Combat Zones -- Spec Ops OP?

[Alone Wulff]

I love and hate Spec Ops at the same time. They put up a good fight but I agree a little with the OP that they are a little too "good". I'm by no means the best combat pilot but I'm not bad either.

Spec Ops need to be taken out as quickly as possible - successfully killing all four will win the battle, usually. Letting an enemy captain escape sometimes affects the balance - despite the fact that they ALWAYS jump out before their shields drop.

One or two others have mentioned it but take Spec Ops out in order - Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma. If you start a fight with Alpha the others usually turn their interest to other ships than you. Take on the Gamma Spec Ops first and guaranteed all four will be hammering you within seconds.

 

[zeta]

I'm in a fully kitted out and combat engineered Corvette, and these Spec Ops wings are absolutely wrecking me. Endless SCBs, sniper-like Rail Guns with shield breach, seemingly bottomless shields and hull... I'm spending most of my MultiCannon ammo on just these 4 ships that spawn, and by that time the battle has been lost for my faction, I've got barely any money to show for my effort, and to top it off I lose faction reputation. Can we please get a balance pass? By which I mean, can we get a big ol' nerf hammer the Spec Ops spawns?

I respectfully disagree with you. I wish the CZ spec ops were harder. I have no problem dealing with them in my mamba (PA/frags). In the bubble there are few opportunities for challenging combat vs NPCs. One is (perhaps was, they do not seem to spawn as of writing this message) fighting spec ops in CZs and the other is fighting the pirates at the pirate activity signal source.

I do not know how well your ship is engineered. If it is, then perhaps try to use your team to tackle the spec ops. You may want to search the forum on strategies / builds CMDRs found successful to win the CZ.

 

[Jmanis]

I respectfully disagree with you. I wish the CZ spec ops were harder. I have no problem dealing with them in my mamba (PA/frags). In the bubble there are few opportunities for challenging combat vs NPCs. One is (perhaps was, they do not seem to spawn as of writing this message) fighting spec ops in CZs and the other is fighting the pirates at the pirate activity signal source.

I do not know how well your ship is engineered. If it is, then perhaps try to use your team to tackle the spec ops. You may want to search the forum on strategies / builds CMDRs found successful to win the CZ.

If you're after a challenge, and that's all you're after, try finding a system where the controller is in civil unrest, and jump into a Pirate Activity Threat 5+ site. All targets are fully engineered.

 

[Kissamies]

Ooh, it's a necro, but that's OK because the topic isn't outdated or anything. I say 'fight smarter, not harder'. But yea, Spec Ops is head and shoulders above any other CZ encounter, and they are a bit annoying bullet sponges when taken on alone. I wish the capital ship was harder. That is super easy. If we are in a wing and that causes the heat relays bug, it becomes a little more challenging as the objective becomes killing the enemies faster that the capital ship kills our guys, but that is also easy in a wing. The capital ship should have shields. Maybe they could then be penetrated by torpedoes to give that weapon system some meaning.

 

[Crumb]

Rather than start a new thread, i hope no one takes offence at me asking a bgs CZ question here.

I’m just reading a bgs guide, from this forum, and it says that after a few kills in a CZ you should go and hand the bonds in. I thought that if you left the CZ before it ends, or if you get destroyed, your side looses.

Can someone clear this up for me?

Thanks!

 

[Ethaidan]

Rather than start a new thread, i hope no one takes offence at me asking a bgs CZ question here.

I’m just reading a bgs guide, from this forum, and it says that after a few kills in a CZ you should go and hand the bonds in. I thought that if you left the CZ before it ends, or if you get destroyed, your side looses.

Can someone clear this up for me?

Thanks!

That's terrible advice. It may work against no player opposition, but it's pretty weak advice. The instance should evaporate, so you don't lose the CZ, but if you do CZ to station travel, and back to CZ every couple of kills for a few bounties and I finish a CZ in 12minutes, I get the CZ win and more bounties to hand in with less wasted travel time. Your bounty to travel time ratio is going to suck compared to mine (even without my CZ win bonus). The only time you should do this is if you're incapable of winning a CZ.

 

[Just Paul]

Rather than start a new thread, i hope no one takes offence at me asking a bgs CZ question here.

I’m just reading a bgs guide, from this forum, and it says that after a few kills in a CZ you should go and hand the bonds in. I thought that if you left the CZ before it ends, or if you get destroyed, your side looses.

Can someone clear this up for me?

Thanks!

That sounds like a very outdated guide and I wouldn't follow it at all.

Winning CZ, winning scenarios, turning in bonds (no need for small transactions), bounties, completing certain types of missions is what you want to do.
You win the day if you did more than the other side, so you could win with 1 bond turned in or you could be needing to run CZ all day to win. It all depends on how much your opposition is doing.

 

[Rulingmoss55]

last time I ran into a spec ops wing in my cutter (biweaves for shields and the rest of the armament is turreted pulse lasers) the only difference in how I faced them compared to the rest of the zone was setting my turrets to "target only" instead of "fire at will" so I could focus them. I'm in a pretty far-from-optimised build for taking on hardened targets.

