Efficient build to fly yourself an SLF?
- Thread starter geoffrey.hdt
- Start date
Not properly.
I was going to come up with a way to have a fly off between the old and new one but ended up not having the cheek to ask someone to be a target for them to attack in turn.
But my feeling was the new one was better so I let the old one go to enjoy their billions in peace.
Unfortunately we can’t hear how annoying they sound until after we hire them.Thanks!
I will level up a new crew member, then chuck my old one.
Edit: the worst part is looking for a decent avatar.
Mine was largely chosen based on the SLF in the background being the one I wanted them to use, on the old suggestion on the forums that they performed better in that type of fighter.
Then I will keep my existing one around for comparison. Though I was wondering if having an old crew member still around might affect the performance of the new one. I guess if I don’t see any difference, I could fire everyone and start a new one. What a pain…
I tend to do a lot of bounty hunting so it shouldn’t take too long.
I can confirm that I fired my most recent (at least 3 years or older) Elite SLF pilot, who made 2.5 billion off me, within the last week. The harmless replacement I hired is outperforming that former pilot and she is only Novice rank now.
I would constantly see him trailing enemy ships (even big ones, like Corvettes) with the dual plasmas on his imperial fighter. The novice is constantly hitting them dead-on.
The Elite pilot was more responsive, faster at getting to the target than the novice. I have a feeling by the time the new one hits Expert, this won't be an issue anymore.
Thanks for the confirmation. I am doing what I described above to determine if having an older broken crew member has any effect on a new one. My new one is currently at Novice. More to follow.
Well, my new pilot is now Competent. I am definitely seeing awesome performance with their use of fixed beam lasers, even at Novice rank. But with fixed multicannons, it's unclear. There might be some improvement, but it still appears that the aim point is a little off, like when this bug was first introduced. I'll continue to test, and maybe this discrepancy will improve with further ranks...
Depending on which ship I'm using, mine is either using the fixed plasmas or the fixed multi-cannons. She is up to Competent now. She occasionally trails shots, but the target is usually changing direction at the time. Nowhere near as bad as my retired Elite pilot... who was doing reverse warning shots constantly (firing across their stern instead of bow, to put it nicely).
It was time for a change, anyway. He had 2.5 billion in the bank. Time for him to go buy a ship and take care of himself.
SLFs with an NPC pilot are very good at running distractions when you are targetting ships, if you send the SLF in to attack first. SLFs are very weak in terms of shield, hull and firepower, but they are very good at evading the target's weapons, especially when your NPC pilot reaches the higher ranks. While the target is busy trying to line up the SLF, you can inflict serious damage until the target eventually decides that you are a higher priority.
I run a dual SLF hangar, so I can quickly turf the 2nd SLF out if the 1st needs repairing or is destroyed - you don't have to wait for maintenance/repairs or rebuilds. The dual hangar also has the highest number of 'rebuilds', effectively giving you 30 SLFs before you have to restock at a station.
I run a dual SLF hangar, so I can quickly turf the 2nd SLF out if the 1st needs repairing or is destroyed - you don't have to wait for maintenance/repairs or rebuilds. The dual hangar also has the highest number of 'rebuilds', effectively giving you 30 SLFs before you have to restock at a station.
Also if the SLF has fixed weaponry and you let it and the target get properly stuck in before joining with your ship with gimbals or turrets the target can take a while to start using chaff even after it notices you are there. Doesn’t always work of course.
Here’s my final follow up on this subject. My new crew member is now ranked at Master. She is significantly outperforming my Elite crew member with accuracy (and DPS) of all fixed weapons, so I chucked the Elite crew member out in an escape pod. This was tested many times in npc combat, both using the fighter in conjunction with my ship, as well as having the fighter do complete solo kills on a variety of enemy ship configurations and enemy ranks. I could see no negative effects on ranking or performance of my new crew member due to having the old broken one still around. I would recommend anyone with an older broken crew member to rank up a new one because it will be worth it, and performance will equal and surpass the old one quickly.
I'll just add a different experience here.
My old Elite NPC is now back on form. Don't know what has happened or when, but they are consistently hitting with fixed weapons now.
Imagine if you spaced your old NPC just as FD fixed it. Ooof.
Still, it can't have changed recently, we haven't had a patch in a while. Unless it was done through some sort of backend tweak, but that wouldn't make sense.
I’m not doubting what you experienced, but my observation with my old broken elite crew member was that their aim point seemed obviously slightly offset to one side of the target. Other players have reported the same thing. This caused decreased hit rates and basically less time on target. This was most noticeable when they used fixed weapons. My new crew member’s aim point is the center of mass. Maybe there was a fix, but I didn’t see it. No harm done either way.
The following excellent fighter guide still shows the description of this.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/58q7cv/everything_you_need_to_know_about_ship_launched/?rdt=57293
No idea about that. All i can say is that until recently my NPC couldnt hit the backside of a barn, and now they can hit vipers without a problem.