Freighter Protection Tips and Bragging

doubleohnine

My first PUG group last night we saved 11. So, thats my record so far. Next time we only saved 8, so I appreciated the 11 I got first time.

While it isnt new content, its very fun. Adds a new level of stress. And everytime I see a freighter blow up before I can get there my Captain screams at her viewscreen "NOOOOOOOO!" I like it better than Starbase defense, as freighter crew lives are on the line. (Last night my PUG crew killed all the Starbase attackers with less than 20 sec to spare!) Zooming in to the rescue adds a Star Trek rush of adrenaline. I can almost hear the freighter crew saying "Sir, theres another starship coming in. Its the Veracruz!" ::Insert Enterprise E music coming to the rescue:: As my Sovereign class comes in guns a blazin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4DCOpG1oNE

Lets devote this thread to mastering this mission. Last night, I sent a Red Alert channel message tip, when you spot a new freighter with bogeys on its tail, run up to the freighter first and give it a Hull Heal or Shield Heal if it needs one, THEN kill the bogeys on its tail.

We need to figure out the timing system of these freighters spawning in. Surely theres a pattern?

Everyone post your tips, and I tell us what your Most Saved record was, I want to see where the bar is. And say whether you were in a PUG or Fleet, because those are two different bars IMO, as PUGs arent communicating, we are just making it up as we go.

boglejam73

Heres a tip: If the freighter you are defending gets blown up, don't bother sitting there killing the rest of that attack group. They warp out after a few seconds and other freighers are already on the map being worked over. Go defend them instead of wasting time mopping up the last stragglers before they warp away.

crypticarmsman

To date, my best is 21 of 23 freighters saved (and we didn't actually loose any freighters, we just ran out of time before the last two were able to dock.)

The best advice I can give is to remember that this encounter is NOT about destroying enemy ships, it's about allowing the freighters to get to the base, and to complete their 'docking progress' bar. Thus:

- Save ALL heals, and usable on other shield repair/buff BO powers for use on the freighters...PERIOD. You loose nothing if you or a comrade blows up and there is no progressive respawn timer like in the STFs, so it's not a big deal if you blow up at the cost of getting a freighter more hull or shields.

- Concentrate ONLY on the ships firing at the freighters and if you can, grab aggro; get some ships to follow you and fly AWAY from the path of the freighters. Again, the point is to allow the freighters to get to the Starbase, not destroy enemy ships.

- Don't stay, or continue to engage an enemy ship group once a freighter has been destroyed or successfully docked. Immediately disengage and look for other freighters that may be coming in and make a beeline to go escort and protect them. The enemy group will warp itself out soon after a freighter has docked, or has been destroyed.

- Realize that freighters come into the system in groups of two or sometimes even three; and if you're doing heals, you can sometimes get between two freighters in such a way as to be able to throw heals on both.

- Learn which heal powers stack; and also what powers trigger cooldowns on heal powers so you can use those wisely and not block yourself from being able to throw a heal that could've have made the difference between saving a freighter or watching it blow just before the progress bar completed.

doubleohnine

crypticarmsman wrote: »

To date, my best is 21 of 23 frieghters saved (and we didn't actually loose any frieghters, we just ran out of time before the last two were able to dock.)

Bravo. But if the timer ran out before the 22nd ship could finish its dock, that would seem a timing error by Cryptic. Players cant control the speed the freighters spawn in, can we? They run at their own pace and speed, not like you can give them an engine battery to go faster, so if all 22 arent finishing with like 15 seconds to spare, the timer is too short, and thats not fair, you were robbed Armsman.

I noticed that real fast about leaving the other enemies once a Freighter docks. Anyone notice if the freighter can still be destroyed AFTER the progress bar starts? Or the second that progress bar starts, its safe to leave that area and go save others?

doubleohnine

crypticarmsman wrote: »

- Concentrate ONLY on the ships firing at the freighter and if you can, grab aggro; get some ships to follow you and fly AWAY from the path of the freighter.

