Pilot Archive
Thread: Sorry if this has been flogged to death but...question concerning e pulse
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LeaphChausew
Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:32 pm
#1
Ok...flyng around in A-wing and am about to waste a freelancer in pvp when...
BOOM
I die..no lasers fired.
I've been flying for a while but thus far no one has one this to me in pvp...or they have and I just didn't realise.
But yeh, asked around and then the freelancer in my group told me my assailent must have used e-pulse.
So I verify it wish said opponent and yeh it was.
My question is this.
Could someone tell me...
1. The amount of damage this command does [in my a-wing it kills me but what about my x-wing with it's lvl 8 reward shield?]
2. What is it's effective range? [I tried in dueling my freelance friend to see when he used it if i could get out and in of range so he perhaps used it at the wrong time and 'missed' but in te heat of the moment could never track my distance from him when concentrating on avoiding it]
3. This command I am assuming....does have a drawback? Like draining shields of the person who uses it or...damaging their ship slightly?
4. Oh i remember this command being referred to as the 'I win' button...now I see why 
. Oh well...all is fair in loveand war I suppose.
. Oh well...all is fair in loveand war I suppose.Erm. 4 wasn't a question but oh well.
Thanks 
psikobunny
Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:51 pm
#3
Damage for epulse3 is pretty consistently tied with the size of your shield. The range is very limited, personally I try to get as much under 100m as I can, though I never use this in PvP.
Anyone remember an old star trading ship acquiring kinda game for the PC where one of the races you meet was called the Shofixti? They were these hyperkinetic little raccoon people who were such prolific breeders that their one and only tactic in space combat was to fly as close to an enemy as they could and explode their tiny hyper dodgy little ship. Why is it that since the JSF came ingame I have been thinking of these raccoons, and this tactic, and epulse, and PvP? Why am I so tempted?
side note 2: epulse is 360degree radius, but I am wondering, what happens if you use front reinforce extreme, and fire one off? Think you could create the effect of an electric battering ram?
man my head is in a weird spot tonight.
BannedinFrance
Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:54 pm
#4
I personally don't use it that much, but I admit it can come in handy.
The range seems to me to be very short, I think only within 100-150meters maybe. But I've not really tried it beyond that range.
As for drawbacks, epulse 1&2 drain your capacitor while epulse3 drains your shields.
S-1-l2-H-C
Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:36 pm
#5
me and a friend tested this in deep space once. from 200m, it was instagib. he pressed the button, and i was dead. at 250m, i lost my front shields, but was still alive. he had a pretty weak shield and cap, so a better equiped ship would have dealt alot more damage with it.
the only way i know to counter it is to slow down to almost a stop and blow out their reactor during the head on pass before they get in range.
i used it once back when i was freelance, and i felt rather dirty afterwards.
Raanan
Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:02 pm
#6
Huh... I should try that against a corevette... see what happens
S-1-l2-H-C
Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:08 pm
#7
Raanan wrote:
Huh... I should try that against a corevette... see what happens
it doesnt do damage to cap ships, so that tactic would only be good for quickly going back to dath space station.
TUMOS_GHOST
Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:14 pm
#8
S-1-l2-H-C wrote:
Raanan wrote:
Huh... I should try that against a corevette... see what happens
it doesnt do damage to cap ships, so that tactic would only be good for quickly going back to dath space station.
Lol
Kalano
Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:23 pm
#10
S-1-l2-H-C wrote:
Raanan wrote:
Huh... I should try that against a corevette... see what happens
it doesnt do damage to cap ships, so that tactic would only be good for quickly going back to dath space station.
I had a couple of nice trips like that. Didn't involve Epulse, but they were spectacular before the load screen.
TomoRainer
Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:34 pm
#11
Ramona and Kitten ran some tests and crunched some numbers on this once. It does a huge amount of damage when you're within range. Unavoidable, of course, and the "drawback" is it drains your shields and capacitor energy. That doesn't really impress me as a drawback.
