Newcomer / Intro What are you up to?

Markov Chaney

M
KnezBP said:
I decided to test a new configuration by placing small and medium beams on the left, and small and medium multi-cannons on the right. Fortunately I was interdicted by a Harmless weirdo NPC while admiring Stein B so I got to quickly test the setup a second time.

Both weapons feel strange and lopsided, so that's a problem.

Beams - It requires more accuracy but it at least feels more efficient than blasting out two beams only to use one of them. It may balance out and be of no benefit.
Multi-cannons - This feels very wrong since kinetic weapons have the little reticles and now they're skewed to the right while bobbing around. I don't like it.
Click to expand...
I feel this. I have got around it by making big use of firegroups and setting up each firegroup to have a purpose. it does mean you have to acquire the skill of flipping through them per engagement, or even mid engagement as circumstances evolve, but I think that aspect of it is what helps me, it helps me think "what am I firing at and why" at all times which is the key to not overheating oneself or trying to use cannons from half a parsec away. It also means I use both fire keys on the regular.
I haven't got into fun with torpedos yet (I have just engineered some because I happened to have the right mats and I was there) so I am also mostly laser and cannon so far.

As for where these things fire from on the Cobby, and divergence, don't even, but this firegroups idea helped me with that.
 

Markov Chaney

M
Ashnak said:
Plausible - but not true.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean but I am not sure "true" and "false" are good words here, firstly because of the major overflow of handwavium in the non-Newtonian aspects of ED's flight model, and secondly because all models are wrong but some are useful.
Ashnak said:
Remember - when travelling between planets in ED, you're not in Einstein space, you're in some sort of bubble, probably mostly resembling an Alcubierre drive,
Click to expand...
Ah yes but that bubble is in interplanetary Newtonian (or Galileo or Kepler) space so the little bit of swing-by, and slingshot (ie the reverse, which I have used successfully, mostly to prove you can), and even gravity turns as a quick way off a planet are semi-realistic but obviously hugely accelerated, and also a bit irrelevant given you're not really bound by available thrust or fuel anyway.

The ship-plus-Alcubierre warp behaves like it should within those constraints.

And for that reason I am SO pleased they renamed it to "gravity well" because I can't tell you how many times I've gone through a multi-body system the fastest way and smirked about how well I dealt with all those gravity wells which are largely a pain in the neck.

I think this will make it much clearer and that makes me wonder if it's going to somehow be more important in a later update...


Ashnak said:
What seems to happen is that your FTL drive in ED loses traction once the local gradient of gravity becomes too steep compared to your current speed - you don't speed up when diving into a gravity well, you just stop slowing down (or slow down slower): your tires are slipping, so to say.
Click to expand...
I have definitely posted this in another thread recently but yes my headcanon is the same, there is seemingly a limit on how "steep" the phase space can get at the edges of the SC bubble.
 

Markov Chaney

M
KnezBP said:
Just kidding. I still have no idea what you nerds are talking about. Are you saying the gravity well traps me in some kind of time warp which stops me gaining control of the ship's speed until I'm essentially past the target?
Click to expand...
You got it, but what's really going to bake your noodle is... that's what gravity is, in the first place. Which is why I like how they've landed the sci-fi in the real world. Someone who knew what they were doing did all of that for sure and I can guarantee THEY called it "gravity well" so god knows why that terminology wasn't in in-game lore already.
 

Kalizandra

Kalizandra
CMDRQuainMarln said:
I'm getting about 3.35mpbs for the update 18 donwload.
I may be sometime - like no play time to day as this is looking like an overnight download now.
Click to expand...
My download was relatively quick but alas the update borked my installation. I press play on the launcher and I get a window as if the game is launching but it immediately crashes back to desktop, no error message, nowt. I verified the game files several times and even uninstalled and re-downloaded the game.
Was hoping I could snag some game time before work but wasn't meant to be.
Will have to have a snoop around and see if I can figure out whats going on.
Will update the drivers and poke around with the anti virus when I get a chance: might even have to uninstall Steam and do a clean install of both that and elite if it comes to it.
Hey ho. (bloody work!)
 

0threeleven

0threeleven
KnezBP said:
My aiming skills are rubbish but I don't need another reason to be annoyed by NPC's. Chaff spam would tip me over the edge and probably end with computer equipment being thrown across the room.
Click to expand...
I don't know if this will help or not, I use gimbled weapons, one 3C beamed laser rolled to 4 double braced with extended range enhancement, two 2D beam lasers with the same engineering all three lasers on fire group 1. On fire group 2 I have two 3C multi-cannons using premium ammo, when I burn through their shields, I switch to cannons, I go for sustained firing, in other words my two smaller lasers can keep firing straight from my powerplant, when I drain my capacitors my 3C cuts off and my 2C's keep firing.

I found this better for me instead of waiting for the weapons to recharge, I only have heat issue's when all three are firing. With long range I can plink a ship from 5.5Km away and they can't return fire until their inside three, they almost always pop chaff at that distance, I wait for the chaff to stop and pour it on. Your weapons are much more damaging at closer distances. I have my cell banks and heat sinks on fire group 3, it's mostly about pip management, when using cannons it only takes two pips. You can take slight damage if your shields are under 35% so keep it higher than that if using cell banks.