I was bringing my ship right up to the rear bumper of the freighter, in an attempt to use my shield to shield the freighter. Wasnt sure if it was working per say. I guess my Tac Cruiser likely was grabbing aggro. I only concentrate on the wolves in front of the wolf pack, the enemies in the back of the pack usually arent firing on the freighter. So you are saying I could still use my ship to shield the freighter for a moment, grab their attention then maneuver off to the left or right and the enemies will follow? I'll try that next time Im in.

januhull

crypticarmsman wrote: »

Epic amounts of Win

Seems I may have to outfit a second Ody just for the occassion. Excellent strategy guide.

My current fit out was set to plow enemy incoming away from the freighters. Full impulse and/or Evasive Maneuvers with T-Beam repulsors at the last second just bulldozing the entire squadron back as far as I could manage. Followed up with BFAW and the beam point defense system to TRIBBLE everything around me off. Seemed to work well, we managed to save 11 or 12 the other night with three of us from the fleet I'm in fully coordinating with two other guys who worked well with us.

redricky

The attacking ships also seemed to warp out once the freighter they were chasing docked. Does it seem that way to other people?

I was just TBR'ing them away until the freighter got some breathing room and it was all good.

This is zone denail, not dps.

Also, 1 Tac Team seemed to be enough for the freighter if I got there early enough.

arcademaster

How many fleet marks did you get for saving 22?

captainrevo1

doubleohnine wrote: »

Bravo. But if the timer ran out before the 22nd ship could finish its dock, that would seem a timing error by Cryptic. Players cant control the speed the freighters spawn in, can we? They run at their own pace and speed, not like you can give them an engine battery to go faster, so if all 22 arent finishing with like 15 seconds to spare, the timer is too short, and thats not fair, you were robbed Armsman.

Its not a timing error. the freighters just keep coming until the time runs out. the fact the last one could not quite make it is just bad luck

doubleohnine

captainrevo1 wrote: »

Its not a timing error. the freighters just keep coming until the time runs out. the fact the last one could not quite make it is just bad luck

But the mission says "You saved X of 22". To me that implies the timer should allow 22 ships to successfully complete docking, no more than 22. You cant speed things up and squeeze more than 22 out of the mission, so the timer MUST allow all 22 to successfully dock EVERYTIME (assuming you save them all), if not that has to be a timer error Id think.

tangolight

I would tidy up the mission a bit if they could add a check to stop any new freighters from spawning when there's less than 45 seconds on the timer (or however long it takes for one freighter to spawn in and then make it to the base and count, assuming it isn't tractored or slowed.)

doubleohnine

tangolight wrote: »

I would tidy up the mission a bit if they could add a check to stop any new freighters from spawning when there's less than 45 seconds on the timer (or however long it takes for one freighter to spawn in and then make it to the base and count, assuming it isn't tractored or slowed.)

Wait, is THAT whats happening? We cant speed the freighters up, but the enemies can slow the freighters down with tractors or something? Thats sort of not fair. I'll have to look for that, I wasnt noticing the tractors on the freighters before, but wasnt looking at that either.

captainrevo1

doubleohnine wrote: »

But the mission says "You saved X of 22". To me that implies the timer should allow 22 ships to successfully complete docking, no more than 22. You cant speed things up and squeeze more than 22 out of the mission, so the timer MUST allow all 22 to successfully dock EVERYTIME (assuming you save them all), if not that has to be a timer error Id think.

you saved X/Y depending on how many entered the field of play but Y can change. its not a fixed 22 that enter. ive saved X/21. someone here saved X/23.

the number that enter does changes very slightly. im not 100% why but from what i can tell they give you a tiny amount of time from the moment it shows up before they start attacking it to let you get close to it first, but if you are close enough they seem to start moving straight away and you can shave some time off. If you can get yourself in a good position you can get more.

if you let the ship continue to attack the freighter when its trying to dock it will interrupt the freighter and then slow it down and you get less.

fyremouse

tip #1 Tactical Team is the freighters best friend. When you go in and the freighter is hot i.e. already under fire, hit it with a tactical team. It will then immediately start redistributing its shields. This gives the ship a markedly better chance of survival.

tip #2 at least one escort with Scatter Volley and Torpedo Spread is really nice to kill the lighter ships quickly and narrow it down to the Battleship left in the Spawn group.

