THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod

Realspace Combat - Choosing a Ship
As of the recent ship modifications by each of the factions, there are massive varieties of ships that are
viable in realspace. Which one you choose depends upon the way you fly, and what skills you want to
learn. In general, for pure effectiveness, you obviously want to pick the ships that match your skill set.
For pilots with relatively poor aim and good evasives/combat mentality, pick light ships (LFs, MFs).
Good all-rounders will probably prefer Fs or MFs. For the hit-em-hard people, who aren't necessarily
the best tactical thinkers/evaders, you will do best in Fs, HFs, or bombers, which maximise the
effectiveness of your aiming skill.
For the purposes of self education on how to PvP, I would recommend:
Quants: Typhoon. The best educational ship in the game. Hell on beginners, deadly in the hands of an
expert. It's unforgiving, but it teaches you all the right moves.
Octs: Chiroptean. The Nix/Dragon encourage a few too many bad habits, and the raven underemphasises
aim. It flies like a mini-phoon, but it is a little more forgiving.
Sols: Interceptor, Intensity. I'd recommend a mix of these two ships. The ceptor under-emphasises the
importance of aim, but the tensy can encourage a few bad habits (the so-called "spam and flee").
Realspace Combat - Situational Awareness
One of the most important abilities in RS combat is situational awareness. This involves keeping as
accurate a picture of where enemies are, where friends are, where objects are, and how the battle is
progressing in your head. You should always have time to think during a battle - as more skills become
automatic, you will probably find that your situational awareness picks up.
Radar: The ability to read the radar and track enemies on it, and their position relative to you and your
friends is very useful. I'd suggest cycling your radar down to something below 10k, to make it easier to
read. If you're a fleet leader you may well wish to keep the range up to retain a better overall picture of
the battle.
Target Cycling: Whenever you get the chance, cycle targets. Take a look and see if you're a long way
from the rest of the fleet, see if any enemies are pointing right towards you (indicating that they may be
coming for you). See if there are any good targets around. I tend to cycle targets whenever I am
chasing someone that I am not in range of, when I'm out of range while going evasive, and often when
I am shooting at something large that isn't shooting back (top side of a phoon, for example).
Targeting: Many factors control targets that you select (in no particular order).
• Proximity: You will reach a closer target faster, and hence be causing damage quicker and
reducing 'useless' flight time.
• Damage: Already damaged targets are more likely to already be down on flashfires, and are
closer to death - increasing the chance that you will down them before they make it away.
• Friends: Your target may be causing your friends trouble. If you pull an enemy off a friendly
pilot, you obviously help your fleet. Best targets are often those that are busy engaging one of
your friends - particularly if your friend is firing back. When you shoot at them, not only will you
be helping your friend take less damage, but the enemy may not realise, at least initially, that
they are taking damage from multiple sources - and will probably take significant damage
before running.
• Enemy ship type: You will want to engage, in general, ships that are capable of dealing a lot
of damage before others. This is not a hard and fast rule - because the Dragon, for example,
is so poor at chasing and has such high DA that it is often not the best first target.
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