I think perhaps I may be the only person in the US who actually plays this game!
I have seen no magazines cover it, and only one page (in English) that goes into
much detail about it. There must be someone out there who wants to discuss
strategy issues with me...
Anyways, this is where I will collect all the cool strategy tips and programs I
can come across, and maybe if my page gets popular enough, I'll support some
competetions, maybe even leagues. Read my guidelines for text OKE program
submission right here
I have typed up my first sample program and sent it for your inspection here.
Here's a little bit of advice in the meantime:
Except for the ability to carry more, missiles have few advantages over
large missiles. Most OKE bodies will be able to carry an equal amount of
rockets or missiles, and rockets tend to be better for supressive fire, as well
as being able to damage more than one target at a time.
In large missiles, go for long range and launch them across the board.
Orion, Medusa, and NecroZone are the best. In rockets, Snake, Hercules, and
Panther spread like a shotgun and can concentrate fire better than Dragonfly or
Nitehawk, which do more damage but spread it out more. The previous three are
easier to dodge, but the latter two spread so much that sometimes you don't
have to dodge them at all. And when they do hit they don't actually do a
whole lot of damage overall. On the other hand, "shotgun" rockets can be dodged
entirely, but have a good chance of the WHOLE spread hitting a target
sometimes, doing massive damage and raising the targets heat a lot for extra
damage.
So far in my experiance, I've found two-legged OKE's to be better at
survival than multi-legged or tank OKE's. This is due to their quicker steps
and faster jumping ability. Some bodies shoot more than others. The Vyper
can fire double shots. The multi-legged OKE's fire double shots, except the
Manticore which fires quadruple! The Kouger fires double shots from two guns
(making it quad) and the Jackhammer fires triple from one gun. I havn't played
with the Ronin or flying OKE's yet. When you make a squad of OKE's, don't go
for three of the same thing. My best squads so far have been a combination of
lasers and shotguns (I don't like assault guns so far). Two Vypers armed with
shotguns and Panther rockets (double-firing shotguns will do horrible things
to your armor at close range) and one Manticore with a laser and NecroZone
large missiles to harass the enemy enough for the Vypers to get in close, and
you've got a winning team.
One Vyper and two Manticores would survive longer, but dish out less damage.
Avoid OKE VolleyBall - that's where one poor OKE (usually a quick and light 2-
legger) gets blasted back and forth
between friendly and enemy volleys of fire. I've seen some poor OKE's get
knocked back and forth four times without touching the ground, and explode mid-
air. My programs usually spread out in the first four seconds of combat to avoid
this, and get better crossfires.
Anyone who has scanned pics of program tiles, translations of Japanese CH pages,
or just cool strategy and program info, please mail me!
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at arne@cco.net
Here's my little plan for a standardized set of text program blocks:
First off, describe the mech that it is built for. For a specific format
use this:
Name :
Body :
Engine :
Main weapon: (and ammo)
Sub weapon : (and ammo)
CPU :
Fuel tank :
Armor :
Option :
You could include a paint color too if you want. Here's a sample:
Name :JujuBee
Body :Jujuman02
Engine :Gargill Z3
Main weapon:Shotgun (100 HD)
Sub weapon :12 Rocket (Panther MK2)
CPU :Tri-H3
Fuel tank :40 liter
Armor :35mm
Option :Omni P1 ID
Umm, thats off the top of my head, so the names might not be right, but
you get the idea. If you want to submit a program that can be used for
a wide variety of designs, just list the items that are necessary for your
program to work, such as:
Any two or multi-legged OKE
Shotgun
Short range rockets
Missile interferance device
Now for the hard part, making text blocks to show your program. Perhaps
in the future I (or someone else with spare time) could make a program to
generate text files for these. The general format for these is thus:
+------+
|Scan E
| 200 y>
|0 90
+--\/--+
This is "Scan for Enemy at 0 degrees, 90 degree width". The down arrow is
green and the right arrow is red.
I made the red arrows have a line through them, since the red arrows are
always the divergance, and the green normally connect like one long line.
The "Scan" is obvious, and "E" for "enemy", then range, and the other two
are the normal numbers. This way, all 3 numbers appear in the order they
do on the screen when you edit the tile.
This is the command list:
movement: misc:
Move Duck
Jump Jam (missile)
Ascend STOP
Desc (descend) Wait
Turn Self (destruct)
Random
Shooting: Time
Fire Allys
Grapp (Grapple) Send
Rec (receive)
Status Check Count
Fuel Count?