Don't demand the rest of the game get dragged down for everyone else so you don't get your battlebarge's feelings of invincibility shattered. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

There's a difference between a good fun challenge and something that is simply horridly designed and you are incapable of seeing it. They literally all target the player at once and your "allies" never bother to help you deal with them. Plus they all target the player even when you don't attack them, while your allies focus on a single competent viper mk III, It's simply bad game design. Edit: In retrospect I should have watched my temper, regardless I have just found out about the new update coming so now I feel quite dumb. Feel free to delete this post

 

[Screemonster]

There's a difference between a good fun challenge and something that is simply horridly designed and you are incapable of seeing it. They literally all target the player at once and your "allies" never bother to help you deal with them. It's simply bad game design and you can't even recognize it!

did you really just dig up a post from 2019 to whine at me

 

[Factabulous]

2 years and they still haven't worked out how to take out the Spec Ops one at a time - no wonder they're angry

 

[Ryan Murdoc]

General rule in a CZ is that one seeks out the weakest enemy craft first (Eagles mostly) and then scrolls through the targets to find those who have weak shields or are already getting their hull damaged by the allied ships. The faster the kills the more allied will attack the remaining enemies.
Always keep your eyes on the Radar if you're doing a 1v1 far away from the others and the SpecOps spawn in then yeah they'll be all on your rear most of the time. Get yourself into a flock of Greens and let them take the heat off you. Situational awareness and all that jazz.
And if you fly any big ship make use of your mass and ram. Don't forget to switch Pips to SYS beforehand though.

 

[Rubbernuke]

The only thing to watch for is Spec Ops doing the same tactics back and whacking weak ships. In the wrong place they can really munch through the bendies.

 

[Misty_Dark]

The only thing to watch for is Spec Ops doing the same tactics back and whacking weak ships. In the wrong place they can really munch through the bendies.

so very true,

If left alone, they will keep up the score against a solo CMDR. so taking out 2 of them is recommended, but for those CMDRs that find them hard, pick wisely, as there are differences between these, so target the easy ones. And do not shoot at them all at once should go without saying.

 

[Ryan Murdoc]

When you got a max-engineered big ship SpecOps can act as good Competition to find out who can kill faster, them or you. A little challenge at least.

 

[Lee Taylor]

I don't have any trouble taking them out. If you're wading in with turrets the problem is more likely a suboptimal build. Once I took advice from someone who knew how to build ships, I was able to solo czs continuously, no trouble. There are numerous valid builds for a Corvette, which is in my opinion the champion of PvE CZ grinding.

Their strength (apart from being engineered with emphasis on shields) is that they fight as a wing. They try to focus on one target at a time if they can, if they focus on you it relieves your allies from their attacks whilst your team's spec ops get to work. Spec ops are probably intended to be winged up against, but a properly built and engineered warship can solo each one in sequence in short order before the end of the battle. They don't need to be nerfed.

 

[zaneomano]

I'm in a fully kitted out and combat engineered Corvette, and these Spec Ops wings are absolutely wrecking me. Endless SCBs, sniper-like Rail Guns with shield breach, seemingly bottomless shields and hull... I'm spending most of my MultiCannon ammo on just these 4 ships that spawn, and by that time the battle has been lost for my faction, I've got barely any money to show for my effort, and to top it off I lose faction reputation. Can we please get a balance pass? By which I mean, can we get a big ol' nerf hammer the Spec Ops spawns?

Even so... a lot of people are saying they enjoy the dificulty.... literally here because of how astonished I was at the dificulty. I was in an eng anaconda, prismatics, MRPs and HRPs galore, and they shredded my shields and hull to 24% before I was able to jump away. Meduim CZ as well. pretty ridiculous if you ask me

 

[Jmanis]

 

[Aleks Zuno]

The deed having been committed now, though—

Even so... a lot of people are saying they enjoy the dificulty.... literally here because of how astonished I was at the dificulty. I was in an eng anaconda, prismatics, MRPs and HRPs galore, and they shredded my shields and hull to 24% before I was able to jump away. Meduim CZ as well. pretty ridiculous if you ask me

May I suggest recording a video? It is by far the best way to see what occurs, and in this case it is almost assured that there will be a few simple things you can do or changes you can make which a video will highlight quite quickly. Many absolute beginners have gained a lot of knowledge and skill very quickly that way, and I make a special point of thanking those who include such!

For example, here is my bounty-hunting Mamba in a High-intensity conflict zone with relatively unfavourable events for me; ally Captain versus enemy Spec Ops. I recorded this originally to show that Fragment Cannons can yield two complete High zones without restocking, so I held back a little with ammunition usage, although hopefully the extra stabbing makes up for that. Whether it provides a few ideas or attracts a few suggestions, I am quite happy!

 

[Northpin]

Even so... a lot of people are saying they enjoy the dificulty.... literally here because of how astonished I was at the dificulty. I was in an eng anaconda, prismatics, MRPs and HRPs galore, and they shredded my shields and hull to 24% before I was able to jump away. Meduim CZ as well. pretty ridiculous if you ask me

It's doable in a Krait.
But for easier and faster chaining of CZ i usually run a Corvette

Ultimately is not the ship, but the Commander.
If you manage to get yourself focused by the entire SpecOps wing, you need a really strong ship to be able to turn the tides.
The usual recommendations are along these lines: let them engage in combat (not with you) and take some damage, then start working with the last one. They are named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta - Start with Delta. If you get agro from other SpecOps, try to disengage and move where are the most of your team's ships, once you lose agro get back to working on them

Ultimately, a combat zone is a team play zone.
So play along your team. Be a green dot among other green dots, and focus the ships they are focusing. Dont be the hero green dot surrounded by reds.

 

[Hellrider]

Man, they were nerfed so hard...
OP claims that his fully engineered vette was wrecked.
I can fight with them in unengi krait
Of course, not with whole wing at once, but it is point- not tanking everything as rambo.
What can made conclusions, that the most important thing is...thinking. Sadly no amount of engineering in shields can give this perk.