Tip #3 It's all about crowd control. Gravity well will gather those smaller ships together and slow the bigger one down to get setup for the chain reaction of explosions. Scramble Sensors III worked nicely on Tribble to slow down their attacks as well. I didn't think Tyken Rift was very useful.

I'd like to try some of the less used powers like Repulsors or Shockwave to push the attackers back out of range but havent gotten to it yet.

I wonder if Repulsors could be used carefully to push the transports closer to the base?

I have to agree I really like this mission, it is SO fitting to both starfleet and KDF because its all about securing the supply lines and classic convoy operations

I run the MVAM with a Tac and found grabbing Aggro with cannon and torp spreads to be pretty easy if I fire on the ones targeting the transports. This might also finally be a case where the gather aggro skill would be of use in a heavy cruiser Tank build. While I would not use that for my STF's anymore for The Starbase missions it would make sense.


Cheers,
FyreMouse

doubleohnine

captainrevo1 wrote: »

you saved X/Y depending on how many entered the field of play but Y can change. its not a fixed 22 that enter. ive saved X/21. someone here saved X/23.

the number that enter does changes very slightly. im not 100% why but from what i can tell they give you a tiny amount of time from the moment it shows up before they start attacking it to let you get close to it first, but if you are close enough they seem to start moving straight away and you can shave some time off. If you can get yourself in a good position you can get more.

if you let the ship continue to attack the freighter when its trying to dock it will interrupt the freighter and then slow it down and you get less.

23 you say? Good to know. Yeah, I did notice the ships starting to come before the Briefing timer was over. And Ive only played it twice and saw "off 22" twice so I assumed it was locked at that.

thepleasuredome

fyremouse wrote: »

tip #1 Tactical Team is the freighters best friend. When you go in and the freighter is hot i.e. already under fire, hit it with a tactical team. It will then immediately start redistributing its shields. This gives the ship a markedly better chance of survival.

tip #2 at least one escort with Scatter Volley and Torpedo Spread is really nice to kill the lighter ships quickly and narrow it down to the Battleship left in the Spawn group.

Tip #3 It's all about crowd control. Gravity well will gather those smaller ships together and slow the bigger one down to get setup for the chain reaction of explosions. Scramble Sensors III worked nicely on Tribble to slow down their attacks as well. I didn't think Tyken Rift was very useful.

I'd like to try some of the less used powers like Repulsors or Shockwave to push the attackers back out of range but havent gotten to it yet.

I wonder if Repulsors could be used carefully to push the transports closer to the base?

I have to agree I really like this mission, it is SO fitting to both starfleet and KDF because its all about securing the supply lines and classic convoy operations

I run the MVAM with a Tac and found grabbing Aggro with cannon and torp spreads to be pretty easy if I fire on the ones targeting the transports. This might also finally be a case where the gather aggro skill would be of use in a heavy cruiser Tank build. While I would not use that for my STF's anymore for The Starbase missions it would make sense.


Cheers,
FyreMouse

No, repulsors won't work on the freighters as they are marked as Allied, and the repulsors wont' fire on them, just like they dont' fire on your teammates. I did however use repulsors to keep the ships away from the freighters while my escort partner killed them.

Last night SOB did a 20/20 on our second try. I think we got 50 fleet marks each.

Thanks for the tips Armsman, that's an excellent write up!

Arawn - SOB
OP *is* the new balance, whether you know so or not!

milner62

Personal best is 18. My technique that others start to copy is I go in at full impulse ready to fight with the freighter selected. Once I get close to extend shields I do then I start firing at will at the enemy as I cross their t behind the freigter laying down warp plasma. Slows them down to allow the freighter to reach the star base.

doubleohnine

milner62 wrote: »

Personal best is 18. My technique that others start to copy is I go in at full impulse ready to fight with the freighter selected. Once I get close to extend shields I do then I start firing at will at the enemy as I cross their t behind the freigter laying down warp plasma. Slows them down to allow the freighter to reach the star base.

Here's some Warp Plasma in your eye! That'll teachem

nohmalkiri

thepleasuredome wrote: »

Last night SOB did a 20/20 on our second try. I think we got 50 fleet marks each.