As for gimbled weapons, I unlock the target when they use chaff and freehand my aim using a lot of yaw, the bigger the ship, the easier they are to hit. Just make sure you don't lockup another ship in the background, you'll drag them into your fight or get fined if their clean. Something else I've learned, when you destroy a ship there could be lots of canisters of stuff leftover, the pirates will use limpets to start gathering it in their holds. Wait until a limpet is almost to their ship and open fire, the limpet will follow very closely and you can lock-on to it to burn their shields. Keep the bigger ships in and amongst the asteroids so they can't maneuver very well. There's much more but that's "my" style.
 

SpaceGoblin

SpaceGoblin
KnezBP said:
Everything beyond that third exclamation point is egregious.

Just kidding...
Click to expand...

Nah, you where right the first time ;)

Patch/Update days are always a good time for improving my forum experience :eek:

Tyres O'Flaherty said:
I'm in: so far, so good.

EDIT: And I forgot to back up my binds :eek: but all seems well in that regard. Phew.
Click to expand...

Started the update at quarter past the hour, it's just popped up ready, 25 mins later, so I'm about to find out if copy my bindings folder when I lost logged out was necessary...
 

SpaceGoblin

SpaceGoblin
0threeleven said:
As for gimbled weapons, I unlock the target when they use chaff and freehand my aim using a lot of yaw, the bigger the ship, the easier they are to hit. Just make sure you don't lockup another ship in the background, you'll drag them into your fight or get fined if their clean.
Click to expand...

Good shout, I'd forgotten about unlocking when using gimbals to defeat chaff! I'm hoping to get some bounty sessions in this week, so I'll try and remember - it's been a while :D
 

CMDRQuainMarln

CMDRQuainMarln
Kalizandra said:
My download was relatively quick but alas the update borked my installation. I press play on the launcher and I get a window as if the game is launching but it immediately crashes back to desktop, no error message, nowt. I verified the game files several times and even uninstalled and re-downloaded the game.
Was hoping I could snag some game time before work but wasn't meant to be.
Will have to have a snoop around and see if I can figure out whats going on.
Will update the drivers and poke around with the anti virus when I get a chance: might even have to uninstall Steam and do a clean install of both that and elite if it comes to it.
Hey ho. (bloody work!)
Click to expand...

CMDR Timber McWolf said:
Ouch. That is even worse than the approximately 4:30 hours I have to endure...
Click to expand...
Up to 6.4mbps now. The bottleneck must be FDev servers as I should get 30mps+
 

KnezBP

KnezBP
Ashnak said:
Sort of - your ship's hyperspace drive (frame shift drive) tries to adjust your ship's speed so that your speed remains controllable. The higher the gradient (the steeper the wall) is at your location, the lower the controllable speed. Easy to do when climbing out of the well, as you start slow and can only speed up so fast. Enter a well at too high a speed, though (above the blue band, essentially), and your FSD can't provide sufficient "traction" to slow you down any more.

If you ever find yourself on a trip to a station far off the jump-in point, that's easy to demonstrate. It'll take you ages to accelerate to your top speed (more or less halfway between star and destination). But if you make a stop there and drop back into real space, then go into FSD again, you'll be back at your top speed almost instantly. The practical (well, for a given value of "practical", as we're talking about a game) application is if you want to reach your destination inside a system fast. Yes, just point and go is a possibility - but you'll be faster overall by first getting away from the star flying steep out of the ecliptic plane (where all the planets and other assorted junk hangs around) and then curve back towards your target again. In the late phase of the approach, other tricks come into play. Remember that above someone suggested throttling back at 13...6 seconds ETA on your HUD? That's the safe option. There are a few people in the racer community who can consistently manage a station approach at three seconds ETA or less...
Click to expand...
I have a lot to look back on when I jump back in. Thanks, Ashnak. (y)

I am actually a nerd also, so I like this stuff.
 

KnezBP

KnezBP
Markov Chaney said:
I feel this. I have got around it by making big use of firegroups and setting up each firegroup to have a purpose. it does mean you have to acquire the skill of flipping through them per engagement, or even mid engagement as circumstances evolve, but I think that aspect of it is what helps me, it helps me think "what am I firing at and why" at all times which is the key to not overheating oneself or trying to use cannons from half a parsec away. It also means I use both fire keys on the regular.
I haven't got into fun with torpedos yet (I have just engineered some because I happened to have the right mats and I was there) so I am also mostly laser and cannon so far.

As for where these things fire from on the Cobby, and divergence, don't even, but this firegroups idea helped me with that.
Click to expand...
I think I get where you're coming from. I switched to hunter mode in Hunt Showdown partly because it meant I actually had to think about the shot and draw my weapon rather than just have a permanent crosshair in front of me risking sudden reflex fire.

I have been thinking about using fire groups more efficiently or tactically this time round.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom