Combat tactic - Heat sink as a decoy?

ChrisUK27

ChrisUK27
Whilst chatting with a mate at work we got onto the subject of 'silent running' and heat sinks. I remember DB saying in a video that players could use silent running to momentarily disappear.

So if I use a heat sink to dump all my heat into, eject it, then fly in another direction in silent running the enemy scanner should track the heat sink and not the ship. Has anyone tried this? For a game based on heat signatures it's odd to have chaff launchers and not flares.
 

redoctober

redoctober
I never tried it in combat. However, I have them to smuggle goods into stations without being scanned to dock. That worked really well, wasn't seen.
 

M4rt1n

M4rt1n
I think vs. AI dropping a HS does... well not much.
Against players, however it works like this:
a few seconds after you pop the sink, your radar image becomes that flickering ghost image, and you cannot be targeted for a few seconds. This is a viable tactic I believe (seen a Cobra player using it, it was annoying) the weakness is of course the low ammo capacity of the HSL.
 

changtau2005

changtau2005
Like M4rt1n said, if you know a player is running seeker missiles, you could use it to make him/her lose lock instead of silent running which makes you lose shields as well. If the seeker manages to locked and fired I'm not sure if it would actually veer towards the heat sink if it's hotter than your ship. You could use ECM to scramble missiles already heading towards you.
 

Hethwill_Khan

Hethwill_Khan
It is a valid tactic against NPCs and humans alike. Both lose lock and gimbals ( although NPC will change them to forward fire faster )

So far only 1 human didn't fall for it, a CMDR in an Asp and I had to say farewell to him while I escaped with 9% left of my pirate thick skull cobra. He dropped his gimbals into forward fixed and kept eyes on me old style gunnery without target lock.

I run guns out at 47%, completely frozen when heat sink drops.

To the average player a silent runner is a nightmare.
 
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Gorf

Gorf
I would think that any side effect of a particlar piece of equipment can get used as a tactical aid - against human players it might also be just psychological. I recall seeing a video of someone playing counterstrike who threw his pistol round the corner. His opponent just saw a little object flying through the air and turned away to avoid the effects of what he thought was a flashbang. The thrower continued round the corner and woon the game with a few well placed rifle shots.
 

ajgp85

A
What I would like is that if you eploy a heatsink to drop heat that any seeker missiles would key to the heatsink and not your ship (Heat drop dependant). With clever use of silent running / heatsinks could be an emergency decoy for missiles using heat signatures for lock.
 

ChrisUK27

ChrisUK27
Hethwill_Khan said:
It is a valid tactic against NPCs and humans alike. Both lose lock and gimbals ( although NPC will change them to forward fire faster )

So far only 1 human didn't fall for it, a CMDR in an Asp and I had to say farewell to him while I escaped with 9% left of my pirate thick skull cobra. He dropped his gimbals into forward fixed and kept eyes on me old style gunnery without target lock.

I run guns out at 47%, completely frozen when heat sink drops.

To the average player a silent runner is a nightmare.
Click to expand...

So is this a tactic you use allot then?
 

Hethwill_Khan

Hethwill_Khan
ChrisUK27 said:
So is this a tactic you use allot then?
Click to expand...

Yes. Mostly use it on Conflict Zones though but comes very handy in instances and interdictions.

Mind you, you don't go totally romulan cloaked and you give up your shields, so always plan for the worse and as any air combat simmer will say, have a escape route in your mind all the time.
 
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