n00b seeking help with WC Prophecy GBA

[Unregistered]

hi all, i've never played a WC title before and now i own the awesome WCP on my GBA. In the weeks before the game came out i started to orientate on this site and learned that WC is not just a simple shoot 'm up

I'm playing now for some days but i am not getting it really. I hope you guys can can give me some startup tips.

some questions:

How do i dodge rockets?
Where can i see my health (except via the start menu - statistics)
Where can i see/use my shield?
What is decoy?
Why is my target box sometimes with "arrows" on the sites, what does this mean?

For now all i'm doing is using the afterburner to approach my targets, and try to shoot them using bullets, to spare my rockets, or simply bomb them.
Sometimes i get killed after 2 minutes of playing, sometimes when i'm lucky i pass the mission. There must be more of a strategy to play this game but i can't realy figure it out, though i'd really love to since the game seems to be awesome.

Thanx in advance
Dylan

 

[ChrisReid]

Originally posted by Unregistered
hi all, i've never played a WC title before and now i own the awesome WCP on my GBA. In the weeks before the game came out i started to orientate on this site and learned that WC is not just a simple shoot 'm up

Hey, welcome to the board! You should definitely register and just post normally. It's great how we're getting new fans of the series because of Prophecy Advance. I'll be curious what your impression of the story is. Although the game does a good job of getting a large part of the script in there, there are still a lot of short cuts. As I said on irc, Prophecy Advance's story is the like the regular Prophecy on Cliffs Notes.

How do i dodge rockets?
Where can i see my health (except via the start menu - statistics)
Where can i see/use my shield?
What is decoy?
Why is my target box sometimes with "arrows" on the sites, what does this mean?

Rockets and Missiles are different. The rockets you use are unguided and enemies dodge them by evasive maneuvers. When you see LOCK on your HUD, a missile has been targeted, locked and launched at you. Pressing Select to Drop a Decoy combined with your own evasive flying will dodge a missile. The ship representation on the bottom left is you. The bars around the ship are shields and the color represents armor damage underneath the shield. Shields regenerate, armor does not. Decoys attract Missiles as stated above. The arrows you see around the target box represent a missile lock. Only certain missiles and torpedoes lock in that fashion.. when they are locked, they will home in on their target when launched.

For now all i'm doing is using the afterburner to approach my targets, and try to shoot them using bullets, to spare my rockets, or simply bomb them.
Sometimes i get killed after 2 minutes of playing, sometimes when i'm lucky i pass the mission. There must be more of a strategy to play this game but i can't realy figure it out, though i'd really love to since the game seems to be awesome.

Hopefully the above helps you a bit. Feel free to discuss strategy some more. I do recommend you register.. You can do so here.
http://www.crius.net/zone/register.php?s=&action=signup

 

[TC]

Haven't got Prophecy GBA yet, but I'll do what I can... also I'll transfer you to the general forum, since this isn't a tech support question.

Originally posted by Unregistered
hi all, i've never played a WC title before and now i own the awesome WCP on my GBA. In the weeks before the game came out i started to orientate on this site and learned that WC is not just a simple shoot 'm up

Great. Good to have you.

I'm playing now for some days but i am not getting it really. I hope you guys can can give me some startup tips.

some questions:

How do i dodge rockets?

This has to do with your later question. To avoid missiles there are two actually effective things you can do. First is dumping decoys, these confuse the missiles targetting system... You just hit the decoy button until the lock indicator goes off, preferably dodging while you go. The second is trying to outrun the missile. Hit the afterburners and just start going until they burn out and stop chasing you. If you're out of decoys and afterburners, just zig zag and hope it misses somehow.

Where can i see my health (except via the start menu - statistics)

To the left of your radar there's an image of your ship. Watch the colours. If it's green, you're good... Yellow you've taken a fair amount of damage... Red you're getting critical.

Where can i see/use my shield?

Shields are automatically on. They take damage before it's subtracted from your hitpoints until the shield runs out of power. Shields will, however, continually recharge at a rate dependant ont he ship you're flying. You can tell how much shielding you have by the number of brackets in front of and behind the damage indicator to the left of the radar. It looks like three of thm means your shields are at full strength in the GBA edition

What is decoy?

As mentioned above, they act as decoys to the missile, pretending to have your sensor signature and hopefully making them lose their targeting lock.

Why is my target box sometimes with "arrows" on the sites, what does this mean?

If you mean your targetting brackets, then it's a missile lock... if you mean your radar, I have no clue, maybe target direction if it's off the screen?

For now all i'm doing is using the afterburner to approach my targets, and try to shoot them using bullets, to spare my rockets, or simply bomb them.
Sometimes i get killed after 2 minutes of playing, sometimes when i'm lucky i pass the mission. There must be more of a strategy to play this game but i can't realy figure it out, though i'd really love to since the game seems to be awesome.

Let's see... beginner strategies... There's the obvious one of basically running straight by them on afterburners and quickly turning around to get on their tail. I have no idea what the AI's like, but it's been the easiest way to get at things in pretty much any space sim out there. If you're still learning, you may want to try and seperate your target from any other ships that are out there by either taking some shots at it and running, or trying to drive it in one direction with your fire. I really can't give any good help in the strategy department without having played it and seeing how the enemy reacts to various things.

 

[TC]

Dashit, that'll teach me to leave a reply window idling... ah well...

Chris just reminded me that you're unregistered so you won't be able to reply if I move this to the General Forum... I'll leave this in here for a little while, but it really doesn't belong here.

 

[Unregistered]

thanx everyone, this is definatly great usefull info. Im printing it now, since i have a 18 hrs train journey ahead tomorrow =)

As soon as i'm back ill register and tell you my impressions of the game as an outsider.

Thanx again!

 

[Unregistered]

one more question; what is the meaning of the bars left and right of the radar?

 

[ChrisReid]

Left is afterburner fuel, right is gun power. Gun power regenerates. Because there is not a Full Guns option in Prophecy Advance, you don't have to worry about gun power as much.