Hi. I didn't see many ECE vehicles guides around this forum lately, so I decided to write my own. Let's go!
1. Paladin:
Despite being so slow and driving like a brick, the Paladin is relatively easy to use. It's main cannon attack does around 200 damage over a reasonable area, which is very good for taking down infantry at medium and long range, but isn't very effective against larger targets like Goliath tanks. The secondary fire is where the Paladin's strength really lies, though. It's a very large energy shield, large enough to cover the whole Paladin AND an attacking force or a power node. Very useful when storming well-defended positions, and great to cover your first node from attack when your team mates must destroy the 3 middle nodes, or do a quick rush towards the enemy first node. When the primary fire is used while the secondary fire shield is in effect, a ring of lightning explodes around the Paladin, doing tough damage to anyone within a few meters. Very dangerous for enemy infantry at close range. Being so slow, lacking a secondary turret, and unable to raise the shield very high, the Paladin is largely defenceless against airborne attacks.
2. SPMA:
Attacking with the SPMA is very easy, so I will only explain the baseics. When you have driven your SPMA close enough to attack the target (usually a power node), aim somewhere in the diretion of your target and use your alt-fire to shoot a rocket with a camera. When it gives you a nice view of the area, press alt-fire again to deploy it. It will hover in air and a green circle will appear on the ground. Use your forward, back and strafe keys to aim it. The forward and back keys move the circle further or closer from your SPMA, while strafe keys rotate it around the SPMA. When you moved that circle on your desired target, press your primary fire button to fire a shell on the target. The shell flies high into the air, then starts to fall towards your target. It will split into 5 smaller ones when it's 20 or so meters high, and do devastating damage to anything that gets hit.
But what's the real trick with the SPMA? Finding a good spot.
You will have to hide your vehicle well, because when aiming from the camera you are relatively blind to your immediate surroundings. An example: ONS-IslandHop, combat taking place near your first node. A great spot here is behind the bunkers on your core island. Your SPMA will be well-hidden by bunkers, foliage and the cliff on the beach, while being able to harass nodes from a distance.
One more general tip: An AVRiL rocket locked on a camera will automatically turn towards the SPMA if there is a clear line of sight to it. So, place your cameras low to prevent this from happenning, or keep a cliff or something between the camera and your SPMA.
If you notice danger incoming towards your SPMA, detonate your camera (alt-fire), then press 2 to change seat to the side turret, which looks and works just like a hellbender's side turret. It will allow you to fight off infantry and some vehicles, but if you get attacked by a Goliath, Manta or Raptor, well, you're dead.
3. Cicada:
This awesome ECE vehicle takes more skill to pilot than any other craft, and also needs an experienced laser turret operator to survive. Pilot tips:
The Cicada isn't very maneouverable, so turn early enough or you will crash into a wall, easily losing 30-50 hit points, and getting immobilized for awhile, so the enemy AVRiL campers will take you down. Avoid this.
Due to the speed of the Cicada, aiming with the alt-fire at a target is hard when your ping is higher than 50 or so. You must press alt-fire a split second before your crosshair is on the target, or you'll miss. Sometimes you will even have to slow down, but make sure you're flying again as soon as possible, or you will get shot down. Once the target has been acquired, move around a lot or even hide behind something, load up the rockets, then hop out from behind the obstacle and fire. Causing destruction & mayhem.
Repair the Cicada! It's respawn time is SOOOOOO long, that it mustn't get killed. When low on health, retreat from combat, land near a locked node, link up with your turret operator and quickly repair all the damage. You should be able to get your Cicada back in action within 30 seconds, which is faster than waiting for it to spawn, then flying all the way from your core.
Your turret operator will take care of most homing missiles, but sometimes the flares won't affect all the missiles fired at you, or you may get attacked by shock rifles/energy turrets. In this case, maneouver a lot! It really increases the Cicada's survivability. Because the Cicada turns rather clumsily, keep flying up and down, back and forth, strafe left and right. The enemies will have a real hard time hitting you now!
Turret operator doesn't need as much skill, but there are still a few things to be kept in mind:
The turret isn't designed to attack enemies, it's designed to keep the Cicada alive. Only use the lasers if there isn't much threat aroud, or somebody is attacking with a shock rifle/lg instead of an AVRiL (more about it below). The alt-fire flares are your main weapon, if they are fired, any nearby guided missiles will go after the flares instead of the Cicada. It's nescessary to survive.
Use your flares with timing. You can only fire one flare every second or so. If there are lots of enemy AVRiL campers around, don't fire the flares mindlessly, because there may be one missile fired at you, and confused by your flare, but if miliseconds later two more are launched, you are unable to launch another flare so fast, and you go SPLATT. If there are lots of AVRiLs around, wait until more than one missile is fired at you, and launch the flare with exact timing to confuse serveral missiles at a time! Your HUD tracks missiles, so you'll see how many are fired and how soon they will impact.