Damage Scan
Temp --
Ammo
Here's a more detailed rundown for each one:
Command| Parameters
-------+------------------------------------
Move : Ahead, Back, Left, or Right
Jump : Ahead, Back, Left, Right, or Up
Ascend : none
Desc : none
Turn : Left or Right
Fire : Main or Sub, (number if sub), width
Grappl : none
Fuel : < or > or =, number
Damage : < or > or =, number
Temp : < or > or =, number
Ammo : < or > or =, number
Duck : none
Jam : Missile
STOP : none
Wait : none
Self : Destruct
Random : number / number
Time : < or > or =, number
Allys : < or > or =, number
Send : Channel number, color
Rec : Channel number, color
Count : Letter (A thru E), (+ - / * or <-), number
Count? : Letter (A thru E), < or > or =, number
Scan : (E,F,P,M,O, or N), range, direction, width
-- : none
The scan abbreviations are:
E enemy
F ally
P projectile
M missile
O obstacle
N mine
Once you get these all together, they should look a lot like what you see
on the screen:
It may look jumbled, but it is the best I can do until I get a set of icons
made for graphic program pictures. And it is compact enough to make an 11x11
program and still fit within 79 columns. 12x12's will just have to be wider
than 80 columns for now.
This is the program I am currently using to whoop on the computer on the
Callisto scenario. This same general program has worked all the way up to
map 5 so far, as long as I update the hardware at each map. It is very
simple to edit out the missile interferance device if you need to.
Author: Arne Michaelsen
Email : arne@cco.net
Any two-leg OKE body
Shotgun
Rocket launcher (Snake, Hercules, or Panther)
Missile interferance device
9x9 CPU
(With some tinkering, this also works for OKE's with lasers and large
missiles, and also multi-leg OKE's. See my notes below).
What's it do? Well, first off for the first four seconds of combat, it looks
left and right for friendly units. If there is an ally on one side, it'll
sidestep away. If there is one on either side, it'll go right into the
search and destroy part of the code. If there are no allies present, it will
sit there and do nothing but dodge incoming fire for four seconds. I could
try to make it go into search mode, but I havn't planned on how to do that
et unless I went to a larger CPU. Plus I almost exclusivly use this program
in groups anyway.
Once the timer goes above four, it will never execute that part of the code
again. From then on it consists purely of fire avoidance, and seek & destroy
code. The loop in the projectile code helps avoid missiles that the jamming
device doesn't stop. The entrance to the loop looks in a 60 meter range,
and then it waits for either the projectile to get closer (35 meters) before
jumping, or exits the loop if the projectile doesn't get close within 15
cycles. The 60 meter start is so the OKE can get into a state of "jump
readiness" and not get caught firing weapons. Then it waits until the 35
meter mark which is usually close enough that missiles that are tracking you
can't quite turn fast enough to catch you. If the fire is coming from the
left or right it jumps forward. From the front or back it will jump
sideways.
The Search part is really simple, just looks ahead and walks forward. If
the enemy isn't in front, it checks to the right. If they aren't there it
turns left and starts again.
The weapon firing I made simple too. But instead of seperate firing routines
I made one that fires either weapon depending on the status of the A counter.
That way I can put my friend and obstacle checking in only once, and have
one section to fire the weapons after that.
This code works best on a Vyper with a shotgun and rockets. It can work on
any 2-legged OKE though, I just like the Vyper because it fires double
rounds. It will also work on multi-legged OKE's, but I suggest raising the
projectile scan chips by 5 or 10 meters, and widening the enemy and weapon
scan widths to take advantage of wide fields of fire.
I personnaly have used this program very succesfully with shotgun armed
Jujuman OKE's combined with a laser (and large missile) armed Manticore for
support. Later I used all Vyper OKE's for the group. Just remember to
raise the weapon scan ranges for the laser armed OKE's, and lower the temp
check (a laser armed Manticore cannot fire at anything above 65% or it will
take some damage from heat).
Multileg OKE's: Raise projectile detection ranges by 5 or 10 meters
Widen enemy scanning and weapon firing arcs to 180 degrees
Laser OKE's: Raise main weapon range to 150 meters
Raise sub-weapon range to 200 (for large, long-range missiles)
Raise temperature check if it fires more than single shots
(Double shots should be about 70%, triple at 65% and quad at
60%, roughly. Thick armor makes you lose heat slower so you
may have to adjust).
