Cold Orbit training via Cyclops encounter

Jingez

J
Hey Commanders,

after a long break i returned and wanted to start training to fight Interceptors.
I guess the best way to do this is to get into 1v1 with an Cyclops.
Today i jumped into a Thargoid controlled system which is marked as priority by AXI (HR 1737) to find one but had no luck.
I got interdicted 3 times one time by an Trio if i remember correct, 1 Time by Basilisk and 1 Time by Scouts.
In the System itself i encountered a Basilisk i think and a few scouts.
Half an Hour ago i tried again the same System and a Hydra spawned at the Starport Station.
I tried to fight the Basiliks but i felt a little overwhelmed to be honest as i never ever fought Thargoids before.
I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how i may find Cyclops Variants to start training so i can get at least a little skill to participate in the ongoing War.
 

CMDR Saigon

CMDR Saigon
Hey CMDR, the areas around Thargoid Maelstroms not really ideal for solo AX training. Go to systems in the Pleiades such as Asterope and look for NHSS Level 5. You can get more info here:
 

Starsong

Starsong
Another option for easier AX combat is to travel to the Thargoid Invasion systems and go to a surface station under attack. You'll have to kill some Scouts before Interceptors start showing up, but the Interceptors can't launch swarms and you can rearm and repair at the station without losing any of your progress fighting the Interceptor.
 

Jingez

J
Starsong said:
Another option for easier AX combat is to travel to the Thargoid Invasion systems and go to a surface station under attack. You'll have to kill some Scouts before Interceptors start showing up, but the Interceptors can't launch swarms and you can rearm and repair at the station without losing any of your progress fighting the Interceptor.
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Wow ok that's a cool alternative. I'm having a hard time to be honest how do people even aim precise with joystick? The whole ship wobbles and flips and what not. I feel like i'am years away from ever destroying the first heart and allready starting to get frustrated.
Thanks for the tip and happy christmas
 

CMDR Saigon

CMDR Saigon
Jingez said:
Wow ok that's a cool alternative. I'm having a hard time to be honest how do people even aim precise with joystick? The whole ship wobbles and flips and what not. I feel like i'am years away from ever destroying the first heart and allready starting to get frustrated.
Thanks for the tip and happy christmas
Click to expand...

You'll get used to it with practicing, I use an X52 Pro. Not sure which ship you are flying CMDR but I find the Chieftain while super agile aiming is very sensitive. The Krait MKII I find gives a more stable platform for aiming in the early days, I also use an AX FAS and for me at least this is the most stable aiming platform out of the three!
 

Krieger

Krieger
Jingez said:
Wow ok that's a cool alternative. I'm having a hard time to be honest how do people even aim precise with joystick? The whole ship wobbles and flips and what not. I feel like i'am years away from ever destroying the first heart and allready starting to get frustrated.
Thanks for the tip and happy christmas
Click to expand...
You can use relative mouse control for really accurate aiming (after some practice). Keyboard + mouse control are active in parallel with the HOTAS (if setup properly) in both FA-on and FA-off. I have my mouse and keyboard lying next to my HOTAS so I can grab the mouse quickly to aim accurately or switch to keyboard + mouse completely. I have FA-on/off bound to a button on the HOTAS and to a key on the keyboard so I can always switch to any combination of keyboard + mouse or HOTAS and FA-on or FA-off quickly. (BTW not just for aiming weapons and/or FA-off flying. Also scooping and fighting interdictions is a lot easier using relative mouse in FA-on.)
 

