Pilot Archive
Thread: The ARC 170 & Me... HELP !!!
I fly for CorSec, and im a rebel on the ground.
Yesterday i became 4333 freelance pilot, and got the quest for an ARC 170 and eventually got it.
I have just sufficient cash to reserve for my eventual YT-1300 and so my intention was to use the ARC 170 until
master pilot.
However this was not to be. With level 5 to level 7 equip and a almost full mass, and after 6 hours of reading the ARC 170 guide in the pilot FAQ i took to the sky with 2 friends and tried to kill everything from TIe interceptors to kashyyyk mercenaries. Nothing worked. The gunners couldnt hit, and when i had to turn to lock for my guns, they lost their own lock.
I dont know what to do now, but if i buy a Rihxyrk it may solve problems, but fitting it up and all will make me lose alot of cash for my eventually YT-1300. The best way would be to stick with the ARC 170 but i dont know what to put in it or how to use it.
Please Help.
The ARC is not the best PvE ship out there, in fact unless you have good gunners and understand how to use those turrets, it can be close to useless. Honestly, buy a Rihk - much better single player ship, and it will allow you to deal some massive damage PvE. Shouldn't cost you much, all you need is the chassis. Swap out the gear from your ARC.
You should also be making a lot of money during the Tier4 grind, so don't worry too much about cash right now.
Or if you want to save the cash, run the missions for the Vaksai. With 150k of mass, that ship can more than fulfill any tier4 piloting needs.
For the last mission (corvette) you should get some help along, but if you have two people who'd be ready to stick with you for the complete grind in the ARC (and, heck, 3 people means 33% of the XP for you....) then they sure are ready to assist with that stuff, too... much more fun, after all.
Message Edited by Sylow on 08-26-2005 04:12 PM
Also ill proceed to buying the rihzyrk now. One of the reasons i didnt want to get the rihz was because
i was " told " it was " heavy " and the turning was much slower.
Cool. The Vaksai is quest given i think, isnt it the heavy kihraxz ?
The heavy mass brother, yes... quite a nice ship, though (like all freelancer ships) a massive target... you can hide a Tie Oppressor under it.
Also ill proceed to buying the rihzyrk now. One of the reasons i didnt want to get the rihz was because
i was " told " it was " heavy " and the turning was much slower.
My Rihkxyrk is not called "moose" for no reason... it turns like one. But, hey, why doing fast turning and dogfighting? A mass of 190k and three frontal guns give you massive firepower... 
Anyways, the speed you turn at is only determined by your engine... and with the high mass, you can actually afford to get a better turning engine than the lighter fighters can. Actually i'd advise to pay less attention on speed and more on turn rates with the Rihk.
What the heavy frame suffers upon is responsiveness, it takes a moment longer till the ship starts turning and also a bit longer to stop turning. Requires you to have your eyes a bit more on the radar and reduce pull on the stick early when the target comes into your field of vision to let inertia do the rest of your turning.
[Though, field of vision is a bad term on the Rhik... better say "frontal firing area" , there is no vision in the ship. The cockpit if pretty far back, the nose of the ship goes that far forward that it actually touches your crosshair on the screen. Over 50% of your screen if your own ship when you play in cockpit view, but i never found that to be a massive problem, it's rather "cool" to fight like that. 
]
Message Edited by Sylow on 08-26-2005 04:26 PM
Heh heh heh I mastered the Smugglers alliance in a dune lizard,
imho having been an Imp, Reb and Privateer, its the bestship in the game simply due to fact its a tier one, twin gun ship with 90k mass.
Hmm I just reread your original post and there are a couple of things to try with the Arc
1. You mentioned that you were breaking your gunners lock when your tried to bring your guns to bear...As a pilot I would try to keep the ship in a position for the maximumnumber of guns to be able to bear on the enemy. My experiences of POB ships suggest that using a dirty great engine and tweaking speed to keep your enemy behind your so your gunners can aim easily at the fighter chasing you should improve it. Adjust your role as from a fighter pilot to an evasive pilot and you should do just fine.
2. With inexperienced gunners and a new ship I tend to go for the low stress options to start with Pick somewhere like Naboo system with plentiful Tier 1 and 2 targets before moving on to more difficult targets. Since you are piloting a fast stable gun platform your gunners should have little difficulty hitting Ties and stuff to start with. It will also give you an idea of how to pilot your ship more effectively against Hard targets.
Someone commented above that the ARC 170 is the worst of the ROTW ships. IMO its because the first instict is to fly it like a fighter and chase the targets with your forward guns leaving your gunners with nothing to do but look at the pretty light show. Use it like a gunship and keep your targets in the turret fireing zones and it will become much more effective.
Message Edited by Tando_Hamoto on 08-27-2005 12:51 AM