/escorting miners – medium mining capability – medium bombing ability –

Archangel : Heavy assault fighter – very good shields – good armor – good speed – medium agility – good weapons/hardware loadout – good at CPing/turreting – very good at defending – very good at harassing/escorting miners – good mining capability – good bombing ability –

Phoenix : Heavy bomber – good shields – very good armor – poor speed – poor agility – excellent weapons/hardware loadout – poor CPing/turreting abilities – superb for defending (due to weapons loadout) – not for harassing/escorting miners – excellent mining capability – excellent bombing ability –

Bora ships :

Mace : Light interceptor – good shields – good armor – very fast – very agile – medium weapons/ very poor hardware loadout – excellent for CPing/turreting – ok for defending (due to speed) – excellent for harassing/escorting miners (due to speed) – very poor mining capability – poor bombing capability –

Cutlass : Multirole bomber – medium shields – medium armor – medium speed – medium agility – good weapons/ medium hardware loadout – good at CPing – ok for turreting – good at defending – ok for escorting/ harassing miners – good mining capability – medium bombing ability –

Battleaxe : Multirole fighter – good shields – very good armor – medium speed – good agility – medium weapons/ good hardware loadout – ok for CPing/turreting – good at defending – good at escorting/ harassing miners – good mining capability – ok for bombing –

Warhammer : Heavy assault fighter – medium shields – excellent armor – low speed – medium agility – excellent weapons/hardware loadout – good for CPing – medium at turreting – very good at defending -good for escorting/harassing miners – very good mining capability – very good bombing ability –

Claymore : Heavy bomber – medium shields – best armor of all ships – very slow – poor agility – excellent weapons/hardware loadout – not for CPing/turreting – good at defending (due to weapons loadout) – not for escorting/harassing miners – superb mining capability – superb bombing abitlity –

Weapons and hardware upgrades :

Weapons :
Galspan :

Glint light laser : medium shield/low hull damage – good fire rate – low time/damage/energy rate –

Flare medium laser : medium shield/medium hull damage – good fire rate – medium time/damage/energy rate –

Deimos heavy laser : heavy shield/hull damage – low fire rate – very good time/damage/energy rate

Chatter cannon : low shield/medium hull damage – high fire rate – excellent time/damage/energy rate – projectile weapon-

Disruptor torpedo : very high shield/ no hull damage – low fire rate – low time/damage/energy rate – guided weapon –

Hunter torpedo : low shield/ medium hull damage – low fire rate – low time/damage/energy rate – guided weapon –

Solaris torpedo : very high shield/hull damage – low fire rate – medium time/damage/energy rate – inflicted damage depends on how much energy is loaded into the torpedo –

Blast torpedo : very high shield/hull damage – very low fire rate – good time/damage/energy rate – weapon damages a whole area –

Advanced blast torpedo : high shield/hull damage – very low fire rate – low time/damage/energy rate – weapon damages a whole area- guided weapon –

Tiger missile : low shield/medium hull damage – good fire rate – medium time/damage/energy rate – guided weapon – projectile weapon –

Sunspot missile : medium shield/high hull damage – good fire rate – excellent time/damage/energy rate – guided weapon – projectile weapon –

Swarm missile : low shield/medium hull damage – excellent fire rate (a single slot fire 4 at a time) -excellent time/damage/energy rate – guided weapon – projectile weapon –

Bora :

Arc light laser : medium shield/very low hull damage – good fire rate – low time/damage/energy rate –

Boron medium laser : medium shield/hull damage – good fire rate – medium time/damage/energy rate –

Heavy mining laser : high shield/hull damage (not as much as the Deimos heavy laser) – good fire rate – good time/damage/energy rate –

Railgun : medium shield/heavy hull damage – low fire rate – good time/damage/energy rate – weapon with largest fire range in the game –

Corona device : high shield/hull damage – very low fire rate – low time/damage/energy rate – weapon damages the area around the ship that uses it, even the users ships shields! –

Spire rocket : low shield/medium hull damage – good fire rate – good time/damage/energy rate – projectile weapon –

Plasma rocket : very high shield/ high hull damage – good fire rate – excellent time/damage/energy rate – projectile weapon –

Inertia sapper : weapon decreases speed and agility of target for a short time – projectile weapon –

Power sapper : weapon drains weapon and burner energy from target for a short time – projectile weapon –

Remote sapper : medium shield/ tremendous hull damage – needs to be atached to target first, then detonated by holding trigger down for more then 2 seconds – projectile weapon –

Both parties :

Helios rocket : extreme shield/hull damage – good fire rate – very slow – for attacking capital ships and space stations only –

Hardware upgrades :

Combat scanner : displays shields/hull integrity of target at bottom left of HUD Lead target assistant : displays aimpoint on HUD

Smart shields : regulates power used to recharge shields (not useful)

Radiation screen : protects ship in areas with radiation(can be very useful in some mining areas)

Lock on warning : warns when a guided weapon has locked on{bora only(not useful since the HUD displays a warning anyway)}

Lock on defense : tries to unlock guided weapons from their target{bora only(like XWA-chaffs)}

Burn out device : “burns off” sappers (galspan only)

Boosters : increase the top speed of your ship (extremely useful!)