Use your lasers in one case: if an enemy has attacked you with an AVRiL, but all missiles went after the flares, he will sometimes swith to a shock rifle/lg and try to bring you down with these. In this case, stop launching flares and start shooting him with the lasers. Don't worry too much about killing him, just make sure he's under heavy fire. He will start to strafe, jump and doge a lot, and that makes his aiming hardly effective at all. :up:
1. Paladin:
Despite being so slow and driving like a brick, the Paladin is relatively easy to use. It's main cannon attack does around 200 damage over a reasonable area, which is very good for taking down infantry at medium and long range, but isn't very effective against larger targets like Goliath tanks. The secondary fire is where the Paladin's strength really lies, though. It's a very large energy shield, large enough to cover the whole Paladin AND an attacking force or a power node. Very useful when storming well-defended positions, and great to cover your first node from attack when your team mates must destroy the 3 middle nodes, or do a quick rush towards the enemy first node. When the primary fire is used while the secondary fire shield is in effect, a ring of lightning explodes around the Paladin, doing tough damage to anyone within a few meters. Very dangerous for enemy infantry at close range. Being so slow, lacking a secondary turret, and unable to raise the shield very high, the Paladin is largely defenceless against airborne attacks.
2. SPMA:
Attacking with the SPMA is very easy, so I will only explain the baseics. When you have driven your SPMA close enough to attack the target (usually a power node), aim somewhere in the diretion of your target and use your alt-fire to shoot a rocket with a camera. When it gives you a nice view of the area, press alt-fire again to deploy it. It will hover in air and a green circle will appear on the ground. Use your forward, back and strafe keys to aim it. The forward and back keys move the circle further or closer from your SPMA, while strafe keys rotate it around the SPMA. When you moved that circle on your desired target, press your primary fire button to fire a shell on the target. The shell flies high into the air, then starts to fall towards your target. It will split into 5 smaller ones when it's 20 or so meters high, and do devastating damage to anything that gets hit.
But what's the real trick with the SPMA? Finding a good spot.
You will have to hide your vehicle well, because when aiming from the camera you are relatively blind to your immediate surroundings. An example: ONS-IslandHop, combat taking place near your first node. A great spot here is behind the bunkers on your core island. Your SPMA will be well-hidden by bunkers, foliage and the cliff on the beach, while being able to harass nodes from a distance.
One more general tip: An AVRiL rocket locked on a camera will automatically turn towards the SPMA if there is a clear line of sight to it. So, place your cameras low to prevent this from happenning, or keep a cliff or something between the camera and your SPMA.
If you notice danger incoming towards your SPMA, detonate your camera (alt-fire), then press 2 to change seat to the side turret, which looks and works just like a hellbender's side turret. It will allow you to fight off infantry and some vehicles, but if you get attacked by a Goliath, Manta or Raptor, well, you're dead.
3. Cicada:
This awesome ECE vehicle takes more skill to pilot than any other craft, and also needs an experienced laser turret operator to survive. Pilot tips:
The Cicada isn't very maneouverable, so turn early enough or you will crash into a wall, easily losing 30-50 hit points, and getting immobilized for awhile, so the enemy AVRiL campers will take you down. Avoid this.
Due to the speed of the Cicada, aiming with the alt-fire at a target is hard when your ping is higher than 50 or so. You must press alt-fire a split second before your crosshair is on the target, or you'll miss. Sometimes you will even have to slow down, but make sure you're flying again as soon as possible, or you will get shot down. Once the target has been acquired, move around a lot or even hide behind something, load up the rockets, then hop out from behind the obstacle and fire. Causing destruction & mayhem.
Repair the Cicada! It's respawn time is SOOOOOO long, that it mustn't get killed. When low on health, retreat from combat, land near a locked node, link up with your turret operator and quickly repair all the damage. You should be able to get your Cicada back in action within 30 seconds, which is faster than waiting for it to spawn, then flying all the way from your core.
Your turret operator will take care of most homing missiles, but sometimes the flares won't affect all the missiles fired at you, or you may get attacked by shock rifles/energy turrets. In this case, maneouver a lot! It really increases the Cicada's survivability. Because the Cicada turns rather clumsily, keep flying up and down, back and forth, strafe left and right. The enemies will have a real hard time hitting you now!
Turret operator doesn't need as much skill, but there are still a few things to be kept in mind:
The turret isn't designed to attack enemies, it's designed to keep the Cicada alive. Only use the lasers if there isn't much threat aroud, or somebody is attacking with a shock rifle/lg instead of an AVRiL (more about it below). The alt-fire flares are your main weapon, if they are fired, any nearby guided missiles will go after the flares instead of the Cicada. It's nescessary to survive.
Use your flares with timing. You can only fire one flare every second or so. If there are lots of enemy AVRiL campers around, don't fire the flares mindlessly, because there may be one missile fired at you, and confused by your flare, but if miliseconds later two more are launched, you are unable to launch another flare so fast, and you go SPLATT. If there are lots of AVRiLs around, wait until more than one missile is fired at you, and launch the flare with exact timing to confuse serveral missiles at a time! Your HUD tracks missiles, so you'll see how many are fired and how soon they will impact.
Use your lasers in one case: if an enemy has attacked you with an AVRiL, but all missiles went after the flares, he will sometimes swith to a shock rifle/lg and try to bring you down with these. In this case, stop launching flares and start shooting him with the lasers. Don't worry too much about killing him, just make sure he's under heavy fire. He will start to strafe, jump and doge a lot, and that makes his aiming hardly effective at all. :up:
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