Jingez

J
CMDR Saigon said:
You'll get used to it with practicing, I use an X52 Pro. Not sure which ship you are flying CMDR but I find the Chieftain while super agile aiming is very sensitive. The Krait MKII I find gives a more stable platform for aiming in the early days, I also use an AX FAS and for me at least this is the most stable aiming platform out of the three!
Click to expand...
I'm in an Challenger, Joystick is VKB Gunfighter MK3.
I tweaked curves but i feel like it's getting worse if i fiddle with that part.
I bound roll to yaw axis and yaw to roll axis to see if that helps but it messes with my brain.
I tried yaw into roll option for FA Off and had the feeling it makes things a little better to stabilise but it's not optimal as sometimes when trying to roll, and for that you need to deflect the stick fully, i start yawing when stick movement wasn't fast enough.
Trying to establish a stable orbit while aiming and firing is kind of managable to exert a heart but when it comes to aiming at the heart itself i struggle big time.
Firing gausscannons itself sometimes is complicated. I use analog stick on throttle to control lateral and fwd/bckwd thrusters but for up/dwn thrusters i use the ministick on my Stick located to the left of the stick, so imagine starting the orbit holding down ministick with right thumb to thrust down doing corrections with analogue stick on the throttle while simultaneously pitching, rolling or yawing plus pulling the trigger stage one for firegroup one stage 2 for firegroup 2. I have to do some hard accrobatics to execute this and it feels awkward. Wouldn't be so dramatic if there wasn't the need to counter the movement for stabilising.
Let's say you are orbiting, so right thumb ministick down, you' re aiming at the Cyclops but you're outside of optimal gaussrange so left index finger holds throttle analoguestick forward thrust decreasing range, now you realise ah if i roll i could have a better aim at the goid so you roll x or z axis (depending on bindings) to one side and counter movement to the other side, while doing this you realise oh a little yaw would be helpful too so you start yawing and applying countermovement, wait whats my distance backwards backwards, oh i need to fire my gauss canons pull the trigger pull the trigger, damn it i forgot to hold downward thrust because i was countering roll pitch and yaw movements, nice i exerted the heart, aim for it, what the heck is the Goid doing he's changing vector to reload, distance increasing, forward forward, i need an other roll and yaw to position myself better, keep holding down downward thrust, aim at the heart damn it fire gauss, i haven't released the trigger, whole hand does all sorts of contortions Thargoids Heart is no more exerted didn't hit one time, frustration raises and your hand screaming at you "What the heck are you doing to me".

I also don't really know what to do with the throttle itself when starting to orbit. Should i place it in neutral position or forward backwards while working with thrusters?
 
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Jingez

J
Krieger said:
You can use relative mouse control for really accurate aiming (after some practice). Keyboard + mouse control are active in parallel with the HOTAS (if setup properly) in both FA-on and FA-off. I have my mouse and keyboard lying next to my HOTAS so I can grab the mouse quickly to aim accurately or switch to keyboard + mouse completely. I have FA-on/off bound to a button on the HOTAS and to a key on the keyboard so I can always switch to any combination of keyboard + mouse or HOTAS and FA-on or FA-off quickly. (BTW not just for aiming weapons and/or FA-off flying. Also scooping and fighting interdictions is a lot easier using relative mouse in FA-on.)
Click to expand...
Well while this is a really interesting solution, it's kind of a hustle for me. My joystick mount requires me to sit like 30 cm away from the desk.
In order for me to reach my mouse i need to bend forward which also means my cockpit view will change as i use a webcam with ai track and opentrack for headmovements. Despite that it's kind of sad that this kind of solution has to be practised to raise precision when flying with hotas.
 

galahad2069

G
It does not matter what kind of control method (M+KB, HOTAS etc) you are using, the very first step is to configure your controls properly.

Just like in any other game. 🤷‍♂️
 

galahad2069

G
Jingez said:
Well while this is a really interesting solution, it's kind of a hustle for me. My joystick mount requires me to sit like 30 cm away from the desk.
In order for me to reach my mouse i need to bend forward which also means my cockpit view will change as i use a webcam with ai track and opentrack for headmovements. Despite that it's kind of sad that this kind of solution has to be practised to raise precision when flying with hotas.
Click to expand...

You absolutely don't need to do that.
It's totally possible to use any kind of weapons with a HOTAS or Xbox controller or dual stick or anything else you like. You only need to configure your controls properly and then learn how to use it.
 