Arawn - SOB
OP *is* the new balance, whether you know so or not!

We got 23/23 later that night.

It's all a matter of positioning. You just need to spread out between the spawn areas to catch them all as they arrive. There are 3 Freighters up at any given time and you must account for each of them and have at least one person either repulsing the enemies away or healing the transport (Tac Team FTW) until a DPS arrives. Don't put more than two people on a transport though because you should in theory have two others on another freighter and the fifth scouting (in the opposite area of the other two Freighters) for the new arrival.

Communication is key. Also since there's no waypoints of any kind we use cardinal directions to direct people doing the scouting. If we have a Freighter coming from SW and another from SE we tell the odd man out to scout for the third in the North.

captainrevo1

We just had a bad run and only saved 11 out of 25. yep 25.

so because we lost a lot of transports quickly more warped in. so there is no set figure. its just however many you can squeeze in.

milner62

doubleohnine wrote: »

Here's some Warp Plasma in your eye! That'll teachem

Yep, I started refering to it as the Smith manuver after my Captain Edward J. Smith. Which will go nicely in my captains log talking bout having a manuver named after himself.

doubleohnine

milner62 wrote: »

Yep, I started refering to it as the Smith manuver after my Captain Edward J. Smith. Which will go nicely in my captains log talking bout having a manuver named after himself.

As an alternate maneuver Id think about aiming first for the rear of the wolf pack at full impulse, turn tightly left or right, then drop plasma quickly by crop dusting with evasive maneuvers from the back to the front as you come up to the rear of the freighter then give it a heal. Id only do that if your wingman went first for the freighter to give it a faster heal as the crop dusting time may take a tad too long for the freighter to survive depending on its condition. This as opposed to immediately coming in right behind the freighter and waiting for the wolves to fly into the plasma on their own.

glyken

doubleohnine wrote: »

We cant speed the freighters up, but the enemies can slow the freighters down with tractors or something?

Would an engineer's "EPS power transfer" speed up the freighters? (+25 all power levels)

milner62

doubleohnine wrote: »

As an alternate maneuver Id think about aiming first for the rear of the wolf pack at full impulse, turn tightly left or right, then drop plasma quickly by crop dusting with evasive maneuvers from the back to the front as you come up to the rear of the freighter then give it a heal. Id only do that if your wingman went first for the freighter to give it a faster heal as the crop dusting time may take a tad too long for the freighter to survive depending on its condition. This as opposed to immediately coming in right behind the freighter and waiting for the wolves to fly into the plasma on their own.

While moving a full impulse speeds by time I am laying the warp plasma down and doing fire at will my starship stars to skid sideways as it slides in a turn. Its not so much laying a line a few thousand yards infront of them but actually skidding sideways within 200 yards of the targets. Once I do this, this puts up a wall that tends to detonate any torpedos fired at the freighter providing it some protection. My extended shields help to buff up their shields and while this is going on I just bought the freighter some time till the other guys in the group make it to keep the enemies busy.

Typically I spot where the freighter is first and I am first on scene. I could do as you say but I think it would cut it close considering by time I am in range of exending my shields the freighter has already has its aft shields shot away.

The manuver isnt so much to stop them all in their tracks but more of a wall of plasma to act as a torpedo net and to stop the enemies from making a quick straight bee line for the freighter. To me it appears the AI of enemy ships tend to go for the shortest distance to the enemy instead of flying around dangerous objects such as mines or plasma.

doubleohnine

milner62 wrote: »

While moving a full impulse speeds by time I am laying the warp plasma down and doing fire at will my starship stars to skid sideways as it slides in a turn. Its not so much laying a line a few thousand yards infront of them but actually skidding sideways within 200 yards of the targets. Once I do this, this puts up a wall that tends to detonate any torpedos fired at the freighter providing it some protection. My extended shields help to buff up their shields and while this is going on I just bought the freighter some time till the other guys in the group make it to keep the enemies busy.

Typically I spot where the freighter is first and I am first on scene. I could do as you say but I think it would cut it close considering by time I am in range of exending my shields the freighter has already has its aft shields shot away.

The manuver isnt so much to stop them all in their tracks but more of a wall of plasma to act as a torpedo net and to stop the enemies from making a quick straight bee line for the freighter. To me it appears the AI of enemy ships tend to go for the shortest distance to the enemy instead of flying around dangerous objects such as mines or plasma.

So you're creating an arc of warp plasma as a shield facing wall behind the freighter as you swoop in. I like that idea better. I didnt know warp plasma detonated incoming torps. I stopped using plasma a long time ago. But for freighter protection it has a new valuable use as bogeys must chase the freighter and the freighter moves in one straight predictable line.

I toast a glass of Chateau Picard to you Captain!

nicha0

This is one of the best missions they have made, all classes can contribute equally well, from escorts damage to science crowd control and engineering heals.

Tactical team is my key to getting the freighters to not pop in seconds

So far I've seen anywhere from 19 to 25 freighters spawn, at 19 all five of us were flying in circles wondering where the freighters were.

burchenall

For now I can only play this mission with pugs and some of them apparently think that the only thing that matters is killing all enemies and they go in groups of 4 to "defend" the freighters but the only thing they end up doing is shooting at the enemy, even after the freighter is already dead, until all enemies are gone.

I go with a Nebula with two captains, one Science and one Engy, and when I get there I usually send a Tac Team to the freighter, hazard emitters and transfer shield strength; also gravity well or Tyken's rift to the enemies and if the freighter starts taking real damage I use Aux to Structural and Externd shields.

I've had some good pugs getting to my record (achieved today) of 19 saved of 22. It's very nice to see when everyone knows what to do... if someone is successfully defending a freighter and someone comes to check, if he sees that you don't need help, leaves to help another freighter...

It's the mission I like the most although it's sad to see already some AFKers in there so soon.

wildmousex

we saved 23 of 26 the day before yesterday, then yesterday i had one where we saved 2 out of 22 - there's only three things you need to know to complete this mission....

1: it takes more then 1 person to save a freighter, if no-one came to help you - go find where everyone else is and help them.

2: kill the ships shooting the freighter first, don't fly past and start attacking the guys in the back. once the ones in front are dead, the ones in back will attack you and leave the freighter alone.

3: once the freighter goes boom, stop your attack. the klinks do, and so should you. - - the only thing you accomplish by blowing them up while they're trying to leave is to keep yourself on red alert so you won't be able to get to the next freighter in time.

burchenall

Well, cruisers can defend freighters alone, you just have to play smart. Even sometimes there's no need to fire a single shot... you stay near the freighter with extend shields, scattering field and stuff like that, healing it constantly and using tac team and she is fine.

That is, usually you will need to take down Bio-Neurals and such (sometimes I have to intercept them with my ship) put some gravity wells to keep them away and use FAW to grab some aggro, to be safe. But a 1 man job for saving a freighter is easily doable.

sheppardus

wildmousex wrote: »

1: it takes more then 1 person to save a freighter, if no-one came to help you - go find where everyone else is and help them.
.

This isn't true, in my science ship i have saved multiple freighters without help, make sure you have repulsers pushing the enemy back and hold them there with a gravity well, then aggro as much as possible while sending heals to the freighter

carl104

Well, cruisers can defend freighters alone, you just have to play smart. Even sometimes there's no need to fire a single shot... you stay near the freighter with extend shields, scattering field and stuff like that, healing it constantly and using tac team and she is fine.

That is, usually you will need to take down Bio-Neurals and such (sometimes I have to intercept them with my ship) put some gravity wells to keep them away and use FAW to grab some aggro, to be safe. But a 1 man job for saving a freighter is easily doable.

Not really. If you have all their aggro you can't heal the freighter becuase your healiong yourself, if you don;t have their agro they'll chew through that freighter far faster than you can heal it. Not to mention it unloads slower whilst taking damage.

Now if grabbing agro actually worked and got them ALL to shot at you it would be fine. ou could tank away and pin them all down for a fair old while, probably not long enough to let the freighter dock, your damage intake being what it is, but certianlly enough to le others catch up and help out.