I'd love more testing and discussion of this, as right now my take on its use in PVP is very dubious.
I'd love more testing and discussion of this, as right now my take on its use in PVP is very dubious.
psikobunny
Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:53 pm
#12
TomoRainer wrote:
Ramona and Kitten ran some tests and crunched some numbers on this once. It does a huge amount of damage when you're within range. Unavoidable, of course, and the "drawback" is it drains your shields and capacitor energy. That doesn't really impress me as a drawback.
I'd love more testing and discussion of this, as right now my take on its use in PVP is very dubious.
Sure, in 1on1 PvP it may be worth calling it unfair, but it still takes timing and skill to get the move off in the right spot. With the bobbing weaving, exceptionally high PvP speeds, avoiding fire, I don't see it as terribly unbalancing. In a PvP melee, all friendlys would need to be out of range or it doesn't work, and if someone is nutty enough to fly into a cluster of players and let one off, then any of the people who survive will nail them. Ever read Ender's game? DrDevice worked in a similar way with close ships. Let a PvP crew get burned by it once, and they learn the same lesson the Buggers did, don't fly too close together.
It's damage potential has been fixed once already, and I don't really see it as any more lethal or unfair as say a full salvo of Image Rec III from an Oppressor, or anything the Rebellion could throw at you.
TomoRainer
Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:01 pm
#13
Gotta disagree. If I were a privateer in one-on-one PVP, here's what I'd do: twist through the first pass, hit F6 (/follow for me), then make sure I was within, say, 200m and hit F10 (Bomberstrike for me right now, would swap that to epulse as a privateer). There's absolutely no counter to that.
As far as group PVP goes.. I've seen a single person dodge blaster fire from 5-10 different players for 5-15 minutes multiple times. Pretty much whenever we get group PVP going, honestly. If I epulse, what do I care if my shields are gone? What are the chances I'm going to get hit before I've shunted them back? And if I take out 1-4 people with me each time, is that not worth the risk?
I love Ender's Game, but if it were an actual game, I'd imagine the queen of the Buggers would be crying about balance issues on Dr. Device the first time it was used in combat.
Edit: wait, /follow wouldn't work. Still, if I'm in a fight with someone who's actually trying to shoot me back, they're going to be within epulse range most of the time. If I'm concentrating on keeping them within range for the purposes of hitting my epulse button, I give them a very sad chance of survival. Certainly less than they'd have against missiles (I chaff about 85% of those in PVP, and the ones that land have never killed me), blasters (I land maybe 1 out of 300 shots), or any other form of damage in PVP.
epulse just rubs me entirely the wrong way. It seems almost antithetical to the JTL combat system. I mean, what if there were a button you could press on the ground that instadeathblowed everyone in a 30-meter radius? How well would that go over?
As far as group PVP goes.. I've seen a single person dodge blaster fire from 5-10 different players for 5-15 minutes multiple times. Pretty much whenever we get group PVP going, honestly. If I epulse, what do I care if my shields are gone? What are the chances I'm going to get hit before I've shunted them back? And if I take out 1-4 people with me each time, is that not worth the risk?
I love Ender's Game, but if it were an actual game, I'd imagine the queen of the Buggers would be crying about balance issues on Dr. Device the first time it was used in combat.
Edit: wait, /follow wouldn't work.
Still, if I'm in a fight with someone who's actually trying to shoot me back, they're going to be within epulse range most of the time. If I'm concentrating on keeping them within range for the purposes of hitting my epulse button, I give them a very sad chance of survival. Certainly less than they'd have against missiles (I chaff about 85% of those in PVP, and the ones that land have never killed me), blasters (I land maybe 1 out of 300 shots), or any other form of damage in PVP.epulse just rubs me entirely the wrong way. It seems almost antithetical to the JTL combat system. I mean, what if there were a button you could press on the ground that instadeathblowed everyone in a 30-meter radius? How well would that go over?
Message Edited by TomoRainer on 06-13-2005 11:51 PM
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