[VR] SpaceGhostC2C

[VR] SpaceGhostC2C
The best way I found to train for cold orbit was to circle a Nav beacon or a stationary ship, every time I would drop into a Nav beacon I would FA off orbit a few times. Be sure to lock target and try to maintain 1.5km distance.
 
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Bgsma

Bgsma
There were many correct tips above. More options:
Try Cyclops on FA-on, it's quite real, and train the orbit separately on simpler targets. Another way is to scan the Cyclops (this is quite difficult if it is not in the NHSS in the Pleiades, etc.), then select the heart as a target with turret AX Multi-cannon, and then do the FA-off orbit.
 

[VR] SpaceGhostC2C

[VR] SpaceGhostC2C
You will get your handed to you with FA on. Train as you should, never train incorrectly, you might get through a clops with FA on, but a Basilisk will mop the floor with ya. It takes time. Get used to running with out a scanner, fight with night vision on, you can clearly see the hearts on everything but hydra's.
Shieldless builds you dont have to move PIPs around

o7 CMDRS

 

Jingez

J
galahad2069 said:
You absolutely don't need to do that.
It's totally possible to use any kind of weapons with a HOTAS or Xbox controller or dual stick or anything else you like. You only need to configure your controls properly and then learn how to use it.
Click to expand...
I'm working on it, changed thrusters to be all on throttle, no vertical thrusters on stick anymore so my right hand only has to take care of yaw pitch roll and weapon trigger. Curves tweaking next, need some that enables fast and precise aiming when dealing with swarm and at the same time precise for heart dmg.
 

Jingez

J
SpaceGhostC2C said:
The best way I found to train for cold orbit was to circle a Nav beacon or a stationary ship, every time I would drop into a Nav beacon I would FA off orbit a few times. Be sure to lock target and try to maintain 1.5km distance.
Click to expand...
I'll implement this when commuting nice suggestion thanks.
 

Jingez

J
Bgsma said:
There were many correct tips above. More options:
Try Cyclops on FA-on, it's quite real, and train the orbit separately on simpler targets. Another way is to scan the Cyclops (this is quite difficult if it is not in the NHSS in the Pleiades, etc.), then select the heart as a target with turret AX Multi-cannon, and then do the FA-off orbit.
Click to expand...
I'll do this maybe when i'm comfortable with fa off to see the diffrence to be honest, for now i think it's better to just stay fa off in order to train my brain and muscles.
 

Jingez

J
SpaceGhostC2C said:
You will get your handed to you with FA on. Train as you should, never train incorrectly, you might get through a clops with FA on, but a Basilisk will mop the floor with ya. It takes time. Get used to running with out a scanner, fight with night vision on, you can clearly see the hearts on everything but hydra's.
Shieldless builds you dont have to move PIPs around

o7 CMDRS

Click to expand...
Night vision sounds good i'll try that. No Xenoscanner in my loadout, i built the AXI Challenger Ship. I was thinking maybe i should try the Chieftain but bought the Challenger before i took a long break and had allready done a few engineering upgrades so didn't want to ditch it.
BTW that's some real impressive piloting in the video i wonder how long it took to reach that level
 
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Jingez

J
ok i managed to destroy the first heart but it took me too long to take out the swarm in the first place so i fought against a Ragegoid and my canopy said goodbye but hey at least i made a little progress and got out of the heat without dying.
 

[VR] SpaceGhostC2C

[VR] SpaceGhostC2C
Jingez said:
ok i managed to destroy the first heart but it took me too long to take out the swarm in the first place so i fought against a Ragegoid and my canopy said goodbye but hey at least i made a little progress and got out of the heat without dying.
Click to expand...
You can come fight with me if you want, just tag everything I kill, make some shots, I've made about a Billion since this war started.
Last night I took out a Medusa, Basilisk and 2 clops in HR 2204 Struzan Stop, i have a fleet carrier a system jump away
 
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