Lateral thrust : enables your ship to thrust left or right independent of your main engines – uses no additional power!(an absolute MUST!!)

EW jammer : reduces the range in which enemies can detect u on their radar

Advanced radar : compensates the effect of the EW jammer

Fog radar : clears your radar from fog effects(only useful on extremely foggy maps)

Ammo hold : increases the storage capacity for sappers/missiles/rockets of your ship by 25%

Afterburner/shield/laser – reserves : increase the amount of stored energy for the system by 25%

Tactics :

Unlike most Space Sims, tactics play a major role in basewars. While in most Sims just killing all your enemies leads to victory, in basewars such behavior will most surely lead to your team loosing the game.

In the beginning of a game the best tactics is to avoid all fights and simply mine until your base reaches at least tech level 3. At that stage, light interceptors may start harassing the enemy’s miners continually in order to keep the opposing team from reaching higher tech levels. At the same time escorting miners becomes more important, because the other team will probably try the same. At this time also one or two light interceptors can start to turret the enemy base, thus opening the path for massive attacks on their CPs later on. In case the other team tries to turret your base, it is a good idea to leave one heavy assault fighter at your base in order to keep the attackers at bay. EVERYONE else should concentrate on mining in order to reach tech level 6 and through that tech lock as quickly as possible. Once that is achieved, all light interceptors MUST start first turreting and then CPing the enemy base. This should force the other team to concentrate their forces on defending their base and keep them from turreting/CPing your base. If everything goes well, this tactic will keep the other team from reaching tech levels above 6, while your base continually increases its tech level until you reach 10. At this point miners should finish their mining and return to base, but NOT drop their stored credits yet! Everyone who holds less then 50% credits at the time when tech 10 is reached should hurry back to his base, equip Helios rockets and start to bomb the enemies life support plant immediately. The team that gets bombed will realize whats going on and probably give up all defending in order to sent what forces they have to CP your base now. If some of the pilots left behind have their credit holds fully charged and drop those credits right after the CP attack, that might enable your bombers to fulfill their task (if the credits were enough to regain tech level 10). If not one or two fighters with good mining capacity and speed should try to mine you back to ten, whilst everyone else concentrates on defense now, in order to prevent further loss of tech levels. If the other team doesn’t have very good CPers, you should be able to make it back to tech level 10 and finally win the game.

If the other team mines simply too fast for your CPers to keep them down and you suddenly get a message “Your base is under attack XY% hull left”, that means the enemy made it to tech 10 before you could reach there! Now EVERYONE should give up whatever he was doing before and join in on a massive attack on the enemy’s CPs. Once you get the other team down to tech level 6 again, everyone can return to their old tasks, but some of the defenders, escorters, or harassers should help the CPers now in order to not let them be outmined again. THERE IS NO WAY OF DEFENDING YOUR BASE FROM A MASSIVE ATTACK WITH HELIOS ROCKETS !! The only way to get out of such a situation is to constantly CP the enemy base in order to bring their tech level down !

In the worst case, the opposing team will mine up to tech lock (tech level 6) much faster then yours and then start to CP your base, which hasn’t reached tech lock yet… One might think that putting all available forces on defense should be a good tactic to counter this, but to the contrary – only constant CPing and mining with a huge emphasis on the CPing may bring your team back into the game. That is so, because the other team has gained the advantage already and their ships now have better weapons and hardware upgrades available. On the other hand, the disadvantage is yours already, so you really dont have anything left to lose (or defend). Leaving just one or two good fighters at your base to defend and more one or two at mining while everyone else CPs, is the only tactic I can recommend in such an awful situation. I can remember at least one game in which that happened to my team and by using the above described tactic, we were able to turn the game around and finally win it !

Tactics for Cpers/Turreters : While performing these tasks you will find yourself under constant and heavy attack by the enemy’s turrets, mines and, worst of all, defenders. If a defender destroys your ship, he will gain a certain amount of credits (depending on the kill bounty and your rank) by doing so. When he drops the credits after you’re gone and on the way back, that might spoil all what you were able to achieve so far (bringing back the credits you just CPed). A good strategy to avoid this is to crash your ship as soon as its hull goes critical or you realize that plenty guided weapons locked onto you and you wont be able to avoid them. After a CPer destroyed about 3 to 4 CPs, his credit hold will be filled up with “stolen” credits, it makes much sense to return to your base now and drop of the credits, before you continue your CPing. Tactics for miners : Always remember : Your main objective is to gain credits for your base, not to fight the enemy miners ! However, if youre just entering the mining sector and spot an enemy miner there, it makes much sense to destroy him before you start your mining. NEVER let someone lure you into a fight when you already have mined up your ships cargo hold ! Better run away from him and/or call for help. A good miner can do his mining while dodging all enemy attacks and run back to his base without getting damaged much 😉 NEVER compete with your teammates for crystals !!

Tactics for defenders : Each time you took out an enemy attacker you will receive a “kill bounty”, it makes only sense to drop these credits AFTER you have successfully fought off the attack on your base. However, if you see your teammates have the attack under control and your cargo hold is already filled up (100% credits) you should take your time to drop of the credits and return to the fight (if it still continues) as quickly as possible. It makes absolutely no sense to land on a landing pad, just to refill your weapon stores, while your base is still under attack ! Better use what energy weapons you have to fight off the attackers first and then land to refill your weapons hold. Dont run after light interceptor class ships that try to lure you away from your base, many times the more heavy fighters are waiting beyond the next TCG for a message to get in…

Tactics for bombers : Equip the EW jammer upgrade before you start your bombing run. Unless the enemie defenders get closer then 10 klicks to you or have the Advanced radar upgrade equipped, they wont be able to detect you ! Always fire your helios at very short range, this prevents the defenders from shooting them while they are en route to the life support. Always drop all your rockets at once (or at least as many as you can). After delivering your load, don’t wait until they hit the target, but rush back to your base at maximum speed and load another set of Helios to continue the job (it needs about 20 Helios to completely destroy the life support). Basic flight maneuvers :

The slide maneuver :
Head a bit to any side or top / left towards your target. now enable the afterburners and press the slide button as soon as you reach a high speed. DO NOT let go of the slide button! While sliding towards your target, fire constantly at it. Repeat the whole procedure after you passed your target… Variation : head directly towards your target. Now reverse your engines thrust, enable the afterburners and keep slide held down upon reaching the desired speed. Pull your nose up/down/left/right while still on reverse thrust and enabling the burners another time to change your vector after a moment. This will make it more hard for your opponent(s) to aim on you while they’re rushing after you… This variation works also perfect to defend against an attack with guided weapons, target the nearest missile/torpedo using the L-key or “nearest enemy” and shoot it with your lasers while sliding backwards at TOP SPEED. In order to outrun missiles and torpedoes, you need to travel at least at 1500 klicks speed (maximum speed a guided weapon can reach).

Using lateral thrusters : The lateral thrust upgrade enables your ship to thrust left or right independent of the direction your main engines are pointing to! Keeping your thrust left button held down while turning a bit to the left will make you circle around a fixed object ( a CP or turret for example). If you now use reverse/forward burners to widen/narrow the radius of your circle, you will be pretty hard to hit for all but the most experienced pilots. Lateral thrust also redefines the role of the rudder ! What was “just” spinning around your axis before, now changes the whole vector of your ship. Example : when you turn of your main engines completely and just keep thrust left held down while making a 45° roll, the result is that your ship will “dive up” to the left at an angle of 45° . Negative angles result in upward movements. Combining this with your main thrusters make it nearly impossible to calculate an exact point where to shoot at in order to hit your ship! The disadvantage of this style of flying is, that calculating the point to shoot at in order to hit your enemy becomes more hard for you likewise…

More :  Recalculating the aimpoint when your enemy uses lateral thrust : If your opponent uses lateral thrust, the point your Lead target assistant calculates to aim at will no longer be correct. To get a better aimpoint, enable reverse thrust to stay clear of him for a while. Now carefully note the direction to which he is actually flying (the point his shots appear at may be of help doing this). Draw an imaginary line from the center of his ship to his flight direction and shoot at the point in the same distance that your lead target assistant also calculates – unless he continually changes his vector with his rudder, the result should be a hit 🙂

The most effective weapons for CPing are Remote sappers (2 destroy a CP) / Blast torpedos (4 destroy a CP), then Plasma rockets (about 60 destroy a CP) / Deimos heavy lasers (about 80 hits destroy a CP) finally railguns and all types of missiles/torpedoes.

The best angle to attack a CP is when horizontally aligned to it ( attacking from the side, NOT from above).
The most effective way to destroy an enemy is to first use your lasers to get down his shields, then fire missiles/rockets/torpedoes or the chatter cannon/railgun to crack through the hull. This is not true for Plasma rockets, Solaris torpedoes and the Deimos heavy lasers, which are both about as effective against shields and hulls.

When fighting inside “Caves” (inside of asteroids), the advantage is mostly on the Bora’s side because their rockets and railguns are doing more damage then most of the Galspan Weapons.

When chasing or following someone through a TCG, thrust left or right before the jump has finished using your lateral thruster. This will avoid crashing into him or getting blasted in a short range weapon attack most of the time.

Since there are so many possible, never hesitate to try out a new maneuver – it will work at least one or two times before your enemies realize what you are doing !

Credit: “GL&HF ! VonG_DragonsClaw (Tachyon Warmaster)” Edited by (in progress): RazorsKiss

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